We went to Paradise

Trip Start Aug 02, 2008
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Trip End Aug 17, 2008


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Flag of United States  , Hawaii,
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

We really did: we went to paradise.  Specifically, we drove to paradise, passing through some real estate that looked like it was the borderland of the other place.  And then we arrived at the Hapuna Prince, where our Wisdom Vacation Course is set.  The front entrance seems elegant enough, given that this is a top resort destination, but when you walk through and enter a "lobby" that is open on the other side to the beach and ocean, with nothing between you and them but gently swaying palm trees, you know that you passed through the pearly gates and have entered the blessed realm.

Wisdom Vacation Courses are always set in magnificent locations.  The Year-End Cruise that we attended last December was on a top cruise ship and my Structural Connections Course was in Seeley, Montana, but not so grand as this.  This...feels like a gift from the Gods.
Mici studies the tidal pools
Mici studies the tidal pools
And the course promises to be amazing, too.  We've encountered some friends from Toronto and met new friends, all of whom are engaged in the same human development that we are, all of whom speak the vernacular of Landmark, a shorthand that with a term or two encapsulates all that human beings suffer, experience, long for and can potentially be.  Well, more about this as time goes on.  What such a group provides, though, is instant intimacy and acceptance.  However far from home we are right now, we are among friends.

Let me add that, earlier in the day, we stopped at the NELHA, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority.  This organization has made possible the use of extremely cold and pure deep ocean water for various kinds of research and production, from raising spirulina algae for food to raising 17 of 22 species of sea horses (I think I got the numbers right) to preserve biodiversity in the wild.  The NELHA also researches the use of solar energy and geothermal energy (both of which Hawaii has in abundance, unlike oil) as well as other forms of saving and generating power.  We arrived too late for the lecture, alas, but may try to make another.

Although the pin is shown at the town of Kawaihae, the resort is on the Kohala Coast, which is just to the south of Kawaihae.
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