That's Pilli climbing a coconut tree into the sky on the last morning we spent on the big island of Hawaii. The towel wrapped around his feet to use as an anchor is visible in this picture. Both times we saw him do this he came down exhausted. Pilli was strong, but he was heavy, too, and it took lots of energy to climb like this. This is how he harvested coconuts as a kid when he was much lighter. A falling coconut presented a danger if it landed on your head. He likened it to having a bowling ball dropped on it.
Speaking of the sky, I counted our taking off and landing eleven times on this trip. I used to be very afraid of flying but became an old pro at it. Never did we have a bumpy flight. The only problem presented itself on the last night in Honolulu International. We looked on the flight board and discovered our flight had been postponed from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am. Did that mean we might have to spend the night sprawled out in a chair. Luckily, Jeff Willer, the transportation director of the Farmers Union was traveling with our group (there were four groups) and promptly got on the phone to the travel agent in Jamestown who started looking into it. She found an alternate flight for us to board that worked out better. Originally we were routed through Chicago but now flew to Denver, then straight up to Fargo, actually getting us in an hour or so earlier. Besides, we received a $15 food voucher to use in Honolulu.
My wife's sister and her husband rode with us to Fargo, and in Honolulu, he spotted a book he thought I should have about the islands and bought it for me. In it I found this fact: in 1959 the first jet airplane landed in Hawaii and took about five hours from San Francisco and opened up the islands for the huge tourist traffic that now travels there.
Regarding the flying, I couldn't help but notice the large numbers of TSA workers that check everyone and everything before boarding the planes. Because of my leg, I had to go through a body searching pat-down each time which I didn't enjoy.
A tree called a monkey pod grows commonly in the islands and spreads a large canopy of shade. One other use was found during the war; they parked airplanes underneath to shield them from enemy eyes should they have returned after Pearl Harbor.
In an old church in the last town we stayed, Kona, some beautiful bench pews stood. They were constructed from koa wood and would be very expensive to use today. It was on a wall of that church, though, that I spotted something very interesting. It looked like a maze of long popsicle sticks arranged in random order. The lady greeter explained what it was: a map. The early day from the whole region could not read, nor did they have maps, except, that is, for the knowledge of winds and currents that could carry them from place to place. The wooden maze on the wall represented those routes that the voyagers knew and used. Comparing the culture of the Polynesian islands and our own native Americans, they matched well considering they could wrest their livelihood with their folklore and knowledge of the natural world.
I think I've got one more blog entry regarding my trip to the Hawaiian Islands and will get it up within the next couple of days.
