2004-08-01

here. Written July 20th Okay, in retrospect, now that I’m not sitting on a hot bus sweltering, the tour of the island was really pretty cool. We saw the Dole Plantation, a macadamia ranch, Hanauma Bay, and a number of other things. We got a ton of beautiful pictures and learned that Dole doesn’t actually do canning on the island anymore, that outsiders coming to the island have driven up property prices so that native Hawaiians can’t afford homes, that I REALLY want a monkeypod tree in my backyard, and that the manmade rivers carrying rain water down from the mountains make the ocean murky where the rivers run into the sea. Cousin Dave told us that last at LEAST twelve times. Around the fifth time, we started snickering, and somewhere around the tenth time I looked at Debbie. “Debbie,” I said with a perfectly straight face, “What makes the water so murky?”, and she gave me a considering look and then said “I believe the ABC Stores make the water so murky, Robyn.” Heh. There was a large family of rednecks from Georgia on the tour with us, who obviously weren’t listening, because Cousin Dave told us there are no active volcanoes on Oahu, and ten minutes later Daddy Redneck drawled “Now, where’s the active volcano? We gonna see that today?” Like I said, though, it was neat. We made plenty of stops for pictures and bathroom breaks. It would have been better if the tour had been, say, in a stretch limo with a bar and the driver stopping to let us take pictures whenever we wanted, but I guess I’ll just have to wait ’til I’m a multi-millionaire rock stah. I have no idea what we’re doing today. The spud and I have to haul a box to the post office for mailing, and after that who knows?

7:42 am
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I realized this morning why exactly it is that I’ve woken at 6 every morning. It’s because that’s apparently when they start up the street construction that involves lots of big-ass trucks backing up and making that ear-piercing BeepBeepBeep sound. Ah well – I sure am glad I’m not on a lower floor! I guess if you get a hotel in the middle of a city, you have to expect lots of loud traffic noises. The spud is having an awfully good time hanging out with Brian. He’s definitely like a brother to her. Too bad we don’t live closer to them! 10:14 pm ]]>