Author Archives: merlinjr01

Four Good Beaches For a Week on Oahu, Hawaii

Posted on January 27, 2024 by merlinjr01

I don’t know how many different beaches there are around the island of Oahu, but based on a quick glance at my map, there must be at least two dozen, from small, intimate beaches tucked in inlets and coves to … Continue reading →

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4. Punchbowl Cemetery

Posted on January 21, 2024 by merlinjr01

Established in 1945, officially as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the cemetery was established in the punch bowl-shaped crater of an extinct volcano. The crater spans six acres and is almost filled with the graves of service members … Continue reading →

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3. The USS Arizona Memorial

Posted on January 12, 2024 by merlinjr01

Other than the Punchbowl Cemetery, there is, perhaps no more hallowed single place in Honolulu than the battleship Arizona memorial. The fate of the Arizona is certainly well known, having been sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during … Continue reading →

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2. The Polynesian Cultural Center

Posted on January 9, 2024 by merlinjr01

Five Things to Do on Your First Trip to Oahu, Hawaii – No. 2 After our visit, I was tempted to rate the Cultural Center as my favorite experience. There are several facets to the Center. First, much of this … Continue reading →

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Five Things to Do on Your First Trip to Oahu, Hawaii

Posted on January 8, 2024 by merlinjr01

We recently had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii, specifically the island of Oahu. We spent several months planning, deciding where to stay and what to do. Of course, we wanted to see key features of the island, but we … Continue reading →

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Renaissance Musings Blog Re-Launch

Posted on January 6, 2024 by merlinjr01

If you followed my blogs in the past, you would know that I have covered many topics—topics of interest to me and about which I can write with some degree of first-hand knowledge, or at least based on traditional and … Continue reading →

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Raised Garden – 2020

Posted on November 18, 2020 by merlinjr01

I love a garden, but I am a lazy gardener. Too often, I have laid out and planted an area that was too large to keep up and had no time to do anything else. With this in mind, I … Continue reading →

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Why I am the Digital Age’s Equivalent of Indiana Jones

Posted on November 14, 2020 by merlinjr01

Oh, there are differences, of course—he trained in history, ancient cultures, and archeology; I trained in biology, aeronautics, writing, and digital communications (okay, a word processor), but we are both writers in our respective fields. “It was his father who … Continue reading →

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Angina – An EECP Update

Posted on November 9, 2020 by merlinjr01

In the summer of 2017, I was diagnosed with angina (angina pectoris), pain in the chest caused by restricted blood flow to the heart during periods of exertion. The original series of three  posts covered the diagnostic procedures, an explanation … Continue reading →

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Personal Trifecta

Posted on June 15, 2018 by merlinjr01

It began like this. Early in the year, I learned that the US Air Force Museum was going to unveil the Memphis Belle B-17 exhibit in early May. I called my friend, John (of Michigan and New Orleans trips “fame”), … Continue reading →

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