Visitors from a half a world away

So now that we're settled in to our new home, we are ready to welcome our first visitors!

Our neighbors from Belchertown, Hannah, Shauna, and Michael had planned a vacation to Oahu months ago. Danielle and the girls met them at Waimanalo Beach. The waves were breaking right on shore. so they headed just north to Kailua Beach Park. I met them after work. It was nice to see faces from back East! The girls really enjoyed having a chance to play with Hannah!

Waiting with leis for visitors!

Then on Saturday the 19th, we picked up grandma and grandpa at the airport. It was so wonderful to see them!!! We had a great week showing them around "our" island. They were very impressed with the beautiful beach and the current at Waimea Bay. I'll post more about our visit later.

Their visit overlapped Nonni and uncle Gabe's visit by a few hours. We all had a wonderful dinner (outside of course) at our house before dropping my parents off at the airport. Now we're ready for a fun filled week with our new wonderful guests!

Lava

I had a recent trip to Hilo (on the Big Island) for work. We finished up our first day of meetings in time for me to make the hour long trek to watch lava flowing from Kilauea volcano into the ocean. It was pretty amazing. I only caught fleeting glimpses of the red lava from the quarter mile vantage point, but the steam and spray that were rising up from the ocean give a real sense of something special going on. The pictures certainly don't do it justice!

I was there about an hour and a half before sunset. I thought about sticking around until dark, but really needed some dinner.

Right at the point on the very left, I would catch sight of lava spurting up as it hit the cool ocean water. Cooler lava seemed to explode out of the water.
The lava fields between the viewing area and the lava are only a few weeks old and not very stable. When the eruption first started flowing in this area viewing was within about 25 feet of the lava!
The road into the lava field passed over the lava flow from a decade or so ago that wiped out a subdivision. They're hard to make out, but those are rebuilt houses on the lava flow in the distance. I guess they are going on the lightning never strikes twice theory of lava flow....

552 Kaulani Way

We moved into our new home on April 2! We are in Kailua (on the windward side of Oahu). We are on the second floor of a very nice 2 story home. Our downstairs neighbors (Jeff, Julia and their 3 dogs) are great.
View of the front of the house (we get the left half of the garage that we have filled with our crap.

Our yard....we've eaten outside almost every night. The gardens are great and the small tree in front of the table is a mango (about 5 years until it fruits).

Our entryway....as usual our interior decorator (Danielle) has done a great job!

The view back down the stairs at the entryway...plenty of room for slippers (aka flip-flops). And a great storage closet under the stairs.
The view from the top of the stairs toward the living room/dining room.

The view of the dining room and kitchen.

"Jacqui's Room" - she had been looking forward to sleeping in her own room when we got to our new house. Now we go back and forth nightly about who is sleeping where.....

Second view of Jacqui's room.

Gabbi's room

Second view of Gabbi's room, complete with dress-up clothes!

Our room...it's a great size with a second bathroom and plenty of room for our desk. It's even got a good sized closet!
It was quite an ordeal to find this place and we feel very fortunate! We've got great views of the Ko'olau Mountains (it's too cloudy today to get a good picture). Yes, rent is ridiculously expensive (over a thousand dollars a month more than our 15 year mortgage in MA), but compared to what we looked at for only a few hundred dollars a month less we actually feel like we got a good deal?!?!?

We ar 6/10 of a mile from the beach. A pretty easy walk if we're not carrying all of our gear. We're about the same distance from a bike trail at the Kawainui Marsh. I'm about 100 yards from the bus stop for work.

Our first visitors (my parents) are arriving next Saturday! The day they leave, Danielle's mom and brother come in for another week!! We are very excited.

We're all set for more visitors, so let us know when you'll be coming!!

Kahala then on back to Kailua

So, we've moved out of Kahala into our new house in Kailua, but wanted to share a little of our experience living just outside of downtown Honolulu. We were about 2 miles from Diamond Head and about 4 from Waikiki.

The condo that we stayed in was fine.... A little musty smelling and not very well equipped in the kitchen. It had a nice lanai that we ate at each evening.Of course, we loved our resident gecko....

The condo complex itself was pretty interesting. There was a nice pool that the girls swam in daily. The security at this place was pretty ridiculous. We had to unlock 2 - 3 doors to get to our condo. Apparently, Jack Lord lived in the complex while filming Hawaii 5-0.
Lounging by the pool!


Swimming with Tallulah, our friend from Kailua that came to visit.

Hanging loose on the lanai...

Just outside the fence for the pool, was an o.k. beach. Nothing like the white sand of Kailua and Lanikai. But, the place must have a reputation for weddings. Can't tell you how many we saw. There would be 2-3 weddings and/or wedding photo sessions going at one time!! At least 10 weddings each weekend day and a couple each evening during the week. It was unreal.

We were right next to the Kahala Mandarin, which is a very posh hotel (see the dolphins in an earlier post). Apparently Tom Cruise was there a week before we got there. We used there pool a couple of times (very warm and very nice).

We are very excited to be back in Kailua and in our own place as of April 2!! More to come....

Kuli'ou'ou Ridge

Time for some more hiking! We headed out for the 5 mile Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Trail on March 22 and had a great hike. Incredible views of the southern half of the island and great hiking companions!

We were a little nervous that we'd get into the clouds quickly, but they stayed just far enough away (the Ko'olau Mountains have a tendency to get socked in with moisture from the surrounding ocean)
For the first part of the hike, we wandered through Ironwood Trees with very little understory.

Then, we got into an area with some nice climbing trees. They were similar to and may have been Banyans,

Then we broke through to some great views, including this Octopus tree. Apparently this plant is a popular house plant on the mainland and stays fairly small. Here on Oahu it is a large tree that flowers at the top once it reaches a pretty high stature. (Does it look like the plants that we gave you Wendy or Petra??)

Views to the south of Koko Crater (where Danielle and Jacqui had hiked a couple of weeks ago) and the valley that we had hiked from.
Then, when we reached the top, we got views of the windward side of the island, including Manana Island.
Waimanalo and the Mokulua Islands.

Jacqui is quite the little photographer!

Full Moon Hike

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to get to the blogging, but we'll get caught up some...
We took a friday night full moon hike a couple of weeks ago that was pretty fabulous. We started with some delicious mexican food in Hawaii Kai and then headed for Koko Head. We had heard that it was a pretty easy hike and figured we'd give it a try. The moon had been getting brighter and brighter and the skies were mostly clear!After a somewhat treacherous walk along the main road (Kalanianaole Hwy.), we found the start of the trail. I think that it is technically closed because of some FAA equipment at the top. The trail was paved and we got some great views of Hanauma Bay by moonlight and had some nice views of the city skyline, as well.Danielle - Hangin Loose at Koko Head (did you hear that NKOTB were having a reunion. Maybe they'll play the Waikiki Shell!)


Lovely ladies enjoying the moonlight!