We arrived at the house we've rented for a few days by taxi in the dark, around 6:30am...the driver had a hard time finding the tiny street. The housekeeper hadn't arrived yet to let us in, so we watched the dawn arrive and were greeted by several hummingbirds who appear to hang out around the front door. After the housekeeper arrived and gave us a quick tour, we climbed into bed and slept as the sun streamed through the amazing glass windows....the house is beautiful, with much colored glass, bright paint, and ceramics. The garden is tropical and shaded, and there's a sunny rooftop area too. I love how it smells here: like the best spring day.... I've made coffee...and the hammock beckons...Bill's still asleep, but a new place always feels like Christmas morning to me...so ... read more

Happy New Year to you all.....wishing you peace, health and joy in the coming months! In sitting down to write this year's new year greeting, I find myself tired of the "what a wonderful life we've lived this past year" format. While that is true, and we do truly love our life here on Skagit Bay, you've already heard enough about our kayaking, biking, hiking, gardening... Our sons are doing well, and our grandson is exceptional, of course. We are both actively volunteering (Bill is with Hospice now); we sleep late, eat well, read newspapers daily, watch Stewart/Colbert/Maher/Louie C.K. most evenings and frequently feed our House Hunters International addiction as well. Bill would like to watch many more movies on our big screen, but Lynn is always reluctant to commit.... Our travels have been documented here ... read more

We started the day with a drive to Pahoa Town, and then to Lava Trees State Park. The mile from Pahoa to the park is amazing, with giant trees making a canopy over the road. The rain turned into a downpour as we arrived in the parking lot and didn't let up, so we changed our plans and drove a few minutes to the coast (rain stopped a mile down the road), where we took a gravel, one lane road through the jungle (there were homes down driveways from time to time) to the shore and then into a housing development, and back to Pahoa. Since the sun was out, we headed back to Lava Trees, only to end up in the same downpour we'd been in an hour earlier. We were only in a few ... read more

You probably remember all the National Geographic articles on volcanos and especially the eruption of Kilauea in Hawaii, with photos of roads and homes being covered in oozing lava..... Well, I was there today....! And since I can never see enough lava, I loved every minute....only regret is that there is no flow right now that you can get close to....so that experience will have to wait... But here's lots of footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rk3oW4aahQ We started off with a view of the eruption in the crater, called Halema'uma'u, from the Jaggar Museum (where they have a comparison between Mt St Helens lava and that of Kilauea!). The plume of volcanic gas is a "constant and dramatic reminder of the molten rock churning in a lava lake beneath the crater floor". The crater became active again in March ... read more

Saturday: Started the day in the usual way: coffee and toast followed by a run...but decided to run a bit further than before (the what's around the corner syndrome). I ended up at the site of the battle between the old religion here and Christianity. The Queen has noticed that Christians broke kapu (forbidden things like men and women eating together) all the time and nothing happened, so she decided to break it also...and nothing happened....thus the war..and Christianity won...the dead are buried in terraces above the battle field...hard to believe you could fight on a lava covered plain...today a golf course edges up to the battlefield/graveyard... Later we drove south to the Pu'uhanua O Honaunau National Park, where royalty lived and where there is a "Place of Refuge", where you could be safe after breaking ... read more