James: I see that you have got a bunch of pinecones in your window, but you also have a bunch of pineapples too…

Dana: I actually have come to the conclusion that they're connected! When you look at a pineapple,  they really do have similar shapes and similar structures to them, the way they're laid out, they’re very tile-like.

Dana: The one trip I took to Hawai‘i, when we drove down the road, there was a pineapple field. And, for some reason, I had thought pineapples grew on something like a palm tree. I really don't know why I thought that. I had never seen one. But then we went to the little plantation. I was like “really?” So it kind of makes you wonder, what other kinds of things or ideas about that are way off base.

 James: How was your trip to Hawai‘i? 

Dana: We visited a few different islands: Maui, Hawai‘i, Oahu. the Big Island. You know, you can ski on the top and then there’s the ocean at the bottom! I wasn’t interested in skiing though.

After one of their big storms, they had a lot of chickens that got loose, and there's just free roaming chickens. Chicken flocks, and they’re pretty, they're pretty ones. They're not your ordinary farm chickens. They’re different colors. I don't know what kind of chickens they have over there, but they just were kind of wild. I was not excited to see them. It was…I’d see them in the parking lot and think “just going to walk slowly around them.”

When we were on Maui it was kind of interesting, because they have one area just off the coast where there's a crest of the volcano, so the ocean gets calmer within that little area. You know the current is strong out there, but inside, it’s calm. It was one of the first places I learned to snorkel, which kind of freaked me out. How do you put your face under the water and still breathe? It just was a mind thing. It took me a bit to figure that one out, but so we're getting over into this crest. Oh, you'll get to see all sorts of fish, and they're so colorful. When you first get in, a bunch of fish that kind of swim up toward you--they call them greeter fish. So we get in there. Sure enough, fish. Oh, my word. I thought “This is the opposite of looking in an aquarium.” There were a lot of very colorful ones, their names are really long, I can’t remember how to say them but there were very colorful ones. The one the clownfish.

We saw turtles too. They're a little bit harder to see, especially if they're out a little bit, you'll just kind of see their shape, but you can see that they're there. But there was this one area out there called Turtle Town. There's a lot of turtles there, but you also cannot go near them [because they’re protected]. But also, It's kind of weird to go out into a deeper area of the water, because I’d think “I gotta go back.” I’m totally clumsy in the water. 

I was going to try to scuba dive, but I couldn’t. I thought, “I better stay grounded.” I was all excited about it at first but then I thought 'Oh no what are you thinking?" It’s weird hanging out in the vastness of it. It doesn't take long to get to the point where I'm tired. I would just feel like I need to sit down for a minute. It just pulls all your energy out just trying to get around.

James: It's almost like a sensory overload at times.

Dana: Yeah, it was nice just to get out at the end.

James: Yeah, and just kind of relax on the beach for a little while or in the hotel room, just like "whew!" I understand that feeling.

Dana: But we had fun!

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.