October 2008_A Sampling of Sunsets and Moon Shots At the Farm

I don’t know about you, but sunsets are something I look forward to, but I have to admit some days we completely forget to look. Occasionally we remember to grab a camera to preserve the picture.

Here are but a few of hundreds of sunsets and moon filled skies we have experienced here in Hawaii.... (right click and choose "view image" to see the full-size version of each picture).

July 2008, What is so close to us -- Hokena Beach

We often work so hard we can forget we have a wonderful beach just about 15 minutes away from us.


Here we are July 7th -- with a very nice and relaxing spot.




Lot’s of people see the beach, but what about what is up higher? This is a view from way up in the caves looking out from the side of the mountain! It’s a steep climb up to these caves, and no specific trail, but very doable. Take your water and also a camera!


And what do the caves look like inside? Here Ric and I are in the middle of an inside fork.
As you can tell it is massive.


People actually can come and stay for $5 a person a night at this beach. It has its own outdoor shower for washing from swims, and then a complete bathroom with plenty of hot water. There are a nice number of camping sites some with barbecue pits. You just need to select a site and see a park attendant to pay your fee before it gets dark... Since we are about mile marker 105, it is just a two mile trip down our mountain, then from 105 to 101 and then maybe another 2 miles down to the beach. Along the way there is a nice local grocery store where you can stop and buy sandwiches and drinks if you want. Often times (unless we just pick up and go -- which can happen if we get rained out from work) we will make our own tuna sandwiches or spam musubis.


<<CLICK HERE To download this whole brochure about Hokena>>

June 21, 2008, Kona's First Annual Gay Pride Event

Another historical event, Kona does it’s first ever Gay Pride Parade and Fair. We spent a lot of time scurrying to get all our stuff in order to attend. We were invited right at the last moment and there was some confusion several times, not too difficult to imagine since this was the first ever time and they were doing everything from ground zero.

We were next to some realtors, not far from a health booth and across from the Pilagro for Mayor booth.

Here we are -- we were in a narrow slot with landscaping all around us.


Jerry came with and helped us with the pre-set up and set up, and he helped sell products during the expo.



Our menu so to speak...




We were visited by royalty..



The group poses -- very cute!



As usual, Jerry knows a lot of people!

October 15 2006, Big Earthquake hits the Big Island but we have little harmful effects

101506, EARTHQUAKE, for us just a few things thrown, some glass items that fell shattered and a few wall board seams broken. We had power back in about 40 minutes while Kailua town was out for 4 or 5 hours. We sat at home and watched the national news coverage (and put it on the DVR machine)...

It was amazing how powerful and a scary thought to think what something like this would do if it continued past the 20 or 30 seconds that it was! This reached Oahu where many of their power generators were kicked offline and each had to be carefully re-started. Some people had rock walls collapse, big bolders rolled into some highways, walls of some homes tumbled. But all in all it could have been much much worse.