Postcard from Hawaii - III

By day 3 in Paradise, we were sleeping in a little later - and by later I mean the sun was rising rather than us waking up while it was still dark. That was perfect for this day as we had a lot of sightseeing planned. North Shore here we come!

After a quick breakfast, we drove Hwy 93 south and then east to connect to the H1 freeway until we connected to H2 and started north. Fortunately, we were early enough to have beaten most of the morning rush hour traffic. When you think of Hawaii, the last thing on your mind is stop-and-go rush hour traffic, but it is definitely there around Honolulu. Honolulu has gorgeous Waikiki Beach and for the most part is a beautiful and clean place, but otherwise, sadly, it is just another big city with too many people, too much traffic, and too many people and businesses trying to move money from your pocket to theirs. Fortunately, we were headed north; Honolulu was south.

H2 ends its life as an interstate at the Schofield Barracks military base. At that point, we picked up 2-lane Hwy 99, Kamehameha Highway, and drove through numerous little towns and farms growing pineapples and other fruit in the rust-red dirt. There's no big, fancy hotels through here and few tourists. The rows upon rows of pineapples grow within a couple of feet of the roadway. 

Rainbow Bridge over the Anahulu River

Soon we crossed over the historic Rainbow Bridge which spans the Anahulu River and marks the north entrance to Hale'iwa Town.   And what's in Hale'iwa? Matsumoto Shave Ice is what's in Hale'iwa! Matsumoto started out as a humble, locally-owned grocery store in 1951. Still owned and operated by the same family, it is now Oahu's oldest continuously run place of business. In 1956 they began selling shave ice in a small corner of the store. When the original owner retired, his son took it over in 1976 (a grandson now operates it), moved some of the groceries to the side and began selling shave ice treats and a plethora of Matsumoto t-shirts from one side of the establishment. A legend was born! In the summer, over 1,000 of the treats are served each day and in the off-season, over 500 are sold each and every day even though the store is only open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The line of customers for a shave ice often extends out the door and down the block and you never know who you might stand next to while you wait - people like Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Tom Selleck have all patiently waited their turn.

Shave ice, called kakigori in Japan where it was invented, is very different from the snow cone found on the United States mainland. A snow cone is basically a ball of crushed ice doused in various flavors of syrup. The shave ice machine, on the other hand, whittles down a 3-lb block of ice and in the process, creates shavings like delicate snowflake crystals. A large, plastic cup then has a good dose of vanilla ice cream plopped into it, the frozen snow crystals are added in and the mixture molded into a ball. From there, you pick the flavor of syrup extract(s) you want. Instead of dousing a ball of ice, the flavored extract floats down through the various layers. Finally, the whole concoction is covered with condensed milk. A 15-minute wait in the line gave me time to decide which flavor I wanted - pineapple, banana & coconut. 

Youngest-daughter adding a Matsumoto coin to her large
"squished penny" collection.

The first bite was really good. The 2nd bite was even better. By the time I got to the bottom and tossed back my head to drain the dregs, I was hooked! I was very full; full enough that for comfort, I loosened my belt a notch, but I gave serious thought to getting in line for another one. Common sense finally won, but I for sure would not be leaving Hawaii without another shave ice!

A cool church in Hale'iwa we passed on our way to the shore.

As we headed east on the coast highway, we came to
Haleiwa Ali'i Beach or "King's Beach" on the north shore.
The Wai'anae Mountains are in the background. 

Puu O Mahuka Heiau, an ancient sacred temple site
from the early 1600's where wives of the chiefs gave birth
and human sacrifices were conducted. Located high
up on the side of a mountain, I am standing where the
sacrifices took place. It was a bit eerie to think about.

Native Hawaiians come at night carrying hand-made tiki
 torches to leave offerings of fruit, flower leis, shells, and
beads to the gods and spirits that still live in this place. 

Waimea Bay beach, world famous for "Big Wave" surfing.
 Was made famous in the 1964 movie "Ride The Wild Surf"
and one of the settings of the TV show "Lost"

Kahuku Land Farms roadside market where we ate our
fill and then some of fresh picked fruit. Good lunch!

Going south along the east coast of Oahu and stopping at all the
interesting places. Laie Point State Wayside was very cool, but
I was shocked at the number of tour buses, mostly Japanese,
which stopped here. We had seen very few before here. Perhaps
they just come this far north from Honolulu & then go back.

Die-hard fans of the TV show "Lost" will recognize this as
the area where Hurley built a golf course. 

Entrance to the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific. Over 13,000 soldiers and sailors who died during
WWII are buried here.

Overlooking Honolulu from the Punchbowl Crater. In spite
of my dislike for large, crowded cities, we did drive around
in Honolulu for a while checking out buildings, statues,
and other sites we had heard about.

Arriving back at our hotel, we stopped at a combination
sandwich shop/grocery store in the resort complex and bought
hoagies, chips, soda's and some snacks which we took back
to our room. We ate on the lanai watching an amazing sunset.
All was good with the world.

 

Postcard From Hawaii - II

On the 2nd full day in paradise, we were still not fully acclimated to the time change, but we were getting there. We woke up early & drove to the little breakfast cafe we had found just down the road from our hotel. We could have saved a little time by having breakfast in the hotel, but not having Warren Buffett or Bill Gates money, we passed on the $60+ it would have cost for the 3 of us to have pancakes and eggs and filled up very nicely on the perfectly fine cafe-down-the-road food for $20 including tip. 

With cups of coffee to go, we headed north on Hwy 93, the Farrington Highway, as it hugged the coast. The scenery was beautiful and there were a number of nicely kept beach parks. Several of them, particularly in the town of Nanakuli, seemed to be populated with people living in tents and cars. There were even what seemed to be little tent cities of beach people with a number of tents right next to each other arranged around a central meeting area with a fire pit dug out of the sand. Trails winding around and through the occupied areas had been left open for foot traffic. Laundry hung from clothes lines stretched between the tents and old bicycles and stolen grocery carts were all about. We didn't stop at these places.

One of the gorgeous, nearly deserted beaches along
Highway 93

There were other beaches though that were wonderful. The ones outside the sprawl of a town were nice, clean and inviting. I guess the tent people, not having a car, needed to live in the towns where they could get what they needed to make it through another day and night. The tourist area beaches are kept safe and immaculate by the hotels and the beyond-town beaches are uncrowded and pretty due to location. We stopped at several of these to look around, take photo's, and marvel at the beauty.

We arrived at the end of Hwy 93, literately the end of the road, in Ke'ena Point State Park. From there, the only way to go further is by foot on the Kaena Point Trail. We parked on the side of the road, the only place to park, took off our shoes and did some beach walking. Of course it was beautiful scenery and there were only a few other folks around, mostly locals and a few other visitors like us. Everyone smiled and said "Hi" as we passed. 

Youngest-daughter searching for sea shells

After a while, the Mama-woman and Youngest-daughter wanted to keep strolling the sand looking for sea shells while I needed to sit and rest my back. An old injury occasionally flares up and pinches a nerve going down my leg and it had chosen now of all times to let me know it was still around. Perhaps the sitting for so long while flying didn't do it any good. I told the girls to go on and I headed back to the car. Sitting in the passenger seat with the door open, I heard something rustling the tall grass stalks which came right up to the side of the car. Of course I was a little startled because it happened so suddenly with just the rustling noise and a very brief flash of something that kind of looked like a weasel. I grabbed my camera and spent the next 15 minutes trying to get a picture of the little creature. It stayed right there close to the car, but never showed itself. A rustle, a brief flash and then nothing. I finally gave up - no picture and no idea what it was.

A hand-made concrete memorial with flower offering for a
deceased Hawaiian surfer. The flowers had obviously been 
there a long time, yet no one had touched them. Nice.

Another 15 minutes of stretching my back and I was feeling well enough to go back to the beach.  I crossed a little sand dune and came face-to-face with the girls coming back with pockets full of shells and cool little pebbles. An empty Gatorade bottle was washed out and then served as a container for the handful of sand Mama-woman wanted to keep for a souvenir. I did a 3-point u-turn and back to the hotel we headed.

We stopped at a fast-food place for a late lunch before returning to the hotel. Unremarkable food, but one of our fellow patrons was pretty interesting. He was sitting by himself off to the side of us and he had a guitar he was strumming. As I watched him, it quickly became apparent he needed to be on meds and he had not been taking any - at least not the kind that would help him. His guitar only had 3 strings - literally 3 strings, as in 2 pieces of twine and what appeared to be 2 shoelaces tied together. He had a cup of coffee on the table in front of him and he would strum that guitar for a few seconds, sadly shake his head, take a sip of coffee and then "tune" the guitar. He would then play a few chords, sadly shake his head, and start the process all over. We were there about 30 minutes and he did the same thing the whole time. Of course I felt sad for him and actually wished I knew where to buy a set of real guitar strings to give him. For some reason, I found him and his obsession oddly compelling. It was hard to take my eyes off of him, waiting to see if he varied his routine. Mama-woman told me to stop staring, but he never looked up and paid absolutely no attention to anyone or anything except his never-ending attempt to correctly tune that guitar. When we left, I noticed his coffee cup seemed to be empty so I walked over and gave him a dollar for another cup. He looked up, shyly smiled, dipped his head back down and went right back to strumming and tuning. If you're going to be crazy and homeless, I guess Hawaii is a fine place for it.

Ka'ena Point Beach at the end of the road.

After a refreshing nap, that evening I chose to help my back by sitting in the hotel hot tub and watching the stars come out with an adult beverage in my hand. I'm sure I read somewhere that rum drinks with little umbrellas in them are good medicine for the back. The look Mama-woman gave me clearly indicated she totally wasn't buying it, but she let it slide. Rather than the hot tub or pool, the girls decided to take a walk down the beach to the Disney hotel a short ways down from us. Imagine my surprise when they returned several hours later wearing woven palm frond headband thingies and carrying opened coconuts with liquid in them! Youngest-daughter's contained an innocent punch, but I'm not so sure Mama-woman's didn't contain her own "back medicine." Seems they "accidentally" walked into a luau on the beach at the Disney resort and the Hawaiian guys working it thought they were paid guests like everyone else! A few hula dances, headbands, coconuts and stage entertainment later (all free!), and they moseyed on back to gather me up and retire to our beautiful room for a well-earned night's sleep. It was almost 10:00 PM Hawaii time and we were pretty proud of ourselves for managing to stay up so late! 

Youngest-daughter at the "free" luau.

Hmmm. Mama-woman seems to really be enjoying herself
at the luau she "accidentally" joined.

And another day in Paradise comes to a beautiful end.

 

Postcard From Hawaii - 1

When it's winter in North America, when lakes and pipes are frozen, there's ice and snow on the ground, when everyone you see outside is bundled up in layers of warm clothes and heavy coats and rushing to get back inside and all you want to do is curl up in front of a comforting fire in the fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book, is there anything better than a vacation in Hawaii? I can't think of anything!

A large portion of the Honolulu airport is open-air. In my
opinion, it is one of the prettiest airports in the world

It's a long time getting from Arkansas to Hawaii - leave very early to get to the Little Rock airport to catch the first flight to Dallas and then an 8-hour flight to Honolulu. Then there's the 4-hour time difference to contend with. By the time we got our bags, loaded up the rental car and headed to the hotel, our bodies thought it was 8:00pm, but the clock on the wall said no, it was just 4:00pm in Paradise. Yeah, I know, it was tough!

I must pause for a minute here to be a bit negative about Hertz. After arriving at the beautiful Oahu airport and being excited about actually being in Hawaii, the last thing you want is to sit on the concrete and wait an hour for your rental car. It was crowded, it was frustrating, the employees didn't seem to care and there didn't seem to be a reason for the delay. When they finally called my name, I was handed an electronic key and told to walk about 200 yards down rows of rental cars to get mine. They didn't deliver it to the waiting area, no smiles, no "Welcome to Hawaii," no "Aloha," no thanks for doing business with Hertz, no nothing. Perhaps I'm expecting too much for my $55 per day to rent their 4-door Chevy Impala, but I'll use a different rental car company next time.

Once out of the airport, we made our way to the JW Marriott Ihilani Ko Olina Resort & Spa in Kapolei, our home for the next 4 days and 5 nights. The lobby was spacious, open and beautiful; the staff greeted us with smiles and seemed genuinely happy to have us. Check in was quick and a bell hop quickly gathered up our bags and showed us to our room. Nice! The room was great - very clean, quality furniture, soft, plush carpet and tiled floor, excellent beds, high-end bathing products, a very large spotlessly clean bathroom and a wonderful view of the ocean to the front of us and mountains to the side of us. This was something we all decided we could definitely get used to....you know, if we hit the lottery!

After going out to get a bite to eat at a locally-owned restaurant we saw on the way in, we returned to our room tired and happy. The Mama-woman made a pot of Kona Coffee and we took our cups outside to sit on our private balcony as we listened to the waves and watched the sun set over the ocean. Look up the word "contentment" in the dictionary and there will be a picture of us at that moment. We made it until a little after 9:00pm local time before we crawled into those nice comfy beds and got snuggled in. We left the patio door open and drifted off to sleep listening to those waves gently washing ashore.


Our first full day in Paradise was spent mostly hanging around the grounds of the hotel and the beach below our room. Still tired and not yet acclimated to the time difference, we relaxed, took a nice afternoon nap, and let ourselves begin to shed the stress and forget the obligations of our daily lives back home. Of course we were looking forward to seeing all the things and doing all the stuff we had planned beforehand, but this was the perfect way to start our Hawaiian vacation.

Relaxing on the beach. Now this is the life!

Youngest-daughter napping on our balcony.

Late afternoon - view from our balcony.

Sunset - end of 1st full day in Paradise.

Postcard from the Texas State Cemetery

A cemetery is a history of people - a perpetual record of yesterday and sanctuary of peace and quiet today. A cemetery exists because every life is worth living and remembering. - William Gladstone

Show me your cemeteries and I will tell you what kind of people you have. - Benjamin Franklin

Entrance to the cemetery and Visitor Center

If you want to take a walk among the figures who shaped Texas, take a stroll through the Texas State Cemetery, located in Austin about one mile east of the State Capital between 7th and 11th Streets. It is there where many of the shakers and movers and honored Texans lie peacefully at rest.

In 1851, General Edward Burleson, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and former vice president of the Republic of Texas, unexpectedly passed away at the age of 53 after contracting pneumonia.  At the time of his death, he was serving as senator for the 21st district. The Texas Legislature convened to plan a state funeral for him. Senator Andrew Jackson Hamilton donated the land and General Burleson became the first person buried in what became the State Cemetery.

Unfortunately, very little money was allocated for upkeep. In 1874, a newspaper reporter  wrote that the cemetery was poorly maintained and was a "bleak and rocky hillside bordered by a dilapidated picket fence with no tree or bush in sight." A rather feeble effort was made to upgrade the grounds, but little was actually accomplished. 120 years later in the early 1990's, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock attended a funeral at the cemetery, found it to be disgraceful and immediately spearheaded a drive for funds for major improvements.

The State Government and citizens of Texas rallied to the cause and a 3-year, $4.7 million restoration and renovation project was begun. New grass was planted and carefully tendered to replace the sparse grasses and weeds, Texas roses and other flowering greenery were planted to beautify the landscape, a new water pond and fountain were built, new sidewalks were added, funereal statuary was cleaned and repaired, including over 2,150 marble headstones of Confederate veterans. Also built was a new limestone visitor center which was designed to resemble the long barracks at the Alamo. The center included a Texas history gallery and an administration building. New walls were erected around the grounds, including columbarium walls made of granite along the northern border.

Today, the grounds are immaculate, the walkways clear, the headstones well maintained, and the staff friendly, helpful, and respectful. Every grave here tells a story - from Civil War heroes to Texas-born Medal of Honor winners in WWII, Vietnam and later conflicts; from Sam Houston, the father of Texas, to historical old-west period Texas Rangers to Darrell Royal, the hallowed coach of the University of Texas Longhorns to one of the most recent burials, U.S. Navy Seal Kris Kyle whose headstone reads, "It is our duty to serve those who serve us." A walk through these grounds provides a true history lesson of the people who made Texas "Texas."

Albert Sidney Johnston - general in the Texas Army and later
served as a general in the Confederate Army. Killed  while
 leading his forces during the battle of Shiloh in 1862.

Over 2,000 graves contain the remains of men who served
in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Served in the Texas Army and fought in the Battle of
San Jacinto, the battle which enabled Texas to become
a nation. He carried the only Texas flag during the
battle and was the first to see the fleeing Mexican
General Santa Anna and helped capture him.



Grave of Stephen F. Austin, the
father of Texas

Grave of "Bigfoot" Wallace, famous
soldier, Texas Ranger, survivor of many
battles with Mexicans, Indians, and out-
laws and teller of tall tales. Popular folk
hero who died in 1899, it was said of him,
"Without directing many of the events which
shaped Texas history, he was there when they
happened and did not hesitate to tell the tales." 

Monument Hill and the graves of Medal of Honor winners,
most of whom gave their lives in the service of America.

Native Texan who was the author of numerous highly
acclaimed books. Most famous as the author of "Old Yeller."

Vietnam Memorial dedicated to
Texans who served in that conflict.

Moving and solemn 9/11 memorial with two steel beams
from the World Trade Center towers. 

Looking toward the Texas State Capital from Monument Hill
within the cemetery.

Postcard From Toltec Mounds

Toltec Mounds Archaeological State Park in Scott, Arkansas is a National Historic Landmark. The site preserves and interprets the state's tallest Native American mounds. 

Toltec Mounds is one of the largest archaeological sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley. At one time, the mounds had an 8 to 10 foot-high earthen embankment on three sides and was protected on the fourth by a small lake. A century ago, 16 mounds were known inside the embankment with two of them being 38 and 50 feet high. Today, several mounds and a remnant of the embankment are still visible and the locations of other smaller mounds are known.

Two of the larger mounds

Toltec was built by Plum Bayou culture people between A.D. 700 and 1050. The mounds were religious and social centers for the people living in the surrounding countryside. The Toltec center itself had a very small resident population  which consisted mostly of the political and religious leaders and their families. The mound locations were planned using principles based on alignment with certain important solar positions and standardized units of measurement. This alignment can still be witnessed at the site during the spring and fall equinoxes.

The lake on one side of the mounds with a
mound in the background.

"Cypress Knees" - roots of the cypress trees
growing around the lake next to the mounds.

Early sunset at Toltec Mounds.

Owney - The Good Luck Postal Dog

Owney with some of his medals and tags

Owney was a scruffy mutt who became a regular fixture at the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. His owner, a man named Owen who had adopted him as a stray, was a postal clerk who let the dog walk with him to work. One rainy day, the back door to the post office was accidentally left open. The dog found his way inside and the workers didn't have the heart to put him back out in the rain and in the following weeks, continued to let him come in and spend his days there. When the supervisor inquired about the dog the workers were keeping in the back room even though it was against the rules, they told him it was Owen's mutt. Falling for the pup's cuteness, wagging tail, and likable nature, he let them keep him. After that, the dog became known as Owney. 

Owney was attracted to the texture or scent of the mailbags and slept on them every night. When his owner moved away, Owney stayed with his mail clerk friends and his mailbag bed. He soon began to follow mailbags around on their daily travels. At first, he just followed them onto mail wagons, returning every afternoon to his home at the post office. Then he began to follow mailbags onto Railway Post Office (RPO) mail trains and traveled with them on their journey across the state and then all around the country.

Before long, railway mail clerks considered the dog a good luck charm. At the time, train wrecks were all too common and resulted in a number of deaths of postal employees. However, no train Owney rode was ever in a wreck.

Somehow, he knew the mailbags were for postal employees only and wouldn't let anyone but a uniformed postal worker touch a bag. One time a mail pouch fell unnoticed from a wagon during a delivery run. When the carrier returned to the office, not only was the bag found to be missing, but so was Owney! Upon retracing the route, the bag was found with Owney laying on top of it, guarding it by barking and growling at anyone who approached. When he saw the postal carrier, he jumped off the bag and began wagging his tail. 

In a book at the time it was reported "The terrier Owney travels from one end of the country to the other in the postal cars, tagged through, petted, talked to, looked out for, as a brother, almost. But then, no matter what the attention, he suddenly departs for the south, the east, or the west, and is not seen again for months." In 1893 he was feared dead after having disappeared for longer than usual, but it turned out he was slightly injured in an accident in Canada. Word went out that Owney was missing and when the Canadians heard this, they put him on a mail train back to Albany with a note telling what happened and that they had paid a local vet to nurse him until he had recovered enough to once again travel. They did, however, request a payment of $2.50 to pay for his food. The money was quickly collected in Albany and sent to the Canadians. 

Owney with Mail Train workers

Fearing he would get lost someday, this incident led the Albany workers to buy him a collar with a metal tag which read, "Owney. Post Office. Albany, New York." Railway mail clerks around the country adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot and began marking his travels by placing medals and tags on his collar. Eventually there were so many tags attached to the collar that the small dog was unable to carry them all around his neck so each time Owney returned home to Albany, the clerks there removed and saved some of the tags. 

Postmaster General John Wanamaker was one of Owney's biggest fans. When he learned that the dog's collar was weighed down by the ever-growing number of tags, he gave Owney a harness on which to display the "trophies."  On April 9, 1894, a writer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that "Nearly every place he stopped, Owney received an additional tag until now he wears a big bunch. When he jogs along, they jingle like the bells on a junk wagon." Eventually, there were so many tags that it was too heavy even with the harness so during his travels, clerks would remove some and send them to Albany for safe keeping. It is unknown exactly how many medals Owney accumulated during his time riding the rails, but an unofficial total of 1,017 has been given. Many have been lost. Others,for one reason or another, were not saved. The National Postal Museum has 372 in its collection today.

 In 1895, Owney made a 4-month around-the-world trip, traveling with mailbags on trains and steamships to North Africa, Asia and across Europe before returning to Albany on December 23rd. In Japan, the Emperor gave the dog 2 medals bearing the Japanese coat of arms. It was estimated that before his death, Owney had traveled over 143,000 miles.

In June, 1897, Owney boarded a mail train for Toledo, Ohio. While he was there, a new clerk chained him to a post and he was shown to a newspaper reporter. Exactly what happened is not known; some say the reporter tried to pick him up by the scruff of his neck and others say it was simply because he wasn't used to being chained up, but for some reason the normally calm and docile Owney became ill tempered, bit the reporter and then a police officer who came to investigate and was shot in response, Owney died in Toledo of a bullet wound on June 11, 1897. Mail clerks raised funds to have Owney preserved and he was given to the Post Office Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C.  In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution, where he has remained ever since. Owney can be seen on display in the National Postal Museum's atrium, wearing his harness and surrounded by several of his tags.

Owney at the Smithsonian today

Owney’s unusual life and wide-spread travels have inspired five children’s books and a song sung by Trace Adkins. In 2011, the Post Office issue a stamp honoring his memory. Elementary schools across the United States continue to use the story of Owney as a way to connect their students with those in other states by sending stuffed toy dogs from school to school through the mail accompanied by messages from students to one another.

Owney stamp