Doc

Dr. J. Philip McLaren

May 17, 1941- February 12, 2014

A man who loved his family, his friends, his God. 

A man that had a wealth of knowledge oozing from his fingertips. 

A man who could make you laugh until you cried. 

A man who would comfort you when you were sad with a great big bear hug and words of encouragement.

 A man who wasn't afraid to knock some sense into you. 

A man who loved nature and adventures. 

A man who loved teaching and loved his students.

A man after God's own heart.

Doc's Rules: 

(1) Eat when you can. 

(2) Sleep when you can. 

(3) Go to the bathroom when you can. 

(4) If you like it, buy it because you might never see it again.

Psalms 107

Doc leading group of HS students from a lagoon tour. South Water Caye, Belize. 2009

Doc always had a supply of chocolate on his trips.

Doc working at the Whaling museum in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Doc in his garden. Merry Mac Farm, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Devotion time. New Zealand, 2007

Moeraki boulders area. New Zealand 2007

Doc talking with the canoe maker. Hawaii, 2007

Standing at the rim of the crater. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. 2007

Pearl Harbor National Monument. Hawaii. 2007

Belize. 2006.

Doc lecturing. South Water Caye, Belize. 2009

Doc with Meagan A. and Melanie A. Hawaii. 2007

The gang. Hawaii. 2008

Doc and bull kelp. New Zealand. 2008.

Whale Watch.

Teaching flora.

Doc following rule #2.

Teaching flora.

A man and his kilt!

Doc following rule #2.

How his office always was no matter the size.

Doc's last address at ENC. Senior chapel.

Day 3: O'ahu

Everyone was up early so that we could get to Pearl Harbor before the crush. Even though we were there early, we still had 2 hours to wait before the film and boat to the memorial. We toured around the museum and were greeted by a survivor of the attack. Getting a first hand glimpse of the harbor prior to 12/7 and after was thought provoking. Touring the memorial made you appreciate the freedoms we have in this country. Though this country has issues at the federal, state, and local areas, it still is a great nation. I am humbled by all the men and women who are willing to lay down their lives for this country; to them it's a sense of honor, duty, commitment. They know that they may be called to war and may lose their life yet they still enlist and serve. Our freedoms are because of the selfless sacrifice of so many individuals. Standing on the USS Arizona Memorial, I was reminded again of those who willing serve. You may not agree with the notion of war but as long as there are governments there will be wars and rumors of wars. You may not support the war but support those who are fighting it for you. They are doing it so you can enjoy all those freedoms you take for granted.After leaving the memorial, we headed to the Dole Plantation. Since the sugar beet can yield 2 harvest per year compared to sugarcane which needs 2 years to grow, a lot of the sugarcane plantations no longer dominate the landscape. The same with pineapple plantations. Currently the whole Dole production is now in Costa Rica. We toured the garden around the plantation. Many varieties of plant species were seen. Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia but several were seen around the grounds. The leaves of these trees have an oil in them that is like Halls cough drops. Heliconia (Lobster claw), Ornamental Ginger, Hibiscus, Beaver tail cactus, pineapple, bananas, papaya, and Rubber trees were all seen in the garden.
From the plantation, we headed to Pali lookout. Pali means steep cliff. There is a narrowing gap due to the mountains coming together. This produced the effect known as Bornoulli. High winds are channeled down through the gap. The Pali pass was used as a shorter way to Ko'olau. The windward side of Pali is covered with moss, liverworts, ferns and small vascular plants. These are considered pioneer species. Lichen was also seen on the rock strata. These species will provide enough soil over time due to erosion and this will allow for larger plant species to settle.We grabbed a bit to eat before heading to the airport for our late night flight to Auckland. While waiting to board, we had a wrap-up lecture of O'ahu and Suzanne gave her devotion on Eph. 2:10. She related the Banyan tree (massive prop roots) to the Christian life. That we need to get stronger by putting down strong roots and how we get stronger is by fellowshipping with other believers.

Day 2: O'ahu

Being wide awake at 2:30 am island time was annoying. I laid there staring at the ceiling hoping I could go back to sleep at least for a few more minutes but that didn't happen. As soon as someone else starting stirring, we all got up and got ready for the day. It was still dark outside when we headed out to tour the grounds of the resort. Seeing the morning sun breech the horizon was lovely. Being up that early we were treated to all the morning calls from the birds. A and I spent time smelling the tropical flowers and collecting some for our journals. There were many varieties of bougainvillea. The flowers are always the same color but the 'petals', which are technically modified leaves, are different colors. The African Tulip Tree was in full bloom and the variety of plumeria (fringapani) was heavenly. Just staying in one spot and smelling the tropical aroma was a wonderful way to bring in the new day.We met in Doc's room around 8 am. Doc gave us some information on the Hawaiian culture like how the Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters and how O'ahu has the greatest population out of all the Hawaiian islands.

Each day a student, if they want to, would give a devotion. Doc would give the first and last devotion of the trip. This mornings devotion was from 2 Timothy 1 dealing with how "God doesn't give us a spirit of fear..." Doc mentioned that we might encounter some things along the way that will scare or frighten us. He stated for us not to succumb to the fear; that we have a greater power to help us over come; for us to face the issue head on and God will get us through.

We loaded up the vans and headed out for the day. Originally we were going to visit USS Arizona Memorial but because of the cruise ships in port the line was extremely long so we decided to do it another day. We headed to Ala Mona Mall to grab food and to look around before heading up to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling.
Hanauma Bay is a Marine Reserve. They limit the amount of traffic to the area daily. Before heading out to the bay, all visitors are given a brief introduction to the reserve along with its history. The bay is a compound crater formed when a submarine volcano broke the surface of the water. Reef and ash material created the crater combs and sea level rose to form the bay. The Polynesians first saw the bay and probably named it for its shape. The sand on the beach is imported from other areas because the original sand is green and visitor's normally have a mental thing about sand any other color than white. Not only are the marine organisms protected but also the land animals within the reserve. One of these such animals is the mongoose, which was introduced to take care of the rodent population but since the mongoose is diurnal and the rodents are nocturnal, it didn't work.

Though the thought of a marine reserve is a great idea, the area was filled more of coral rubble than actual live coral. Yes, there were a lot of marine organisms within the area and some turtles were seen swimming in the backdoor channel but it was still affected with all the human activity. One of the rules was to not touch/stand on the coral but while puttering around the bay several visitors weren't following this rule, which drives me crazy since coral reefs are my passion. The bay provided an opportunity for others to learn how to snorkel without being bombarded with waves.

After a day in the sun we headed back to the resort for our evening class and the night's devotions which was given by Meg on Ecc. 12:1. "Enjoy Life." If it ain't fun, then it's not worth doing!

Day 1: On our way to O'ahu

Our first day of the trip was a very long day. It started at 4 am with us getting up and heading out the door by 4:15. We waited in line to check in our luggage, met the group at the gate, and waited to board the 6:55 am flight to IAH (Houston). This was a great opportunity to follow one of Doc's famous rules: Sleep when you can! At least in Houston we would have a few hours to walk around before boarding another flight to Honolulu. Good thing the butt doesn't have a lot of nerve endings because sitting for about 6 hours from Boston to Houston and then sitting again for about another 8 hours from Houston to Hawaii would definitely cause a lot of pain.
Hawaii is 5 times zones behind Boston. Since they don't observe daylight savings time (we really should get rid of it), Hawaii is 6 hours behind Boston during the months of April to October. New Zealand is 17 hours ahead of Boston. The whole time change thing will be interesting.We got to Honolulu around 5 pm local time (10 pm in Boston) and picked up the rental vans. Grabbed a bite to eat at a local Taco Bell. Since this is a budget trip (roughly $3000 for a month), some of the meals we are responsible for on our own, some meals will be provided, and sometimes we'll chip in and purchase sandwich making stuff. After filling up on tacos, we headed to the Makaha Golf Resort. As Doc stated, we have a long flight in a couple of days. This is a nice rest stop before heading on. Doc released us to our rooms for some sleep, with plans of meeting in his room the next morning at 8 am to start one of the two days we would be spending in O'ahu.

Hawaii/New Zealand...About time!

"I'm heading to Hawaii and New Zealand come the end of the year. Do you think you can come and be the geology expert?" These were a few of the words I heard from my precious ex-professor, ex-adviser, ex-landlord, friend one day back in September 2006. Doc, a local professor at a private college here in New England, has been taking kids to exotic places forever. During my undergraduate career, I was able to head with him on several trips: (1) US Virgin Islands aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts 1994 and (2) Belize 1995. My senior year of college he ran a trip to Hawaii and New Zealand during J-term. I wasn't able to go financially and was a little jealous of those who went and their experiences when they came back. So when these words were uttered in a friendly conversation, my heart sped up and my brain yelled "YES!!!"

Of course being a teacher this reality might not be possible. The time for the trip was Dec. 29, 2006 to Jan. 24, 2007. Yeah, we're talking about me missing half a term from school. I told Doc I probably wasn't going to be able to go but I would ask. See my mom instilled in her kids that it doesn't hurt to ask. This philosophy I use frequently. What's the worst that can happen? Someone says no. So I gathered all the information I could from Doc, talked to the substitute who covered for me the year before, and headed to my superintendent's office for a chat. See the year before, my superintendent approved my request to be gone 2 weeks during January to Belize/Guatemala. This was another reason why I wasn't too confident that I would get the ok to head to Hawaii/New Zealand. Sitting in the superintendent's office I must admit I was a little nervous. So after taking a deep breath, I launched into my persuasive speech. I laid out the pros and cons of having me go, what I was responsible for while on the trip, how I had already spoke with the substitute to see if she was willing and available for that amount of time, and stressed that this wasn't a vacation during the school year; I would be teaching and dealing students basically 24/7. To my utter surprise, he said "Yes".

I walked out of his office in a daze. Did what I just hear happen? Was it real or was he joking? Am I really going to two places I've always wanted to visit but haven't had the chance or opportunity to so far? By the time I reached my classroom, I was eager to call my husband to relay the good news then contact Doc to say, "I'm in!" Of course this meant a lot of preliminary work on my part but oh, I was so not worrying about that.

Prior to heading out on 12/29, Doc had some night classes. These classes are required for those taking this travel course for credit. I decided to attend the classes because I love listening to Doc and wanted to get a look at those going on the trip. I know they say that first impressions aren't always accurate and that 'you can't judge a book by its cover' so when I noticed a few of the students appearing to be high maintenance or a few students who appeared to be going on the trip just to get a suntan, I dismissed these thoughts right away. Spending a month in close proximity with individuals, you'll get to know them pretty well. This is always a fun yet scary thing.

I'm going to be come a shellback (term used for sailors who crossed the equator); I'm going to jump forward in time and then jump back in time (crossing the International Date Line); I'm going to Hawaii and New Zealand with Doc. Let another adventure begin!