POPPY TOUR
There was a spike in air travel to, from, and
among the Hawaiian Islands this past few weeks, and all caused by Sandin
connectivity. JR, Courtney, and Poppy flew in to Maui for a few days,
hopped over to the Big Island (BI) for a few days, and then returned to the
mainland. Stuart and Jen flew in to Maui, hopped to O’ahu for a wedding,
hopped back to Maui, and then returned to the mainland. Pono hopped to the
BI for a few days and then returned home to Maui. Meanwhile Jen’s grad
students were in Maui working a project, her folks were in Maui vacationing, and
Courtney’s parents live on the BI to round out the connectivity. How we
all got together is too complex to explain.
Stuart, Jen, Pono, Courtney with Poppy, and JR
in Maui
JR, Co, and Po planned one week in Maui and
two weeks on the BI. I elected to maximize my Poppy-time by following them
to the BI for a while. I stayed with a very gracious neighbor of
Courtney’s parents who have a few acres across the road from them and raise Kona
coffee.
Charlie and Patty have 3 acres with 180° view
of the ocean. They raise macadamia nuts, oranges, papaya, mango, lilikoi
(passion fruit), figs, limes, pomegranate, sapota (white and chocolate), loquat,
bananas, pineapples, coffee, starfruit, dragon fruit, lychee, and a variety of
garden vegetables. Much of this is for their own use, but they also take
mac nuts and extra produce, including dried fruits, to market. Patty makes
very creative jewelry and trinkets from various seeds, nuts, shells, coral, and
fibrous plants, as well as leis from puamalia (plumaria) flowers. Plant
materials include manele, manila palm, orchid tree, canna lily, HI pussy willow,
whole macs, iron wood, grey nickers, Jobe’s tears, wiliwili seeds, etc.
I have no idea where all the plant materials
come from for Patty’s work, and I guess she wouldn’t want to reveal her sources,
but whenever we got back from a trip, Patty had a pocket full of something to
turn into creations. They claim to be retired, but they put in lots of
hours of hard labor!
The folks have one dog and five cats.
Yoshi the dog is fixed, but he runs free, has two “girlfriends” and tends to
party a lot. The cats vary from friendly, stay-at-home to skittish, come
around only at feeding time. The property is quite a ways from Kona and
even little towns are some distance away, so good neighbors become very
important. Modern communication devices are also important. They are
on the electric grid but have both solar water heating and solar electric and
are adding more solar electric panels.
Water is king. It doesn’t rain much on
the Kona coast and of course there is no water service. Catchment is the
source and there hasn’t been much rain lately. Drinking water is always
purchased and recently it has been necessary to purchase water for enough
irrigation to keep fragile plants alive. No one told me, but I dropped
into the “if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down” mode
while there. Actually, I follow a modified version of that at home as well
– leeward Maui has been right on the verge of water rationing for several
months.
The BI lifestyle is so different from mine it
was really interesting to experience.
My travel to the BI was a surprise. I
took an inter-island flight from Kahului to Kona and back. The plane was a
tiny 9-passenger. There was no security. I had only carry-on bags so
no cost for check-in. Since I was only going to be gone for 5 days, I left
my car at the a/p. It was only about 244 yards from the plane, so on return I
was in my car and out of the a/p before the propeller stopped spinning.
Of course 2 year 3 month old Poppy was the
focal point of any event she attended. I know that I am biased, but she
sure is a cutie, and her little brain is on steroids! I put together some
monkeypods of her name and she recognized it immediately. She cleared the
board and broke the “o” in process. But then she proceeded to put them
back together, including fixing the “o”.
|
Poppy studies a monkeypod… |
…and puts her name back together |
One evening Charlie, Patty, JR, Courtney,
Poppy and I were sitting around chatting and quite out of the blue Poppy said
“Three daddies and two mamas.” She knows all the letters and can count,
but gets a bit confused after nine. She plays games on one of those tablet
devices. She can pick a dessert, fill it in with a color, add sprinkles of
her choice, and then “eat” it. She can choose one from a screen full of
animals, make it move around, etc.
She learned about toothpicks from JR and when
introduced to Q-tips decided they were “fluffy ear picks”. I showed her
how to indicate four by holding up her fingers on one hand and hiding her thumb.
She studied her hand for a little bit, collapsed her thumb, and held up four
fingers. (You have to have Sandin blood or be very close to the family to
understand the significance of this, Poppy obviously has the proper gene.)
|
Nana (G’ma Patty) & Poppy make pasta |
Baba (G’pa Charlie) & Poppy stretch |
As you can see, when Poppy was awake she was
part of everything.
March 12 was our best chance to see the comet
PANSTARRS due to its proximity to the new moon. Unfortunately the western
sky from the Kona coast sports a lot of vog from the active volcano, so as
sunset neared it seemed unlikely. There was a constant cloud layer
obscuring the horizon and heavy clouds at a higher level with just a few degrees
of clear sky between. We watched the sun move through the slight break and
started our vigil as it disappeared. The prediction was that we would see
it 30 minutes after sunset and we allowed 20 minutes or so until actual sunset.
We made a mark on the horizon representing the ecliptic and started checking the
little strip of clear sky at the appropriate time. Nothing, nothing,
nothing – I was just about to give up and JR was at the door going inside when
the bottom of the sliver of moon broke through the higher clouds into the clear
sky. With binoculars we found our target just a little left of the moon.
None of us could spot it with naked eye and it even came and went with
binoculars due to some spotty clouds, but we saw PANSTARRS!
|
Tiny PANSTARRS left of the moon – most like
what we actually saw |
Most common petroglyph – umbilical cord
repository |
About 9p we turned out all lights and went
outdoors. The stars were incredible in the clear, totally
light-pollution-free sky overhead!
One big trip included the petroglyphs at
Pu’uloa, the Visitor Center, Jaggar Museum and the caldera overlook in Volcano
National Park. Hot and dry down below and we were within just a few miles
of where the lava is running into the ocean. Cool and rainy up above with
the caldera obscured off and on by fog/vog. We visited briefly with family
friend Judy. Her office is just across the street from the Visitor Center.
This is just a mile or so from where I first met her back in 1995. We ate
at a black truck that Judy recommended, but they had no filet mignon or any
other animal product so I must remind her that I am carnivorous.
On the way we stopped for malasadas at “the
most southern bakery in the US”. On this trip (and others) JR and I rode
in my rental car, while the rest rode in Patty and Charlie’s car. While I
thoroughly enjoyed the family times, this was the most one-on-one time with JR
in several years and I enjoyed the memories and also an update of his current
life.
With mama, daddy, nana and baba around, it was
easy to see how I took last place on Poppy’s list. I didn’t push very hard
and enjoyed watching her interactions with the others. I did carry her
around a little, she walked hand in hand with me a bit, and I pushed her on the
swing with nana’s help. But she continued to view me as kind of an
outsider. Perhaps she has never seen anyone quite so old and ugly.
Anyway, at the a/p goodbyes, Poppy gave me a hug and a kiss and I drove away
with leaky eyes.
AFTERWORD
Returning from a trip is always a bit like New
Year to me. I tend to make resolutions to lose weight, get organized,
clean house and get rid of junk. And like New Year, I find something
interesting to do and the resolve slips away. This time I’m working on
Poppy’s pedigree. I have lots on the Sandin side and I collected a ton
from Courtney’s folks, so I am entering data, verifying what I can, and working
toward big charts for all the folks whose DNA helped to make the little darling.
And not losing weight.