Hello again.

Last week we were priveleged to be invited to another Hawaiian 1st Birthday Party. If you EVET get the chance to go to one, DON'T pass it up.

The party started with a traditional (modern) Hawaiian band. They play ukalele's (pronounced 00h-cah-lay-lay), string base and guitar. The ladies sing kind of a yodle-type sing-song and it takes a bit of getting used, but is very nice.

They then had a bunch of 'aunties' that did some traditional hula. It's not all about grass skirts and 'belly-dancing' girls. Traditional hula is about a story. All the songs have a story to tell and the dance depicts the story. Most of the ladies were older and all did a great job. I apologize if the pics are small, hope you get the gist. I had to use my phone as we forgot the real camera ... my fault?!?

The little kids got a ticket when we came in and they got to go to the candy table. The helpers filled out a bag of candy with whatever the kids wanted. It turned into a throng and fortunately/unfortunately it was right behind our table. G got her share and of course, since she was the only one that went, the other sisters were waaaaay jealous.

Next, they had a group of Hawaiian, or Japanese, can't remember, Tiku drummers. I think actually it is a Japanese tradition that has been adopted and altered a bit to suit Hawaiian needs, but don't quote me. This group had about 7, some older, some H.S. age. They were flat awesome, often I could only hear them as only 1 drummer (and while I don't study anymore, I can still tune my ear and be picky if I choose to). WAAAAY cool!

Of course, what would a Birthday Party be without a mascot ... they chose Elmo and the kids just ate it up ... all except G. I asked if she wanted to go up and dance with Elmo and her response was "NO (exagerrated and 2 syllables)!! I HATE Elmo!!" Sorry Elmo, not my fault, I love you!!G then had to go off and have her face painted. We weren't there and as result this is what we saw on her return. Oh, well, no harm done. It all washes off.

They also had a table of cotton-candy/popcorn, a traditional Hawaiian Buffet (pronounced boo-fay) that included kalua pork, rice and all the other tradition luau trimmings, free beer (Heineken ... they weren't goin' cheap), a clown that made some amazing balloon animals and such to include a monster truck that was made of 54 balloons, a massive cake and cupcakes (of course) and then the finished with a local band that plays music like 'Jack Johnson'.

We truly had a great time. There were probably about 200-300 people there. They really know how to celebrate life here.

Our best to all of you.

THANKS LISA, it was a pleasure to celebrate with you.

Aloha

Day-Hike to Manoa Falls

Hello again, been busy but wanted to be sure to share this.

Decided last minute to take a hike today as the other 2 were busy so L, G and I went to Manoa Falls.

Hike starts out entering the lush tropical rain forest on a pretty mellow trail. The trees are huge and striking.

As the trail starts to thin and become a little more challenging, this is the first posted sign ... not actually what you want to see, especially when rain is predicted ALL THE TIME up here in the mountains above Honolulu. But what the heck ...

Decided to try out my five-finger-shoes. Good choice. I highly recommend these to anyone. The trail was muddy and slippery and I had no problems. They get muddy, just rinse 'em and keep going. I had no trouble keeping my footing and found that the rocks didn't bother me at all. Check 'em out.

Had to stop G and take a pic of this. This a 'branch' that fell off the larger that is visible in the background. The 'branch' was attached at about 20 ft from the ground and the entire thing broke and fell across the trail. Way amazing.

L after successfully crossing one of the many muc pits. I was quite impressed with her balance and agility today ... as well as her lack of complaining.

Here we are at the top getting ready for photos. Again with the no complaining, don't know who switched my wife with the alien look-alike, but I wanna thank 'em.

The falls ... about 160ft cascading falls ... well worth the trip. It was about 1.25 miles one-way and took about 1.5 hours all together.

On the way down, it finally started raining, but thankfully it didn't last long. G loved the whole thing "especially the mud". She was almost covered from the waist down by the time we finished.

The old growth forest was amazing. See G for referenece. It was so cool ... most of it is just raw and untouched. Beautiful!

Several areas of thick bamboo growth, too cool.

view at the the bottom. It was a great trip all around. Everyone had a blast and none are worse for wear.

Hope all is well for you.

Aloha.

Family's Here!!

Hello all, Aloha.

Well, Family's here. The troop arrived on Wed, took a day to recoup from the flight and then today, off for some fun. Me and Big Brother decided to take in a hike and found Koko Head Crater to be the right place. There is a trek that runs up the left side (in this pic) that is an old railroad track, i.e. ties as stairs, and track running bottom to top.

Here is a view from near the beginning. There are 1048 steps most of which require just a little kick to get up on to, none are just easy, natural step size.

Stopping about 2/3 of the way for a breather (we actually only took one break for about 1-2 min.) looking up at the last 1/4-1/3 of the trek. At this point the ties are laid out almost like a ladder (not quite, but who's gettin' picky!!)

We made it to the top in about 20 min. It is a good trek but wouldn't recommend for those not in pretty decent shape. We didn't have a lot of trouble but got winded pretty good. The view at the end was well worth it ...

gotta get that 'shaka' in ... looking down on the SE shore of O'ahu ...

looking back at Honolulu and Diamond Head Crater ...

looking SE you can make out Molokai pretty easily and if you're good and know what you're looking for, Maui sitting just behind. This was the best view of this I have ever had ...

Looking at Hanuama Bay in the background. We took about 20-25 min to recoup after the hike up and here were just waiting to get started on the way down. No matter what you did ... tough on the knees.

All-in-all a VERY nice hike.

We'll put up more from their trip as it gets taken :)

Mahalo for reading.

Aloha!

Once in a Lifetime

Aloha to all,

We were fortunate enough to experience a truly unique, truly Hawaiian treat today ... we got to go to a special showing by the artist Wyland. If you haven't heard of him, he is the guy who paints the waterscapes on the sides of buildings. He is celebrating 50 years of painting by doing shows at all of his galleries and we visited the one in Honolulu/Waikiki a couple of months ago and fell into an opportunity to have him paint us a picture at the show. So here's a few pics from the evening ...

He started the evening with some updates on what he is doing in the world right now ... he is becoming a really big environmentalist and the Wyland Foundation does quite a bit for different issues concerning mainly ocean life, but now all endangered species. He quickly got down to the business of painting a picture during the show (not ours). Here is the transition from beginning to finished product.

He starts out with what he calls a 'ghost image' ...

he adds layers, and layers, and layers, of color ...

he adds highlights ...

some finishing touches ...

aaaaannnnnddddd ... voila ... finished!

The ease with which he did this was amazing. He truly has a gift ... he says it is all in his mind's eye. He also says he has a 'grid' in his mind over the picture so that no matter how big or small the medium, i.e. canvas or building, he paints the corrects size (anybody thinking of Mozart here!!).

Anyway, he then proceeded to do the commissioned paintings, there were 5 of them. He did it in a style he took from a Japanese art style. He has a book with about 120+ of these in it and we got to go through and pick what we wanted. He then painted it with us up front. L says the 'Whale Tail' is just 'Classic Wyland' and 'Classic Hawaii' so that's what we chose.

Starting out with the fluke ...

adding the other side ...

working in the tail ...

adding some personal touches (the original doesn't have the water) ...

the finised product and the gang. Unique Original, signed and dated. Pretty cool.

It was also his birthday yesterday so we sang Happy Birthday and got to share in some birthday cake. G took some time to ham it up ...

and then she just HAD to have a photo by the dolphin.

We topped the evening off with some dessert from CheeseCake Factory. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday nite. $$ - don't ask :|!

Other than that, life is good. B started marching band and they are going to Japan this year so Mr K is Mr Hard_ss and isn't letting them off for anything. She's also still doing gymnastics and is getting a little Muscle on her ... quite impressive. H is still doing horses and gets better all the time. (she doesn't know it but we may be leasing one and getting her and G some more saddle time). G got her eyes checked last week and is, as they say ... 'blind in one eye and can't see out of the other' ... actually almost literally. Her right eye is REALLY far sighted and her left eye has decided to just hang out and not develop. We are trying to train her eyes up with glasses but may need to go see a specialist ... we'll see. Otherwise she is our 2nd TomBoy and would rather spend her day outside in the dirt with the boys than anywhere else. L is hanging in there ... wishing summer was over so she could get back to her normal routine (beach by day, backyard couch by nite :)). I started another resident class, 5 this year, and they seem to be ok ... so I'm busy as crap ... AGAIN!!

Hope your having a great summer.

Aloha!!

June Events

Hello again,

We did the annual Resident Welcome ceremony and the boss decided to celebrate a couple of promotions at the same time. B finally came along and joined the picture. G is in the water behind H. Somebody must have made fun of L to deserve that look.

We always take a nice group shot with all the gang. It was and is always a good time.

Took a little time out for myslef this morning and did my first Team Triathlon, The Firecracker Sprint Triathlon. The held it at Barber's Point right next to the Coast Guard Air Station. The race involved a 500m swim (in open surf), a 20k bike and a 5k run. For Team Triathlons, 1 person does each leg ... I did the swim. Here is the team (anybody recognize my shirt - about 20 yrs old).

Here is a view of the lane we used after the swim when transitioning to the bike ...

The pre-race prep is kind of crazy ... this is at about 0545. I was pretty impressed at how many were there.

They assign everybody numbers, mainly so they can assess penalties if you do something wrong, there were quite a few rules. Here I am showing off my 'guns' (more like pistols ... reminiscent of Bugs Bunny when the arm dangles down instead of bulgin up, huh!)

The transition is a little tough as you have to switch off the chip, which is attached to a velcro band. You have to wear it around an ankle because the sensors are inside mats that you run over and they only work at a distance of about 18-24 inches. Here are my partners switching between the run and the bike.

It was an absolutely beautiful morning, and best of all not too hot. Our runner was by far the best of the team ... he rand 5:10/mile for the whole 3.2 miles and almost caught the 2nd place team. Here he is finishing up ...

The 1st place team was probably about semi-pro ranking, their swimmer is in on the UH team and yesterday he finished 1st in a 1 mile race in open ocean on the North Shore. He smoked my by about 4 minutes. I finished only 17 seconds behind the 2nd place team's swimmer. Not bad for a newbie. We finished 3rd for the men's team category (out of 4, but hey, we still got a plaque).

AND ... we got the T-Shirt!

As always, hope you are all well.

Until next time.

Aloha

FINALLY!!!

Hello again. Not so long between posts this time.

Well, just after my last post, H and I took a trip with the Senior class of the Residency and went to Kauai. We had a GREAT time. Kauai, better known here as 'The Garden Isle' is extremely diverse and has lots to see. H and I found that the best view came from an Ultralight.

H and her pilot taking off.

This little job was absolutely awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone, antime ... for anywhere (Birds of Paradise, Kauai, HI). I told L when I got back down that we'll be buying one of these babies before too long. The flight was very stable and actually pretty comfortable. The motor is a 4-banger that has enough umph to get you going about 70mph and then your off.

We took off and headed for Waimea (wih-may-uh) canyon and then flew straight to the Na Palli coast line. It was about 0620 and as we came out over the water just as the sun was coming up over the coastal range ...

Na Pali Coast. ~1700ft cliffs nearly straight out of the ocean.

H's pilot waited until she got relaxed and started enjoying herself and then he started hot-dogging a little. He was doing dives and banks, climbs and then cruising right down over the water ... she had a blast.

H over one of the hidden beaches on the Na Pali Coast.

Another view ... better scope of how big it all is.

We spent about 40 minutes over the canyon and the coast and then turned to head back. As we were coming toward the airport on the south side of the island, we moved out over open ocean and as I looked to my right, I caught site of a Hawaiian trademark ...

Rainbow in the rain over open ocean.

Back on the ground, H was nothing but smiles ... until the pilot went to take our picture and asked us to put our backs together. H says that he told us to give our best 'James Bond' look ... I sort of missed that message.

Later that day, we did a hike up in the Canyon that finished on the Coast. Some of the views were absolutely breathtaking. They call this the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Rumor has it that Mark Twain named it thus when he made his trek here in the late 1800's. (only problem ... Mark Twain never came to Kauai). Anyway, see for yourself ...

The view from the cliffs above the Na Pali coast was absolutely stunning. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. After a 3 mile hike, this is your reward ...

Sometimes, words just don't do it justice.

A large group of the residency ohana (family) went and H made some really good friends. We went to the Waimea Beer Garden for dinner after the hike. It was great. We had a really nice room reserved for the group so we could get a little loud and not worry. A perfect way to end the day.

That week we also had a nite out on the military base there at Barking Sands Military Reservation. The restaurant was ok and after we did Karaoke. H was on it and had all the guts as she got up and did one 'a capella' ...

She was a big hit.

We arrived home safely and this past week my big day finally arrived. I made Major. We had a small ceremony at the clinic with most of my closest co-workers there. We get to choose who 'Pins' us and so I chose my Residency Director and, of course, L. She's been there for every one except 1 (in the Ohio Guard) and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

My Commander got to say a few nice things about me and then I got the plaque that makes it all official.

L was a little upset about being upstaged.

It's always good to have good things happen, but nothing would be worth much if you didn't have your family with you (B was there in spirit). Everyone got to 'Lei' me ... it got a little hard to breath.

At least everyone smiled at the end.

Here's wishing you all well.

Until next time.

Aloha!