Garden pics

Aloha! Jackie and I have been enjoying a wonderful Sunday here on Kauai. We started the day off by watching the race. Then it was a trip to the post office to check the mail followed by a trip to Anini to check on the water conditions. We had a real heavy rain on Thursday which brought about some flooding. It was bad enough that they closed the Hanalei bridge for most of the day and there also was a mudslide near the Kalihiwai turnoff that had the hiway down to one lane for a couple of hours until they could get it cleared away. There was also a brown water warning in the paper on Friday because of all the runoff so Jackie and I figured we should probably check-out the conditions at Anini to see when it would be safe to get back in the water. The water looked fine! There were a ton of people out enjoying the beach as well as the water and there was even a huge bounce house along with a string of tents set up in the grass near the spot where we normally park. We drove all the way to the end of the road and there seem to be more people out today than is normal. You can usually find a lot of places to park and enjoy the water on this end of Anini but today they were all full. Maybe the fact that it is so nice today brought everyone to the beach! The pictures I posted today are of our garden. For some reason it doesn't seem to be doing as well as last year. The tomatoes are struggling some and the cucumbers were getting stung so bad we pulled them out. Jackie has some more cherry tomatoes started so we will be putting them in to replace some of our slicing tomatoes. The medfly don't bother the cherries but they sting the dickens out of the slicers! The picture of the red dragon fly was taken on our lanai.

Happy Birthday Honey

Aloha! Things have been moving right along for Jackie and I this week. On Tuesday we mowed our lawn and also went to see the new Harry Potter movie. Very entertaining show and well worth the 16 bucks it cost to get in. Jackie and I don't go to the show very often as we prefer to spend our extra money at places like the grocery store or gas station but I have always been able to talk Jackie into going to see the Potter movies. Guess it has something to do with us liking the books so well. About the only other movies I have been able to talk her into have been a few of the Pixar shows like Finding Nemo and Shark Tales. Of course with these shows I had a little help from my grandsons! Wednesday was a very laid back day as Jackie and I needed a little time to recover from Tuesday although we did make it out to go to the store and check the mail. Today Jackie and I have been watching it rain. Kauai was under a flashflood watch until about 1 this afternoon. Not sure how bad the rest of the island got hit but it rained hard at our house! We had a nice little stream running through our yard as you can see in the video i posted. The rain slowed way down about 1:30 and by 2 the yard had dried enough that you couldn't even tell that 30 minutes before there had been a stream running through it! P.S. According to the NOAA weather service it was raining at the rate of 4 inches an hour in Kilauea around noon today.

BEACH DAY

Aloha! Jackie and I enjoyed a nice snorkel this morning. We were at the beach by 9:00...the tide was still pretty low so getting to some of our favorite spots was a little tricky but we managed ok! The video I posted today has a lot of still pictures taken at what I used to call turtle rock. I think I will rename it nursery rock as the honus have been using a location about 10 to 15 yards from there and turtle rock has become home to a whole host of little guys...mainly baby dascyllus. These are the black and white ones. There are also a lot of baby sergeants...these are the yellow and black striped ones. I also got some nice pics of a young honu as well as some pics of a fairly large striped belly puffer. I have been posting a lot of underwater video lately so though you might enjoy the underwater pics for a change. Outside of our frequent beach trips Jackie and I have been taking it pretty easy with the majority of our time being spent on the computers or watching tv. Have I told you how rough life is when you are retired and living on Kauai? Not real sure how frequent the beach trips will be this week as we have a few things that we need to get done...the lawn being the most pressing. Then there is the new Harry Potter movie as well as Jackies birthday. Jackie has also mentioned that the garden needs a little weeding so I think my week has been pretty much planned!

MORE MAUI PICS

Aloha! Jackie and I have enjoyed another beautiful day here on Kauai. The temps have been in the mid 80's with light trades. Our snorkel today was very nice even though we arrived at the beach a little later than we normally do and someone had their car parked in our parking spot! Arriving at the beach and finding a car in your spot is very much like going to watch a basketball game and finding someone sitting in your spot in the bleachers...it messes with your routine and you feel just a little bit out of sync! At least our spot on the beach was open so we weren't totally messed up. During our snorkel we saw our usual fish friends along with a tiny tako (octupus). This little fellow was about 6 inches long. We watched him swimming along in front of us for about 10 feet then he took refuge in a clump of coral. It was really interesting watching him as you could see his little eye swivel around as he was watching us. The rest of the day was spent playing on the computers all though I did find the time to squeeze in a nap. Like I have told you many times before my life is rough here on Kauai! The pics I posted today are from our 2005 trip to Maui. The first was taken near the Coral church on the road to Hana. The next was taken from our lanai in Kihei. The next photo was taken at the end of Big Beach near the trail to Little Beach. PS our guide book said Little Beach is one of Maui's supposed nude beaches. We couldn't verify this because this was as far as we went as the trail heads up the hill from here. The last photo is looking back at Big Beach...a very nice beach to walk on and a lot of people boogie board here but Jackie and I never got in the water. We did our swimming at Kam III or Cove Park.

A FEW PICS OF MAUI

Aloha! Jackie and I have been taking things pretty easy since my last post. I think we might have gone to the beach a couple of times and to the store about the same. Today hasn't been much different as our only trip outside has been a trip into Kapaa so we could visit Burger King! Jackie said she was so worn out from all the relaxing that she didn't feel like cooking and I know I was relaxing a lot more than she was so barbequing was out so we let the King take care of supper! Not a bad plan if I do say so myself! I posted a few pics from our 2005 trip to Maui for Rich and Theresa and the rest of the gang that will be visiting towards the end of August. They will be spending a week on Maui before coming here for a week. The first two pics were taken on our ride into Haleakala Crater. It was a 8 mile ride to this cabin located in the bottom of the crater for lunch, then back the same 8 miles to the rest area at the craters rim. It was a very nice ride and the trail was called Sliding Sands. We passed a lot of hikers on this trail and even though my knees were screaming I felt that I had it a lot better than the poor fools who had to hike up that trail! It was pretty steep in a lot of places and Jackie and I wondered if we might be forced to dismount and tail our horses up in a couple of the worst parts! We didn't though as the horses did just fine. The next picture was taken at the site of the Seven Sacred Pools which is located at the end of the paved section of the road to Hana. The last photo was taken from the lanai at the Punahoa Beach Apartments...the same ones where Rich and Theresa will be staying. Jackie and I really enjoyed the time we spent there and some of the sunsets were awesome as I hope they will be able to see. PS I will try and post a few more pics of Maui in the next few weeks as I'm sure Theresa and Rich will need something to help get them excited about there upcoming trip!

WEDNESDAY

Aloha! In the many conversations Jackie and I had before we retired one of our biggest questions was would we be able to find enough things to do to keep us from being bored after we retired? This was a real unknown for us as we had both worked full time since high school. We would discuss the ways we thought our day to day lives would go. I know I envisioned myself doing a lot of reading as well as volunteer work in the community. Jackie always said she wasn't concerned with finding things to do for herself as she would be content with the day to day chores of keeping the family going. You know the things she has done since day one...the cleaning, the cooking, the shopping, the banking...all the things that have kept us going for so many years. But she would always say she was a little worried about how I would cope with all my free time. Well to tell you the truth I was a little concerned myself and I believe if I had stayed at home I would have had a huge problem. So much so I would have probably been back to work in 6 months but our move to Kauai has been a God send. It is like we are on vacation every day! I was afraid this feeling would wear off but it has been almost three years now and it still feels like the first week. I know my retirement hasn't turned out exactly like I envisioned as about the only time I read is while I'm waiting in the car while Jackie shops and so far the thought of work...even the volunteer kind has stayed buried in the back of my head! But how was I to know that my days would be spent snorkeling, relaxing at the beach or even working in the bananas like we did today!

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER

Aloha! Lots of activity on Kauai this weekend! Everything from fireworks to drag racing and of course the beaches were all very crowded or at least thats what the paper said. Jackie and I will have to take the papers word for it as we have spent our weekend here at the house with the one exception being a trip to Anini snorkeling Friday morning. We had a very interesting snorkel and came across a magnificent snake eel. Our book says these guys are rarely seen. This one was about 3 feet long and looked to be about as big around as my thumb. They are a lot more snake like than the other eels. We also swam over a very friendly honu and at one point he raised his flipper up like he wanted to give me a high five! Of course I was being a smartass and left him hanging...will need to apologize next time I see him! We also saw 2 gurnards along with the usual assortment of reef fish.`

SHORT SLIDESHOW OF KALIHIWAI

Aloha! Thought you might enjoy looking at our beautiful beach. These pics were taken from the road as you head down to the beach.

KALIHIWAI BEACH

Aloha! It has been a few days since my last post but I should be able to catch all of you up pretty quickly. The weather has been great...mid 80's with light trades. Jackie and I made it to Anini to snorkel a couple of times. We also went to Kapa'a and Lihue at least once to pick-up a few things...mostly stuff for the garden. The rest of the time has been split between playing on the computers, watching tv or napping. Have I mentioned how much Jackie and I are enjoying being retired and living in paradise? We had another beautiful day today. The weather was perfect so we decided to head to Kalihiwai and play in the surf. It was pretty flat with just the occasional 3 or 4 footer but thats plenty for us old folks! We had a ball playing in the waves! The beach wasn't too crowded as most of the surfers are taking advantage of the advisory sized swell that is hitting the south shore with wave heights in the 7 to 8 foot range. There are more swells predicted so the south shore should be very busy over the 4th! Cory has been busy at Foodland. He is still working that crazy shift of 2 or 3 days then 3 or 4 nights. He was hoping to be able to go back to straight days this week but no luck...maybe next week. I know he is keeping his fingers crossed as are Jackie and I.