Our trip to Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii and a visit with Aunt Kate and cousins, Linda, Kathy and Becky

Nancy and I had a very short trip to Hawaii to visit my 92 yr. old aunt and 3 of my cousins.

We hadn't seen any of them in a very long time. This is Kathy, Linda, Nancy, Becky and me, with my Aunt Kate. Linda and Kate live in Lihue, which is on the island of Kauai.
Kathy lives on Maui. Becky stills lives in our family town of Dixon, Ill.

My Aunt Kate had several birthday celebrations while we were there. Her real birthday was March 28. Since we were leaving on the 27th. we celebrated before then. And the celebrations kept coming. She enjoyed all her cakes. I think there were three.

 Our hostess gift for Linda. 

She treated us to several nice lunches and dinners, plus a very nice tour
of the north shore of the island.

Linda's daughter, Betsy and her grandaughter Lily. They live with Linda and Kate. 

Betsy and Linda are both nurses, so Kate gets such good (and professional) care. 

 We had never met Lily and Betsy and we really enjoyed them.

 Linda said her favorite site to visit in Lihue is The Grove Farm. It's an old sugar plantation that has been kept very much as it was when it was a working plantation. We took a very interesting tour.

This is the office with one of the resident cats.

 There were also geese, turkeys, ducks, chickens and this pig:

More wildlife:

An unusual spider...

 that wove an interesting web with it's own little red porch light.

 

More of the resident cats. Just like at Hemingway's house.

The cook showed us how she still cooks on the old wood stove. 

She baked some cookies for us.

One of the old platters.

A beautiful, completely needle-pointed love seat in the living room.

Linda took us on a tour of part of the island.

Wild chickens are everywhere.  Some of them very beautiful.

Linda and Nancy on one of the beautiful beaches.

Linda, the mermaid!

We ate lunch at this luxurious hotel...

on the patio, overlooking the ocean.

We really didn't want to see any hula dancers but while having drinks in the bar at our hotel one night the musician asked if any of the audience wanted to hula. Of course, they did! It turned out to be a fun way to see a little impromptu real Hawaiian culture.

On our last day we wandered around a cute little town and stopped in for frappes at a little coffee shop. We had a delightful conversation with these two native Hawaiians who hang out there. One of them had been to Pala. Imagine someone in Hawaii having heard of Pala. It turns out he was quite a gambler and has apparently been to every casino. (in the world??)  He grew up on a sugar plantation.

The other guy was retired from the Coast Guard. He was so nice. He was interesting and even acted interested in what we were saying!  

Christmas in Del Mar

Nancy and I have a timeshare in Del Mar that we hardly ever use. We do sometimes spend Christmas there.  This year we were really glad we did because the weather was beautiful.

Not quite a snowman.

A greeting in the sand

The life guard station.  I'm not counting on him to save me!

Sepia Saturday- Sort of a love letter

Like most men of my father's generation, he didn't often express his feelings. I was surprised to find this "semi" love letter among my mother's keepsakes.  It was written in 1944.

Apparently my mother (and we three kids) were staying with relatives in her hometown of Dixon, Ill. while my father was in Watseka, Ill. where he worked.  He was looking for a house. These cities were quite far apart so they weren't seeing each other very often. He must have been very lonesome and he made reference to my mother being despondent.

Since this is a little hard to read I'll tell you a little of what it says:

He had written his last letter at work and everyone marveled that he would write such a long letter to a "mere" wife and that if it was a girlfriend it would be different. He replied that she WAS his girlfriend.

He goes on to say that my mother's card playing friends thought he looked lonely and he said he was lonely but none of them took the hint so he thought he was going to keep "baching".

I told you it was a "semi" love letter.


It goes on for 6 pages but mostly about work and house hunting. He mentioned that he looked at a house for $4000 that he thought could be had for $3500. Those were the days!!!

For some reason he enclosed the phone bill and there was a call to Dixon for $1.45 which must have been a fortune in those days. So apparently they were also talking on the phone a lot.

He always ended his letters with a drawing for the kids.

 

He wasn't much of an artist but I love these anyway.

 The happy couple before they were married.

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