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