The genesis of the trip began a year earlier. Then Jay was serving as the Commander of the United States Army Training Support Center at Fort Eustis. And by his job title, he was the training support expert of the United States Army: Training manuals, simulators, training devices such as training mines, training ammunition, and training ranges. USATC also ran the Army's corresponding studies program, and had a building/warehouse with its own ZIP Code.

Now return to a year earlier, May 1993. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) was conducting a training assistance visit to army units in Hawaii and Korea, and Jay joined this team for the visits. The first visit was to Korea, and the second visit was to Hawaii. The timing of the visits and the effect of crossing the international dateline resulted in Jay standing on Waikiki Beach at 6:30 AM on Saturday morning, looking at the waves and wondering how to spend the weekend.

In 1994, the same staff assistance visit was planned, with Jay also participating, and at 6:30 AM on Waikiki Beach, following the Korean inspection, Jay knew exactly what to do. He traveled to the international airport and picked up Bonnie who had flown in to Hawaii for a five day visit. (Jay took some leave time.)

This was not Jay and Bonnie's first visit to Hawaii; they had met there for a brief visit when Jay, who was serving in Vietnam, was allowed a mid-tour R&R. For that visit, Bonnie had booked a room at the Rainbow Towers of the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach. For the May 1994 get together, Bonnie had again booked a room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, asking for the same room that they had shared during Jay's R&R visit and also at the same rate that they had paid more than 25 years before. Well, she got a good rate, but not the same rate; but did get the same room. Again, they spent some wonderful times together.

We had asked about a beach that the locals use, and were referred to Sand Beach. We took a bus out to the beach and it was nice. Not too crowded and good waves. So Jay went out and tried some body surfing - and the waves just about crushed him; he had to get out of the wafe area after about four repetitions of this. Later, Jay and Bonnie were walking back to the bus stop and were given a ridfe by a local. Jay mentioned that he hard heard wave at Sand Beach were currently three feet but what hit him were something like eight feet. Smiling, the local replied that some people measure wave height as the difference between the backside height to the height of the wave face and others (Hawaiians) measure from the front side. Ahhhh. (Note: Our insider's explanation was not technically correct, though it did explain that wave heights are measured differently.) We enjoyed a Hawaiin Luau.     < Sacred Falls was not on any tour map; we just happened to come across it. Getting there was maybe two football fields of distance on a path that was not well maintained. But it was worth it!     Driving around the island in a convertible was a great experience. Great views. The smell of pineapples, the wind in your hair.     We also took an underwater tour. Interesting, but the pictures are mostly blue. Home