Sep 22, 2007

I've been very busy these last three week since I've been back home in Hawaii, after being on the mainland for two months. What I've HAD to do is organize and pack efficiently for my month-long trip to China/Tibet and Cambodia - I leave tomorrow, Sunday, Sept 23, 2007. But what I try to do whenever I can sneak it in, is to work on genealogy and especially compile, sort, annotate and look at, all the family photos and research I did while I was in Indiana and Iowa. It is so great to see the pieces of the genealogy puzzle fall into place. Also I am trying to get promised pictures back to the family members I met while I was in Iowa. It's quite a job. Here is a photo of Hague descendants: Mary, OralMay Wilson; me; Jim (& Gladys) Wilson; Bill Wilson in Des Moines.

I took probably 3,000 digital photos of my time in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Indiana and Iowa. Many were of the scenery in Arizona and Utah, and many were of my daughter's family and brother's family in the West. But when I arrived at Allen Co. Library in Indiana, I began taking digital photos of the books, pictures and microfilm available for research there - and later at the various libraries and historical societies in Iowa. Then there were the photos of my extended Hague family from Des Moines, farm sites of my Hague, Wallace and Pearce homesteads and especially the big family reunion there. I'm grateful for the hospitality of my Hague cousins, Don and Dorothy Wilson in West Des Moines, and of course, my daughter and family in Sierra Vista, AZ.

I've been going to the 24hr Fitness gym every day for 1.5 hours in an effort to take off some of the extra pounds I gained while living-it-up with family. Last Saturday I was at the gym, upstairs where the weights and machines are. I was happy to see a local celebrity working out - "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" Duane Chapman and his son Duane Lee. They live in the area and are on their third season on TV station A & E with the show. I like it because of all the local shots they do of Hawaii. He and his wife, Beth, are real characters, but I think they do good work. I said "Hi, Dog" to him when he walked by, and he stopped to say thanks, so I told him to "Keep up the good work."

Then after a half hour upstairs I went down to do my 2 miles on the elliptical trainer. Who should come out to work out on the treadmill in front of me, but Daniel Dae Kim (left), the Korean husband character "Jin" on the popular TV series "Lost" which is filmed in Hawaii. He certainly is in good shape! He ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes and while I was at the drinking fountain he came up to take a drink beside me. I didn't talk to him. He lives around here, as does the Josh Holloway (right), the guy who plays "Sawyer" on "Lost." It seems that was THE day to be at the gym.

NOW - I am all packed for China. I managed to get everything in a medium sized roller suitcase, and a wheeled backpack. The luggage limitation for internal China flights are very small - 11 pounds for a carry-on and 44 pounds for one checked suitcase. Lucille James is going to be my travel companion and I'll be very happy to have a friend to travel with. We'll meet at Honolulu Airport tomorrow at about 6:30 a.m. and fly out to Shanghai via Japan tomorrow. Thank heavens the Typhoon Wipha that passed by Shanghai a couple days ago has gone and I guess I'll hear what damage was done to the area west of that Chinese city. We'll be in Shanghai four days on the pre-trip extension and Cambodia for the post-trip extension. If anyone wants to see the itinerary for my trip you can go to www.oattravel.com and click on Imperial China, Tibet & the Yangtze River then "View & Print Itinerary."

So, until next month --- aloha!