King Kong

Yet another picture from our honeymoon in Hawaii. We were "sailing" along the Na Pali coast. I say sailing because technically it was a sail boat, but because of time constraints and wind direction, we motored all most all of the trip. Sailing on a fixed schedule should be a crime. It was a catamaran, and the tour group touted the benefits being how stable they are. I would say stable = rough. It felt like 30 miles of bad road. Give me a deep keel anyday, I would rather roll with the swells.

Can you see King Kong's profile?

Thar She Blows!

Humpback whales in Kauai. I tried real hard to get a picture of their flukes, but I couldn't time it right. We saw at least a dozen whales on that trip, probably 50 spinner dolphins, and a couple of green sea turtles. We saw a baby whale poke its head out of the water and look around and a large adult whale fully broach with a really big splash. The dolphins were simply showing off, after they heard us cheer, they would just keep jumping and spinning. The green sea turtles that we saw were busy making more turtles - wink, wink.

Spouting Horn

Spouting Horn, Kauai, Hawaii, USA

Bali Hai

We had a wonderful dinner at a nice resturant one evening on our honeymoon, and this was the view from our table. The sun setting over the Na Pali coast, where the movie "South Pacific" was filmed.

Wailua River

Here's a view looking back down the Wailua river at the stopping point of my two mile paddle upstream. From here we walked another mile thru the jungle to "Secret Falls" for our lunch break.

Pina Coladas

Another picture from Hawaii. This is the view from the terrace of an expensive hotel down the road from the one that we stayed at. We sat here and ordered $10 pina coladas and watched the sun go down.

Hula

Here's a cool pic from our honeymoon. We had front row seats at a luau one night.

Pictured Rocks

Can you see the Indian?.....I'm ready to go paddling.

Numbers

Maybe I've lost my mind, but I just spent $10 on batteries for a 14 year old calculator. I could buy a brand new calculator for less than $10, but it wouldn't be my trusty hp28s that I struggled to learn RPN on 14 years ago.

I hope one day that I will be as attached to my CD Gulfstream, as I am to this calculator. I have rolling instruction at an indoor pool scheduled for the 26th of February with Black Parrot Paddling. If I struggle as much learning how to roll as I did learning RPN, I may indeed be permantly bonded to my Gulfstream.

Honeymoon

We're back from our honeymoon! We spent a week on the island of Kauai. The weather was beautiful, about 80F for a high every day with a nice breeze to make it feel real comfortable. We took in all of the sights with all of the standard excursions: Boat ride to Na Pali coast, where we saw humpback whales, spinner dolphins, and green sea turtles. A great Luau with front row seats. A presentation of the musical "South Pacific". I even got to do a little kayaking. Yvette doesn't paddle, and really wanted to have a spa day, so we went our separate ways for a couple of hours. I took a guided tour up the Wailua river 2 miles and then a hike into the jungle another mile to "Secret Falls" where the group ate lunch and swam under the falls. Our guide provided a detailed explanation of the flora and fauna, including both native species and those pesky non-native species brought there by man. We also spent plenty of time at the beach and around the hotel pool trying to darken up our pasty-white office tans. We used plenty of SPF 30, so as not to burn, but then didn't get very tan either. Oh well, I guess you're not really supposed to get a tan on your honeymoon anyway, right? ;-}

Der Reckoning

Oh the joy. Four cavities requiring fillings, one broken tooth requiring a crown, two impacted wisdom teeth, the other two wisdom teeth are crowding their neighbors, and one of them is rotting away, all four requiring extraction.........Serves me right for not seeing a dentist in a very long time.

Oh yeah, and I need to stop grinding my teeth.

Indoor Archery

Indoor Archery season has begun. Another of my favorite distractions. I get to "hang with the guys" and try to prove myself the better archer. This is a "traditional league" meaning sticks and strings only. No machines of any kind, and no sights, instinctive shooting only. We are not very serious shooters, and we do try to have a lot of fun, but everyone in the photo appears to be concentrating very hard. It is only the first week! 12 weeks of this will help pass the time until warmer weather melts the ice.