Finally, back home in Hawaii

This trip ended suddenly for me, but all is well. I am back home in Hawaii; in my own bed, in my own home! I have privacy. That is what I misssed the most on this trip. Privacy. Traveling with 50 teen-agers was tough. You need a lot of patience, understanding, acceptance, patience, kindness, energy, and alot of patience (did I say that already?)! I saw so much of our wonderful United States of America. The last two stops were Washington D.C., which I have been to many times before, and then New Orleans, which I had spent two weeks in 2003. Most of the last week of the trip is spent on a train getting from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Here's what I learned; I am a country girl, or an island girl right now. The big cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York made me very nervous. So many people. Subways just aren't natural. Going underground like that just doesn't feel right. Human's aren't meant to be underground like that....On this Island of Oahu, I know where East is and West is. I know my directions because of the position of the sun, the mountains, and the ocean. In the big cities, the tall skyscrapers hid everything and I might as well have been lost in a jungle!

My favorite city was Boston. The history there is so rich and wonderful. The birthplace of our country. It was especially nice to be there on July 4th for the nation's birthday. My second favorite city was San Francisco, and riding bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge. My third favorite city was Seattle. I just love Seattle. My all-time favorite activity on the whole trip was the white-water rafting! Amazing!

Well tune in to my next adventure as I head off to Africa on October 2nd. I will be there for a month. The first two weeks is helping at an autism school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the third week is the polio immunization with Rotary International, then the last week is doing service in Kalang, Uganda. I have raised funds to help install a grinding mill in a very remote village there. I look forward to the trip, but know that it will be long. I have learned that a month is a very long time to be on the road.

Finally....Resting at Lewes, Delaware

Lewes, Delaware looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo taken off the balcony of the Yacht Club in Lewes, Delaware.

Where in the world is Lewes, Delaware, and why are we here? Melody has contacts with good friends here and this group needs a couple of days of rest before hitting DC and New Orleans. I am in total agreement with that! After walking all day yesterday in NYC, and again strolling 30 additional blocks at 8 pm to go to the top of the Empire State Building (including manually climbing the last 6 levels of stairs because no one wanted to wait for the elevators), I went to bed truly tired. More tired than I have been in a very long time. I was sore this morning. My feet hurt, my legs were stiff, and my head hurt. But as I have mentioned before, no mercy with this group of youngsters. Before I could get my pain reliever in, we were swiftly walking to the train station, carrying our very heavy bags up stairs, and down the stairs, and lifting them high above the turn stiles. We rode the subway to the train station. Our train ride was 2 hours, then we boarded a bus for another two hours to Lewes, Delaware.

Lewes is a sleepy, quaint little beach town on the Atlantic Coast. It is always windy here and so it is a very popular sailing area and very popular in the summer for its beautiful beaches. Our group was greeted at the Yacht Club by an extremely kind, tan, and very happy group of host families. I am even staying with a host family for the next two nights! It is a wonderful place which you can see in the pictures above. Tomorrow the kids have a full day of kayaking, sailing, motor boats, ocean, sand, swim pool, food and fun. Mike, Niko, and I (the three of us are staying with Vivian) plan on sleeping in a bit, doing some laundry, then meeting up with everyone around noon for the BarBQ. Tonight Mike took us all out for dinner and then we went to see the movie "Angels and Demons". Very good movie, but the book was better, like usual!

Today is my birthday!! Yeah, happy birthday to me. I am 46 today. The kids sang happy birthday to me. Then I had two individuals sing to me the birthday song in their own language. How awesome is that? We have a tradition in this group. If something is found laying around, the owner of it has to sing for it if they want it back. So Bob chose to sing happy birthday to me in Chinese (Taiwanese?) and Niko sang the birthday song to me in German (he was singing for his misplaced camera). I also got a card signed from everyone. It was very sweet. Kayla gave me an awesome "#1 Mom" key chain. It was a great birthday. Thank you every one!

New York, New York!

Just a very few of the many skyscrapers in NYC!!!

Memorial Cross at the site of the former Twin Towers.

This IS ground zero. Lots of new construction is going on.

Kayla in front of the Statue of Liberty!!!!

WOW! What can I say about New York City? Just WOW! It's a jungle of buildings! The large tall sky scrapers number in the hundreds and tower way over our heads! It is an awesome place to visit (though much to busy for me to live). Last night we walked to Time Square. Some people just sit for hours watching the flashy signs and wonderful billboards. It's quite mesmerizing. The streets are blocked off and people sit in lawn chairs. Street vendors are selling hotdogs, roasted nuts, cheap shirts, cheap Coach handbags and sunglasses. It was fun. Our room at the YMCA is on 63rd Street. We walked to Time Square which kind of starts on 47th-42nd. Somewhere along the way I got turned around and walked many blocks in the wrong direction (what's new, right?). I noticed that I didn't recognize my surroundings at about 35th Street. Kayla and I had walked about 30 blocks by then. By the time we walked back to the room we had walked over 60 blocks! My feet and legs are sore, but there is no mercy. Today, I do believe we walked even further than that! But no complaints in this department; I saw the STATUE OF LIBERTY, and GROUND ZERO today! I think those two were the most awesome things I have seen yet. The shopping in New York along Canal Street is famously cheap, and that's where we bought our T-shirts, and other souvineers. Tonight we are going to the Empire State Building! The day has been very full and very fun! I know some of you want to know how I did finding my way around NYC today....well, I never let Melody (our leader) out of my site, and when we were given free time and told to return to our rooms via the subway on our own, I latched on to two of our very street smart young students, Claire (France) and Stephano (Italy) and let them lead me back to the YMCA! We took THREE different subways to get back here. I am very impressed with them. they are truly amazing kids- -thank you Claire and Stephano for doing for me what I seem to be unable of doing for myself in this big city!!! I LOVE NEW YORK CITY!!!

Tomorrow we head to Lewes, Delaware where the kids stay with host Rotarian families, and the chaperones have a break. Yeah!!!

Boston for the 4th of July

This is where the Boston Tea Party (revolt) happened. It was all very well planned out and led by John Hancock.

John Hancock Memorial in front of the old City Town meeting place.

Our most awesome amphibious duck boat tour vehicle! Quack, Quack!

Fernando (Equador) has his body painted for the 4th of July celebration.

Maria (Brazil) celebrates in full face paint!

Kayla and Emilia in Boston for the 4th of July.

The Cradle of Liberty, the birthplace of American independence from England, Paul Revere's home and the place he hung the lanterns to worn the Americans how the British were planning to attack; one if by land, two if by sea. Boston is the place our country began. Melody handed me a walking tour guide book and told me to brush up on my facts. I had about 5 minutes to refresh my memory of 200 years of history! It didn't matter much; there were only a couple of kids interested in the facts anyway. Paul Revere? John Hancock? They had never heard of them nor were they interested where they lived or where they were buried. They were having fun walking and talking together! It doesn't matter where they go to do that! I found myself running to catch up several times as I was spending a bit more time at the famous gravesites, churches, and buildings. I found the graves of Paul Revere, Franklin's parent's, and John Hancock. I also found the memorial that marks the spot for the Boston Memorial.

The 4th of July is a very special day for my family. Two of my sons are in the military, my husband is in the military as well as two of my nephews. We are a very patriotic family and I tend to get emotional on this day, especially when hearing and singing the grand old patriotic songs of America!

I have a funny story to tell about today. I took 15 students to see where the Boston tea Party took place. The tour book said to go UP Congress Street 6 blocks. I went DOWN; the wrong way. So we returned to the starting place, and walked UP 6 blocks to the Boston Bay. There was nothing there. It was under construction. We had walked 24 extra blocks for nothing. No boat, no museum, nothing. I said, "This is where they threw the tea into the water in protest", and we returned to the hostel. Some were actually expecting a real tea party! One thing is for sure; without a map, i am directionally handicapped! Everytime the group is released for free time in the big cities, my anxiety level increases. I am having a very hard time finding my way to places when I am surrounded by tall buildings. I must be such a country girl, I don't know what is wrong!

Our group took a duck boat tour the first day and had a wonderful tour of the city and also went into the Chicago River in the amphibious vehicle. Quack, Quack! Next they visited Harvard Campus. Later that evening we took them bowling and everyone had a blast. It was a full day, and everyone was exhausted. The next day was the Freedom walk which took us by some of the most famous sites in American history. Later in the afternoon we took them about 10 blocks to the river where we were right across from the barge that the fireworks would be shot from! They painted their faces, their hair, and their bodies. We listened to Neil Diamond and the Boston Pops in concert for several hours and ate subway sandwiches. The fireworks display was amazing! It lasted for maybe a full 30 minutes. It was truly fantastic and will be remembered forever! Happy Birthday America!

Next, we are headed to New York City!

Niagara Falls, USA and Niagara Falls, Canada

Kayla and I in Niagara Falls, Canada

Riding Maid of the Mist into the water fall!

Here's the whole gang at Niagara Falls

What an absolutely fun day it was today! We got into Buffalo, New York this morning after a nice long night train; some kids sleep well, some kids don't sleep at all. We took a bus to Niagara Falls and put our bags in the hotel (but way too early to check into the hotel). We walked (of course) to the falls and the surrounding sites. We took a boat right into the middle of the water falls and everyone got so wet! It was wonderful and breath taking and so exhilarating! Then, to get even closer to the huge water falls, we took an elevator to the bottom of the falls and walked on wooded walkways built right next to the water falls. The kids actually got to almost stand under the falls. They were absolutely soaked! It was great fun!

Kayla and I shared an oatmeal from Starbucks for breakfast, then had a hamburger from a stand for lunch at the water fall. Dinner was a pizza and chicken wings party at the swim pool at the hotel. Everyone was famished and ate like horses, but the pizza kept coming and coming until everyone was full. But the day is not over yet! We met in the lobby at 8:00 for those of us who could go to Canada. The kids from Africa and South America could not go without special visas. Most of the kids from Europe went. The ones from Japan were too tired. I was a bit nervous about going over without my passport to reenter, but I had called the border and they said I could use my military ID. So I went with Kayla. As you leave the US side, a sign says "If you go through this turnstile, you will be leaving the USA and may not reenter without proper ID such as....". It didn't say military ID alone would be OK, but the guy on the phone did, so I went anyway, hoping for the best and that some nice guy would let us back into our lovely country. We were only there for a couple of hours, but it was so much fun and very busy. July 1st is Canada's July 4th, so there was fireworks, and lots of people. The streets were lit up with all kinds of fun places to visit and shop and see. It was a real visual treat and a very fun two hours. We went to Planet Hollywood, the Hershey Store, Coca Cola Store, the Harley Davidson Store, a DQ for ice cream, and then just took some crazy fun photos.

We needed to get back to the hotel for our 11:00 deadline, so we left at 10:30. We didn't get a very nice border agent and he wasn't happy at all that Kayla and I didn't have our passports. Our Military ID didn't show our place of birth....but all ended well as I was able to convince him we were truly Americans. After quizzing Kayla and I separately about where and when we were born and what our names were, and who Kayla's parents were, he said they cannot deny Americans into their own country, so we were free to enter the United States of America. Next time I will bring my passport just to make things easier. I am very glad Kayla got the experience of going to Canada. In fact, she is having lots of new experiences and making some great memories. She is starting to hang out with me a bit more, but is still doing her best hanging out with these older kids. She is learning a lot, and this has been a wonderful experience for us both.

Tomorrow we are boarding another all-day train to Boston. We leave about 8:40 AM and get to Boston about 9 PM. We are staying at a hostel there in Boston for the 4th of July. We will be having breakfast (cereal and bananas), lunch (soup and nutella on bread) and dinner (same as lunch) on the train. I look forward to reading more of my book on the train tomorrow. I am half way through Clive Cussler's "Inca Gold". Until tomorrow....