My son Norman served as Foreman of the Santa Clara Criminal Grand Jury during the last seven months of 1998 which may seem to have nothing to do with Hawaii, but was, in fact, one of the major factors in initiating the trip. Indirectly, his jury duties led to his decision to change jobs but, more directly, the time required kept him from using air travel miles which were about to expire and the effort expended, both physical and psychological, left him feeling the need for rest and recreation. Well, since I am no longer obligated on a daily basis to spread the gospel of negentropy to eager young minds, I readily accepted the role of Norman’s traveling companion. In addition to enjoying Hawaii’s many natural attractions was the extra advantage of being able to visit Capt. Geoffrey Tumlin, an Army officer friend who is stationed there until mid year and who lives on the 37th floor of a luxury high-rise overlooking Honolulu harbor. You may guess with what reluctance I was dissuaded from spending big bucks staying at posh Waikiki hotels by our kind host who could offer us the vacant bedroom and unused jeep of his, at that time, stateside suitemate.

Norman arranged for me to fly to San Francisco, stay overnight with him and both fly on to Oahu where Geoff met us and got us settled in his penthouse apartment. After about a day of unlagging (which included an interesting visit with John Kay, a fellow AP exam grader, at The Iolani School in Honolulu -- a bit over twice as big as Kinkaid), we drove a circle route around Oahu stopping first at historic Nuuanu Pali pass where Kamehameha I clinched his conquest of Oahu by using a cannon to force the defenders over a cliff. Our next stop partially compensated for these visions of war by soaking in the peace of the Byodo-in Buddhist Temple and we lunched at the snack bar of the Turtle Bay Hilton at the northernmost tip of the island. A world class body surfing contest at the infamous pipeline started the afternoon’s activities (this helped to compensate me for any lingering regret that in my checkered youth I had missed the chance to experience the thrill of being crushed by a twenty foot wall of water) and we concluded the afternoon by letting Geoffrey give us a tour of the army’s Schofield Barracks base.

We spent the next day taking in some of the features of Honolulu itself: the Lyon Arboretum and waterfall, the animal zoo (good primate and African exhibits), the human zoo along Waikiki Beach (good anatomical and miniwear exhibits) and watched the sun go down from the terrace of the Hale Kulani Hotel. Each evening possible we also enjoyed watching the stars twinkle into view from the hot tub at Geoff’s tower. Geoff was off duty the next day so we got together with his friend, Bob, at his home on Kanehoa Bay, East Coast of Oahu) who took us out into the bay in his boat where we had a great time snorkeling along a coral reef. Returned to Honolulu early enough to catch a showing of "Civil Action" followed by bed (me) and bar action (N. And G.). We took Geoff to his first Quaker Meeting the next morning where the initial hymn sing was more familiar than the hour of mostly silent meditation. Lunch at Kincaid’s can be highly recommended which we managed before driving out to Pearl Harbor and touring the battleship Missouri. Sunset this day we viewed from the terrace of the Hale Koa (a posh hotel on Waikiki reserved for the military) before our mandatory soak in the hot tub at the tower.

With the duffels of camping and snorkeling equipment in addition to our luggage in tow, we taxied to the airport for our hop to Kona Airport on Hawaii Island. We rented a car and made it to a 2:00 p.m. whale watch excursion from Kailua Harbor. We caught sight of a mother humpback and her pup (calf?) but got no closer than a few furlongs, appropriately. We then drove to the southern tip of the island to stay at The Macademia Meadows bed and breakfast near Naalehu which we can recommend for its location, facilities, food and price. Since this is almost as far south as one can go in the USA, we took the opportunity to look for the Southern cross and alpha and beta centauri that night, but this required us to get up about 3:30 in the morning. The sky was a bit cloudy but we were successful in spotting the centaurians and the cross which, of course, are too far south to be seen in Houston.

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast of Portuguese bread (thick version of French bread), we toured the plantation of over 200 Macademia trees before driving the ten or so miles further down to South Point itself. Heading back and to the East, we grocered and then picnicked at Punahuu Black Sand Beach where we disturbed a large sea turtle sunning itself on the surprisingly soft, very black sand. We arrived at Volcanoes National Park in late afternoon with just enough time to set up our tent in the campground before we headed down the Chain of Craters road to get to within 3 miles of where a lava flow sent clouds of gas and steam into the air. As it got darker, the orange glow reflected on the clouds could be seen. We looked at the area through the Park Ranger’s telescope which we later used to spot the moons of Jupiter (which was above Venus, but beneath Saturn in the evening sky).

The primary defect of a pup tent in cool or cold weather is water condensation on the walls; even if it doesn’t rain outside, it drips inside. So we left the tent to dry out and had the breakfast buffet at Volcano House. Norman signed us up for a special (Wed. Only) hike to, and into, a natural lava tube. Thus we spent most of the afternoon wearing headlamp safety helmets issued by the guide exploring these caves which are formed by a molten lava stream that solidifies on the outside as it flows and then empties as the fluid lava diminishes. Subsequent flows in the same tube may melt roof material forming (usually hollow) stalactites and may leave "bathtub" rings along the sides of the original tube - all very fascinating.

We gathered up all our stuff and drove on to Hilo as the day ended. We stayed at a working orchid farm which featured a B&B with a hot tub - so we once again relaxed under the stars in thermal comfort. We went snorkeling the next morning at a site recommended by the B&B - a bunch of coral-lined tide pools with a variety of corals and fish. Unfortunately, I stumbled getting out and cut my hand - bleeding profusely mainly from a deep gash on my left little finger. (Must have given false signals to most of the sharks for 20 miles around.) By the time we got back to the B&B, showered and bandaged my cuts, it was time for us to get to the heliport so we had to leave several towels bloody messes and our unseen hosts suspecting we must be serial killers. Norman treated me to a most spectacular helicopter ride. By chance, just that morning the roof on an older lava tube had collapsed and fallen into the flowing lave inside, so when we flew over the area, the orange molten lava could be seen in two streams down Kilauea’s flanks -- it was the first free flow that had occurred this year. The ride also took us over the main crater as well as the site where lava dropped into the sea (the same one we saw two nights before from a greater distance.) our deluxe tour also included flyovers of some of the many waterfalls along the sides of Mauna Loa.

Camping at state parks requires a permit, so Norman and I picked up one at the county building before heading across the island to Spencer Park on the NW coast. The campground was crowded in anticipation of an upcoming jugglers festival the next weekend, but we found a site and pitched our tent on the unyielding rock with some difficulty. An excellent supper of cannelloni at the Orchid Moani Lani made up for any shortcomings in our lodgings as did our second sighting of the Southern Cross and the Centauris when we were up briefly in the early morning.

We chose the patio of the Westin Mauna Kea for breakfast and were entertained by very bold bird friends including several redcapped chickadees (?). We saw several whale spouts and a sea turtle or two while here. After a visit to one of the better preserved Heiea (holy places of the native Hawaiians), we looped up to the north point of the island and lunched in Hiwa. The drive down to Capt. Cook (a town) took most of the afternoon with quite some time wasted trying to find where there were supposed to be some petroglyphs (native carvings or drawings on stone walls.) We did manage to get in a late afternoon snorkeling adventure -- the best yet -- at Kealakekua Bay where we were able to see a variety of coral and fish close to shore with a convenient pier to get in and out (without getting sliced to ribbons). Our B&B this time was on a small coffee farm. One of the best meals on our trip we had that night at an unprepossessing hotel, the Managa, between Capt. Cook and Keokea -- their specialty is grilled pork chops.

Breakfast (at the B&B, of course) included a crisp bread pudding and my first taste of ugly fruit -- not bad. A call to check plane schedules revealed that an American airlines strike had canceled the flight we were to take from Oahu that day, but Geoff made arrangements for us in Honolulu and we were supposedly rescheduled for the next day’s flight. We toured a commercial Kono coffee plantation before making our way to Kona airport for our flight to Oahu. At Honolulu airport we found that tomorrow’s AA flight had been scratched also, but we managed to book seats on a similar United flight.

Getting back to the states a day late got me an extra bonus -- I got to hear part of a performance of the Arteria quartet held at the Palo Alto Friends meeting house the night we returned to the Bay Area. They specialize in using period instruments (e.g., gut strings) and performed quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelsohn. Then we joined Eric and Lorin, a couple Norman knows, for late night pizza and a hand of "Gang of Four" (an interesting card game variant with aspects of rummy and go fish). Norm arranged for me to leave from San Jose for the flight home which occurred without complication. Cynthia met me at Hobby Field and it was good to be back home.