Sunday in Kauai- August 9

Today we drove back to Tunnels after brunch. Jan and Joy fixed a delicious brunch of fresh fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon (that Todd barbequed), and blueberry pancakes.

We all had a great time snorkeling at Tunnels. Todd's underwater camera was not working, so we knew we'd see great fishes. We saw the most beautiful school of large fish ever (of course). It would have made a beautiful picture. There were at least 50 fish in the school, right in front of us. They were beautiful. They were "grazing" on algae on the coral. They looked like beautiful leaves blowing in the breeze as the current swept over them. This is one time when a picture would have said it all.

We drove back to Kapa'a, showered and dressed in time to drive to the airport to pick up Art, my other brother. Joy was very excited to see her hubby, since they had been apart for a month. Art had been on an expedition to Banks Island, then on a lecturing tour. So for tomorrow, we will all be together. Hopefully, Davy will be able to spend time with us too, tomorow.

Jan, Tom, Art and Joy at the airport.

We had dinner (again) at Hamura's, then drove home to sleep.

Joy, Jan, Art, and Tom eating their Saimin Bowls.

Saturday in Kauai

Finally! I have caught up on my blogs and it actually IS Saturday!
Keith called and we are set for a trip up to his reserve at 2:00pm. He will be with the movie directors, scouting the location for a new movie. And we all will be tagging along. We will be met at the gate by the Sheriff, a friend of Keith's, who is a real character. So that will be fun.

Davy is going to meet up with Sean and Isa, down at Hanalei. He is disappointed he won't be able to go with Keith, but the timing just isn't working out. He and Sean might do a little surfing at Hanalei bay.

Correction: We drove Davy and the 2 surfboards to the Retreat House where the wedding people are staying. Davy decided to just remain at the retreat, so we left the surfboards with him there, since he is staying there for the next 2 days.
What a good choice that was! When Todd and I got to Hanalei bay, there were absolutely NO waves!! It was calm like a pond! So I called Davy and told him the news, so we made the right decision.

This is Hanalei Bay through my sunglasses. Not a wave in sight!

We met up with Joy, Jan and Tom in Hanalei and traveled on to Keith's reserve in one car.
There we met Keke and Logan, who are scouting for the new movie "Predators", and we packed into two trucks to drive up the mountain, with Keith as our guide. I got to sit in the nice, air conditioned Tundra truck with Carl, the Sheriff. everyone else had to sit in the back of the truck.
Needless to say, my trip was very luxurious, with a good supply of gum, peanuts and popcorn, and no mosquitos. In fact, I stayed in the truck the whole trip! everyone else jumped out at every stop to go with Keith and the 2 scouts to see more detail. Carl and I sat and talked about everything under the sun, especially the Bible! He used to be a pastor and he knows so much about the Bible, I learned alot!

This is the rear view of a feral pig. This is what the hunters come here for.

We are waiting for Keith to come to open his gate.

Logan, Keith and Joy looking around for details.

This is Keith's valley.


You can see that the road is not traveled very often.


We left at sunset. What a great day!

Friday in Kauai

Today Joy and Jan left at 4:00 am to go on a boat trip to the Napali coast and snorkeling off Niihau
island. The rest of us slept in 'til at least 7:00 and then went for a swim in the pool, then had breakfast. We watched from our balcony as a man cooked bacon on the barbeque. We called down to him to ask him how to do it, then as soon as he was finished, Todd took our bacon down and we ended up with perfectly cooked, crispy bacon to have with our grilled pineapple and eggs.

We met Joy and Jan at 3:00 in the afternoon at the Kauai Coffee Company. They had had a wonderful trip at sea, saw schools of dolphins, and beautiful fish.

Look! Jan and Tom discovered a leaf just for them! It says "Tom loves Jan '09". What a surprise (don't let them know that we had been there days earlier)

We drove up to Waimea Canyon for the beatiful views and then on up to Koke'e State Park to the Kalalau Valley Lookout to watch the sunset. It was cold and raining, so some of us sat in our cars to warm up while Todd and Davy kept watching and photographing. When the sun started to set, we could see the sky clear up so we all dashed back up to see the sunset. It was still cold, about 60 degrees (we, of course were dressed for 80 degrees), but worth the wait.

The Kalalau Valley on the Napali coast. This is the view from the lookout.

and then the beautiful sunset.



It was dark when we drove down into Waimea (of course), and we still hadn't had our picnic dinner (which Tom and I had fixed in the morning), so we finally found a spot with a picnic table and lights...at the Waimea High School! There was a football practice going on, so we had some entertainment while we ate!

Right down the street was the Waimea Foreign Church. Keith had taken us there last trip, so we knew all about it. It used to be called the Foreign Church in the 1850's because the services were held in English. It was very beautiful in the moonlight, so Todd and Davy took some shots. You can click on the link to learn more.
The Waimea Foreign Church in the moonlight.

Thursday in Kauai

Today we drove up to Princeville to visit Noreen and Steve. We had met Noreen back in January and we really had a fun visit with her then. So we were looking forward to meeting her husband, Steve, this trip. He is great fun, too! They took us to the best snorkeling place- Tunnels- and we all had a great time there. There were 2 turtles to follow, and many beautiful fish. Todd took some wonderful pictures. We all got sunburned because we were having too much fun out there in the clear water. Then Steve treated us all to Subway sandwiches which we took back to their place to enjoy. Noreen loaned us 2 surfboards so Davy and Tom can do a little surfing later.

We met Isa and Sean, the bride and groom, who are getting married on Monday. Davy is here to photograph part of their wedding (and he is a guest- Sean is a good friend). It was amazing that, with all the people at the beach at Tunnels, Davy could actually find them. On the way home we stopped by the beautiful "retreat" where the wedding party is staying. It is a perfect spot for their reception.

We had a delicious barbequed chicken dinner and played "Apples to Apples". It is a really neat game.

Steve and the turtle.

Wednesday in Kauai

Today David arrives! I can't wait to see him!

We drove to Ka'a beach and snorkeled all afternoon. The water was perfect. We saw plenty of fish, and Jan followed a sea turtle for quite a ways.

I'll put pictures up later. Just wanted you to know what we are doing.

David arrived at 4:30. We greeted him with a beautiful lei made by Angie at Kahhili. Joy is so thoughtful that way, ordering leis for us all for our arrivals! I greeted him with a hug and 3 spam sushi rolls. He was very hungry, so I'm glad I got them for him. Keith introduced us to the spam sushi a couple of years ago. They are my favorite food here. You get them at the Liquor store in Hanalei. Yummy!!!

Joy and I took David shopping for some clothes to wear to the wedding on Monday (there goes my "I'm never going to shop again" vow. We spent some time at Hilo Hatties (not Walmart!). Then we went to the Coconut Plantation and David got some nice Croc Flip-flops.

Jan and Tom fixed a great "Costco" dinner, and then off to bed. We were all pretty tired from the snorkeling.

Snorkeling at Ke'e Beach.


Joy and I await Davy's arrival with a beautiful ginger lei and a little bag of Spam sushi.

Davy devours 3 spam sushi rolls in the car. He is wearing the gorgeous lei that Angie made for Joy to give him. (by the way, I just got a call from the head desk, and when Joy went to the front desk to pick up the 2 leis a friend had made for her, the guy handed her the wrong leis!! this ginger lei had been delivered for someone named "Blake"!! whoops- and it isn't from Angie, it's from the local florist and is probably very expensive!- and why did it take them 3 days to call us?). So some poor couple is out 2 vey expensive ginger leis. I wonder where ours are!


a nice wave shot out at the jetty near the airport.

Back at the condo, Barbara teaches Jan a little hula dance. She is wearing her Private Quarters shawl as a sarong.

Tuesday in Kauai

This is the day my brother, Tom, and his wife Jan arrive. It will be fun to see them tonight.

We started the day with a morning swim in the pool and did some hot-tubbing in the cold spa.
So it wasn't hot-tubbing at all. It had just been filled with fresh water. The maintenance man said it wouldn't be warm until 9:00. It was 8:00 when we went in, so I knew I would not be in it for an hour. The cold jets were probably better for my back, anyway. Todd has finally figured out how to keep his mask from fogging up (yea, Google), so he tried that out in the pool. Joy and I have been washing our hair at the pool and beach showers, so we don't have to take another shower when we get home. That's a great way to save time.

Most of today has been spent catching up on my blog! Our computer is so slow, it has become quite
time-consuming. But I must be faithful to our fans and friends!
Besides...it's fun to show off our pictures!
Joy is out walking and doing a little shopping. We are entertaining the maintenance man while he fixes our plugs. He is cutting off the power now, so I have to stop.

Monday, Day 5

We swam and snorkeled at Poipu Beach. The water was kind of murkey from the rains, but still was nice to swim in. There were 3 sea turtles riding the little waves right near the beach, so everyone got a close look at them.
After the swim, we headed to Walmart to look for a couple of items. It was a disaster, depending on what point of view you have...Todd's or ours (Joy's and mine). Joy and I started shopping in the clothes department, so Todd went out to the car to wait...and wait...and wait. I think I tried on everything there was in the store. I ended up with a couple pairs of shorts and a top. It was dusk when Todd showed up in the store again... his battery on his iphone had run out! I was wondering why he hadn't been looking for us earlier. Then we went to Kmart to shop some more. We showed Todd where a plug was and a wheel chair, so he sat in a corner on the wheelchair and plugged in his phone to recharge, and was happy again. Kmart was not such a great place, but I found a pair of pants marked $21.00 on sale for $3.00.

Shopping is not a good sport for me. It kills my back and my Sciatica really flared up. I was in great pain and had to get home and put an ice pack on my back while Joy fixed a nice dinner.

Breakfast in Kauai

This is what we ate for breakfast yesterday. Now I know how a monkey feels.

Kauai Day 4 maybe

Today, Saturday, is the day of the International Tahitian Dance Competition. We really wanted to go to that, now that we "know" two of the competitors!

First thing that happened in the morning, my camera would not work. We had left the windows and balcony doors open all night and that made the room so humid, my camera batteries would not work! Then Todd was trying to fold up the hide-a-bed and not catch the sheet in the mechanism, when he found out later, much to his horror, he had caught the computer cable in the bed and had snapped the cord! It was a near-tragedy! I had a Private Quarters sale to enter and the computer battery was running low quickly. So I called Keith and he gave me a name and number of a reliable camera man. So I called Joe Olivas
and told him about our two dilemmas. He said he could probably fix the cable, so I asked him where his shop was, and it turns out, he is right across the alley from us! Wow! Not only in the same town, but on the same block! Such good fortune!
We had a fun chat with him about our mutual profession (photography) and then we left the computer cable with him. He had it fixed in a couple of hours. Luckily, he had been an electronics engineer before he became a photographer!
My camera seemed to have dried out enough to work again, so off we went to the dance competition.
The dance competiton was a lot of fun.

There he is again, Mr. Mayor of Kauai! and yes, he is a big guy! He sat on a "throne" with elders around him on the ground for the Awa ceremony. Two beautiful virgins served them all a bit of Kava as part of the ceremony...just a sip or two. It was part of the Tahitian custom.

Then came the Keikis! They were adorable...ages 4-6. The little tiny girls could shake their hips as well as the adults. The little boy was great!


This is Mia, concentrating like any athlete before her turn. She was in the 10-12 year old group.

Isn't she lovely! She was really good! Beautiful form and talent.

One of the excellent young men. They are a little more wild then the girls...great athletes also.

And here is Maria, Mia's mother, who was amazing. She and her daughter are so talented! It was really fun "knowing" some of the competitors! I hope we get to see them dance again when they are back in northern California.

You can see more pictures on our Flickr account in our 2009 Kauai set. We'll be adding photos to it regularly (or not regularly...just check it once in a while.)

Kauai Day 3?

I've already lost track of time...the Islands do that to you.

We drove to Kahili to pick up Joy at her little cabin. We spent Thursday night there. It rains here every night, so it was neat hearing the showers on the rooftop.

We took a walk around Kahili and saw the pretty flowers and plants.

On the way out to the road, we saw this Palomino standing in a strange way. On closer look, we could see that she was standing over a faucet and had the handle of the faucet right in the perfect spot to scratch her itch! She just ignored us and leaned back and forth, scraching a little tiny spot on her tummy.

We stopped at the Kauai Coffee Plantation for a tour and sampled all the coffees. I think we each drank the equavalent of 6 cups of coffee that morning!

In case you don't know, this is what coffee beans look like.

From there we drove to Salt Pond and swam in the ocean for about an hour. Not such good snorkeling, but perfect for swimming.

Todd's hair is now on Hawaii time as well.



Friday evening we had a real treat. I could hear some soft ukulele music outside, so I stepped out on the balcony and there, across the grass, by the sea, was a most beautiful, romantic scene.
I could see a handsome man playing his ukulele and singing as his wahine danced the hula before him. I loved how he sang to her and never took his eyes off her as she danced so gracefully.
It was after sunset, so the light was low and the waves seemed more gentle than usual. In fact, the music of the waves seemed to join in with the music.

It was fun to see the two daughters come up from the beach and join in the last dance.
Such a beautiful family! We called down to them as they came by and thanked them for the "show". It turns out they are from Hayward! and they are 2 doors down from us in the condo.
They are here for the international Tahitian dance competition on Saturday, in the park just a couple of blocks away! They invited us to come and see them if possible!

The Missile Launch

This is still the first day (thursday):
you would have loved to have been with us the first day in Kauai!

We got to go onto the Navy base-- we had on our car a sign that said, "Guest of the Commanding Officer". I think Bruce must have called ahead or something. We don't know how we got in. We were ushered to a classified room with dignitaries, and watch the launch of the ICBM for a test. it was amazing. we were in the room in our swimsuits with coverups on, with about 50 dignitaries and guests.
The Admiral's wife was there and the mayor of Kauai, Senator Inouye's Rep, and Riki Ellison (49er super bowl in the 90's) -he said he had been inspired years ago by Ronald Regan and his "star wars" in 1983 and has ever since been a spokesman for the military and missile defense- he is the chairman and founder of the "Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance" (for a great shot from sea, see: http://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/)

We had it all explained to us first by one of the R&D engineers who had developed the missile, then we all ran out to watch the launch of the ARAV ballistic missile target in person, then ran back in to see the video of the target missile actually being hit (3 minutes after launch) and demolished by the interceptor missile 100 miles up in space~! it was amazing. This missile hits the target on its ascent, which is different. As we waited for the launch, they had to push back the launch time by 10 minutes because the space station was flying by up there!

When the missile was intercepted perfectly, everyone clapped...just like in Houston!!
They said this launch would be on CNN and the North Koreans would see it, and Hawaii is now a safer place.
This launch was a part of Regan's dream coming to fruition.

We were waiting to photograph the second test launch outside when one of the officers came up and told us to put away our cameras and to erase anything we had already shot. So we left the base and drove out on the highway to get shots of the launch.

Joy called out "Oh Mister Mayor, Mister Mayor, can we have a picture with you?" (he's a big guy! and very friendly) That's Keiko, out hostess walking behind us.

I don't know if you can see this clearly (all my picts will probably be straight out of camera)
This is the second test missile. If you click on the picture you can see it full-sized.


This is the neat spiral trail the missile makes as it twirls toward its target.
The little trail to the left is a part of the original missile that has separated.
The ship fiiring the intercept missile is about 125 miles out at sea.