GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE TO 2008

Aloha! Jackie and I have been enjoying a marvelous day here on Kauai. We had a few rain showers this morning but nothing that lasted very long. The temps have stayed in the mid 70's with very light trades. Jackie and I took advantage of this great weather and headed to the beach. Anini seemed a little crowded but the fact that we normally have the beach almost to ourselves might be why we felt that way. The outside conditions were almost perfect with very little wind chop but the water conditions close to shore were terrible...the visibitity was limited to about 2 feet! If we both hadn't felt like we really needed to get in the water we never would have given it a try. We were hoping the water would improve as we got away from shore and it did but not until we were out about a 100 yards or so. We headed straight out to our spot by the buoy and ran into more honu than we have every snorkeled with at one time. There were at least 7 of them in an area about 25 yards around. While I was following the first honu Jackie ran across an eel that was at least 3 feet long. She said this one came all the way out of its hole and was swimming around the coral ducking in and out of the many holes there. Normally when they do this they are on the trail of a tako (hawaiian name for octopus) which is their favorite meal. She said when they swim it looks like a ribbon in the water. I followed my honu all the way out to the outer reef. Do you remember me telling you about the crevasse out there that always gives me chicken skin? Well thats where this honu lead us! You will see in the video where he disappears up this crevasse and I turn my attention to a smaller honu we ran into. Jackie and I followed the outer reef along for a pretty good distance and saw a lot of fish. We even saw two yellow tangs. We saw a lot of these on both Maui and Oahu but these were our first for Kauai. Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!

TUESDAY

Aloha...It has been a quiet day for Jackie and I with most of our thoughts and prayers being focused on what's happening with our family in Grandview. Mom is back at home and she is surrounded by friends and family. I'm sure they are all doing everything they can to make her as comfortable as possible. I'm also certain that that task is not an easy one as my mother never has been comfortable with anybody fussing over her...she has always wanted to be the one making the sacrifice. There are two things you can always count on when you visit my Mom. No matter what time it is day or night she will always ask you how are you doing and are you hungry? I would be willing to bet that nothing would make her any happier than to be able to get out of that bed and make everyone there something to eat. I also want to take a minute to express my gratitude to all my brothers and sisters and the rest of the family who are there with Mom. This is a very hard and emotional time for all of us and I'm sure it is even harder for the ones there who are having to shoulder this load.

LOWER ANINI

Aloha! It has been a very trying day for Jackie and I. We got an update on my Mom today and the news wasn't what we were hoping to hear. She was hospitalized on Christmas Eve with pneumonia and severe dehydration. They were able to get her stabilized with iv fluids and antibiotics but as Mom is in her mid 80's her body is not able to bounce back like it once did and she is slowly shutting down. The doctors basically gave the family two options...first option was to have hospice care at a nursing home and second choice was to have hospice care at home. The family chose hospice care at home which is what I'm sure Mom wants and they will be transferring her home tomorrow morning. As I'm 3000 miles away and unable to help with Moms care I felt like that decision was best left to the family who are going to need to be there with Mom 24-7. I wish it was where all of you could have been with Jackie and I today. The beach had plenty of room and the ocean does sooth the soul. We tried snorkeling at a new spot today. It's down past the polo fields on the lower end. The beach is very nice but we didn't find as many fish as we do on the other end. Of course we have snorkeled that end so often we almost know every fish by name!

SUNDAY AT ANINI

Aloha! It has been a nice day here on Kauai. The weather hasn't been perfect but it was nice enough that Jackie and I headed to the beach. We were both ready to get back in the water. Seems a lot of other people were thinking the same thing as the beach was pretty crowded and the parking lot was almost full. Most of the people were laying in what sun was to be found on the beach with only a few brave souls actually in the water. We found a nice spot to set up our chairs then we headed on out to try and locate our friends. The water was a little murky next to the beach but once you got out about 15 feet it cleared up and the visibility was better than it usually is. We stayed out for about an hour before we started to get chilled and headed back to shore. On the way back in we noticed Cory sitting in one of our chairs. He has the day off and decided to come and check the beach out as well. We talked story with him for a little while but our visit was cut short by a rain shower. It probably only rained for 10 minutes but as we are lucky enough to be able to come to the beach anytime we didn't feel any need to wait this shower out and we headed home...a little wetter than when we arrived and a whole lot more relaxed. All in all another great day in paradise.

SATURDAY

Aloha! It has been an interesting day for Jackie and I. It started around 6 this morning when I was awakened by a nice little thunder and lightning show. It quit not too long after I woke up so I was able to turn over and go back to sleep. Jackie got up at her normal time of 7 and was unaware of the show we had earlier. We ate breakfast around 8 and Jackie tackled her normal chores of washing, dusting, etc. I did my best to help by staying out of her way! We turned the tv on at 10 and were surprised to find the Cougars playing LSU on ESPN2. It was a pretty good game with the Cougars waiting until the final 3 minutes to fall apart. They went from leading by 7 to losing by 12. Cory came down and we talked story with him until he had to go to work at noon. Jackie and I left soon after that and headed to Hanalei. There are a lot of visitors here now and the town was really hopping. The beaches were packed also with the exception being Blackpot beach. It's located where the river enters the bay and the water there was terrible! Guess that thunder storm this morning must have had a lot of rain with it because the river looked like chocolate milk. We were really surprised because it only sprinkled at our house. We took some video of the ocean where Kalihiwai Stream runs into it to give you an idea of what the water looks like after a heavy rain.

CHRISTMAS PLUS ONE

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed another lazy day here in paradise. The weather has been a little unsettled with the occasional rain shower along with gusty winds. Our temps have remained in the lower 70's so it's not really been what we would consider a good day for the beach but is was a good day to drive to the airport which worked out great for us as that's what we needed to do! Alex flew in this morning after spending Christmas with his family on the Big Island. He had a bit of an adventure getting here as his flight from Hilo to Honolulu was delayed. Guess the plane he was supposed to fly on from Hilo got hit by lightning on the way in so he had to wait for them to check it over which made him late for his connecting flight in Honolulu. He was finally able to catch a later flight and made it to Lihue about 3 hours later than he was scheduled to. Not too bad considering the delays they have been facing on the mainland but it was late enough that he missed his shift at Walmart. He said Walmart was very understanding and gave him the time off with no problems. Of course the fact that his assistant manager was on same flight as him probably didn't hurt! I wanted to post some pictures that Jaynee and her Mom took at Appalooza this fall. I love to show off my grandsons and thought you guys might need to be reminded that there was a time not too long ago when it was warm enough to wear shorts!

MELE KALIKIMAKA

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed a very relaxing day. We spent most of the morning in Cory's room opening gifts and talking story. We were able to talk with most of our family on the mainland as well. Jackie was even lucky enough to talk with both Brent and Ty...this is a very rare occurence as they like the phone almost as much as their Grandpa! It was a short conversation but was enough to put a smile on Grandma's face! Jackie fixed us a roast for dinner and it was delicious. We ate around 2 and have spent the remainder of the day watching a little tv as well as asking each other a few questions from the new Trivial Pursuit cards we got from Cory. All in all, a very pleasant day.

WEDNESDAY

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed a very quiet day. The weather has been good for the most part with just enough rain this morning to produce some nice rainbows. It's kind of hard to see in the video but we had a double rainbow for a while. I also wanted to show you a little bit of our driveway. Every time Jackie and I drive thru this mud hole we keep expecting to see a family of pigs wallowing there! Well Jackie and I really don't have much to blog about today as we have spent most of it a home with the one exception being a trip to Foodland to pick-up a few items we forgot to get the other day and a stop at the Menehune to pick-up subs for lunch. You know it just dawned on me it's Christmas Eve and that's why Jackie is trying to be extra nice. Guess she thinks Santa will forget the 364 days of naughty if she has this one day of nice! Who knows it just might work...it has worked for me these many years! HERE'S WISHING EVERYONE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

TUESDAY

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed another wonderful day in paradise. We started our morning with a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, toast and of course coffee. After we ate and washed the dishes we sat on the lanai for awhile trying to decide what we wanted to do today. Our first choice was to head to Anini to snorkel but mother nature had other plans as it started to rain. It was our normal pattern of 15 minutes of rain, then 30 minutes of sun repeated thru out the morning so we decided to wait on the snorkeling for a little while. Anyway Jackie said she had a few things here at home to catch up on so she washed a load or two of clothes and cleaned and vacuumed our apartment. Cory came down and I talked story with him until he had to go to work at noon. After our lunch we decided that we would take a chance and go to Anini after all. It's not that far from our house and if we get rained on, so what! Well the sky did look threatening a few times but we managed to get thru the snorkel without getting rained on once and the water was real nice...a little wind chop but great visablity. I think the overcast skies makes the video look clearer. We got some more clips of Mr. Honu out by turtle rock and some nice clips of a snowflake eel. We stayed out for about 2 hours only coming in when Jackie got cold. After we dried ourselves off we headed home as I wanted to catch as much of the Poinsettia Bowl as I could. The Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore grew up one house down from us when we lived in Prosser. His dad is the football coach at Prosser High School. We got back in time for me to watch most of the second half. It was a very good game with Boise State leading almost the entire game but losing to TCU by one point. It's kind of ironic that PHS lost its state championship game in double overtime by one point also. But for a couple of points both of Coach Moore's sons could have enjoyed undefeated seasons...a topic that will more than likely come up a few times around their table this Christmas!

MONDAY

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed a marvelous day. The weather has been nice...high clouds and temps in the mid 70's. After our cereal and coffee this morning we decided to get the grocery shopping out of the way so we headed to Cory's store in Princeville. Jackie ran in and picked up what we needed while I sat in the car. I had my book open but never got too many lines read as I was too busy watching the people come and go. Christmas vacation is one of our busiest visitor times and there did seem to be more visitors than we have been seeing. Everyone looked like they were enjoying Hawaii and as a lot of them probably spent last week shoveling snow and freezing there okoles off I can see why our weather today would put a smile on their face! We got back to our apartment around 11 and talked story with Cory until he had to leave for work at 12. Jackie fixed sandwiches and chips for lunch which we enjoyed out on the lanai. As soon as we got everything put away from lunch we put our swimsuits on and headed to Anini. We weren't real sure what the conditions were going to be like what with all the rain we have been having but we were pleasantly surprised...the water was great! We saw a ton of fish and had a very good snorkel. Like the logo says on Jackie's shirt 'life is good' and I would add especially on Kauai!

THE WEEKEND BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Aloha! Saturday was spent watching tv and waiting for the lawn to dry. It seemed that every time we would think about going out to mow it would rain...not very hard or long but just enough to take mowing the lawn off the agenda! We had a couple of ball games to watch so that helped pass the time and Jackie spent some time on the phone catching up with friends and family back home. The weather they are having at home (with home being the Yakima Valley) sure makes Jackie and I appreciate our weather here. We will take the rain and this last series of storms has brought a bunch with Kilauea getting almost 13 inches total for the last 4 days to their cold and snow. What was the Eskimo saying that went something like 'it was so cold it was a three dog night?' Well sounds like they had a lot of those nights and unfortunately more are on the way. Sure hope there are enough dogs to go around! Our Sunday has been very productive. The weather has finally allowed us to get the lawn finished. I probably shouldn't let that little chore bother me so much but when it gets too long taking care of the clippings is a real pain. Our mower does a nice job of mulching unless the grass is too long. Jackie and I raked it once last year and that was enough! We promised ourselves that we would not let it get that long again even if we had to mow in a hurricane! Here is a little snorkeling video to keep you all warm in case you are the one that got stuck with the chihuahua!

CLOUDY DAY

Aloha! Things are slowly drying out on Kauai. We had rain most of last night but today its been cloudy with just the occasional shower and temps in the mid 70's. The weathermen are saying that the next few days should be a lot drier and Jackie and I sure hope they are right as we really need to get this lawn mowed and more importantly we need to find our way back to the water! We have found that we both feel so much better when we get out and get some exercise. I saw in our paper this afternoon where they had another disturbance at our airport. That is the third one this week! Seems a 22 year old man who was traveling with his mother was trying to get a ticket to Maui. He was having trouble with the kiosk near the Hawaiian Airlines ticket counter and lost it! He started slamming and kicking the kiosk, yelling at the security guards so again they had to call the police. I can't recall when we have ever had this much excitement at our little airport...well, there was that incident a few years ago when Nick Nolte showed up drunk and made such an ass of himself much to the delight of everyone on u-tube! I know Jackie and I are hoping for an uneventful flight when we fly home on the 13th and please don't feel you need to keep that nasty weather hanging around just for us. Jackie and I would appreciate it if you could order up something a little closer to what we have become accustomed. We would even be willing to meet you some where near the middle, say mid forties if you all could just do what you can about the weather! Jackie and I promise we will do what we can if you ever visit Kauai.

WILL THIS RAIN EVER STOP

Aloha! It's been another wet day here on Kauai so that means another day spent indoors for Jackie and I. I know I shouldn't complain as most of you are facing a lot worse conditions than us. Looks like the entire west coast got hit with snow...even Malibu and Las Vegas had some. The weather forecasters here were not very encouraging tonight. Seems we still have a fairly strong storm sitting about 90 miles off shore of Kauai and they aren't sure which way it is going to move. Some computer models have it moving off to the west which would be a blessing for us. Others have it moving more to the east which puts it right over Kauai. Guess we will find out later on tonight! We had a wow story in our paper today. A group of about 10 kids ages 1 thru 12 were traveling on American Airlines from LA. They were traveling with 10 adults. The paper said they were misbehaving so bad on the plane, running around and throwing things, that the flight crew had to call the Kauai police to meet them at the terminal and they also put in a complaint with their airline to deny them return tickets! I can tell you one thing with out the least bit of exaggeration...if we would have been those kids on that plane there would have been no need for return tickets as Dad would have killed us all and Mom would have died from embarrassment!

MORE RAIN

Aloha! Jackie and I have spent the biggest share of our day inside listening to the water rush thru the downspouts. It started raining around 7 this morning and has rained almost the entire day. At least it's not been windy and cold...just wet. We did go and check the mail this afternoon. We didn't really need to but we did need to get out of the house for a little while. After we checked the mail we drove to Kalihiwai and parked under the ironwood trees out of the rain. There were a few surfers out and even 5 or 6 brave souls sitting in chairs on the beach. They must have been visitors and they weren't going to let a little rain stop them from enjoying the beach! I told Jackie we should have gone and talked story with them as they were probably from Washington cause they looked like they were used to getting rained on at the beach! I put a little slide show together for you this morning while I was waiting for this rain to stop.

GARDEN

Aloha! Jackie and I have spent the day working in our garden. I know that must sound strange to all of you who are facing sub zero nights and blowing snow but here in paradise every things stays green year round. We were hoping to get the lawn mowed today but the grass is still a little too wet. It rained most of the night and finally stopped around 7 this morning but the skies have remained overcast so the lawn never dried. Maybe we can do it tomorrow. Jackie is fixing soup for dinner and I will barbeque some hamburgers also. We have been following your weather reports and we do feel for all of you. It has been since the winter of 2005 that we have seen temps lower than 60. It dropped to 65 last night and Jackie and I put on long pants and a sweatshirt! I even fixed us some hot chocolate! We sat here in our little room thinking it was cold. We are going to freeze our okoles off when we visit next month and it really is cold and not a balmy 65 like last night!

A LITTLE SUN A LOT MORE RAIN

Aloha! Well Kauai is under another flash flood watch! We have thunder clapping now but so far we haven't seen any lightning. We thought this morning that the weather might just give us a little break...the sun was out and we even had a few rainbows. Jackie and I figured by 10 the grass would be dry enough to mow but it seemed mother nature wasn't in the mood to listen to any lawnmowers as it started to pour around 9. It rained hard enough that we changed our plans on the lawn and drove into town instead. We had a nice day picking up a few last minute gifts and eating a late lunch at Burger King. We made it back home in time to catch the news and the weather. Seems the rest of the islands are drying out but this storm is still refusing to leave Kauai. There are severe thunderstorms on radar...luckily for us they seem to be mostly on the south shore but like I said earlier we are experiencing thunder and heavy rain here also.

BETTER WEATHER

Aloha! We have enjoyed a very nice day here on Kauai. The sun has been poking its head out from between the clouds and the birds have been singing. Our driveway is now more driveway and less puddle which makes the trips to town a lot less adventurous so all in all things are definitely looking up! Hopefully this weather will hold for a few more days as the ground is really saturated and they have predicted another storm for Wednesday or Thursday. Guess you can't change what mother nature dishes out...you just have to deal with it the best way you can! The pictures we posted are from yesterday. It was really nice to see the sun after all the rain we have been having!

HERES A WEATHER UPDATE

Aloha! Just wanted to give you a little update on our weather. It seems we may have had a tornado touch down on the south shore near Hanapepe, close to Kaumakani. This is unconfirmed according to our paper and they were going to check with KPD but there was one on radar in that area and Cory came back from the Menehune and said an aunty told him that a tornado had ripped out some coconut trees at a relative's house in that area around 2:00. Hanapepe is about 35 miles to the south of us. The paper also said that because of the horrible water conditions all the beaches on the island have been closed until further notice. There have also been numerous road closures with the closest to us being the road to Anini. It was closed because of a mud slide. I will post another short video we took at about 5:30 this evening...that was when our rain finally stopped! The sky was so beautiful or maybe it just looked that way to us because it's been a couple of days since we have seen one that wasn't gray!

EVEN MORE RAIN

Aloha! It's a very wet day on Kauai! We have had about 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours here in Kilauea and we are among the lucky ones. Parts of the island are getting hit a lot worse than us. Over by Ke'e beach they have had 13 inches and a lot of the south shore has had more than 9. The NOAA weather site is pretty cool. It will keep you up to date on any weather warnings in all 50 states. At the moment both Kauai and Oahu are under a flashflood warning. There is also a place that will give you the rainfall amount and you can even see the latest radar and satellite images. The forecast is calling for better weather tomorrow. Hope they are right as we need a little sun to dry us out! The ground is really saturated and we are getting a lot of mud washing into the ocean right now. We have a ring about a 1/4 mile wide of the muddiest water you can imagine surrounding the island. PS The Hanalei bridge has been closed almost the entire day. If anyone staying in Hanalei, Ha'ena or any place north of that had to leave today they are just SOL as the bridge is the only way in or out!

STILL RAINING

Aloha! Well the rain is still falling here on Kauai and things are beginning to get a little muddy. The weathermen tell us that the rain should abate sometime this weekend and we sure hope they are right. Seems the south shore got hit a little harder than we did on the north shore. Our paper has some pictures that show the mess parts of the island are in. We have a link to it in the links section of our blog. You might want to check out the Channel Nine link also as they showed some video on their newscast of a surf contest that is happening on the north shore of Oahu and the water looked really gross. The waves were shaped ok but the water looked like the runoff from a dairy farm! Can't imagine anyone wanting to get in water that looked like that. Jackie and I did get out for a little while today. We drove into Hanalei for lunch and to Walmart in Lihue to pickup a new phone.

RAINY DAY

Aloha! Well it has rained for almost the entire day here on Kauai but nothing like the deluge they got on Oahu. Seems the storm they were predicting just grazed us and hit Oahu square in the face! They had over a foot of rain with 40 mile an hour winds. We are watching the news now and the flooding on Oahu was pretty severe. Luckily no one has been hurt...just inconvenienaed by all the road closures. They even closed most of the schools. There were a few pictures of the beaches and they were a mess with logs and other trash piled everywhere. Not sure how are beaches here are as Jackie and I have spent the entire day inside not even making it out to go to the store. The storm is supposed to be moving to the north and drier weather arriving Saturday. I will post a short clip of the lightning we had last night. Not sure when it started but it woke me up around 1:00.

RAINBOWS PART 2

Aloha! Well the weathermen got it right as we have had a day of rainbows here on Kauai. Not sure how many times the weather changed from rain to sunshine but it was a lot! Seemed like every 15 minutes or so we would have a brief shower that would only last for a couple of minutes then it would be back to blue skies. The main body of the storm is supposed to be arriving tonight with more rain and some pretty strong kona winds. The kona winds blow in the opposite direction of the trades we get so every time they blow there are always a lot of tree limbs and other trash blown on the roads. Some of the limbs will be good sized...about 4 or 5 inches thru so Jackie and I try to limit our driving as much as possible as we don't like the idea of a branch that size falling across our car or worse yet coming thru the windshield! I posted a short clip of some of todays rainbows. Earlier we updated the software that came with our little Flip camera and I was curious how the movie part worked. Guess it's ok but think I like working with Windows Movie Maker better.

RAINBOWS

SUNNY DAY

Aloha! It's been a beautiful day here on Kauai...light trades with temps in the low 80's. According to the weathermen this weather is not going to last much longer as we have a front coming that is supposed to be bringing strong kona winds and rain so this morning Jackie and I had to make a decision...do we take advantage of the nice day and go to the beach or do we mow the lawn? It's been a week since we last mowed and the grass is almost long enough to mow now. Well Jackie and I discussed the many advantages of having the lawn mowed...how we would not have to worry about it being too wet to mow later and all the other factors that would favor mowing the lawn now and we weighed them against the fact that today it is beautiful and would we rather be at the beach or sitting on some stupid lawnmower. Well let me tell you it was beautiful at the beach today and we really had a nice time! I will post some video of the three turtles we swam with last week.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

Aloha! Today Jackie and I did a little Christmas shopping. This is our 3rd Christmas on Kauai and we are still finding it hard to feel much Christmas spirit. Not sure if its the weather or the fact that we don't have any little ones counting the days or more than likely its both but the holidays just don't feel the same over here. Cory and Alex put up a small tree in their room last night. They have it decorated with a ton of lights and a bunch of red and silver ornaments so maybe that will help with the mood. If you would have told me a couple of years ago that it would be Cory giving his mom and dad a lesson on Christmas I would have never believed it possible! I will post a few more clips of our snorkel from yesterday.

TV SATURDAY SNORKEL SUNDAY

Aloha! Jackie and I have had a very nice weekend. Saturday was spent in front of the tv. We watched a lot of college sports starting with the Huskies blowout win over Texas Southern. Of course this was basketball as their football program was busy getting whooped by Cal! Next up was the Zags and their win over Indiana. The OU-Missouri football game also received a lot of my attention along with a bit of the USC-UCLA game. Oh did I mention the Alabama-Florida game? We watched that game pretty intently also. As you can see this took up a good share of the day and that was just the start as we watched the Cougs lose to Baylor in a game I thought they should have won. Their defense was up to the task but they missed a lot of easy shots on offense and last but not least was the Hawaii-Cincinnati game. Hawaii was handing Cincinnati their lunch thru out most of the game and they were leading 24 to 10 with about 7 minutes to go when Hawaii Couged it! They must have studied the Cougs really well when they played them last week because the last 7 minutes was played like only the Cougars know how! It was almost 10 pm when this game finished so our Saturday was taken up almost entirely with tv. This morning the remote for my tv was missing and I was informed that if I looked for it I could expect extra crunch in my meals for at least a week so after a nice breakfast we put our swimsuits on and headed to Anini. The conditions were ideal. We snorkeled out past the buoy and said hi to most of our friends on the way. We were out for at least an hour only heading back to shore when we got cold. We sat in our chairs drinking coffee and enjoying the sun for quite awhile debating if we should go back out or not. Finally the nice conditions lured us back into the water with the hopes of spotting another gurnard like the one we showed you on our last post. We missed out on the gurnard but did run across a new fish...a pacific trumpetfish. This fish is similar to the cornets but a little smaller. Our book says they grow to about 27 inches with the one we saw being about 15 or 16 inches. These guys are flat from the side and thin from the top where as a cornet is thin from the side and flat from the top. We will post a little movie of him for you.

FLYING GURNARD

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed another marvelous day. The weather has been almost perfect with just a short rain shower this morning keeping it from being ideal. We got all our chores done yesterday so we've had all day to play. We started today at the lighthouse with the hopes of spotting a whale. If you want to see a whale this early into the season you need to either be real patient or lucky. Jackie and I were neither this morning so we will have to leave the whales for another day. After the lighthouse we went to the Subway and got two of their new flatbread sandwiches. Jackie tried the chicken and I tried the bacon and steak. They were both very good especially when you can enjoy them in your beach chairs at Anini! Jackie had sliced us an apple and a starfruit also so we had a gourmet lunch...a lot better than the peanut butter and jelly with the extra crunch I had yesterday! We sat in our chairs enjoying the view along with our coffee for a good while before deciding it was time to get in the water. The water was a little murky at our spot by the reef so we didn't hang around there too long and headed towards turtle rock, swimming upon a gurnard on the way. This guy wasn't as big as some of the other ones we have seen but we really got a kick out of seeing him anyway. After we left him we came across a stripebelly puffer asleep on the bottom. They spend most of the day asleep and do their feeding and other activities at night. After we left him we resumed our swim to turtle rock and we were rewarded with a nice honu to swim with. As a matter of fact we swam with three different honus today with the other two being out by the buoy. We will post the video of the honus tomorrow as I want to show you the gurnard today.

AFTERNOON AT THE BEACH

Aloha! It's been a beautiful day here on Kauai...high patchy clouds with temps in the low 80's. It was so nice that Jackie and I decided we would get a few of the chores we have been putting off done. First off we trimmed all the dead leaves from the bananas. You need to do this every 3 or 4 weeks. It makes the plants look a lot better and keeps the ants and spiders under control. After that I mowed under the papayas. The trees are finally big enough that I can mow without worrying about knocking them down. They are planted in a area about 6 feet wide and 100 foot long between the outside of the fence and a row of areka palms. They are planted in a zig zag pattern about 4 feet apart which is way too close together! If they were mine I would pull about half of them out! Next on our list was to give our car a much needed bath. This went really well as Jackie did the washing and I ran the hose. After Jackie dried herself off she was even nice enough to fix us a late lunch. Of course I'm not real sure all the crunchy stuff in my sandwich was peanut butter but I guess if you hose someone down you best not complain if you get hosed in return! After our late lunch we capped the day off with a trip to Anini for a short snorkel. All in all a very nice day. PS I'm barbequing hamburgers tonight and if I can catch a gecko Jackie's will have a tail!

PK'S BEACH

Aloha! Jackie and I decided that we needed to take a trip to PK beach this morning. It's one of our favorite places to snorkel on the south shore and it's been a couple of months since we have been there. Our snorkel this morning wasn't as good as it has been in the past. The water was a little rougher than we like but at PK's it is normally like that. The large selection of fish usually makes up for the fact that the water is a little rough. Well today there wasn't that huge selection of fish but we had a lot of fun anyway and did manage to get a few clips. We talked story with a nice couple from Minnesota. They were thinking about getting in the water as we were getting out. The lady was a bit apprehensive about the waves and the rocks so we talked them into going to either Salt Pond or Poipu as either place is a lot better place if all you are looking to do is play in the water.

MOWING DAY

Aloha! Well Jackie and I have spent the biggest share of today mowing our lawn. I will never understand how come the lawn can double its size on mowing day but it sure can! At least we had a cooler day today. It even rained 3 or 4 times while we were mowing...not enough to make me stop but enough that I thought about stopping once or twice! It was around 2:30 when we finished so Jackie and I decided we would drive to Hanalei and check out the surf. It was pounding pretty good with wave heights of 10 to 12 feet. We picked up some burgers at Bubbas and ate them on the beach at Pine Trees. This beach is all the way around the bay from the Princeville Hotel. From there we drove to another beach thats located near the middle of the bay. Not sure what they call this beach and from there we drove on over to Blackpot beach and the Hanalei pier. I will post a little more of the video we shot yesterday at Anini. It has a nice shot of a pretty good sized unicorn fish along with a clip of a few cornetfish. encluding one of our pal nubby we see this guy out by the buoy almost every time we go out there

BACK IN THE WATER

Aloha! Well Jackie and I made it back into the water today for a very relaxing snorkel. The weather was great as was the water. We had a real good time getting re-aquainted with all our old buddies and managed to find most of them fairly easy. We did have a bit of trouble locating turtle rock though. We started our snorkel with the plan of checking out the edge of the reef first, then swimming over by turtle rock and then out to the buoy. Well the first leg was very easy. We found the spot we like to visit by the reef with no problems. There were a lot of fish and the visibility was ok. From here its only a short swim of about 40 yards to turtle rock. Well we got to where the rock was supposed to be...no luck! I figured we were a little too far out so no problem...we'll just swim back towards shore a bit and there it will be. No such luck! We must be too far to the right so again no problem...we'll just go a little to our left and there it will be. Well again no luck! We had given up on finding that darn rock by now and had just started to swim out to the buoy when we swam up on Mr. Honu. He swam along real slow with us and we followed him for about 2 minutes not paying too much attention to where it was he was leading and when the chase was over he had led us to, you guessed it, turtle rock so Jackie and I both had a good laugh at that! We got the short clip of the small honu on our way back in from the buoy. He was a little spooked so Jackie and I just let him go as we didn't want to stress him out.