Monday, December 28, 2015

Sights and scenery






























Well travelled

 we always assume that our ancestors stayed put pretty much the whole time, that long distance travel is a modern thing.
We certainly don't think of them crossing halfway round the world in the 1800s, I know relatives on Dennis side had been to Australia and were back home in Suffolk by 1861, his great grandfather and great uncle were both living in Baylham with their grandfather as teenagers, one born Stonham, the other born in Adelaide S.A. You can imagine the surprise when I found it in the 1861 census!
  I also know that Duncans GG grandfather stayed put in Wiltshire, presumably because he had a job at GWR in Swindon, whereas several other members of the family were "sent" to Lower Canada for being on Brinkworth village poor relief register. They spread west and south with some of themy making it to Kansas at a time when Buffalo still roamed the plains.


Anyway, it turns out that the Hawaiians did a bit of travelling themselves, king Kamehameha II Went all the way to London to see king George IV.... bearing in mind that the next nearest land to the East is Los Angeles a mere 5hrs flying time or 2500 miles.... that must have been some sea crossing never mind crossing 3500 miles of the US coast to coast followed by another sea crossing of around 2500 miles to Britain.

unfortunately the 2 kings never got to meet, arriving as he did 144 years before the invention of the vaccine, the king and queen of Hawaii both caught measles and died in 1824

Another of the Kings, Kamehameha IV and his wife queen Emma were friends of Queen Victoria who was godmother to their son, they visited her for her jubilee which was again a huge voyage.
 As the Hawaiian royal family became increasingly well travelled the names became. more westernised Emma, Bernice, Mary, all queens and princesses of Hawaii!!

Bernice 's house is now a museum







Queen Emma 's summer palace








Saturday, December 26, 2015

Pet Cemetery

... very generous the Hawaiians, on a hillside in the shadow of the mountains is a massive cemetery. Most of it is Hawaiian style ie flat gravestones but there are Japanese and Catholic sections too....and a Buddhist temple.




The grounds of the temple have the traditional ponds of koi carp, black swans and the wild chickens of course.









Oh and then there's the cats......








Given the climate I'm not sure whether it would be better to be re incarnated as a fish.... to be fed by the tourists... or a cat fed by the fish!

it's Chriiiiistmas

 Christmas started early about 4am pouring rain... is it going to be a wet Christmas?
No one takes much notice of the rain in Hawaii the trade winds blow clouds in and out and then it's hot and sunny again!

A bit of a drive out and we stopped to swim on a beach but Al was still wary of being spiked by sea urchins so we didn't actually get wet before he decided he didn't want a Christmas day swim!!



I wonder sometimes if I did the right thing ... staying inland because Duncan wasn't keen on beaches (mainly because he turned a fetching shade of red in the sun), I am quite a strong swimmer and could beat him across a lake in Canada no problem, but Al never got much experience swimming in the sea as a child. The East coast US is rough and I think it scared him as a youngster which seems tohave put him off for life.

Christmas doesn't have quite the same importance in the US they have had their "home to family" event , Thanksgiving, in November that's when they eat turkey and do family stuff. The streets aren't decorated European style but Honolulu city hall makes up for some of it!!














They seem quite happy with the snowmen despite the fact that it was 29c outside.......

Christmas dinner cooked including the Paxo I brought from home and the Christmas puddings that immigration had trouble understanding. and a few fireworks to round off the day.