NORTH SHORE

Just when I think I've had the best day of my life that Hanauma Bay like to go to the North Shore. And today they were having a surf contest. First we stopped and had breakfast at a cute little cafe in Hale'ewa. We stopped at the city park there which developers are trying to buy or otherwise acquire so they can put a giant hotel there. This is a horrible idea. While we were there we saw a guy with a 48 Chevy beetle woodie like I had in college. He was kind of using it as a magnet to attract people to come look at his art work, which consisted of fish rubbings.
From there we went up to see the turtle beach. It was only 11 o'clock, so the turtles were still in the water. So we drove on up to Sunset Beach. And that's when we discovered the surfing contest. I think this is the third day of the Volcom, surfing contest. It was overcast, which was nice, because it wasn't too hot to sit on the beach. But it didn't make for very good pictures.
I forgot to mention that we stopped at the Dole plantation on the way out so we had nice fresh pineapple to eat at the beach.
On our way back to that turtle beach we stopped at Sharks Cove, which is just an old shack with some tables outside where they have delicious Ahi sandwiches. You sit there at the tables eating and you can watch the surf crash onto the lagoon across the street and chickens are walking around your feet.
When we got back to the turtle grounds, there were five of them out sunning themselves and we could see at least another five in the water.
Our final stop of the day was in Hale'ewa at the Hale'ewa art gallery. They had one painter who did really wonderful work but the rest of the stuff was pretty boring. They had a lot of large lampwork glass and small blown glass.
So, it was another perfect day. And then just now tonight while I was writing this, they had fireworks we could watch from our balcony.

MY IDEA OF A PERFECT DAY

We got up early this morning to go to Hanauma Bay and walked down several blocks to get to a stop where we could be the first passengers on the bus and get a seat. After we had waited quite a while, but it still was not time for the bus to come, another couple at the bus stop asked us if we were going to Hanauma Bay. They pointed out that there was no 22 bus scheduled to stop at that location. Of course I hadn't looked at the sign, because I know where the bus stops. (Often wrong, never in doubt). It turns out that they have changed the route of the number 22 bus and it now goes down Kalakaua Avenue instead of Kuhio.
So we went to Kalakaua Avenue and waited for the bus. We did get a seat, which is not always easy on the number 22 bus.
Hanauma Bay was absolutely glorious today. The water was cool, but tolerable. We saw lots of fish while we snorkeled. And it was nice and warm on the beach when we got out of the water.
Tonight we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. It's my favorite, and my favorite dish there is an eggplant salad with roasted eggplant and tiny meatballs of finely chopped shrimp and pork. So dinner was perfect. And then as we went walking for ice cream, we scored a triple play, because River and Tiger were out on the street singing. I made a video, but I can't upload it except to YouTube.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a big, but not huge, wave day and we're going to the North shore.

Bummer, the mobile app doesn't have a way to upload videos.

REGULAR FOLKS IN HAWAII

No pictures today because all we did was go to the beach and ride the waves (body surfing in tiny, tiny waves), do some laundry and then went to see the movie Zero Dark 30. Man, that was really an intense film. We went to a 4 pm matinee, and were so exhausted from the tension in the movie that we just had dinner at the food court at the mall and came home.
We were having a pleasant conversation with a couple at the bus stop, even though I was pretty sure she was a bible thumper, since she managed to work in something about realign into about every other sentence. When there was a lull in the conversation she tried to foist a pamphlet onto John, who told,her he just wasn't interested in that type of thing. I was kind of mad at him for doing that, because it was still 10 minutes before the bus came, and that made it pretty awkward. But by the time we got home and I imagined what it would have been to listen to,her preach for a half hour, I thought it was probably a pretty good idea.
I'm going,to try to go to sleep now, because we're getting up early tomorrow to go to Hanauma Bay, possibly my favorite place I've ever been in the world. Hope the weather is good. Today was the nicest day weather wise since we've been here. Warm, sunny and clean air.

MAGIC ISLAND HASSIDIM

Magic Island is a very pretty park with trees, grass, playing fields, and of course a couple of nice beaches. Probably most importantly, it has parking, which is hard to find and very expensive in the Waikiki area.
Because it is scenic, it's a place where brides come to have their wedding pictures taken and you will see a few there every day, just like you do on the weekends in Capitol Park. So we were watching this bride, and then noticed that right next to here this guy was getting dressed, presumably from the inside out. I just kept snapping pictures, but it was very sunny, and I couldn't entirely see what I was getting, but enjoy. I thought i had captured a final when he had the hat and everything on, but i missed it.
This is the only Hassidic Jew I've ever seen in Hawaii.

UKELELES TO CHAMBER MUSIC

This morning we got up and took a nice long walk down to the end of Kalakaua Boulevard where there are some really cool historic homes that were built in the 1930s to, for some reason, look like English Tudor houses. I don't think it Tudors ever had a big presence in Hawaii, but I could be wrong.

Then we spent some quality time at the beach, which is all time at the beach. We listened to the ukulele group. Then John came back and exercised and I went back to the beach, This time in my bathing suit. I wore my whale watch shirt in order to distinguish an actual beached whale.
I amused or tortured myself counting how many women were fatter or thinner than I. More were thinner. If I could have taken the Asians out of the mix it would have been a little better percentage, but I realize a lot of work needs to be done.
Tonight we went to hear a chamber music ensemble at the Doris Duke Theatre. The ensemble is called Tresemble. They are a mixed group, tonight consisting of first a wind group, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn. They played a piece by Ferenc Farkas written in 1959, that in many parts and one whole movement could easily have been a Renaissance piece. Then they added violin, viola, cello, bass and piano for the piece by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, not to be confused with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge . This was an exciting piece, though I thought the piano was too overwhelming.

I

felt sorry for the page turner. The first time she had to turn, she got two pages instead of one, tried to remedy it with her other hand, which she somehow got caught in her necklace, and finally managed to get the job done about 10 measures into the next page. The movements in this piece were much longer than the first one and showed off every member of the ensemble. The composers were all early 20th century composers, but very tonal and not at all 12 tone or anything like that. The Paul Juon piece was really beautiful. Every melody that started a movement seemed like something you could go home humming. This one was an octet, so the bass player was relegated to the audience. Anyway, a good time was had by all.

HOW TO WASTE A DAY IN PARADISE

Not much worth writing about today. I still don't feel all that perky, though I am better.
The rain that was supposed to happen today didn't really come so we were able to go to the beach for about an hour, by which time I was exhausted.
I just got a flash flood warning on my iPhone, which is really interesting. It must be a technology that hits every cell phone in the area.
We had a pizza in our room while John watched the Pro Bowl and I took a nap.
Oh, the excitement.
He has gone out to dinner and I'm resting. He's going to bring me some yogurt.
It was really windy at the beach today and the windsurfers that have the kite sails were really wild.

WHALE WATCHING

Our whale watch morning started out inauspiciously when we got on the wrong bus and ended up halfway down town before I realized. We were supposed to get on the 42 bus, but weve been going a lot of places on the 2, and when the 2 came by, we just hopper on.  Let's face it, I'm just not a morning person.
After our not so spectacular start we did actually get to the whale watch by 7:45. It was kind of interesting.  This is a whale count they do annually on the last Saturday of the month in January, February and March.   They recruit about 12-15 people for each site, and they have something like 60 sites around the islands.  We were each given a piece of paper telling us how to record.  there was a column for adults, calves, and several columns for behaviors, like breaching, fin slapping, fluke slapping and something else I dont remember.  Then we had to record the weather conditions.  it was very hazy.  hawaii has a vog problem.  Vog is like smog, except the particulate matter is from the volcano on the big island.  When the trade winds are blowing, it's not bad, but when they're not, it looks like Los Angeles.   We all sat in a big group all looking out to sea.

It's amazing how much is going on here. There are surfers, snorkelers, a lot of paddlers, both kayaks, stand up paddle boarders, and sculls, and there actually seems to have been some sort of scull race. There are some tourist boats that claim to be submarines that they really don't totally go below the surface. They look like submarines but they never entirely submerge.  However, when you are in the boat the windows (not portholes) are below the surface.  We  also saw big cruise ships, the four story kind, sail boats, catamarans, and parasail. In the air there are jetliners, small planes, helicopters.
 By 10 AM they had spotted one whale, which no matter how hard we looked, neither John nor I saw. Also by 10 AM I was really nauseated so I had to go walk away from the place to find some shade. I think maybe four hours sitting on sharp lava rocks may be too much for my old bones.
By 11 o'clock I was so sick we actually had to leave even though we were supposed to be there til noon.  I was convinced I had sunstroke.
So we came home and I have slept all day from noon to 9 o'clock. I feel horrible. John went and got me some electrolyte stuff because I was losing so much fluid.
This also meant that I couldn't go to the concert we had tickets for tonight, El Mundo, which really annoys me. I think this is why I hate to buy tickets for things ahead of time. Either something better comes up and I hate that I've been pinned down to what I bought the tickets for, or I end up not being able to go.
Tomorrow is the Pro Bowl, and they have a huge block party all the way down the Waikiki part of Kalakua avenue, with lots of food vendors and a craft fair and sometimes chances to see the football players or the cheerleaders. John did go down to that, so it wasn't an entire loss.

ART AFTER DARK

Did a dry run this morning to see how long it takes to get to Magic Island since we have to be there at 7:15 am. We are counting whales for the marine sanctuary. It seemed like a good idea when we signed up in Sacramento, not so good now that we have to get up so early. It's four hours from eight in the morning to noon, but we have to be there at 7:15 to get our assignment.
After our regular afternoon beach time we went to the Honolulu art museum for Art After Dark. This is the event that I went to the Goodwill to get some nice pants for. As it turned out, people our age were in every range of dress. This event is meant to draw younger people to the museum. So they have noisy DJs in every courtyard and the young people do show up in huge quantities, super short dresses and ultra
high heels. They have things going on where you can win some prizes by doing tweets while you're at the event or do Facebook posts. Clearly, these gimmicks are done so that they can attract the people who spend most of their time with their noses in their cell phones. It is apparently a successful event. I dont know how often they have it, but when we went in, the information said they would let in the first 2000 people and after that they would let people in as others left. The music becomes annoyingly loud for people our age. But the younger people are all socializing in the courtyard so the gallery rooms aren't really very full. This museum doesn't have a very large collection but their modern stuff is really interesting.

BAR NONE

Today was overcast, sunny, overcast, rainy,  rainier, rainiest, clear, a little warm, cool, cooler.

It's pleasant right now, but while it was raining we went to the Goodwill so I could get a pair of long pants.  I had a pair I was going to bring, but when I tried them on they had mysteriously lost about an inch and a half in the waistband, so I didn't bring them.  John wants to go to something tomorrow night that sounds kind of fancy at the museum,  and seems like my trademark old-lady-visiting-Waikiki knee-length pants and tropical printT shirt probably won't fly.  Basically, except for the red hair, I look like every other woman my age that I see on the street.  It's a damn uniform.

So I ended up getting a pair of black pants, a pair of white pants that need to be shortened (what was I thinking there?) a jacket, because I'm cold, and a cashmere sweater, because it was $3.99.

After we had lunch, I walked over to the Irish Rose bar to make sure at least one of us could find it.
John came back to the hotel and went to the gym and soaked his foot m Epsom salts.

Tonight we went to the Irish Rose pub to see what I thought was the Wolfe Tones, but turned it to be one Wolfe and four cubs.  Derek Warfield was one of the originals, and he is on tour with the young guys and his blessing.  They were good, but the whippersnappers seemed like they were just tolerating the old coot, almost to the point of rolling their eyes when he was talking.  But they made a good band and the program was a lot of fun.  In their defense, I will say that he did rather like to give the entire I story of Ireland before any song.  The music was upbeat and fun, even though some of it had very sad stories hidden in the jaunty music.

The only bad thing about this place was the smoking.  We asked the waitress why people are smoking here. She said their policy was to tell people smoking is illegal in Hawaii but it's not their job to  enforce it.  Apparently it's just coincidental that they have ashtrays on the table.

Tomorrow I think we may take the bus and scope out where we will be whale counting on Saturday, because we have to be there at 7:15, so I want to know is exactly how long it will take to get there.  
I had a couple of pictures to upload, but today google isn't in the mood to let me put them anywhere, right or wrong places.  This is a very annoying app.  

A WALL OF PLANTS

Today we had to go out to the transit center to get our bus stickers. They have a location in town at the conveniently located Ala Moana center, but that location no longer had the January stickers. So out we trundled to the far reaches of honolulu to get the stickers. (These stickers let you get on the bus a million times for $5 a month, so it's worth the effort, just so you don't have to mess with transfers or always have the right change which is, in fact, only a dollar anyway.)
Once there, the transaction takes about 10 minutes, and that includes waiting in line, and then another 10 minutes to wait for the bus to come back.
Now, to get to the point of the story, I was looking at this wall of plants and realized that its a very clever system. The wall consists of a bunch of boxes, which are about 2 feet by 1 foot and about six inches deep. Some sort of a bag is in the box which holds the dirt and there is some minor grillwork which apparently holds the bag in the box. They seem to have poked holes in the "bag" for the plants to come out. Seems like a relatively easy way to make a wall of plants. Reminds me of a box we saw at High Hand nursery to grow succulents in, but this was about three times as deep.
So, the first picture is the wall of plants, the second is a sort of a close up, and the third one is a tight close up, which I think might be upside down, but I can't see it that well.

Other than that, just another day in paradise, a little swimming, a little eating, relaxing, you know the drill.

I thought I had figured out how to get the pictures where I wanted them, but I was wrong.

ARRIVAL IN HONOLULU

Well, the last year of the world came and went -- funny now those things happen-- and I still can't think of a new name for my blog. Maybe it wasn't the end of the world, just the end of my brain. In fact, I think there's a good chance I have my own personal brain drain going. It would explain both my lack of memory and my expanding waistline all at once.
But I digress. This is about being in Hawaii.
Hawaii is my favorite place on the planet. We got here to our hotel by 3:15, hit the beach by 4:45, had a delicious dinner of macadamia nut encrusted pink snapper with a fabulous red pepper and pineapple salsa.
They are expecting a good big wave swell on Monday, and possibility of the Big Eddie competition. Another thing I love about Hawaii. They routinely cover surfing on the news.
It might rain tomorrow and we have to go get our bus pass stickers. Maybe I'll get my hair cut. Don't know why I didn't do that before I left.
Hardly took any pictures today. This is the view from our hotel room. Amazingly enough, most hotels would call this a partial ocean view, but this hotel calls it a city view.
I just downloaded the iPad version of blogspot, and now I'm back to not being able to control where the pictures show up. Sorry.