Maui no ka oi

Aloha from the island of Maui. This is my third trip to Hawaii. The first time I was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base while I was in the Air Force. That was from 1968 to 1970. It was my early in my first marriage and we were able to live off base in Honolulu. During that time we took one trip to Maui and I was able to take a separate trip to the big island. The second trip was 33 years later in 2003, with Pat. We spent the first few days at the Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu then we came to a time share in Lahaina. Our friends Frank and Kathleen joined us on that trip. But my impressions and perspective on Hawaii actually cover a longer period of time than the 42 years of my visits here.

The first time I ever heard of Hawaii was from my father's recollections of his time in Hawaii during WWII. He spent a short period of time stationed here before he went to the South Pacific. Every Christmas we heard his story of swimming in the ocean on Christmas day.  My first trip was in 1968. I was in the AF and stationed in Wichita Kansas. This was during the height of the Viet Nam war and I was awaiting orders for an overseas placement. I put in for Alaska and Japan, figuring that either would avoid Viet Nam. Instead I was stationed between the two, on the island of Oahu at Hickam AF base. I was assigned to a communications unit that served the Pacific Air Force headquarters. I typed my way through the Vietnam war, and I am proud to say that to this day the Vietnamese still have not invaded Hawaii. I landed in Honolulu on a Sunday and was completely disoriented. I had never been to a tropical climate, and really had never been in as densely a populated area. The buildings appeared foreign and I had no idea where anything was.  My memories of the islands were how warm it was, how blue the water was, how lush the vegetation was, how humid the air was and how man people of Asian descent there were. Even then the island was already developed well beyond what I thought the island could tolerate to retain it's authenticity and natural beauty. When my father was in Hawaii in 1942 the Royal Hawaiian and one other hotel were on Waikiki, in 1968 there were hundreds. Traffic was very heavy. High rises were being erected everywhere. The sounds of Pile drivers setting foundations filled the city. Cranes could be seen wherever you looked. There were thousands of people in uniform (99% men). Besides the thousands stationed at Hickam, Pearl Harbor, Schoffield Barracks and other military installations there were thousands on R &R every week from Viet Nam and Thailand. Airman, sailors, soldiers their wives, girlfriends and children. Tourists were also there by the thousands. Honolulu was and still is a very busy place.

When I returned with Pat 33 years later, I had the same feelings when we landed. The tropical climate remained the same, the vegetation was still as beautiful and the island was even more crowded. The air, however was not as clear and I learned that the erupting Volcano on the big island has impacted the clarity of the air. As we were leaving the airplane I mentioned to Pat that we would probably see rainbows and sure enough a full rainbow was in sight over the mountains of Oahu. After a few days of seeing the sights of Oahu, we flew to Maui. This trip we flew straight from Oakland to Maui. It was a very convenient to fly direct and to miss the congestion of Honolulu. My impressions of Hawaii are unchanged. There is somewhat more development on Maui, but not that much over the last seven years, but certainly a lot over the past 40 years. The sky is not as blue because of the VOG (the term used for the emissions that come from the volcano), but the aura and the Hawaiian feeling is still here. The beaches are spectacular and the water is still beautiful. We plan on this week being a relaxing time, and our goal is to enjoy the Hawaiian atmosphere and not go crazy with seeing the sights. Aloha for now. Dan  

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