Kaua'i - Part One

We had a chance to go to Kaua'i during the last week of June. I had a few days of meetings with the staff from our three national wildlife refuges there (Kilauea Point, Hanalei, and Huleia). So from Wednesday through Friday we stayed in the town of Kilauea on the northeast shore of Kaua'i.

We went hiking Wednesday evening at the Ke'e area on the north shore. It is at the eastern end of the Na Pali Coast. There were some incredible views! We also explored in a sea cave and found tons of mangos. Many of them were bruised from falling out of the trees, but the girls managed to find some worth chomping into.

Thursday evening we had dinner with Mike Mitchell from the refuge and his family. The kids got along great (he has 2 boys that are a just little bit older than Gabbi and Jacqui). We walked out to an area in their neighborhood that had incredible views of the coast.

On Friday, Danielle and the girls watched Tye and Kieran (Mike's kids) while I was in meetings for the morning. They went to the beach in Hanalei. I met up with them at about lunch time and we started for Koke'e State Park on the northwest side of the island (that will be Part Two)

The view of Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge from an overlook



Jacqui on a hike!


The lighthouse at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.


The view from Kilauea Point.


Exploring on the beach!
The sea cave was really cool! We went as far as we could.

Hiking the Na Pali Coast.

Boy these mangoes are good!

Jacqui's Birthday Party

We held Jacqui's birthday party a little early this year. Our friends Stella, Hazel, and Tallulah were heading to Colorado to visit family and Jacqui really wanted them to be there. So about a week and a half early we had a great afternoon of fun!!


Jacqui and Kire playing dress up to start the party off right!


Our friends, Henry and Eddie, were nice enough to let us use their bounce house, because as we have found out, no Hawaiian birthday is complete without a bounce house!! Gabbi and Alana are having fun here! Thank you Eddie and Henry!!


The kids worked on bead necklaces and bracelets to take home. (I think there are still a few beads in the lawn...)

Jacqui really wanted a gecko cake. We think that we came close... and the kids tried to catch some of the geckos in our yard!

Blowing out the candles!! I hope that you wish comes true!

Gabbi, Darvin, Deuce, and Jessie watching the present opening.



Jacqui is styling!!! Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

First Friday and King Kamehameha Day

On the first Friday of each month, downtown Honolulu has an art night. The art galleries in Chinatown stay open and the Hawaii State Art Museum has events. For June, we found out that the Art Museum event was dance. We sat on the lawn of the Museum ate a picnic supper and watched dance performances. We met our friends Jesse, Dawn, and Harold and had a great evening.


On the way to the Museum, we passed the statue of King Kamehameha. It also happened to be King Kamehameha Day (a state holiday). There were many groups that had presented leis on the statue. they were absolutely beautiful! The smell was amazing as well! We don't spend a lot of time downtown, but it's nice to have easy access to events like this!

Midway Atoll

On June 4, I had a chance to go to Midway Atoll for the day.... Midway is a former military base, the site of a pivotal battle in WWII, and now a National Wildlife Refuge. I have been working on a project that includes Midway. There were three staff members from our Honolulu office that joined Military Historical Tours for their 1-day trip to tour the atoll and commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Midway.



Midway is the only national wildlife refuge with a commercially available runway. The FAA maintains the runway as an emergency landing site. All commercial airlines must fly routes that keep them within a certain distance of an emergency runway at all times....




Upon visiting Midway, you quickly find out that the Albatross (Gooney birds) are the true residents of Midway. Approximately 1 million of them (Laysan and Short-tailed species) nest every year. We visited at the tail end of nesting season and say mostly chicks that were in the process of growing in their flight feathers. They would fledge (learn to fly) within a few weeks leaving a very quiet island behind.


The albatross have no predators on the island. They have no fear of humans and will clack their beak at you when you get close, but they certainly don't have any interest in moving!! They are everywhere you look!


Some of the historic buildings that were damaged in the battle, are maintained as memorials.


This young boy had a close encounter with an albatross chick. We watched them interact for about 15 minutes.
There were some young adults that were hanging around looking for mates for next year. They do a very interesting courtship ritual that involves clacking their beaks. Albatross mate for life and can live up to about 60 years! They spend most of their lives at sea.

My assignment for the day was to patrol the beach to watch for the endangered Hawaiian monk seals that frequent the area, as well as green sea turtles and ensure that the guests stayed away from these sensitive species! The seals and turtles stayed away and folks were able to enjoy a little time on the beach before the flight back to Honolulu. (Tough assignment, I know....)


Since the island is an unincorporated territory of the US, we did have to go through customs on our return and I got my first passport stamp!!

Pierced Ears

On June 1, Gabbi and her friend Zoe decided that they were going to have Danielle and Zoe's mom Kris pierce their ears!!!

Zoe went first and now has a pierced ear....

Gabbi sat on my lap while I iced her ears up as much as possible.


Danielle and Gretchen each took one of the ear piercers and set up for the strike....
The ear piercing team! Kris, Gretchen and Danielle!

The piercing!! (Great shot Kris!!)

Gabbi said that it hurt but she is very glad that she went through with it!! Since then, Gabbi has done a great job (with help from mom and dad) keeping her ear holes and earrings clean and last week Danielle changed them for a different pair!!

Yoga on the beach

I got these shots of Danielle starting the day off right during our camping trip over Memorial Day.

Camping Hawaiian Style

Reaching back to Memorial Day, we had a great weekend camping with friends at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, aka Sherwood Forest. Camping in Hawaii is slightly different well, actually make that completely unlike, other camping that we have done....

Permits to camp at county run campgrounds are free! So, I went to the office 2 Fridays before the date that we wanted to camp. I got to the office later in the morning, so I was not feeling optimistic that we would get a site at all for one of the biggest camping weekends of the year. But, turns out a couple of sites had opened up!!

To make a long story short, we probably got the site because of an error in the county system, there was a group of about 30 Hawaiians on our site and the one next to it. So with some help from the host family we found a spot that we thought would be nice....well, the folks that we were next to partied all night long. We woke up to screams of wooooo-hooooo at 5:30. (Woke up is kind of the wrong term since you have to sleep before you wake up).

After breakfast, we dragged our tent and gear about 200 yards down the beach and found a great spot about 50 feet from the beach. Two other families joined us later in the day for the next 2 nights. We all had a great time!! The sound of the wind and the surf lulled us to sleep in the evenings, we saw incredible views of stars, and played in the sand and waves all day long!

We're planning on doing more camping this fall after our trip back to New England!

Gabbi and Jacqui enjoying some early morning hammock time!

Of course the kids entertained us with some dancing and singing.
Toasting marshmallows on the beach.

Even some time for homeschool work...
The first campsite, a nice spot, but the decibel level was a little high!

The view from the campsite.

Hammock time with friends!
Activities on the tarp.

Fun with family and friends!!

Allright, we are back on-line and I have no idea where to begin, so I'll start with some random photos of what we've been up to for the past couple of months!!


Hiking to beautiful waterfalls!


Hanging loose and hiking peaks!!


Hiking through bamboo...


Beautiful views (this one's from Midway Atoll, hopefully, eventually we'll all get a chance to go there and not just me.....)



First Friday events in Honolulu! This was a dance show on the lawn of the Art museum!



Lots of love!!!



Good times with good friends!


Ear piercings.....more to come later!


Obviously, there has been so much more! I hope to get going like crazy....weddings, camping, Kaua'i, beach days, hiking, snorkeling, surfing, somebody pinch me!!!