BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed another beautiful day here in paradise. The temps have been in the low 80's with light trades. It was so nice this afternoon Jackie and I just had to get out and enjoy it a little so we drove into Lihue for lunch. We even went so far as to break with our normal stop at McDonalds and go to KFC instead. This was a lot more expensive but the change from burgers and fries was nice. We also have a lot of leftovers so Cory will be eating well before he heads to work tonight. The video I will post today was taken on the 22nd. It has one clip that shows a sea cucumber with its tentacles extended. I put a title on the video to help you spot it. This is the same type of creature that was on the honus shell in the video we posted last week.

MORE OF THE SAME

Aloha! From todays title you might get the impression that Jackie and I are in a bit of a rut and maybe we are but it is the most enjoyable rut I have ever been in. Waking up in paradise every morning with the understanding that the day is yours and you can do what ever it is you might want to do. My biggest problem the last few days has been that what I have wanted to do most is sit on my butt here at home. A perfectly enjoyable day but one that doesn't make writing in my blog very easy and as far as finding anything to take a picture or video of...well you can just forget about it! So today I will post a video taken during Mike and Cindi's visit. Jackie and I have been talking a lot about how much fun we had and how we are hoping they will be able to return soon.

STARTING OFF NICE

Aloha! Jackie and I mowed our lawn yesterday. This is about a four hour chore for us and the weather yesterday made it a real challenge. I had delayed the start a little because the grass was still a little damp from all the dew and it turned out that I had almost delayed it too long. I was almost finished, maybe 5 more minutes worth, when it started to sprinkle. I put the mower in a higher gear and raced to get it done. I was able to complete the lawn but as luck would have it I finished in the corner farthest away from the house and before I could get the mower back to the house the sprinkle turned to a downpour! It rained like someone was pouring it out of a bucket! I was completely soaked...you couldn't have gotten me any wetter if you had turned a fire hose on me. I must have looked pretty funny driving my mower back to the house in this deluge because Jackie and Cory sure laughed their you know whats off! Today has been spent watching a little tv and playing on the computers with one brief outing to the store and post office thrown in.  Nothing real exciting but a nice day. The video we posted has a nice shot of a large snowflake eel. This guy was making a meal out of something that was hiding in a hole on the sea floor. Not sure what it was but this is the first time we have seen an eel eating something.  

LEST WE FORGET

Aloha! Hope everyones Memorial Day has been as nice as Jackie's and mine. All we did was sit around watching tv and playing on the computer but the fact that we can do this and not have some religious zealot or hair brained dictator telling us what we can watch and what we can wear is due to the fact that we have had so many brave men and women fighting for our freedoms. The sacrifices they have made and the ones they are contiuing to make daily are taken for granted way too often. This is a real shame as I can't think of anyone who deserves our praise and who should be held in our highest honors more than our men and women of the armed services both past and present. So next time you see a military person give them a big hug! PS you probably should get their permission first as these are the meanest s.o.b's on the planet! The video I posted was taken Saturday at Anini. It was Rylan's first trip to the beach!

SATURDAY AT THE BEACH

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed a very nice day. The water conditions this morning were ideal...very flat with good visiblity so we extended our snorkel to almost twice what we normally do and now I'm paying the price. I can hardly keep my eyes open! It's almost 6:30 here so it's way too late to take a nap and way to early to go to bed for the night so I will just keep fighting the drowsies as long as I can. Not much to report about our snorkel. We saw a couple of honus and ran into a stripebelly puffer but aside from the two eels that was about it! We did get a nice surprise after we got out of the water though. We saw our friends Ryan and Tiffany. They have a new addition to their family...Rylan Robert. He was born on Mothers Day. This was his first trip to the beach and he handled it very well. Both of his grandmothers are here helping from the mainland so he was in very good hands. We had a very nice visit with everyone. Jackie took some very nice pictures of our visit but I've been just to beat to do anything with them. I will try to get them put on a slideshow along with some of the honu video for a later post. I do have one more video of our hike to Queens Bath I will post today. I had it all ready for an earlier post but couldn't post it because we lost our internet connection!

SHORT VIDEO

Aloha! It has been a very quiet day for Jackie and I. This morning we talked story with Cory for a bit. He is working the night shift at Foodland and gets off work at 8:00. We talked about selling his little Mazda as there is not much justification for us to have three cars. One of the security guards where he works has expressed an interest and I think Cory is ready to let him have it. This afternoon has gone much the same way as the morning with Jackie doing a little weeding in the garden while I napped. I think it was Mel Brooks who said it is good to be the king and I would have to agree with him whole heartedly. Of course my kingdom consists of a one room rented studio and it is just the queen and I but I can't envision how life could be any sweeter! It took me three tries to get this video small enough to post. For some reason if I let the computer do it automatically it would be 109 megs, too large to post on Blogger and 26 megs is as large as it would let me go manually so it is not as crisp as I like but the best I could do.

QUEENS BATH

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed an awesome day! We decided over breakfast this morning to venture down to Queens Bath. We haven't been for a while and the weather today is perfect for this hike...just a little overcast and temps in the mid 70's. We lucked out with the tides as well. We arrived at high tide and the ocean was putting on quite a show. There is a small swell in the 6 to 9 foot range and that combined with the high tide made the Bath way too dangerous to swim in but the shoreline was awesome! Jackie shot some great video and we will try to get it posted in the next day or so. I put together a slideshow thats about 3 minutes long with pics shot along the trail to the Bath. This trail is about a 1/4 mile long and very pretty. There's not many places you can walk such a short distance from your car and feel so isolated. Between the sounds of the stream and the waterfalls mixed with the birds calling you feel miles from civilization. We had a great time and spent the better part of the day just relaxing and enjoying the view.

RAINY DAY

Aloha! It has been a very relaxing day for Jackie and I. The morning has been spent listening to the rain in the downspouts and playing with my farm on Facebook...not a bad way to enjoy a Sunday! I chatted with my sis Ruby while visiting her farm and she brought up a conversation she had with Fred Cohu about an experience Fred and I had in a drama class in what must have been 1971. It involved Fred getting kicked out of class and me opening the windows and telling the class to listen for the world class burn out I knew was coming when Fred left the parking lot! My memory is a little fuzzy on this particular incident but it sure sounds like something we would have pulled! If you need any proof just ask any of the Grandview PD who were around in the 70's and they will back me up or you might even find confirmation from a couple of the deputies who worked for Yakima county! Jackie is fixing her homemade soup for dinner as well as cornbread...nothing better than homemade soup on a rainy day. I wll try to be a little better about getting things posted but here lately the days have been just flying by. Seems by the time I get ready to write on my blog it is all ready late. Speaking of the 70's here's a few pics from that era.

BEACH WEATHER

Aloha! Jackie and I haven't had much to blog about for the last few days. Seems we have spent the days in much the same manner. Breakfast, then a trip to the beach to snorkel, home for a quick shower and a late lunch. Then a little tv and working on our farms until bedtime! Real exciting stuff! We did see a new creature while snorkeling on Monday. The best we can guess is it is some type of a sea cucumber. It was on the shell of a fairly large honu. At first glance I thought it was a piece of seaweed but when you look close you can see the tentacles. We watched it for a couple of minutes while the honu dozed. Just a few seconds after I stopped filming the cucumber shot back under the ledge where the honu was resting...moving much faster than I thought he could move! Wish I could have captured it on film for you guys!

OIL CHANGE

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed a very nice day. It started with a trip to Lihue to get the oil changed in our car. We have always had real good service at the Speedy Lube in Lihue and today was no exception. We dropped the car off at 11 and they said it should be done in about an hour so Jackie and I walked about a block to McDonalds for a midmorning snack. We had eaten breakfast around 9 so we weren't ready for a full lunch just yet but figured a snack wrap would go nicely with our pops. Even though we ate slow and talked a good bit of story we still had over 40 minutes of time to kill after we finished our wraps so we headed across the street to a little thrift shop. I needed to get another book for the car so I will have something to read while Jackie shops. Ends up I found about ten that I couldn't live without and if we would have had more time I'm sure I would have found a bunch more! As you might have quessed I have a weakness for books especially ones you can get for less than a buck! On our way home we decided to take a little stroll down the bike path near Kealia beach. This path is awesome! It is not completely done yet but when it is it will be over 26 miles long and stretch from the airport to Anahola following the coastline almost the entire distance.

NICE SATURDAY

Aloha! It has really felt like summer these last couple of days. The temps have been staying in the mid 80's with light trades. Jackie and I have even started using the ceiling fan...first time this year! Friday was not real exciting as we spent the largest share of it relaxing at home. Jackie made a pitcher of limeade and it really hit the spot. She made it with fresh limes from a tree in our yard. We also enjoyed a very nice dinner...Alex brought home KFC! He had used our little Mazda a few times while his car was in the shop and this was his way of saying mahalo! Today was pretty much the same as yesterday with the exception of our trip to the beach this morning. We had a real nice snorkel and saw most of our fish friends in their usual spots. We also talked story with two very nice ladies from New Hampshire. One was a critical care nurse, the other was a social worker who worked with developmentally disabled kids. It is always fun talking with folks here on vacation especially folks that are as upbeat and having as much fun as these girls!Watching Nascar and playing Farm Town has been the excitement for the remainder of the day.

MARAUDERS MAP

Aloha! The last few days have been pretty quiet for Jackie and I. Yesterday we mowed the lawn and today we went to the beach. Of the two I much prefer the beach! The rest of our time has been spent farming on Facebook. With this game you make a little avatar of yourself. It puts your name at the bottom and when you move around in the game it shows you moving just like the marauders map in Harry Potter! Jackie and I have been having a blast playing this little game. I think the part I like best is visiting my neighbors farms. When I visit the farms of friends and family it is kind of hard to explain but for a little bit it is almost like seeing them in person. Sometimes if they are online and working on their farm you can chat with them. This is great fun but kind of hard for someone like me who doesn't type. A lot of the time I will miss parts of the conversation because I need to look at the key board. Of course this is very remiscent of real life where I miss a lot of the conversation because I can't hear. Today Ruby, Jackie and I were at Ronnie's farm harvesting his crops and having a little party...lots of laughs!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

Aloha! Two years ago today Jackie and I were barbequing steaks and watching a tv special on Don Ho's memorial service with my mom and two of my sisters. Wow what a wonderful memory! I really want to thank my sisters Tommie and Ruby for making that great memory possible. My mother is no longer with us as she past away this past January but today I feel she just might be visiting the islands again...maybe with Don as her guide. Bet he can show her all the places she used to dream about! Jackie and I have had a busy start to our week. Maybe I should clarify that to be a busy start for us, because when I look on Facebook and see what all you guys are up to it really makes me appreciate the slow laid back lifestyle Jackie and I have found on Kauai. Anyway, back to our busy start. On Monday we took Cory's car in to JB's auto repair. His car had been running a little rich and using a lot of gas so John replaced the oxygen sensors. Wow what a difference it made! We had some things to buy while we were in town but not enough to justify waiting on John to get the car finished so we drove back home and waited for him to call. Good thing we decided not to wait as it was after 5 when he called and said it was done. Today has been more normal for us as we went snorkeling. The conditions are real nice now with lots of sunshine. We saw our normal assortment of fish and I shot some video of the orangespine unicorn. We also saw a large honu. He was resting under a ledge and would open his eyes just enough to make sure we weren't a threat then close them again! I think tomorrow or the next day will be a lawnmowing day for Jackie and I. Guess we can't complain if we have to work 1 day every couple of weeks!

SUNNY WEEKEND

Aloha! Jackie and I have been enjoying a very nice weekend. The weather has been great...sunny skies temps in the upper 70's with light trades. Saturday we went snorkeling at Anini. The water was a little choppy but not bad. We snorkeled all the way out past the buoy and found most of our fish friends hanging out in their usual spots. It is kind of interesting to see how some fish are very territorial and will hang out in the same spot. Others like the stripebelly puffers don't really have a home and just kind of wander. It is also interesting how some fish are real loners like the ornate butterflies. We rarely see more than one where as the convict tangs seem to always travel in schools. We saw the small turtle again and this time he was very cooperative and let us get a good look. We are 99% sure he is a hawksbill. Jackie was a little concerned that he might be too thin. We are hoping that he is just a young one and looking thin is normal. We also saw the orangespine unicornfish. Jackie said this guy reminded her of a zulu warrior the way his face is marked and everything and I would have to agree. This morning the weather is even nicer than it was Saturday but Jackie and I will be staying home. I woke this morning with a stuffy head and have been sneezing a lot. With a lot of people panicking over the swine flu epidemic I would hate to sneeze at the beach and cause everyone to worry so we will just stay home and farm on the computer!

A SUNNY MAY DAY

Aloha! Jt has been a very enjoyable day for Jackie and I. The weather has been very nice with temps in the high 70's and just enough of a breeze to bring a kite boarder out at Anini. Not sure where my head was when I put the video together and called this guy a windsurfer as there is almost as much difference between a kite boarder and a windsurfer as there is between a scuba diver and a snorkeler! Jackie and I had a nice snorkel...nothing real exciting in the fish department but we did manage to get some more clips of an orangespine unicornfish and a close up of a couple of cleaner wrasses. After our snorkel we struck up a conversation with a nice couple visiting from california, Robin and David. We talked story with them for a good bit and we were able to offer them some advice of places they might want to check out. It is always so interesting to talk with people and find out what made them want to come to Kauai and if they are finding it to be what they thought it would be. It was after 3 when we left the beach and Jackie and I were both starved. We had snacked on a little trail mix at the beach but that wasn't doing much to satisfy our hunger so we picked up a sandwich at the Menehune on the way home. All in all a very nice day!