So far this has been a fabulous trip! We've journeyed 90 miles down the road to a Days Inn near the airport. Not a bad start. Our granddaughter, five years old, will accompany us to Hawaii. She's a delightful traveling companion, even though she wants one of the two smallish beds all to herself tonight. In the morning we'll take the shuttle to the airport and begin the 14-hour hard part. If all goes well, by this time tomorrow we will be...well, still in the sky somewhere.

I'm not sure what to expect from this trip.

Gramps, WHERE ARE YOU? ~

Sooz

Sunday, 6:45 am, Days Inn Milwaukee Airport, headed for the sumptuous free hotel breakfast, then the shuttle (1988 Ford Econoline) to the actual airport where the planes presumably are garaged.

Have a fun safe trip. grampa

Warm sunshine, warm water, beaches........oh my! Enjoy!

He should arrive soon and there's someone special waiting for him...

Catching up here:
When we arrived yesterday morning at the ticket counter in Milwaukee, we found that our flight to Chicago, had been rescheduled by United to next Friday. However our second flight, from chicago to LA was still scheduled for yesterday. United apparently beta testing time travel. So we took the bus instead, arrived in Chi in plenty of time to make the connection. All's well that ends well.

Then a long flight to LA, and a longer flight to Hilo, HI. Our granddaughter, Sylvia, being a far better traveler than you can expect a five year old girl to be, finally falling asleep over the Pacific.

It had stormed on the eastern end of the big island when we got there at 12:20 am Wisconsin time. Our son bundled us into his old Land Cruiser and we headed down the coast. We rode through the wet darkness south from Hilo to Pahoa. Weird vegetation flashed past in the headlights, unfamiliar chirps and peeps sounded through the open windows. I hear them now as I write this. We had a simple supper with son and his wife, and went to bed in the small cabin behind their house.The rain had started again, rained hard all night.

Now it's 10:00 pm on Monday, Hawaii time, Gramma and I are about to retire after a day of farm touring and ocean swimming, and talking for hours with son and his wife. Rain's drumming hard on the cabin roof. There's so much I could write. Tonight it's enough to say I am so pleased for them, and for their little daughters, 5 and 2 1/2. They're such good mother and father, much better than we were, I think. They've been through tough times and love each other still. Their little girls are so loved and well cared for, so intelligent and expressive. So fortunate. No-one knows what will happen in people's lives. But these lives are off to a good start.

LOL @ Time travel.

wow, gramps! It sounds like heaven. Family, tropics, talk and love.

I had no idea you were going to visit family there. If you don't mind, may I ask how they ended up there? I understand if you don't want to air personal info, but I'm curious.

It's a long,crazy story, Roseanne. I'll tell it in a later post. I don't want to bore folks with my family story, but would like to write that part of it down.

Today was volcano day. I'll write more about that later too

I'd be interested in your reaction to the volcano. Mine wasn't positive. I don't know what I was expecting; maybe more red and less black.

If you are in that area Gramps you MUST go and see the "lava forest". Its stunning!
http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/h ... park_id=51

Cut it out, Chaos, you're making me homesick.

It's January 2, 2014. We've been in Hawaii four full days. It's bena treat. First the weather, Very rainy, as usual in this area (Pahoa). The counryside is like rain forest, vegetation rising up full, wild and large. We beakfgst on fresh oranges, tangerines and tangerellos, coconuts litter the ground, there are cumquats and avacodos grwing with a few steps of the house. It rains each night, straight down.

The house is large, The huge living room is mostly unfurnished, so that the kids have a huge indoor space to run, dance and throw balls in.

So far we have swum on both sides of the island, checked out a couple of volcanoes, built fence for a neighbor, cut forage for the cows, shopped, and talked. Made plans for the spring, when these people will come back to the midwest to be nearer to us.

Kathy, I was really impressed by the volcanoes. They're only semi-active now. but they're still smoking and when you survey the devastation of their last tantrums, you have to be awed. Thousands of acres, miles and miles stretching to the horizons, of jumbled, solidified lava that looks like it cooled yesterday, on some other planet. still steaming where the flow reached the ocean all those years ago. Hey, I'm impressed!

Roseanne, our son and his wife moved here last June with their baby girl, his mechanic's tools, and all the clothing they could fit into the overhead. They landed on their feet, he has a clientele, they live in this nice house, they take care of an elderly couple's small farm. Whenever someone relocates like that, there is push and there is pull. I don't know what the push was, but the pull was adventure and challenge and risk.

Thanks for the tip regarding Lava Tree State Park, Cattleman. That's only a few miles from the house. We're headed over there tomorrow, after we fell some trees in the back pasture.

Goodnight to you all.

You have to be lucky to see the volcanoes getting really cranky, but there's still the residual activity and the evidence of previous eruptions which are absolutely fascinating. Its also amazingly safe given the degree of activity - the Hawaiian volcanoes aren't the explosive type.

One of the things that really interested me was comparing the regeneration of previous flows. Recent flows are a nightmare landscape of bare black rock, twisted into incredible shapes. But ones only 20-30 years old are covered by scrub and low foliage. A hundred years and a forest is emerging. Two hundred years and you'd be hard pressed to recognise it as a relatively recent flow.

That part of the Big Island is beautiful Gramps and housing is very cheap for what you get. Insurance is a different matter. If a flow heads toward your house there is literally NOTHING you can do except get out of the way. Pele is a firm mistress (although, apparently she does appreciate offerings of Gin - a bottle at a time).

Just a nice myth/custom of the area: Pele manifests herself in two different forms, sometimes as a beautiful young woman and sometimes as an old crone. That means you should always be very nice to young and old women. Its a very BAD idea to get on Pele's bad side.

Actually, as far as God's go Pele is right up there in my estimation. if you have to have one you could do a lot worse ....

Where's the update?

What day is this, Friday? Saturday? There are no calendars in this house, and no clocks. This is what I call a vacation! Today we traveled across the islande to a remote beach, reachable by walking about a mile or driving across an impassable lava field in a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser which somehow is not a quivering pile of junk this evening. Seriously, buy one of these vehicles tomorrow!

The beach today was wonderful for playing in waves or wet sand depending on age. The granddaughters loved it, and their grandmother bobbed in the waves for hours. We don't have this in Wisconsin. Nor do we have tidal pools warmed by magma. Wisconsin needs a volcano and an ocean. Why the hell isn't Governor Walker working on this instead of battling non-existent voter fraud?!

Yesterday we went to the lava tree park recommended by Cattleman. Amazing. Mind boggling.

Yesterday afternoon son and I cut a few trees out in the "pasture" (read "jungle"). I had hurt my back, so wasn't much use, except Could swing a machete to help clear a path through the chest-high barrier of dense, tangled vines to get to the trees. Tomorrow those vines will have regrown what we cut off. Never before appreciated the utility of the razor-sharp army surplus machete, though. I hope to do more of this work to earn our keep and stay exercised.

There is also some minor plumbing work to do.

I couldn't live on the island of Hawaii, as I have experienced loam and other normal soils, and so could never be happy with these endless miles of cinders from the gut of hell that cover the landscape, that ARE the landscape. Give me a green pasture on three feet of black dirt every time. Although it must be said the vegetation here in the Pahoa region is varied, lush, exotic...until Pele burps again.

In Wisconsin the wind chills are expected to be about 80 below zero this weekend. While not sorry to be missing that, I am really eager to get home. Yes, it would be nice to have oranges, bananas, tangerines, cumquats and coconuts falling out of the trees in the backyard as they do here (no exaggeration). Yes, if there were feral chickens running about back home, as they do here, there would be cheap chicken suppers. Before we return home, we expect to help butcher a wild pig, obtained by bartering mechanic work for a fresh kill by one of the Hawaiian neighbors. But still, it would be good to be at home.

The trip is really about the little granddaughters and their parents, of course , so I can endure paradise one more week for their sakes. I hope any of you who may be reading this are warm and safe at home tonight. Be well.

Tom

Jeff, Jason and I were in various locales in Hawaii four times before Jason was 14. Jason and I thought Hawaii was beautiful and fun, but at the end of two weeks both of us were very anxious to be HOME!!!!

I didn't like the black endless miles of cinders from the gut of hell that cover the landscape at all. Landscape has to be bright green!!!!!

Enjoy the time with your granddaughters, their parents and Gramma!!! That's really what it's all about!!!!

No beach trips today. We stayed on the farm and prepared for a big day tomorrow, daughter in law's birthday party. Cheesecakes were made, laundry laundered, etc. one of the guests tomorrow is a nationally acclaimed chef, and we're looking forward to sampling what she brings to the potluck.

This was probably the best day of the trip for me so far. Helped get a mud-stuck truck unstuck fixed leaky bathroom fitting (did so ingeniously, I hasten to modestly add). Repaired sliding screen door sliders, added lighting to previously unlit double garage. Still have kitchen sink faucet to fix tomorrow.

We also have to prepare to depart. We leave Friday evening, hoping to sleep through the long flight from Honolulu to Denver. We'll get to Milw mid-day Saturday.

I'll never get back to this island. Glad to have had the chance. Just tonight, finally, the littlest granddaughter warmed up to me enough to laugh and play on one-to-one basis. I will miss that. When she's twenty, and a conversation turns to grandparents, she will say, "I can't really remember him". I wish, though, that she actually could remember all through her life the delight we shared with each other today.

Just tonight, finally, the littlest granddaughter warmed up to me enough to laugh and play on one-to-one basis. I will miss that. When she's twenty, and a conversation turns to grandparents, she will say, "I can't really remember him". I wish, though, that she actually could remember all through her life the delight we shared with each other today.


I hear ya, gramps. She'll remember. If not your face or details about the time you spent together, she will remember the love she felt. It's tucked away in her heart. That's what it's all about. How old is she?

I remember things about my grandfather and he died when I was three. You'd be surprised, Gramps.

I get a little maudlin late at night sometimes. Never mind.

Well. It was was a quiet day in Lei'Kawobegonea, HI. Late breakfast, trip to town for supplies, light lunch, a little house cleaning, cutting and pressing a little sugar cane, and then a nice party. People our kids have met and befriended since coming to this state. Tons of good food, good beer, interesting people. A bush pilot from Alaska, the renowned chef I mentioned, a man and wife agronomy team from Australia, a man in a dress with a stylish Bowie knife at the belt, and many others. You meet the most interesting people through your children sometimes.

About half of them gathered on one of the porches to smoke the local product, which is de facto legal here, although de jure a crime to possess. The kids say virtually everyone grows their own.

Sugar cane is hard work, in case you're wondering.

Tomorrow it's the greatest beach on the island. Not sure where that is, or what the name of it is...some word with 19 vowels (many of them unknown on the mainland), a K, an M and several apostrophes, Hawaiian for "Great beach, Bra!" ("Bra" is short for "brother" here. I am not sure how they distinguish between brother and the woman's undergarment of the same name. Could make for serious confusion in conversation about ones family.)

Then Friday it's back to Wisconsin. They say that by the time we get home the weather will have moderated, temps up to zero or higher.

Can't wait.