IF IT'S TUESDAY, IT MUST BE PEPE'EKEO
(written in Kailua-Kona, Da Beeg Ilan - Hawai'i)

Since February, I've been asking myself, "When all the dissertation madness is past, where would I like to go to reward myself for 11 years of a PhD program?" I thought of Mexico, Brazil, British Columbia (Canada), and other places I've been wanting to visit, and finally settled on the good ol' USA - the 50th state, that is. The family had visited O'ahu and Kawa'i in 1968, when I was really too young to remember much, but I had never been to Hawai'i proper, the "Big Island". So, out of all the places on earth (that were affordable to fly to), I picked the Big Island. It was low maintenance: familiar country, language, travel infrastructure. My brain needed a rest!

I had priced tickets since February but determined pretty early that there was no point booking ahead till I knew 100% I was done and the dissertation accepted. That meant April (great fares!) was out and that May - after graduation - was sketchy till I had done my cross-country visitations.

Finally, June 21, with a travel companion (Linda, a friend - platonic, I hasten to add lest rumors spread - from my old church in Burbank), I flew LA to Kona (the main international airport), staying the first couple of nights at the King Kameha-meha Hotel, built on the site of the first Hawaiian king's palace. (Not much left of the palace except a Disneyland-esque luau facility set amid a pagan temple site built out on the water used as a backdrop for the nightly luau's there.) As if in spiritual competition, the first missionary-built church on the islands (Congregational) is located about half a block down the sea-front road.

Interestingly (counter to all the anti-missionary screeds), the end of Hawaiian native religion came BEFORE the missionaries arrived. King Kameha-meha II (the son of King Kameha-meha the Great - they're ALL named Kameha-meha!) and his mother declared the entire Hawaiian taboo system and sacrificial religion dead a couple of years before the Massachusetts-based missionaries arrived in 1820. A very fertile soil in which to plant a new spiritual system of looking at the world.

Anyway, Linda flew back to LA yesterday after just a week circling the island clockwise with me (she had to get back to work). I, luckily (?) unemployed, have another week to go on my own and am starting right where I started a week ago - in Kalua-Kona at the hotel ACROSS THE STREET from our first hotel. I really needed a day to do laundry, catch up on email, etc. I fly back myself on July 7, after which I begin my apartment hunt in LA.

Some highlights so far:

June 23-24

Staying at an informal guest cottage on a hill overlooking one of the island's most scenic valleys: Waipi'o, the first of a series of huge, indented cliffs with river valleys where the inhabitants live off the grid (no electricity, etc.) The cottage was the ONLY building on the cliff with the view, so we were totally monopolizing the location. The owner (a retired ex-high school shop teacher in a nearby town) thoughtfully provides an outdoor barbeque, so Linda and I cooked New York strip steaks on the barby the first night. Another island freebie: the Costa Rican frogs that blip and bleep all night long in a chorus that rivals the Morman Tabernacle Choir in volume! It's not a croak exactly, more like submarine sonar blips.

June 25

Swimming in the white water around lava boulders upstream from Rainbow Falls (near Hilo). The black rock holds in heat like you wouldn't believe. The rushing water, on the other hand, (and you had to place your body carefully so as not to get carried over the rapids to your death) was about 60 degrees. As a Sundberg with our special skin needs, I had to prepare carefully as though for a moonwalk: sun block, hat, long-sleeved shirt (till I jump in), etc. I envy all those tan kids who can just go outside in shorts and flipflops with no worries about the sun!

June 26

Attending a tiny Hawaiian Congregational church (Ola'a First Hawaiian Church) with islandl locals - the parents of an Episcopalian priest friend in LA. (The church pianist Aloha Lee has Alzheimers, and her sister wants her to keep playing to keep her mind as keen as possible, so singing hymns - in English and Hawaiian! - was challenging at times!) Bob and Judy Bailey kindly let us stay two nights at their off-the main-road home with one acre planted with almost every flowering and fruit-bearing plant on the island. They recently adopted the three kids of Judy's daughter on O'ahu. Their father was killed in a car crash a year back, and the mother didn't have the financial security (or emotional strength) to care for all of them. THe youngest, little Mary, woke us up in the guest cottage every morning, peeking through the slats: "You awake yet?"

June 27

After a visit to Volcanoes National Park during daylight hours, trekking out along a beach road at dusk to view the active lava flow close up (still 2 miles away). In the darker sky, the red magma flowing down the hillside and explosive burst where it hits the Pacific waters are more visible. All those families bringing little toddlers in shorts and flipflops to hike over very uneven dried lava in the dark strained at my idea of responsible parenting, however.

June 28

Visiting Ka Lae, the southernmost point of the US on the south tip of the island. It's refreshingly geared towards locals, not tourists, so there are no souvenir stands, tour buses, just pick-ups and SUV's belonging to fishers. We met two local kids from Volcano (a town name), about 70 miles inland, who were there for an all-evening fishing trip with their family. (They planned to haul in their fishing lines after 2 am!) The pasture land ends in an abrupt, rocky drop-off about 20 feet down into deep water, where deep-water fish like tuna and ono can be caught. An old temple to the god of fishing was still there, where the ancient Hawaiians would leave offerings for a bountiful catch. (A Hawaiian clan was gathered in their tent attached to the temple's side - beer and grill at the ready.) It was late in the day, the air was warm and heavy with a refreshing breeze, and the mood among the informal folk gathered was mellow.

Today, I leave Kailua-Kona (as busy and hectic as LA without the multi-lane roads to handle the traffic) for calmer corners of the island. If I see one more paste-y white tourist in a gaudy aloha shirt shopping for hula girl towels, I swear I'll lose my breakfast! Somehow I can live without Starbucks, Denny's, and Walmart for a few more days (all thoughtfully provided for the tourist hordes on the Kona side of the island).