ALOHA... and some Random Hawaii Pictures

I have a few pictures that I left out of other posts and some new ones. Above is a sign I had made for Skye at the Dole Plantation. I stood there as the artist painted it. He charges $1.00 a letter. It took him all of three minutes to make this beautiful sign.

...and above you see a picture of Skye and I on one of the 3 sets of steps / stairs as you climb Diamond Head. This set has 99 steps.

Gunstock Ranch in the rain. It is beautiful.

Tuesday Skye and I got a ride to Hukilau Beach and walked down to the Malaekahana State Park.

It was a pretty day for a stroll on the beach...

Then we waded through the water, sometimes up to our waist, and went out to Mokuauia or "Goat" Island which is a Shearwater Bird Sanctuary.

We were the only ones on the Island and the day we went was lovely. We snorkeled for a while and then hiked around the perimeter of the Island before heading back to shore.

We came to shore at the state park where Skye's sweet neighbor, Carrie, came and picked us up.

Carrie and her boys, Caleb and Matthew (Bubbers). Carrie was kind enough to take us several places and loan us her car on occasion.
Thank you Carrie!!!

Some of the Ladies from Church wanted to learn to quilt, so on Thursday the Feb. 24, we tied a quilt and today I bound it. Here is Colleen and Shawna...

Sister Tofa, Rhoda and Sister Lakatani and myself. We had so much fun. These ladies are the best and they just adore Skye and Ryan.

Here is a picture of the apartment house where Skye and Ryan live. Their's is the middle door on the left. Their Studio Apt. is 10'x20'. It has been cozy!

It has been a wonderful 22 days and I will be sad to leave Skye and Ryan and my new friends, but I am excited to get home and be with my kids in Idaho. Hopefully Darryl will get home from Mississippi before too long.

Aloha!

ROAD TRIP!!!!

On Tuesday we packed our bags and headed to the leeward side of the island and the resort community of Ko Olina to house sit for friends for a few days. BTW/ the domes built by Dome Technology in 2000-2001 are almost visible from their house.

Ryan and I rode the motorcycle while Skye (who was still sick with her cold) stayed home and rested until Ryan picked up the car and went back to get her and our luggage. It was a fun ride but my bum was sure sore by the time the 1 hour 15 minute ride was over.

Tuesday it was drizzly and cloudy most of the day. We drove up the coast in the evening to see what was up there. The sunset was beautiful but I forgot my camera. We made up for the mistake by spending time that night at the pool and hot tub. Se la vie.
******
Wednesday was Swap Meet and DIAMOND HEAD day.
I have no pictures from the swap meet. I mean, it hasn't changed at all in 3 1/2 years. My sprained ankle was killing me so we decided to eat lunch and rest my ankle before taking on the climb. We ate lunch at "The Counter". A build your own burger place in Kahala Mall that served up one of the best burgers I have ever had, and the sweet potato fries were fabulous. Hillary, Daniel Dae Kim is part owner of the restaurant, but we went because of the great food reviews.
Then off on our next adventure.
Yes folks, even with a sprained ankle I decided I had to climb Diamond head. It was worth it!

Skye leading the way up the main trail after getting off of the sidewalk.
This was not a smooth path.

Skye and Ryan on the path going up.

Coming out of the tunnels and winding stairs.

The views from the top.

Somehow I missed putting the pictures of the stairs on this post. There were two sets of steep stairs. The first has 78 steps and second 99 and probaly 30 on the spiral stairs at the top. I will post them later. I just kept telling myself that if my 81 year old mother-in-law could climb the 200+ steps of the Daytona light house with her bad heart, then I could climb this. BTW, Peggy climbed Diamond Head when she was in her 60's.

Pearl Harbor

On Thursday we went to Pearl Harbor. This is my third time to visit the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Park and USS Arizona Memorial. I am stirred by a overwhelming sorrow and and thankfulness for all who served our country so valiantly during WWII. The other two times I have spent nearly all of my time in the museums but this time, before we did the USS Arizona Memorial Tour we decided to look at a few other things.

 

Ryan and I checking out the periscopes that were located by the Conning Tower that had been removed from a Submarine.

Skye shows her skills at working the Hatch and the wheel and setting the bowplane dials.

 

 

Taking my turn at the helm.

A picture of the entire conning tower. It always looks so much bigger in the movies. Go Figure!

Ryan standing beside a Japanese one man suicide torpedo.

In front of the Submarine USS Bowfin.

  

After we finished our tour of the grounds we went on the Tour to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was raining, so I don’t have pictures from the memorial, but some things are better kept in our hearts.

Playing at Ko Olina

Skye and Ryan took me to the beaches at the Marriott Resort near Paradise Cove. The first thing we saw was an endangered Monk Seal. He pretty much took up most of the beach. :-)

  Then we went up to the Aquarium tanks and saw the sea life. Starfish….

 

Rays…

..That colorful little fish with the funky name…Humuhumunukunukuapua’a….

Some pretty yellow tangs, a Unicorn fish, Parrot fish and of course…

 

Sharks! I guess these

Bonnet Heads are the reason they call them the Shark Tanks.

Skye and Ryan also checked out the new Disney Resort that is nearing completion.

I don’t know what these little plants are, but picking them could be painful. They were in boxes surrounding the shark tanks.

The following day (Yesterday) we went back up to the beach and over to Paradise Cove to do some snorkeling. It was cloudy and the water on the open sea was rough, but I did get to see a few things before it started to rain. The whole time we were in Ko Olina it was Cloudy and overcast so unfortunately I didn’t get any sunset pictures. But we had a ton of fun anyway!