Mea Culpas, past and future

My apologies for the lack of posts over these past weeks. I have been preoccupied with my efforts on behalf of my long-time friend Neil Abercrombie, who -- as all Hawaii knows -- is the Democratic Party's nominee for governor of Hawaii.Furthermore, it’s also likely that there will be only a few posts for the next several weeks, too. I will be leaving Tuesday for an extended trip to the mainland ... first to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the semi-annual board meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. From there, I'll head to Toronto to catch VIA Rail's premier train # 1, the Canadian, which runs three times a week in each direction between Toronto and Vancouver, BC.I'll be leaving the Canadian in Winnipeg and taking another VIA train almost 1100 miles north to the little town of Churchill on the shores of Hudson Bay. Polar bears spend the winter out on the ice hunting seals and this time of year these magnificent creatures come into the area waiting for the bay to freeze over. From there it will be back to Winnipeg and resuming the trans-continental ride on the next train # 1 to Vancouver. I'll connect there with Amtrak for the trip to Seattle and on down to Los Angeles for the flight back home to Maui..