Easter sunshine

The weather looks like it is cheering up but there is a promised downturn over the Easter Holidays, I just cant justify a trip to Hawaii so I have opted for somewhere I have been passing through for the last couple of years but not stopped at since 2010

Phoenix and Arizona and for good measure, Tucson which I was diverted to on my way to Alaska a couple of years ago and I have decided to go and see more of the locality than just an airport hotel..

hopefully the mosquitos wont be out in such force this time. I am a believer in the theory that if you get one mosquito bite they all home in and get you. I am quite allergic to mosquito bites which is why its such a problem, a few bites can easily ruin your day with the constant itching and massive swelling I get... too many and I actually start to feel dizzy which cant be a good sign

Bad day

I heard on the news as I was driving into work - explosions at Brussels Airport which instantly lead to me shouting "NO" as I was driving along.
 It wasnt until later that I found out the full details of the two terrorist bombs and the attack on the Metro system, my first emotion was anger, How dare they attack the Belgians. A country with a population less than that of london, a country of forests, beaches, rare beef, mussels, chips, an almost univerally Tri- lingual population and possibly one of the most laid back Airports in the EU.
 I am immensely fond of Belgium, I was just 6 when we first visited and have been going there ever since as a child and as an adult. There is something profoundly humbling to realise that travellers and fliers just like me met their death whilst going through the simple act of checking in for a flight. The terrorists will not win, I will keep travelling and defying them.

Sights and scenery

Well travelled

 we always assume that our ancestors stayed put pretty much the whole time, that long distance travel is a modern thing.
We certainly don't think of them crossing halfway round the world in the 1800s, I know relatives on Dennis side had been to Australia and were back home in Suffolk by 1861, his great grandfather and great uncle were both living in Baylham with their grandfather as teenagers, one born Stonham, the other born in Adelaide S.A. You can imagine the surprise when I found it in the 1861 census!
  I also know that Duncans GG grandfather stayed put in Wiltshire, presumably because he had a job at GWR in Swindon, whereas several other members of the family were "sent" to Lower Canada for being on Brinkworth village poor relief register. They spread west and south with some of themy making it to Kansas at a time when Buffalo still roamed the plains.


Anyway, it turns out that the Hawaiians did a bit of travelling themselves, king Kamehameha II Went all the way to London to see king George IV.... bearing in mind that the next nearest land to the East is Los Angeles a mere 5hrs flying time or 2500 miles.... that must have been some sea crossing never mind crossing 3500 miles of the US coast to coast followed by another sea crossing of around 2500 miles to Britain.

unfortunately the 2 kings never got to meet, arriving as he did 144 years before the invention of the vaccine, the king and queen of Hawaii both caught measles and died in 1824

Another of the Kings, Kamehameha IV and his wife queen Emma were friends of Queen Victoria who was godmother to their son, they visited her for her jubilee which was again a huge voyage.
 As the Hawaiian royal family became increasingly well travelled the names became. more westernised Emma, Bernice, Mary, all queens and princesses of Hawaii!!

Bernice 's house is now a museum

Queen Emma 's summer palace

Pet Cemetery

... very generous the Hawaiians, on a hillside in the shadow of the mountains is a massive cemetery. Most of it is Hawaiian style ie flat gravestones but there are Japanese and Catholic sections too....and a Buddhist temple.

The grounds of the temple have the traditional ponds of koi carp, black swans and the wild chickens of course.

Oh and then there's the cats......

Given the climate I'm not sure whether it would be better to be re incarnated as a fish.... to be fed by the tourists... or a cat fed by the fish!