5th HAWAIIAN FESTIVAL ~

KALAMA, WASHINGTON

It was a pretty cool day for these half naked Hula dancers...

This is a 2 day Festival with some wonderful entertainment, and an excellent dinner with Hawaiian hula dancing, Polynesian artifacts and lots of vendors selling various goods....something for everyone!!!!

After leaving the Hawaiian Festival, we came upon this young lady in the Industrial area and she was doing everything she could to learn the hula!!

Looks like she almost has it!! ( ;~)

Various excellent entertainer's sang Hawaiian songs, the ukuleles and guitars along with bongos also sung out...... and it was truly heart warming! We love Hawaii.

We stopped for quite sometime at this booth and told stories with this very pretty lady. She was born in Maui (but now lives in Beaverton, Oregon a suburb of Portland) and told us the story how long ago a Hawaiian man by the name of John Kalama settled in this area and eventually the town was named after him ~ Kalama.

One of amazing stories happened to her as she was setting up her booth. Four Bald Eagles flew in and hung around in the area for a long time. I proceeded to tell her about my dear and cherished Hawaiian girlfriend, Gloria and her Hawaiian husband, Joe, who told us that when he died he definitely would be coming back as an Eagle and we were to remember that when we saw an Eagle it was him. The lady's story gave me goosebumps because where better for Joe to show up but at a Hawaiian Festival?

She was so nice and fun to talk with and as we left she gave me the yellow flower she is wearing. This is definitely the true Hawaiian spirit ~ giving to others.

No this is not Woodstock ~ it's the Hawaiian Festival...

The always famous "Sound Man"..

Muu-muu's of all styles and colors at this vendor's booth.. Lot's of 'everything'!

At this vendor's booth she had a gorgeous handmade beaded purse. It was black and gold in this interesting pattern...it was very pretty.

These were beaded earrings for $5.00 each.

The Shave Ice Queen ~ was she ever a sweet lady and as we left her vendor's booth she gave us the Hawaiian hand jesture for "Hang Loose"....

Our adorable neighbors, Guy and Joanne. We met them at the Hawaiian Festival where we shared our lunch and Shave Ice for dessert. Guy was raised on the island of Oahu in the outskirts of Honolulu so he really felt "at home" amongst the Locals. (Locals means Hawaiians)

Guy had a mixture of syrups, rootbeer, pineapple and can't remember the other one. YUM-O!











Joanne had the exact same as Guy and they didn't even know they had ordered the exact same thing....considering there are about 30+ different syrups..Interesting!

This is my Passion Fruit Shave Ice. The gal who made it is wrinkling up her face as the Passion Fruit is really quite tart and not sweet.

As the Elk congregate for the upcoming winter in Ryderwood, we hope that you are all well and are looking forward to an awesome Fall and wonderful Winter. Our winter in Ryderwood is going to be fantastic and both Al and I are looking forward to the brisk evenings and sweet smelling fall and winter air. We have over a cord of wood hunkered in to keep us warm and hope that everyone has a memorable 2009 winter. For our friends who are going to spend the winter in Florida or the Gulf states we are hoping that all goes well for you all..

Al just loves his sister-in-law, Darlene, and it shows here. Both of us were so happy to have her visit for a few days (4 nights) and only wish she and Rob (significant other) lived closer to us. Darlene is so talented, writes incredible poetry and I know she will get it published soon. She is a great lady, and we love her.

Darlene, Al and I had a superior dinner and had lots of fun. We wished that Rob would have been here, (darn~Rob is Darlene's sweetie pie).....Darlene is such a grand lady and I am so honored to have her as a sister (in-law).

Cod baked with caper, parsley and lemon sauce, couscous with pine nuts, fresh red grapes for main entree.
















We served Asparagus, Walnut and Vingiarette over baby greens using the wooden salad tongs from Alaska that Lone Malast gave us a few years ago. Gotta look hard to see the asparagus because they were buried under all the walnuts.

Darlene had picked flowers in our yard and made me cute bouquet... She is such a GRAND lady.

One of the extreme tragedies of Mt. St. Helen's eruption is the volcanic mud buried car of Reid Blackburn who died in this tragedy. Allan knew Reid as he worked for 'The Columbian' newspaper in Vancouver, Wa and at the time was on an assignment for the National Geographic when the mountain blew. The other photographers in the area told Reid they were going back to town for breakfast and Reid told them he wanted to stay back and take more pictures of the mountain!!

This picture was taken less than 30 seconds after sector

collapse triggered one of the largest eruptions in the Cascades in the last 500 years.

This is a picture of Mt. St. Helen's after the blast and what the terrain looked like........it looked like the moon's landscape.

This is a good look into the crater left when Mt. St. Helens blew up in May, 1981.

look into the canyon at the bottom of Mt. St. Helens from a high viewpoint. When the mountain blew all the melted snow, blown down trees and hot ash rushed down the Toutle River which is in this canyon. Awesome.

Even the little creatures are coming back at Mt. St. Helen's... this was great to see.

We were so happy to see all the new growth at Mt. St. Helen's. Good ol' other Nature seems to pull through every time.

Frosty's Saloon and Grill is where we have our Sunday Bloody Mary's & breakfast.

Our Sunday waitresses.... Shannon otherwise known as Molly and Zena. They both are wonderful ladies and we enjoy them tremendously. Each of them do an excellent job!!!!

All the people at this table of 8 are all Bikers. They had riden their Harley's to Frosty's for breakfast from their homes in Packwood, Morton and Randle, Wa. Of, course, I had to comment on their way out what a gorgeous day this was for a nice Bike Ride ~ Good ol' friendly Molly!

Guess Frosty's is a Biker friendly bar!!










This is (Shannon) "Molly" our waitress!!

Bar area inside Frosty's Bar and Grille which was built along side of the railroad tracks that run through Napavine, Wa. On the top floor use to be Brothel, that is long gone ;~)

This is our every Sunday Bloody Mary waitress, Shannon ~ but her true nickname is MOLLY! She ALWAYS has a smile on her face and is a very sweet person.

This was Al's breakfast....
Eggs Benedict smothered in 'extra sauce' ~ cost $5.50 and is it ever really YUM-O!

This was my breakfast; 2 Bacon, 2 toast and 2 eggs for $2.25 and I asked them to bring me a small 'special bowl' of their homemade Raspberry Jam... YUM-O!!

Boy do I love the color of this Hot Rod!


All the Car Club entrants were in line for their lunch!

As we drove thru the car show I quickly shot this last picture... Loved all the yummy cars yet we were in a hurry to get home ~ maybe next time we can get better pix of these wonderful cars.







Please check back in with our Blog over the next few months as we are having an English Tea Party and Going Away Dinner for friends who will be traveling the whole month of September through England ~ and checking out mostly castles~~ Also after that dinner we will be hosting a dear Boomer couple who will be staying with us for at least a few nights including another trip to Mt. St. Helens....(they have not been there yet)....More fun to come and lots more pictures.

Waikiki Beach Washington

We had such a great time at the beach for the day but Cally really doesn't get how much fun the sandy beaches can be...she just sniffs the sand and looks at us like "OK now what?" I remember after one HUGE storm we drove into this area and there was a gigantic buoy bobbing in the water just beyond this pile of driftwood. No one really can fathom the size of those river buoy's....they are gigantic.

Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center built on a ledge overlooking the Columbia River and is a must see if you go to Cape Disappointment State Park. One can look down to the mouth of the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, or check out whales traveling south or north in the ocean. Plus inside, one can learn about Lewis & Clark, the history of the area, learn about the history of the 1,000's of shipwrecks at the mouth of the Columbia River, check out the various animals that were part of the landscape years ago and follow Lewis & Clark's Expedition to find the Pacific Ocean. It is truly fascinating and a great learning Center.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse!

Lots of tree lined roads meander through Cape Disappointment State Park........

Numerous years ago, on Al's last day working as a Park Aide here, he saw a bear and a coyote on this road and then in another part of the Park he saw a Sea Lion.

The State Park has built quite a few (maybe 50 or so) new Yurts for campers to use and we were quite amazed at how many there were! Also they have replaced numerous bathrooms with lst class bath houses.
These are some of the new changes and additions where the huge increase in camping fees is being spent.

Since Al and I were Campground Hosts many times at Cape Disappointment (It was called Fort Canby when we volunteered here and the name was changed to coincide with the Lewis & Clark Expedition's Anniversary), we drove around to see the changes and enjoy the beauty of the area.

We drove down to the boat ramp as Cally "needed to stop".

We took a quick driving trip to Astoria, Oregon to check out the new Brewery to have a pint or two of our favorite beer.. Dead Guy Ale. * I know that is a horrible name but the beer is absolutely fantastic unfortunately they charged us $11.00 for 2 pints... so that was all we had.

This is the bridge that goes across the mouth of the Columbia River and is 4.6 (approx) across.
That is Astoria on the hill in the background.

Betsy and Dirk's 2 sweet Cock-a-poos ~ Rudy and Tino.

I think, if I remember right, this is derived from Rudolph Valentino or something like that but not sure why they picked the first and the last part of the name.

OH, I think I know... Rudy is really Rudolph and Tino is really Valentino.. Bet that is how it went.

DUH!!