Email us at:
pej@pejnron.com
ron@pejnron.com

Click the sun to see the
weather in Buenos Aires!

Today is the 16 of June. Pete and I met for the first time 29 years ago today. Looking back, we've certainly accomplished a lot, and been to some pretty amazing places over the years. We both love to travel, and now that we are retired, we do it almost full time (it seems). Tonight we went to the Royal Kona Hotel and enjoyed a great meal in their wonderful restaurant.

Of course an anniversary dinner can't begin without a martini.

Pete ordered Don's Catch of the Day, and I ordered Ahi Furikake, with starters of Kona Crab Cakes & Island Sashimi.

It was an excellent meal, and my mouth is watering just thinking about that wonderful Ahi tuna seared to perfection. It was a beautiful evening, and eating outside made it even more special.

I love the Tiki Torches, and to see the ocean in such a calm state. The peacefulness was very calming, and
seemed to melt away any cares we may have had, at least for the moment. Reality, however, is inescapable.

Pete enjoyed a Tahitian Coffee, and I, a true lover of desserts, enjoyed Don the Beachcombers Molten Lava Torte.

This is Don the Beachcomber, truly a legend in Hawaii. Yet, he did not start out in Hawaii. His
history is a rather colorful one, and if you are interested, I've appended it to the end of this chapter.

The next day we had scheduled a snorkeling trip on the "Body Glove". We motored for 45 minutes to get to the location where we would snorkel. The water wasn't bad at all, temperature wise. Pete and I were thoroughly enjoying ourselves for maybe half an hour, seeing so many brilliantly colored tropical fish of all shapes and sizes. It was fabulous. Then we heard the boat horn beckoning us back on board. When we got on board we were told that a woman had been stung by a bee, and she was highly allergic to bee stings. The captain had the crew haul up the anchor and we motored at max speed to the nearest dock, the captain having radioed ahead for an emergency response team to meet us there. The woman was off loaded and put in the ambulance and driven off to a hospital somewhere. Our snorkeling trip was cut a little short, but the captain made up for it by finding a huge school of dolphins to entertain us. Many of them were the dolphins they call spinners, because they leap completely out of the water, spinning like a cork screw. It was pretty amazing to watch them.

This is our snorkel boat. It is a catamaran and it can hold 150 passengers. It was a slow day with only 38 passengers.

As you can see, there is plenty of room to move around, and there are plenty of life jackets to go around.

We are now on board, and waiting for the captain to pull away from the dock. It was a little overcast, which was good.

You can tell that I've been away from Hawaii for a long time, because I've never seen anyone using a surf board
in this way before, where the paddler stands on the board and uses a long paddle to get around. I have no idea
what he does with the paddle if he decides to catch a wave. Maybe he uses it to help him maintain his balance.

The snorkeling trip over, we are now back on land, and heading back to the Kona Reef.

This will be our last dinner on Hawai'i. Might as well start it with a Mai Tai. You never know what's up the road.

As dusk settles, we enjoy the tranquility of the moment, and think about what great good fortune has put us in this spot.

This was our last day on the Big Island. Tomorrow we will fly to Oahu, which I am definitely looking forward to, since I have a cousin there whom I have not seen for way too many years. We keep in touch via e-mail, and I find myself wondering what we ever did without the Internet to keep us all linked to each other, and so instantaneously as well. It is really scary to think of what life will be like in just ten more years. Technology moves so fast, even the most active imagination cannot keep up with it. I laugh out loud when I think of Pete and I going through the Smithsonian Museum several years ago, and Pete coming upon a room that had his exact 8 track player on display. He said omg, the toys of my youth are already in the Smithsonian. Yesterdays treasures are now relics of the past. Soon your iPhone will be in the Smithsonian as well. I wonder if our phones of the future will be implants that you can't even see, yet we will be able to communicate with far more efficiently than with an iPhone today.

And here is the history of Don the Beachcomber. Enjoy!