Hey, All

Well, I just chastised because Luce's pride-and-joy wasn't posted on the blog. So ... here it is.

Here is the magical pantry ... one step inside and all your cooking dreams come true, Well almost.

Problem is ... she has it filled with much more than the actual FOOD that it is supposed to be filled with. Ah, Well, it's fun for her ... so me TOO!

Aloha

Hey All,

Had a good day today ... did the Haleiwa (that's Hah'-leh-ee'-vah) Metric Century Bike Ride. It's 100 kilometers (62 miles) ar0und the northern 1/2 of the island.

Here we are at the starting line. We started at 0730. There were about 800 people who attended. I set myself up about in the middle and it worked out pretty well that way. There were some nice people ... some REALLY nice bikes ... and a great venue for the day to start.

This is the 50k Turnaround/Aid Station. They provided fruit, energy drink, water, and bathroom facilities (which were much needed at this point. The Hawaii Bicycle League puts this on and they do a really nice job of supporting the riders and having stuff for us to rejuvinate with.
This is the 100k Turnaround. We've gone about 31 miles at this point. Problem today was that the 15 miles just before this were dead into the wind and it REALLY sucked. The only thing I was looking forward to at this point was being done. The 2nd 1/2 turned out much better though since this time I was riding WITH the wind. Made life much easier and the return trip MUCH faster!!
Here I am at the finish line. Had to ditch the shoes as soon as I could as they are hard and stiff and my dogs needed a breather. I was a little stiff, WAAAAY hungry, but really felt good about finishing. I had never gone more than about 30 miles before. Today, my GPS read about 57 miles for the trip ... but I rode there from home so Luce could have the car and I added another 12 ... so I was covered.

I was hungry all day afterward. I just couldn't eat enough. The GPS said I burned about 6100 calories ... no wonder!! I am now a firm believer in the carbohydrate gels ... had 2 today, wish I had had 4. I will next time.

Here is the map of my travels today. As you can see, we covered the northern 1/2 of the island, well probably about the northern 3/8. That's ok. I will be doing the 100 mile ride this fall and that will cover most of the other parts of it. Total time was 4 hours almost on the dot. Finished at 1128. (The map says more, but I had left the GPS timer on while we were waiting to start, etc, so it's a little off.)

All in all, a VERY good day.

Hope yours was, too.

Aloha

moving in

Hey all,

got the chance to move into a new house for the remainder of our time here. It is a lot bigger and has some good character. Take a look.

Our Bedroom

The Living Room

The Family Room

H's Room Part 1

H's Room Part 2

The lanai

Kitchen

G's Room

Dining Room

B's Room

It was a totally crazy time ... L had to go home for a bit right when we moved. Me and the girls did it all except the fine tuning of where it all went ... had to wait for L for that. Had a LOT of help with the actual move from the clinic fold and the new neighbors ... couldn't have done it without them.

L got back and got right on putting things in order. This was the result. We have a lot more space and room for just about everything INSIDE. The Lanai isn't quite done, just gotta wait for a couple more paychecks to finish that. Should be good.

Offers are still open for visitors ... just call ahead for reservations.

Aloha

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!!