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Thu. January 13, 2000
Insert stutter here
This morning didn't follow the normal path mornings have been taking thus far on this trip. After breakfast and before lecture I went to the Benham's place to use their phone to call a contact he made for me at the Keck Headquarters. My words bumbled out of my mouth as I tried to introduce myself and try to weasel my (and hopefully Kristin's) way into a trip to the top of Mauna Kea to the observatories. Seemingly surprised by the request, the man understood me and offered me hope in a trip he'll be taking to the top soon. Although I can't really say whether or not I expect I'll make the trip to the observatory, I can say that he told me to give him a call back next Monday to find out. Cross your fingers for me.
A lull in between lecture and today's activity was very welcome, especially when a look out the window offered up views more like Seattle's weather than stereotypical Hawaii's. Despite the drizzly and cool rain we headed just up Highway 11 toward South Point and hiked around in the Kau Desert. A young man bashfully told us all he knew about the desert and its cultural, geological, and archaeological significance. After a brief on-trail hike and talk, we headed off the beaten path over mounds of old pahoehoe, dips with flowing sand, and plots of young clay. Held within the latter was sometimes found nearly 200 year old footprints, pointing every direction and sometimes providing detail enough to make out heels and individual toes. I was humbled to stand in the presence of such an interesting site. Rain and a breeze began to wear at my willingness to stand in this place for so much time. Amazing how those same conditions didn't seem to present much of a challenge to the prints. Resilient.
Once everyone returned to camp early this afternoon we split up. Kristin, Matt, Nick, a couple others and I stuck around here and found that perennial favorite Die Hard was showing on TBS. Edited or not, it's still a great action flick. Besides, we filled Kristin in on all the muted cuss words. That movie ended, dinner ensued and soon passed into the viewing of (get this) three more movies. We picked up a VCR from the bowling ally (of all places) and had our faithful runner Renee pick up a couple videos in Hilo. Charles Benham brought over the second Austin Powers movie which kicked off the movie fest. As people doddled about around us, the viewing survived undaunted and we moved on to watching L.A. Story and American Pie. I don't normally like to wish that many movies upon my eyes in one day but for some strange reason it fit really well into this day. On tap for tomorrow? A quiz, some lecture and activity, then hopefully a viewing of another movie — this time Magnolia and this time in a real theatre. I can't believe it's Friday already.
Comments (1) | To Top
7/29/2005 @ 1:09am
Ok, so I was bored as hell, and did a web search for my name.... then this website popped up. WOW! So yeah, that is some cool stuff, I totally remember bringing Austin Powers over! That was a fun trip, indeed... ah yes, 3 hour trips to Kona. Anyway, that's kinda weird/awesome that I came across this site.. Well, take care!
-charles benham
by Charles Benham