Welcome Back to Canada

We spent an excellent last day in Honolulu at the Bishop Museum. The bus system there is excellent; and we couldn't help but compare two helpful native Hawaiian bus drivers to our own TTC drivers and wonder why they were so different. One took the time to make sure we understood that we could use the transfer within four hours to travel anywhere on the system. Another stopped to confer and make sure we were on the right bus back to our hotel. Hawaii is a tourist dependent economy, and people in service go out of their way to make sure you enjoy your stay.

We took the bus part way and walked to this excellent museum of Hawaiian culture. It has a planetarium, a geological building, a Hawaiian botanical garden and a huge Hawaiian cultural centre. We planned to spend half a day and ended up there the entire day, going from one special presentation to another. We especially liked the two programs in the planetarium after our experience viewing the stars in Te Anau. Richard, our leader would have been proud. We learned how the early Polynesians navigated using the stars, wave patterns - when cloudy, and bird life to indicate land nearby. We listened to the same presentation on the constellations twice. I told the presenter we were slow learners! They had excellent interactive displays on climate change and global warming in the facility.

Our overnight flight back to Vancouver was uneventful on Air Canada but arriving in Vancouver was unexpectedly pleasant. They have a new automated check in at Customs and Immigration, but we opted to speak to an agent. She commented upon the length of our sojourn, queried where we had been and asked, "Are you two employed?" We responded with smiles, "Retired." "In that case, you've earned your stripes. Welcome back to Canada!" I compared this to our entry in 2010 into LA as I watched all "foreigners" being fingerprinted, followed by the encounter with the obstreporous American customs agent who tossed my Canadian passport at me with the comment, "Get yourself an American passport." (I was born in the USA, but have lived the better part of my life in Canada.) After praising the Aussies and Kiwis and friendly Hawaiians throughout this trip, that was a memorable welcome - it made us feel happy to be back home.