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.

Kauai: Day 2

Since we mostly were in the air yesterday, this is our "actual" first day.
Keith called last night to tell us there is going to be a firing of 2 test missiles tonight up on the west side of the island at the missile range. So tonight we will go there and then take a picnic up to Palihale beach for sunset. Wow.. a missile firing...I just love doing out-of-the-ordinary things when we are here. The concierge at the condo didn't even know about this one! I'll post some pictures later.

This morning we went to the Orientation meeting-free coffee and donuts-uh-oh, the donut was not raw! Oh dear. I won the drawing for a free surfing lesson. That will be interesting!

We are waiting for Joy to get here so we can go snorkeling. She is about 10 miles away from us at Kahili in a cabin- inland.

We are off to Poipu for some snorkeling.

Kauai: First Stop

Well, here we are, back in our favorite spot, Kauai! I am going to try to do a daily blog, but, no promises! Of course, our first adventure is in our other favorite spot, Costco! We have to browse the store and see all the neat, weird fish-items that we don't have in Woodland. I didn't get the seaweed salad this time. But there is a nice tub of cut-up papaya and the Kauai coffee to buy.
The weather is warm and overcast, with rain off-and-on during the day.
Joy, our sister-in-law, met us at the airport with beautiful leis. She has been here for 5 days by herself. She is practically a native!
Joy and I are going to try to eat just raw food...we'll see how long I last.

Emmett

Todd and I are very sad today because we had to take Emmett to the vets for one last trip.
He was a perfect dog! He never had an accident in the house, even as a puppy. He never chewed any furniture. He was always friendly to guests and children and babies. He was a perfect "gentleman" dog. People really loved him and would stop us on the street because they had never seen a dog like him. We called them the "Little Big Dog". We will really miss him. We will miss seeing him run and get a stuffed toy for us whenever we came in the front door. He has been with us for 15 1/2 years. For a Shar-pei, that is almost twice the lifespan! Luckily, he had a little lab blood in him to give him that hybrid vigor. I think Spot will miss him too. He was her best pal and they had lived their whole lives together.

A Beautiful Baby Ballerina

Annalisa is the cutest baby girl in the world! ( I know, I have probably said that before, but wait until you see her!)..  Annalisa is also the baby with the chubbiest arms and legs. I mean, did you know that baby arms come in 5 segments? So these pictures are the result of Annalisa's first photoshoot by Todd & Barbara. She has had plenty of pictures taken of her in her short 7 months of life. Her Grandpa and Gramma  take great photos and put them on Flickr for us all to see. She lives up north, so we don't get to see her in person as often as we'd like. But we take what we can get when she comes to visit.


"Just watch what I can do to this pink peony!"

"See? That's what those big flowers are for!"

"They are just a nuisance here!"

"See? I don't need no stinkin' flowers. I AM the flower!"


Just look at these arms. Don't you just want to eat them? Look at all the segments! They are so precious!

And the wrists!! wow . Mom promises she didn't put rubber bands on her wrists. And look at the little dimples on her hands. Don't you just love them?

And the same goes for the legs and feet! More little sausages and rubber band ankles! Wow!
soooo soft and squeezable. What a little doll!