A Quick Trip to the Islands

Over Veteran's Day weekend... I traveled 2,400 miles across the Pacific Ocean for Papa Fuji's celebration of life.

Ala Wai Canal

I've mentioned it a few times on the blog, but in case you missed it... both of my parents were born and raised on Oahu.  But they didn't meet there.  They met in Wisconsin while attending college... and spent the rest of their lives together on the mainland.  Earlier in the year, my father returned to Oahu and was laid to rest in our family's plot.

He didn't want to have a service, but thought it would be nice if we could get both sides of the family together for a small luncheon.  My siblings and I were blown away by the number of people interested in attending.  It ended up being a family reunion and an opportunity for many of us to reconnect and catch up.

One of the coolest things was seeing my mother's side of the family interact with my father's side.  It's such a small world.  One of my cousins (on my mom's side) discovered he lives just a block over from another cousin (on my dad's side).

I'm guessing that a lot of them could easily play the "six degrees" game considering the majority have lived their entire lives on the same island.

Personally... I hadn't been back in fifteen years.  It was a quick trip... but I made sure to eat saimin at Zippy's, malassadas from Leonard's, and shave ice from Shimazu's:

Here's a wallet card shot from my hotel room:

Ala Moana Hotel

Although most of the conversations at the party involved reminiscing and family related stuff... baseball made its way into a few of them.

One of my cousins asked me if I was going to continue supporting the A's after their move to Sacramento/Las Vegas.

1977 Hostess #52

I explained that I've been a fan since the 70's... so ultimately I would continue rooting for them wherever they played.

2020 Topps Chrome Refractor #160

I was also reminded that the Dodgers have a huge following in Hawaii.  I spoke with three cousins who were excited about their recent World Series win... and all three are big fans of this guy:

2024 Topps Now #1

All three of these cards were part of a PWE I received from Jim over at cards as i see them.  Thank you Jim!  Looking forward to getting together again for some burgers the next time you're in the Bay Area.

I'd also like to thank Nick over at njwv for inspiring me to purchase this card:

1893 Arbuckle's Coffee #27

Nick and I are both interested in collecting cards related to the Hawaiian Islands and the Bay Area.  Although his photography is much more artistic than mine.

Well that wraps up today's post.  The past few weeks have been really busy with this recent trip and parent/teacher conferences.  However this Saturday kicks off my Thanksgiving Break.  Although I'll be spending some time with family... the plan is to spend at least two or three quality days in the office catching up with care packages, two boxes from Sportlots, and my latest COMC shipment.

Until then... 

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!