In 2024 we visited a friend on Oahu. As a tropical paradise it is a sad place, and not just because of oppressive number of tourists like us. The south side of the ridge that divides the island, the Honolulu side, has been bled of any tropical character by the urban sprawl typical of most American cities. There are some nice vistas and a bit of the tropical flora, but freeway congestion, hillside housing tracts, anonymous high-rises and strip malls have homogenized the place into banality. On the north side, however, much remains of the tropical beauty and the more sedate life of past generations, even though it is also being converted to expanding suburban development. It is there that the paradise lost is most strongly felt. The island (and the state) is also sad because of the history of colonial exploitation and indigenous decimation. The westward expansion on the mainland similarly eliminated native peoples during the the same period, but here the remnants of that lost culture, and its futile effort to assimilate to retain sovereignty, still surround you as a reminder.