Travel Letters: Hawaii, 1933

{centre} 10 some places the water comes to the wall when the tide is in. It is where the sand is wet to where it gets deep. Say a drop of a foot and you can dive from the inch level into two or three feet of water a sort of flat dive, and then until you get way out its about as deep as your waist. There are sandy places way way out where you can stand and yet its deep enough to swim without thinking of touching. There is a reef way way out which keeps the sharks out and protects the beach. Then long waves roll the whole length in. It is ideal to play on. The water is warm snd yet cooler than the air. Its an intimate sort of beach

{centre} not crowded and yet always life to watch. The Beach boys at the Moana are all pure Hawaiians and there are quite a few who help peopleto surf ride or swim oor thwy take you out in canoes. The rest of the timehey are playing, singing Hawaiian songs, teasing each other, playing football or catch and pretending to wrestle, or anything else, or catching fish which they eat alive wiggle and all, by first pulling them across the sand to clean them, then snapping the head & tail off & de-boning them, similar to stringing beans I should say. Then wading out & dipping them in the water to flavor them with salt. I am going easy at first for its dangerous to tan too quickly.

{centre} 12 Its nice being in a cottage for one can go & come without anyone being the wiser and we don't get as involved doing things in the hotel. We eat where we like and even if we do eat at the Moana it is very inexpensive which is nice. Also when we swim we can undress here and walk over which is so convenient. You can wear anything you like and not be noticed. Its quite funny for things that are very expensive in the east are practically given away here. The Lei had 25 gardenias in it and cost 25 cents and this noon I ordered an alligator pear salad for 30 cents with rolls and much to my surprise had eight scooped? scraped? out halfs {sic} of Alligator Pears! Pete let me taste some raw salmon one day in a salad but it tastes like any ... salmon. We are having

{red pencil 9} 13. {Moana hotoel logo} fresh lima beans now and fresh peas too. Pete took me down to a real Chinese place the second night I was here. Everyone sits in little rooms off a main courtyard and you are ushered through a sort of maze of screens where you can see no one else eating but can hear voices. It was lots of fun. We began with real birds nest sop, and I ate a whole cup of it, or pretty near that much. It is a sort of jelly like substance which is the birds nest and then shredded chicken and crab meat was mixed in. We've decided not to have it again for as Pete said, "It was more

{centre} 14 for the experience than the flavor of the thing." Then we had delicious chow mein with soya sauce from the soya bean. It was awfully good and I ate with chop sticks which was fun. We mixed the soya sauce with a little mustard in a little dish, and then you dip choice morsels in this with your chop sticks and its awfully good. We had real Chinese tea & then sugared fruit for desert.

You know here everywhere you see Chinese, Japanese, Philipino and Portugueese {sic} and then combinations of these. They ask the children in school what their parents are, and one little girl said, "part Ha my mother is part Hawaiian, part Chinese and my father is soldier." You see quite a lot of Japanese dressed in their native costume, especially those who are nurse maids.