Friday, July 24, 2009

A note about the Tooth Fairy

Sometimes, we are blessed, even when we may not deserve it.

G lost a tooth the other day. This one has been coming for a long time. She is really crowded on the bottom front and her new teeth coming in had stopped the baby tooth from falling out, until a couple of days ago. So, we made the usual big deal and made all the preparations. We had to make up her pillows special so that it wouldn't get lost when we read our story. All was good.

G has been getting attached to the dogs lately. H usually keeps the dogs reserved for her room in the evenings for bedtime but lately G has been really pushing to have them in the room with her. We have been alternating a lot and usually, after G goes to sleep, H just moves them. Well, on the night of the lost tooth, G begged and begged to have the dogs in her room, so we obliged.

I then proceeded to forget about the tooth fairy's visit.

G woke the next morning (yesterday) and excitedly looked under pillow to see what prize had been left to her by the tooth fairy. The dogs had actually stayed in her room for the entire night that night. Well, on looking and finding her tooth still neatly placed where she had left it, you can imagine her disappointment. But, as grace sometimes falls upon us ... she quietly went in to see L and said "Mommy, the tooth fairy didn't come last night. I think she is afraid of the dogs."

Last night we made sure the dogs slept with H. The tooth fairy did in fact come to visit and G should wake up this morning with her beliefs fully restored.

Thank God for the mind of a 5 year old ... and for those little blessings we sometimes overlook.

Aloha.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Early Morning Swim

Aloha,
This morning started early. We, B, H and I, left the rack around 0520 and got on the road about 0605 and headed north. The North Shore is pretty barren this time of the day, but a few die hards were already out. We made a B-Line for Shark's Cove. This is a wonderful little cove east of where the really big surfing occurs, that is a great place to snorkle.
We had gone snorkling at the Cove a couple of weeks ago when some friends were here and I was very impressed. The water is very clear and the coral in the area is quite plentiful making opportunities for fish watching regular and interesting. This morning I was pleasantly surprised that our previous visit, in the middle of the afternoon with a small multitude of people there, was nothing, truly nothing, compared to what was in store for us this time.
We hit the water around 0645 and there was only 1 other group of 3 there. The Cove is probably 70-80 meters wide and about that distance out to the rocks that gaurd it from the open sea. Thus, you can see that we basically had the place to ourselves. I knew we were in for a treat when, upon getting out to about the middle of the Cove, I looked out at a distance and my field of vision was just peppered with fish. More to see in this one view than in my whole visit last time.
While H went wading in the tide pools, B and I headed to the shallows opposite to the end where we put in. We got close and B points frantically at this school of fish. We moved in a bit closer and noted a school that appeared to be a couple of hundred strong. As we sat watching, the tide pushed into the middle of the shool past a couple of very large rocks that had previously been blocking part of our view. What we saw then was truly amazing. We were indeed within the school but the size had been rather misleading. Now, looking from the middle out, we saw that the school was not in the hundreds but nearing the 1000 mark. It was remarkable. Parts were so thick that we couldn't see anything behind the fish. They were literally all around us. We sat quite still allowing the eb and flow of the tide move us within this small shallow and thus the fish were not alarmed at us but considered us part of the landscape. They moved in rather close and we felt that we were part of the group.
It was truly amazing. We also saw all of the different types of fish we had seen last time, just in much greater numbers. It was awesome being out there basically by ourselves. We had the whole place at our liesure. The early bird gets the worm.
Today was a great day.
Aloha.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Yup!! you guessed it. We are in official party mode now ... 1 day away.

We did the ABC Family channel marathon over the weekend to prep up ... we have our HP t-shirts (though mine has bleach stains where someone (ahem L, L, L, L, L, L, L ... not mentioning any names of course) spilled it on the back) ... and we've got our tickets (we'll be in line by 10pm tomorrow nite so that we can get some good seats (maybe earlier if I can't get in a good nap due to all the excitement!)) Yup ... true geeks!

That's ok. At least B and H chose to go with me to go to the midnight show instead of friends (YES ... Dad Rocks!!!!!). I better enjoy it while I can!

C'ya there!! :-)

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Summer Vacation

We started off the summer with some visitors from GA, they were mainly here for B but we enjoyed their visit, too. They brought Grandma with them and I think she had a good time as well.
Among their many travels here, they took a day and went to the Water Park and this ride called the Tornado, a big funnel that shoots you into it on a 4-person raft and then you see-saw up and down the sides before draining out the end under a heavy waterfall, had pictures and the girls posed after they had figured it out.
They seemed to like to do a lot of posing, the camera-phone was on, non-stop.
They did most of the usual things ... Pearl Harbor, a submarine ride, the North Shore ... oh, we went snorkling one day and they happened on a pair of giant sea turtles. Now these are endangered so you can't go hunting for them, but if they come to you ... well, you don't have to run away. They hollered for us and we went out and all enjoyed the view for about 10-15 minutes. They were awesome. It was a great day at the beach.

This week, we had our own little 'stay-cation'. I started off the week with a helicopter ride ... we went up to the North Shore across to the east side, then backtracked to the west and all down that side towards Honolulu, then shifted back north at Pearl Harbor and finished there at Wheeler Army Air Field. It was excellent. Sorry, no photo ops for that one.
     The next day, we got up very early and headed south to the Kahala Resort where they have Dolphin Quest, a dolphin training center. I underestimated the traffic delay because, since there were so many of us in the car, we were able to use the 'ZIP' lane and we cut about an hour off of the trip. The girls were exhausted and spent that hour that we had to wait sleeping in the hotel lobby. 
The hotel is VERY nice and would be an excellent place for anyone, bit pricey, but nice.
G got to go on her excursion first. She was with 4 other kids and they spent the first 45 minutes showing them about sea turtles, petting a sting ray, and checking out a bunch of tropical fish in their lagoon. Here, they were immitating a turtle crawling up onto the beach to lay eggs. G really got into the act.
They then went to the dolphin lagoon and got to mess around with a really large dolphin. They had him doing tricks by doing things like waving their hands, spinning around, or marching ...
I was wondering who it was that got trained that day. The kids had a blast. They had the dolphin lay on its back, on its side, rest in front of them and it was absolutely docile. They took them over to a dock and got the dolphin up out of the water for a 'big hug' picture. 
They took a break for lunch and before B and H got to do their thing, we took a shot by the hotel waterfall. The whole area was just beautiful.
B and H got to go in the afternoon and because they were a bit older they got into the accelerated program. They did the stingray and fish thing ...
but then spent most of their time with the dolphins.  They did the 'big hug' shot and all the tricks ...
G got really jealous because they got to do so much more than she did ...
then they got in the water and had a blast swimming and playing around with them. The trainers had them doing all kinds of stunts with the animals including some cool jumps (without the girls on board of course).


They also got suckered into a pose that L wanted ...

and I promised that I would put it on the web for all to see. Luv ya girls.
In the end, G came around enough for a picture with other girls and they had the dolphin doing tricks in the background. 
All-in-all  a pricey day, but as the commercial says ... "Priceless"!!
     On Wednesday, we went on a submarine ride with our friends from my second undergraduate years who came out from Delaware. The sub is pretty nice, seats about 64 people and is basically like an underwater bus. They take you out on a large boat and you embark out in the bay looking back at Honolulu.

We reached a depth of about 105 ft and then circled several man-made/artificial reefs that were just teeming with fish.
The colors were really off because of the water, but they choose not to use artificial lighting to make it a more real experience.
G's shirt was actually bright red, but underwater it turned first purple, then maroon and then brown ... this was early on.Our friends seemed to enjoy themselves, however I am not sure whether it was the views or just him being the clown that he is ... Good thing she was looking the other way, she might given him the what for.On Thursday we went to the waterpark ourselves and we all had a pretty good time. After some emotional steam-letting at the beginning (pent up from spending the entire week with each other), we all chilled and had a good time. G did a bunch of rides that momma was a bit scared to watch, but she just hopped on and got right to it. She had a blast but the sun and the excitement took it out of her. She came home and hit the sack ... hard. We barely got her out of her swimsuit.
As usual, G got hold of the camera this week and as I was downloading the pics, I noticed that she had had one of her fingers over the flash while she was taking the pics. The result was a shadow across the photo ...
Of course, we took some time to go out and eat, we went to 'Cheeseburgers In Paradise' a franchise that has a place here. The burgers were excellent and they had THE best Onion Rings ever. And we had a great cook-out (thanks L) with shrimp and chicken kabobs and all the trimmings.

Yesterday we picked up the next group at the airport, friends from our restaurant days in from Illinois. They're here for a couple of weeks and we'll be sharing some time over the 4th with them.  We then headed over to my bosses house and had a nice outing to meet the new Residents for this year. It will be a bit this year strange as one of the residents that I will be teaching is a full-bird Colonel.

We just chilled out on today, getting ready for going back to work. We met our Delaware friends for dinner (their 3rd time at Cholo's mexican this week) before taking them back to the airport. They had a great time and I think we all agree that we did too.

As we always say, the door is ALWAYS open. You too could be enjoying a fun-filled week on O'ahu. 

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed making them.
Aloha

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Just in case you are living in a shell, 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' is now less that 40 days away. You can get your tickets early on Fandango.com (I have no stock interest in Fandango, just thought I would share this little bit of info). 

The girls and I can't wait. See you there.
C'ya
And yes, this is on my iGoogle Home Page ... pathetic, huh!! :)





Hello again,
Here are a couple more shots of the gang. At the elemtary school, the girls participated in a May Day celebration that highlights Hawai'i's culture and statehood (this year makes 50 years). All of the grades did something. Here, G and the kindergarteners did a dance and song that praises the state bird, the Minor Bird.
You should probably cherish this next one. We sure do!! Here H and her grade did a song and dance highlighting the hula, surfing, etc. This may be one of the only times you will ever see H in a skirt.
When H and I went on our long hike up the NW corner along the Waianae Coast, we had to traverse this little bridge. It looks kind of precarious, however the drop is only about 12 ft (though my brother will tell that 12 feet can do a lot of damage) onto the rocks. The board is a little unstable, but if you lean into the rocks (here on the left) it is really very solid. You also have the rope to stabilize you. Remember, 3 points of contact.
Here is H having a go of it. She was a bit timid at first, but I coaxed her along and, as with most things, the fear seemed pretty baseless after you had completed the trek.
The picture below is the most NW point on the island. The water up here is absolutely beautiful. Very clear and really blue when the depth is right. Here is where we saw the monk seals playing in the surf. The tide pools were pretty deep and some had coral growing in them and had fish that evidently lived right in the tide pool because there some had not way out.
This picture is looking back along the Waianae Coast towards our starting point. Here we were about 1/2 way through the hike and H was a little tired (so was I but I wasn't letting her know that).  This is one of the more picturesque coastlines that I have seen. It woud be great if I could get out on a rock closer to the water and had a wide-angle lens.
This whole area is just beautiful. It is really peaceful as it's a pretty long hike for most and so not a lot of traffic comes this way. You still get some, but it's sparse. It is a nice break from 'town' (that would be Honolulu for all you mainlanders!!)

Hope you all have a great week.
Aloha!

Friday, May 29, 2009

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 ...
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