And all good things must come to an end.

For our next to last day in Oahu Linda, Susan and Sarah had pre-booked a trail ride on horses at a nearby ranch. Since we had cancelled the day trip to the Big Island I decided I may as well join them, if I could. So I drove them over to the ranch and then enquired if I could join the group. As they limit each session to only 10 riders and as they already had all spots booked I was out of luck. But then a woman who had booked taking part had since then discovered she was pregnant and one of the riding rules is no pregnant women are allowed on any horses so I was offered the spot. In addition, since it was already pre-paid, I got to go along free! Bonus!

Of the four of us only Sarah has ever ridden on a horse before. One uncertainty was answered the moment we arrived in that they had sets of stairs to assist people in mounting. I had hoped to try mounting on my own but never got the chance. Here is a picture of Linda and Susan mounted on their horses while waiting for the others to mount up:

As the horse Sarah was riding was one who did not like being behind others she got to be at the front of the troop with Chris, our main tour guide.

The other tour guide, Amy, brought up the rear. She and I got to talk to a bit as early on in the ride the horse I was on, Apollo, decided to stop a couple of times to relieve himself, plus he was not much for walking fast so that quickly we ended up being second last in line. No matter how hard I kicked he just didn't want to increase his pace. So after a bit Amy grabbed his halter and led us back to being 4th in line and then got me a crop from Chris. Using that Apollo became much more responsive and no longer held everyone else back. In fact, going up hills he wanted to go faster than those in front in line resulting in him having his nose practically in the tail of Susan's horse immediately in front of us.

Chris led us at very leisurely pace. The ride took about an hour and a half and we were back at the corral by noon. There I dismounted without any issues on my own and did not use the stairs that were provided.

After our return to the house we all went for a swim. On the beach, if you watched carefully, you could see Pallid sand crabs as they would excavate their tunnel holes above the surf line.

 

Here are Susan and Sarah enjoying the water followed by Sarah and Janice coming out.

Yes, the water is mighty fine there! While the snorkelling was not as good as in past trips I did see fish every time I went in although not in as abundant numbers.

The next day we got in some more swimming and then packed for our departure late that evening. We took advantage of the time for the girls to spend some time at Hilo Hattie's in Honolulu as well as a visit to a shopping mall to see a bronze bust of Jack Lord of the original Hawaii Five Oh TV series. I stayed in the van reading and keeping an eye on our luggage.

So, we are all now back in Canada. The trip was great and we all had a great time and have even talked about doing another trip in a couple of years! Time will tell.

This afternoon Janice and I are off to Kamloops for a few days visiting James, Courtenay and the girls.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Christmas day turned out to be a lovely one, although it did rain in the evening but by then it no longer mattered. Susan, Sarah and I went for a walk along the beach in the morning This time I wore my water shoes so did not aggravate the blister on my big toe! Afterwards the girls spent a few hours on the beach and swimming while I kept guard at the house and just relaxed reading and watching a bit of television.

The owners of our accommodation were nice enough to put up a real Christmas tree for us, including decorations! Most of the decorations are various types of  fishing floats. And it is capped off with a tiki statue.

After they got back from the beach the girls relaxed on the deck chairs on the patio for a while.

Then we went for a walk to La'ie Point, about 15 minutes from our residence. There we had an unobstructed view of a near shore island through which the surf in recent years has knocked a hole through creating an arch.

Upon returning, and after showering, everyone changing into their Christmas best.

We then had a small gift exchange then relaxed before sitting down to a baked chicken dinner. All in all, we spent a wonderful Christmas day together enjoying the best of what Hawaii has to offer at this time of year! And on that note we wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Part 2 of Christmas in Hawaii

The girls have all gone on a walking tour of the local shopping centre in Laie, which is only about 10 minutes from our rental. So I am going to take advantage of the interlude to add another post.

Yesterday morning I began the day by going on a walk along the beach in my bare feet. While it is a great feeling to have the sand between your toes I have discovered that being shoe bound all the time has made mine way too soft such that, believe it or not, I got a blister on one of my big toes! While it didn't stop me unfortunately I will have to start wearing water shoes when taking any more long walks along the beach. Bummer!

After, we all went touring to the southwest searching for surfers. Being a weekday the number of people at the local beaches is way down so no where as crowded as they are on the weekend. Our first stop was at Sunset Beach. While the surf was way up there was no one out surfing so we continued on to Pupukea beach.

This one is rather unusual in that there is a natural lava break wall that protects a large pool. While the waves crash into, and over, the break wall, by the time the water gets into the pool much of the force has been spent and the waters are relatively placid, although there is quite the flow out the side into "shark cove". Still, while there were some people swimming and snorkeling in the pool, there were no surfers.

Our next, and final stop, was the beach at Hale'iwa. There were several groups learning how to surf, so no experienced surfer dudes but at least we got to see some people standing on their boards and taking advantage of the surf!

We then drove back to the house and had lunch before heading over to the Polynesian Cultural Centre where they have displays of various Polynesian cultures including Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan, New Zealand, Fijian and several other cultures. One show involved a series of rafts coming out on a central canal with dancers representing a specific Polynesian culture. It was very entertaining!

We then had a Luau supper that included traditionally steamed pig where the pig was slow cooked over hot rocks and wrapped in banana leaves until very tender. Also included was some poi (taro root paste that is very bland in flavour but was the traditional source of starch) as well as buns made from poi. What is unique about poi is that it is purple in colour and so the buns too are purple! Hawaiian's traditionally used poi to soften the taste of any strongly flavoured food such as salty fish. I didn't mind it although the colour and texture ( a thin paste) can turn one off.

After the luau we then attended a two hour show that again accentuated the different dance styles and other cultural characteristics of the major Polynesian groups. The main underlying theme (the circle of life) reminded me a lot of the Lion King. It was a very entertaining show and none of us were disappointed!

A "Where's Waldo", or in this case "Susan, Sarah and Linda" question! Can you find them in the last photo!

Christmas in Hawaii

Well, here it is, Christmas eve and Janice and I along with her sisters Susan and Linda, along with our niece Sarah are enjoying the pleasures of Hawaii! I have to admit that it could be nicer (it is raining right now) but the coldest it has been since we got here this past Friday is about 18 degrees Celsius.

The first couple of days the weather was pretty nice and so we stayed close to home enjoying the amenities of the house we are renting while here. It is right on the beach although there is coral reef just off shore that makes swimming difficult directly in front, but we do not have to walk too far down the beach to find better swimming conditions.

One affect of the nearby reefs is the constant roar of the surf as it crashes over them. But that is a white noise that masks much of the traffic noise as the inland side of the house is right on he local major highway.

Here is a picture of the street side of the house showing the van we have rented to get us around.

Monday we had planned to make a day trip to the Big Island of Hawaii but the tour group I booked us with couldn't accommodate us so we ended up cancelling. And it was a good thing as this wet system arrived that day and it was showers all day. So we made a trip into Honolulu to see Waikiki beach, tour the Iolani palace, home of Hawaiian royalty until a coup d'état in the late 1800's by American business interests supported by the US government of the time. And Canadian Indians think they have been treated badly!

 

And here is a picture of the girls in front of the statue of the first King, Kamehameha I.

 

That's enough for now as we are about ready for breakfast! I will add more a little later!

Our Trip to Kamloops and Beyond

It has been quite a while since my last post but it hasn't been because there haven't been any new adventures! Just too busy to record any of them. But it is time to try to make amends.

Back on February 26th Janice and I flew from Thunder Bay to Kamloops, BC, to visit our son James and his family and to take in the 2014 Briar, the Canadian Curling Championship. On arrival, as James and Courtenay were both working, we went to pick up Daelyn and Desiree from school. While James was able to text Desiree that we were coming he couldn't give Daelyn any advance notice so had to give us a description of how to recognise her in her winter clothing: wearing a longish black coat and wearing a "raccoon hat". Right away I pictured an old style Davy Crocket hat but when she came around the corner while her hat was not what I expected I had no difficulty recognising her!:

The next day we explored around Kamloops a bit, including checking out a couple of quilt shops as well as Fabricland. And in doing so accidentally came across the place where James is now working. He may have told us the name of the place but it stall caught us by surprise:

The owner and his brother have 4 dealerships altogether in central BC.

Since we were so close to other family and friends we decided to take a relatively short road trip by driving to Vancouver, then on to Victoria and then to Campbell River prior to returning to Kamloops.

The trip to Vancouver was relatively uneventful. Although I had tried to avoid the Coquihala Highway (Provincial Highway 5)  due to the risk of sever winter driving conditions, at every turn I was thwarted and we ended up taking it anyway. As it turned out the highway was in very good condition although the snow banks in places were pretty high! One plus though was the fact the trip was much quicker than if we had stayed on Highway 1.

As a result we arrived in Vancouver around noon but the final leg to visit our friends Don and Jan Blackadar in North Vancouver took longer than it should as I finally relented and followed the advice of my GPS which had been insisting since we started down the highway from Hope that we should be using Highway 7, on the other side of the Frazer River. As it turned out I had adjusted some default settings such that rather than favouring freeways for example it was trying to avoid them and thus the highway 7 recommendation. I can confirm that no such restriction exists now!

So we spent the afternoon with Don, as Jan had to go out for a few hours, reminiscing about old times. He and I met back in early 1978 as we shared an office together at the University of Alberta, both doing our Masters in Geology. And we have kept in touch ever since!

After spending the rest of the day and that night with the Blackadar's we then left the next morning to catch the Tsawwassen Ferry for Sydney and then on to visit Nancy in Victoria. Once again we arrived just after noon. While the previous day had been quite pleasant this particular Saturday turned out to be one of light rain and so we didn't do too much sight seeing but just spending some quality time at her place. While there I did some wiring such that all of the wires required for her flat screen TV were no longer visible but instead are now located within the wall. While not a complicated job it did require a trip to Home Depot to get some critical components, and time to stop off at one of Nancy's friends to borrow a drill.

As time was limited we left the next morning and headed north to Campbell River to visit Janice's sister Susan, Susan's daughter Shannon and family and a long time friend, Findley Bakker. Findley and I had met when I worked for PetroCanada back in 1979. He is originally from Manitouwadge and we had a lot in common, including the fact we both quit PetroCanada around the same time and headed back east to work for mining companies; me to join Inco at Shebandowan and he to work at the Geco mine in Manitouwadge. In the late 1980's the Geco mine was going to shut down so he left to work at the Myra Falls mine near Campbell River and has been in Campbell River ever since although now he works at the CanTung mine in the Yukon on a fly-in fly-out basis. The last time I saw him was in late 1991 when I was on a field trip to the Myra Falls mine and he was one of our tour guides.

So after settling in at Susan's place (about a block from Shannon's) I drove out to see Findley and spent a few hours with him reminiscing about old times, looking over his vast gun collection as well as some of his numerous hunting trophies, such as this mountain lion skin:

 

 

And here is a picture of Susan, Shannon, and Shannon's daughter Cypress. I took this picture with my phone and as I had image stabilisation on the flash was automatically turned off, thus the poor picture quality.



Plus a picture of Susan's house (note the very small amount of snow, plus it was plus 3 at the time I took this picture). The car is our rental, a Chevy Cruz.

Upon returning to Kamloops we then took in a total of 4 games from the round robin play at the Briar. I won't bore you with the details other than to say we had really good seats, 5 or 6 rows back depending on the day and about midway, thus with an excellent view of the playing area. In addition we had reasonably good seats for the final at the corner of the far end, near where the presentations of the medals and prizes were given out, including the Briar itself:

The one disappointment was the Ontario team in that they really didn't play that well and we are both surprised that they had beaten Glen Howard to get here as he certainly would have curled better. As it was, the 4 teams we figured would do well (BC, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec) did not disappoint us although all had troublesome ends through out the week and into the playoffs. But after Manitoba was knocked out of gold medal contention we were rooting for the Koe team to win and in the end they did. The one day layoff I think had a major impact on the quality of play by the BC team.

And one last activity we took part in was helping celebrate Janice's birthday, even if a couple days early! Desiree made her a cake and even decorated it herself (she currently is taking a cake decorating class and the training has certainly paid off):

 

Well, that's enough for now! Until next time.