We Are In This Together!: February 2008

This was a Heavenly trip to Hawaii and Al and I are excited to share our adventures with all our friends and family. If you look through the clouds in middle picture you can see an island below. Pretty Cool!!!

Enjoy the trip as we did.

Love all of you.

Molly and Al too!

OOPS ~ This whole trip to Kauai has been posted backwards... In other words you will see us leaving Honolulu airport for our trip back home to Portland... So please use your imagination. I just forgot to post this backwards so you would see it in order of how our trip went. SORRY!

As we flew back to Honolulu to catch our Hawaiian Airlines flight back to Portland, I noticed how many homes had been built on the Island of Oahu outside Honolulu. I do remember the first time I flew to Hawaii in 1964 when Honolulu looked like a tropical paradise. Then when I went back in 1974 Honolulu was beginning to look like Los Angeles. When I again went back in 1981 Honolulu was looking REALLY like Los Angeles.. In my next trip back in 1984 the development was incredible. When I went back to Hawaii with my Hawaiian girlfriend and her hubby, Gloria and Joe along with Shirley in 1988

it had really changed and was really Californiaized. When Al and I went there for our Honeymoon in 1994 Honolulu had really grown. Now, if one would look at the hills behind and to the right of Honolulu the growth is way beyond belief. This is sad as the Hawaiian Islands were untouched for so many years and now it is just another suburb. The picture on top, please notice all the 'dots' going up the hills in the valleys... those are new houses. Sure can see the growth from the air.

In the middle picture you will notice Diamond Head also surrounded by growth...

Al and I have gone to Hawaii for the last time and want to rememember the Islands as a untouched beauty!!

What a great meal we had at the "House of Noodles". It might have been the beer that helped to make this a 4**** restaurant for us.

This is the Coral Reef Resort in Kauai, Hawaii.

We stayed there for our time in Kauai and it was a great place to stay. Al stayed here when he was in Kauai year's ago and it turned out to be a great place.

We had a wonderful meal at Olympic Cafe, plus a great Bloody Mary's...

Mehehune Fish Pond This ancient Hawaiian Fishpond can be seen from an overlook on Hulemalu Road. Legend states it was built by the Menehune, leprechaun-little people, in one moonlit night. Archeologist date the pond to pre-Hawaiian times, around 1,000 years ago. The fishpond fronts the Hule'ia Stream. The wall between the pond and the stream is 900 feet long - an engineering marvel considering when the pond was built. Today the fishpond is privately owned and is no longer in use.

For all the young "single" girlfriends of mine.... this was definitely "eye candy". It was really fun watching these guys head out to the ocean and catch the wind to ride it as far and as wild as it gets...some of the surfers were picked up by that wind and rode with it for quite a long way.....Is this better than riding a bucking bronco? I will leave it up to others to decide...

Wow ~ found some wave surfers and what a great sport this is for the young and really fit and reminds me of the wind surfers on the Columbia River in the Gorge at Hood River, Oregon......

Luckily we found this incredible restaurant where we had an Ono lunch. Ono means really good and pronounced oh-no in Hawaiian. I complimented the chefs on the meal and asked if I could get their picture...they obviously were thrilled that I did and gave me the Hawaiian universal greeting which means "aloha".

If anyone gets to Kauai, check out the Tomkats Grille for great food!!

This picture is a bit blury but wanted to share with my family & friends who have not had the pleasure to eat Hawaiian food...and know nothing about it. Now, this might not look appealing to some, but this is a typical Hawaiian Luau Plate (without the Hula). On the plate starting with the steamed rice at 3:00, next is macaroni salad which has become a traditional Hawaiian tradition, then Lomi Lomi salmon which is salmon that has been in a brine to cure it then cut into small pieces with green onions is eaten raw, then the next plastic cup is filled with Kahlau pork and the huge green/black thing is either a banana leaf or a tea leaf cooked and filled with sticky rice, pork and is fabulous called Lau Lau. We had a fantastic meal and I must say this is one of our favorites.

We finally arrived at the Spouting Horn and I stood there waiting for the water to shoot up the spout.... and we waited....and we waited. Finally the water shot out of the spout (yippee) but now I had to figure out how to get close enough and time it correctly to get this picture. I must admit that I did get close enough for the picture but it was a long process to finally get this picture. It was so much fun trying to get the timing correct for the biggest spout I could get and glad I had a digital camera so I could just 'delete' the pictures that ended up being 'duds'. It was as gorgeous day and we had the chance to meet other travelers and you all know me....I can't keep quiet for long and just have to talk to 'everyone' and I did!

This is Mama Lucy and one of her cooks. We had the most wonderful Philipino food at this off the main drag small family restaurants. She was so nice and gave us extra food from her buffet type lunch (she wanted us to try it)... Just like a Hawaiian auntie... They were very nice and loved the Philipino food.

National Tropical Botanical Garden and some of the flowers.... Gorgeous.

There are many gorgeous waterfalls throughout the Island of Kauai.

We could not go to Hawaii without stopping at Hilo Hattie's so I could check out the newest muu-muu's but did not "find a thing". The only "thing" I found was my crazy hubby acting silly (it must be the water).