Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park - Hawai'i, Four miles on from Kealakekua, Honaunau, Hawaii

So what's your feeling regarding another post about Hawaii, guys?

That looks like 3 affirmatives...or maybe one giant thumbs up along with one drunken smile and one...well, I don't know what that is. But really, it does not matter what that picture is. It is my blog and I will post whatever the hell I want. It's Pics of ME in Front of Stuff and this is the second post in a row that I have made this statement, so I must really mean it.
It's my blog, I do what I want.

Whateva, I do what I want!

And what I want to do...no, need to do is another blog about my recent trip to Hawaii. So maybe June is not so recent. Once again, see above regarding to whom this blog belongs. This really is the chronologically the last story since shortly after this last excursion CP and I returned our rental car and boarded a plane back to the mainland US. Regular readers should know, I do not let chronology slow me down. I recently listened to A Brief History of Time recently so maybe I will just find a black hole send me wherever in time I really feel like going. I had one long painful excursion back to a much less beautiful place than Hawaii following this trip to the beach, what's a few light years trying to get to the nearest black hole? Thinking about it makes me want to build a time machine and tell my past self to just forget about the job in New Jersey and stay in Paradise. Would I trade a chance to tap away at the keyboard in my small apartment in New Jersey for a chance to stay in Paradise for a long, long time?

Maybe.

I might have to think long an hard about it. If I reallwanted to just stay in Hawaii, wouldn't I? Maybe the siren songs of family and friends and security and stability were far too great for me to overcome and remain on the Big Island. It is hard to know for sure, but I am in Jersey and Hawaii is a long flight away. I was not sure I would get back a second time but I made it. Who's to say there will not be a third time?

But back to the subject at hand...
Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park is to Hawaii what Colonial Williamsburg, Old Bedford Village, and/or Daniel Boone Homestead are to Virginia; Bedford County, PA; and Birdsboro, PA; respectively. I might be slightly East Coast biased in my comparisons, but you probably get the idea from the Colonial Williamsburg. You getting the idea is not going to prevent me from stating the obvious: Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park is a monument to Hawaiian heritage. Until the 19th Century, this beach was a place of refuge for defeated warriors, non-combatants, and those who broke a kapu, an ancient law. Pu'uhonua is Hawaiian for place of refuge and this one was protected by a massive wall. Massive might not describe just how big the damn thing was. S ee it below, it's a big one. The grounds inside the massive wall once housed palaces and temples of Hawaiian royalty, some of which are reconstructed for visitors to ogle at today. Some of those structures are pictured above. Scroll back up and look at it.

The grounds were also guarded by several tikis.

They may seem intimidating, but clearly they did not scare off CP and me.

They were slightly more intimidating than Paul Giamatti. It takes a lot more than the star of Lady in the Water to slow me down. So CP and I continued to explore the lovely grounds.

Eventually, we stumbled upon a rock that was one of Mark Twain's favorite spots to sit and contemplate life. As another luminary of literature, I felt compelled to sit there. Saying we stumbled upon it is a bit a stretch, it's listed in the brochure. Calling myself a literature luminary...well, that might be a bit of a stretch, too. Either way, I sat there.

Soon after that we left. We left and went back to New Jersey. :-(
Only one more Hawaii post left.