Long weekend

It's Tuesday, at the end of President's Day weekend. We stayed close to home, fighting off a virus and grading papers. I also have been pushing to finish revising a long essay that I thought was done, but came back to me with requests for extensive revisions soon after we got here. But we did get out. Got to go to the third of the three Costcos on the island!

We saw a shark, as you can see from the picture. We stopped by Pipeline again today to watch the professional body boarding competition--click on it and you'll see what's going on. It's impressive. And this is how we look after six weeks in Hawaii. 

Greg

Saturday

Elayne's last day here. We started the day by going to the farmer's market on the North Shore to get local fruit and vegies and look at the arts and crafts. Then we crossed the street to join the crowds of onlookers watching the crowds of surfers on Pipeline. 

In the afternoon, we body-surfed behind our house--but I too a couple of waves that were too big and got a bump on my head and scrape on the forehead. My students were impressed that I actually get in the water.

For dinner we went to the BYUH "Foodfest"--where students prepare and sell food from their home countries We took Elayne to Honolulu to the airport as we were getting sunset color in the sky.

Greg

Waimea Valley

Waimea Valley is an Audubon preserve on the North Shore that is a tropical botanical garden. We took my mother there last Sunday. These are only a few of the pictures--you can post too many. With plants, you kinda had to be there. There's also a picture of Elayne with her paunchy son, and one of Olivia Dawn (age 30, 3 feet diameter) basking serenely on the beach.

Greg

Saturday in Honolulu

Yesterday we spent money. We started at the farmer's market on the North Shore and got lots of fresh local fruit and vegetables at a premium price. Then we went to Honolulu to the Aloha Stadium "swap meet"--which is really a massive gathering of vendors of clothes, jewelry, crafts, and varieties of preserved Asian foods. It is set up on the circular road that surrounds the stadium that will soon host the Pro Bowl. Lots of people think it's lots of fun. We bought, among other things, a matching mumu and aloha shirt, in case we want to arrange to take tickets at the Polynesian Cultural Center luau and get a free meal. Don't know if it's worth it.

The main event in Honolulu yesterday was picking my my mother, Elayne, from the airport. We had some time to kill between the swap meeting and the airport so we checked out the visitors center at the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. You get on a boat at there and go out to the memorial itself. The picture shows the memorial from the visitor's center. 

Mom arrived safely, and we took her directly to Chinatown for dim sum.

Greg

Quiet Sunday

We are taking a day of rest today--our "old" bodies need it. We're even resting from 8 am church today though our ward is very nice, and we enjoy it. Last week we the new missionary couple came for the first time--new directors of the temple visitors center: Elder and Sister Eubank. Elder Eubank is otherwise known as Mark, the weather man. They were called to a two-year mission at the St George Temple visitor center and after a year were released early so they could be called to a two-year mission here. Three years for the call of two. 

This afternoon we'll have our downstairs neighbors up for dinner. The are the Lusters, who taught at Snow when I was there. Jim has retired from teaching physics and is teaching here for a year as a volunteer. A lot of people do that--come for a year as volunteers and teach.

I drove to the neighboring town to get my debit card from the woman who rescued it. She and her two teenage children living a very small and very run down house off Homestead Road--lands given to native Hawaiians to live on. I don't know much about that, but many Hawaiians feel that their land was taken from them when the US eliminated the monarchy and made Hawaii a territory. They haven't forgotten, especially on this side of the island where Hawaiians predominate. We're really enjoying the Hawaiian roots music we're discovering here. 

Anyway, I had a hard time finding the place and I think we was waiting. She and her kids greeted me and the door and gave me my card. I gave her two See's bars, dark chocolate with almonds (our favorite and our last) and thanked her. She gave me a hug. She took good care of the card.

The pictures are some flowers--from the the farmer's market yesterday and from the university grounds outside our offices. 

Greg

Happy Year of the Ox

This afternoon we went to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year celebration. It was crowded, noisy with fireworks, and lots of fun. We went with my graduate student, Maggie Hong, who lives near there and speaks Cantonese. She was a great guide. She took us to a dim sum restaurant that had a long waiting list, but we got seated quickly--ahead of the rest. The server told her in Cantonese that it was because she has a baby with her--and some old people. Dim sum was wonderful and the lion dancers in the street were lots of fun. Chinatown is a friendly place. 

It was a fun day that started at the local farmers market buying varieties of  avocados, citrus, and bananas we've never tasted before, and a Hawaiian birthday gift for our granddaughter, Yunie. The only complication was when I left my debit card in the ATM. I figured that out 30 miles and 45 minutes later. I cancelled the card. Then when we got back to Laie we checked at the student center where the ATM is and found a note from the woman who rescued it. Greg

Pictures of home and school

Inauguration day. We got turned the tv on at 6:30 am for the 7 am swearing in and speech. We have hope. I really liked the closing prayer, and the prayer for the luncheon--asking the Lord to bless this president with protection from arrogance. What a great blessing that will be for all of us. We just watched the Obamas walk hand in hand down Pennsylvania Ave--I remember watching Jimmy Carter do that in 1976. I was sitting at a typewriter in our apartment in Springville writing my MA thesis. Now it's a laptop in Hawaii revising an essay for publication. Some things change and some things don't.

It's a rainy day and the waves are as flat as we have seen them. I ran an errand and took a picture to post here of the main building of BYUH. The flags represent the home countries of the current students. Diversity is the fun reality here. 

I have been trying to drag myself away from the beach to work on that essay that came back for major revision. So Linda caught me reading in the living room, and today I took a picture of the view that was distracting me from that reading. 

Yesterday we walked across the reef to a little island off the point--Mokuauia, or Goat Island as most call it. You can see it on the horizon in the picture out our living room window. There's a bird refuge there, and a pristine little beach on a quiet lagoon that you can't see from shore, along with some cliffs that the big waves crash on. Couldn't take cameras out there because the trip is a very wet hike. The ocean out there is deep, wild, and very blue. Greg