Happy New Year!

Barbara, Steve, Megan, and Megan's friend Shannon came to celebrate the New Year. Sophie LOVED the two teenaged girls!
We stayed home on New Year's Eve and celebrated with Donna and Steve from across the street. As expected, the neighborhood put on a fireworks show for us. Most of us managed to stay up until midnight (we had to wake the girls for the toast).

Barbara, Megan, and Steve...


Sophie the Photobomber...


Megan with the Ali'i Drive Macaw...


If you've ever wondered what the habitat of two 16-year old girls looks like...


It's a very scary place. I recommend entering only when absolutely necessary.

Tonight, Megan and Steve go night snorkeling with the manta rays! Barbara and I plan to watch from the hotel bar.

Aloha y'all!

Jen and Donna and Manta Rays, oh MY!

Jen and Donna came for a week in mid December.



They snorkeled every day...



Donna was very serious about her snorkeling and convinced us to go snorkeling at night with manta rays. Jen and I were both a little resistant, but it was SO MUCH FUN!

We donned wet suits and rode on a catamaran with 25 other adventurers out to a spot near the Sheraton where the underwater lights attract krill which in turn attract the rays. There were more rays than we could count and they were HUGE. Our boat crew said rays can get to 16 feet across. Some of the ones we saw SEEMED that large but probably weren't. Donna took these pictures:







Aloha y'all!

Turkey Day

Sophie and I chilled out at home on Thanksgiving Day. We observed my usual TDay morning rituals - watching the Macy's Parade in bed and then the National Dog Show while cooking all the yummy standards.

Mr Turkey Before


Mr Turkey After


Sophie Watching the Dog Show


We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Aloha!

Beth's Visit

Beth was here last week, and we all had a ton-o-fun. Sophie fell in love with Beth and demanded Beth's full attention every chance she got.

Beth and I visited many beaches - white sand, black sand, green sand. We played in some really rough waves and took many tumbles in the surf. On one of those tumbles, I lost my prescription sunglasses and enlisted the aid of Strange Men Wearing Goggles. Much to my surprise, the glasses were found! We dumped an amazing amount of sand out of our suits after that adventure. Three days later, I was still digging sand out of my bellybutton.

We saw turtles. LOTS of turtles.



We watched foolish young people jump 50 feet off the old pier at South Point. We were not the LEAST bit tempted to try it ourselves. The wind must have been 50 miles an hour that day. We returned with much dust in our eyes and ears.

We walked a few miles along the old fish ponds - sometimes on sand and sometimes on sharp lava. Along the way, we debated over the need for the "No Nudity" signs that we saw along this path.



We went to the Kona Cultural Festival at Keauhou and tasted many local coffees, ate mystery food, and rubbed elbows with a packed crowd.

We had the mandatory shave ice on Ali'i Drive. Beth insists that this giant pile of sweetened ice before her is only a "medium".



It was the total tourist adventure.

Aloha y'all!

Sophie Standing Tall

She just keeps getting taller and taller.

Kona Ironman

The Kona Ironman was this past Saturday. The cycling part of the race was a 100-mile round trip from Kailua to Hawi (on the northern tip of the island). They closed the Queen Ka'ahumanu highway for the riders. All week I'd seen signs at the bottom of Ka'iminani (my main access road) warning that the highway would be closed at that junction.
So on Saturday morning, I drove to where Ka'iminani was barricaded and watched the cyclists as they went by.
I arrived early enough to see the last of the riders heading north and then stayed long enough to see the first of the riders as they came back. The leaders were at least 3 hours ahead of the tail-end riders.

Other locals watching the leading riders returning from Hawi:



The last rider as he headed north - several hours behind the leaders. He's probably old enough to be the grandfather of the lead rider:



The lead rider returning from the 100 mile trek - and he STILL has to run a marathon after this:



Aloha y'all!

Here Come the Holidays!

Although the weather hasn't changed much here, summer is gone and Halloween is just around the corner. I'll have to learn to get myself into holiday mode without autumn leaves and cold nights to prompt me.  

My calendar shows expected visitors in November (2 groups), December (2 groups), January, and February. I look forward to seeing all of you! You can expect warm weather and sunshine but, if you are lucky, we'll spend at least one afternoon sitting on the lanai and watching a tropical downpour. I LOVE it when it rains here!

Sophie and I both survived my trip to Austin in September. After non-stop playing for five days at Paws, Sophie slept for 72 hours when she returned home. She usually spends one day a week playing with all her dog friends, but I think five days was just too much fun for her. The best news is that she didn't seem to pine away for me that week, nor did she pretend not to know me when I picked her up at 7AM on Saturday (the moment they opened). 

Sophie is now about 65 pounds, long enough to stretch most of the distance across a king-sized bed, and tall enough to stand with her paws on the lanai railing to finish off the breadcrumbs I put out for the birds.

Sophie supervises my ironing on a rainy Sunday...



Aloha y'all!