First, Happy Mother's Day. I recall growing up in Honolulu that there was some rivalry between Hawaii and Alaska to become the 49th state. Alaska was a Russian colony from 1744 until the USA bought it in 1867 for $7.2 million. Hawaii was a kingdom until 1893, became a republic in 1894, and through insider links with Congress, was ceded to the USA in 1898.  Much of what happened has continuously till today been contested by the local Hawaiian community for the illegality of it all. In 1893, Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed by a group of American sugar growers and missionaries through a coup d'etat, with the support of the U.S. Marines.  She was last in the long line from the Kamehameha dynasty founded in 1795 by King Kamehameha I. The sugar industry began to form after the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778.   The first permanent plantation was on Kauai in 1835, in time called Koloa Plantation, where my father grew up. Over the next 30 years, the four major i...

For the past 24 hours we've been passing by icebergs and glaciers.  If you love snowy mountains, bitter cold and the splendor of winter in May, you'd want to be on the Oceania Riviera cruising by the coastline of Alaska. To recap, woke up after sleeping for 13 hours to see these scenes from our veranda. We had never before seen people on the deck below us, but I guess for the Hubbard Glacial watch, the doors to this front portion of the ship was opened.  Went down for an Italian lunch plus beef, with Peroni Beer and a Chianti. Returned to our room for the rest of the glacial show.....for now. A small iceberg. What do you know about  glaciers  and icebergs.  I'll start with the former. A glacier is a persistent body of ice that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight.  A typical speed is around 3 feet per day, although the Greenland Jacobshavn Isbtae moves as fast as 100 feet/day.  Surges can be as fast as 300 feet/day.    Glaciers ...