MORE FROM PRINCEVILLE

Aloha! Well Jackie and I found out today that our niece Kolten will be headed to the Marine Corps on Dec 8th. She will be joined there by our nephew Dylan as soon as he graduates in June. Jackie and I would like to say how proud we are of them and how courageous it is for them to make that decision especially with two wars raging and it being more likely that a third will start than we will have an end to the other two! It has been raining most of the day here on Kauai so Jackie and I have stayed close to home watching a little tv and napping. Jackie is fixing meat loaf for dinner and I hope to beat her at dominos afterwards. We might be able to talk Cory and Alex into joining us as Cory has the night off. It would be nice to have the extra eyes to keep Jackie from cheating but she will probably find a way anyway! In the video clip at the end of the slideshow we wanted to show you the windows they have in the bathrooms. The windows have liquid crystal panes that go opaque with the flip of a switch so if you flip the wrong switch when you get out of the shower you can flash the entire room! Kind of neat huh!

ROYAL SUITE

Aloha! Well Jackie and I went back to the Princeville Hotel today for a bit more snooping. We really enjoy being able to walk thru and look at things with out having to worry about disturbing anyone. It is hard to capture just how grand the place is. The main reception area is huge! It makes you feel as if you have wandered into an area designed for people much larger than you are. Kind of like that old show 'Land of the Giants' which was one of my favorites as a kid. We posted some of the video that was taken in the Royal Suite. It, with the Napali Presidential Suite are the two premier rooms of the hotel. They are slowly opening the entire hotel up. We still have about 5 floors yet to explore and some of the other areas as well such as the cinema, the spas and most of the meeting rooms. The main grounds will probably stay off limits as they are working on the renovation as we speak.

BACK IN THE WATER

Aloha! Well our day was a bit more productive than yesterday. We were able to watch the race and Jackie was able to get caught up on the laundry and she even found the time to cut my hair so we had the entire afternoon free to snorkel. We normally avoid the beach on the weekends as we like to give the poor souls that have to work for a living the chance to enjoy the beach on their days off but with the visitors count being down like it is the beaches aren't too crowded now even on weekends. We had nice conditions for our snorkel...partly cloudy skies with light trades and about 80. The water was nice also with pretty good visibility and not much chop. We ran into our honu out pretty close to the buoy. This one is a bit bigger than the one we have videoed in the past. I had Jackie go ahead of me hoping if she could get near enough you would have something you could gauge his size with. This honu is what we would consider mid-sized with the one we normally video being closer to small.

SATURDAY

Aloha! Well it's Saturday and Jackie and I have managed to get thru this day with out doing anything worth writing home about! Guess that's the problem when you start the day with the tv on. I found myself surfing thru the channels hoping to find something of interest to watch and today all I could find were a few football games and a little racing but nothing that I wanted to watch all the way to the end so I watched snippets of a lot of things but would be hard pressed to tell you what they all were. Real exciting, huh! Jackie worked in the garden some and solved a few of the puzzles in her sudoku book. Like I said, a real exciting day for both of us! Jackie did talk with some of the family on the phone today so our day wasn't a total bust. Sounded like they all were having a good Saturday. Mom was out watering her yard. Jerry, Jaynee and Kinzi were with Brian and his family at Brent and Ty's school for a carnival. Jaynee promised photos so we are looking foward to seeing them on her blog later! Tommie had been to Aberdeen to have her hair done and Ruby was baking pies for a get together she was having with her family at Rickys. We thought that we would share a few of the photos we took when we had friends and family visit. We needed them here today to encourage us to get off our duffs and do something!

PRINCEVILLE HOTEL

Aloha! Well Jackie and I had a very interesting day. We went to a sale they are having at the Princeville Hotel. We weren't really interested in buying anything but it was a good opportunity to see the hotel. It was an eye-opening experience! They opened everything up and let you wander thru looking in any of the rooms so Jackie and I were able to see two different suites that rented for over 5000 dollars a night!! They both had kitchens with doors that open to the hall so your chef could come in and prepare your food and leave with out going into the main suite. Guess if you pay 5 grand a night and order room service you get a chef instead of a cold plate from the dining room! The bathrooms were unbeliveable! You looked out onto your private lanai from the jacuzzi and the view was awesome! I know Jackie and I will never willingly pay that kind of money for a place to sleep but it was kind of fun to be able to see how the jetsetters live. The sale is going to be going for at least a month as they are selling everything right down to the plumbing fixtures. They are doing a major overhaul and it won't open back up for at least a year. Jackie and I will be going back again and we will try to get some better photos. Today we walked around with our mouths open like the two yokels we are!

CHICKEN OF THE SEA???

Aloha! Well Jackie and I decided that we had put our trip to town off as long as we dared. We were going to be forced to buy some of our staples from the Foodland in Princeville and that makes almost as much sense as grocery shopping at 7-11 so we put ice in our cooler and headed to Costco. Jackie found most of the things she was looking for but they are still missing some of the things we used to get. Guess that's just how it is at Costco...if you see it and think you might want it you had best get it while they have it because it might not be there next time! That philosophy is why Jackie makes me stay in the car while she shops. Her philosophy is if they don't have it you probably didn't really need it anyway! Other than our trip to town we have had a pretty laid back day. We spent a huge share of it on the lanai drinking coffee and enjoying the nice weather.

FRESH BANANAS

Aloha! Well its been another glorious day here on Kauai...the temperature in the low 80's and light trades. We have spent the day thinking about things we want to do during Mom and Dad's visit. We want to show them everything our little island has to offer but we don't want to wear them out with too much stuff crammed into a day! We have found one of Kauai's biggest assets is its a great place to just relax and talk story and we definitely plan on doing a lot of that! As you can see from the video, Jackie and I harvested another bunch of bananas today. We still have over half of the other bunch left so we are going to need a lot of help eating them up. You know, if you are not real busy Jaynee, maybe you can come on over and bake some of your delicious banana bread! I'm sure we can bake enough for everyone...just a thought!

MR HONU ACT III

Aloha! Jackie and I just wanted to let you all know that we have been monitoring your weather reports and have heard from both Cindi and Jeff about how cold it is getting over there and it is not even October yet! We made reservations to visit in January...what in the world were we thinking? We are going to freeze to death...about 65 is as cold a temperature as we have seen in over 2 years! Hope there is a kiosk at the airport where you can buy earmuffs and thermal underwear other wise we are doomed. No way can we make it to a Walmart before we freeze! Back to much warmer thoughts...Jackie and I went to Anini this morning snorkeling. The water was nice with just a little wind chop. We did have a few rain showers come thru but nothing that lasted more than a minute or two. We ran into Mr. Honu again this morning. He was in a new spot about 20 yards from turtle rock and he was willing to swim with us for a bit. After we left him we swam on out to a spot near the buoy where we have been seeing the stripebelly puffers. There were two of them out there but they were being very anti social this morning and swam away after seeing us. We saw a lot of threadfins along with a bunch of moorish idols so all in all it was a good snorkel. One we will have to keep in mind when we are freezing our okoles off visiting you guys in JANUARY!!! What in the world were we thinking?

SCATTERED SHOWERS

Aloha! Jackie and I awoke to rain showers this morning and it has rained off and on for most of the day. We haven't minded though as we never really had anything we needed to do outside anyway and we have enjoyed listening to the water rush thru the rain gutters on our lanai. We did cut another bunch of bananas from our yard so we will have fresh bananas for our cereal for at least another week or so. Jackie has a large pot of soup on the stove or to be more precise our two burner hot plate! She also has cornbread cooking in our toaster oven and she has fried up a mess of fresh okra from our garden so we will be eating good tonight. Jackie and I got an earlier start to our day than what we wanted as we had police sirens headed towards Princeville starting at about 5:30 this morning. We would have 2 or 3 go by, then in about 10 minutes we would have 2 or 3 more go by. They kept this up until well after 7. Never knew Kauai had so many patrol cars! We found out on the news tonight that they had a standoff with a 27 year old local from Kilauea. Guess it started as a domestic dispute and escalated from there. He was holed up in a house just down the road from Kong Lung Center towards the lighthouse so the police evacuated the neighborhood and closed the road. We saw all the officers down there when we went to the postoffice but never knew what was going on until we watched the news tonight. Guess the standoff ended with the guy getting tasered around 10:30 this morning. The Kauai police said that was the first time they ever had to use their tasers! The first photo is of a red sunflower from our neighbors garden. The next was taken on the trail to Queens Bath. The next two were taken on our trip to Oahu. The first is Diamond Head from Waikiki and the last is Sunset Beach.

AHOY MATIES

Aloha! Jackie and I were looking back thru some of our photos and came across these pics of two of the orneriest pirates that ever sailed the seven seas! The good news is we have learned that these two desperados have given up there swords for school books...guess they wanted to learn how to read and such! It has been a very laid back day here on Kauai. We watched the race this morning and have spent a large share of the afternoon looking at pictures or napping. All in all a very pleasant way to spend the day. Jackie is talking tacos for dinner tonight and we should have time to toss the frisbee around before we need to start them. I think getting out of the house for a bit will make us both appreciate supper a little more! We have a real nice yard with lots of room for frisbee and Jackie and I have found that tossing a frisbee around can be quite relaxing...not that we need to get any more relaxed than we already are!

ANOTHER DAY OF SUNSHINE

Aloha! Well Jackie and I have had another beautiful day here on Kauai. We went to Anini snorkeling this morning and had a nice swim. We didn't see a whole lot of fish but enjoyed ourselves just the same. Snorkeling is a great way to exercise. It's easy on your joints and by using the fins it gives you enough resistance that you can get a pretty good workout. At least it makes us tired enough so that a nap in the afternoon feels pretty good! Jackie and I really enjoyed reading Jeff and Jayma's blog this morning. We are looking foward to being able to keep up with what's happening in their life. The video of the blackstripe coris was taken yesterday at PK's beach. According to our book this fish is supposed to be pretty rare. It was about 20 inches long and the largest coris we have seen. We also wanted to show you an ember parrotfish which is the largest parrotfish in Hawaii. The one we showed you is a female. The males look entirely different as they are predominantly light green with blue tints and a dark blue marks around their mouths.

SNORKELING ON THE SOUTH SHORE

Aloha! Well Jackie and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head to the south shore for a little snorkeling. The water was a bit surgy but once you got away from the beach its wasn't too bad! You need to be very careful entering and leaving the water if it is rough. You have to watch the water pretty close and enter between the swells. It's not really too hard if you are paying attention. We had a great snorkel...saw a lot of fish and got some good video. We even got some video of a male blackstriped coris. These guys are suppose to be rare but we are pretty sure that that is what this fish is. We will post it next time as we already have about 4 minutes on this post.

CLEANER WRASSE

Aloha! Jackie and I have been enjoying another great day here on Kauai. The weather has been in the low 80's with lite trades. We have just been hanging around the apartment today as we can't think of anything pressing that needs our attention. We did get our ballots mailed for the primary election and decided that McDonalds sounded good for dinner so it was off to Kapa'a for an evening of fine dining! Told Jackie she could order any three items she wanted as long as it was from the dollar menu so we both had chicken sandwichs, fries and cokes...not a bad meal for about 6 bucks! It costs almost that much to eat at home! Not sure what we will do tomorrow. We might head to the south shore or maybe Tunnels or we might just make it as far as the chairs on our lanai. This being retired is a pretty good thing and very easy to get used to!

BUGLI

Aloha! Well as you might have guessed from our earlier post Jackie and I went snorkeling at Anini again today. The water was a little choppy but when you go later in the morning that's the price you have to pay. We ran into Mr. Honu at turtle rock and he agreed to swim with us again. I don't know about you guys but I'm beginning to think Mr. Honu is a bit of a ham! There were a few times in our swim when I felt he was playing to the camera as he would slow down as if he thought the camera and I were falling too far back. Jackie and I went all the way to the outer reef again today. It's a nice swim and we saw a ton of fish along the way. Jackie was able to see the stripebelly pufferfish. He was getting a cleaning again this morning but swam off before I could get his picture. We did get some video of the cleaning wrasses that we may post in the future. We posted a couple of pictures of Bug. For some reason I've been thinking of her lately. She would have loved Hawaii as she was always looking for the warm spot! She would find a little ray of sun and make herself at home. She also loved to get in the clothes when you would take them from the dryer so as you can see she was in heaven in the second photo as she had warm clothes and a speck of sunlite! The next photo was taken this morning of Mr. Honu at turtle rock. The last photo was taken during Mom's visit.

MR HONU RIDES AGAIN

PROMISED VIDEO

STRIPEBELLY PUFFERS

Aloha! Well Jackie and I got back into the water this morning and the conditions were prime! Maybe there is something to this karma thing. We faced our obligations and mowed yesterday and today we had an awesome snorkel. We saw a lot of fish and the conditions were almost perfect. Jackie and I ventured all the way out to the outer reef today. It's a pretty good swim and one we won't try unless the water is clear and calm. We were rewarded for our efforts by a stripebelly pufferfish. We swam up on him as he was being cleaned by two cleaner wrasses. The larger one kept trying to chase the smaller one away but was not having much success. After we watched and filmed this for a bit the puffer decided he had had enough of us and swam off. Hopefully his cleaning was about finished! We also saw a smaller stripebelly puffer resting by some coral. I thought I was getting some good video of him but turned out I was wrong. Every time I zoomed in on this puffer my focus was moved to about 6 inches over his head. We did the same thing to giant porcupinefish. It sure would be a lot easier if I could see the view screen thru my mask. Some times I can like when I shot the turtles but at other times its just a point and pray kind of shot! There were a lot of threadfins out today along with a few bird wrasses. There should be video of both the male and female. We also saw the largest hog fish we have seen to date. All in all it was a very good snorkel with lots of different fish and to top it off Cory and Alex were waiting at our chairs when we got back to the beach. The had just come down to the beach to talk story with us...something that would not have happeneda few years ago!

MOWING DAY

Aloha! Well Jackie and I ran out of excuses today so we finally got the yard mowed. I really don't mind the job its just hard to get started sometimes. We got a call from our friends Ryan and Tiffany inviting us to their house for cards or a movie so we will be heading over there in a little while. We always enjoy seeing them and never have to look for something to talk about. They are quite a bit younger than us and sometimes the relationship is reminiscent of the one between the Ricardo's and the Mertz's except Tiffany is no way near as scatter brained as Lucy but Jackie is almost as tightfisted as Fred which is a good thing now that we are on a fixed income! Sorry about not having any new pictures but we found these that you might enjoy. The first photo was taken at Zack's gradutation party and the next was taken at Kenyons on my last day. Jackie took this photo while she was waiting for her job to start. It worked out real well for us to be able to drive to work together as Jackie normally hung out at Kenyons for about a half hour in the mornings before heading to her job and I would usually finish my job about 30 minutes before she would come and pick me up. It made for a little longer work day for both of us but being able to ride to work together more than made up for it. The next picture was taken on Jackie's last day at work. Notice that Jackie is actually working. Guess from what I've heard she did that at her job quite a bit which, as most of my co-workers will confirm, is a concept that is totally foreign to me! They will tell you that that photo of me could have been taken on almost any day at Kenyons! The last photo was at Mom's house in Marysville not too long before we retired and moved to Kauai.

WAY TO GO BIFF

Aloha! Well Jackie and I have had a very enjoyable day. We were able to watch Nascar this morning and to snorkel this afternoon. Believe the person who coined the phrase life is good must either live on Kauai or at least visit often as Jackie and I do feel our lives are truly blessed. Neither one of use can think of anytime in our lives when we have been more at peace and looking foward to what each new day has in store for us. Our lives are not perfect though as we do miss our friends and family so much and sometimes the urge to to run home and give our grandsons a big hug is more than a little bit tempting but we know that we will be flying home in January and will have a chance to get a few hugs and kisses then! We shot the video clips this afternoon at Anini. The humuhumunukunukuapua'a was about 10 yards from turtle rock and she must have been protecting her nest as she kept chasing the saddle wrasses away and did not run and hide like these guys are prone to do when they see us. The video of the honu was taken a lot further out than where we normally see the honus. We were snorkeling out pretty close to the buoy when this guy comes swimming by. We followed along with him for a little while and could have reached out and touched him at anytime. I had to slow down so he could get far enough away so I could film him. This honu was a bit bigger than the one I filmed the other day.

COUCH POTATOES

Aloha! Well it's been beautiful over here today...low 80's with light trades. The kind of day that just makes you want to head outside and take in all of natures many wonders. You know the kind of day that would have kept us at the park all day when we were kids not coming home until dark or maybe not until Mom would come to find us! Well even though it was that kind of day here Jackie and I managed to spend it inside watching tv or napping. I will have to take full responsibility as I kept watching the hurricane coverage and football. Seems every time I would think about going outside and enjoying the beautiful weather I would find a reason to stay glued to my chair! The day wasn't a total loss though as we got two pieces of wonderful news. First, Jackie called her Mom and she said she had talked with Patsy and every one in Houston made it through the storm ok. They didn't even have any water or power issues at the moment so that was much better news than we were expecting! Looks like the relatives in Oklahoma and Missouri are going to be facing a whole lot of rain and stiff winds later today and into tomorrow so we will keep our prayers with them. The next bit of news is Mom and Dad are coming to Kauai!!!!! They will be coming 10/26 and staying untill 11/4. Our landlord Vasil said it was ok for them to stay here with us so we will be able to come and go when we want and not have to rush around in the mornings to meet them somewhere. Think that will make it a more relaxing visit. As we didn't get out to take any new pictures I went thru my older photos and picked out a few of some of our more unusual fish. They were all taken at Anini. The first two are of a stripebelly puffer. These are the largest puffers in Hawaii, growing to about 19 inches. The next two are of a flying gurnard. These guys are really neat! They have these huge winglike fins that they use to dig things out of the sand with and they will also blow the loose sand with their mouths looking for stuff to eat.

GARDEN PICTURES

Aloha! Well Jackie and I have had another wonderful day here on Kauai. We drove into Lihue this morning to get the oil changed and the safety inspection sticker renewed on Cory's car. While we were waiting for them to do that we walked down to McDonalds for a cup of coffee and a breakfast burrito. It's so nice being able to just relax and not have to worry about how long something takes or worry about how many things you have to cram into your day! We were able to just sit down and enjoy our coffee and talkstory...one of the many perks of being retired. Jackie and I have been watching tv this afternoon. Looks like Ike is going to bring a lot a lot of misery to Texas. Hope everyone there is prepared and as ready as they can get. We decided to post a few pictures of our garden. We took them yesterday.

BARRACUDA,STARLINGS,NEEDLEFISH

Aloha! Well Jackie and I have been very busy today. The weather was not real condusive to mowing the grass. We had rain showers off and on for most of the morning so rather than run the risk of getting on the wrong side of karma we pulled weeds in the garden instead. We had been neglecting that chore a little bit and just hitting the high spots so today we buckled down and ridded our garden of those little buggers...at least for a day or two! Jackie also put on a little Miracle Grow and dusted the tomatos with a little sulphur to stop the blight. It was a very pleasant morning as Jackie and I talked story through out the entire chore. It sure makes the job a lot more pleasant when you have someone to share it with and it sure dosen't hurt that Jackie did most of the work and I did most of the talking! Of course that's old news to anyone that knows us! After cleaning up and while Jackie was getting things ready for supper I thought I would try and put a few of our video clips together. Sorry for it being so long. One of these days Jackie and I are going to need to invest in some software that will allow us to edit our video clips. We need to find one that is real easy to use as neither one of us is very savvy with a computer. These clips were done with our old camera and the quality is not as good as what the new one will do but hope you all will like it anyway.

MID-WEEK BLAHS

Aloha! Well Jackie and I had a few choices to make this morning. We could either mow the yard or go and play at the beach. Now my choice was to get the yard mowed but Jackie over ruled me and said we should go play at the beach. Now if any of you believe that's how it went this morning I want you to stop reading this now and go and check your medications because I'm sure you have them mixed up! It probably says 1 pill every 12 hours not 12 pills every hour! Anyway, I will try and be a bit more truthful now. I sweet talked Jackie into putting the mowing off for another day so we could go to Anini and snorkel. We had such a nice snorkel yesterday and I had hoped that we could top or at least match it today. No such luck! The water was lousy. It was full of bits of sponge and the clarity was abysmal. We looked around hoping to find a spot where it might be a little better but did not have much luck there either. We finally gave up and came home. About the only thing we saw today was a whitemouth eel and the video I took of him was mostly wasted as I had the camera pointed about about 6 inches over his head. All in all not a very good morning. I told Jackie we needed to defrost the refrigerator and wash the car and get all those other little projects done this afternoon in a attempt to get karma back on our side. So far we have done the refrigerator and I'm going to wash the car as soon as I finish posting our blog. The first two photos were taken on Maui at a place called The Seven Sacred Pools. It's near the end of the paved portion of the Hana Hiway. The next two photos were taken in our yard...the one I should have mowed today!