Back. Bleary-eyed, jet-lagged, and exhausted. But back.

So we went to Hawaii on a cruise with SOF's family. A once-in-a-lifetime vacation, and a very good family get-together. But I am exhausted and trying to avoid crashing too early. If that results in some typos or bizarre prose, you now the excuse. This time.

But also a trip that had us thinking a lot about a wide variety of things--from affluence, to colonialism, to historical memory. For once, I chose very wisely for my travel text. I am a fan of Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic is still one of my favorite books) and realized I purchased a copy of Blue Latitudes some time ago, but never read it. So I pulled it out for the plane trip and cruise, and it served me well. Reading about Cook's voyages to the Pacific was a perfect way to approach and view the islands. Though it did present the experience through a particular lens. I was ever mindful of the European view of Polynesia and their cultural differences--the impact of Christian missionaries (both positive and the many negative impacts)--and the continual residue of colonialism.

This reading informed so much of my experience--from our brief experience in ocean kayaks to the most bizarre and awful Luau at a ritzy resort. Watching the "Polynesian" dancers (Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, etc. all performed by the same dancers) made me feel more like a colonizing invader than ever before. Likewise, watching three drunk frat boys (or older) splash around in a hot-tub to a cover band doing the Beach Boys--WHILE reading a discussion of Cook's own rather reserved upbringing--simply made me feel queasy.



I finally decided that I was torn between the "authentic" and "in-authentic" experiences on this trip. That paradigm is not completely satisfactory, because many of the experiences included both "real" and "contrived" elements. The tour began with a trip to the USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor. One would think that would be an intensely authentic experience, but I found it oddly ambiguous. Real war experiences combined with a propaganda-style movie introduction--followed by a gift shop filled with all manner of consumer goods to commemorate.... something about "infamy."

But I return to that metric--flawed as it is--and will try to unpack some of those observations this week. But first, a few of our many photos:

Waikiki Beach



Arizona Memorial at dawn



And one of me on horseback on a beach in Kauai. For the doubters.... This horse doubled as a team-roping heeler when he wasn't ferrying around some tourists. His name was "7-11." I feared a broken down nag, but 7-11 was a cool horse.



Glad to be home...