a sandbox, bubble blowin' kinda day....

today was Cora's introduction to the sandbox and y'know what they say about how a 'duck takes to water'......well.....

she loved it....and we suspect that part of the reason is that she has such a great role model in 'the ways of the sandbox' in Silas........He makes everything fun!

You'd have had to have been there to get the full effect but she got such delight out of submerging her hands into the sand!  It was so fun to watch!

She observed patiently while 'Pop' showed her how to pour (he remembers that pouring ability is positively correlated with the ability to read!)

And then she was ready to take over!

 

 

 

And, oh my, there was plenty of excitement when we began discovering the 'other' visitors to the sandbox habitat.  Silas says, "Here, put it on MY arm" after Cora politely declined.  And I say 'other' visitors, because we'd just shown them a nest of tiny bunnies under the henbit and ivy near the sandbox.

 

Then we moved on to bubble blowing and, once again, she's got a great mentor for this skill, in her big bro!

The first few bubble wands ended up directly IN her mouth, instead of 'in front of.'  Yuck!  But she didn't seem to mind.

Then she began to get the 'hang' of it and.......

                                  even started having some successes!

Silas continues to be proficient at bubbles with HUGE diameters, bubbles IN bubbles, bubbles ON bubbles.  Cora was full of 'oohs' and 'aaahhhhs' at his accomplishments!

Such a blessed way to spend this beautiful afternoon!

Some walk....some run......some fly......

but a lovely overcast/sometimes partly sunny day like today was a perfect day for us to enjoy a great long walk along the RiverParks Trail, along with others who run, some who bike, many who 'cruise' via stroller, and a few on 'blades'.  We're so blessed to live in a city with so many places to enjoy such great walks....and art.....this one celebrating flight.......along the way......

Tishomingo Canada Geese, commissioned by NatureWorks, Inc. and its patrons and sculpted by Geoffrey O. Smith, sits at 49th and Riverside.  Although these feathered friends are captured for all time bound in a southward direction, we've no doubt that if these warmer temperatures hang around, the living breathing models for this sculpture will be returning this way soon.

Just a few blocks north near 41st and Riverside you'll find a tribute to a young, competitive runner whose life was tragically cut short.  His parents gave this memorial to the city, in his honor, and had it placed in an area frequented by their son and his running mates.  It was sculpted by Buck Herron and it sits atop a sandstone boulder brought over from Turkey Mountain. 

 

Kinda makes you wanna hug your kids, huh?  So, what are you waiting for?

Aloha to the Big Island...soon we're homeward bound!

We spent a fun, last full day here exploring an amazing 62 acre resort in the Waikoloa area under sunny blue skies.  Enjoyed 'getting our cardio workout' on miles of beautifully landscaped walking paths and even took advantage of a short ride on the resort's monorail.......

and had a great meal there, as well.

Check-out is 10 am tomorrow so that meant packing our bags was the order of the day today.  One thing that we feel especially blessed to be able to bring back with us is the cd that was playing when we walked into this condo.  We've gotten awfully attached to it over these past two weeks, so we went down to ask if copies of it were available for purchase.  She smiled and said, "It's yours to take home with you as a memory of what a great time you had here." Nice, huh?

There's no 'mediocre' place for a sunset (or sunrise) anywhere on this earth....we're confident of that!   Sunsets only come in one flavor: spectacular!   But one of our favorites is this.....the grounds of the Living Stones Church where we spent the last two Sunday mornings.  We returned there this evening for our last Kona sunset.

We've learned lots of things about the Hawaiian culture (and ourselves) while we've been here.  If you travel right, that's what ought to happen.  One of the things we've learned about the culture is the high value they place on 'ohana (family) and, as much as we've enjoyed this time and this place, we sure miss our 'ohana.......if it weren't for Keith and Laura, Tim and Ally, Brian and Lara and our precious 'grands' being 4, 000 miles away, we could get used to life in a place like this. 

I wonder if we could ever get them here........hmm?

St. Paddy's Day on Ali'l Drive

We began this lovely day by walking, as we did last Sunday, to Living Stones Church for the 9 am service. We took our rain ponchos for the 2 mile round trip walk on Ali'i Drive and wondered what 'contingency plans' a church, which has most of its seating and a significant amount of audio-visual equipment outside, has on a day when there's a 40% chance of rain in the morning.  Those plans, which didin't have to be put into action, included heavy plastic tarps draped over every piece of sound equipment, every screen, every speaker.  Happy to say, our ponchos, have stayed packed away for the whole day!  Wonderful, blessed service!  If you are coming to visit the Kona area, or have friends who are, we can highly recommend the warm fellowship of this non-denominational gathering on the beach!

We then walked the 3.6 miles round trip from Royal Sea Cliff into town on Ali'l Drive, and, at one point, Ali'i Drive was closed to traffic for a 'MayFest' type of gathering.  It was so fun to browse the wares, listen to great music (even some BLUEGRASS! be still my heart!) and just people watch......

 

Mid-afternoon we went to Splashers (the open-air place we had breakfast on our first morning here) and enjoyed a great meal......another local fish we'd never had.....ono.......plus, I think there's some local ordinance about HAVING to order a mai tai when you're here and since I'd never had one and since we're just a couple of days away from being 'homeward bound' and since I really needed one of those cute little unbrellas........

 

Tomorrow we're headed up to the Waikoloa Beach area for some scenic walking and exploring, trying to soak it all up before we start packin' our bags for our Tuesday departure.

You'd better watch out!

We're accustomed to road signs that advise us to watch for deer (especially while traversing Hwy 62 to see our Tahlequah 'Tigers') and of course, on various road trips in Colorado and New Mexico, the 'Watch for elk' signs and 'Watch for falling rocks' signs abound.  But we've seen some new ones out here on The Big Island to add to our list of things for which to look out......



This reads 'Watch for falling coconuts'..luckily

we didn't find out the HARD way.....haha!

 

We've also seen (but haven't been warned to watch for) wild goats, turkeys, peacocks, rats, squirrels(could have been a mongoose, still holding out for a definitive sighting of one of those) and the occasional gecko.

 

We've now been on two waiting lists for our Mauna Kea Summit Adventures Observatory / Stargazing (they continue to have to cancel because of blizzard conditions and high winds) and they've just now called to cancel again.  So our base layers and Smart Wools are going into the suitcase to stay and well, there'll just  have to be another trip out here to make that dream come true, don't you think?  There's a festival going on down on Ali'i Drive....so we're headed out for a good walk, a yummers bite to eat and to 'drink' in some more of this sweet place.

Waipi'o Valley-Valley of the Kings

Here's Wikipedia's take on this magical place we visited today......

"Waipiʻo Valley is a valley located in the Hamakua District of the Big Island of Hawai'i. "Waipiʻo" means "curved water" in the Hawaiian language.  It was the capital and permanent residence of many early Hawaiian aki'i (kings) up until the time of King Umi'i.   A place celebrated for its nioi tree known as the "Nioi wela o Paʻakalana" (The burning Nioi of Paʻakalana). It was the location of the ancient grass palace of the ancient kings of Hawaii with the nioi stands. Kahekili II  raided Waipiʻo in the 18th century and burned the four sacred trees to the ground.

The valley floor at sea level is almost 2,000 ft below the surrounding terrain. A steep road leads down into the valley from a lookout point located on the top of the southern wall of the valley. The road gains 800 vertical feet in 0.6 miles at a 25% average grade, with steeper grades in sections. This is a paved public road but it is open only to 4 wheel drive vehicles. If classified as a road, it would be the steepest road of its length in the United States and possibly the world. The shore line in the valley is a black sand beach, popular with surfers. A few taro farms are located in the valley. Several large waterfalls fall into the valley to feed the river which flows from the foot of the largest falls at the back of the valley out to the ocean. The valley was the site of the final scene in the 1995 sci-fi film Waterworld, at which the main characters found dry land."

There was a pretty substantial fog goin' on and a light drizzle most of the day, this was nonetheless one of the most beautiful places we've seen.  Our imaginations are well-developed enough that we could just picture what it would be like under sunny, blue skies.....which is what we've experienced for the majority of our blessed two weeks here.

It was a very small, personalized tour....just us and a lovely Indian couple from Arizona and their teen-aged son, along with our guide, Hele.  He's a native of the area and he and his wife lived in the valley until her tsunami concerns, following a couple of earthquakes in 2007, motivated a move to higher ground.  You could tell that his heart is very much part of this idyllic place.  (Yes, Ronna, you're right......'stunning' for sure!)

 

Our view from this 'scenic overlook' was over a sheer cliff of 1,000 feet down into the valley to a black sand beach adjacent to acres and acres of verdant farmlands and homesteads.  There is no U.S. mail service to the valley or any delivery service of any kind.  As the Wikipedia article states, only 4 Wheel drive vehicles are permitted, no one is exceeding 15 mph, and EVERYONE is generously sharing the very narrow road.  Hele greeted most of the drivers we met by name.

 

 Occasionally.....there were guardrails.  Hele said there are some cars planted firmly wherever they'd 'landed' on the mountainside, entwined with trees and vines.....he said it's impossible to recover them.

 

No guardrail here......no, 

I didn't get out for a photo-op;)

 

Several waterfalls feed the valley and irrigate the many farms

and edible vegetation that just grows wild. 

 

We tasted 'sleeping hibiscus'!  The mildly flavorful red petals were delicious!  Thankful that we could trust Hele, not only for his driving, but also for eating whatever he pulled off of trees and vines growing by the road.

                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

colorful trunk of the 

eucalyptus tree 

trumpet flowers

 

 

A taro field.....taro (like a sweet potato) is a staple of the area.  The taro plants are cultivated in about a foot of water, so to harvest them.....yeah, you need a boat......like the blue and white one overturned under the tree.

 

Another taro field with a scenic little waterfall at the edge.  Hele said the residents of the valley set out basketsful of their excess produce (taro, bananas, papaya, guava, avocados, oranges, lemons) on the road and anyone who passes through (hikers, tourists, other valley residents) are welcome to take what they need.  Now that should make us all smile.

 

 Crossed countless small streams today........

 

 Hele cut into a fresh valley orange for us all to sample....and oh. my.   We've never tasted an orange that sweet before!  In fact, this guy would say a few words, but HIS MOUTH IS FULL OF WAIPI'O VALLEY GOODNESS!

 

And you'll recognize these.....oh, no?......then picture them yellow with a Del Monte sticker on them.

We made a slow trek back up that very steep, narrow road (with Hele musing that the smiling hikers that we were passing, who were descending, weren't going to be smiling on their way back up)...bid 'aloha' to Hele and our travelling companions and drove safely back to Waimea in 'pea soup' fog.  Even though rob/your dad and I share responsibility for what goes in this blog, I want to give him a 'shout out' for his excellent, safe driving in unfamiliar territory for the past two weeks (and today in WAY less than favorable conditions.)

 

After a delicious pasta lunch near the Waikoloa Beach community, we were excited to find a 'guava juice' stand that also was serving up some coffee for the drive back to Kona!

 

So NOW we know......

We went back to our favorite beach (Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park) north of Kona to hike today ('twas a cloudy day) since conditions weren't great for sunning or getting in the water (it's warmer in T-town today than it is here!)

We hiked north of the thatched roof longhouse and the spot where we picniced yesterday toward 'Aimakapa Fishpond.  This area is said to be King Kamehameha's favorite place to fish and after some good cardio walking (in DEEP sand at a 30 degree angle!) we came to a beautiful bit of 'respite'....something like a walkway composed of volcanic boulders, edged with a beautiful succulent....

This interesting boulder, which we discovered along our path, easily measured 15 by 18 inches across.  Confident it was used as a tureen for.....let's see.......turtle soup, perhaps?



Then we arrived at the fishpond, which was separated from the ocean by a barrier of about 120 feet of sand and lava rock and saw what appeared to be shallow craters on the bottom of the pond.  In each of the respective craters was what appeared to be a sentry fish, guarding a presumed nest of some sort. Upon further investigation with the help of Google, it appears that these fish could be of the cichlid species of fish (most of them are freshwater but several web sources indicate they're present in Hawaii), who are known for building underwater crater-like nests for raising their young....  fascinating!   We attempted to contact the National Park Service (sure hope they don't tire of our questions!)....but they'd either gone for the day.....or been 'sequestered' :(

Sometimes we're early risers.......

and this was one of THOSE days.  My sweet, onery brother, whose weekend begins on Friday morning, called at 8:50am (Tulsa time) thinking we were already home, to set up a coffee date to hear about our trip.  Yep, you guessed it......3:50am Kona time :) gotta love that boy!  Had a great talk with him (because you can sleep anytime, right?) but sleep was not to be had after we hung up so we actually got to see Fox and Friends (the early edition) which was an added treat.....it's perspective,    y' know?

Then we treated ourselves to breakfast at Denny's on the hill, taking a one-day break from our regular smoothies.....strolled around WalMart as the stockers were busy getting ready for their day....and as the rain came down and drenched this beautiful village of Kona.

We returned to Royal Sea Cliff just in time for our lei-making class.  We enjoyed learning this new skill using beautiful, deliciously aromatic, locally gathered plumeria, while listening to a local artist do 'talk-story' and serenade, and drinking POG juice (thanks, Ronna, for recommending this yummy pineapple-orange-guava concoction!) We're now we're ready to don some mud-worthy footwear for some hiking to see what we can see around the 'Aimakapa fishpond.......fish, turtles, crabs......we're ready, if you are!