MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1977 - Wisconsin Years II

Oshkosh (continued)

During the Christmas break of 1980 we took my children, Charles and Margaret, and Nancy’s sister, Michele, to Hawaii. My brother, Ed, who was an officer in the U. S. Air Force was stationed in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. We visited with him and his family and used his home as kind of a base camp as we first toured Oahu and then took 3-day trips to Maui and to the big island, Hawaii. I remember the winding drive up to the 10,000+ feet summit of Haleakala and the spectacular view from the top. Three memories from the Big Island were: 1) the drive up to the observatory on Mauna Kea where there was snow on the ground; 2) swimming on a black sands beach were we rode the big waves, the black sand was actually pea sized lava pellets, not soft; 3) looking over the rim of Kilauea and seeing the cauldron below, shortly after that visit Kilauea erupted and is still pouring lava into the ocean.

On New Years Eve we were back at Ed’s again. At midnight the firecrackers started going off in Ed’s neighborhood and it sounded like World War III was starting. It went on for hours.