This morning, Judy and John left our group to go off on a tour of the other Hawai'ian Islands we we were on our own for the remainder of the trip. At this point, we didn't feel like we'd spent enough time at the beach, so we decided to do just that for our morning activity. I had decided that I was going to try this boogie boarding thing I'd heard so much about, and, surprisingly, Laura and Barb both wanted to try it, too. So, we grabbed some beach chairs, an umbrella, the boogie boards, and as an afterthough, I grabbed a mask, snorkel and some fins. Cheryl stayed behind for a little quite alone time. When we got to the beach, the surf was bigger than I remembered it from days past, though, so ... read more

Today was Pearl Harbor day. When one goes to Oahu for the first time, one must go see the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. I believe it's a sort of a civic duty. People my age do not understand at all what it was like on December 7th, 1941 and the days following. The terrorist attacks in New York and DC do not really shed any light on what it was like to be attacked by a foreign military for military goals; those attacks weren't military, they were criminal acts committed by criminal people, and it's just not the same thing. Because of those attacks, though, the Arizona is now one of those secure places where you can't take purses, backpacks or anything else (including "large cameras"). As such, I left my big lenses and my backpack and ... read more

Here we are at Tuesday already. We decided last night to try to have a big breakfast around 9:00 a.m. or so, and then head north to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Were we at home, I'd have rolled out of bed around 8:00 a.m., taken a quick shower and been ready in plenty of time. However, on Oahu, the sun comes up at 6:00 a.m. Every day (give or take 5-10 minutes). All year. Apparently, all the birds on the island decided to sleep in the palm tree just outside our window and they all woke up at once making quite a racket. Thus, I was awake at 6:00 a.m. again. Actually, it wasn't really that bad. The birds are fun; I like how noisy they are, and when the sun comes up, I generally wake ... read more

We took the scenic route from Hilo Hattie's in Honolulu back to Waimanalo, and stopped here and there to take photos from various lookout points. The first stop was along Maunalua Bay to take pictures of the Hanauma Bay crater, though I originally mislabeled these particular photos as being of Diamonhead. The next stop was an overlook looking down on Hawai'i Kai, and back over Maunalua Bay back to Waikiki and Honolulu, where I took a bunch of bad pictures, but managed a couple of a red-crested cardinal that came out quite well. This lookout point was just up above Hanauma Bay, but alas, we didn't have a view of the bay because the ridge continued to rise between us and the Bay. After that, we stopped at Lana'i Lookout, where the shore was rocky and ... read more

Today is Laura's birthday, which could have been kind of a drag for her; I'm not sure I'd count riding in an airplane for five-and-a-half hours as a good birthday present. However, given that Hawai'i was on the other end of that flight, she took it pretty well in stride. Cheryl had arranged for a surprise to be waiting for Laura at the beach house. When we arrived, it had been decorated with balloons and hula dolls and there was a chantilly cake in the refrigerator, so we had a little birthday party as soon as we got all our stuff brought in. In case you're interested, a chantilly cake is a kind of special chocolate cake with frosting made from ground up macadamia nuts. I can report that it is very tasty. Laura had a ... read more