buzzardnotes

Jerri and Jolee stayed for a few days after the Walk so that we could do some other activities.  Jolee drove out to Bullhead City, AZ on Monday to pick up her kids, Dalan and Megan, and brought them back to my place.  That was a very long day for her.  But I was glad that she made that long drive because I love being with the kids.

We all had to go over to the Donate Life office because I had accidentally made off with the keys to the cool new Donate Life van (I was unloading it from the Run/Walk and forgot they were in my pocket).  Jerri, Jolee and I were going to take a repeat picture in front of the Porta Potty at the Walk (like Jolee, Jason, Scott and I did last year) but we forgot to do so.  So we did the next best thing at the Donate Life office.

The Pose in front of the Porta Potty

The pose recaptured

Then the kids got into the act

After our poses, we went over to Camelot Entertainment Center or whatever it’s called for a game of rip roarin’ miniature golf.  It was roarin’ because we could hardly hear at times because the course is right next to the 91 freeway.  But we persevered and had a really good time.  My day got off to a good start with a hole in one and then quickly deteriorated.  Megan ended her day just right with a hole in one!  It was a hard course and this was a pick me up for her!

On the course

We all had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.  We really had a good time and got our money’s worth because we all had many,many strokes.

You can tell Dalan and Megan had a good time, too.

Megan’s checking out Dalan’s pose to see if Uncle Scott would approve.

The next day, we enjoyed a game of bowling and a great afternoon at the Discovery Museum in Santa Ana.  It’s supposed to be for kids, but I really enjoy playing with the scientific gadgets and learning stuff.  The kids enjoyed doing a type of scavenger hunt in the dinosaur area.  Dalan enjoyed it so much that he did five different hunts.  He got to be pretty good at it.  He went home with a pocketful of wooden coins that were given as prizes for completing a hunt.

Much to my chagrin, they all had to leave the next day because things at home were calling them.  It sure was quiet that night without listening to chatter, questions and some bickering.  Kinda reminded me of Jerri’s and my childhood when they were at my place.

Following is the chronicle of preparing for and participating in the 11th Annual Donate Life Run/Walk – April 27, 2013 – The largest Donate Life event of its kind in the nation 

The Golden Girls – Shirley, Cheryl, Norma, Me, Sharyn

Actually, I’m only going to talk about the penultimate and ultimate weeks prior to the Walk, but we had actually been doing tasks since before last Christmas (while we were also doing stuff for the Rose Parade)  When I talk about “we,” I’m referring to the Golden Girls, a small group of ladies who devote many, many hours at the Placentia Donate Life/One Legacy office doing sometimes mundane things like stuffing envelopes and packing and shipping stuff all over the country as well as fun stuff like making buttons for donor families.  All of us have a connection to organ/tissue donation and feel it’s important to help spread the word and educate folks on the importance of registering to be a donor.

Our chores were complicated this year with the expansion and doubling of space in the office.  Expansion was a good thing, but in February and March, we had to be very flexible in working around construction areas, a lot of dust and then putting our work area back together.   Setting up shelves and moving all of our stuff to these new shelves was another challenge.  One of the biggest challenges was remembering where we put everything.  We are still in this mode and will be for another couple of weeks as some more construction will be done to complete the office.  It’ll be great when it’s all done!

During the last 2 weeks prior to the Walk, as a group, we processed about 4500 tee shirts for donor families who had formed teams in honor of their loved ones.

Checking the task board

 These shirts all had pictures of the loved ones and had to be counted to make sure the families will be receiving the correct number and sizes.  We also made about the same number of buttons and those buttons were placed in the bag with the shirts.  Thousands of Run/Walk brochures were mailed out to DMVs, dialysis centers, hospitals and other entities.  A multitude of tasks had to be done and it seemed as if we didn’t slow down for the entire month of April doing all these  jobs.  I’m not complaining, just trying to explain that we were busy.

Ann, one of the ladies in our office likened preparing for the Walk to planning for a wedding.  You spend months and days on the tiniest of details and then the event finally arrives and t’s over in just a short time and we have to clean up.  In our case, we planned for about 12,000 people to arrive at Cal State Fullerton between 7 AM and 9 AM and it was done about 1 PM.  It’s an amazing event.

Workin’ hard

The Wednesday before the Walk, Jerri, my sister, and Jolee, my niece, came down from Minden, Nevada, to lend their volunteer hands.  They joined many other folks who came to the office to lend a hand. By the end of the Walk, more than 750 people had volunteered from all walks of life.  Coordinating those volunteers is a tremendous job and very well done by our Ambassador Coordinator Erika.

By Friday afternoon, all activity moved to the intramural field at Cal State Fullerton where a stage had been constructed, many easy ups and other tents type structures had been built.

The field that would hold 12,000 people the next day

Almost the same view as the empty field. This was right after the doves had been released.

   Many dignitaries and other VIPs, such as mayors, assemblymen/women, county supervisors, and CEOs attended the Walk.  Celebrities such as Nick Canon and All for 1 entertained the excited crowd.

A couple celebrating 18 years of transplantation!

 My job at the event is to welcome and check in the VIPs before they go into the actual VIP tent to schmooze and to have breakfast and/or lunch.  Then they go out to participate in the dove release and some even do the walk. This picture has the VIP tent and check in area in the background, but the couple in the foreground is the more inspirational story.  The husband donated his kidney to his wife, saving her life, 18 years ago!  Loved their tee shirts!

Jolee, Jerri and I are by Bob’s sign

A very inspiring and emotional area of the Run/Walk is the Circle of Life Garden.  It is a special place dedicated to honor a donor, recipient or loved one and inspire others to donate life. People, such as me, pay for a sign to be made and it is hung in the garden along with about 165 others.  A team of volunteers decorate it very tastefully and it becomes a sort of sanctuary for folks to wander through to see their loved one’s picture or just be inspired by the garden.  Some folks bring flowers and/or decorations for their signs and many get their pictures taken by their signs.

An interesting story evolved about the garden fro a picture on our brochure.  A mother whose son had been part of the ROTC military guard at our “fallen heroes” area last year saw her son’s picture on the brochure.  She contacted us and wanted to know if it was too late to get her son’s picture in the garden for this year.  Come to find out, he had been killed (not in military duty) last fall and had been a donor.  So this year, he was honored by the ROTC guard.  Quite a story.

ROTC Guard

Also on display in the Garden is what we call a ribbon quilt.  For each donor family team that we make buttons for, we make an extra button and pin it on a ribbon that becomes sort of a “quilt.”  Jerri and Jolee put the ribbon quilt together this year and are standing beside their product.  The picture was taken toward the end of the event and several of the buttons are missing due to families taking an additional button.

The ribbon quilt

The Donate Life Run/Walk is the culmination of thousands of hours of preparation by hundreds of people.  I believe it is a comfort to donor families and does inspire many people or at least make them more aware of organ and tissue donation.  We have many families who come back year after year and use our event as a sort of family reunion.  Some have told my boss, Kathleen, that this event is even more important to their families than Christmas.  So, for me, it is a labor of love and is a way for me to pay forward, in some small aspect, Bob’s gift of life that he received from the Baptista family.  For without them and their generosity, we would not have had an extra eight and a half years together.

To Life!  It’s spring and it’s busting out all over here in Cerritos.

 I saw a great performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” last night and while I was walking to the Donut Donut store (the real name of my donut place, but I only go there for coffee and Lotto tickets) the song “To Life” (or “L’Chaim”) was running through my mind.  That got me to thinking about spring and what I was seeing and hearing this morning.

Black Phoebe

Bushtit

The sunrise with many shades of pink and gray was gorgeous on this cloudy morning and I delighted in the multihued sky.  The birds were waking up and they were singing their greetings to each other and me.  Black phoebes were twitting their little chirp while darting from and to perches while catching little gnats.  Bushtits were flitting in their erratic flights through trees while twittering their calls to each other.  They like to pick bugs off leaves and sometimes hang upside down on twigs.  I get a kick out of these tiny birds because they remind me of Woodstock in “Peanuts” and how he flies in the comic strip.  The neighborhood Cooper’s hawk screamed his greeting while he was looking for breakfast. Later on this spring, his youngsters will harass the local crows as they practice do training hunting flights.  I’ve witnessed this event in past years with much humor as sometimes the feathers are turned and the crows chase the hawk.  It’s almost like a game between the two species.

Cooper’s Hawk

The usual house finches were out in force with their chatter.  I love when a flock is in a tree and they’re waking up.  It reminds me of a happy classroom with lots of cheery sounds.  Of course, crows were making their early morning caws to each other, trying to figure out who has some food to steal.  They’re such moochers.  Several ducks flew overhead quacking directions to each other.  We’ll soon see little ducklings being led by their mothers to water for their first swim.

Other signs of spring include much pollen falling from the pine trees that line some of our streets.  It is really apparent when a puddle on the sidewalk has dried up and there is a yellow tinge to the

Front Yard poppies

outline of where the puddle was.  Pollen is also very apparent as a pale yellow film on the surface of my pool.  Some of the other trees are beginning to make little white petals, which will soon drop and create a snowy cast to the street.  One neighbor has an ivy-covered wall that has ugly, bare, old, and dead looking vines during our winter.  It is beginning to leaf out and will soon be a lush green, belying the ugly wall.  My daffodils and freesias have come and gone but my California poppies are going crazy along with some other posies.   These poppies are on both sides of my driveway with the little Donate Life garden flag in the background flapping in the slight breeze.

Join Us at the Run Walk!

Speaking of Donate Life, tomorrow, April 1, beings Donate Life month and a celebration of inspiring and advancing donation and transplantation of organs and tissues through research, public education, and honoring donors whose legacies live on.  I will be working hard this month on a volunteer basis for the Donate Life Run/Walk that will be held at Cal State Fullerton on April 27.  At least 11,000 people will participate in this celebration of life.  L’Chaim to all of these participants and volunteers!

Mary Wu

Today seems like a good opportunity to give a  L’Chaim toast to Mary Wu, a fellow 2012 Rose Parade float rider, who celebrates  life every day.  If ever anyone knows what life means, it’s Mary who is a two-time kidney recipient.  She inspired me many times as I read portions of her blog where she recounted her inner thoughts of her life journey.  I’m the proud owner of her newly published  Confessions of a Kidney Transplant Recipient.  It’s a good read and is available at amazon.com

I’ve been traveling quite a bit during the last two months (as B.C., my ornery cat would attest and she lets me know every day as she begs for attention), and this morning seemed like a good time to sit back a minute or two to catch my breath, look at the world and cuddle B.C.  Life is good and I’m enjoying every minute of it (except when I have to clean up B.C.’s “mistakes” or what I would call getting back at me for not being available every two hours to lavish attention or feed her snacks.  That’s what happens when you have a possessive 19 year old feline)

March 18, our first day, began very well.  Dot and I got an early start in order to get through LA traffic easily.  Our first stop was at David’s, (her son) in Santa Barbara about 8:30 to see the

Dot, Wesley and Jane

grandkids,Wesley and Jane.  We had a delightful time with the grandchildren and visited some with Stacy and David.  We were soon on our way and made good time to San Luis Obispo where we had lunch.

As we drove along, we commented that we didn’t know there were so many varied colors of green.  We’ve had enough rain to make the grass and other plants sprout with luscious colors.  There was a lot of lupine, mustard, pretty little yellow flowers, ceanothus and many, many poppies (although we saw more of them closer to Pajaro).  All in all it was a beautiful drive to Pajaro.

Close to Pelican 10

We knew we were in the right place when we saw the Pelican Point sign out on the point by Pelican 10, our final destination.  There were many hugs for who were there and soon we broke out the wine, M&Ms, pretzels, and Lynda’s luscious biscotti.   YUM!!!  It tasted so good and we managed to consume our fair share.  Check out the amount of M&Ms in the cornucopia.  I don’t know how many packages Pat brought to Prime Time, but it had to be several as the cornucopia is fairly full.  By Friday morning, it was quite empty!  But there were seven of us!

The cornucopia overfloweth

Our wine cellar

The first major topic of discussion was to rehash the OHS Reunion held in September, 2012…who was there, who was not, how people looked, how well we think we’ve aged (YEA!  FABULOUSLY!),  how well the reunion committee organized the event, checking out reunion pictures and then commenting on everyone.  Such fun!

Dot and I prepared a sort of chicken alfredo with brocoli, salad, sourdough bread, and vino with Gizdich Ranch pies and ice cream for dessert.  The Bailey’s came a bit later.  Ah, Dot is such a good cook!  She is so creative and I sit back and enjoy the kudos that she should receive alone.  She’s the brains and I’m the brawn for doing things like boning the chicken.

Dot and Trish had some antique pictures and other items for Diana, our antiques expert, to take a look at and perhaps give an idea of whether or

Diana and Dot evaluating Dot’s pictures

not they were worth selling.  I’m amazed at the extent of Diana’s knowledge, the result of  interest, extensive self-education and reading.  She’s amazing at how she can give an opinion and tell someone if they have something of value (or not).  Then she knows where to go on the internet to support her judgments.  I was pretty impressed when we went to a couple of antique shops and her opinions of good values.  She was looking for some good props for weddings on the Jacobs Family Berry Farm  http://www.jacobsberries.com  (Check out their web site to see pictures and learn what all is going on at the farm) While I could sort of see what Diana was talking about(especially since I’ve been on the farm), it was very difficult for me to imagine how these props would be incorporated.  Diana has the insight to do these things and get then to fit.  Diana ended up not buying them, but I could certainly see why I’m not a decorator of any kind and Diana deals with aesthetic things.

Diana is serious about this business

For the most part, the weather cooperated (it only rained one night) and we were able to take several long walks on the beach without a lot of wind.  It was so comfortable that we didn’t need heavy

Why do many of them stand on one foot?

jackets!  Some of our crew walked past the north end of Pajaro which constituted a very LONG walk.  I’m guessing that they walked about 4 miles.  There were many shells to check out, but not much sea glass.  We all enjoyed looking at the many shore birds that were trying to find their dinners.  One of questions of the day was why many of those birds choose to stand on one leg when they definitely had two able legs.  One possible answer was that perhaps it’s a way to keep one leg relatively warm while the other is freezing in the cold water.

Dining at Gayle’s

We all visited an antique shop in Soquel and then drove to Gayle’s Bakery and Rosticceria to eat some sandwiches and pastries.  Gayle’s is in Capitola, right next door to Soquel and has delectible food!  It took me a long time to make up my mind as to what sandwich to eat but not the pastry.  I guess my sweet tooth has more of a determined mind.

For year, a topic of conversation was the cement boat in Aptos, a little town just south of Capitola.  This year, we finally made the trek to check it out.  The following is from a web site about concrete ships:

…The S. S. Palo Alto (“The Cement Boat”) is the most famous concrete ship on the west coast. The Palo Alto was built as an oil tanker by the San

The Palo Alto then

Francisco Shipbuilding Company in Oakland, California and launched May 29, 1919.  She was 420’ long and 54’ wide at her beam.

The Palo Alto remained docked in San Francisco Bay for over ten years until she was purchased by the Seacliff Amusement Company of Nevada and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. The ship was grounded in the bay and connected to the shore by a long pier. An arcade, dining room, dance hall and even a swimming pool were built on the ship.

Unfortunately, the Seacliff Amusement Company went out of business two years later under the financial crunch of the Great Depression. Then, in winter, a storm cracked the ship across her midsection. The Palo Alto was stripped of all salvageable metal and fixtures and turned into a fishing pier.  The S. S. Palo Alto can be found at Seacliff Beach in Aptos, California. Until recently she was used as a fishing pier but has now been closed due to deterioration.

The Palo Alto now. Ugh!

The bottom picture is what the Palo Alto looks like today…rather decrepit and rather an ugly nuisance that no one is able to use today except for birds.  A sad commentary on a once proud ship (however odd it sounds to be able to sail a concrete 420’ long ship).

To keep with tradition, we all dined at The Whole Enchilada at Moss Landing on Wednesday.  They have such delicious Mexican food and are always so accomodating of a large party.  This picture was taken before the food arrived.  You may notice that some of us were trying to kill any bugs that we may have had with some alcohol.

The Entire Enchilada Group

It was about Wednesday that several of us began to come down with what we called the Pajaro Crud.  It eventually struck six out of the seven leaving us with very sore throats, headaches, achy muscles, sneezing, coughing, and runny noses.  Some had low grade fevers that didn’t add to one’s well being.  Dot didn’t feel well at all while we were driving back to Cerritos and I felt badly for her that she had to drive home to Murrieta the following morning.  But she made it safely and that was good.  I am assuming that everyone made it home without incident and that everyone is recuperating from the Crud.  I probably will have to take the day off from the Donate Life office tomorrow, but will be good enough to volunteer on Tuesday.

Dot is checking Trish to see how she’s smashing crockery

Trish had a craft project that involved using shells and/or sea glass, solder and little necklace loops.  We got to pick out various shapes of glass or shells, wind copper tape around the edges and then solder the tape onto the object.  We had great ideas but none of us could get the solder to look nice or get the little necklace loop to sit right when we tried to solder it together.  I sort of gave up after I accidentally soldered a knuckle.  Kinda smarted.  I still have my little object de arte with me and will try to sand the solder to make it look smooth.  Hope it works.

Thursday, the five who were left went to a little Hole in the Wall restaurant (can’t remember the exact name of it but it did have a hole in the wall

The state flower in profusion

for “Go” orders on the back side of it) and then took a ride out to Sunset Beach, a state beach north of Pajaro.  It’s a campground as well as a day use beach.  We drove quite a way through the campground that was on a bluff above the ocean and then finally dropped down to the beach which was less than a mile north of Pajaro.  It was so pretty with many, many poppies in bloom.

Is Dot teaching Lynda about Scorpion Solitaire?

One thing that was a topic of discussion several times was the use/ownership of an iPad, Nook, or Kindle.  Sherry was interested in getting one or the other but didn’t know the advantages/disadvantages or possibilities that each has.    Pat has an iPad, I have a Nook and Lynda has a Kindle and each brought their little possession.  I don’t know if Sherry arrived at any conclusion but we had fun talking about them.  Since the Nook is similar to the Kindle, Lynda was able to explain some features that I didn’t know were on the Nook.  Of course, it would have helped to read the manual.  But why should I do that when someone will eventually explain them to me or I might stumble upon them by myself?  Life is an adventure!  I think Sherry’s conclusion was to choose what functions she might use the tool for.  That way, she would fit her needs and not what someone told her what is best.

Pat with her mah jong

We missed all of you who were not able to attend this 2013 chapter of Prime Time.  We didn’t seem to laugh as much (Michel, take note.  You are one of our best humorists!).  We missed everyone’s input on all the things we talked about, plus more.  Books, trends, etc. We spent some time reading (but not discussing what we were reading) and/or doing some research on the computer.  This, in part, could have been that we all were not in the best of health and were somewhat subdued.

As you know, we spent four nights at Pajaro where we usually spend three nights. Again, perhaps we weren’t feeling up to par, but some of us feel that going back to three nights might be best.  Also, for those of you not with us, should we go back to including a weekend for our Prime Time?  That might help those of you still working to get there without missing too much work.  Please give us some input as to your feelings about this little item.   Inquiring minds want to know!

Here are some additional photos of us and the environs.

The snake under the bush

Someone found a snake in the grass and I wanted to be sure to share it with you.

Sherry

The M&M cornucopia on Friday morning, departure day

The cornucopia runneth dry

.

Lynda

Trish

Diana was not feeling well when she left us Thursday morning and we all wanted to wish her a good, safe trip home.  But, she did not want to infect us even more than we were, so she invented the Crud Hug (I can’t think of a better name at this time.  Perhaps someone else can name it more aptly).  You face the recipient of your hug, extend your arms and wiggle your knees.  Dot and I are demonstrating this technique below.

The Crud Hug

…A combined composition by Connie and Cora

 Our old friend, Shirley Porter, was being given a 70^th birthday party by her sister, Barbara, to which we invited ourselves.  The party was to be held on Sunday, March 10, 2013, in Grand Junction, CO.How hard could that be?

 The two Cs began plotting.  Flowers seemed appropriate as a gift.  Pictures are always a good idea.  Then we found out that a Shirley Roast was being planned.  Well!  How much better could it get?  This is right up our alley!

Shirley is a good friend, but the two Cs have very active lives (just as Shirley does).  Big C had a Donate Life meeting the morning of the ninth and, thus, scheduled a flight to Denver with a 5 PM arrival.  The plan was that Connie would drive from Colorado Springs to pick up Cora and the two would stay in Lakewood and then drive to Grand Junction on Sunday.  Perfect…no sweat!  We both had to be home on March 12.

Enter Mother Nature and Springtime in the Rockies.  Connie was paying attention to predictions of a large storm moving into the Colorado area over Shirley’s weekend.  Being a California chicken and not fond of driving mountain roads in the snow, she moved into a prevent-defensive mode.  She called Cora to discuss the pending storm and her plan to get over Monument Hill before the snow hit early Saturday, causing icy roads and blowing winds.

“What about coming out a day earlier?  Your plane might not even be able to land on Saturday,” Connie said.

“Tomorrow?  You mean tomorrow?  I don’t know if I can get everything done to do that,” Cora replied.  Cora investigated making a change and Southwest Airlines was very accommodating.  No additional charge.  So travel preparations moved into high gear, neighbors were notified and the cat was taken care of.

The flight was successful with the two Cs meeting up at planned.  There was enough time even to have dinner with Cora’s uncle and his wife who live in Aurora.  It was great timing as Uncle Bev had plans to leave on his father/son trip the following Sunday.  The big storm was still to hit the Denver area and people were making preparations to be sort of shut in for Saturday.

Since it was snowing a great deal on Saturday morning, we elected to stay in our hotel room to work on Shirley’s floral kayak.  Connie had brought all kinds of materials to work with and we began to

Recycling Santa Claus boot leather for the kayak

create a kayak skin around a bowl using pseudo leather, duct tape, staples and spit and polish.  Once the actual shape was put together, Connie strategically placed flowers to create a wonderful floral tribute to Shirley.  Many of Shirley’s likes were contained in this piece…skiing, kayaking,

Taking shape

and teaching.  Of course, there was a little dinosaur to pay homage to the fact that Shirley was now 70.  It was a work of art!

A floral kayak complete with racing stripes

Once that was done, we moved from our hotel in Aurora to our originally scheduled hotel in Lakewood, a town near the foot of the Rockies and where we would take I-70 to get to Grand Junction.  That trek was done slowly but surely since it was still snowing and was very dangerous to be out on the roads with their icy, slushy conditions.  We found a delightful pie/sandwich place where we had lunch, took out food for dinner and then  hunkered down for the night.

Hawkeye’s lookout on Lookout Mountain

We woke up to a winter wonderland filled with beautiful snow and ice.  We enjoyed a great omelet provided by the hotel and then packed up for the big move to Grand Junction.  As was forecast, the sun came out and began to melt the snow off the car and roads, but we still had to be very careful of the ice.  We left about 10 AM to avoid the skiers’ rush and to allow the highways to get plowed and a little less icy.  This might have been a fortuitous move since there was a horrible accident with multiple cars at Lookout Mountain.  The eastbound lanes were complete shut down with a 25-minute delay on the westbound side.  This caused us stress in thinking that the entire journey may be filled with accidents and delays but decided that we had no control over this and to settle back and enjoy the gorgeous views.  Since Connie was driving, Cora was able to espy a deer in a majestic pose that was overlooking the freeway.  The camera wasn’t available for this critter but Cora did get a picture of a big hawk sitting in the top of a tall pine tree that was also near the freeway.  Since Cora was relatively new to pretty snow scenes, she was taking pictures of the snowy mountains and enjoying

An icy waterfall

the ride.  Connie, in the meantime, was driving very carefully and did a great job maneuvering us through some treacherous, dicey roads.

We made a pit stop at Grizzly Creek in Glenwood Canyon, which is a pretty place to stretch the legs and take care of business.  We were both happy to be there since we had both stopped there with our respective husbands many years before and had pleasant memories of this area.  Not much snow was on the ground but there were little “puff balls” of snow sitting

Two chicks at Grizzly Creek

on tree and bush limbs.  They reminded me of cotton bolls.  The snow puffs on the red bud were particularly pretty in our estimation.  We took some fun pictures and eventually pressed on to our destination.  Shirley was awaiting our arrival!

Snow globs on the red bud

The drive over the Continental Divide is so interesting with the many changes in altitude, climate and terrain.  On this day, we went from very snowy conditions to relatively dry and from low to high to low again, all in the span of 5 hours.  We always think about the pioneers who had to traverse these wild lands in their covered wagons and are always glad that we aren’t suffering their same hardships.

Grand Junction greeted us with perfect weather and we found Shirley’s house with no trouble.  Shirley greeted us with hugs and before long, we three amigas were sitting at the table chatting as if no time had passed since we’d seen each other.  IT WAS JUST GREAT!!!!

THE PAR-TAY

Shirley and Barbara

The BIG event was held at Wayne Kennedy’s lovely huge home.  He and Barbara met us at the door and offered us wine and other spirits.  It was

Wayne in his railroad set up

most important that we sample and approve the goods since people had gone out of their way to make a special wine run of the local fare just for us!  We are so difficult to please!

We were introduced to many of Shirley’s friends as we toured the enormous house.  In the basement, Wayne had a large miniature train collection set up, covering a 20 X 15 foot area.  He eagerly showed it off running several trains in opposite directions and throwing switches to avoid disasters, much to our delight.  We had a great time getting acquainted with Shirley’s friends and relatives.  They were all such fun and, obviously, loved Shirley very much.  Cora thought she’d get the long distance prize but, Shirley’s nephew, Steven, won the prize coming from Alaska.  He’s a really nice guy and fun to talk to.

Steven’s arms are tired after his long flight from Anchorage

Cora on Donate Life

A sit down dinner for 17, a catered affair, was quite delicious. As we gathered around the table, Cora was the center of attention and she held her audience in rapt attention, regaling the group with stories and information about Donate Life.  A great chance for her work as an ambassador.

After dinner and Shirley blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, gifts were presented and then the roast began!  Everyone shared funny and

Blow, Shirley, Blow!

touching remembrances of Shirley with Barbara starting the fun.  It’s so nice that people can share these stories BEFORE they are held at someone’s memorial service!  We were pleased with our part in the roast offering insights into Shirley’s past in California through humor, photographs, flowers and song. She took it all in stride and seemed pleased with our Kayak arrangement and even the bouquet of dead flowers, sprayed black in her honor.

Shirley admiring her black bouquet

Connie is amazed to find that the blue tab is a unique type of snow screen

Here, Shirley is trying on some new glasses that fit over her regular glasses.  Connie is amazed to find out that the blue tab is a unique type of snow screen.

Connie related some of the classic RFs we pulled on Shirley when we three were at Fremont Junior High as well as our friendship throughout the

Direct us, Connie!

years.  Some good puns were delivered by Connie, too.  Gullible’s Travel’s was just one.  She also commented that Shirley was so hip that she received three hip replacements!  Cora is wondering if she is directing the crowd in song or exhorting Shirley to begin RFing GJ friends in this picture.→

Cora also got into the act with some surfing, hiking and teaching stories.  She also shared some Shirley pictures from years past.  As was stated above, Shirley surely was a good sport about all this.

It was a delightful experience to help Shirley usher in another decade and celebrate her person, for Shirley is truly one of a kind, a loyal friend but one who tells it as it is.

The Tres Amigas are a force to be reckoned with

We are truly blessed to have Shirley in our lives and to help make us what we are today.

The three of us spent the next morning together gabbing and also discussing Shirley’s pending trip to the Czech Republic in May.  She’s going on a small group tour that will be a circle tour of the country, seeing many sights that large tours might not get to see.  She’s also hoping to learn more about her Bohemian roots in that part of the world.  What an exciting trip!  Have fun, Shirley!

Checking Czech notes

All too soon, Connie and Cora had to head back over the Continental Divide to the Denver area.  The weather was improving and we had heard the weather would be good all the way.  Again, it’s springtime in the Rockies.  We ran into snow near Vale and it continued all the way to Lakewood where we were staying for the night.

About midnight, Cora heard a high-pitched, incessant noise in the hall.  She finally got so irritated that she poked her head out the door to give the devil to whomever was making the noise.  Much to her surprise, there was no kid, but rather a fireman who said, “The building’s on fire.  You might want to leave.”  He was so calm about his statement that Cora was not terribly alarmed (plus she didn’t see any flames or much smoke).  She got Connie up and, together, they dressed, packed up and took their belongings out to the car to await the fate of the hotel.  Come to find out, someone had run through the hall with a fire extinguisher turned on, creating an irritating, smoky atmosphere.  There never was a fire, but

Our friend, Dick Schmidt, said this is the real reason for the alarm

someone reported it as such and four fire engines and a couple of EMT trucks arrived on the scene.  Eventually, we were allowed back into the building but were hyped up that we couldn’t go back to sleep for a while.  Never a dull moment, it seems.

That afternoon, Cora was winging her way back to LAX and Connie was driving back to Colorado Springs to prepare for her hula lesson, which she missed because she forgot about the time change and that her clocks hadn’t been reset.  Oops.

Thank you all for a fantastic weekend that will be in our collective memories forever.

Kate Summer practicing her leg lifts. All she needs is a tutu.

Meet little Kate, my newest great niece who, in this picture, is just a week shy of being six months old.  I am sure she is going to be a ballet dancer as she loves to kick her legs and practice her flexibility.  She has quite a personality and uses her smile and pretty blue eyes to get attention.  She doesn’t fuss much except when she’s hungry or needs to be changed…and even then she’s not a holy terror.

Kate’s daddy, Michael, plays baseball for the Dutch National Baseball Team and was in Phoenix/Scottsdale area for spring practice and to try out for the Dutch World Baseball Team. (He did make the team and is now in Taiwan awaiting the opening game on March 2.  They will be playing South Korea).  Floor (Michael’s wife) with her Aunt, Jolanda and Uncle Reinier flew out  to enjoy some sun as well as catch some games and good bargains at the outlet stores.

It wasn’t long after I arrived that we all piled into a rented van and drove to the San Francisco Giants’ training facility (I believe Michael said this was where the Giants minor leaguers train) to watch Michael’s team play the Paradise Valley College team.  The Dutch won handily and looked with their hitting and fielding.  It reminded me of old times when Bob and I would go to the Cypress College games to watch Michael play.

Michael and me after defeating Paradise Valley College

Michael Floor and Kate on Valentine’s Day, 2013.  Kate’s first Valentine’s!

The Dutch team usually eats together to help maintain togetherness and camaraderie, but Michael got special permission to be with us for dinner.  Being as how it was Valentine’s Day, there were no nice restaurants with no or small lines, so we just took In and Out burgers home to enjoy at our leisure.  They weren’t the best In and Out that I’ve had, but it was fun being together.  I felt really special to be included with their family time in Phoenix.  It meant very much to me.

Michael didn’t have a game the next day but had to train with the team.  So we decided to go tour the Arizona State University campus in Tempe.  It’s a large

A few of the palms on Palm Walk

campus with even a Metro line type train that takes students (and I suppose the public) around campus and perhaps to points beyond.  We didn’t ride it, so I don’t know where it goes.  But we did walk around the campus to enjoy a most gorgeous day.  There was some wind, but it was sunny and warming up from previous days.  There are some older buildings from when the campus was begun to much more modern buildings with some still under construction.  ASU is well known for its Palm Walk, a wide promenade with tall palm trees on either side of it.  I thought it was pretty impressive but I particularly liked the sun behind one of the palms that was swaying in the breeze.  As with all campuses, there are a lot of flyers stapled or taped on kiosks and we kept seeing one that had a horse’s head on it.  We didn’t understand the gist of it (and still don’t), but we did see some guys walking around campus, handing out flyers with not only the horse’s head, but a monkey’s head too.  I hope it was a successful even, whatever it was.

Isn’t there a book about a Pale White Horse? I don’t know about a red-shirted monkey.

From the ASU campus, we drove over to Glendale to some outlet stores and enjoyed doing some shopping.  Reinier was telling me that stuff is so much cheaper here, even though we might think it’s expensive.  Holland has much stiffer taxes than we do and also has a value-added tax that really ends up socking it to the consumer.  So while he was here, he stocked up on Levi’s, polo shirts and other apparel.  I think I would do the same, given the same situation.

Kate and Aunt Cora having a discussion about Aunt Cora’s delicious finger

One morning I got to watch Kate while Floor was taking a shower.  This is not one of my normal activities and was a little apprehensive but since Floor was close by, I thought Kate would be safe.  We had a good time together while we chatted about the day.  Me in English and her in baby babble.  We understood each other exactly.  She became fascinated with one of my fingers and kept sticking it in her mouth as is evidenced by the following photo.  She has a good grip for such a little tyke.

That afternoon we went to Peoria where the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres have conjoined training facilities with a nice stadium for their

Kate checking out her shades

minor league teams to play in during their season.  I thought the fields looked very nice and Michael said they were nice to play on.  The stands even had shade over them which is a nice luxury in many ball parks.  It was a very bright, sunny day and, of course, no fashionista would be without her shades.

The Dutch were playing the Chinese who weren’t very good but I loved watching all the runs score even if a few errors were made.  I think the final score was 14 to 1.  There was no score board available and we had to rely upon two little leaguers who were keeping track.  They were two boys from Washington who were visiting their aunt and were quite knowledgeable. I enjoyed hearing their conversation with their aunt who was teaching them some of the finer points of the game.

Intent on the game…bringing the Dutch some Irish luck

Michael played in the 2009 World Baseball Classic and was nice enough to give me one of his jerseys.  I wore it to this game and it made somewhat of a stir with some folks in the audience.  I thought it was a kick and was very proud to wear it.

Aunt Cora and the proud daddy

Batgirl

Michael had to ride back to Scottsdale with the team and we stopped to check out the Peoria stadium entrance.  They have huge baseballs lining paths and the gates.  Of course we had to get our pictures taken in front of the stadium by the baseballs.

Jolanda, Kate, Floor and Aunt Cora at Peoria Stadium

It was Reinier’s 50th birthday a day after we all were going back to our respective homes and we felt we had to celebrate all together in our Phoenix house.  We stopped at a Cheesecake Factory to get each person a favorite flavor and then zoomed over to pick up Michael at the Scottsdale training facility.  We decided to get some pizza to eat at home so as to let Kate stay on sort of a normal schedule.  Reinier dropped us all off at the house and then went out to search for pizza.  He programmed “take out pizza” into the GPS and ended up with a Papa Murphy’s pizza, not knowing that it’s not cooked at the store.  It’s a take and bake.  He was not a happy camper as he’d never heard of such a thing, but it all worked out ok and the pizza tasted good.  Jolanda surprised him with a 50 candle and we celebrated with the cheesecake for dessert.  A good time was had by all!

Happy Birthday, Reinier!

Remember how I told you that Kate was practicing her leg lifts?  Well, it seems that she was also practicing her agility and that night she demonstrated to Michael that she could put her big toe in her mouth!  Michael was excited that she could do that and was quite proud that she was so flexible!  It might be several years before she puts her foot in her mouth with regularity (like her Aunt Cora)

This tastes good!

Sunset over the Phoenix Canal with Camelback Mountain in the background

Alas, all good things must come to an end and we all had to go home.  Floor had to go back to work and Jolanda and Reinier had to get back to Delft to their 5 star Hotel de Ark (where Bob and I stayed for Michael and Floor’s wedding).  We all cleaned the house and packed and then went our respective ways.  Michael was practicing with the team when we left and had two more days before he would find out that he was going to Taiwan.  Reinier took one last shot of the happy housemates in front of our house just prior to me leaving.

The happy team

It was very exciting for me to be able to join the kids and Jolanda and Reinier in Phoenix even if it was only for a few days.  We had a good time and had a chance to get reacquainted plus have new experiences together.  They are all such fine people and make one feel at home.  It’s just great to have relatives such as these.  Thank you, Floor, Michael, Kate, Jolanda and Reinier!

Welcome sign on the way to Temple Bar.

February first saw me zooming toward Las Vegas and points beyond to visit my college buddy, Gale, at Temple Bar, AZ.  I told everybody I was going to Lake Mead because no one (including me) had heard of Temple Bar.  The National Park Service says that Lake Mead is just minutes from Las Vegas.  I guess that is true if one is going only to Hoover Dam.  It’s another 45 miles to Temple Bar from Hoover Dam!  So Gale is basically out away from the hustle and bustle of ANYWHERE in her neat campground.  I should point out that Gale works as a camp volunteer picking up trash, weeding, making rock borders or other chores that need to be done around the 150 campsites and, for that effort, she gets free hookups for her trailer.  This is a pretty good deal since there are not many people at the campground and she’s worked hard to get the place looking nice.  So now she can pick and choose her time to work as the volunteer.

This rock formation is known as The Temple and was a landmark for early travelers on the Colorado River. It was probably named by an early Mormon settler, Daniel Bonelli.  Bonelli Peak is in the background.  I never got a great picture of it.  Hence, the picture from a sign.

Let me tell you about Temple Bar.  It’s located in the Temple Basin on the Arizona side of

The marina and The Temple in the background

eastern Lake Mead.  It’s the closest marina for Arizonans who want to get away from the more populated Boulder Basin area of Lake Mead.  The area around Temple Bar Marina is especially well known for two things:  the massive rock formation that gave the area its name and its 20 mile long unobstructed water-ski runs that attract people during the summer months.  People also do a lot of fishing and kayaking around the area.

Gale has a nice 24′ trailer that provides ample room to eat, sleep and take care of daily ablutions. A nice fire pit is provided by the camp and we enjoyed several campfires with wood that Gale brought from home and scrounged from around the campsites. When I arrived, Linda and Gene, two Montana neighbors, were parked next to her and we had great conversations during campfires.  Linda and Gene left a couple of days after I arrived to wend their way farther down the Colorado River to Katherine Landing.

A group of 6 fishermen from Idaho and other areas camped a few campsites from us.  They had obviously done this before as they had their camp set up in about 20 minutes with even a 10 x 15 cooking/card playing tent, a sleeping tent and then two truck campers to work with.  Anyway, they set up their stuff and hauled their 2 boats down to the lake to try their luck.  I don’t know how many fish they caught, I think they didn’t much care.  They seemed to be quite interested in quaffing beer and probably many spirits.  They, too, had a campfire that they started by piling the wood into the pit and pouring gas on it.  Then the flames would roar upward in a dangerous manner.  The last night I was there, we could hear them snoring in their campers!  I’m glad that I wasn’t in the same room with them.

Two young men showed up one night in  Jucy van.  I think Jucy was a brand name for a neat camping set up.  The van was equipped similarly to a tear drop trailer with a small stove, fridge, storage and what not in the rear part.  A person could sleep in an area behind the driver and there was a popup tent type affair on top of the van for another sleeping area.  Really, a very handy and a neat idea.

Gregg’s Hideout – isolated, huh?

Gale took me on a long drive to a place called Gregg’s Hideout which is located in an easterly direction from Temple Bar.  It would be a good place

Gale’s testing the barrel cactus stickers. Note Sissy’s (the dog) markings.  More about her later

for a hideout because the only access is by dirt road…some of which were pretty rugged.  I was glad that Gale drove her 4 wheel drive truck because my car would have bottomed out in about the first mile. It was a great drive as we explored some old camping sites that people might have used for cattle round ups, maybe small attempts at farming or even some mining.  We didn’t find anything exciting but we speculated on the stories that the land could tell.  As our altitude ascended and descended, we could see good stands of Joshua trees (that only grow in certain climes and altitudes), lots of barrel cactus, chaparral and mesquite.  I was wishing that I knew more about rocks as we saw many different types of stones, rocks and boulders that contained so many colors, layers and designs (for lack of a better word).

The road to Gregg’s was rough but pretty in its own way.  There is a lot of beauty in the desert…you just have to take the time to check it out closely.

Sissy was mistreated by earlier owners. Butu she’s blossomed under Gale’s tutelage

Sissy, Gale’s dog, is half blue-heeler and half beagle.  Quite a combination that made for a well behaved and pretty dog.  I was quite taken with Sissy and had fun throwing her frisbee for her.

Waiting for someone to throw the frisbee

We went to explore that engineering marvel, the Hoover Dam, and took an hour long tour that afforded us a chance to see things the average person doesn’t get to see.  We got to walk in a ventilator shaft

Ventilator shaft from which we took pictures

from which we could take pictures, experience the coolness of tunnels inside the vast dam,  see marks on the walls that engineers used to get things just right and some graffiti from dam workers.  Hoover Dam is 726 feet high and contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete.  This massive project was begun in 1931 and the last concrete was poured in 1935…two years ahead of schedule and well under budget!  (Can you imagine a comparable project finishing like that today?)  Lake Mead is formed by Hoover Dam and has a shoreline of 550 miles.  When full, its length is 110 miles.  Sadly, it is not full now, primarily because of an increasing need for water throughout the Southwest, drought and poor snow falls.  When Gale and I were at Gregg’s Hideout, we could see a waterline that appeared to be at least 90 feet above where we were.  The low water level can be seen from the air and ground.  I liken it to a bathtub ring

Taken from the ventilator shaft. Black Canyon and the Colorado River are below

You can see the bathtub ring around the edge of the lake

The main highway used to go right over the dam, but the traffic got so bad and since 9/11, the authorities have gotten pretty schiztzy about cars on

The dam shot of Gale and me. The ventilator shaft was about halfway up the face of the dam

the dam.  So a bypass was built resulting in the beautiful bridge over the river.  Here is the official description of it.  “The Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (Colorado River Bridge) is the central portion of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project. Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge (with a 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch) began in late January 2005 and traffic began using the Hoover Dam Bypass on October 19, 2010.  This signature bridge spans the Black Canyon (about 1,500 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River.”  It’s a beautiful bridge, but you can’t see any view while driving across because of high medians and curbs.  One can walk in special lanes however.  I didn’t because I was leery of the height.  Just as we were leaving the dam area, we espied a small herd of bighorn sheep in a ravine.  They are majestic animals but they didn’t get close enough for a good photo op.  Anyway, they increased our total of bighorn sightings to 16.

After the dam tour, we took a side trip into Henderson to introduce Gale to Trader Joe’s.  They don’t have anything like this store in Montana and she was delighted to check it out.  We had a feast that night because of her purchases.

My last day there, we drove to Willow Beach, a nice campsite for tents and trailers (but with no shade, unlike Gale’s place with lots of trees) and a nice beach.  It’s below Hoover Dam a few miles.  Sissy was excited because she got to chase some mallards and even go for a swim in the cold water (about 55 degrees or less).  We had a nice picnic lunch and watched the river flow by for a while.  A mallard tickled us when he would cock his head, lean to the left and sit that way for several minutes.  Then he would cock his head, lean to the right and, again, sit that way for several minutes.  We never did figure out why he did this.  My friend, Dick, suggested he was posing for the lady mallards.  Who knows?

Lean to the left

Lean to the right. A pose for the ladies?

Horsing around at Willow Beach

A dirt road going west from our road back to Temple Bar beckoned us that afternoon.  A sign said “Wilderness Area” and we thought that sounded like a good adventure.  The “road” climbed steadily for a couple of miles before it ended in a small parking lot.  I put “road” in quotes because Gale had to use her 4 wheel drive in a few sections that had been washed out and it was pretty rough for a bit.  A hiking trail led to the Mt. Wilson wilderness Area from that little parking lot.  But the real reward was when we turned around to look at the road below us.  It was pretty clear and we could see for what seemed like forever.  I’m pretty sure we were looking at the White Hills, the Grand Wash Cliffs and points beyond.  We were never able to figure out if we could actually see the southern end of the Grand Canyon, but I would like to think we could.  If not, I think we could see almost to the end of it.  Whatever, the hills and mountains were multihued just as they are in the Canyon.

Wilderness Road with hills and mountains in the background

As we neared our camp, the sun was finally at my back and I could get a fairly decent picture of The Temple and a bit of the road into the camp.  I was fascinated with The Temple and how its appearance changed with the different light.  I would have liked to get up close and personal to it but didn’t have access to a boat.  Besides that, the water was pretty cold and I would not have liked to take a bath in it.

The Temple

Temple Bar and its environs was an adventure that I really enjoyed…its distinct beauty, the stars, the silence (no TVs, few planes, no traffic noise etc.), the opportunity to learn many new things and being together with Gale and remembering old times while having new good times.  I thank Gale for inviting me out to visit her little kingdom at Temple Bar and sharing it with me.  It was fun!

Here’s looking at you, kid!

There are several pictures in this tome that will look a lot better if you click on the photo to view it in a larger format.

Off we went to Atlanta, Georgia, via Southwest Airlines on September 24, 2012.  Who knew they flew nonstop across the entire country?  We enjoyed the flight with lots of legroom and not having to pay extra for it.

Upon arrival we immediately set off for Stone Mountain, the first leg of our adventure.  It is the largest body of exposed granite in the world and has become Georgia’s largest campground and most

Stone Mountain is bowl shaped rather than craggy snd is very distincting from a distance.

visited attraction.  Entertainment and recreational activities abound but we were there primarily to see the “mountain” with its marvelous carving.  (1,686’ high.  I don’t mean to demean Georgians, but this elevation hardly merits the nomenclature of mountain to a Westerner) It is the largest bas relief sculpture in the world, the “Confederate Memorial”  depicts President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson. The entire carved surface measures 3 acres.  The carving of the three men towers 400’ above the ground, measures 90 by 190’, and is recessed 42’ into the mountain.  It is truly impressive even though it seems small relatively speaking to the actual Stone Mountain granite dome.  We hiked

Two babes horsing around

around a bit and saw not only the sculpture, but lakes, a covered bridge, a museum and lots of friendly people taking their daily constitutional.  Lots of people enjoy Georgia’s outdoor areas in which to exercise.

An aside here.  I found Georgia’s people to be extremely friendly and extraordinarily polite.  Nobody calls me ma’am in California and that was the standard in Georgia.  It was very refreshing and unexpected.

After satisfying our Confederate Memorial curiosity, we drove on south to Macon near the geographic center of Georgia.  It was also Georgia’s capital during the last two years of the Civil War.  A couple of things struck me as we zoomed down I-75.  One is how green Georgia is with what seems like jillions of trees lining all the roads.   They make the state so beautiful.  We seemed to pass many lakes, large and small, on the trip.  We just don’t see that in Southern California.

Another point is the number of counties in Georgia.  We seemed to pass through one about every 5 minutes and Jerri had warned me about this fact.  Come to find out, Georgia has 159 counties!  There is a lot of history involved with this big number, which I won’t go into here.   I just hope Georgia’s students don’t have to memorize all of the counties!

Checking out Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, GA

I really liked Macon.  It’s a pretty town set next to the Ocmulgee River (pronounced with a soft g) with many beautiful antebellum mansions.  The people were very friendly and spoke with a bit more southern accent than did folks in Atlanta.  Jerri told me it would be much more pronounced as we moved south and east.  She was right.

Jerri loves visiting cemeteries and we went to two in Macon…the Riverside and Rose Hill.  Both of these places dated from just before The War and are still being used, although Rose Hill was very unkempt and spooky.  Civil War soldiers as well as Duane Allman and Berry Oakley (rock and roll stars) are buried here.

The Ocmulgee National Monument was very interesting to me.   It houses some of the most impressive American Indian mounds and archeological

The entry tunnel was about 20′ into the Ocmulgee Mound

remains in the Southeast.  People were known to have lived in the area from around 10,000 B.C. through the early 19^th century.  Over 700 acres have been preserved in this monument and one can walk on trails to visit a reconstructed earth lodge, other large mounds, as well as where some Civil War skirmishes were fought…although only one Macon house was damaged by cannonball fire during the war.

We thought the Cannonball House was a cannon museum and weren’t interested in seeing it, but learned it was so named because it was the only

house damaged by the war.   The damage was slight, but certainly is a tourist attraction!  This 1853 Greek Revival-style house not only housed

We really enjoyed the tour of the Cannonball House

Judge Asa Holt, well to do plantation owner, it housed meeting parlors for the Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu societies, which were founded in Macon.

We didn’t get to tour the Hay House, but took pictures of it.  What a mansion!  It was built in 1855-59 a la Italian Renaissance Revival and sported 24 rooms as well as a plumbing system with hot and cold running water in several INDOOR bathrooms!  I wish we could have seen this interesting place.  But here is a picture of the entrance.

We were told this house had 8 stories. We could only figure out 7. But what the Hay, let them decide what is a story.

Jerri discovered several streets lined with these beautiful mansions and we took pictures of many of them, but alas, tours were not available for most of them.  They are still regular houses and are being used in every day life.

It just took a couple of hours to drive to Savannah but we could begin to see a bit of a change in the climate…such as Spanish moss hanging from the trees.  Savannah is located beside the navigable Savannah River (Our hotel was less than 50 yards from the river and a container ship blew its horn about 1 AM one night and sounded like it was in bed with us!) and was founded by General James Oglethorpe in 1733, the last English colony.

Oglethorpe (and Col. William Bull) eschewed the usual village grid system and laid out Savannah in a series of wards in which commercial and residential buildings were centered on public squares.  Originally, cannon facing south were set in these squares as part of a defense system against the Spanish who were in Florida.  Today 22 of the original 24 squares survive, lined with handsome houses and bedecked with fountains and statues.   I’m sure a lot of dedicated people worked hard to maintain the historic district against rich developers who would have transformed Savannah into another run of the mill city.  Jerri and I walked to many of the squares and marveled at how gorgeous the landscaping is.  It just made us feel like we had been transported back to antebellum days (without all the inconveniences of that day)

Historical monument. Jerri worked here in ’72 and ’73!

Jerri and Allan lived in the Savannah area while he was in the military in 1972-3 and she was excited to see where she worked and show me the places they lived.  We found her work place, which is now abandoned and since it’s in the historic district probably going to be redeveloped for something historic.  It is apparent that the phone company does not operate it anymore.  She worked on the 3^rd floor and then moved to the 2^nd floor.  When we went to find their homes, it was as if they’d fallen off the face of the earth.  Roads were widened, addresses changed, landmarks changed and they just weren’t there.  Stuff happens in 40 years!

This was our first dinner in Savannah.  A nice pulled pork barbque wrap filled with coleslaw at the Moon River Brewery on Bay Street. Sweet potato

Good grub at the Moon River Brewery!

fries were the side dish.  Yum! What a feast it was!  We wished that we’d split one as neither one of us could finish it.  Pubs or neighborhood diners are our favorites as they tend to have really good food for good prices plus the service people tend to be friendlier.

We discovered a branch office for Phillip Marlowe in Savannah even though he’s supposed to be in LA.  Who knew?

Phil’s branch office

Spanish moss is all over the place in Savannah. Pretty to look at but not nice to take home in your car. Jerri says there are many bugs in the stuff.

The Spanish moss hanging from the trees really intrigued me and I took way too many pictures of it.  But it seemed so photogenic, eerie and spooky!   This picture was taken on our ghost tour, which made it all the more eerie.

We found the Forsyth (pronounced Fore-sith) Fountain at the far end of our long walk on Bull Street.  It sits at one end of the very large and well

Forsyth Fountain features mermen in lieu of mermaids!

used Forsyth Park.   Its popularity today is reflected in the fact that many weddings take place there as well as many other special occasions.   I can’t remember its entire history, but suffice to say that it is very old – 1858.   We learned on our ghost tour that at the peak of a yellow fever plague, a tunnel was dug from the nearby Candler Hospital to an area under the fountain where a large morgue was set up.  It seems that the city fathers didn’t want the populace to know how many people had died of the fever.  I looked it up and this appears to be a true statement.

We also toured the Sorrell-Weed House just a few blocks from Forsyth Park and found it pretty neat too.  As most places in historic Savannah, it’s supposed to be haunted because the wife of the owner flung herself off a balcony upon learning of her husband’s infidelity.   We didn’t see any ghosts or any orbs.  Dang!  It would be so cool and scary to do so.

Button Gwinnett

All during our trip, Jerri had been pointing out street names, towns and what not that were named for someone of historical significance in Georgia history.  I was impressed that she knew so much because she was in Georgia only 2 years while Allan was in the military.   She had mentioned a guy named Button Gwinnett, who, it turns out, was a signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and wrote the first draft of the Georgia constitution. (Another aside here from Wikipedia: Studies usually suggest an example of an original Gwinnett signature would be valued only behind the likes of Julius Caesar and William Shakespeare, making Gwinnett’s, by far, the most valuable American autograph.  Its extraordinarily high value is a result of a combination of the desire by many top collectors to acquire a complete set of autographs by all 56 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the extreme rarity of the Gwinnett signature; there are 51 known examples, since Gwinnett was fairly obscure prior to signing the Declaration and died shortly afterward.)  So he was an important and prosperous dude in Georgia and many things are named after him.

While we were on our long walk on Bull Street, we crossed W. Gwinnett Street.  I asked Jerri if Gwinnett’s name was William and was his nickname Button…whereupon she went into hysterical laughter saying that his real name was Button and the W. was for West!   She did not let me forget that faux pas for the rest of the trip.  Believe me, we saw many more references to Mr. Gwinnett while on our adventure and much laughter ensued after each sighting.

A small portion of the Bonaventure Cemetery

After many recalculations with the GPS, we spent part of that morning at the large Bonaventure Cemetery, a former plantation that overlooks the pretty Wilmington River.  I don’t know what happened to the plantation but it has been a cemetery since the mid-19^th century.  With really old live oaks, a lot of Spanish moss and many of the graves incorporating beautiful statues and ornate carvings, this place was eerie even in the daytime.  I think I would have been too scared to take a ghost tour there at night.   I’m sure we would have seen lots of orbs or even ghostly presentations on such a tour.  I took a lot of pictures here but none convey the spookiness I felt there.   Jerri and I both would not have wanted to be a woman wearing the regular 8 layers of black widow’s weeds during the 1800s.  We probably would have swooned from the heat and humidity.  It was hot enough wearing our contemporary togs.

Fort Pulaski was sort of near the Bonaventure Cemetery and we drove out to Cockspur Island to see this national monument at the mouth of the

Fort Pulaski interior looking at cannon bays

Savannah River.  I thought it was a pretty neat edifice with its own moat, a cool drawbridge and 7 foot thick brick walls.  But I learned that while it was formidable in the time it was built, it marked a turning point in military history.  Union forces on nearby Tybee Island used rifled cannons and bombarded Pulaski, ruining one of its sides.  The 1862 battle clearly demonstrated the power, range and accuracy of rifled cannon and signaled the end of masonry fortifications.  We had an excellent tour guide who took us around to the cannon galleries and explained how the cannons were moved, loaded and how cannon balls were heated and shot at the enemy. (They shot red-hot cannon balls at ships in the river in hopes of setting them on fire.)  The fort is very well preserved and one can get an idea of how things were done during the Civil War in a fort such as this.   This next picture is a duplicate of one taken 40 years ago when Jerri and Allan visited Fort Pulaski.

Jerri and the cannon. You can see some of the damage done by Union cannon

While living in Georgia, Jerri and Allan lived near Ft. Hunter and Ft. Stewart.  She wanted to show me where they lived and how different it was from little old Orange County. Well, I could tell things

Fort Stewart HQ

had been and are different from the OC…so rural, lots of trees, a few cotton fields and some swampy land with many trees.  Even though we couldn’t find their place in Hinesville, we were able to drive onto Ft. Stewart and saw many changes there.   This picture is of the headquarters, which was a big white building in 1972.

We also visited Fort McAllister, a Confederate earthwork fortification, on a bank of the Great Ogeechee River.   It was interesting to see how the earth was pushed around to protect the personnel as well as allowing the cannons a way to shoot at the enemy.  The soldiers also used pointed stakes pounded at an angle into the ground around the fort for extra protection.

As soon as we got to Savannah, we scheduled a ghost tour in anticipation of seeing the city at its haunted best.  Needless to say, we were sorely disappointed when it was canceled as we’d rearranged our schedule to meet theirs.  We found another company, booked with them and then discovered it was the one I had originally wanted to go with.  I had erred with the name of the company.  So all worked out well.

No orbs at the Candler. What a bummer.

Christopher Thomas was our guide and he was excellent in creating the mood and telling the stories of Savannah and the buildings we visited. From Christopher, we learned that many of the people who lived on Jones Street were well-to-do and were often trend setters.  People wanted to be like them and thus, the saying arose, “Keeping up with the Joneses.”  We learned many stories that night, too many to recount here, but suffice to say, we were well entertained.  We visited the Mercer-Williams house where events central to the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil took place.   This 1860 mansion was built for Gen. Hugh w. Mercer, great-grandfather of singer and songwriter, Johnny Mercer.

The Mercer House

When we decided to go to Georgia, Jerri really wanted to eat at Paula Deen’s restaurant, but when we went by it, there was a line ‘clear ‘round the block of folks waiting to get in.  She said forget it.  She had more important things to do than wait in line.

Georgia, the greeter squirrel

The morning after the ghost walk, we drove on down the road to the Okefenokee Swamp.  What a fun place!  However, it’s another area that I wouldn’t like to be alone at night.  Creatures and critters were all over the place.  Oddly enough, mosquitoes don’ t live in the swamp because they don’t like the tannic acid in the water (it looks like very strong tea).  Jerri found that there were other biting bugs, though, as she got bit on her legs and feet.  We took a little train ride and then a boat ride through part of the swamp.  We saw many plants that the Cherokee and Creek Indians used for medicine and general living as well as trees used for lumber and also some ‘gators.  We met little Georgia, a squirrel, that met our train and posed for pictures before she bounced off with the train engineer to get some pecans for treats.

This is one of the big guys who was running around wild in the swamp. Don’t want to mess with him.

This 7 legged spider measured at least 3 maybe 4 inches. I would not have liked to walk into its web. Eewww!

Mirror Lake was so reflective and pretty.

We headed to a little town named Americus after the swamp.  The highway was pretty and lined with many trees and then Glenda (the GPS) directed us to turn off on a little byway of a road.  We thought that was strange, but Georgia doesn’t have particularly good signage, plus the ones they do have are small in print.  Even glasses don’t help.  Anyway, we zoomed on going over small hill and dale and did get to see a large deer bounding across the road.  After about twenty miles, we came back to the original highway and then went straight to our hotel.  Bizarre, but if we hadn’t taken that road, we wouldn’t have seen the deer (although I must admit that I was getting a tad nervous after 20 minutes of the beautiful road we were on).  The clerk at the hotel said that misdirection happens all the time.  Must be a glitch in the system.

Our hotel was called the Windsor and is called the crown jewel of Southwest Georgia.  It was built in 1892 and even had a tower, a turret and a three-story atrium-lobby with balconies.  It was gorgeous and all for $103 per night!  It even had a pub in which we ate our dinner and an upstairs porch complete with rocking chairs that we sat in after dinner.  Couldn’t ask for more.  President and Mrs. Carter presided at the grand re-opening in 2010 and we reaped the benefits of that remodeling.  We loved the hotel (which is also supposed to be haunted, but we missed the ghost).

Windsor Hotel. Our room was under the big tower

Jimmy Carter is big in this part of Georgia and we decided to visit Plains, which was just a few miles from Americus.   We recalculated a few times(due to missing some signs) before we arrived in Plains , grand population of 779.   The entire downtown is pictured below.  Billy Carter’s Gas Station is a stone’s throw across the railroad tracks.

Downtown Plains, GA

Plains has a very nice Jimmy Carter Museum that is housed in the old high school he and Rosylynn attended.  There is a replica of his presidential desk in the Oval Office and Jerri and I took full advantage of it, playing with multiple exposures of delayed picture taking or whatever that function is called on the camera.  For a few seconds we were the Prez.  The ranger must have been laughing at us while we were playing around with the photos.

The Prez and VP

The Plain Peanut (where we saw a sign they served peanut butter ice cream…and after all it is Plains, GA, sort of a peanut capital) was closed when we got there and so we drove on out to Jimmy’s boyhood farm to see what is there.  We encountered no one else but an extremely friendly Siamese cat who just wanted to be skritched and get lots of attention.   He was obviously well cared for and we couldn’t figure out where he came from.  Perhaps he just liked tourists and enjoyed being the host.  We toured Jimmy’s farm house and the grounds and got some good pictures of a good looking rooster.  You could tell he was king of the ol’ bucket.  I hope he wasn’t destined to be in the bucket soon.

King of the bucket

Loving the attention

We buzzed back to downtown Plains to the Plain Peanut and enjoyed the ice cream, lots of different peanuts and some good conversation with the proprietress.  I think she sold us a lot more peanuts with her down home hospitality than she would have by just saying “hi” as we entered the store.  It was a fun lunch.

From there, we went to Andersonville (aka Camp Sumter), the scourge of prison camps during the Civil War.  The beauty of the place today belies the hell on earth that it was almost 150 years ago.  In the space of about 26 ½ acres, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined here, 13,000 of who died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding or exposure.  These terrible conditions were the result of the Confederate government being handicapped by a deteriorating economy, inadequate transportation and the need to concentrate all available resources on its army.  The prisoners lost out.

Andersonville was not a pretty place during its existence.

The prisoners were confined in a 15’ high stockade with an inner line about 19’ inside the wall called the “deadline,” which prisoners were forbidden to cross upon pain of death.  I think this is where the word “deadline” came into our language.  Jerri and I were also told that soldiers in that war each carried half of a tent that, when put together, was called the “whole shebang.”  That is supposed to be where we got that expression in our language but I am not able to substantiate that claim.  I like that explanation so I’m going to count it as real.  (Another aside:  Our dad told us that when he was in the army in WWII, guys would carry half of a tent and then put it together to make a tent for 2 people.  He never mentioned the “whole shebang,” however.)

It started to rain and then pour while we were there so our pictures did not turn out as well as we would have liked.  It’s neat and green and beautiful today, not giving much hint of what happened there (except for signs and some examples of the stockade and deadline) in just 14 months.  The National Prisoner of War Museum is also housed on those grounds and provides insight of POWs’ ordeals throughout the nation’s history.  Our visit there was tempered by the solemnity of the site, but buoyed up a bit with its beauty.

Jerri had wanted to see some big plantations, but it never worked out to see the “ideal” one with the long, oak lined driveway and huge house with a few out buildings.  A sort of a last chance deal, we

Stately Oaks was arrayed with mourning shrouds due to the death of a prominent volunteer.

zoomed through some real byways to finally arrive at Stately Oaks plantation in Jonesboro, a small suburb of Atlanta.  Even though it was not the “ideal” plantation, this turned out to be a real treat!

It is an 1839 Greek Revival plantation house furnished with antiques of the antebellum era with out buildings that include a tenant house, a small school, a well house and the original log kitchen.  The tour was very interesting and we found that while Union soldiers were in and around the area and there were battles fought in Jonesboro, Stately Oaks was not destroyed.  Then we found that Margaret Mitchell’s grandfather or perhaps great-grandfather built the place.  She visted there often and asked many questions about the war and what happened while the war was going on.  It is widely assumed that Mitchell used Stately Oaks as the inspiration for her famous Tara Plantation in Gone with the Wind.   Jerri and I always marvel at how things turn out and we often get to see totally cool places/people by happenstance.

We zipped through Atlanta to Kennesaw Mountain, another important Civil War battlefield.   Some very bloody battles were fought for these high points that provided good views for the soldiers and also gun emplacements. This was basically the last major obstacle that Sherman had to defeat before putting Atlanta under siege.  The visitor center provided an informative orientation film and also small exhibit area that really gave some good info about the battles and people in the area.

Since it was raining cats and dogs, we wound our way around some more byways and found Marietta, a town that more well-to-do folks moved to prior to the Civil War seeking the healthier climate of Piedmont Georgia during the summer malaria season.  It was a pretty town surrounded by small hills.  We toured the Marietta Museum of History and saw several galleries documenting the history of Marietta and Cobb County.  They even had on display an old machine that would give perms to ladies (from the 30s).  I thought it looked like an electric Medusa designed to electrocute the unfortunate lady.  It was a pretty thorough display of local odd and ends.

A picture of The General during a commemorative trip.

We also made time to visit the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in the town of Kennesaw.  This is a Smithsonian affiliate that focuses on the history of Georgia railroads during and after the Civil War and has some great exhibits.  Several of the exhibits tell the story of “The General” which was stolen during an incident known as “The Great Locomotive Chase.”  You may have seen the movies made by Buster Keaton in 1926 and Fess Parker in the ‘50s of the same name.  It is quite a story and lends itself to a movie very well.  The real General is right there in that museum.  It was fun to see.

The rain caused us to wind our way around again and again due to crummy street signs and misunderstandings with local instructions and/or Glenda, but we eventually arrived at our hotel and then to a recommended restaurant.  The next morning was still damp, but we went back to Kennesaw Mountain to get to the lookout to see what was supposed to be a great view.   And it was!  Despite there still being clouds in the area, we could see Stone Mountain and Atlanta, both more than 20 miles away.  That was pretty exciting for a Southern California kid.  Stone Mountain is the bump on the left and Atlanta is the skyline on the right.

Not real clear, but one could still see almost 30 miles in the distance.

Since the weather was iffy and we’d about done enough Civil War stuff, we decided to spend our last afternoon in Atlanta at the World of Coke and the CNN office building.  I wasn’t real excited about driving in Atlanta, given the trouble we’d had with street signs and all, but we managed to home in to the correct parking structure and have a great afternoon.

The bear and friends

The World of Coke was very well done and a lot of fun, but I think I was tired and thought parts of it were too loud.  We went through assorted “rooms” and learned the history of Coke, how it began and how the company evolved into what it is today.  One of the rooms had a lot of commercials for Coke from all over the world.  How weird it is to enjoy watching commercials?  But one of my favorites is the one where a lot of people from around the world sing “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke…”  We got to take our picture with the Coke polar bear and also with Mr. Pemberton, the guy who invented Coke.  One of the rooms had a ton of memorabilia from around the world as well as specific Coke bottles from Nevada and California.  We both got to hold an Olympic torch from the 1996 Atlanta games.  It was a lot heavier than I had expected and I don’t think I could have run with it very far in the torch relay.  There was a small bottling room so that we could see basic process of how Coke gets into bottles.  The bottles went out on a conveyor of sorts into the tasting room.  The pentultimate room was a tasting room that was sectioned off into continents.

The tasting room

There were 64 Coke products from the various continents and we could taste as many or few as we wished.  There was no Coke as that formula is the same around the world, but other flavors were available.  Some were too sweet, too bitter and none seemed just right.  (I sound like Goldilocks, huh?)  Funny thing about the tasting room picture.  There were people milling about, tasting, discussing and tasting again and I happened to get a picture without many people in the view.  But you get the idea of how the room was divided into continents.  If you will notice a sort of curved line or illuminated line along the right side, that is the bottle carrier from the bottling room.  The bottles were quickly deposited into 3 turntables where we could pick up a free bottle of Coke.

Free Coke for all!

The very last room was, of course, the gift shop.  Anything you could possibly think of with a Coke logo was available with the appropriate price tag.  One could go nuts in there.

While walking toward the World of Coke, we could see a Coke bottle on one of the towers.

This picture depicts about half of the 8 story escalator. Jerri and I had our news anchor picture taken in the globe at the top.

Jerri and I left the World of Coke and walked about 2 blocks through the Olympic Park to the CNN building.  This is a cool place to visit to see how a mega company like Ted Turner’s works.  Our tour began riding up the longest escalator in the world…8 stories worth up into a sort of hollowed out large building.   This picture is only a portion of the escalator which ended in the blue globe at the top.  There, Jerri and I got our picture taken auditioning to become news anchors.  Luckily, we didn’t quit our day jobs.

New CNN anchors

I got to try reading from a teleprompter and found that it wasn’t very easy, especially when our tour guide sped up the teleprompter.  We took a ton of pictures as we learned about the news process from beginning to end in that building.  It is certainly impressive and I’m glad that I don’t have that job.  Too much pressure, I think.

We walked back through Olympic Park to our car and then programmed Glenda to get us to our hotel.  It was quitting time in Atlanta and the traffic was building.  But we managed to arrive without too much hassle.  It was when we tried to go out to dinner that we had a problem.  Around and around the mulberry bush we went trying to find this place.  Finally, we had to admit defeat and go back to the hotel and try for more instructions.  How embarrassing!  I think I mentioned before that Glenda doesn’t work without an address and we didn’t have one, plus I couldn’t find the place in a phone book because I was spelling it wrong.  Good thing it was a good dinner!

Then the next morning was a challenge to get the car back to the rental company.  We thought we had an address, but it was the corporate office near the airport and since it was dark we didn’t see anyone to ask for help…PLUS the danged signs either weren’t present or they weren’t clear or they were too small and we missed them.  Finally, after backtracking, we finally arrived, turned in the car and made our way to the Southwest terminal.  The Atlanta airport is cool to get from the car rental area to the terminal…just hop a little train and off you go.  No, we didn’t manage to mess that up!

The clouds were breaking up over Atlanta when we left and the sight was neat with the tall buildings breaking through the clouds.

An aerial view of downtown Atlanta

Our trip was fun, educational in many ways for me, and FUN!  Jerri is so much fun to travel with and she makes me laugh (and I think, I make her laugh, too) and that makes the trip even more better.  Thank you, Queenie, for being my sister!

Uninhabited until the 1500’s, Lanai was always a place of mystery even to Native Hawaiians. Legends tell the story of a challenge between kahuna (priests) that scorched the earth

Lanai and its relationship to the other Hawaiian Islands.

of Keahiakawelo (Garden of the Gods), explaining some of the otherworldly terrain of the island. Lanai was a sovereign land until King Kamehameha united the Hawaiian Islands into one royal monarchy in 1810. The ruins of Kamehameha’s favorite summer fishing retreat can still be seen.  Called Kaunolu, this sacred spot and fishing village has been registered as a National Historic Landmark. Home to Halulu heiau (religious temple) you can also find ancient petroglyphs carved into the stones here. After contact with the west, Lanai was eventually purchased and converted into a cattle ranch. The Lodge at Koele now resides in the area that was once the center of the island’s ranching operations. As a former manager of this ranch, George Munro made an indelible mark on the landscape by planting the first of what became the island’s many Cook pine trees. The Munro Trail, named after Munro, leads to Lanaihale, Lanai’s highest point.  Later, under the leadership of James Dole, Lanai became the world’s foremost grower and exporter of pineapples – a title the former “Pineapple Isle,” held for most of the 20th century. As the cost of business rose, pineapple production was moved overseas and Lanai was eventually sold to David Murdock who did away with agriculture and built two lavish resorts in an effort to build tourism income.  He consistently lost millions. Recently, 98% of Lanai (State of Hawaii owns the other 2%)was sold to Larry Ellison, a billionaire who likes to make trophy real estate purchases.  So the course of Lanai might change again.  Who knows? Throughout its history, man’s impact on the Lanai has been minimal.  Even with the two resorts, only a scant 30 miles of paved road.  The timeless landscape is largely as it was, offering a glimpse into the Lanai of another time, on an island unlike any other in Hawaii.   With some of this history in mind, it was that three intrepid explorers ventured over to Lanai, spending a glorious 3 ½ days.

Our cute little house right in downtown Lanai City

Jan, Dick and I enjoyed the voyage on the local Lahaina-Lanai ferry on a beautiful sunny day.  Upon landing, we found our

Calico Kitty posing with Dick

reserved jeep (from our house owner) and made our way to our new digs.  And were they nice!  A 2 bedroom modernized plantation style house that was just perfect.  It even came with a resident calico kitty.  She was such a nice kitty and greeted us every time we got near the door…inside or out.  Of course we got some food for her and fed her and her mom who also came by on occasion.  We left a note for the next tenants and some food to give to the kitties. We had lunch at the Blue Ginger (famous for its apple turnovers and tuna melts among other local plates), shopped for supplies at Richard’s Market and made a short trek over to the Lanai Cultural Center.

We found a total of 9 varieties of Spam in Richard’s Market and the Pine Isle Market!
(RDS Photo)

The Center has recently been remodeled and has a very nice museum displaying many photos and artifacts of the island.  Dick had contributed some of his photos taken over the years and, lo and behold!  Some of them were on display in cases outside the building and also on the inside with professionally done signs attributing the photos to him.  The volunteers in the building knew of him and were very happy to meet him in person.  It’s cool to know a celebrity!

Kalanakila O Ka Malamalama Church in God dust

After seeing Dick’s photos, we hopped into the jeep and took a ride to the north shore to see an old church being restored at Keomoku.  I found it to be very interesting because the rebuilders had to raise the church up out of the dust and basically rebuild the entire thing.  The grand re-opening was to be this month(June, 2012), I hope it went well and that it was very well attended.  Hidden in the surrounding underbrush (some of which is tricker than the briar patch that Bre’r Rabbit lived in)

Check out the surrounding brush. I half expected trolls to jump out at us.
(RDS Photo)

were the remnants of the Maunalei Sugar Company which operated from 1899 to 1901.  We were able to find a stone oven and a stone church (not part of the sugar company), but were unable to find a small locomotive.  We met two young men while looking around and they knew of Dick’s picture collection at the Cultural Center and had used them in some research they were doing with film production.  They were very impressed to meet Dick in person.  As I say, it’s cool to know a celebrity! Back in 1992, Dick found the wreck of a sailing canoe (that was once

Dick’s 1992 picture of the old sailing canoe wreck that is on display at the Cultural Center

near the ocean and now in the brush) and took pictures of it.  We found it again and took pictures of its demise in the last 20 years.  It’s amazing what the elements can do.

The same boat in 2012 (not the same quality of picture as what Dick took)

The rest of our adventure that day included visiting a Buddhist shrine honoring Japanese workers killed by a plague in 1900 and the remnants of the “Trilogy Club,” a sort of day camp that a tour group brought tourists from Maui to spend the day swimming, playing on the beach and eating treats. The next day, we treated ourselves to the Blue Ginger’s apple turnovers and rode out to Kaiolohia, aka Shipwreck Beach.  Strong trade winds are funneled between the island of

Jan adding to a sort of flotsam shrine built by passing hikers

Dick and Jan with the YOGN-42

Moloka’i and Maui, directly onto Lana’i’s north shore.  Vessels emerging from the wind shadow  in either direction encounter sudden gusts and rough seas.  The more than six mile stretch of coastline gives one an opportunity to see all kinds of flotsam and jetsam as well as actual wrecks still being pounded by the currents and waves.  We hiked about a four mile round trip and were tired from being constantly windblown.  But it was a great day and I enjoyed every minute of it!  The first actual wreck one sees is the YOGN-42, an old ferro-cement navy fuel barge, abandoned about 1950.  We don’t know the reasoning of letting it run aground in this location.  But it’s great for picture taking.  Later, we noticed a wind surfer spending a lot of time near the old barge, apparently having a great time.  We were entertained for a long time checking out old timbers, other wreckage, sea salt deposits, shells and critter tracks (such as deer and turkeys).

Dick peeking over the Blue Ginger sign

We had lunch at the Blue Ginger as it seemed to be our favorite place and, after some down time, took a drive out to

Looks surreal, doesn’t it? And you wouldn’t believe the wind was whipping around at 50 mph either. (RDS Photo)

Keahiakawelo, Lana’i’s version of Garden of the Gods.  We drove through an iron wood forest and some hills and dales to get there and found ourselves in the midst of a gale.  Jan and I didn’t even get out of the jeep, it was so strong.  But our intrepid guide/photographer did get some great shots of the collage of red rock formations that were once scorched by ancient eruptions and then carved by the elements.  Jan told me these rocks were formed by lava burps or “lava vomit.”  Whatever, it’s a unique moonscape biome right in Hawai’i.  I was impressed.

The next day, we bounced out to Kaunolu.  I say bounced because Dick had to put the jeep into 4 wheel drive when we drove down a very rugged old pineapple field road.  Man!  It was rough!  But it was worth

The very large Halulu Heiau was once a place a sacred place of refuge

it because we were able to see the ruins of King Kamehameha the Great’s favorite summer fishing retreat.  On the west bank of the valley, 200′ above the sea, stands Halulu heiau (place of worship).  It was still in use up to circa 1819.  Near the heiau was

Notice Jan and me hanging onto the rocks at Kakelili’s Leap. It was scary looking down! (RDS Photo)

Kahekili’s Leap (also known as the Warriors Leap.  It is a natural platform 63′ above the ocean and Kamehameha’s elite warriors would prove their bravery by leaping into the ocean.  Made my stomach turn to look over the edge.  But then, heights scare me.  Jan and Dick told me that Dick often gets his hair cut in novel places on some of their trips.  The new place on this trip looking out on the bay at Kaunolu with the “stacks” in the background (“stacks” being a unique volcanic structure).

Got scissors?

We left that rugged, primitive summer retreat and drove to the upscale Manele Bay Hotel/Resort that overlooks the gorgeous Hulopoe Bay to have a gourmet lunch.  For some

Hulopoe Bay
(RDS Photo)

reason, we didn’t have any problem adjusting to the cultural change.  Jan and Dick greeted Mike Carroll, a Lana’i artist they had previously met, who was painting in the lobby of the hotel.  It was fun to hear the chat.  Lunch was fantastic with a view to match.  It made the three of us feel like royalty.  We hiked around Hulopoe Bay and checked out where Bob and I had spent

Pu’upehe Cove with Sweetheart Rock in the background on the right. Technically, Pu’upehe is Sweetheart Rock, but also the name of the cove (RDS Photo)

several days basking in the sun and snorkeling when we were last there. The bay is a marine preserve and the snorkeling is excellent.  We also   went around the far point of Hulopoe to Pu’upehe Cove that is guarded by Sweetheart Rock.  It’s also a good place to snorkel.  That night, Craig, the owner of our house, came over and asked Dick to go with him on a flight around the island the next morning.  Of course, Dick said yes and was treated to Craig taking him in his own plane on a tour of Lana’i.  They flew over our house but I didn’t get a very good picture of the little Cessna.  Bummer.

The was the beginning of our last day on Lana’i.  We visited the Cultural Center to take more pictures and did some shopping in the little shops around Dole Park (the town square).  We had to have lunch one last time at the Blue Ginger to get that one last scrumptious tuna melt and then we drove back to Hulopoe Bay for more photos.  We drove over a little hill to Manele bay to return the jeep to its parking spot and then caught the ferry back to Lahaina.

Being in Lahaina for a short time and then going to Kahalui, was a culture shock for me.  It was so quiet at Kalaupapa and then on Lana’i, that it was not easy to adjust to the hustle and bustle of noise and traffic onMaui…and Maui is much slower than LA.  I knew I was back in LA in about 2 second when I heard horns blaring and kids having a melt down and saw a traffic jam at LAX.  It makes one very thankful for having the opportunity to experience the serenity of places like Lana’i and Kalaupapa and know that peace can be achieved.

Here are a few more pictures from Lana’i.

The only pineapples on Lana’i now are at the Cultural Center.

Sign from times past

Shipwreck trio
(RDS Photo)

Maintaining the workout routine with the weights!
(RDS Photo)

The tuna melts are fabulous at the Blue Ginger
(RDS Photo)

The wind surfer at Shipwreck Beach. Click on the picture to see him better

Maui is shaped much like a bust with the isthmus being the neck

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Island at 727.2 square miles and is the 17th largest island in the United States.  Maui is part of the state of Hawai’i and is the largest of Maui County’s four islands, Moloka’i, Lana’i, and unpopulated Kaho’alawe.  Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island’s name in the legend of Hawai’iloa, the Polynesian navigator credited with the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands.  According to that legend, Hawai’iloa named the island of Maui after his son, who in turn was named for the demigod Maui.  The island is also called the “Valley Isle” for the large isthmus between its northwestern and southeastern volcanoes and the numerous large valleys carved into both mountains. I flew to Maui the week prior to our adventure at Kalaupapa to meet my friend, Dick, photog emeritus, who I knew would give me the finest kind tour of the Valley Isle.  He didn’t disappoint me as we did an in-depth expedition of many places that I had not visited in 15 prior visits to Maui.  Bob’s and my priorities were a bit different back when we were going to the Islands…Rest, golf and little touring was Bob’s motto. The first thing Dick and I did was to meet Craig, the owner of the plantation house we were to rent on Lanai.  Dick had been trying to finish the rental agreement with him for some time but Craig was so laid back until about 10 days prior to the actual rental.  The house and our time on Lanai were outstanding, but more about that in the Lanai posting.  Then we went to lunch at Leilani’s on Kaanapali Beach.  It’s such a pleasant feeling to dine on the beach with the trade winds ruffling your hair, small birds flitting around the restaurant begging for tidbits, and receiving a lot of the Aloha spirit that the Islands offer.

Getting into the Maui Mode
(RDS Photo)

How much better can it get?
(RDS photo)

Looking toward Lana’i from our condo at daybreak

Our condo was a second floor corner unit that was about 15′ from the ocean’s edge with exquisite vistas of Moloka’i and Lana’i and sometimes when the trades were right, a view of Oahu, about 50 miles away.  With this setting, it didn’t take me long to kick off my shoes, adjust to Aloha time and the pleasant trade winds.  Within a couple hours of my arrival, a large honu (sea turtle) was grazing on the rocky reef not more than 30′ from the shore.  I didn’t get a good picture of him, but he was about 3′ long with a sort of green back.  That was the first time I’d seen a sea turtle in Maui and I really enjoyed the sighting.  I kidded Dick about arranging that sighting for me.  You can see the reef closest to shore in the left hand picture.   It was so blissful to sit on the lanai that we never ate pupus or dinner out (except when we were away from the condo at dinner time).  The dazzling sunsets provided us with so much camera fodder that I’m surprised we didn’t run out of battery power on the first day.  I bet I had 50 pictures during my first sunset and only a few of them were worth keeping.  But it was fun and SOOOOO relaxing. Dick took me to places that Bob and I had been such as Napili Sunset; beaches we had visited like Honolua Bay, Slaughterhouse Beach and Kapalua Bay; and courses we had played like  the Village and Bay Courses.  Bob so enjoyed them and I did too. It was a nostalgic drive that I wish I could have shared with Bob. The next morning, we toured Hale Pa’i (the house of printing), a small coral and timber building on the Lahainaluna (upper Lahaina) high school campus, that starting in 1834, served as the home of Hawaii’s first printing press.  The early missionaries not only learned Hawaiian, they transcribed the language and printed (after teaching students to set type and run the press) a Bible, textbooks, maps, Hawaiian culture and traditions, the first newspaper west of the Rocky Mountains (1834) as well as Hawaii’s first paper currency.  An interesting side note is that in 1844, a student was expelled for counterfeiting, causing all the paper money to be re-issued with secret marks.

Mama’s Fish House Beach

Lahainaluna High School was founded as a seminary in 1831.  It was the first school west of the Rockies and survives today as Lahaina’s public high school.  It has the distinction of being one of the few public boarding schools in the USA and accepts students from not only Lahaina but neighbor islands as well.  We happened to be there a few days before graduation and were greeted on the long road going up to the school by printed banners and bed sheets hung from fences and houses congratulating the graduating seniors.  I thought it was a fun custom. Lunch was a real treat at Mama’s Fish House,  a converted beach house in a coconut grove on a secluded white sand beach. It was voted one of the best 100 restaurants in the USA in 2011 and I can see why.  In addition to the beautiful setting, the fish was probably the best I’ve ever tasted.  Man, it was good!  The menu actually lists when, where and by whom the fish was caught.  So we knew it was very fresh and oh, so tasty. Just a bit away from Mama’s, is  Ho’okipa Beach Park, “the wind surfing beach capital’ (according to a Pa’ia web site) that was being well used.  Lots of surfers were out there trying their luck.  To me, it looks like such a demanding sport, especially on the shoulders and back.  I think it’s better for me to observe the people plying their skills than to try it.  We visited Pa’ia which is noted as a “quaint” town.  It’s supposed to be a reflection of its history as a booming sugar cane plantation town with its old plantation style wooden buildings still intact and an array of  specialty shops, boutiques, surf shops, antique stores, bakeries, and even an old fashioned tattoo parlor.  It might be a great place to browse if you like to shop.  I didn’t check it out as that’s not really my game.  We did check out Mana Foods, a ramshackle looking building with has a vast array of organic, natural, international and gourmet offerings on the inside.  I was amazed at what was inside this store.  As a matter of fact, it reminded me of Mother’s in Costa Mesa before it was remodeled.  A lot of people know about this place as there were a lot of people in its narrow aisles.  It was fun to visit.  We then drove mauka (toward the mountain or inland) to visit up country towns, Makawaoand Haiku.  Such a pretty drive seeing nice homes, some small ranches and farms, and churches.

An Ae’o in Kanaha

On the way back to our condo, we stopped at the Kanaha Wildlife Sanctuary, home of the Ae’o (black-necked stilt).  The wetland sanctuary is near the Kahului Airport and has some noise from planes as well as nearby traffic that does not seem to affect the birds.  We saw Ae’o in all stages, from little puff balls on stilts to adults wading in the shallow water.  I like these birds as they appear to be in long-legged tuxedos as they stealthily walk and stalk the shallows to catch their prey.  They are a bit territorial as we saw them arguing a bit with each other by squalking  and flying at each other.

Surfacing in Kapalua Bay in front of Kapalua condos
(RDS photo)

Thursday was snorkeling day.  We checked out Black Rock near the Sheraton at Kaanapali and Kapalua and saw many fish varieties including some eels and trumpet fish.

Trumpet fish
(RDS photo)

We followed our snorkeling excursion with lunch at the Pineapple Grill (aka Grill and Bar where Bob and I had many contented, filling meals back in the ’80s).  LaPerouse Bay was

The “Old Goat” leader

our next stop on the day’s tour.  This bay is at the end of the road on the south end of Maui and is known for two things, dolphins (which we didn’t see) and wind (which we felt).  The dolphins apparently like to rest in the bay in the morning but had left for other areas by the time we got there.  There are signs all over the place to not harass the dolphins, so I guess they really do hang out there.  The wind is ever present and tousled our hair the entire time we were there.  What we did see were wild goats, which were grazing close to the path we were on.  Dick declared that we were on the “Old Goat’s Tour.”  And tour we did, seeing a blow hole, coral beach, some black sand and remnants of the 1790 lava flow, the last eruption on Maui.  It was a good hike and I enjoyed every minute of it.

That blue vanilla is great! I’m a shave ice fan!
(RDS Photo)

On the way back to our condo, we stopped in Kihei so that I could sample for the first time, a Hawaiian delicacy know as “shave ice.”  I would have called it a snow cone, but it was much better than that.  The ice is shaved and becomes a smooth powdery snow type substance.  Much better and tastier than a regular snow cone.  I had a combination of grape and lemon-lime, much to my delight.  I noticed a flavor called blue vanilla and the lady gave me a sample of it.  Ooh!  That was good! We made it back to our condo that evening in time for another nice sunset and dinner.  Life is good!

Jan was to arrive Friday evening and we had the entire day to use to explore or goof around.  Dick knew that I’d never been on the Hana Road (Bob and I had flown in when we stayed there) and told me that it is quite a journey that everyone should see.  The guide books tell you that there are 620 curves and 46 one lane bridges (who counts these things?) on the 52 mile long “highway” from Kahului.  I put highway in quotes because the road narrows from four lanes to two to about one and a half or even one in some cases beyond ‘Ohe’o Gulch (aka Seven Sacred Pools).  Off we went from our condo about 7:30 AM (early departure) in anticipation of an exciting adventure, seeing places, things and people I’d never seen before. It was fun seeing the flora change from sugar cane waving in the breeze to very lush vegetation with ferns, bamboo, and other jungle plants  so thick that you’d be lost if you ventured more than 15’ from the highway.  It’s good to be green in this vicinity.  Sometimes we would come out of a turn espying a beautiful vista of a valley or peninsula with little houses and taro fields dotting the valley floor or be hugging the edge of a steep cliff.  Witness these two pictures.

Keanae Peninsula with houses, taro fields and the ocean in the background

Highway to Heavenly Hana. Click on the picture to better see the cut in the cliff.

Waikani Falls (aka the 3 bears) before arriving at Hana

There were not as many waterfalls as advertised in the brochures because East Maui Irrigation company (EMI) has ditches throughout the way to Hana that have diverted much of the water previously destined for the gorgeous waterfalls.  So some of them are dry or not flowing as dramatically as in previous years.  I guess it depends on the time of year or water needs as to how much water is flowing (or falling, as the case may be)  We did see several spectacular falls but the light wasn’t just right so as to duplicate what we saw.  I was still pretty impressed with the falls we saw, however. We had lunch at Tutu’s Snack Shop on the beach at Hana Bay.  It’s basically a burger joint but serves very good BBQ pork sandwiches.  I had one of the best hamburgers I’ve eaten in a long time.  So Dick and I vote for Tutu’s.  We visited Hasegawa’s General Store which features the most diverse assortment of stuff ever put together in a store.  It’s an amazing place that sells groceries, fishing equipment, clothes, galvanized pipe and you name it and it’s probably there.  I helped out their bottom line and bought a Hasegawa tee shirt.  Hana is a quiet little town that doesn’t impress you until you get out and walk around a bit and let its essence sort of creep up on you.  It’s a great place to get away from it all because “it” isn’t there.  And sometimes that’s a nice thing to do. We buzzed back to the Wai’anapanapa State Beach which has the only volcanic black sand beach on Maui.  I like this park and beach because it sported camp sites, cabins,

Pa’iloa Beach at Wai’anapanapa State Park

showers, picnic tables, freshwater caves, a sea arch, black sand beach and brown noddies (which I’ll explain in a bit).  Technically, the freshwater caves are a bit brackish according to some kids we talked to, but they looked inviting to swim in.  People were on the beach enjoying the cool water (although not in very far…it looked a bit tricky to me in terms of currents and such)

The brown noddy rookery. They forage far out to sea catching squid or fish.

A brown noddy is a bird about the size of a small sea gull (16″ long, 33″ wingspan as opposed to 18″ and 48″ for the our local gulls).  There was a noddy rookery at this beach and there were many flying around the area and resting in the rookery.  A characteristic “nodding” display between adult birds is often seen at nesting colonies, hence their name.  This was fun for me as I’d never seen a noddy before. We continued on our way, stopping at Wailua Falls for photo ops and on to ‘Ohe’o Gulch formerly known as 7 Sacred Pools.  Apparently, ‘Ohe’o Gulch is the original name of this area and 7 Sacred Pools was a monicker put out for the tourists.  What a different experience from when Bob and I were there!  Bob and I were covered in mosquitos when it wasn’t raining.  We really didn’t get to see much.  This time, the weather was perfect and there were no

Jumping at ‘Ohe’o Gulch

bugs.  Yea!  Many, many people were visiting the pools nearest the shoreline; swimming, hiking, sun bathing and just relaxing.  The pools are quite deep and lots of people like to jump from fall to fall.  Check out the guy in the red trunks who happened to jump

Ala ‘Aina grounds Could you ask for a more gorgeous view?
(Jan photo)

when I was taking pictures. Dick took me to Kipahulu and Ala ‘Aina Ocean Vista, a one bedroom B & B that he and Jan like to stay at.  It’s a beautiful place with banana trees growing all over the place.  There are many stories that Dick told me about this area, but suffice to say that it’s gorgeous and so off the beaten path, that one can totally unwind and experience culture shock just going to the little town of Hana.  It was amazing! In the little graveyard behind the small  Palapala Ho’Omau church, Kipahulu,  is the final resting place of Charles Lindbergh.  His grave is very simple in the Hawaiian style of a plot surrounded by lava rocks.  Nearby are the graves of Sam Pryor, a retired airlines executive, who had a ranch in the area.  Pryor was good friends with Lindbergh and persuaded Lindbergh to visit Maui and build a small place on his ranch.  Pryor is also remembered for his gibbon apes who he considered to be his “children.”  Their six graves are between the Pryors’ and Lindbergh graves.

Godlight looking over the Pacific Ocean

Car rental companies used to prohibit rentals from continuing on around the island on the “highway.”  I don’t know if they still do, but the road is fine (at least when we were on it).  It is a narrow, one lane dirt road for part of the way, but that aspect added to the charm of it.  It was also interesting to see the climate change almost instantly from green and lush to brown and arid.  It has to do with the wind and rainfall…which is evidently not great in this area.  We saw the top side of the two cinder cones that made the 1790 lava flow and looked down on LaPerouse Bay that we had seen the day before.  That was an interesting perspective.  The road improved to being paved and two lanes and began to climb the side of the big mountain, Haleakala.  Clouds were coming in over Haleakala and also the ocean which gave us some beautiful views.  Dick likes to call this Godlight.  We celebrated our safe return to Kahului by consuming a sumptuous Costco hot dog and then we went to pick up Jan upon her arrival from Sacramento.

Jan got up early the next day as she was still on mainland time and we went for an early morning walk.  It was so pretty to walk as the sun rose over the mountains and listen to the birds wake up with their many tunes.  I love that time of day when the world is waking up.  We also waded a bit in the ocean and saw a small eel and many little minnows. Later that day, we visited the ‘Iao Valley and Needle (A sacred burying place for chiefs and the location of Maui’s last giant

Yeow! at the ‘Iao Needle
(RDS Photo)

battle for supremacy.  The Needle itself was used as a lookout base.  It is another lush, verdant valley with a prominent point sticking up from the valley belying a violent, bloody history.  Dick’s picture shows us needling the needle.  Following our antics at ‘Iao Valley, we visited the Bailey House Museum, the house of a mid-19th century missionary.  I enjoyed this little museum and its display of Hawaiian stone tools, weapons and even a century old surfboard.  There were also exhibits from the missionary era that were very interesting.  It’s good to get some education on a vacation and be sort of well rounded.  🙂

From Maui, Jan, Dick and I went to Kalaupapa for 5 days, Lanai for 3 1/2 and then back to Maui.  We stayed at the Maui Beach Hotel, not far from the airport, to pack and readjust our thinking for future events.  I was flying home the next day and Jan and Dick were going out past Hana to the Ala ‘Aina for a few days of real Hawaiian time together.  Jan and I were walking around the hotel grounds when we happened upon a trio called “Power of Ten,” a kane singing and playing the ukelele and a kane and wahine dancing to the tune.  They were rehearsing for a show they were putting on later.  It was vigorous, beautiful and exciting.  Did you ever see such gorgeous smiles as on the “Power of Ten?”  Aloha spirit epitomized!

What a good looking group!
(RDS Photo)

The Power of 10
(RDS Photo)

The lei toss
(RDS Photo)

Sadly, it was time to say aloha to the Islands on May 30 and I was to wing my way home.  Dick and Jan took me down to the beach where they told me I had to complete the tradition of throwing a lei into the water to see if I’ll go back or not.  Yea!  The lei did so, thanks to the wind and a not so great toss (but with great form!).  I’m looking forward to the next adventure in Hawaii which I hope won’t take another 20 years to happen.

A Hawaiian adventure wouldn’t be complete without some geckos. Here they are catching their supper near a light fixture in Ala ‘Aina (Jan Photo)