Ken and Evelyn's house is in a valley called Manoa valley and is literally butting up against the mountains. They rise directly amd steeply upwards behind the house, so steeply that you have to crane your neck when looking at the top of the back yard 'garden'.
But it's the evening/dusk light that I like the best. It's an inexplicable kind of light. All the vegetation seems to stand out, each leaf individually. As if they had been highlighted with a special light enhancing marker. Yet it's not glaring. It's smooth and soft and subtle.
I can see how many centuries ago local Hawai'ians would want to pay respect to Gods that could provide them with such lucious flowering forests, gorgeous fruits and amazing scenery and weather.
Sunday, July 25, 2004
Sea turtles, kayaking at Lanikai and Jesus Christ Superstar
I love kayaking. In fact I love anything to do with water. I'm convinced it's because I'm a Pisces. Yesterday Saturday 24th we took off mid-morning snorkel gear in hand and headed for Lanikai beach where you can hire kayaks and there are some nice islands to paddle out to. But the best part are the turtles. When it's not high surf the water is extremely clear and calm and you can see the turtles really well. They are so gorgeous. Jeff and I got on our snorkel gear and jumped over the side of the kayak to follow and watch them. Usually you see them one at a time. I think they are probably mostly solitary creatures.
We headed for the small island closest to shore called Flat Island. Because - well, it's flat; It's also a bird sancturay. You can land and as long as you are respectful that it's a sanctuary and don't pollute it with garbage and such, it's a lovely jump off point for a bit of snorkeling. Yesterday the sea wasn't so calm as there was a high surf due to a storm off the far south-east coast, but we found a some colorful fishlife anyway. I noticed a huge trigger fish that sadly was in the throws of dying.
Heading home we took H3 to H1 a different route to how we drove there. I felt really good after the exercise and fresh air. It did Jeff a lot of good too. He's spending lots of time in the house working. First thing in the morning he gets up has a coffee and sits down with minimac to work. I'm keeping myself busy with research on our next stop Bangkok.
Sunday we had tickets for the local Jesus Christ Superstar show at the Performing Arts Theatre near Kakapuu Ave. It was good, well oiled and smoothly run. Judas unfortunately didn't have the oomph or strength to be the strong player this part demands. But it didn't detract terribly from a lovely entertaining show. And the most unusual part were the ASL sign language support volunteers. They were as entertaining and into showing the emotions through their body language and hand motions as the actors on stage were. Aweseome.
This evening we realised we only have 9 days left in Hawaii. That Ken and Evelyn come back in 6 days.
We headed for the small island closest to shore called Flat Island. Because - well, it's flat; It's also a bird sancturay. You can land and as long as you are respectful that it's a sanctuary and don't pollute it with garbage and such, it's a lovely jump off point for a bit of snorkeling. Yesterday the sea wasn't so calm as there was a high surf due to a storm off the far south-east coast, but we found a some colorful fishlife anyway. I noticed a huge trigger fish that sadly was in the throws of dying.
Heading home we took H3 to H1 a different route to how we drove there. I felt really good after the exercise and fresh air. It did Jeff a lot of good too. He's spending lots of time in the house working. First thing in the morning he gets up has a coffee and sits down with minimac to work. I'm keeping myself busy with research on our next stop Bangkok.
Sunday we had tickets for the local Jesus Christ Superstar show at the Performing Arts Theatre near Kakapuu Ave. It was good, well oiled and smoothly run. Judas unfortunately didn't have the oomph or strength to be the strong player this part demands. But it didn't detract terribly from a lovely entertaining show. And the most unusual part were the ASL sign language support volunteers. They were as entertaining and into showing the emotions through their body language and hand motions as the actors on stage were. Aweseome.
This evening we realised we only have 9 days left in Hawaii. That Ken and Evelyn come back in 6 days.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Boogie Boarding
This is a sand, sea and surf island and of course when you're here you've got to do as the Roman's do and boogie.
To rent a boogie board for a day costs about $20, for two of us that would be $40 so we looked on Craigslist and came up with 2 boogie boards @ $40 and $45, one of which included a set of fins.
We were set. Saturday and Sunday we boogied down at Makapu'u beach for at least an hour each day. The beach is white sand and approximately 1,000 feet long and 200 feet wide. We were in the middle of a High Surf weekend. Usually in the summer it's calm but we were lucky and got the best weekend so far to be there.
You can see Waimanalo Bay and two islands immediately offshore. The smaller island is Kaohikaipu (or Black Rock). The larger island is Manana commonly known as Rabbit Island. Rabbit Island was for many years the home of a small colony of ribbits, but none of them remain today. Both islands are state seabird sanctuaries.
Makapu'u meaning 'bulging eyes' is said to have been a black stone with eight protrustions on it that resembled human eyes. Hawaiians regarded the stone as a 'kino lau' a physical manifestation of a supernatural person, in this case a woman called Makapu'u.
The high surf is awesome, though some of the huge waves are freightening when little ol' me is down at the bottom of it and it's about to break over the top of my head.
But after a while you figure out how best to avoid swallowing too much sea water, how to get on your board before the wave has disappeared into the shore and how to 'steer' the boogie board as you approach shore to avoid all the little children playing at the water's edge.
Jeff found Malasadas. They are doughnuts with no holes basically. And the most famous place here that serves them is Leonards. On our third trip to Leonards in nearly as many days the lady behind the counter said to Jeff 'Again?' Since then we've cooled it off a bit, but I feel a Malasada run in the offing.
The weather of course is gorgeous. If ever there was a perfect place this could be close to it. Though it gets a little too hot in the day for my liking, I just avoid it. That way I get the best of the gorgeous weather, the least of the humid and intense heat at mid-day, yet still get some color and a healthier look. Mostly of course that's all freckles.
Sunday evening we watched the second part of 4400, about the alien abductees who are returned to earth many years after their abduction. It's pretty good. But I can see that it could become like '24', too much of the same thing every episode. So I don't think I'll miss it when I go to Thailand. Actually I'm very surprised at how little television I'm viewing. The withdrawal symptoms aren't that much really.
The neighbors house which is just right in front of us ( you should see the straight up mountain at the back of us!) and it's a Mom and her son. The son plays base guitar and practises that and singing. It's not a bit irritating nor is he too loud or obnoxious so we don't mind at all. In fact it's quite pleasant to hear it in the air.
To rent a boogie board for a day costs about $20, for two of us that would be $40 so we looked on Craigslist and came up with 2 boogie boards @ $40 and $45, one of which included a set of fins.
We were set. Saturday and Sunday we boogied down at Makapu'u beach for at least an hour each day. The beach is white sand and approximately 1,000 feet long and 200 feet wide. We were in the middle of a High Surf weekend. Usually in the summer it's calm but we were lucky and got the best weekend so far to be there.
You can see Waimanalo Bay and two islands immediately offshore. The smaller island is Kaohikaipu (or Black Rock). The larger island is Manana commonly known as Rabbit Island. Rabbit Island was for many years the home of a small colony of ribbits, but none of them remain today. Both islands are state seabird sanctuaries.
Makapu'u meaning 'bulging eyes' is said to have been a black stone with eight protrustions on it that resembled human eyes. Hawaiians regarded the stone as a 'kino lau' a physical manifestation of a supernatural person, in this case a woman called Makapu'u.
The high surf is awesome, though some of the huge waves are freightening when little ol' me is down at the bottom of it and it's about to break over the top of my head.
But after a while you figure out how best to avoid swallowing too much sea water, how to get on your board before the wave has disappeared into the shore and how to 'steer' the boogie board as you approach shore to avoid all the little children playing at the water's edge.
Jeff found Malasadas. They are doughnuts with no holes basically. And the most famous place here that serves them is Leonards. On our third trip to Leonards in nearly as many days the lady behind the counter said to Jeff 'Again?' Since then we've cooled it off a bit, but I feel a Malasada run in the offing.
The weather of course is gorgeous. If ever there was a perfect place this could be close to it. Though it gets a little too hot in the day for my liking, I just avoid it. That way I get the best of the gorgeous weather, the least of the humid and intense heat at mid-day, yet still get some color and a healthier look. Mostly of course that's all freckles.
Sunday evening we watched the second part of 4400, about the alien abductees who are returned to earth many years after their abduction. It's pretty good. But I can see that it could become like '24', too much of the same thing every episode. So I don't think I'll miss it when I go to Thailand. Actually I'm very surprised at how little television I'm viewing. The withdrawal symptoms aren't that much really.
The neighbors house which is just right in front of us ( you should see the straight up mountain at the back of us!) and it's a Mom and her son. The son plays base guitar and practises that and singing. It's not a bit irritating nor is he too loud or obnoxious so we don't mind at all. In fact it's quite pleasant to hear it in the air.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Arriving in Hawaii and before Ken and Evelyn's departure for Copenhagen
The flight was uneventful. The movie was 50 First Dates with Adam Scandler and Drew Barrymore. We'd seen it before, but it's mildly amusing and entertaining even a second time.
The food wasn't. Period. Glad we had breakfast at SFO airport before we took off.
After disembarking and walking through to the baggage claim area we met Evelyn, who had leis' for us. And as luck would have it, our bags were right there waiting for us on the carousel. Having come from foggy SF Honolulu was hot, hot, hot. At least the car had AC, so we were ok until we got to the house where we could change into something lighter.
That evening, Wednesday 7th, we went to the Zoo for an outdoor concert and picnic. It was glorious to be out in a balmy warm evening and even the drizzle that began to fall couldn't put us off. The double rainbows that showed up with the evening rain were unbelievable. But what I found curious was how locals didn't see it as anything unusual. I guess after a while you do get very used to it. Hmm... not sure I ever would.
Thursday was catchup day for Evelyn to get all her things done before leaving the following day on their vacation. We have all the instructions on how to look after the cats written up and stuck on the fridge. I don't think they'll be any problem. Evelyn and I took off together in the afternoon to take care of these little things. Afterwards we stopped off at a little cafe for coffee and a chat.
While getting ready for the evening meal I managed to break the shower head. Doh! And that was after we had been horseplaying and had managed to knock over the high Asian stool causing a little dent to it's edge.
Our dinner out with Ken and Evelyn was in a Vietnamese restaurant and was delicious. It was good to sit and chat with them for a while.
Friday morning waking up to the now familiar sounds of the birds chirping away is beautiful. The peace and quiet here has already mended our souls a little. Contributing to that is the wonderful vista of the mountains outside the front door, with such inexplicable cloud formations floating by it's like being in a dreamland. I expect after a month we'll feel be whole human beings again.
I even got to go to yoga Friday evening. It's an easy place to get to and an easy studio to be in to do yoga. It felt good afterwards.
Then finally the call from Birute came. She's the Orangutan lady in Borneo. Jeff talked to her for a while and let her know that Ken's not here for the next couple of weeks, that we're house-sitting. He also got to mention we're off on our RTW trip and will be heading to her area at some point and would love to help where we can at Camp Leakey.
The food wasn't. Period. Glad we had breakfast at SFO airport before we took off.
After disembarking and walking through to the baggage claim area we met Evelyn, who had leis' for us. And as luck would have it, our bags were right there waiting for us on the carousel. Having come from foggy SF Honolulu was hot, hot, hot. At least the car had AC, so we were ok until we got to the house where we could change into something lighter.
That evening, Wednesday 7th, we went to the Zoo for an outdoor concert and picnic. It was glorious to be out in a balmy warm evening and even the drizzle that began to fall couldn't put us off. The double rainbows that showed up with the evening rain were unbelievable. But what I found curious was how locals didn't see it as anything unusual. I guess after a while you do get very used to it. Hmm... not sure I ever would.
Thursday was catchup day for Evelyn to get all her things done before leaving the following day on their vacation. We have all the instructions on how to look after the cats written up and stuck on the fridge. I don't think they'll be any problem. Evelyn and I took off together in the afternoon to take care of these little things. Afterwards we stopped off at a little cafe for coffee and a chat.
While getting ready for the evening meal I managed to break the shower head. Doh! And that was after we had been horseplaying and had managed to knock over the high Asian stool causing a little dent to it's edge.
Our dinner out with Ken and Evelyn was in a Vietnamese restaurant and was delicious. It was good to sit and chat with them for a while.
Friday morning waking up to the now familiar sounds of the birds chirping away is beautiful. The peace and quiet here has already mended our souls a little. Contributing to that is the wonderful vista of the mountains outside the front door, with such inexplicable cloud formations floating by it's like being in a dreamland. I expect after a month we'll feel be whole human beings again.
I even got to go to yoga Friday evening. It's an easy place to get to and an easy studio to be in to do yoga. It felt good afterwards.
Then finally the call from Birute came. She's the Orangutan lady in Borneo. Jeff talked to her for a while and let her know that Ken's not here for the next couple of weeks, that we're house-sitting. He also got to mention we're off on our RTW trip and will be heading to her area at some point and would love to help where we can at Camp Leakey.
Friday, July 09, 2004
Between June 30th and July 7th all hell seemed to break lose
30th June checked with the Storage facility that we still had our 8'*20' space. Despite the fact that I'd called at least on 3 previous occasions to confirm our booking, it turned out they'd screwed up. Simple as that. Not much we could do about it. But luckily I had researched other options and knew of another Storage unit facility closer than the original one in Santa Rosa by a long shot. It had a better rate per month and gave us an additional 10% discount for staying over a year.
2nd July we loaded some of the already boxed house stuff up and dropped it off at Storage. The next day the Celtic movers came. Not only did we have the 15' Ryder truck ourselves but they also brought their own bigger truck. We spent the day loading our Ryder truck with goods. It was obvious that we needed another day of the movers to help get us finish the packing. Making my Irish accent as strong as I could I talked to the owner of Celtic movers, a fellow Irishman, Martin Nolan. He was able to turn up 3 good guys for us the following day at short notice.
Not only did we have a need for more movers, but Jeff suddenly found out that we needed some very specific kinds of 3M tape to tape up the Speakers. 3M 232 to be precise, a low adhesive tape which should come off the speakers easily and without causing them damage. We spent about 5 hours driving around and searching the internet but we couldn't find any. In the end we figured out how to box them up with the 3M 232.
The second set of movers boxed the Speakers with great care, got them down the front door steps without causing any issues or problems and very good naturedly too. Especially considering that they each weigh about 300lbs.
We of course rewarded them handsomely for working on their 4th July as they really saved our bacon. We would never have been able to get all the stuff in to the Storage unit ourselves.
Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th July we ran around putting final pieces into storage, returning stuff to Home Depot and swiching out my daypack for the larger REI Vagabond model.
Finally Tuesday evening we were back styaing at Darren and Bonnie's house for our last night in the US. We had one last unsolved problem and that was the Alfa Romeo. We still hadn't got a buyer for it and we were brain storming all sorts of options to see how we could handle it. We thought of donating it to charity, abandoning it somewhere, having it stolen, shipping it to Asia, any number of wild ideas.
As we sipped a few Sayonara champagne drinks with with Darren and Bonnie, their neighbor Chip joined us as. As we were bemoaning the problem with the Alfa. Chip... well... chipped in. He said he'd take it for fun, see how he liked it and would sell it later. As things transpire it took quite some time and effort by our stalwart friends Darren and Bonnie and Chip to get it sold. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
Jeff had a bunch of stuff he needed to still sort through. In the end he stayed up all night getting it in order.
In the middle of the very early morning I woke up scratching. Uh Oh. I'm very very allergic to mosquito bites and I knew by the itch I'd been 'got'. The area Bonnie and Darren live in, Pacific Heights has more mosquitoes than where we used to live in foggy West Portal/Parkside.
The mosquitoes had had a feast while I slept. My forehead had two Klingon-like bumps, my right eye was so swollen it was practically closed. The left was a little less swollen and I could still see out of it. I was so upset. I felt so awful and looked so bad from the swelling and here I was about to fly to Hawaii to meet Jeff's Mom and Ken. Oh Great! Bonnie gave me a block of ice to reduce the eye swelling, which worked a little. At least it made my eye feel less irritated and swollen.
In the Airport I got a pair of sunglasses which helped tremendously in reducing the discomfort I was experiencing from my swollen eyes. They also camouflaged my face so I didn't look like Jeff had socked me one in the eye!
Finally on the plane with just our packpacks and camera equipment. At last we're on our way. Phew.
2nd July we loaded some of the already boxed house stuff up and dropped it off at Storage. The next day the Celtic movers came. Not only did we have the 15' Ryder truck ourselves but they also brought their own bigger truck. We spent the day loading our Ryder truck with goods. It was obvious that we needed another day of the movers to help get us finish the packing. Making my Irish accent as strong as I could I talked to the owner of Celtic movers, a fellow Irishman, Martin Nolan. He was able to turn up 3 good guys for us the following day at short notice.
Not only did we have a need for more movers, but Jeff suddenly found out that we needed some very specific kinds of 3M tape to tape up the Speakers. 3M 232 to be precise, a low adhesive tape which should come off the speakers easily and without causing them damage. We spent about 5 hours driving around and searching the internet but we couldn't find any. In the end we figured out how to box them up with the 3M 232.
The second set of movers boxed the Speakers with great care, got them down the front door steps without causing any issues or problems and very good naturedly too. Especially considering that they each weigh about 300lbs.
We of course rewarded them handsomely for working on their 4th July as they really saved our bacon. We would never have been able to get all the stuff in to the Storage unit ourselves.
Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th July we ran around putting final pieces into storage, returning stuff to Home Depot and swiching out my daypack for the larger REI Vagabond model.
Finally Tuesday evening we were back styaing at Darren and Bonnie's house for our last night in the US. We had one last unsolved problem and that was the Alfa Romeo. We still hadn't got a buyer for it and we were brain storming all sorts of options to see how we could handle it. We thought of donating it to charity, abandoning it somewhere, having it stolen, shipping it to Asia, any number of wild ideas.
As we sipped a few Sayonara champagne drinks with with Darren and Bonnie, their neighbor Chip joined us as. As we were bemoaning the problem with the Alfa. Chip... well... chipped in. He said he'd take it for fun, see how he liked it and would sell it later. As things transpire it took quite some time and effort by our stalwart friends Darren and Bonnie and Chip to get it sold. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
Jeff had a bunch of stuff he needed to still sort through. In the end he stayed up all night getting it in order.
In the middle of the very early morning I woke up scratching. Uh Oh. I'm very very allergic to mosquito bites and I knew by the itch I'd been 'got'. The area Bonnie and Darren live in, Pacific Heights has more mosquitoes than where we used to live in foggy West Portal/Parkside.
The mosquitoes had had a feast while I slept. My forehead had two Klingon-like bumps, my right eye was so swollen it was practically closed. The left was a little less swollen and I could still see out of it. I was so upset. I felt so awful and looked so bad from the swelling and here I was about to fly to Hawaii to meet Jeff's Mom and Ken. Oh Great! Bonnie gave me a block of ice to reduce the eye swelling, which worked a little. At least it made my eye feel less irritated and swollen.
In the Airport I got a pair of sunglasses which helped tremendously in reducing the discomfort I was experiencing from my swollen eyes. They also camouflaged my face so I didn't look like Jeff had socked me one in the eye!
Finally on the plane with just our packpacks and camera equipment. At last we're on our way. Phew.
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