10/15/2015

Pool close....open 8 o'clock

My daily routine it get up around 5:45 A.M., make myself a really sturdy cup of espresso roast coffee in a french press, watch a little local news and check my email before getting ready for the day.

As I start the day, I go down to the first floor at 7:00 A.M. to take part in a hotel's continental breakfast at the Aqua Aloha Surf.  Well, this morning I got a few minutes late start so when I arrived, the place was wrapped up with Japanese tourists and seating was pretty sparse.  With virtually no place to eat my breakfast, I headed for the pool area where I'd eaten several times before.


A pool guy was inside the gated area wiping the tables after just hosing them off.   As I reached for the gate to go inside, he looked up and said, "Pool close...open eight!"

"No sir, I am not swimming.  I just want to eat my breakfast at the tables."

 "Pool close...open eight!"

Clearly he could see I was dressed in business casuals (aloha shirt, slacks, brown leather shoes, etc.), definitely did not look like a swimmer and sorta important.  Besides, I didn't even have a towel.

"No sir, I'm not going swimming. I only want to sit at the tables," I said forcefully and reached for the gate latch again.

"Pool close...OPEN EIGHT!"

There is no argument if the one you argue with isn't speaking English and I don't know Portuguese, Micronesian or Whatever so I just gave him a blank stare, rolled my eyes and chose to eat my boiled eggs and orange slice standing.

He was simply doing his job, was effective at it and honestly, I can appreciate his boldness to stand by his instructions and not be swayed or bullied to abandon his mission. 

I mumbled, grumbled and sulked in English though.

10/11/2015

Oahu - Honolulu

A couple of weekends ago, before the rain, I checked out Manoa Falls here on Oahu.   From the parking lot, it's just less than a mile up to the falls through groves of bamboo and a rocky and somewhat muddy trail.


Well visited by locals and visitors alike, it's not all that difficult and little keikis (local word for children) running ahead of their parents who continued to yell at them to be careful.



Honestly, I pretended to stop a lot to be courteous and let other travelers pass on the narrow trail so I wouldn't appear out of breath.  I was grateful I had brought along my tripod to stabilize myself in fear of slipping on the rocks.  They had gotten very greasy after hundreds of muddy feet had plastered mud on them.


I won't even try to tell you it was the most outstanding thing I've seen on Oahu but it was a better venue  than hanging out with the tourists on Waikiki.


Also, on the trip back, I stopped off at a couple of waysides to get down and visit some small flowing streams.


I had planned on visiting the arboretum near there but ¾ the way down, it began to rain so I opted to speed up and visit the Treetops Restaurant adjacent to the parking lot.  The food was a so-so buffet of Asian/Fusion dishes with some good old mainland bread pudding as a comfort food.

This weekend, I took a tour around the NE side, trying to see if I could find the old Magnum PI TV show location.

Failing to find the home of Magnum and Higgins, stumbled onto several hang gliders working the cliffs.


A couple of them really got off on buzzing the half dozen bystanders positioned by the road overlooking the bay.  While looking toward the sea, you could hear a little breezy sound and look up just in time to see them zip over you.  Sometimes they approached head on.


So, after church Sunday, I felt a little guilty just sitting around at the hotel so I strolled on down to Waikiki to see if it was still there. Sure enough, it was crowded with the usual surfers coming and going, old tourists trudging around in shorts, flowered Aloha shirts and sandals with socks on them.


I know I will not get a lot of sympathy from anyone but the temperatures were in the low nineties with high humidity making the real feel at 103°.

So I headed back to the hotel to sit under the air condition until late in the afternoon when I would go out.  The light will be better for photos later...yes, that's it.  The light's better.

So just east of here is Hawaii Kai.  Nice sunset.






10/10/2015

Early on the Ala Wai

I'm living at the Aqua Aloha Surf hotel on the corner of Kanekapale and Ala Wai Avenue in Waikiki.  That's a mouthful, huh?

Anyway, I woke early and looked out to see a crescent moon reflection on the Ala Wai Canal and it seemed right and just to grab my faithful Nikon and take a short stroll.  At 4:30 in the morning, I pretty much had it to myself, save a few other insomniacs, joggers and walkers.

 
Hard as I tried, I couldn't make the camera produce the beauty I saw with my own eyes.  As the morning brightened, more and more walkers and runners began to take advantage of the early morning beauty.   Being careful to keep my lens pack on my back rather than putting it on the ground so I wouldn't be an easy target for purse and pack snatchers (we have to have our stuff), I squeezed off a hundred or so images hoping to produce "the one" that I was looking for.


I was so enthused about the crescent moon and later the sunrise that came from the same direction and I began to reflect on how God produces miracles served up daily and our only job is to recognize them.  It's like an Easter egg hunt where many eggs are hidden and the children have to search for them, occasionally asking the father or mother for hints to where they can be found.


After feeling all holy and blessed, I observed a man still sleeping on a bench and wondered if his observance of beauty and miracles would be like mine.  I just don't know.


10/08/2015

As fate would have it...

I've had my share of great assignments and quite a few have been in Hawaii.  With that said, I figured my luck had long run out and I'd never see the islands on the company ticket ever again.  So, as fate would have it (thanks Mr. Jones) I find myself on Oahu once again.

It's not that working in San Angelo, Texas and Eunice, Louisiana wasn't some of the highlights of my life but Hawaii...?...it's what dreams are made of.

I've been here about 3 weeks and taken quite a few pictures but somehow my laptop started having issues downloading Windows 10 and I've pretty much been without a function to upload pictures with.  So without deep narratives, I present a quick photo journal of the past 3½ weeks.

After a red-eye flight to Honolulu, I found myself dealing with traffic like no other place I've been unless it was New York or the 605 in Los Angeles.  At least I got a rainbow in the deal.


There's not many places to stay within your budget other than downtown Waikiki, complete with zillions of tourists, street people and more traffic.

The annual Aloha Festival


  Raining on the parade


 I suppose if you're going to be homeless, this is the place. Rare is the night below 60°


  Life in downtown is living in a cube.  A view from my 220 square foot hotel room.


 My first week here, the place was swarming with tourists but over the recent week, they have thinned out a bit.


 Getting away from Waikiki, you can find less people


 Or strolling around later at night.  Here's the marina where the Ala Wai meets the harbor


 Looking toward Diamond Head at dusk.


  I always love a slow drive around the island.  This time it was counter clockwise.  Who knows, next week I might go for clockwise.


 It has been said that the best food on Hawaii is the after taste of the peanuts from the flight over.


 The place is synonymous with surfing so I spent last Saturday afternoon on the northeast side watching the surfers

 Waves crashing on the lava rocks


  More waves, more rocks


 More surfers.  He looks happy enough.


Later on, I'll upload my trip up to Manoa Falls.


8/10/2015

You can't stay there forever.

My Washington stay was about to end so instead of coming home, Ms Darlene flew up for a few days.

I pretty much took her to the sites that were reasonably accessible, such as Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, the skyline view from West Seattle, Gig Harbor, Mount Rainier and a lot of really neat places.

I had not been north of Vancouver British Columbia so that was added to our quick agenda as well.

Here's a few pictures.

The Seattle skyline from west Seattle


Then there's Pikes Place Public Market with peppers 


Ruston, Washington with Mount Rainier



Traffic is almost as bad as Baton Rouge



 The trip would have been incomplete without taking her up to Sunrise on Mount Rainier


Part of our plans were to ride up to Vancouver but after arriving, we decided to move on up the coast to Whistler, he home of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Along the way we hiked around the coast.  The sites were stunning to a pair of bayou drifters.


There were waterfalls along the way.  Not much of a hike.

 
Probably the most interesting thing we enjoyed was the Sea To Sky Gondola ride.  We watched for a while to make sure that's exactly what we wanted to do.  You know, it's a long drop if one of those cables break.



Longer and higher than we thought.


At the top, there was a suspension bridge we negotiated.



Although signs warn people not to run on these things, it never fails finding some dufus who thinks it's too scary to walk and decide to run causing the whole thing to swing and shake.


Ms Darlene was certainly not ready to come home but time was limited.  So, back to Seattle for the last day.  Here's one of the nice restaurants we tried; Anthony's on Pier 66.  Good seafood here.


I put her on the plane early Monday morning and made sure she was on the right side so she could see Rainier one more time as she flew back to Louisiana.  I followed a couple of days later.


7/05/2015

It's awful, why would anyone want to see this?

Being facetious of course. 

Over the past couple of weekends, I've continued to walk, drive and climb around on some of the prettiest area of the country.  I've ranged from the Olympic Peninsula, out on Oak Harbor and Whidbey Islands, the Cascade Mountain parks and of course, Mount Rainier.  I probably won't get sick of it anytime soon.

One place I really wanted to get back to was the Wallace Falls State Park area.  It had been 5 years ago when I last visited so I had hoped for some really neat little waterfalls.  However, this is summer and those little streams I remember were nothing more than a drip now so that meant I would have to negotiate the rocky trails with my trusty hiking stick praying I wouldn't sprain an ankle on the imbedded rocks.

































After a nice hike, I had the opportunity to rest at the edge of the water at small falls about 2 miles up.  Very nice even though I had a lot of visitors doing so.















Another spot was Deception Pass, north of Seattle and separates Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands.  Deception Pass has a dark history, including smuggling Chinese illegals.  Seriously, read about it here.

The tide going in and out through the pass is so strong, it has it's own waves and I could see some smaller boats struggling against the current.
















Completed in July of 1935, the Deception Pass Bridge connecting the islands is another steel marvel.
















I've long been a sucker for sunsets and small waterfalls.  Yes, the big 100'+ falls are grand but I just love sitting near small falls and hear the rush of the water.  On my way to another spot on Mount Rainier, I found myself stopping often, sometimes crawling up under a low bridge and scooting around on the rocks.

















My favorite thing is slow shutter speeds that result in a "foamy" look to the rushing water as it spills over the rocks.















Bridges are everywhere and I can't resist the stop.

 
































Often, you would make a turn just to see another shot at Mount Rainier, sometimes with meadows; sometimes with trees but the presence was always around another switchback.















Over and over again, beautiful falls.  This one is Christine Falls.  There's a bridge above the apparent one that you may not be able to make out here.















If truth be told, the chief reason for going up today was an image I'd seen on the internet called Reflection Lakes.  The article had said to go in July so the flowers would be blooming.  Perhaps I'd not paid any attention to the accessibility that was mentioned.  Somehow, I had in my mind that I was going to have a 3 mile round trip hike for this.















Nope...drove right up to it.  As a matter of fact, If I had so minded, I could have taken this picture from the drivers' seat of the car if all the other tourists would not have gotten in my way.
















After picking up a pair of geezers who had hiked up a distance and were worn out, I deposited them a couple of miles downhill at a parking lot.  I pretty much had put the camera away until I drove through the little town of Elbe, Washington.  Here  there was an entire business community of espresso shops, one gas station and a whole train that had been converted into a hotel and inn.  I'm not so sure how many people actually stayed in the thing but for a Sunday after Independence Day, it was wrapped up with motorcyclists, bicyclists and a host of Washington style rednecks with pickup trucks. Yep, I felt right at home. Maybe the Hobo Inn wasn't so bad.
















I'm looking forward to Ms Darlene coming out soon to see this.  Thanks, Mr. Jones.