What happens when..

Chickens roost in trees?? Yesterday, on our walk around Diamond Head, as we reached Diamond Head Beach park, we could hear chickens! We couldn't see any chickens, but as we got closer, they got louder, and we finally realized that there was a flock of chickens in the tree! There were about 6 hens and a rooster! But I think that this small flock will diminish in size, as:

Here's where their eggs land!! We were amazed to find an intact egg on the ground! Maybe it's their way of not having to care for little balls of fuzz, who probably wouldn't stay in the tree, either!

So far, one of the most amazing sights we've seen on the island!

Honolulu #4...

Thursday, May 7th - Saturday, May 9th (Happy birthday, Patience!)

Thursday we decided to visit the Honolulu Aquarium, which is the 3rd oldest aquarium in the US. There were great exhibits, and we saw varieties of fish that we had never seen before, as well as learned a lot about reefs and sharks. While it's not on the calibre of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we really enjoyed wandering through it.



Some of the jelly fish on display - they were amazing, the way they move through the water. The moon jellies were amazing, too, but those pictures didn't turn out very well.

These fish are called frog fish - we had never seen them before - they will sit, motionless, for hours, but Lee was lucky enough to be there when the hours were apparently up, as one of them moved slowly around the tank. In the bottom picture, the fish is facing the tank, and you can see the eye (outlined in white). Not the most attractive fish we've ever seen - can you imagine pulling your line in and finding THAT??

We also saw Nautilus swimming in their darkened tank - amazing!!

After the aquarium, we headed home for showers and then wandered down to the Halekulani for some Hawaiian music. You can see that the setting was beautiful! We each had a beer and basked in the warm air and beautiful music.

As the music was wrapping up, the full moon popped up over the palm trees, with Diamond Head in the background.

Walking back to our room, we got a picture of Duke - you can see that he'd been given lots of leis. We took several pictures for tourists, too.

On Friday, we headed out about 1 and walked down to the Ala Moana shopping center - Lee's idea! It was about an hours walk away. We managed to spend about 3 hours there, but did minimal shopping - I'm still looking for shoes to wear with my dress to the Luau on Tuesday! We left the shopping center, and walked back to Waikiki. We went to the barefoot bar at the Outrigger, and listened to music there. There were two fellows - one on the base and one playing the slack key guitar. They were quite good! We headed home about 7:30, and fixed dinner.

Saturday morning we were down on Kalakaua Avenue early, for ring-side seats for the 17th annual Filipino parade. While waiting for the parade to start, Lee got some beach shots - this one showing the beach, umbrellas, nice clean sand, and in the background, the pink Royal Hawaiian hotel.

The beautiful Pacific ocean

Here comes the parade!

There were many floats, as well as different areas of the Philipines represented

Girls doing a traditional Philipine dance.

More groups

And more

Again, the beautiful pink Royal Hawaiian, tucked in amont the high-rise buildings.

After the parade, we decided to take a walk around the back side of Diamond Head. This fountain shows off Diamond Head behind it. It was quite a long walk, through some beautiful residential areas ( we really need to win the lottery!), and finally, out to Diamond Head State Beach, and the Diamond Head lighthouse!

We did some beach combing, and we found some great sea glass, as well as a neat seashell.

Here's a shot of a banyan tree. If you are not familiar with banyans, they can grow to cover city blocks, and they do this by putting down roots from their branches as they grow. They are amazing, and you can see that this one has put down roots on the other side of the sidewalk. There are many huge banyans in and around Waikiki, but the biggest banyan in existence today is in India.

Saturday afternoon we visited the Tiki room for more Hawaiian music. We then headed back down Kalakaua, and got there just in time to catch the nightly hula performance. They opened the show with the blowing of the conch shell. Apparently Polynesians believe that the night is the beginning of the new day, and greeting the coming day with the conch shell is traditional. The person shown here is one of the best at this, and also teaches young people that art.

Here's one of his students. He did a great job!

There were also hula dancers, starting with very young, anxious, adorable girls, and moving up through high school. There was a group of young boys playing the ukulele and singing, too, and they were very good, as well. It was a great show (free) and the first time that we had seen it from beginning to end. A great way to end the day!

And now it's Sunday! Happy Mother's day to all of you mothers out there! We hope that you have a fabulous day! Today is a beach day, so we're going to get this posted, and get out there!!

Honolulu #3...

Tuesday the 5th. Happy birthday Cathi!

On Monday we rented a car for the day, as we needed to make a Costco stop, as well as see some sights that are beyond walking distance!

Our first stop was the Lyon Arboretum in the Manoa Valley which is just above Waikiki. Part of the arboretum is in rain forest, and was incredibly lush and green, with Hawaiian song birds serenading, amazing plants and flowers, and voracious mosquitoes! We probably would have explored longer, but in the end, the mozzies drove us out! The area is only marginally developed, and you could explore anywhere you wanted - hence we had to sign a release that if we got hurt, it was our own fault!

Below is the sign for the arboretum, as well as one of their amazing plant sculptures.

An example of happy plants - this is a stag horn fern that has encircled the tree. We saw lots of stag horns on palm trees throughout the forest.

Another sculpture - someone is very talented!

This was a flower that we had never seen before, and it was really big! No fragrance, though.

Here's a picture that shows just how big this flower is!

This is a view from the look out point - it was very beautiful and peaceful. Notice the haze in the background - that's caused by Kilaeua, which is erupting on the big Island.

A pineapple on the hoof! We've been enjoying fresh pineapple, banana and papaya every morning with breakfast!

We have no idea what this plant is, but it was HUGE, as you can see!

A beautiful Buddhist statue in the forest.

And a close-up view. Someone had given the statue a fresh flower. After we left the Arboretum, we visited Queen Emma's Summer Palace.

Here is the outside of the palace. They didn't allow photography inside. The house was manufactured in Boston in the mid-1800's, and shipped around the horn to Hawaii, where it was reassembled, piece by piece. The furnishings were amazing, with lots of wooden pieces, beds, cradles, etc., made from Koa and other native woods. There were gifts to both Queen Emma and her son, Albert, from French and English royalty. In fact, Queen Victoria was Godmother to Prince Albert, who died at the age of 4 from appendicitis. There was a very early picture of Queen Victoria, there, as well.

After leaving the summer palace, we traveled up the Pali Highway to the Pali Lookout. This view is from the lookout, with the same volcanic haze!

We continued our way out to a new Costco, which is just east of Hanauma Bay, past Kailua. We got all of our final provisions, then headed back to the Condo, to ferry all of our stuff up to the 12th floor! We feel (sort of) sorry for the permanent residents who do that all the time!

Tuesday morning we took the car back to the rental place, then walked over to Eggs & Things, a pretty popular breakfast place on the island. Lee had eaten there many times with the crews on their trips to Honolulu. The place is so popular that there was a 30 minute wait! The first 15 minutes we waited to get a buzzer, to let us know when it was our turn. But it was worth the wait! Their breakfasts are most yummy!

After breakfast, we walked to Ft. DeRussy, and visited the Army Museum there. It didn't take long for that to get depressing, though, so we walked over to the Hawaiian Hilton Resort to get our Luau tickets! Lee is taking me to a Luau for my birthday! : ) The flamings above are resident at the Hilton - they were totally unconcerned by our presence!

Wednesday morning we hopped on a bus and headed for the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet! www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net

There are over 700 vendors there, selling nearly everything you can imagine, and much of it is made in Hawaii! We were there for 3 hours! I got some Hawaiian shirts, a t-shirt, and a dress to wear to the Luau! Lee got some t-shirts, some 100% Kona coffee (yum!), an old "fogie" hat, and we also got a CD, and a wind chime! Yes, we're good little consumers! The bus trip was one hour each way, and we saw a lot of different areas of Honolulu. We'll be taking the bus to downtown and China town later on.

Last night we met Ken, a NW flight attendant, for a drink after he arrived on the flight from SF. It was great to see him and catch up on all of the NW news!

We are making it a point to check out all of the live music that we can while we are here - I think that tonight we're going to the Halekulani to hear some slack key Hawaiian music!

Yes, it's hard work, but someones gotta do it! We are loving our home away from home!

Honolulu #2...

Sunday afternoon we went back to "Duke's Barefoot Bar" on Waikiki Beach to listen to the weekend live music. It was a different band and very crowded. The waiter told us that Sundays are always crowded. So much so, that they had taken all the tables out and had set up a beer bar outside. Here is a picture of some of the dancers with Diamond Head in the background. It really is a beautiful spot.

On Sunday morning we did some more "hunting and gathering", and walked to the Safeway store. It was only about 20 minutes from here, so a nice walk. We picked up items that we didn't want to get in bulk at Costco. The walk home was a little more challenging, as we were laden with bags! But we're pretty much set. We had breakfast after we got the groceries unloaded, then got into suits and headed to the beach for a few hours.

After the beach, it was home for showers and clean clothes, then off to Dukes! We did some wandering around the Waikiki area, including the new, cleaner, improved Dukes Lane! Then home for fresh king salmon, green beans and rice for dinner, while watching "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition". We've discovered that programs are on an hour earlier here, so we'll need to be home by 7:00 tonight to watch DWTS!!

Today we are going on our final "hunting and gathering" expedition, with a trip to Costco. We're picking up a rental car, and will take advantage of that to also see some of the gardens further out. We'll take the car back tomorrow, and continue to master riding The Bus!!

Aloha!

Honolulu #1...

All went well with the flight to Honolulu. We arrived on time and got a shuttle bus to our hotel.

Our room wasn't going to be ready until 5 pm so we were able to store all of our baggage in another room until it was ready. So we changed clothes and went to the 82nd "May Day" "Lei Day" festival at Kapiolani Park which is close to our hotel. There was lots of entertainment going on, vendor booths, as well as a lei making contest. The contest leis were on display. Some were amazing and very intricate. The entertainment included steel guitar music with performers from the "Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association" so we sat and listened for quite a while. So we had a nice time just wandering about.

Some of the steel guitar performers - the person in the blue shirt is from Vancouver!

rAfter we got settled into our condo, we had our first mai tai under the banyan tree on Waikiki at the Moana Hotel to watch the sunset.

This morning we woke up early and headed off about 8 am to the farmer's market at the city college near Diamond Head. We did our shopping for fruits and veggies for the week.

The number of people at the market was amazing.

Fresh flowers for our condo also bought at the market.

After we got back from the market we went to the beach for about 3 hours. We sat under some palm trees right on the beach. Very relaxing reading our books, going for a swim and people watching.

After we came back from the beach, we went to "Dukes" at 4 pm to listen to the live Hawaiian entertainment. The band was great and would you believe we met some people from Bellingham, Washington. A couple asked if they could join us at our table and we got to talking to find they were from Bellingham. It's a small world!

We came back to our condo about 7 pm and had a wonderful dinner. A big salad with all the fresh veggies we bought at the market which also included "sea asparagus". Also some brown rice and a nice glass of wine. "Life is good"...

Den!

I've been talking about the changes we've made in our guest bedroom, and thought I'd post some pictures!
We decided that since the guest room was only used occasionally, that we weren't getting optimum use of the room. We've turned it into a den. Some of you will recognize Lee's Mom and Dad's rocking chair and their cedar chest. The cedar chest was purchased when they got married in 1939. The tall chest replaces the dresser and is a fantastic way to store clothing!


We got this rocking chair at Costco. The little sewing table was Lee's grandmother's, and I love it!
The bentwood rocking chair belonged to Lee's aunt, Erma, who sadly passed away at the age of 16.
Home office!

We still have pictures to hang, but we are really enjoying using this room.

Now don't think that we don't want company, or don't have room for company! In about 20 minutes, this room converts back to a bedroom! We have a queen size aero bed with a stand, so that it's not on the floor. Lee and I slept on it for a couple of nights, and it's quite comfortable! Nathan slept in it when he was here last September and pronounced it wonderful! So, come and see us!!

Our beautiful back yard

A week or so ago we woke our deck and yard up from it's winter sleep, and cleaned all of the furniture and refurnished the deck! It looks wonderful - we love sitting out here and enjoying the flowers and the sounds of the fountains. It's a bonus when the sun is shining, but we love it even when it's not!

Note the lazy susan on the picnic table that Geoff made! It looks like a little deck, and turns quite nicely. Works great for snacks or condiments, when you have people around the table. Thanks, Geoff!

The chaise lounges are inviting! They have little tables underneath that pull out and hold a glass of wine - or whatever! : )

Swing, glider and chairs, with the vines in the background.

The adirondack chairs in the corner are one of our favorite places to sit and enjoy the yard.
For those of you who remember the yard in it's natural state, it's been quite a journey, and a very rewarding one! We have one thing left to do, aside from maintenance, and that's have rock put down in the area behind the deck, as it's just dirt. We hope to get that done in June, and then the back yard will be DONE! Whooo hooooo!