Thinking Out Loud

We were on our way at about 5:30 am to snorkel our way around the Island of Lanai.  I was looking forward to this.  I had been scuba diving a couple of times – but only in dirty old Saskatchewan water and this sounded fun.

We arrived at the docks at Lahania around 6:30 and once everyone was fitted with fins and snorkel gear – all given special names by the Captain of the boat and her crew – we headed out to sea.  My mask and snorkel was called Mahi-Mahi.  Mahi-mahi is Hawaiian for dolphin fish.

I had bought a small digital camera that was waterproof the day before just for the trip.  Yeah – I know – I really needed another camera.  But I didn’t think saltwater would be good for my SLR, considering how my cell phone reacted to dampness.

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The Iao Valley State park was the last stop on my day trip. By now it was around 4:00 pm, and the sun sets at around 6:30 pm. I had no idea what to expect. There was a little star on the map the car rental place gave me that said “Iao Needle.”

The park is in the valley formed from a collapsed volcano (a caldera) Iao means “cloud supreme” from the bank of clouds that are usually hanging over the valley. Throughout the park, there are signs saying that flash floods occur regularly because of the frequent and heavy rains.

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I decided another day of shopping or hanging around the hotel was not in the books. The truth is, it was a tough decision because I enjoyed being with the family. But I needed to see stuff, so I rented a car – well, almost a car – it was a four door Ford Fiesta. No destination in mind – just needed to pick a direction to drive.

North was the lucky spot on the compass. The Kahekili Highway goes all around the coast on the north end of the island. I had heard it was very scenic. Me and the Pentax headed out.

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After my big day at Costco (I still can’t believe I did that – I’ll likely be bungee cord jumping or skydiving next) I was looking forward to a more relaxing day. Audie called me from the lobby first thing in the morning, ready to go, but I hadn’t had my shower yet. I asked for ten minutes. He told me he had one other thing to do, and would be back in about a half hour.

Hawaii time is always twice as long as anywhere else. This morning, that was a good thing.

My shower was broken. It tried to squirt water. But it just couldn’t. Two little drops would leak out and then it would hiss at me and another bit of water would trickle out. And then it quit trying altogether. Read the rest of this entry »

This is something I never dreamt would happen. I would be at Costco on vacation. Even more than that, that I would be at Costco in Hawaii.  I was so excited I almost peed myself.  In fact I think I did a little when we got to stop at Walmart on the way back.  Woohoo!

At this point I decided I needed a car.

No offence to anyone, especially the shoppers out there.  Shopping is not intended to be part of  any of my vacations.  I did enjoy the time with the family.  But my poor old heart can’t take this kind of excitement day after day.

I was very tempted to pick up the 12 gallon bucket of peanut butter though…

Today was pretty quiet. The highlight of the day (photographically speaking, that is) was the surfing dog. I couldn’t get a good photo of the dog riding the waves in, but it really happened.
Bandit the Wonder Dog insists that it’s not real, it’s all done with PhotoShop.

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