Pop and cold drinks were served by two girls, maybe daughters of the owner who
kept up a running commentary about the creatures we were seeing. Each of us was
supplied with a chart of coloured pictures of fish that live in the area so we
could identify them ourselves.
Ben and I saw a beautiful sea turtle. It was gracefully gliding along deep down
under the boat. The sun was still able to reach it. It looked incredibly graceful, and you know how slow and clumsy turtles look on land! I felt my heart swell with love for that beautiful creature. When we came back to shore I was able to find a post-card with a swimming sea turtle, and now it's here at home on our kitchen window sill near where we sit to read. It is nicely matted and framed as a reminder of that day and the beautiful wild turtle we saw. We saw many kinds of fish and coral. Because of depth and the way light rays slant and show
colour, most looked much dimmer than they really are, and far less colourful than the pictures on our cards, but the bottom was clean and everything looked healthy. It was a pleasant trip. We saw all kinds of fish, and the turtle was the
highlight.
Yesterday at Lahaina we bought a colourful ceramic napkin holder in the form of
the Hawaiian state fish. Now it's on our dining room table. The colours are turquoise, white, black, yellow, orange, and magenta, and the fish has many stripes. Its accurate to the colours of the fish known as the Picasso fish. You would understand why it is named for that artist if you could see it.
Today I was able to buy 2-1/2 yards of 45 inch wide cloth to make a cover for the cushion of the white bench at the top of the stairs. It's the one our granddaughter Jenny used to sleep on when she was a little girl. This year she graduated from high school. Our house is full of memories like that, put together to be interesting and a little surprising. Ben loves the "Bird of Paradise" flower,
and that's the design on the deep blue background of the cloth. It will look beautiful on the white chest-bench. We also picked up t-shirts for our three little grandchildren. Ben's will wear the Hawaii Airlines t-shirt he bought tonight for Hawaiian Night dinner. Everyone was given a lei made from real live orchids. Later, when we sailed away from Hawaii there was a a little ceremony and everyone threw their leis into the ocean with a wish to return some day. I was able to keep both leis very fresh by letting them rest in the bath-tub to drink in
some water, and then to drip dry before wearing again. We made our own little
private ceremony, and tossed them into the wake of the ship.
We went to a shop called Hilo Hatti's on one of the islands. It's a chain of Hawaiian stores for tourists. I knew about it because I have a Hawaiian mumu from
someone who bought it at Hilo Hatti's as the tag inside shows. They have many
interesting local products. There is also have a shop inside Hilo Hatti's that
is called Maui Diver's Jewellery. The most astonishing thing was that Ben bought me a beautiful black pearl ring there!
When we first passed the shop there was a big bowl with a number of live oysters
in it. I saw one bigger one with a lot of green, mossy stuff on it, and I thought if I were to pick an oyster, that would be the one for me. Then we went on
to see other things. When we came back Ben asked me to choose an oyster. I was
very surprised, and so I chose the one I had seen. It contained a black pearl!
These oysters have pearls of many different colours in them. It just depends on
what the oyster's body makes to coat the pearl. Oysters make different colours
. Some pearls I saw were creamy, some white, some pale pink, some silver grey and some were black or in tones of black. Mine was quite a good size and had a tone of green in the deep black.
The second pearl was a gift from the shop when you bought a setting to set your
pearls, so I chose again from a different container and when opened, lo and behold! another black pearl! :-)) They hope that you will choose two settings, one
for each pearl, of course. My second one was only very slightly smaller and had a faint pink cast in the black. We had them set together into a gold ring with the two pearls set at an angle, one above the other, and it had four tiny diamonds, too. It looks beautiful and unusual. Ben said it was a long time since he had bought me any jewellery and he wanted to give it to me. I was very happy!
I was really, really, surprised and touched.
At dinner the other women at our table admired it greatly and I could see that they really were sincere, and not just being polite. At home I found it goes well with some other pieces of jewellery I own. It holds happy memories and I imagine the slightly smaller one with the slight pink cast as me and the larger one
as Ben. So we're both together on my hand.
There is some information about the cultured pearls that may interest you. "Pearls are among the world's most coveted gems. Ancient Greeks believed that pearls symbolized love. This tradition continues today when the bride wears pearls on her wedding day. Royalty prized pearls, and proclaimed them the 'Queen of Gems.'
"Hawaii's King Kamehameha I recognized the pearl as a powerful symbol of good health, and mother-of-pearl shell was valued as decoration for sacred bowls and sculptures. (I asked for and got the shells my pearls grew in. They are also iridescently beautiful inside and I keep them in a window in a clear vase with other shells and coral.) "Tahitians admired the display of iridescent colours on the
black pearl's surface and linked their creation with rainbows. When chance brings a grain of sand to rest inside an oyster's shell, the oyster surrounds the sand with a lustrous coating of nacre, or mother-of-pearl. Today we assist the oyster by inserting a sphere of natural material into its shell. The black-lipped oyster completes the process to give us the most luminous of gemstones....the
cultured Tahitian pearl. Round pearls are very scarce. Other attractive shapes
are pear, oval, ringed and baroque." (Mine are both round.) Maui Divers give a
lifetime guarantee on the nacre and the workmanship of settings. "The cultured
pearls are natural colour without artificial enhancements."
There are supposed to be HUGE swells on the way from storms at points north. There were warnings to people who live near the shore on this island to evacuate their homes. I think our crossing back to San Diego will be a rough one again.
