I vacation more than my parents. There just wasn’t much money or time to drag four little kids on vacation each summer.

We had Buffalo Creek’s swimming hole, and a few sandbars along the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, but no real vacation.

Our kids have journeyed with us (dragged is also an appropriate term) to a few dozen states, and juicy vacation destinations-- Florida, New York, California, Washington, DC, Chicago, the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon.

A few years ago we took a cruise to Hawaii. That isn’t very special except that we live in Hawaii. The NCL cruise took us to the Big Island, Maui, Kauai, and back to Honolulu-- with a mandatory stop in Fanning Island, almost 1,000 miles south of Hawaii.

What’s the attraction on Fanning Island? Not much.

The only reason NCL goes there is because the US requires foreign ships that dock between US ports to have at least one destination not in a US port. That nearest destination is Fanning Island.

It takes about one full day and night to get to Fanning Island from Hilo, Hawaii, and another full day to get back to Hawaii. That’s when cruise passengers eat the most, drink the most, wait the most, hence, “weigh” the most.

Fanning Island is a day-long visit. The natives are pleasant but in need of dental hygiene, and probably other forms of health care. The islands (there’s really more than one) are flat-- no hills. One bad storm and a few large waves and everyone gets wet.

The natives sell small hand-crafted trinkets to the tourists who show up by the hundreds each week.

I wonder what they think of us? They move slowly, don’t talk much, need to visit a dentist, and probably have never read a Cosmopolitan magazine, or worry much about the Mideast.

Looking at the hoards of travelers visiting their little island, I’m sure they wonder why we eat seven or eight meals a day.