Maui No Ka Oi

Sue and I popped over to Maui Friday night to mooch free room and board off of my friend Ian while he was there helping to host an Iron Man event. We were there for the day Saturday, and again that night. We got back to Oahu Sunday morning.

So far Sue and I have been on three trips to Maui. We've never been up the hill to Haleakala. We headed 'Up Country' and on up to the Volcano after breakfast. We stopped a couple times along the way. From Kihei, it took about an hour and a half for us to get to the top. Although it was a cloudy day, the clouds pretty much vanished at around 7,000 feet. From there until the summit at nearly 10,000 feet it was crystal clear. The air is so thin up there, the sunlight was intense. It only took us about 20 minutes to turn a little pink.

There is something about looking a landscape as immense as the Haleakala volcano basin. I saw across the floor of terrain eight miles wide, and lost all sense of scale. In fact, the peaks of big island poking out of the clouds were clearly visible from the precipice. Awesome.

On the way back down, we decided to stop at the Ali`i Kula Lavender Gardens. It's hard to explain the appeal as a heterosexual male, but it is noteworthy, and I will try. The Lavender Garden is several acres of land mostly filled with lavender (shrubs?) and several other visually and herbally unusual flora. The overwhelming scent of lavender immediately chillaxed me. If you've ever heard that the smell of lavender is a soothing agent, you should believe it. It was like a big field of purple chill.

In our haste to cram a trip into a single day, Sue and I overlooked lunch. We arrived at the Lavender Gardens hungry, and found the Gallery (gift shoppe) in the middle of the garden acreage. The shop offered several rubs, fragrances, decorations, and YES foods made with lavender. I think we ate about a dozen almond lavender cookies with our herbal tea, and then went back for lavender scones. *burp* Not bad. Lavender has an mellow peppery accent about it. Odd but fun.

Here's a movie I did from just the volcano part of the trip.

Dinosaurs at Bishop

I took the kids to the Bishop Museum after work again today. It's fun to spend an hour there and let everyone stretch their legs before we get back in traffic. The new temporary exhibit is called "Dinosaurs Unearthed". It will be running until January 3rd. There's about a dozen animatronic dinosaurs in front of and inside the first floor of the exhibit hall. Of course, there's also the classic bones, and placards, but we kind of go for all the noise and scare factor.

It's the kids second time to see the exhibit. They are off from school for break right now and went with Sue last week.

I took them again today and put all our video footage from both trips together with a little homage to "The Land Of the Lost". I think that corn-ball show was my introduction to dinosaurs, so it fits well in our home video.

Tantalus

It's my birthday this Friday and a friend of mine wanted to catch me early in the week and give me my gift before all the hullabaloo later this week. Tantalus is one of those places I've heard about, but never thought about. It's nice to know that after three years on the island there is still so much to see. Tatalus is a breathtaking lookout on the Eastern ridge that defines the Manoa valley. It faces South and from that point you can see most of the South shore: Diamond Head, Waikiki, Honolulu, the airport, the harbor, and Barbers Point. It is one of her favorite places, I felt honored that she took the time after work to share it with me, talk story and then treat me to dinner in the valley.

Surfs Up

I guess the winter is finally here. You can tell because the surf is up on the North Shore. It has been overhead since Tuesday. I drove up twice this week on Dawn Patrol to get ninety minutes of thrill before my day at the office. There is nothing like a drive into the country an hour before sunrise when the surf report is over 10' (face). You get so excited its like being over-caffeinated. There might be smooth buttery walls to carve, or it might be some double overhead blown out choppy monster. It's also a time for mental inventory, surfing 10 feet over a reef is actually kind of dangerous. Time to think about some of your life decisions.

On Tuesday I shot for almost an hour, then got washed up on the inside. I took the opportunity to go back to the car and grab the surf cam. This was a fun camera session. The North Shore was smooth enough that when the sets weren't firing I could change up the camera position. This video is the result of that session. I think more than any other one I've put together, it gives you feeling of what its like to play with the waves.

Thunderbirds

Sue had to work today, but the kids and I met up with Eric and his kids at Hickam Air Force Base for the Thunderbirds airshow. It only took us an hour to get in and parked, so we were on the tarmac an hour before the Thunderbirds 3:00 show. This gave the kids plenty of time to climb around on the static displays and parked aircraft. They probably climbed through the cockpits and holds of 3 or 4 cargo craft, a couple of helicopters, and even a large Coast Guard plane.

We brought ear protection and camped just left and behind "air show center". It was amazing watching planes fly in elaborate formations just feet apart. The soloist also made several runs at each other breaking away at the last instant. The energy was intense and the kids really got into it. Sometimes Nate would shriek when the planes looked like they were going to collide. Ben liked the inverted passes, and was impressed (unusual for Ben) when the announcer said that they were flying at speeds of over 500mph. We had an awesome time.

I sample and stitched some video from my iPhone. The grainier spots are were I tried to zoom in later during the edits.

Sunset Photo Opp

Every month the company posts an internal newsletter with the latest company info and a profile article on an employees. This month it was my turn. Nancy, the communications manager, asked me for a picture of me and the family doing our thing on the beach. I write software for a living, and she asked if I could wear my "CodeWarrior" T-shirt for the shot. I wore it to work last month and got a lot of comments.

To facilitate the photo opp, we had a family sandwich dinner at Hau Bush after work. It's winter now, so by the time we got there the sun was already starting to set. We took the picture and I still managed to get in a 20 minute session while Sue lifeguarded the kids. She made ono chicken salad sandwiches, with a hint (ha ha) of fresh paprika. We enjoyed those while the sky turned purple.

Side Note: I finished up editing the latest surf video over the weekend. It uses footage from the new rail camera mount I mentioned in this post.

Splash at Hawaiian Waters

After church today, the kids and I went to use our season passes at Hawaiian Waters, water park. A couple hours there, and nap time is noooo problem.

Sue was out sick today. She had us all worried with a 103˚ fever that sprouted in the middle of the night. Pua ting missed church, the water park ... and.. work! They have a strict three strikes absence policy, so hopefully she won't get in too much trouble for it. Feel better Sue!

Here's a cute video of No`i vs. Water-Jet at the park today.