Saturday, December 22 - Monday, December 24, 2018
A hectic weekend began with our unwanted departure from Maui after a joyous eight day vacation.
I dropped the Johnsons off at Maui's Kahului Airport in time for their Noon flight home to Seattle but we still much of the day left for us to enjoy island life as our flight to Los Angeles did not take off until 5:00 p.m.
Thus I stopped off at the Sugar Museum
to learn a bit about Maui's main crop
back in the day
It was a modest looking
museum building from the outside
This huge piece of machinery was
somehow used in cultivating the
sugar cane fields
Sugar cane plantations boomed following the signing of the 1875 Reciprocity Treaty that allowed Hawaii to sell sugar to the United States without paying duties or taxes.
The two big names in Maui's Sugar History to remember are Samuel Thomas Alexander (1836-1904) and Henry Perrine Baldwin (1842-1910).
In 1869 they bought 12 acres of land just below the village of Makawao that we visited Friday night. The following year they began growing sugar cane and the rest as they say is history.
Who is that on the rope going
down into the Maliko Gulch?
Why none other than our Sugar History Hero, Henry Perrine Baldwin!
Construction of the historic Hamakua Irrigation Ditch (1876-1878) almost came to a halt when the workers balked at the danger in placing pipes up and down the Gulch's precipice via the need to lower themselves over the cliffs by rope, hand over hand.
Mr. Baldwin, who had lost his right arm years ago in a mill accident, shamed the workers by using his legs and one good arm to go down the 200 foot cliff first and then, I'm sure, asking his workers how big their pineapples were.
The ultra-important irrigation ditch got built and the sugar cane industry in Maui exploded thanks in no small part to Mr. Baldwin's great leadership by example.
Early 20th-century
Sugar Cane Workers
Rotary Club Meets Here?
A Sugar Cane Plantation
Baseball Team
This 1938 AAU National
Silver Medal by a Sugar Cane
worker was followed by . . .
. . . a Gold Medal in 1940
Sumo Wrestling in the 1920s to
pass the time on Maui
Cock Fighting was a staple
on Maui beginning in 1906
Although illegal today, apparently you can still find a cock fight on Maui if you are into that sort of thing.
A Portuguese Oven
The Portuguese were a big part of the immigration pattern to Maui in the early 20th-century. These ovens were used to cook all sorts of meats and to bake bread.
The first time that Laurie and I game to Maui in the early 1980s we stayed at Seabury Hall in Makawao as part of a week long football coaches clinic/vacation.
Seabury Hall is a boarding school whose students were gone in the Summer so the coaches and their wives took over their rooms and got the use of the school's vans to enjoy Maui by day and then clinic by night.
The Hall's cook was a Portuguese woman who was scheduled to make us all three meals a day. We all figured that we would take advantage of her breakfasts but then eat our lunches and dinners in several of Maui's fine restaurants.
WRONG!
She was such a good cook that we all requested her to pack us a lunches for day trips, which she cheerfully did, and we all made sure to be back to the Hall in time for another of her amazing dinners.
I wonder if she used one of these traditional Portuguese ovens?
As for our last meal before leaving Maui today . . .
. . . it was back to our son Andy's
favorite dining spot
I had to try his favorite Coconut's dish,
the Seafood Pasta
Laurie opted for the two soft shell fish tacos and a beer.
Our flight home via Alaska Air was both on time and smooth but we did not land at LAX until 12:15 a.m. Sunday morning!
SUNDAY FOOTBALL
The Rams were back air it on Sunday
Los Angeles Rams (11-3) at
Arizona Cardinals (3-11)
Star Rams RB Todd Gurley II was nursing a sore knee and could not play. What would his back-up do in his stead?
He did GREAT!
Marconi ran for 167 yards on 20 carries and scored a TD.
The Rams won 31-9.
Next week, the final week of the NFL regular season, the Rams (12-3) need to beat the San Francisco 49ers (4-11) at home or have the Chicago Bears (11-4) lose to the Minnesota Vikings (8-6-1) on the road to secure the NFC's #2 seed and a first playoff week bye.
A Rams loss combined with a Chicago win gives the Bears the #2 seed based on their 15-6 victory over the Rams two weeks ago.
Meanwhile in Italy . . .
Our Skorpion U16 team lost its
semi-final playoff game on the road
against the Torino Giaguari
Still, a great season for our talented U16 club.
The U16 National Championship Game
will be played on January 6, 2019
between the Firenze Guelfi (7-0)
and the Torino Giaguari (6-1)
Christmas Eve Children's
Mass at Santa Clara Church
Santa Clara Church was all
decked out for Christmas!
Mike's Brother-in-Law Carlos,
his wife Jenny and their sons
Nathan and Nicholas were chosen to
bring the statue of baby Jesus to the
church's manger near the altar
That's Nathan carrying baby Jesus.
Jacob was one of the Shepherds
at today's Mass
After the Mass, our little Mary who
loves her brother Jacob, just had to
congratulate him on his shepherding skills
That's our Shepherd in the middle
with the dark brown robe
With the Grandkids on the church lawn
after Jacob slipped into something a
bit more comfortable
Finally . . .
BUON NATALE!
GOD JUL!
FROHE WEIHNACHTEN!
JOYEUX NOËL!
FELIZ NAVIDAD!
and, of course,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
to all of you, your families
and your friends!
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