Thursday, day four

Today was our big hike day. We met our guide at 6:45 in the morning, drove for an hour and a half up the Kohala coast to Hawi and then transferred to a 6-wheel-drive Pinzgauer to off-road through abandoned sugar cane fields, streambeds and gullies to get to our trailhead.

We hiked around past several pretty waterfalls. It was overcast and cool for most of the time but we never got rained on. Here are some pictures from our hike.

The Pinzgauer

One of the streams we crossed

We came to a very muddy stretch and had to get out of the Pinzgauer while our guide took it through a spot where he thought it might slide off the trail. Once he got it up the slope, we all climbed back in and we were on our way again.

A pretty overlook near the trailhead

This is what a lot of the trail was like

There is an old irrigation flume running through the mountains and hills in the part of the island where we were hiking. Some stretches were carved out of the cliff faces and other parts were tunneled through the mountain. We floated through a section of the flume a few years ago before part of it collapsed during an earthquake. The flume is slowly being repaired now and maybe some day we will be able to "flume da ditch" again.

A couple of times the trail passed sections of the flume


Here are a few of the waterfalls we hiked to

The view from our picnic spot at the end of our hike

It was a nice hike. We browsed through some shops and galleries in the little town of Hawi while our guide moved all our stuff from the Pinzgauer to the van. We got back to Kona in the late afternoon, got cleaned up and walked about a mile up the road to try a new restaurant. All in all, a day well spent.

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