Mexican food in other areas of the world than a decent martini. James Bond’s Britishness aside - martinis are an American drink. Some bartender in Honolulu actually suggested a Coors Light when we asked for a beer. As if. And we had to start tipping again. We knew we were back.

Hawaii was different enough from the mainland, however, for us to feel that we weren’t quite back home. There were more palm trees there than in Gary’s yard. Although American English is the official language, enough Hawaiin is interspersed in conversation and used in street and place names for the area to feel foreign. The product mix is unusual - we saw SPAM masubi for sale at the 7-11. That-s a rectangular shaped rice clump with a slice of SPAM on top all held together by a wrapping of seaweed, sushi-style.

At least on Waikiki, about half the tourists are Japanese. I wondered about something when we went to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor: What were these Japanese thinking as they stood there looking at the sunken remains where over 1500 sailors died in one fell swoop? Probably how we might feel visiting the cities of Nagasaki or Hiroshima.

We’ve visited family and friends in San Diego, Joliet IL, Decatur AL, and Memphis, “vacationed” for a few days in the Smokey Mountains and are now back in Big D. We’ve finally connected all the dots in our 37,000 mile long squiggly line circumnavigation. I hesitate to say it feels good to be “home,” but it is nice to not have to think about repacking and moving on again in 3 days. For now anyway, stability is cool.

FAQ

For those of you who don’t get to interview us in person, we have decided to include a list of answers to frequently asked questions.

1) What was your favorite country?