Aloha! Many people have been to Hawaii, and frequently hear the word “Aloha”; but what does it really mean? Loosely translated, it simply means a friendly “hello” or “goodbye”. But it carries a much deeper meaning than that for native Hawaiians. It conveys love, affection, peace and compassion. It’s a connection between people. It’s about treating other people and the land with respect and care. It’s their culture.
My wife Rhonda and I have been to 49 different states in our shared lives, and earlier this year, she decided that we should visit Hawaii and make that state number 50. Cross that item off our personal bucket list!
When we travel, we love to go to national parks, monuments, historic sites, etc. I have a National Park Book with stickers for each location, and then you can get a dated inked stamp to show that you’ve actually been there. So of course, I was on a Hawaiian mission to see our National Sites and stamp my book.
The first site we visited was the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park on the “Big Island” and see the Kilauea Volcano. Volcanoes are like geysers – pressure builds up below the earth’s surface, and then the liquid magma spurts upwards and out the top of the volcano. When it rises out of the volcano, the magma is then called lava. Then when enough passes upwards to the surface, the pressure decreases and then the lava stops flowing upwards until the cycle begins again after hours, days, years, etc. The cycle time just depends on the volcano. When we were at Kilauea, just steam was coming out of the vent, no lava. Disappointing!
Hawaii has eight main islands, and all of the Hawaiian Islands are the tops of volcanoes which formed millions of years ago when there was a crack in the ocean floor and magma oozed upwards out of the crack. Once the magma hit the cold water at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it became solid lava and began to build the underwater volcano. It rose higher and higher until it reached the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Then continued higher and higher. Volcanic soil is very rich in minerals like calcium, potassium, phosphorus, etc., and grass seeds carried across the ocean by the atmospheric winds landed on the soil and began to grow grass. Birds can also carry the grass seeds and deposit them on the new island when they poop. The organic plants eventually die and decay, adding humus to the volcanic soil. Larger plants, like trees, grow. Imagine this happening over millions of years and now we have lush tropical forests on the Hawaiian Islands.
We also flew from the Big Island to Oahu to see Pearl Harbor and its memorials to those 2,403 Americans killed during the Japanese surprise attack on December 7, 1941. Nearly half of those killed were on the Battleship Arizona when its gunpowder magazines suddenly exploded from a Japanese bomb. The Arizona still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor; many sailors are still entombed in the sunken ship. One of the gun turrets is still above water at the memorial. It’s a very somber, moving experience.
If you ever get an opportunity to visit Hawaii, it is very interesting and educational. Don’t pass up that experience!
