Wednesday, day three

Today we did our traditional snorkel trip on the Fair Winds II. Still great service and the best burgers on the sea.

It was the “maiden voyage” for the waterproof housing that we got for our new little camera this Christmas. I still have some learning to do with the new camera and housing, but it's going to work out nicely, I think. There was lots of interesting stuff to see, even though the water was a little stirred up by heavy swells outside the bay. Here are a few pictures from Kealakekua Bay.

A few pretty fish

Some nice coral and sea urchins

The under side of water

For dinner, we went to a luau a little way up the coast. The after-dinner show was like most luau shows, but the food was above average with plenty to choose from.

Sunset silhouette at the luau

Dinner’s almost ready

Tuesday, Day two

We started our day by going to the temple. It is a nice little temple. Here is a picture of the flowerbed near the door.

Then we went shopping at some of the exotic local shops- Safeway, Target, Costco (home of the 4-lb. can of tuna), did a little hanging-out, and ended the day at Huggo’s, our favorite Kona restaurant.

Here are some pics of the view from our table at dinner.

Aloha 2010- Day one

Hello everyone! Most of you know that we arrived in Paradise on Monday evening. You’re probably thinking, “Blog, already!” So here is a quick update.

Monday, day one.

The flight over here was pretty uneventful. Strong headwinds that made us just late enough to miss our connecting flight to Kona, but we already knew that might happen and were prepared to wait another hour for the next flight. We took our chances and went “stand-by” instead of paying extra for confirmed seats. Turned out to be a good choice since there were plenty of empty seats on the flight.

We didn’t have any trouble checking in this year and had plenty of time to walk up Ali’i Drive for a quick dinner at Bubba Gump’s.

Here is an early-morning view from our condo lanai

We sat at a table by the ocean and watched the surf.

Birthday boy

Yesterday was a certain boy’s birthday. He started the day with waffles before he went to a holiday show with jugglers, acrobats and trained pigs. After lunch we had birthday singing, presents, cake and ice cream.

Moo had the first taste of the Lightening McQueen cake

After cake and ice cream we went to the village market for a free horse-and-carriage ride and then back home for resting time.

We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, where he had his favorite, a hamburger. Then we all gave him a big birthday ‘yee-haw.’

Catching up

OK. So it has been a while since I've posted. Just to bring you up to speed, here's a little sample of the latest, such as it is.

We got our Christmas lights up before the weather got miserably cold. We even managed to wrap lights on a couple of trees. This was the learning year for that and boy did we learn a lot. But they look OK and all the lights work. If I get a picture of the yard, I will post it later.

Our garden had a pretty good year, but we were ready to end the season. We picked the last of our snap peas about a week before Thanksgiving. There is still lettuce under a row cover, but I haven't checked it lately to see if it is still alive.

Our youngest chickadee has returned to the nest for a while.

Correction

OK. I made a little error in the previous post and now I have corrected it. So if it didn't make sense to you before, read it again. If you hadn't read it before, just take it as it is now.

Thank You

I listened to an interesting presentation about actual vs. perceived value today. Here are two thoughts gleaned from the video.

“We have plenty of opportunities for impulsive spending, but none for impulsive saving.”

“We need more appreciation for the things we already have.”


click here for 16 minutes of fascinating, thought-provoking and very funny observations. (You can always click “pause” if your free time doesn’t come in 16 minute chunks.)