After Kerry and I had been married for several years he started the tradition of giving me a rose for every year we had been married on our anniversary. Since we were in Honolulu for our anniversary this year I didn't expect that to continue, afterall we were in Honolulu. When we arrived home on Saturday these wonderful roses were sitting on the table waiting for me. Kerry you shouldn't have!

Long Weekend in Honolulu

I usually have weekends with Kerry to see more of the sites on the Island but this time we had a three day weekend and it was lots of fun. We had decided to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay on Saturday but because of a Box Jelly Fish Warning we decided to postpone that event for another trip. Kerry was disappointed because he had actually convinced me to go snorkeling with him again. We decided to visit a Buddhist temple that I had wanted to visit after seeing it on TV many years ago (thanks Magnum.) It is called the Byodo-In Temple at the Valley of the Temples. It was really pretty impressive. It is a replica of one from Japan and was built in the late 60's. And it was a beautiful day to be out and about.

The bell with it's wonderful sound.

Standing at 18 feet this is believed to be one of the last hand carved since "ancient times."

Just outside of the Temple this little girl was feeding the birds, there were two in this picture and they landed right in her hand, my mind flooded back to The Olympic National Forest just after Rebecca was born and Natalie stood hands out feeding Camp Robbers and they came right to her hand. It was a sweet memory. We stood and watched for awhile and notice all of the fish below the bridge and other birds responding to her and others in her family feeding them.


On the property there were several of these black swans swimming around. They looked so graceful.

As we started to leave the grounds Kerry noticed these two turtles sunning themselves.

It was a beautiful Temple in a very beautiful setting. I'm glad we were able to visit it.

Since the day was still very young Kerry drove on to the North Shore. There were remnants of the the Tropical Storm still seen on the north part of the island with 20-25 foot waves. The day before they had been 30-35 feet waves. We decided to walk along the reopened beach to see them a little more closely.


Again I was a little reflective of all of the family walks on the beach of Oregon and looking into the tide pools for little creatures, sweet memories.

Even with pretty decent pictures it is hard to visualize how big the waves really were.

As we walked back along a cove where the surf wasn't quite so rough we watched some surfers. The girl in the very center gave us the hang ten sign and surfed in for us. Because I had taken so many pictures I had to turn the camera on and off to snap the last few, my batteries were gone. I thought I had zoomed in on her more and was a little sad that I hadn't gotten a better picture of her.

On Sunday we went to church as usual amidst all of the questions as to when we would be moving in. Good question, it seems with no answer!!! We went back to the hotel and Kerry fixed dinner so that we didn't have to go out on Sunday. He's pretty good at fixing meals from a microwave.

This is the view of Diamond Head from out of our room. We decided that since the jelly fish warning was still in effect we would hike to the top which is something we had talked about before.

Pretty intense climb up and down! After climbing up over 200 stairs and a pretty steep trail that takes you through one of the walls of the volcano you come out into an old military lookout and to this view.





Still love those light houses.

The last few steps to the top of the lookout.

Into the crater, the trail head, and the parking lot.

Waikiki and downtown Honolulu.

Proof positive that we did this together.

Back at the bottom.

After we got back to Waikiki we decided to take the car back to the parking terrace and walk to Chinatown. It was fun to walk through and experience but I was forgetful and didn't take one picture. It was a really fun way to end the weekend. It just went way to fast.

My time with Kerry always goes way to fast.

"Change"

Today and for the last few months we have heard a great deal about "Change," I don't mean to be skeptical but as long as we have the current congress in office I fear
nothing will change and we will be in the same shape at the end of this year. My HOPE that we can all try a little harder and be a little more compassionate and a little less hateful toward one another. I'll try harder, may you all have a great day, do something nice for someone else!

"And They Call the Wind Mariah"

But who knows what it's called here on Oahu! This was a predicted Tropical Storm that didn't quite measure up to what was fore casted thankfully. Last month the Islands were hit with severe storms that caused all kinds of flooding and problems. With this storm the Island was basically shut down schools, government offices and so on, many here have been critical because they feel that there was an over reaction, quite honestly I was impressed at the way they handled everything especially since they weren't quite as prepared for last months storms. I guess you can't please everyone.

While it looks pretty good this is really rough surf and notice very few on the beach.

What you can't see is how hard is was raining, this is taken from our room. The wind gusts were predicted to get up around 60 mph and they say the highest was around 50. Let me tell you when several gusts hit the windows and lanai doors it really made them rattle and me want to stay right where I was.

Just a little wind!

Another beautiful sunset with the storms just off of the coast.

And then nightfall with the storm rolling across this Island.

And then the next morning the calm after the storm.

Another beautiful day in Paradise.

"Beware of Dog"

Or should I say beware of the "scaredy cat." At Christmas Cyd and Ken brought their cute little dog with them, they thought that Charlie and Quate' would be friends, I knew that would be a tall order since Quate' is a little strange at times. Charlie tried and tried but she successfully drove our dog crazy. He came up with many creative ways to get away from her. By the time they left he was finally starting to get used to her and was actually playing with her a little bit. It didn't take long for him to get back into his own comfort zone though.

As you can see Charlie is such a cutie and we she was well loved.

She loved being with lots of new people too. Sometimes too excited!

Quate' pulled this tub off of the shelf and climbed in to get away from her.

He even hopped onto the dryer door to get away and then he knew he was in trouble.

Poor guy just couldn't get away and need a haircut so bad.

Scratching his belly didn't even help. He is just spoiled rotten and I love him anyway. One thing for sure we learned we won't be getting a friend for him any time soon.