I’m home again, for a week anyway
June 28, 2009
Airports are also liminal spaces. They all look pretty much the same, all of them are between here and there, and they represent the transition between being away and being home again. I am home again, after spending far too much of the last two days in airports: Kona, Honolulu, San Francisco, and good old DIA.
This week I’ll write up reports about my trip to Hawaii, which in some ways was like being on another planet. “Oh yeah, we had to move the road when the old one got covered by lava. And that road is closed because of the spewing sulfur dioxide.” Then there’s scenes like this:
Pretty nice, yeah?
June 28, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Looks pretty nice. Was it a research trip like your Las Vegas trip for a Kitty road trip book? Hope you had a great time.
June 29, 2009 at 5:22 am
Hawaii is an amazing place. I married into a family originally from there, and the visits to the old family homestead are fantastic. When we weren’t off to see wonderous sights, we were eating our way through family visits. Hard to choose which was better….
June 29, 2009 at 5:23 am
I stayed in Kona last year. My favorite part was driving up to the Mona Kia observatory just before sunset. The view was AMAZING. Then the scariest part of the trip was driving down said mountain at night on gravel roads in a front wheel drive car. Not my smartest driving decision.
The gift store at the foot of the mountain had some “little” 16″ telescopes setup where astronomers would setup and show Saturn and some binary stars.
Since I had just come from the black sand beaches my cold weather gear consisted of two beach towels and a stocking cap purchased at the gift shop.
June 29, 2009 at 5:34 am
Did you meet Dog the Bounty Hunter ?!
June 29, 2009 at 7:01 pm
The airport as liminal… an interesting idea, although working in an airport I think that liminal lacks a certain connotation of lingering frustration and emotional heaviness that seems to permeate the atmosphere.
But then, I’m not often traveling through the airport, but merely working and interacting closely with all the people that are traveling.
Also, I covet your Hawaii experiences! Not so much the “there are poisonous gases over there” but the phenomenal natural beauty.
June 30, 2009 at 11:56 am
Speaking further of liminal spaces, Kitty and Ben are on their way to a destination, which journey requires going through the Denver airport. But, Ben spots something unusual, decides to follow it, and drags Kitty along. A few turns and doorways and confusing events later, they get their bearings in a small regional Chinese airport; and the officials there treat it all as run of the mill.
Troubling your thoughts, that’s all.