Buddy's Blog

The nicest place we saw was Kona on the big Island. It seemed laid back and clean, what you imagine Hawaii should be.

We took an excursion which was advertised as a raft trip and snorkeling. The raft was like what the Navy Seals use to assault the bad guys. 40 mph over really rough seas , sitting on the sides and holding on for dear life. The snorkel place was about five miles from Kona. In the last picture above it was well around that point in Kealakekua Bay. Remember the song My Little Grass Shack? “Take me back to my little grass shack in Kealakekua Hawaii…”. And “It won’t be long till my ship will be sailing back to Kona…” Listen to the Mills Brothers sing it.

The Snorkeling was well worth it. I must have seen thirty species of beautiful tropical fish. If you ever go there get an underwater camera. Kealakekua Bay is where the King lived.  There’s a monument to Captain Cook there. See it in the photo. That’s where he was killed. He made the mistake of grabbing the king and immediately was hit with about a hundred spears. The royalty lived on the peninsula where the Monument is. Everybody else lived across the bay on this peninsula:

Separating the two peninsulas is a high cliff where they used to bury the femurs of the chiefs and the great warriors after they died.

On the way back to Kona we passed the lava grottoes where the priests used to hang out. They believed the formation was the image of Pele, the Volcano Goddess. At the left end were two grottoes up out of the water. They would burn fires there, that would look like her eyes. The hoi polloi would bring baskets of fish and pigs and things.

On the way back to Kona we saw one whale off in the distance. I got a video of it but it was really too far away to get a good shot.

Speaking of the Volcano Goddess, here’s a cartoon I drew many years ago. It’s in my Guess Who Got Lucky book.

And I’m pretty sure I got the day right this time.

We went to a “Luau”. Kinda. They had a roasted pig that had been in the pit for a couple of weeks.

We got the food from a buffet. It wasn’t too good. I finally tasted poi. Don’t.  It was Germaine’s Luau. We rode about 50 minutes from Honolulu in rush hour traffic to get there. You go through what looked like a big industrial park of some kind, lots of steel work. It was pretty ugly. Then just adjacent there was a little stand of palm trees. It was next to the ocean, but they wouldn’t let us on the beach. They had barricades.  I was filming with my IPhone, and I didn’t know this. It was dark and I couldn’t see. But my phone said it was recording, but it wasn’t. The hula girls were absolutely fantastic. I was filming away but not recording anything. Damn. From the waist up nothing moves except the arms and hands. But from the waist down it’s like a mag 8 earthquake. God only knows how they can move like that.

Here’s was I was able to salvage:

Oops…

One day in Honolulu we took an excursion to what was supposed to be a rain forest. Not quite. It was a formal garden, the Lyon Arboretum up through the Manoa Valley. I was a little disappointed. I wanted to and expected to see a rain forest. The excursions aren’t always as advertised. But the gardens were nice. There were lots of exotic flowers, shrubbery and trees.

I picked up some seeds from the second one. The guide said it was somewhat rare. We’ll see if I can grow one. I also picked up some nuts from a threatened palm:

On the way back to the boat we stopped at an overlook. The first is Diamond Head looking toward the southeast, and the second is Honolulu looking more to the northwest. In the distance is Pearl Harbor.

Oops. That one didn’t make it. Here’s the replacement:

King Kamehameha was the guy who united Hawaii back in 1791. He killed lots of people to do it. This statue of him is in front of the Judiciary Building. That’s where Jack Lord’s office was in Hawaii 5-0.

Directly across the street is the Iolani palace:

Pearl Harbor. The rainbows were constantly in the sky.

The Arizona memorial is to the left of the picture, the USS Missouri to the left of that. This next shot I took from the Memorial looking toward the Missouri. I wanted very much to tour the Missouri, but there wasn’t enough time. This next shot was taken from the Arizona Memorial:

My regret is that we didn’t have enough time in Honolulu. We didn’t get to go to Diamond Head or Waikiki Beach. If I were to go there again I wouldn’t go on a boat. I’d stay in a hotel for a week.

Remember when Arnold dated a chicken? 

And this is Kauai. It’s the oldest and westernmost of the principal islands. It’s where they take helicopter rides to look at the mountains and valleys. It’s sparsely populated. Here is my first view of Hawaii.

One of the big attractions is the World Famous Spouting Horn.

You’ve seen one spouting horn you’ve seen them all. But the Waimea Canyon is really spectacular:

Check out this. From the San Diego Zoo.

One very clever Orangutan

As I said, Frau Ga nad I cruised to Hawaii and back. The boat sailed out from San Diego Harbor. It was one of the older boats in the fleet:

OK, that’s a joke. The San Diego Harbor has a boat museum which we toured. The boat above is the HMS Surprise. It was used in the movie Master and Commander in 2003.

The Star of India is a real beauty:

This is the USS Dolphin.

On the the steam ferry Berkely we were able to tour the engine room. It was particularly interesting for me because my father was a boilermaker on the USS Arkansas during WWI. He shoveled coal into the furnaces. Once the man working next to him was old and couldn’t do the work. My old man did the shoveling for both of them, got caught and spent a week in the brig.

Right across from the Harbor is the Naval base:

I forget who asked for the final Ernie strip. Here’s the final Sunday. It appeared on January 28, 2018:

Here we go! Slides of my vacation. First the world renown Sand Diego Zoo!

Meercats

Serval

Bird

Gorillas

Now back to really important stuff…

Whoa! 

Whew!