Defining terms

What I have learned: It is well worth the time to look up definitions, rather than just trying to bluster through as people talk (or while reading maps and guidebooks, especailly while reading maps and guidebooks).

So, here goes:
Archipelago: From Italian (Latin?) "Chief Sea"; a stretch of islands within a sea, or a sea studded with islands. Interesting (to me) no one defined it as an "arc" of islands, which is what I would have said. That said, or not said, Hawai'i is an archipelago.
Oh, 2 things: one, in the spelling I used, "Hawai'i", the apostraphe is because you are supposed to articulate a "glottal stop" between the i and the i. Try that.
And, two, you think of Hawai'i as about six, maybe eight islands, but there are a lot more, many of which are almost eroded, at least far enough that they are somewhat / mostly submerged. And the archipelago (look it up) stretches some 1500 or more miles from the northwest to the southeast. The islands you (and I ) know as Hawai'i are more toward the sourheast, and there is even a new one being formed, even as we write, more southeast of these visible ones.

Windward / Leeward - the archaic pronunciation was Winnerd / Leward, but is now the more obvious pronunciation (and the only one this Brooklyn boy could use).
Oh, the definitions: well, the words can apply to different situations, like the sides of ship, but what I care about is how the words refer to the island "I am living on". In that case, Windward is the side of the island subject to prevailing winds, and Leeward is, well, that is obvious now isn't it?

While we're about the coast, "Makai" means toward the ocean while"Mauka" means, well, not toward the ocean, and since these are volcanic islands (more later on that) that means toward the mountains.

Ah, those moutains, which are not mountains (more, much later on that). We are in Honolulu, and living a bit "up" one of the valleys that cut down from this range toward the sea (I mean, "Makai" - look it up). There are trade winds (I learned about them in 4th grade) that flow from the northeast (toward the southwest). These winds come off the water, and are quite, well, wet. That air hits the (windward!) coastal range, rises up the not-too-tall peaks, where it is cooler - and voila, rain. Once you are more leeward (look it up) than the peaks, there is a rain shadow - an area of less and less precipitation, as the air has lost its moisture.

So, let's review: water is dumped a lot and often on the coastal ranges, which is in our back yard (sometimes, quite literally), and then further down into Honolulu (the center of the city) and the south coast beach (Waikiki), it is much drier (& hotter). Hence, the pictures that I think are posted of our walk up to Manoa Falls show that it was a bit wet for our trek. That trek was back up from the part of the valley we live in, up higher further into the range, and hence wet.

There are more words to learn, more geography an weather to live. But, that for another psot.