Living on Island Time

A good piece of news you won't hear played up in the dinosaur media - President Bush is a good steward of the earth, after all. Despite Al Gore and Bill Clinton, trying to remain relevant in the news reports decrying how the evil Bush administration is ruining the planet and bringing on the hurricanes, President Bush has designated the largest area ever as a national reserve. It is a marine reserve, a chain of nearly 1,400 miles of the Pacific Ocean, northwest of Hawaii. This is now the largest protected marine reserve in the world.

The reserve is about 100 miles wide and is comprised of a string of uninhabited islands to support more than 7,000 marine species. More than a fourth of these species are found no where else on earth. Who knows, my son a potential future marine biologist may do research there one day.

To further illistrate the size of this reserve, it is nearly 140,000 square miles, the size of Montana and also larger than all the national parks put together. It will surpass the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park of Australia, which has been the largest in the world. Ocean critters and marine birds alike will live a protected life.

This story brings back memories of our trip to Hawaii about 3 years ago. We went during son's spring break from school. So, in March, we were able to take advantage of off-season prices on the hotel. We used frequent flyer miles accumulated by hubby and we went to the Big Island of Hawaii. We chose the Big Island for the diversity of the landscape. It is the island where you can see the rainforest on one side and the volcano fields on the other side. We stayed on the Kona side, the rainforest side.

It was everything we hoped for. The weather cooperated and the temperatures were mild. The only drawback to being on the Big Island in March is that it is a bit early for whale watching. The whales are still around the Maui area! We went out on a whale watching boat excursion one afternoon and didn't see whales but we did see tiger sharks. That was exciting for our son as he was fascinated by sharks in younger years.

Our son loved snorkeling and took photos underwater. He and hubby rented jet skis and took off one afternoon into the Pacific. Our hotel room was on the beachfront so I enjoyed sitting on the patio off our room with a good book and watched them cavort in the ocean, motorized guy style! We did the standard tourist Hawaiian luau one night. It was cheesy but fun with the fire dancers the most exciting of the entertainment. One day we went on a tour of the island which lasted a full 8 hours. It was awesome as it included the volcano fields, the tropical waterfalls, a coffee plantation, a chocolate factory, a tropical flower plantation, we went thru a cave tube, and we learned lots of island history. Our guide was really friendly and loved to talk so she was all about answering questions. We were pooped at the end of that day.

Our Hawaiian adventure was 5 days of fun that will be remembered with smiles and laughter. It was a great spring break.

Aloha, y'all!