And now for something completely different...

Luis and I went to Kansas City for the weekend for Olivia's 11th birthday. He has vowed that he will not miss another birthday if he can help it which is a very sweet promise leading to some serious travel for a weekend trip. Olivia had a luau birthday party which took place in the gym of Briarwood Elementary School since it was too cold and rainy to be at a park as planned. I will post more photos when I get back from my lauhala weaving class at the botanical garden in Honolulu. It's good to be home.

Waimea Valley

Waimea Valley is on the north shore of Oahu and Luis and I visited it a few weeks ago. There is a small cafe, a gift shop, a botanical garden, and a waterfall that you can swim in.

Weekend in Waikiki

Luis and I spent last weekend at Waikiki just because we could. We stayed at the Hale Koa hotel which is owned by the military and available to current and retired military folks and their families. Another perk for the bullet stoppers.

Interestingly, the price for the room depends on rank. The higher the rank, the higher the rate. We paid $148 for an ocean front room which is a steal in Honolulu. The rooms themselves are small, functional, and badly in need of some updating. The real draw of the hotel is location location location. It's on a prime stretch of Waikiki beachfront property. There are several pools, bars (including one called The Warrior Lounge, yeah), and restaurants and even a nightly luau.

One of my favorite parts of Waikiki is Kapiolani Park near Diamond Head at the east end of Waikiki. It's one of the most well used municipal parks I've ever seen. There are lots of families grilling and picnicking. On Sunday we saw a troupe of little girls practicing their Tahitian dancing. A hula girl was teaching a group of awkward Japanese teen boys how to dance the hula. There was even a Thai festival celebrating the new year with entertainment, food booths, and trinkets for sale.

What I did one day last week

Believe it or not, most of my days start around 6:30 am; we don't have late nights around here since Luis leaves for work at 5:00 am. I start the day by checking on the news on the internet since we don't take a paper. After that I usually review the latest screeds on my favorite lefty websites so I can stoke the burning anger towards my government that simmers in my heart. A few favorites, if you're interested in increasing your own aggravation with this administration, are Hullabaloo, Crooks and Liars, and Salon, especially Glenn Greenwald. After that anything can happen, sometimes I take lunch to Luis or take a book to the beach or go on an excursion like I did last Thursday.

I spent Thursday at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden on the east side of Oahu in an area called Kaneohe. It's on the opposite side of the island from where I live but it only takes about 40 minutes to drive there, it's a small island. This garden, it's actually more of a park, is one of five Honolulu Botanical Gardens and the third one I've been to see. It is 400 acres and is planted with rainforest trees and shrubs from the tropics of the world. In the background are the Ko'olau Mountains and there is a lake created by a flood control dam. It's beautiful like everything on this island.




















There is a path that winds from the visitor's center to the lake. When you approach the lake there are several pavilions for gatherings and picnics. One was occupied by a large group of Japanese tourists and surrounding the pavilion was a flock of mallard ducks playing the role of a flock of pigeons. There were about fifty ducks begging for food and swarming the tourists.















I walked down to the lake where a group of older Japanese tourists were singing rousing songs together, probably about Nanking or Bataan or something. The lake had its share of ducks as well but they were outnumbered by Hawaiian coots who sometimes would swim so low in the water that it looked like they were just floating necks and heads. They wouldn't let me get close enough for a good photo so I stole one from the internet.














I walked around some other areas of the garden but I had to leave around 3:00 so I wouldn't get stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home. It's a small island but it is packed with people who work in Honolulu or Pearl Harbor who all head west to go home.