Blue Planet Journey

  Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. Hanauma Bay consistently is rated one of the top tourist destinations on Oahu. In 1999, the family began a 13 month sojourn in Honolulu. I had started my first sabbatical at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, as a visiting faculty member in the Botany Department. My host was David Duffy, then the director of the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit. The mission of the PCRU is to "...protect and restore Hawaii's native species, ecosystems, and cultural resources." As a family, we were visiting Hanauma Bay about every other week. The Bay is a city park, but a state Marine Protected Area. In 1999, admission was free, but you had to pass a gauntlet of signs reminding visitors to avoid standing on the reef, don't feed the fish, and be safe. On the beach, there was a blue tarp stretched between four coconut trees, with tables and volunteers. I still remember volunteers Larry and Bob, staffing these tables and leading schedu...

Everyone has their coronavirus pandemic story for 2020, and this is mine. The uniqueness of it is that Caroline and I lived out of a suitcase, away from Utah, for at least half of it. Dancing and drumming at Nokomis Beach Park on January 1. The year started with us in Venice, Florida, visiting family and celebrating the New Year. We kayaked to Don Pedro Island State Park, rode bikes and ran along the beach in Manasota Key, danced at the drum circle at Nokomis Beach Park, toured a rum distillery, explored the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota,  and played with our grand kiddo. It was a great celebration, welcoming a new year of mystery, love, and adventure. Green sea turtle egg fragments on a Florida beach. We were honored to be trusted with transporting grand kiddo back to DC, and we were met by our number one daughter in the baggage area at National Airport. We spent the next 2 weeks being grandparents, walking with kiddo to the National Zoo to watch the marine mammals and the lions, go...