John and Jim's Visit, Cont.

Here's our little cottage in Carmel - it was very cozy and comfortable, and had a dutch door! Here's Lee and John, enjoying morning coffee on Sunday, before we began our Sunday.

After breakfast, we enjoyed a walk around Carmel. Here's a shot of John and Lee at a little shopping mall there. We did some shopping in Carmel, too. John found some great items to take home as gifts, Lee found a jacket, and I found some capris! Success!

When we left Carmel, we drove to Capitola to take in their Classic Car show. It was pretty amazing - lots of really neat old cars and any car buffs would have loved it. We looked for a Studebaker to take a picture for Peter, but there were none.

Seals, sunning themselves on the rocks at Pt. Lobos.

Enjoying a glass of wine on the deck. Note that there is NO sun! But it wasn't cold, so we enjoyed sitting out there, and so did Rex.

On Thursday evening we all walked up to the Distillery for a G&T out on their deck. The sun came out and it was a beautiful, sunny afternoon. The patio at the Distillery is pet-friendly, so Rex was able to go along.

We all had something to drink - even Rex, who had his own glass of ice water!

Here we are all are at Sushi Main Street! Jim took us out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. It was John's first time at a Japanese restaurant, but he was very brave - even had the hot sake! The sushi was fabulous, as usual. John and Jim both had the box dinners, and we all had green tea ice cream for dessert - YUM!

This picture is courtesy of John! He set up the timer, so that we were all able to be in the picture. We had such a good time with Jim and John, and hated to see their visits come to an end. Jim left on Friday afternoon, and John left Friday night, and then the house seemed so empty and quiet!

So, now you are all caught up! We're getting ready to take a road trip from Moss Beach to Canada, beginning on July 3rd, with lots of stops along the way. Stay tuned for the pictorial travelogue!

John and Jim's Visit to Moss Beach

Our wonderful Hawaiian odyssey ended on Friday, May 29th. We had a noon flight on American and John had a noon flight on United, so Friday morning was a flurry of packing that was pretty stressful! We finally got everything in, and hoped for the best, weight-wise, as there is a 50 lb. limit. Charges for weight over 50 lbs. get pretty high. Our bag actually weighed 53 lbs., but Lee gave the agent his Northwest Airlines card along with our ID, and he didn't charge us, which was very nice of him. Uneventful flights home, and our arrival times were within 15 minutes of each other, so that worked out great. Bob picked us up in our car, and then we headed home. A quick stop at the grocery store (the cupboards were bare!), and we were home by 10:30 pm. We did a quick conversion from den to guest room, got organized, and were having dinner about midnight! Of course, that was 9:00 for us, as we were still on Hawaii time! Saturday was a very low-key day, we all got unpacked, did laundry, did some watering in the yard, which had grown amazingly during our absence, and took a long walk up to the lighthouse in Montara. On Sunday, we took John to Filoli, one of our favorite places:

The rose garden

The "knot" garden, with amazing lavendar

John and Lee under the rose arbor. Notice long-sleeves and sweatshirts - we were definitely feeling the temperature difference!

Peeking through the Camperdown Elm - a most amazing tree with branches that reach the ground, creating a space under the tree.

Relaxing on the steps

John in the house at Filoli

More relaxing - it's a tough life! : )

Here's a picture of John and Jim, also at Filoli. Jim had never been before, and he called it the Hearst Castle of the Peninsula!

During the first week of John's visit, my friend Dani was also visiting, and we were busy knitting. John and Lee headed off to do some sight-seeing, San Francisco, Muir Woods, etc.

John with the Golden Gate bridge

John and Lee at Muir Woods.

At the waterfront in San Francisco. They watched Princess Cruise line set sail for Alaska!

Our knitting retreat ended on Thursday, and Dani headed back to her daughter's home in Elk Grove. We left on Friday for a weekend in Carmel and environs. We took John to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Friday, then headed to Carmel.

In April of this year, the aquarium opened an amazing sea horse exhibit. These are shy little creatures, and this was about the best picture we got.

Lee in the giant clam!

Furry bunny looking for a home! We had gone for a walk to the beach in Carmel for the sunset, and a woman was trying to find homes for her bunnies. I couldn't resist holding one, and she commented on how well he (she?) matched my sweater! We came home without a bunny.

John and I with a sunset background

Lee and I

Minus Tide!

We got up early this morning, filled our travel coffee cups, and headed down to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve to check out the 1.9 minus tide! It was quite amazing, as the ocean was WAY out, and lots of interesting rock formations were exposed.

Also exposed were all of the little tide pool creatures. We were surprised at how many people were down on the beach before 8:00 am on a Wednesday morning. As you can see from the pictures, our sunshine is gone, and the fog is back :(

The harbor seals that have taken up residence on the beach here were gone, and for the first time in a long time, we were able to walk the length of the beach - an amazing thing in itself! It was pretty cold, with a south wind, so we didn't spend too much time on the beach, but headed up to the bluffs for pictures. I did find two pieces of sea glass, though.

These two shots were taken from the beach. You can see how far out the tide is. I looked through the tide book for 2009, and the 1.9 minus tide is the lowest for the year for this area.

These shots were taken from the bluffs, and you can see the really interesting geology of this cove. It almost looks caldera-like, I think. When the tide is high, these rock formations create waves in two different directions. If you make these pictures bigger, you'll see the fellow out there, eeling.

While Lee was taking pictures, I noticed a movement by his feet - and here was this little guy, working away, pushing dirt out of his tunnel. Note those big teeth! He didn't seem to be too concerned about us - we thought that perhaps someone had been leaving peanuts for him (or someone) based on the shells there. I suspect that the army of gophers on the bluff are contributing to the continual erosion.

Ouch!!

This is how poor Aly looks after being hit by a car coming out of a driveway as we were driving on Hwy 92, on the way to HMB nursery!
The good news is that no one was hurt, the doors still work, although the window "bumps" when it goes up and down. The bad news is that now we are dealing with insurance companies and auto body shops.
Add to that the fact that we are going on our month-long road trip a week from Friday, and you have a recipe for STRESS - something that we are no longer used to!
I suspect that Aly will still look this way on our road trip, unless we get the "all clear" to get her into the shop today or tomorrow. The job will take a week, and we absolutely need her by Thursday, so that we can get packed and be ready to hit the road on Friday.
We'll keep you posted!

The last week, and Company!

May 22nd marked the beginning of our last week in Hawaii, and brought company! John Trebes, a dear friend from New Zealand came to have a Mai Tai with us! It started with a comment from Bryan that John should leave winter, and join us in Hawaii - we agreed, and John had an airline reservation and was on his way! He left New Zealand on May 23rd, his birthday. Due to the date line and time difference, he arrived in HI on May 22nd, so he got to have his birthday again on the 23rd.

We had a great last week, although it was sad, knowing that it would soon be over.

Saturday morning, we got John up early, had coffee and tea to go, and headed up to the farmers market to get our fruits and vegetables for the coming week. We got some more apple bananas - a very yummy type of banana that is smaller and firmer than normal bananas, and also has a slight tart, or apple flavor. We had never seen them before, but we bought them each week. There was also a seafood stand - Ohana Seafood - that had the most incredible marinated fish, so we got teriyaki-garlic salmon for dinner.



Here is the sign for apple bananas, and you can just see a bag in the lower left-hand corner of the picture.

A beautiful walk along the Waikiki beach, and of course, a picture with the Duke!

Beautiful water lillies at one of the hotels

John and I in front of the sea turtle statue.

We visited the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and spotted this Ibis walking through the lobby, looking as though he had business to attend to. There was a second Ibis nesting, so perhaps little ones are on the way! I had never seen an Ibis before, so I was quite amazed.

Mr. Ibis

Turtle and fish, also at the Hilton Hawaiian Village

So, we decided to go for a sunset sail on a catamaran! It was a 90 minute sail, and it was just beautiful. I can't believe that we hadn't ever done that, but we'll definitely do it again!

Happy sailors! Hint: when the beer costs more than the Mai Tai, have the beer!! The Mai Tais were $1 each, the beer was $2. As you would imagine (don't know why we didn't!) the Mai Tais were awful! One was more than enough!

Another catamaran with happy sailors! Also the Waikiki skyline and very dark clouds that did not bring any rain.

Ok, we're out on the ocean, and three huge jet skis roar up to our catamaran, and my first though was Pirates!! Of course, they weren't - but they were offering very exciting jet ski rides to anyone on the catamaran who felt brave! This Japanese woman decided to go for it! I'm sure that there was a cost for the side trip, but never did hear what it was.

Sunset on our sunset cruise

Having a great time!

The Royal Hawaiian, or "pink lady", as seen from the ocean. This was the second grand hotel built on Waikiki, and in all of the old pictures, she's the only hotel you see.

On the way back to our condo, we caught the last part of the hula show on the beach. It's a free show that is put on three nights a week. It's a beautiful setting, and there are both children and adults peforming hula numbers.

We had been reading about an event that takes place every year on Memorial Day, called the Lantern Floating. It started out as a way to honor those lost in wars and military conflicts, but rapidly expanded to include anyone who had passed on. There are lanterns that are floated out to sea at dusk, with names and wishes for loved ones. They are lighted, and the pictures we had seen online at http://www.lanternfloatinghawaii.com were just beautiful, so we decided that we would attend. The first thing that we did was go to the lantern tent, and put the names of those that we had lost on lanterns to be floated to sea. The top picture is of the lantern with our parents names on it. The picture below is Autumn's lantern.
If you cut and paste the website into your browser, you can choose Lantern Lighting 2009, and see a podcast of the event. There were tributes from individuals to those they were honoring, music, dancing, etc. It was a very moving way to spend Memorial Day, and we were so glad that we did it.

At the ceremony, waiting for dusk!

This is a little fuzzy, but you can see lanterns being sailed all along the beach. Now, they don't actually go out to sea, as that would be littering, but they sail around Magic Beach. In the end, there were two lanterns that managed to get way out, and were the last to be brought back in. I like to think those were ours!

Another picture, as it got darker

Happy hour on our lanai! Note the Steinlager, which is NZ beer - shame on us - it should have been a Longboard Lager!

John and I enjoying the rocking chairs at the Moana, the first grand hotel on Waikiki

On Wednesday, we boarded the bus and headed to downtown Honolulu to visit the Iolani Palace and the Bishop Museum. We had done quite a bit of reading on the Hawaiian monarchy, and were interested in learning more.

The building above is Washington Place. This was the final residence of Queen Lilioukalani, the last Hawaiian monarch. Note the tree and it's amazing roots!

Statue of the queen

Iolani Palace. We joined a tour of this palace. It was just amazing! We weren't allowed to take photographs inside, but it was beautiful. The reception area was all paneled in Hawaiian hardwoods, was was the two-story wooden staircase, but the paneling on the walls was Port Orford Cedar! We toured the entire palace, and our docent was just amazing, with lots of stories and antecdotes about the monarchy. Queen Lilioukalani was imprisoned in the palace after the monarchy was overthrown by members of the business community, aided by the military, and the US government. She was imprisoned for 9 years before she was allowed to move to Washington Place to live out her final years.

Statue of King Kamahameha the Great. The first king of the united Hawaiian Islands. His legacy is that he united the islands. The way he did it was to defeat all of the kings of the individual islands, to create one leadership. The story is that when he was born a tribal elder declared that he should be put to death, as he would grow up to be a "killer of kings". His parents sent him off to live with distant relatives instead. And the rest is history!

The Bishop Musuem and Planetarium were also amazing - there is a lot to see and learn in the islands, aside of the normal tourist activities. We never tired of watching the fish and looking for sea turtles. The longer you watch, the more varities of fish you can see, as the water is so clear.

We had a great and amazing time. We quickly worked into a routine that included long walks, beach or pool time, live music in the evening, etc.,in addition to the nornal domestic chores. We did quite a bit of shopping - so much so that packing to come home was stressful! But we now have an entire wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts and t-shirts! And yes, we could live there. I've no doubt that we'll repeat this month long trip to paradise again. Maybe two months next time!

John was able to continue his holiday, and come back to Moss Beach with us, so that was good. It was great to share our favorite things with him, and to experience new things was well. We have a list for "next time"!