BEACH AND GARDEN

Aloha!Jackie and I have been a little busier than normal these last few days...mainly with our garden.We had let it go for a bit what with the trip home and everything so Jackie decided it was time to replenish the soil and start over so the 1st of the week I was out there with my handy dandy shovel turning it over and working a few nutrients in. Wow that is a lot harder than sitting on my can and watching tv which is what my old body is used to and believe you me it let me know that it wasn't happy! That 1st night it was complaining so loud I was afraid it was going to wake the neighbors! The next day was a lot easier as it was spent driving Jackie into town so she could get a few seeds and get some flowers and potting soil. After we got back home my only job was pouring a little dirt into our pots and the old tires we use for planters then sitting back and watching Jackie work...something that I have grown very accustomed to doing over these last 35 years of our marriage. I must admit Jackie did a very fine job of getting the garden and the flowers planted. I only had to offer my advice on a couple of occasions and by doing so I learned a very valuable lesson... Jackie can throw a lot further than I thought! Iam just glad she chose to show me by tossing the dirt she was working in and not the trowel she was working with! After we finished the garden we took it pretty easy for a day or two then we decided that it was time to go see our little fish friends at Anini. The water was great very little chop and great visibility...we had a great time! I will try and post a few pics of the garden and a short clip of our snorkel at Anini.

BUSY SUNDAY

Aloha! It has been awhile since Jackie and I had left our house with no clear plan on where it was we were going. We used to do this at home sometimes and it always was a lot of fun. Of course when you live on a small island your options are limited somewhat. From the end of our driveway if you turn left you have about 25 miles before the highway ends at Ke'e beach. If you turn right you have about 60 miles until you run out of road at Polihale beach. Today we turned right...we made it as far as Kealia beach and decided that we needed to check out the Kapahi area. It is located mauka of the beach....very nice area with a lot of homes. A large portion of Kauai's population live in the Kapahi - Kapa'a area. We made a couple of loops thru this area before rejoining the main highway just makai of Opaeka'a Falls. We turned to the right again and we hadn't gone very far maybe another 3 miles or so when I noticed a sign strung between two palm trees saying motocross Saturday and Sunday. We figured what the heck...we might as well check this out. As we were heading into the track Jackie mentioned that she though Marine Camps beach was on this road. Now neither Jackie or I are big on motorcycles so we went right on passed the track. As we were heading past you could hear the motorcycles and see the huge dust cloud. Every once in awhile you could see one of the guys coming off a jump and he would be flying higher than the trees on the side of the road! It was at Marine Camps that our day got a little more interesting. Have you ever done something that it so stupid...something that you knew wasn't going to work even before you attempted it but you are so thick headed that you barge right ahead anyway? Well I did today! We were checking out the beach area and I come to a spot where you could either turn around and back track about 50 yards or continue on ahead for about 10 yards thru some very loose sand and save yourself the hassle of turning around. So stupid me I continued on ahead. Lucky for me there were two kind gentlemen there to bail me out! I hadn't gone more than 5 or ten feet into the sand before I was stuck. Between the 3 of us pushing and Jackie easing it back we were able to get going again with out to much hassle but boy did I feel like an ass for even attempting something that I knew wasn't going to work in the 1st place! From here we decided that it was time to get a little something to eat so we turned back to Kapa'a and made a stop at Burger King. From here we decided it might be better if we headed north for awhile so we decided to check out Anini. At least at Anini I knew I wasn't going to get stuck! The water at Anini was pretty rough and neither Jackie nor I wanted to get wet so we decided to give Kalihiwai a try. It was very nice. We sat there admiring the ocean until it was time to start thinking about supper. Decided that barbeque sounded good so it was off to Foodland for shortribs and then home. All in all a very nice day for Jackie and I.

BLUSTERY DAY ON KAUAI

Aloha! Not a lot has changed since my last post. Jackie and I have gone to the beach a few more times, made a trip into Costco...you know just our normal day to day existence here in paradise! Isn't life grand? Never did I ever imagine that I could be in such a rut as I'm in now and love it so much! We did change things up a little this past week by substituting a trip to the lighthouse in place of a beach trip. The humpback whales are here for their annual visit. They start trickling in in November and are gone by the end of March so January and February are the best months for viewing them. Yesterday a mother and her young calf gave us a pretty good show. It looked like the mom was trying to teach the youngster how to pec slap. First she would do it then the calf would do it. They must have done this 10 or 12 times in the hour and a half that we were watching. It is a good thing that Jackie and I chose yesterday for the lighthouse instead of today cause you can bet with the way the wind has been whipping around here today it is blowing twice as hard at the lighthouse seeing as how it is stuck out there on that point with nothing to protect it! I will have to give you another rerun today as Jackie and I have not been doing a very good job of taking pictures. This is one of my favorites...of course I always say that!

LAWNMOWER BIRDS

Aloha! It was beautiful on Kauai today...lite trades, upper 70's. Of course instead of spending our day at the beach we had to mow the lawn..bummer huh? But it worked out fine for us cause if we would have been at the beach we would have missed Kinzi's video call. We use a program called Skype. It is really a neat program that allows you to make video calls for free. Today when Kinzi called Jackie was able to give her a tour of our little apartment. She was even able to take her outside and show her the many lawnmower birds that were following my mower. Isn't technology great? For a little while it was like having Kinzi visiting us here in Hawaii while at the same time Jackie was able to get a peek into her dorm room at BSU. We also had a chance to visit with Jaynee for a bit before she headed to work. I had always heard that a phone call was the next best thing to being there but with a video phone call it is almost like you are there! Like I said above...isn't technology great? The video I posted today was from a few weeks ago at Anini.

1st POST OF 2010

Aloha!Things have been rather quiet these past few weeks for Jackie and I. We have been spending more time at home so I don't have much to blog about. We did manage to make it to the beach a couple of times and we have gone to the store a bunch but other than that it has been relaxing at home watching the bowl games. The pics of Jackie and I at the beach were taken on New Years day. It was very nice that day so we brought subs to the beach and had a little picnic topped off by a short snorkel. The last photo shows 3 Hawaiian oranges from a tree in our yard. As you can see they aren't much to look at but these oranges taste better than any I have ever tasted.