Again, trouble getting online. The vagaries of wifi at sea are daunting. I have solved the problem this morning by getting up early and sticking my foot in the metaphorical door. It's 4:25 a.m. out here - down here? - we are cruising once again, heading for Los Angeles now, a five-Sea-Day sail.

The ship was very quiet the afternoon and evening of the Missouri party I was told I missed a great bash with prawns as big as chicken legs and the waitresses dressed up in '40s styles. Not for me. I enjoyed being alone and did some more thinking about my screenplay. I've said before it takes longer not to write a script than to write one. I've been taking that lengthy time and I have five days to work on it before I meet with someone who may be influential in my future. We'll see.

In the meantime, life went on in this floating village. For the first time, I didn't take a scheduled excursion. We were in Lahaina, Hawaii, and I wandered with one "old" (some two months old) and some new friends in the touristy town with lots of stuff for sale, from kitsch to glamour with arts and crafts in between. We found a restaurant our friends knew and ate lunch overlooking a beach where surfers were learning and splashing. I have met so many people who have been here before, not once or twice but several times. "Been there, done that" is a familiar phrase except that they don't mind doing it again. I have discovered that what I thought was my bucket list is to many others merely a drop in the bucket.

I could get philosophical or critical about tourism but i's a benign industry and preferable to war. War is very damaging; tourism is not. Not in that way. Yesterday found us in Kauai, yet another tropical paradise, on another excursion, a musical river cruise to a fern grotto, in the company of another new/old friend (of two months) with whom I plan to travel again. I am remembering to take the odd picture with my iPad Mini and I will try to send some - soon. On the whole, I prefer to lock a sight into my memory. I want to write something more about that cruise but it will have to wait. I must get to my scene cards.

Anon, anon.

Yesterday I took a mild, pleasant excursion billed as "Panoramic Hilo" - nothing to exclaim about. Today I took one entitled natural "Highlights of Hawaii" and it was outstanding. Our guide told us about the flora and fauna of the island and how it all got there: by Wind, Water and Wings, later arrivals called Canoe additions. She showed us the efforts being made to preserve the island and its contents, especially the water, on which everything is dependent.

I took more pictures: one of the beach where one of he most famous love scenes in movies took place (remember From Here to Eternity?)and the view from some high place or other. I promise I will sit down soon and try to send along some pictures. I'm so busy trying to lock pictures and memories in my mind that I resent the time it takes to activate the iPad and aim it. I saw some red-crested birds I was told are cardinals, different from ours, smaller and quite charming. By the time I got the iPad aimed, they were gone.

We're back in the United States; Hawaii became the 50th state in 1970, I think it was. This afternoon there is a special excursion to the Missouri, where WWII ended with official signatures. That ship is connected by a bridge to the memorial of the sunken Arizona. I'm not going, not because I don't care but because I'm an aging Canadian and I have different memories of that war. I visited the Arizona when I was in Hawaii in 1977 and I realized then that it's a shrine for Americans, as well it should be. I respect that, but it's not mine.

What belongs to everyone, however, can be found everywhere, including Hawaii. Yesterday there were more and longer line-ups at Walmart than for any ship excursion. Walmart co-operated, too. I was told that the store was running a shuttle bus between it and the ship, for shoppers' convenience.

Travel is so broadening.