At last!  I got my lifetime US National Park pass; cost: ten dollars (and 62 years).  This was a thrilling day!  For the REST OF MY LIFE I can visit any National Park FOR FREE!  The cost of the pass rises in a couple of weeks to $80, so I’m doing a lucky strut dance right now.  In the distance, just behind the top right corner of the beloved pass, the steam/smoke of Halema‘uma‘u rises.

Besides getting the pass, I also cruised the island hoping to get in the ocean (but not accomplishing that) and taking photos of trippy stuff.  Here you are:

It wasn’t a birthday celebrated in Venice, but it was a good day.  In the evening, I attended a friend’s wake.  On my birthday in Venice, I visited Isola di San Michele (Venice’s separate cemetery island).  And now this year, a wake.  It is a good idea to contemplate mortality; it pushes me to live more fully.