Honolulu Curl

As Mount Kilauea on the Big Island continues to erupt, why are volcanoes dormant on other islands of Hawaii, including Oahu?

Logically, you might think that the magma beneath Oahu simply stopped bubbling up to the surface, but the source "hotspot" that formed Oahu and the other Hawaiian islands remains very active.  In fact, we saw steam from it the prior day at Volcanoes National Park.

The same hotspot adding acreage to the Big Island was once beneath Oahu, so you may next logically reason that the hotspot must be gradually sliding to the southeast.  It's the islands that are actually moving, migrating northwest, as tectonic plates shift, slowly re-positioning not simply the most remote island chain on earth but all of the continents.



Eventually, the Big Island of Hawaii will be off the hotspot, which is already forming a new island of Loihi.  That new island is currently 3000 feet below the surface but could be above sea level in time for your next vacation, assuming you don't plan to travel for about 10,000 to 100,000 years.  Then again, perhaps Loihi will merge into the Big Island, as other volcanoes have over the millennia.

Cruising into Honolulu at dawn, it's hard to believe it is a slowly eroding mountain in the ocean, with the island above the surface once forming one side of a volcano.

Aboard Star Princess cruising across the Pacific, naturalist Don Hellstern had described how at one time what are now distant continents like Africa and South America once fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, as most children intuit looking at a map.  Rifts formed, and the continents divided, gradually being pushed apart as tectonic plates separated.  The plates also sometimes crashed together, pushing skyward mountain ranges from the slow-motion collision.

More dramatic changes have also happened.  Giant asteroids sometimes smash into the earth, and one of those created such dramatic climate change that it wiped out the dinosaurs.

Even the earth's magnetic poles occasionally flip.  This has only occurred about five times in the last ten million years, but we may be overdue for another pole reversal.  Many people presume that human-caused global warming will inevitably cause coastlines to sink --- and perhaps they will --- but there also are many powerful, natural forces in play constantly.  I like to think of humans being like fleas on a dog thinking through our actions exclusively we can change the direction the dog will run, despite greater forces that have been causing natural coastal and climate change for time immemorial.

While teenager Greta Thunberg was being selected Time Magazine's Person of the Year for skipping school to implore the United Nations to do something to stop the world from evolving, we had slightly less ambitious plans: take the bus to Hanauma Bay and snorkel, as we had planned on our prior visit.

After breakfast, we made good time and managed to reach our bus in the nick of time.  This should have been the fastest route, but the alternative bus that went through Waikiki apparently filled what would have been our transfer bus, stranding us along with some Taiwanese tourists and a couple of homeless locals, arriving a half hour late only to drive on by without stopping.

As Wayne Dyer used to say, "You can't coulda-woulda-shoulda," so after learning Uber would be $20, we settled in to wait for the next bus, which was scheduled to be there soon.

All was relatively peaceful until four teen-aged truants arrived, listening to loud rap music while passing and puffing marijuana-packed vaporizers continuously.  I am not a fan of cursing poems accompanied by thuds, but making it worse, the biggest kid who acted like the group's leader, kept skipping from one song to another before any had played more than a minute, with each lyric having more offensive language than the last.

When the bus finally arrived, I wasn't going to let them menace their way past Julie and the Taiwanese to the front of the line, so I strategically blocked their approach by showing them my back.  "Corn Pop" and his pals might have been intimidating to middle-schoolers, but they were just kids.

It turns out we all made it on the bus, with the punks getting standing room near the front.  They soon got off by the high school, glaring in the windows at the passengers as they walked past, giving special scorn to a teen in a Captain America hat.

In any case, we made it to beautiful Hanauma Bay, which was open and bustling with tourists.  Tickets cost $7 per person, and no charge for locals.

Lined up and herded into an auditorium, we watched the mandatory video presentation to learn rules of visiting the park.  Some people even listened before storming the exit doors on cue to hit the beach.

The beautiful sunny day made the turquoise water more inviting than ever, and we soon were snorkeling "where the humuhumunukukuapua'a go swimming by."

While the snorkeling turned out to be terrific, lots of tourists wearing fins flopped around in the water, often using the fins more as shoes to allow them to walk or stand on corals, which of course are living organisms important to the health of the bay's ecosystem.  Nonetheless, I was able to seek out quieter places where I wasn't annoyed by inconsiderate novices.  If you snorkel, don't walk on the coral any more than you'd tromp on a bed of roses or cactus garden.

A lifeguard came on the loudspeaker to order everyone out of the water.

Rip tide?

No, a monk seal was swimming in, and since this is his home that we were visiting, everyone made way for his approach.

We'd staked out a little shady spot behind some bushes next to the beach where we left most of our stuff, but mostly we spent time either snorkeling or standing with our feet in the water holding onto our cell phones and wallets.

When we became hungry, we decided to move onto the next part of our journey, paying to take the tram up the hill where we caught the bus to Duke's on Waikiki Beach, which has become a regular haunt anytime we go to Honolulu.

Julie had the Pulled Pork sandwich, while I went with tradition, ordering Duke's Cheeseburger, this time accompanied by Waikiki Brewing Company's English Brown Ale.

After lunch, we found an open patch of sand on the world famous beach in front of the Duke's Barefoot Bar, taking some dips in the water, for which we didn't bother using a mask and snorkel.  We just relaxed there, content to be part of the world-renowned Waikiki Beach scene.  As is another tradition for me, I eventually took a stroll into the shopping district, just to get some shade and people watch rather than actually shopping.

I spotted Island Vintage Coffee, which looked inviting with outdoor tables on the second floor of the Royal Hawaiian Center.  We stopped in for their Mauna Kea Iced Coffee (coffee, gelato, caramel and black lava sea salt) on our way to the bus.

As we rode back to the ship, I mentioned that Sean Cleland, a musician on our Ostrich Music Group CD, had a gig that night at the Hilton Waikiki, and quite surprisingly, Julie said, "Let's go."



We rarely go out at night after returning to the ship, but the stars had aligned.  We were both still full from our huge lunch and had purchased all-day bus passes rather than one way tickets which would have cost more, so we changed clothes and caught the bus back to Waikiki.  Soon, Julie was sipping a Cuba Libre, while I had a Big Swell IPA at Hilton Waikiki's Lobby Bar.

Sean has been working regularly as a musician since we made that album ten years ago, and this year his latest album, "The Process Of," won Hawaii's prestigious Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Alternative Album of the Year.

As with many singer-songwriters, his lounge gig at the Hilton consists mostly of well-known covers, for which he uses technology to put down live tracks and then plays other guitar parts and adds vocals along with the underlying tracks.  As he says, it helps pay the bills, and his versions are great for relaxing with a beverage.

No surprise, therefore, that Yamaha will sponsor his performance at the NAMM Show in Anaheim on January 15, 2020.  According to the organization's site, "The NAMM Show is the global crossroads of the music, sound and entertainment technology products industries."



In any case, it's great to see that Sean continues to make his way in the music business, even if he no longer plays "Something Under the Sun," the beach-sounding, laid-back song with an odd guitar hook that Julie and I have always liked.  When I went up to request that song, Sean smiled in recognition of who I was.

We had arrived about a half hour into Sean's set, and by that time he had played close to an hour more, so he soon took a well-earned break and came over to chat with us.  He thanked us for providing encouragement early in his career and gave us a copy of his award-winning CD.

For a singer-songwriter, there's always the hope of a big break leading to worldwide acclaim, but recently married to Chelsea, who also loves to travel --- "Our goal is to take one big trip a year." --- happily lives his dream as a musician based in Hawaii. Sean understands that fame and fortune aren't necessary to enjoy a wonderful life.

On the cruise back to California, we watched the movie "Yesterday," an excellent feel-good film that makes that point very well.

What are you waiting for?

Start enjoying your life today.

There's a whole big world out there, waiting for you to discover it.

"Better service leads to better trips!"