We were standing in the lobby of the hotel and the woman at the counter was fretting. She didn't seem too stressed out, just a little concerned that she couldn't get the information she needed. She'd stopped in to use the phone to call the ferry service, but no go, this was Moloka'i and Moloka'i time is a suggestion, at best.

But we'd overheard, we were standing right there after all. And we'd just decided that day to forgo the ferry because man, oh, man, do I get seasick. I was miserable on the crossing two days earlier and I was not going to do it again. "Hey, I don't mean to be eavesdropping," I said, but we've got ferry tickets and we're not going to use them."

So we got to talking. Connie was staying on the other side of the island and had left her wallet back at the hotel - she wanted us to stop by later and she'd give us money for the tickets. "No can do," we said. It's not that we couldn't stop by, it's that we hadn't paid for the tickets ourselves and we were not going to take her money. We were unable to reach the ferry company as well - we'd wanted to call and tell them we weren't using our seats.

After we finally convinced our new friend to take the tickets already, we got to talking. We told her what we were doing in Moloka'i - working on a travel guide - and she told us about how she spends the winters in Hawaii and in the summers, she runs a lodge up on Glacier Bay in Alaska. "Cool!" I enthused, and told her how much I wanted my sidekick to see the Last Frontier. "You come on up, we'll have you as our guests!" I handed her a business card and told her to drop me a line.

We tried to say our goodbyes, but Connie wasn't totally convinced that she could walk off with our tickets without some kind of compensation. "I tell you what. Why don't you send us something small from Alaska when you get back there? I'd love that.Anything. Even a postcard would be great." "Oh! I know exactly what to do!" She smiled broadly, shook our hands again, and thanked us one last time. We both shook our heads and laughed; it was a sweet little moment.

Today the post came and there on my porch was a white cardboard box with an Alaska return address. I started to laugh out loud. "Hey, look! We got a package from Alaska!"

I admit, I wasn't really expecting anything at all. It would have been fine if she'd forgotten all about it. I'd have forgotten too, until we found ourselves in Glacier Bay saying, "Remember that nice woman on Moloka'i?" But now, every time I look at Connie's gift, an Alaskan native-carved whalebone boat - it's little, about the size of the palm of my hand - I'll think of Moloka'i and Alaska and travelers making friends across the wide Pacific.

We don't currently have any plans to head north, but we know where we'll go when we do.

Here are some beautiful photos of Southeast Alaska.And here's one of my favorite Alaska bloggers.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.