Fish pond

It was a mixed day. We spend 2.5 hours listening to a presentation about purchasing a time share. Maybe you have been through the routine. You get to see a really nice place and are told you can exchange the share you purchase for others if you get tired of going to the place you purchase. Of course, you would be at a great advantage because the Hawaii timeshares are worth the most points and so in going elsewhere you would be get more for the points you have available.

Time share promoters have a bad name for exploiting old folks (like us). We explained that we had invested enough in real estate and now want to the money we have available in a flexible and spontaneous way. We also said we did not expect to be able to travel like we do now for too many more years so getting ourselves locked in did not make a lot sense. These pitches remind me of buying a car. After the salesperson who is always nice and patient gets to a certain point, the manager comes over and offers some opportunities the sales person may have overlooked (which seems to be the case). Once, you have said no to these folks, you are sent to the final guy who makes one final pitch and may offer a new opportunity. The new opportunity was actually interesting as it involved simply buying points for a couple years rather than signing a long term contract. He suggested this would allow us to evaluate time shares. Two things - I don't trust any pitch I must respond to on the spot. Why is this actually necessary? Secondly, the final proposal was of some interest, but they should have led with this. I might be interested if I had a taste of the time share thing, but when this is their final offer I am skeptical. Anyway - no.

The Menehune fish pond was created by indigenous engineers and laborers in approximately 1430. The people created an alternate pathway for the river and separated an ox bow that became a pond intended for raising fish for royalty. In recent years, the local are attempting to raise money to rehabilitate the site as a cultural treasure. You can kind of see the river and where the ox bow was from my photograph.