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Showing posts from January, 2014

Hawaiian fallers

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The branches of the palm trees in all their infinite variety need to be kept cleaned up as they could fall on people walking underneath. These two guys walked up the trees so quickly and whacked the branches off ready for the ground crew to haul away. As well, coconut palms that are close to public places and hotels etc are kept cut off as well. Imagine one of those falling and bonking your head! Today is sunny.....again! But usually in the afternoon the cloud builds up over the volcanoes and it rains and refreshes everything. I hope all you northern dwellers enjoy early spring this year!!

A few more photos from my walk along Alii this morning

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This little church is right on the beach. It is often referred to as The Little Blue church. There are 12 pews and a pulpit but no parking except at the Kahalu'u bay park nearby. It was built in1889 and is often used by couples to be married in.

Photos from my morning walk...

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Harry Potter fans will get a kick out of the stop sign!

What is it?

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Birthday breakfast

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My cousins, Tracy and Joanne kindly treated me to breakfast this morning at Bubba Gumps.  We are without a car now for a while so we wanted to learn about the bus system and walked out to Alii Drive where we picked up the Hele On bus, got off by the restaurant and enjoyed a fantastic view right at the waterside deck and the cruise ship in the photos was just pulling up its Tender and turned and left while we dined.  I enjoyed the strawberry and vanilla sauced pancakes while Joanne had this little fry pan of a seafood omelette.  Tracy stayed traditional and had the eggs, hash browns and sausages.  A lovely treat! Once we finished breakfast we walked down the street to catch the trolley....does anyone from Ladysmith know if we sold our trolley to Hawaii?  Looks the same and has the same uncomfortable bench seats but we persevered and rode the whole route around because we wanted to see where the stops were if we needed to go somewhere....shopping for instance!  Aside from the trolley whi

Aloha to a really awesome couple

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Not only did Josh leave yesterday but Linda and Bill, friends from Calgary departed last evening! Hope you two had opportunity to catch 40 winks on your flights back home! We miss you all!

Saturday night birthday dinner

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What a special birthday this year! I get to spend it in this beautiful place, and with special family members. Because Josh had to fly out today, he took me out for my birthday dinner last night to a neat restaurant on the ocean called Huggos. There was no glass in the windows and in the last photo you can see what we looked down on. It was awesome sitting there watching the waves roll in and crash on the rocks while we dined. The sun was setting just before dinner arrived and although it wasn't the most spectacular sunset, it was neat just the same. When we went to the luau we had photos taken and Josh bought one (cost $20) each. Unbeknownst to me, he bought a picture frame reminiscent of Hawaii and put the photo in it as a remembrance of the trip and he also gave me cash to pay for a massage tomorrow, my actual birthday! I've so enjoyed my time with Josh as I don't see him very often now that he works so far away! He's such a thoughtful young man and it's

Selfies!

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Josh, Joanne, Tracy and Sandy...not necessarily in that order!

Cowboy stop sign at Waimea

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Joshua's snorkeling day

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Thought I'd post a few photos of the snorkeling day. Lots of bright and multi colored fish!

Mt Kilauea volcano

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I did not take these photos. They are compliments of the US Geologic people, the Vulcanologists! These photos were taken during a build up of lava on to the actual explosion and formation of the caldera. The caldera by the way continues to collapse and grow so it is possible there could be another explosion or at least lava venting. The Big Island is the youngest in the chain of volcanic islands on the Pacific plate and smaller uprisings are always taking place beneath the ocean around the islands, particularly this island. I read somewhere that a new Hawaiian Island may show its head above water off BI did not take these photos. They are compliments of the US Geologic people, the Vulcanologists! These photos were taken during a build up of lava on to the actual explosion and formation of the caldera. The caldera by the way continues to collapse and grow so it is possible there could be another explosion or at least lava venting. The Big Island is the youngest in the chain of

Mt. Kilauea is becoming active again

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When we arrived at the Visitors viewing Centre above the caldera of Kilauea it was just dusk and we were there for about 1/2 hour and the three photos below show how visible the lava colour reflected on the smoke. The USGS reported Kilaue's increased activity as of January 24th. The tiltmetre network recorded that the lava lake rose another ten meters. At one end of the rift zone, there were a few minor spills of lava that continued to feed the Kahauale à 2 lava flow which was resuming activity. Gas emissions remain elevated. We have experienced VOG several times...this is like a fog but is from the out flowing steam and gasses

Stop off at an organic farm enroute to the volcano

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We actually stopped at a roadside venture of an organic farm called Paradise Meadows.  We were given a tour by a very personable and knowledgeable young man.  You can check it out if you wish at  http://www.ParadiseMeadows.com They practice aquaponics, agricultural experiments with different kinds of vegetables, growing and harvesting coffee, macadamia nuts, lemons, lilikoi pronounced leeleekoi (my favorite....made of passion fruit and is like the best lemony pudding!!!) and various other fruits and vegetables as well as flowering plants, papaya, coffee.....when they turn red they are ready for harvest, but one of the reasons they are hand picked is because they don't all ripen at the same time!   The last photo is of a clump of newly forming bananas called Apple Bananas which are about half the size of the bananas you see in the grocery store.  Sent from Sandy's iPad

Southernmost point in the USA

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Ka Lea is famous for being the most southern point in the USA, even including Florida! The road getting down was paved but narrow in places so fairly easy access although one vehicle would have to drive partly off the pavement when another vehicle approached. It was obvious there are very strong winds in the area by the almost horizontal growth of the trees. The following information is compliments of Wikipedia: Ka Lae is the site of one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements, and it has one of the longest archaeological records on the islands.[2] It is generally thought that this is where the Polynesians first landed because the Big Island is the closest of the Hawaiian Islands toTahiti, and Ka Lae would be the point of first landfall.[7] Ruins of an ancient Hawaiian temple (heiau) and a fishing shrine can be found here. In addition, ancient Hawaiians drilled numerous holes in the rock ledges to use for mooring their canoes. Tying long ropes to their boats, they would drift out t

Stop off at zoo

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Driving down Highway 11 towards the south end of the island, we stopped to see the animals in a small zoo along the roadway. Those bovine looking animals with the huge horns are Watusi, from Africa. I have never seen such huge horns! I wonder how they hold their heads up. Anyone remember a dance from the 60's called the 'Watusi'? Mr. Zebra was standing off by himself catching some rays and chomping away on some grass. Obviously his partner, Mr. donkey was also in the enclosure and we watched them grooming each other. No discrimination here. Also, we noticed a couple of huge buffalo laying down in the shade with some more Watusi's. Leaving the zoo area we proceeded to go to the southernmost point in the USA which is called "Ka Lae" which means....The Point. Others refer to it as Kalae, South Point or South Cape. There were fishermen with rods in the water off the cliff hoping to catch some Yellow Fin tuna, earlier a fellow jumped off the cliff top

Bert and Ernie

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I sometimes find new friends in the strangest places! My two newest friends I've given aliases of Bert and Ernie...not to cast aspersions on the other two from TV show, these friends are green with brownish spots on their backs and they are living on our balcony. They are geckos. There is a larger one I call Bert and the smaller is Ernie. Usually in the afternoon I like to sit on the balcony reading and I balance a glass of OJ on the wooden railing. Both Bert and Ernie are curious little critters and on this day I had also had something on a plate. I think they have super hearing because as soon as i put the glass up, there they are. Usually I guard my juice, giving them the evil eye until it's gone. Then it's up for grabs if there is anything left over. Usually it is Bert who makes the advance, he comes over to investigate, eyes me up and down, ever at the ready to scamper off. He decided I was a 'friendly' and went to see if I'd left anything on t