Are we having fun yet?

Well, the job we came here to do is done and has been for a couple days already. 


So we have been playing!


Yesterday we stuck kinda near home. We stopped at the "Kauai Fair" that's always set up down in Kapaa and looked at the wares for gift ideas. Then we grabbed some McD's for lunch and headed for the beach to sit and eat. And get a little sun - at last. All the while we watched for photo ops.

We enjoyed our cheap fast food lunch, then headed to the thrift store, then further up Kuamo'o road to see Opaeka'a Falls. They seem to always be rather dry so we were hoping there would be more water flowing and it was quite nice, very veil-like. And the usual tropic birds were there flying and swooping. On that same road we saw some stairs leading up a small hill and wondered what was up those steps so we had to check it out. Another cemetery! Japanese tombstones all facing the east. There was a heiau at the base of the stairs, a Hawaiian burial ground. An old burial ground and a new one!...

Next we stopped at the Wailua river dock to see the river, kayakers and whatever else offered itself to our viewfinders. WE headed next to Lihue to see an old falling down bridge that Rick spotted when we hit Walmart the day before. It was hard to get to and ended up not being very photographic. But the street we headed down to look for it had a few interesting offerings including a couple of long-forgotten concrete buildings whose wooden floors had rotten out years ago and trees had grown up in their places.

Last time Rick was here we went to the Ninini Lighthouse and while there some Air Force transport planes flew overhead so low it was as if we could reach up and touch them. He wanted to go back and see if they'd be flying again so we headed for the lighthouse. It was a lot easier than the last time! We got out there and had some liquid "snacks" and just as we were leaving a normal passenger plane flew overhead. Not what he was looking for but still cool.

We wanted to head to the Kipu area, it's one of my favorite areas on the island. It looks like Jurassic park or Africa, so lush and green, with these trees with light smooth bark and flat sections of leaves. We continued on out that road and found, much to my dismay, that the Kipu Falls area has been fenced off, no more access to that! I'm just glad we got to see it, and I videoed Dane swinging on the rope and falling into the pond at the base of the falls. On the way to finding that road (I wanted to see the "Menehune fishponds", which were "meh" at best) we ran into the Niumalu Yacht club. Not a lot of yachts but I always enjoy visiting a marina.

Today we headed a little further south and west, to the Poipu area. On the way we stopped at an abandoned sugar refinery. Then we grabbed lunch and ate at Shipwreck beach, where we can watch the surfers. After we ate and soaked up some sun we headed out the dirt road a ways to see the cave I saw on a map. It turned into a nice little adventure, the cave was interesting and there was shady, cool waterways on the back side. There were alien looking sandstone formations near the water. Lastly we headed to the Spouting Horn, another "meh" site.

One more big day of fun tomorrow. We're leaving early and staying late. I want to see the sunset on the west side so we can't even start heading home til well after 7. Since we'll be out there I want to try a long exposure on the crashing water at the Poipu area.

I think maybe Thursday we'll stay home and recover from all our fun...

Supermoon - Kauai Style

While Rachyl was driving us to the airport for our flight to paradise she mentioned that there was going to be a "super moon" Saturday night. For any of you who don't know what that term means, it's that the moon is at it's closest - and therefore its largest - point in its revolutions around the earth. 

So I immediately started putting together a plan of attack.  I wanted to take advantage of that seldom phenomenon and get some really cool full moon shots.

Easier said than done.

I wanted stuff in the foreground and I wanted it over the ocean.  So in our travels to and from stores and such we started looking - where to go?  We decided on Kealia beach.  It's close, there's always lots of waves and there's all kinds of stuff to put in the foreground, trees, shelters, a lifeguard shack, etc.  The moon was going to be rising right above it, not far off in one direction or the other.

So we headed out around 6:40 for the 7:08 moonrise and Rick turned on his phone to the app that gives you the times of sun and moon rises, zeniths and settings, and lots of other useless info.  It actually, at that point, had a countdown to the moonrise running! 35 minutes to go!

We had a little time to kill so we headed on into Kapaa to pick up more beer for our third (and hopefully final) day of hanging drywall on the ceiling (it's looking pretty nice!)  Then when we headed back to the beach people were already lining up for the big show.  Apparently we weren't the only ones who knew about the supermoon show.  Why did you tell all those people, Rach?

We picked our spot and set up our gear and waited.  There were clouds on the horizon so we didn't actually get to see it until it was a bit above the ocean.  But once it started to come out it was fantastic!  Rick sat in his spot while I ran up and down the parking area taking pictures here and there with my new camera on a spindly tripod.  There was a breeze (in Hawaii?  hoodathunk?) and the tripod shivered in lots of my pictures.  The trees, of course, were also moving and the shots had to be of long duration so the movement became blur.

Overall, though, I ended up getting some nice stuff.  I won't win any awards with them but I like them...

Welcome to Kauai!

Wasn't I just here? It sure feels like I just left! But the growth of the koa trees and refuse from the winter winds displays that it's been a while. 

Fortunately we arrived the day before a meeting day so dad told us that we would not be working on our first full day here. He gave us strict orders to GO PLAY!!!
So play we did. 

Before we knew that we'd be having a fun day, though, we decided to try to walk to the beach down below us via "the trail". So we headed out on foot down the road, cameras in hand, ready for an adventure. One of the first thing to greet us was one of the local dogs chasing a chicken that was keeping itself just barely out of reach - until it got to a fence. Then it was trapped and the dog won. Rick was wondering if maybe the dog's owners give it orders to fetch a chicken at least once a week for their dinner! The dog ran it home while it was loudly begging to be let free! 

 We made it out to dad's cousin, Winnie's, house to inquire where this trail is that I've been hearing about for years. Well, it isn't. Due to neglect it has become overgrown and now has goats residing on parts of it. So we came back to the house and let dad know that the trail is no more. 

Then we found out that we would not be working all day so we decided to go on an adventure. In all our exploration on Rick's last visit (that was pretty substantial) we didn't get to a pretty little beach on this side of the island, Anini beach. The name is actually an accident. It used to be Wanini beach but hurricane Iniki removed the "W" from a sign and the new name stuck - Anini. It's a beach that's slightly inset (I guess not enough to be officially called a "bay") that's protected by a long coral reef, very calm water and not a lot of sand. I drove to the end of the road and we parked and got out to walk out into the water like we saw others doing. There was a small river flowing into the water right there and a curved sandbar was formed around the delta. So we could walk out and around to get to another section of beach that led to a point before heading on around to the north and west. Once we got to the other section of beach we still walked in the water most of the time because there were large overhanging trees that had limbs low enough that Rick had to duck beneath them. Then the weather is typical Hawaii spring weather, sun - showers - downpours - sun, etc. We would wait out the heavier rain showers under the large-leafed overhanging trees. We took our time meandering the beach and when we decided to go back to the car it decided to shower a bit longer than it had been doing. And we couldn't take a shortcut, we HAD to walk back on the sandbar (we hadn't noticed this on the way out). 

Next we headed over to Hanalei to get something for lunch and found the Subway shop inside the Big Save grocery store had been replaced by an over-priced sandwich shop so we looked around more for something more to our liking. We ended up getting sandwiches and fries at L L. I got a teri steak sandwich which I was very happy with, not something you'd find on the mainland too often. Teriyaki steak is gristly but I'm used to that. It had some kind of sauce, mayo or ranch on it and it hit the spot. Rick got a regular cheeseburger. 

We took our food to Hanalei beach and ate it in the car since it was raining. When we first got there it was so heavy with rain that we could barely make out the hills on the opposite side of the bay.
I had turned on the headlights because of the rain and, as usual, forgot to turn them off when I parked (I drove because I know my way around, Rick will drive when we get our rental car). So when we were done eating and decided to just head over to Walmart because it was still raining, guess what? The car wouldn't start! Rick ended up wandering around, trying to find someone to give us a jump. I just sat in the car and eventually waited long enough that it had built up enough juice to get start again. I drove around a bit to see if I could find Rick and after being unsuccessful headed back to the beach park to pick him up there, knowing he'd head back there. 

It had actually stopped raining again and was looking beautiful so we decided to explore a little more. With all this rain the waterfalls on the sides of the mountains are flowing so I wanted to get closer to see if I could shoot some of them. I turned up a road on the mauka (mountain) side of the highway and followed it to its end. It wasn't a long road and there was a Japanese (I think) cemetery at its end. We got some shots of the crusty, moss-covered, lava rock tombstones and decided to head back towards home, then on to Walmart, then to Ahukini Pier for some more photo action. 

We got to the aforementioned pier and walked around to the picnic table on the land overlooking the pier instead of immediately heading to the pier itself. There was a flock of chickens hovering, waiting for a handout. We cracked open our beers and started snacking on some nuts. One rooster was particularly curious and too brave for his own good, he'll end up in someone's cook pot one day. But we enjoyed his friendliness. We shared some of our nuts with him and he rewarded us by allowing some very up close and personal photography. At one point we looked down the road toward the parking lot and there was a chicken family trotting toward us "They have FOOD!!" they were saying... 

That was most of the day. We managed to squeeze in a meeting and then crashed around 10. Tomorrow no more playing - WE WORK!

Me? Bored? No Way!

 This was a pretty interesting and fulfilling couple of weeks. First of all, I have a temporary, nearly full-time job at the Administration building for the Auburn School District. I'm filling in for a position that will be filled early May. It's an administrative assistant in the Department of Student Learning. There are 3 of us and we work for about 4 department heads. My position is a highly reactive job so I'm doing last minute stuff all the time. But it's a lot of diversity which is just what I like. Lots of copying, cutting, emailing, hole-punching, binding, collecting signatures, etc. I'll be working right up to the day I leave for Hawaii, it looks like.

A big event that happened is that Denny is finally, actually getting his promotion to General Foreman. It's not just talk any more, his boss actually put in his last day request and Denny is getting the paperwork, attending the classes, etc. Interesting that the one child of mine that didn't finish high school is the one "getting ahead" secularly quicker than the others who graduated with honors. He had the opportunity to begin to work out his career a little sooner I guess. And I think he found his "niche". Concrete. Hoodathunk?

Last Wednesday I got to drive out in service and that was fun too. Everyone enjoyed my toaster, it's a very comfortable car to get in and out of.

Then last Thursday Joe and Shayne had a field trip to the zoo that I'd been invited to join about a month ago. Well, the day was perfect weather-wise and the animals were, for the most part, very active. Shirley brought Elise, of course, and the boys wanted to be with their school group so we were in a group of 3 adults, 4 kids and Elise. It was very pleasant and the kids were mostly well-behaved. One kid, Cody, wasn't very obedient but with 3 adults in charge we kept him in line. Then the school group left and Shirley and I and the kids got to stay and enjoy more at our own pace.
I asked the help of my older sons to get my storm debris cleaned up since it's spring and yardwork is beginning to mount. Saturday I got my firebug son, Denny, to come up and help me start a fire to burn the ton of branches that were laying in piles all around the yard. He got the fire going all right, it was about 8 feet across and 4 feet high at it's peak and it took only 2 and a half hours to burn the whole mess. The coals were still hot enough the next afternoon that it started right up when we added more debris. Well, Keith had to fan it a bit. Actually, Keith had to fan it a LOT!

Then I asked my other son, the one with the chainsaw, Kevin, to come on Sunday to clear the path to my compost pile in the woods. About 5 trees had fallen across the path. Denny and Keith joined him. Denny brought his quad with a winch so he could pull trees out that could be cut into rounds for firewood. So all the grandsons were there too. Shayne and Hunter played but Joe, the little adult, helped. He worked the winch and hooked the line to the wood that would be pulled. Then when the party moved to the house, to remove a dead eucalyptus tree, Joe swept off the roof. I commended my boys for the great job they're doing in being good dads, especially considering that they didn't have a role model most of their childhoods.  And I got to reward Joe for working so hard.

This Wednesday Shirley and I headed up to the tulip fields in the northern part of the state. It was a showery day but cleared up after about a half hour wait in the car in the tulip field parking lot. Shirley just tended to the baby and we visited a little more til the rain stopped. Shirley had all kinds of ideas so we carted into the gardens a hunk of astroturf and a little fence for Elise to hold onto to try to get standing shots of her. Besides the baby stroller, my photography stuff, a kneepad, our purses, etc... Shirley had made a complete tulip tutu outfit for Elise to wear. She was in an extremely good mood so as soon as we would sit her on the astroturf (good thing - it was wet and MUDDY!) she would start to SQUEAL! So cute! Needless to say, with our entourage, the "professional" photographer, the screaming "human tulip" (as one boy pointed out) in the bright red, we got lots of attention! It was a lot of fun and the pictures came out great! Before we left town we had to stop in at a "vintage" toy store. Not much in the way of vintage toys, mostly newer stuff with a vintage look and lots of art supplies, but a fun store none-the-less. I spent more in that store than I've spent in a toy store in a long time! I finally found the umbrella hat I've been wanting for my hot tub!

So I got out in service, spent time with family and got my yard cleaned up. All stuff that makes me feel good. Oh, yeah, working nearly full time means I can afford to splurge on a new camera too! I've been feeling squelched mainly by the inability to shoot in low light, the new camera has a sensor 4 times as sensitive in low light as my current camera. Yee haw!

Digging for Roots

It seems to come in waves and another wave hit while my parents were here last month for Dane's wedding. The desire to find my roots.

Both my dad and father are extensive root diggers. My father has traced our roots back to (probably) the Mayflower. There is just a small gap with a question mark but other than that it's all verified. My dad, whose roots aren't actually MY roots, has enough information that nearly every Hawaiian he meets, he can find the link that connects them. Being in a small pond it's easier to find the connections.

So while my parents were visiting my dad was attempting to access certain websites with difficulty. Somehow it was determined that he could access them via a library, so Rick gave him his library information.

Once I saw what he was doing I decided to jump in. We were looking up documents that included names of our family members. Ship registers, border crossing documentations, Ellis Island ship offloading registration, censuses, etc. The easiest to access, most readily available stuff didn't help much, it only yielded information we already knew. Then I got into some more obscure documents and started to find puzzle pieces that had always been missing.

For example, we always knew that my grandparents were born in this country but both spent time in their youth living in Hungary. The story was that they'd been stuck there due to the war. In actuality my grandmother was there from 1921 - 1926, not during any war. My grandfather returned to the states in June 1929 on the ship S.S. President Roosevelt. We weren't able to find when or how he left but the return was, also, not during or immediately after the war.

Another story my mother always heard from her mother is that they traveled on the Queen Mary. Unfortunately the RSS Queen Mary took its maiden voyage in 1936, while my grandmother was having babies. So it wasn't possible for her to have traveled on that ship.

We found ship manifests listing a variety of Sziroveczes during the early 20th century, mainly 1907-1908. That would be Grampa's parents and siblings. One manifest I found listed the passengers Andras (Andrew) and Karoly (Carl) Szirovecz. We had already found Andras on a previous ship so wondered how much going back and forth was taking place. Then further on the document we saw it referring to her - this was actually Grampa's mother (Maria) and brother coming over, before Grampa was born.  Apparently married women traveled under the husband's name! This ship docked in March of 1907 and Grampa was born July of 1908.

While this is not a lot of new information it did clear up a few things.  The family came from Hungary, not Czechoslovakia.  They (likely) weren't in Europe during the war.  And Granny never sailed on the Queen Mary.

Next month the 1940 census will be available and more questions may be answered.  But it's going the wrong direction - to add to our line we need to go back further...  Maybe a trip to Hungary is in order!

Whew!

Let's go back to early December (now you see the picture wiggle and get all dreamy-like as we go back in time...)

December 4ish Dane moves home. Rick's stuff gets moved into the shop, where it should have been to begin with, it's only being stored, we need the room for a, um, room. Not storage. So Dane's home, our food bill doubles and the cooking and laundry is also multiplied. Amazing how one more person makes such a difference.

The next weekend I take shots of the couple to put in their wedding invitations and the wedding work begins. 2 weeks later the paper is all purchased and the construction party is held.

Right around this same time Rick and I visited his parents to give them an anniversary gift and find out that Arla is having back trouble. 2 days later the family discovers that her back is in very bad shape and a panic sets in. She is using canes and walkers to get around but manages to do some recovering over the next couple months.

That holiday in late December turns out to be a beautiful day and we visit the empty Seattle and take some interesting pictures. Most of the people that we ran into were the homeless that aren't usually as noticeable.

January 6th our next family member arrives, Taylor Sue Sizemore, daughter of Denny and Heather and sister to Hunter.

Mid January we finally get some winter weather, some snow and then - STORMAGEDDON!!! A nearly 4 day power outage, roads closed, Rick even stayed home from work.

Now comes February. I have the events for the month marked on the calendar and there's a dot on nearly every day of the month! This is gonna be a busy month! Let's start with my 2 day Circuit Assembly in Puyallup on the 4 - 5 weekend (Superbowl wknd).

Rick's nephew wed on the 11th in a pretty evening event in Burien. It was just right, not too crowded, comfortable venue, enough food, etc.

Tuesday the 14th my parents arrived from Hawaii and that day Dane moved into his new house in Enumclaw. I started the day by cleaning out his room, rearranged the furniture and made it into a guest room. Just before leaving for the airport I drove down to Denny's house to get some of Uncle Eugene's paintings to hang. Turned out real nice! My parents are here now for 2 weeks. We had a nice visit but it's difficult for adult children and their parents to live together. We all did our part to keep the peace and make it pleasant.

The 18th is the big event - finally. We had a photo session down at Neely Mansion at 2PM. Mr Wonderful proves himself to be just as we all remember him when approached by my dad. Then the reception was being set up and the wedding was getting ready. Some last minute touches to the bride's dress to remove some mud from the photo shoot. Dane and I got to start the procession down the aisle of the Kingdom hall at 6:07. The wedding itself goes smoothly. The reception has glitches but overall it also went well. The kids get off to their honeymoon. The gifts are all arranged at their new house for them to open upon their return. We're all relieved it's over!

The folks do some visiting over the next week, get to see some friends from previous congregations. We tried to squeeze in a ferry ride but every time we tried someone ended up not feeling well. Saturday we had our BIG family dinner at Kevin and Shirley's house. Again, everything went smoothly. It was as chaotic as I figured it would be with the 3 active little boys trapped inside together on a cold winter day. But we had a nice meal and got some nice pictures to remember our event.

Tuesday the 28th the folks headed back to Kauai, Rachyl drove them to the airport for their 9:20AM flight, since it was nearly on her way to work. Once home they discovered that their house had been invaded by mice! Time to get out the poison and find how they're getting in!

So here we are today, March 3rd.  And what did we do?  Well, I had some housework to do.  Rick needed a haircut.  I took back more wedding stuff we didn't use.  Took some pictures of her son's wedding over to Rick's sister, Denise's place.  Overall a pretty relaxing day considering what we've had for the last couple months.

Whew!

(Enters Chelsea)

My 5 have become 14.  5 kids + 5 grandkids and now 4 spouses!  We have Mr. and Mrs. Dane!

All the work came to a crescendo finally in a HUGE wedding and it worked out well. Dane got complimented on the nice event, it was fun, the talk was perfect, the couple was gorgeous, there was enough food, and no booze meant less possible problems.  Of course there were glitches - the reception hall kitchen didn't have enough pots or bowls, no napkins were purchased and we ran out of plates before the cake was served.  Those are the kind of things that just add to a wedding, though.  So long as no one was hurt it's all good.  

We had a much needed rehearsal the night before.  Seating of the wedding party was determined and Dian, the officiant, taught us how to walk down the aisle and stop for pictures, etc.  I hear the rehearsal dinner was a hit, we didn't attend, it was late and costly so I opted to eat before rehearsal.

Approximately 4 hours before the wedding we had the photo shoot at Neely Mansion, the perfect backdrop for the beautiful antique-style dress that Chelsea was wearing. The only thing not  perfect about the photo shoot was the COLD!!  It was about 40º but was spitting rain and windy.  Poor Chelsea was freezing in her beautiful gown.  My Dad finally gave her his coat to warm herself in between shots.

The event itself had a slightly late start due to a grandfather of the bride's late arrival.  It was good, though, because the groom also had hard-working family members that arrived late from prepping the reception hall.  But once it got started it went off without a hitch.  

Dian Young, the brother who did the talk, did a fantastic job.  It was simple and sentimental.  One thing he did that I haven't seen done before was revealing what they told him in preparation for the talk.  He asked them each what they loved about the other.  Chelsea said she loved how he cared about her, how he walked 6 miles in the snow to go make sure she was OK.  And Dane said she loved how her smile revealed her true feelings.  It added just enough of the personal touch.  They both got teary on the stage at different times, it was truly tender.  Dian managed to forget to ask who gave the bride away but did a good job of  apologizing for it.

The reception hall was about as packed as we'd expected it to be.  The food got cooked and served, thanks to Rach and Tony, Casey and Angie (Dane's cousin) and about 4 other volunteers.  The cake was spread on the bride and groom's faces sufficiently, the dancing was eventually shared by a large number of young folks.  Chelsea was having so much fun visiting that the only way Dane could get her to leave was to pick her up and RUN!!  From what I understand the DJ managed to throw a quick soundbite in that exaggerated his running footsteps and the crowd yelled!  Woot!  Woot!

The cleanup went without a hitch as far as I can tell also.  Most of the cooking crew stayed to clean as well as a few other willing volunteers.  Tony, who had spent hours at the stove cooking the spaghetti in tiny pots and warming the lasagna and garlic bread in the oven, then spent hours washing the dishes as he seemed to be the only one that knew how to run the commercial dishwasher.  Hopefully it was done well enough that Dane was able to get his large cleaning deposit back.

Last night we finally got a visit from the honeymoon couple.  They got the honeymoon as a gift from Chelsea's parents, a 3 day pass at Disneyland in California.  But they got it kind of last minute so the flight they had to take left at 5AM the day after the wedding.  They had a layover and their seats were not together.  The hotel room wasn't available for 5 hours once they got there. But overall it was a nice honeymoon, all those inconveniences were corrected or dealt with and they had a great time. Disneyland was a perfect choice for a young couple like the newest Vandervilles!

Congratulations kids and welcome to the family Chelsea!