the tourist season is upon us ...

Hello, it's been awhile ... not much, how 'bout you

Well, the summer tourist season is upon us and we're almost all booked up.  Hope your reservations are in. 

     We just finished our first round and man did they have a good time. The first was our Nanna who came for an extended stay of 2 weeks, eat your hearts out. She spent a good deal of time with L as her tour guide and really had a good time. They did the usuals ... the circle island bus tour, Dole plantation, a Luau, Matsumoto's Shave Ice, walking on the North Shore beaches, (saw some turtles which is always cool for everyone) ... 

This one was out a bit and we got the shot with the digital zoom, thus the fuzzyness. Anyway, she got to go to some of the girls activities one of which was the Special Keiki (that kids) Rodeo at the horse stables where H volunteers. A good time was had by all, especially G who got to go out and enjoy some extra-curricular activities with the Rodeo clown. I caught her in an act she might not be too happy showing off ... but we are.

This was just too fun to watch. H got her turn in the spotlight when she got to go through an obstacle course as part of the rodeo demonstration riders. She really enjoys the outdoors and the horses. It's a good thing ...

Nanna really got a kick out of the different kinds of trees. This is a unique tree here, think it is a Banyan tree, but not sure. Anyway, the roots grown down from the branches until they reach the ground. It is really interesting.

This tree is the rainbow tree. Appropriately named, the wood under the bark is multi-colored and very cool to look at. 

During the trip, Nanna took the walk along the Wainae coast, we've shown some pics of this already, and H and I went on to take the walk around the northwestern-most corner of the island and then back along the North Shore. All tolled, about 6 miles we think. No actual roads but good dirt road trail. On the way, you pass an Albatross breeding gound at the NW corner ... 

These guys are huge, again this is with digital zoom from about 30-40 yards away. I was expecting an all white bird. 

     We went on from there to the coastline and had a great time checking out the tide pools and a couple of monk seals frolicking in the shallows. We were looking at one tide pool that had a bunch of tropical fish in it when H turned around and yelled at me to take a look, so I turned around and saw this ...

These guys were right in front of us, this was taken with no zoom. I took it and high-tailed it out of there. Way cool.

     We went on to finish the hike, however H didn't fair so well. The walk really took its toll toward the end and she just had to stop and collapse on this rock for a while. We were doing the backpack thing as a way of getting her used to carrying a pack ... we're planning a trip to Yosemite next spring. Hers only had her 4lb sleeping bag in it. 

What a great day.

     We also had some good friends out from Montana for this past week and a good time was had by all. We really miss our Cleveland family and it was great to have them here.

     Well, we have reservations for friends for beginning and end of June, early July, and mid Aug for right now so if you want to come this summer get with us real soon. We are also planning our own little local trip for vacation so we'll be out of the loop for the last of June. 

Hope this finds you all well.

Aloha

Trekkies??

Just in time for Star Trek ...

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090506-tw-warp-drive.html ... a link discussing the possibilities of warp drive.

http://www.space.com/technology/top10-star-trek-tech.html ... a link to a site discussing the top 10 technologies from Star Trek.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yrdEe95Hs0 ... a link to the new official trailer.

Can't Wait!!

http://www.startrekmovie.com/ 

Yeah, total geek here. 

At least I admit it!!

Aloha

Hello again,

Hope everyone is well.  We've been doing great.

We have been trying, once again, to take in a bit more, and new, scenery. So ... no long stories, just some pictures and some dialogue ...

H and I decided to go on a short hike up what is called Kole-Kole (Koh-lee - Koh-lee) pass. It is small saddle between two peaks on the mountains that separate the central part of the island from the western side (or Leeward side as it called here). This was the view from the top. A sign at the start of the trail tells of a great rock that was used as a sacrificial altar during ancient times for the Hawai'ian royalty. H decided to get a bit silly and took a seat in the 'chair' in the rock.

(hey uncle D, does this remind you of anyone??)

Anyway, we walked around at the top for a while and scrambled down this short trail and we ended with this view ...

The top photo shows the western side just north of a town called Waianea (Wi-ni - long 'i' sounds). There is a beautiful hike along the coast that takes you (if you want to go) all the way around the north-western tip of the island and then back along the north shore to just north of where we live. There is no road that traverses that area. We took part of the walk and here are a couple of views from about midway from the park north of Waianea to the north-western tip. The first is looking south ...

and this is looking north ...

It doesn't get much prettier than this. My co-workers say this is a great hike in the winter as the whales are pretty plentiful, as well as dolphins and other sea life. The entire walk to the tip takes about 2 hours. We went a little over an hour and the little ones, all 3, got tired and hungry so we turned around. Next time ...

On the return trip, G spotted this unique rock form and I had to take a staged shot. This was too cool. Total shark attack ...

The water here is far enough from the city and Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force base to be extremely clear.  The tide pools were beautiful and many shots like this one were taken.

There were also some cool rock formations. This is a natural arch that faces north-south (I fell taking this picture on some volcanic rock that looked stable but when I stepped proved otherwise. I looked like a total tourist and everyone had a great laugh even though I got a nice strawberry on my elbow and knee.)

We also saw some land dwelling creatures. This crab was hanging out just catching some rays while he waited for the tide to bring him some lunch ...

All in all it was a very good trip. Anybody up for a hike ...

This past Thursday, I got the chance to visit G's school during 'Community Helper' month. They had been visited by Firemen, they had gone to the Mayor's and then they decided to choose me. It was way cool as the teacher asked me to show some really gruesome pictures so we did. Some were very grossed out and others thought is was just as cool as we did.  I also took some time to dress up in my surgical outfit to show them that I was still me even though I was all draped up.

This is a pic of G giving me the traditional welcome/thank you ... a Lei. I actually enjoyed myself pretty well. The teachers have such a hard job. My hat is off to you, teachers, who help us raise our kids. THANKS!!!

This morning. L, G and I went on a drive down the southeast side of the island and went to the 'Pali' (Pah-lee) lookout. This is a site where the last battle for control of the Hawai'in islands took place. You can see by the photos, the cliffs were very steep and I cannot imagine climbing those to mount an assault on the home team. The island in the background below is Kaneohe (Kah-nee-o-ee), the marine corps base here. Again this is all on the south-east side.

G took after her big sister and decided to get a little silly. See the road down below. This is a really steep hill ...

Here's trusting you all have a great summer ... looks like we'll be seeing some of you very soon.

Aloha