That’s what E said today. He was talking about picking up people at the airport. And he’s right. Traversing the Kona airport is a piece of cake compared to SFO – it only has a few gates – but we have the layout of the whole thing memorized. We pretty much know where to be for any of the different airlines arriving; tonight we’ll be picking up a new graduate at the Aloha Airlines gate.

But greeting guests in Hawaii goes beyond that. When we pick up a guest, he or she is greeted with a flower lei and a kiss on the cheek. In most cases visitors to the islands get the basic plumeria lei – it’s beautiful and smells wonderful. But we’ve learned in our time here (by making the mistake!) that flower lei* are for ladies, while men should receive a more masculine lei. Most commonly, men’s lei are made of ti leaf. These are things that we did not know a year ago! We don’t worry about this too much for visitors, but if we go somewhere on the island that requires a lei, we feel quite silly if we don’t follow that custom.

We have yet to make lei ourselves, except for the lei made at a local festival. We simply stop at a little honor system roadside stand on our way to the airport. We drop $4 into a cardboard box and then pick a lei out of the old soda refrigerator that keeps them fresh. This is pure Hawaiian style!

The boys have embraced the customs of the islands and are very serious about doing things “right”. And B especially loves the fact that there are honor system stands scattered throughout the island. All of the reading in the world couldn’t replace the life lessons we are learning here!

*Lei is both singular and plural