Time to go home : (

It was a sad morning... packing, taking a last look at the beautiful view from this wonderful little cottage on the beach.... but pack we did and reluctantly climbed into the car for the dreaded trip to the airport... we really didn't want to leave.

On the way we stopped at the local Saturday market where vendors have their goods displayed along the sidewalks of the little town.  I picked up a wonderful painted coconut (looks like a fish & I've named her Rachel in honor of the character in the book I am reading about Molokai) and off we went to the airport.

A tearful goodbye was said as we boarded our little 12 seat aircraft for our flight back to Honolulu where we had 3hrs to wait for our flight back to the mainland/Portland.

We checked our luggage and got into the security line and it was then I realized I had had 5 items in my carry-on that were each over the 3oz limit (what the heck was I thinking ?)….  So we had to quickly get out of line and find someone that could tell us if there was somewhere we could ship a package home since our luggage was already checked.  “You’re in luck,” the Hawaiian Airlines Customer Service Representative said… “The U.S. Post Office is just across the street – within walking distance”.  So we dashed over to the P.O. and stood in line with it looked like a lot of people in our same predicament.  We picked a ‘if it fits it ships for $11.95 box, put our Macadamia Nut infused cooking oils and our Macadamia Nut Honey Mustard and a few miscellaneous items into the box, taped it up and were told it would arrive by Wednesday.  Then back to the terminal and security we went.

We arrived into Portland about 11:30pm and home be 12:30pm… tired from a long day but with great memories to keep a smile on our faces.

We had such a good time this week with our friends Joanne and Earl.  They took us to places they'd been before and we discovered new places together.  We ate great food, consumed an alcoholic beverage or two …Mai Tai, Bloody Mary, Mimosa, Long Board Beer, wine, we swam & snorkeled, we played Chicken Foot (dominos game) and we just plain relaxed… Molokai style. 

We met some incredible people both locals and visitors like us.  Joanne met a woman who holds the only PhD in Huna (means ‘secret’ in Hawaiian) in the world.  She did a dissertation based on the shamanic meanings of the hula dance of Hawaii and has studied the ancient meanings of the Polynesian language.  She is the only teach of Huna whose work is recognized academically.  She has written two books – The Sacred Power of Huna:  Spirituality and Shamanism in Hawaii and Traveling Magically:  How to turn your journey into a life-changing experience. 

Lots of laughs were shared through the course of the week.  Joanne and I shared more than a few tears too [we laughed 'til we cried -  some were melancholy tears remembering back over the last 45 years we’ve shared and others were over our most recent experiences with her wonderful involvement in fawn rescue in her local area and the release of several of her little ones she nurtured, enabling them to be released back into the wild where they belong.

Although the trip has come to an end… the many, many memories will linger for years to come, each brining a reflective smile to our faces.

Thanks for following our travels :-)