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Why I love Hawai'i:
No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf-beat in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its wooded solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.
- Samuel M. Clemens (Mark Twain), Paradise of the Pacific, April 1910
No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf-beat in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its wooded solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.
- Samuel M. Clemens (Mark Twain), Paradise of the Pacific, April 1910
Well, we made it! All of our flights were on time and very full! We actually took an earlier flight to Kauai, but then we had to wait for luggage, but we got our rental car in the mean time. Here was the gate in Houston!
STICKER SHOCK! Yes, things are quite expensive! I don't know how people live here as they don't make a lot of money.
This whole island is crawling with chickens, yet eggs are expensive too - also, already saw a cat! As we were taking the luggage out to the car, I spotted a little gray cat under a car - a woman was walking ahead of me, stopped, and took a little oackage of cat food from her purse! I was ready to open my suitcase and take out the cat food I brought along...she said "You have cat food in your suitcase?'''well....yes.