What a day

We awoke before daylight to watch the ship dock in Hilo.  Only a few of the students were awake. Alisha, Caitlyn and Rachel were all huddled on the deck watching the captain guide the ship in.  Then we grabbed a quick breakfast before we were called for custom inspection.  One breakfast treat was viewing of whale spouts off the stern.  I grabbed my binoculars and got to see the back of one whale several times.  Students reported seeing more at the beach during the day.  The customs inspection went mercifully quickly.

Nancy and I wandered around a park on our way downtown.  It was beautiful, and the banyan trees were quick remarkable.  The trees are all named after someone who has visited the island and we found the one named after Cecil B. Demille.  One of the things that we were encouraged to do was talk to people throughout our visit, so we spoke to a man walking his dog in the park (with the added benefit of getting to pet a dog as a surrogate for Walden, our dog). This guy was a retired chemical engineer from Boston who had 60 patents recorded and had moved to Hilo for retirement  He was also a native of Bangladesh, so we had a great conversation.  I'm pretty sure we sold him on a voyage on Semester at Sea. Part of our conversation challenge was to ask people about their country(island) and its issues.  Interestingly,he seemed to think there were few issues in Hilo.  He did express a concern about a trend for couples to live together out of wedlock and have children.  The children then entitled them to welfare. He cited a 30 percent unemployment reate as a consequence.  Interesting conversation and interesting gentleman.

Then we found a Starbucks for the first real coffee in over a week.  What a cup of coffee.

Don Gogniat had challenged us all in Global Studies class to notice the little things about a country.  I decided to notice bumper stickers.  Well, they don't do bumper stickers very much in Hilo.  This gave me an entre to several other conversations with people to find out about this phenomenon.  One young store clerk said that there was concern that bumper stickers would offend people, so people didn't do them.  I looked at cars for blocks, and found only 4 bumper stickers.  This one seemed to make up for all the rest.

Nancy and I walked for miles and visited the market downtown.  I bought a local made necklace--interestingly made by a native Parisian.  I also bought some local bananas.  I asked the woman if she grew them, and she said they came from her grandmother's tree.  As you can see from my hand, these were small, but tree ripened.  They had a kind of spicy taste.  I shared them with some of the students walking by.  Then we had the best lunch I've had in several years at a local restaurant--Pesto something, I believe. The Ahi fish was great as was the frittered palm hearts.  Yum.  I didn't share that with any of the students.  Next we found me a Hawaiian shirt to wear to the night's Luau.  It was a deal at the Salvation Army Store, and was one of my contributions to sustainability

We found some curious things in this town.  One was a cat with a harness, tethered to a parking meter next to a street vendor.  The other was the grey parrot sharing lunch with his owner at a sidewalk cafe--totally untethered.  Strange leash laws they have here.

 We headed back to the ship after a stop a Ben Franklin Store.  I hadn't seen one of these stores in at least 20 years.  It now seems to be an art supply store.  Nancy is taking a drawing class on the ship, so she needed some drawing supplies. Then we speed walked back to the ship to get ready for the night's Luau. Nancy and I walked about 5 miles today, and this last part was walking on a mission because we did not want to miss our bus.  When we got back to the ship, we had to wait at customs again to board, drop our stuff and change into my newly acquired shirt.  This gave us a good idea about "ship time" and the problems with cutting your time too close.

We did make our bus and headed for the Luau.  But first, we took a walking  tour of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.  Frankly, there is not much to see there, and the students and we were anxious to get to the Luau. Once we got to the Luau, we were in a covered picnic area. As an educational feature, we first learned about twisting big leaves to make a rope.  Hilo is the word for twisting big leaves to make ropes, and it came from a time when some sailors used initiative to tie up some canoes. (abbreviated version).  We were all restless, and then we finally go to eat. The pork was delicious, and some of the other foods were strange We had Poi as well. Poi is made from roots of the taro plant.  We had seen the roots in the farmer's market, and Scott Fisher had talked about Poi in some of his lectures,so naturally, I was curious to try it.  I can almost guarantee you that no one ate more than one bite. It might be a staple of the diet, but it is not a delicacy.

The highlight of the evening was the entertainment.  Several groups performed, and students got a chance to learn the hulu. I had never seen the hulu performed live, and it is quite an expressive dance.

We also got to end up with a dance by some Polynesian dancers.  They got everyone very involved.  All the dancers were students at the University.








Back on the buses and returned to the port.  Most of the students went back out for the rest of the evening.  I don't know how they had the energy because they had an active day.  Here's what I heard:  whale watching, the beach, volcanoes, water falls, a round of golf, trips to Walmart, walks around town, snorkeling and a visit to the Observatory.  Then we do it all over again tomorrow.  I'm headed to bed.