Back in Hawaii, building a house

Time for this blog to take on a new direction -- the construction of our house in Volcano. Here's a video Emily made while we were still clearing by hand.

Pretty much says it all.

We walked over to the Spaghetti Factory last night for dinner. It was a typical day that we've had pretty much all along -- gray & cloudful. I noticed this tree that I had walked by before but this time noticed that it was made of metal--if you look at the top part you really can't tell it's not a real tree. It pretty much exemplifies the gloomy, gray days of winter here in the NW; colorless, leafless, unchanging. I do like Seattle despite the gloom. Would like to be here in the next month when the color arrives, but today we head for Forks, WA in search of teenage vampires.

Drunks in the night

For some reason there are a bunch of youngsters in our hotel (20-somethings) and the other night a few of them got drunked up a bit and one of them had the bright idea of pulling the fire alarm at 3:30 am. Everyone else is the hotel, being sober, did as they are supposed to and grabbed some clothing and headed for the fire exit and out onto the sidewalk. It was cold outdoors. We all stood around, shivering, out on the sidewalk waiting to see our earthly possessions get converted to ash, but all we could see was a young kid staggering up and down the stairs appearing variously in this window and then that. The cops and then the firefighters appeared. They shut off the alarms and then let us know that someone had pulled the alarm. I suspect, being the only guy left stumbling around inside and wreaking of cheap beer, the guy kind of gave himself away. And, I'll bet he's regretting his shenanigans once the fire department handed him his bill for hiring them that evening.

Heading for Seattle

We decided to spend a week in Seattle. Too cold to camp, so we got a hotel for the whole time. It was about a mile from Pike Market so we went there often -- the seafood and produce there being some of the best anywhere. The drive up here was not too bad, but with the typical NW weather -- Gray & Cloudy. Getting my fill of Gray & Cloudy. Need to head back down to sunny California soon.

Made it back to Portland.

The return into Portland now puts at about 9000 miles driving around the US without crossing the Missouri River by car. It's a big country for sure.

Roseburg, OR ?

Nope, not much to see here, just a stop over to get some sleep and push it on in to Portland the following day.

Chico, CA aka Mecca!

	Finally, I have visited the Motherland, the Mecca, the El Dorado of beer -- Sierra Nevada Brewery! It never tastes quite as good as it does from the source. And this source is something to write home about.

To Salinas, CA

One day up near Salinas, I let him slip away,

He's looking for that home and I hope he finds it,

But I'd trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday

To be holding Bobby's body next to mine.




This was a beautiful drive partly along the coast and then through verdant green hills and finally through rich, fertile farm land. This is an are to return to.

Britta, Jonathan and the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market

Had a great time with Britta & Jonathan. One highlight was definitely the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market which is one of the best I've ever seen. I've several more pics of that on my Flickt page (link is at the top of this blog). Another was getting to see the house that B & J recently moved into.

Carpinteria, CA to see Jonathan and Britta

We packed up the campsite and headed for Bliss' cousins (Jonathan and Britta) house in Carinteria, CA. Had to swing by Jeff's house to pick up some mail and then we headed out of town. Once we cleared the traffic, shortly after the Getty Museum, it was smooth sailing and a real pretty drive all the way.

Emily turns 11 at Disney Land!

What 11 year old wouldn't want to spend her birthday at Disney Land? We had a great time. The weather was kind of junk with occasional showers but the lines were short as a result so we were happy for the rain.

Santa Monica Pier

Our first day trip was down to the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. Venice Beach is a bit toward the Coney Island side of seedy in the winter time and Santa Monica Pier was almost deserted but these places are iconic and still fun to visit -- no matter how many times you've been there.

Los Angeles, CA

We spent the first evening in a hotel close to the airport. If you're like me, you forget things and have to relearn them. I relearnt that staying in an airport hotel is a bad idea. We had to boost.



So we found a KOA campsite over in Pomona, CA. It was still a pretty urban setting but nice to have some distance between us and LA proper. And, it made a good base for us to go exploring Los Angeles. We had to stick around for March 4th either way since Emily was to celebrate her 11th birthday at DisneyLand!







Here's a shot of our old tent which lasted 15 years but broke while there and the new replacement grand daddy 6 person tent we now live in! It's a beauty -- obviously only works for car camping though.

Just Working in February

We returned to Portland on February 3 -- back to the cold weather. I spent a couple weeks working before flying to NYC where I had some more work. Bliss and Emily drove the car down to Southern California where I met them in Los Angeles on the 28th. Which meant, we were back in warm weather again!

New Year's Eve 08-09

We did a nice show off of Waikiki Beach to bring in the New Year. It was a typical Huki Pau show that we gotten pretty good with by now. Here's a few shots of the Huki Pau locked and loaded and heading out to position.









Here is someone's video shot from the beach, though just a couple minutes of the show. It's not too bad but a little zoom would have helped show the fireworks a little better.

Waianae Comprehensive Health Center

We took a hike up to Waianae Comp where they have been working on some garden areas over the past few years. It's just spectacular up there and they keep adding to it all the time.

Nice to be in Hawaii

It was a great relief to leave winter behind and jump over to Hawaii for awhile. Awesome weather and some leisure time in Waianae with the folks and the dogs. Always nice to be back!

Winter Time in Portland

Had some serious snow, for Portland that is. Depending on which weather person you were listening to, it was the worst storm in 20 or 40 years. Regardless, Portland isn't prepared for snow so it must not happen often. The streets here were never plowed, ever. They just waited for it to melt. And, we barely got out for trip to Hawaii on Christmas Day. Thanks to Paul, the kindly neighbor who got up at 6am and drove us there in his 4 wheel drive (with chains). Paul's getting some of the finest coffee Hawaii has to offer for that little favor!







Here's an outside shot and an inside shot of Jake's Place -- a snug little pool hall nearby. Good beer on tap and free wi-fi. Some not-too-shabby pool players as well.

Ransom to Portland Day 3

Wow, has it been a long time since I've posted anything this outdated inter-web-site. Well, for my own purpose I'll go ahead and post the Day 3 route.

Ransom to Portland Day 2

Was 70° while driving yesterday and a mere 17° when I awoke this morning -- and it was snowing. Turned out when I awoke, I had to boost earlier than I wanted to as it was snowing hard and I still had to cross the elevation crown located between Cheyenne and Laramie. Made it though -- all the way to Burley, ID! Between Northern UT & Southern ID there's some beauty that rivals the best -- Anywhere, HI. Gorgeous.

Ransom to Portland Day 1

Made some good miles and found a nice economy hotel in Cheyenne. It was a pretty uneventful drive being mostly comprised of plains both western KS and eastern CO. Had to burn right on by some old friends from Hawaii who now live in Greeley, CO. Would have been nice to see them but I got word snow was coming and I didn't want to get caught in the country's mid-section watching soaps in a hotel room, drinking cheap beer.

Little Piece of Heaven

After some good times in Eastern KS, naturally some good times in Western KS were in order. Funny thing popped into my head as I shot this shot. A place like Ransom, KS -- on first impression -- might seem to have nothing going for it. Truth is, unless you're from there or have connections to it you'd probably never get past that first impression. In fact, there's a whole lot going on, but unlike a place like Chicago, San Francisco or New York (where anyone might go, pay their admission price and have their experience) people just tend to blow on by places like Ransom. The stuff that is going on in place like Ransom is the rich, taffy-thick interpersonal shit that a good writer can do wonders with, but all I have is a camera.



I joined my first Facebook group - "I grew up on a dirt road in Kansas!"

Resting on the Kickapoo Res

Spent some much needed R&R in Horton on the res. After some rest and good eats over T-day, we enjoyed Bob's new man cave -- we thoroughly broke it in. Such good fun with such good friends. I still can't get my mind off Wathe's cleavage.

Shamal!

On one of the days that we were preparing pontoons, a shamal came up out of no where and blew a hellish amount of sand over everything. It was pretty difficult trying to keep the sand out of eyes, ears and throat!

Setting up the East Fronds

We started working in our assigned area (C32) on 11/14/2008. Our objective was to setup over 100 small floating pontoons to be used to light the water channels between each of the "fronds" on the east side of the palm. The fronds are where the houses are constructed so each house has a small beach off their backyard.

The pontoons each held 8 cakes (the first five being smaller diameter cakes as the waterway is narrower closer to the trunk). The cakes were set on the platform in order, secured using bailing wire and then their igniters wired into a firing panel. Finally, they were covered with plastic and towed to their location where each was secured with multiple anchors. It took 3 days prepare and place each pontoon another 3 days interconnect them all and make connections to the shore.