Hamakua Marsh

There is a small wetlands area between Kailua and the mountains. Really interesting birds and ducks hang out there. But they're camouflaged so well it is hard to see them in a photo. Actually, I've been right on top of them before I notice some times.This marsh is right along Hamakua Road that I walk along from our condo to the bus stop. There is a closer bus stop, but this is a wonderful walk.Today the sun is out, the wind is mild, the temperature is the perfect 80 degrees as always, and the little wetlands animals are happy.(Someone threw bread out so they swarmed ashore.)

Thanksgiving Day sail

It was around 80 degrees (as always) on Thanksgiving and there was a good wind so we got the chance to sail.
This is Rick's boat, Tala. We went sailing on a different boat today, but we got to waive to her because they're in the same harbor.We went for a quick tour around Kaneohe Bay with the boat owner, his mother and kids and another sailor who is a captain.The tricky part about sailing in Kaneohe Bay is looking out for coral reefs. According to the captain, there are 52, along with the barrier reef.This is Rick. Sometimes the driving part is easy. When it's not, I wasn't taking pictures, I was holding on.According to the guy Rick partners with on his boat, there are two kinds of sailors: ones who have hit a reef and the ones who will.

This is where the opening scene of Gilligan's Island was filmed. We passed it at the end of our three hour tour. After the sail, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at the captain's house ... AND we caught the next-to-last bus back home.

Thanksgiving flowers

Flowers are everywhere. They grow on groundcover, bushes, trees -- anything that sprouts has a flower. These are pictures I took the day before Thanksgiving on my walk across campus.

Christmas trees

I am surprised to learn that having a traditional Christmas tree is a big deal in Hawaii. Pine trees do grow here, but they look a little different.The branches are spaced out on the trunk.And the branches reach out with their fingertips, unlike the ones in Colorado who make a fist.But the trees grown here are apparently not sufficient for the seasonal demand. The paper says 100,000 trees are shipped in to Hawaii in containers like this one.They go from the container to tents like this one in Kailua.

I'm happy to let the pine tree outside our door decorate itself.

Fire!

Sunday afternoon the building fire alarm went off while we were watching football.

It wasn't the kitchen fire alarm that we set off occasionally while cooking, it was the fire alarm on the outside of the wall. We grabbed our laptops and headed outside to see what was going on.There was a fire in one of the units across the building from us.
No one was home and no one was hurt. But it was very exciting.A TV crew showed up so I emailed these pictures to the local station where I know people in case they were interested. The pictures from my little iphone were on the 10 pm news. Yes, it is a small market but I love it!

Fall Growing Season

The landscape here has always seemed lush, but recently the hills have become even more green and fuzzy. It looks like they are chia-mountains -- the rain starts and everything sprouts.

If you look really closely, you can see a white-ish spot on the left side of this picture. It is a man in a lift trimming trees.He is completely surrounded by growing green stuff. The only way I saw him from the road was that I heard the sound of his chain saw.The palm trees all have new leaves poking out the top.

It is apparently tangerine season. If you look closely, you can see the tangerines on top of the tree in this yard.I got closer to this yard.
One of the professors in my office suite brings in a bag of tangerines every few days -- fresh off the tree. Some people are so used to the bounty of this island they don't see it as precious. One said, "Oh yeah, tangerines. I'm tired of tangerines. I'm looking for someone with mangos."I'm not sure, but these could be mangoes, which means he will need to wait for awhile (they're pretty green still).

More unusual plants

These look like Dr. Seuss trees. They're in on the patio of the Student Center. Except in Hawaii a patio is called a lanai. Also, it's not exactly a patio -- most of the buildings on campus have passages that are just open to the air rather than hallways. So, the tree plants are in what would be a corner of a hall.This plant is bigger than it looks. The leaves are bigger than I am and they kind of bend in the middle. It makes me think it is trying to eat me. It's trying to eat this car. Or even an SUV!
And it's growing a new leaf -- see the thing that looks like a stick? It will unroll into another enormous leaf.
New flowers come out of a pod that grows on the palm tree trunk.They spread out, make flowers and then the flowers turn into fruit.
This last picture is from today. I've walked by a row of green plants near my office every day and now, suddenly, they popped out with some beautiful flowers!

Veterans Day breeze

Rick wanted to sail on Tuesday and I had the day off for the Veterans Day holiday so we headed for the marina. He recently bought a small boat with a partner. Somehow when we were planning this move, the fact that sailing involves more than one person never occurred to me. I had been on a sail boat exactly one time in my life. It was small and already in the water -- I didn't see what it took to get the sails up and ready.My first job on our first sailing lesson was to hoist the main sail. I'm pretty sure I was planning to experience being sailed rather than actually pulling ropes (yes, I know now they are called sheets) and trying not to hit coral reefs or make the sails go flat.But it is wonderful out on the water. So quiet. So peaceful. And, on Tuesday, so windy! Too windy for a couple of novice sailors and a small boat. We sail past the beach where the opening to Gilligan's Island was shot and I have been telling people that my sailing objective is to be Gilligan (just good enough not to get in the Captain's way). But I have no desire to actually get blown off course and see it first hand. So we skipped the boat and headed for the beach.We were forced to spend the afternoon watching kite-surfers and wind-surfers putting the wind to good use.