Generation. . . Z ?

I finally got my copy of "Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millenium," by Dick Meyer. I'm doing a little do-si-do with this book and Ravi Zacharias's series on Meaninglessness.

What a dance.

Only knee-deep in both, I already see what's quite possibly, dare I say it, "hope" on the horizon.

Historically, a great civilization like America should fall right about now and I think we've seen it coming. The collapse of the family, of religion, of quality public education... these are the foundations of the degradation of a nation. What follows is moral, social, political and, finally, economical decline. Sound familiar?

So I sit back in my recliner & watch suspiciously as Obama creeps in, looking too good to be true, sounding faintly like the anticipated antichrist , breezing in with his Messiah-like promises. I find myself circling around the Obama camp, eyebrows raised, itchy with bad intuition, hesitant, distrustful, hopeful, eager.

The bubbles above my head as I recline contain excerpts of Obama's Utopian hope and energy, Zacharias's accurate philosophical darts about the futility of humanism and Dick Meyer's pragmatic, clear-eyed portrait of a noisy, senseless, inattentive, self-indulgent people group (us) (as in you and me).

So I sit, think, observe. A new thread emerges leading possibly to a new weave. It is the silky thread of an energetic, candid, dissatisfied new generation that emerges from this tangled web we've woven. I've gotten glimpses of them (when they're unaware). I've seen an act of good will here, an act of self discipline there, a bold proclamation here and a convicted stance there. In our older teens/young adults, I've caught a whiff of change -- a much exploited word lately, forgive me for using it. This generation rises out of a self-destructing nation, having learned something, stepping up to the plate with:

• a sense of eternity
• a concern for the future
• a compassion for humanity
• a hunger for candor
• a grip on personal and collective responsibility
• economic restraint
• unwilling to buy into our generation's "Truth 2.0" (truth as a consumer good where you choose and create your own personal truth).
  

I can't offer this as certainty yet. I feel just a tremor of hope. But it's there. Either way, my conclusion is the same: We're either approaching the beginning of the end of The End Times or the uprising of a new generation, a multifaceted revival of sorts. And, honestly, I'm kind of ambivalent which one it is.

"Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." James 5:7,8

Oh, it's ON

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Busbees vs. Slikers

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We've spent many years building a friendship based on loving, moral, spiritual (& sometimes financial) support. We've been together in some hard times, shared some funny times, been through the gamut (& thru 3 pastors, 2 interims, but who's counting).
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(Jackie's looking a tad bit over confident here, don'cha think?)

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So when Doug asked if we'd like a little friendly competition at the NASCAR Park racetrak, I was juiced.

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Visions of Street Legal & Need for Speed danced in my head.

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I cut my teeth on Atari's Gran Trak 10, racing against the clock.

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Then in '82, which was quite a memorable year by the way, Pole Position introduced other cars and drivers to the game. Computerized cars and drivers, not the guy/gal sitting next to you.

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Then I missed many years on the video racing game scene as I was busy having babies.

Around 1999 I went out again and discovered that racing games now consisted of several players, real, live people, all competing against each other simultaneously. Totally. I stunk. But I blamed that on over ten years of forced retirement.

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Between '99 and '09, I spent very little time on these competitive simulators.

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And that brings us up to the Big Day, the Busbee's Gatorade Duel 1 when Doug sauntered up to us and asked if we dared.

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Oh, we dared, Buddy. We came, we saw, we conquered.

Next on the agenda: Busbee's Gatorade Duel 2: Demolition Derby.

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Bring it on, Jackie, you just bring it on, sister.

El Paso, Marty Robbins

Thanks to an alert reader, whom I shall leave nameless for his own sake, for this, what he claims, "The Best Song Ever." What say you? The best song ever?

Marty Robbins - El Paso
Uploaded by saucers1

Chess 4

At last.... a way to play chess with four people! Very interesting. Adding 2 more players to the mix changes the whole game.

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Chess 4 has several variants. We played the singles version, every man for himself. Once someone is checkmated out of the game, the person who defeated him/her can use the rest of his/her pieces along with their own. In this case, I was the first one out. Another variant is to play in teams where allied forces cannot eliminate each other. Wish I did that.

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In the photo below, Tommy & Eden look allied, but they weren't.

It was Carolina v Carolina all the way.

What's In Your Lunch Bag?

In the many times I’ve read about the little boy who shared his lunch with Jesus and then the entire crowd, because Jesus miraculously multiplied the food, I’ve never given much thought to the little boy. His appearance is brief and unheralded. Out of the four gospel accounts of the story, only one mentions the boy at all.

Midday Connection, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, offers their radio broadcast on podcast, so I always download it and listen at my leisure. The other day, I found them discussing the book Daily Seeds from Women Who Walk in Faith. I believe I’m going to get this book for 2009. I have several lengthier Bible Studies going on, but this seems like a nice, brief daily one for the days when I’m in a hurry or the days when I want a little bit more or a quick pick-me-up in the middle of the day.

November 5th’s reading is by Robin Chaddock. She discusses the five loaves & two fish story, then she zeroes in on Luke 9:16,17, where Christ had multiplied the food, divided it out and gave it to the disciples to distribute. Chaddock compares the boy’s bagged lunch to the unique gifts God gives each of us to use as He specifies, as he gave the disciples the food to be used as he instructed. In the study, Chaddock challenges us with this question: What is in your lunch bag? “The lunch bag that you have right now, nothing more, nothing less.” She continues, “You are in charge of knowing what you have and God is in charge of distribution.”

I love that! I never thought of my spiritual gifts or my worldly possessions or my God-given blessings as my “lunch bag.” The parallels are amazing. We were created in a particular fashion to be blessed and transformed by God through Christ and then utilized for particular assignments in our surroundings. Open up your lunch bag today & see how God utilizes it.

Shootin' Skeet

First, say this three times fast, or, heck, even one time fast.

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"He shoots skeet.

She shoots skeet."

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OK, so they shoot skeet.

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& he shoot skee...er.. um... traps, he shoots traps. And he claims,

"Trap shooting is almost like playing golf with a shotgun...."

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Playin' golf with a shotgun makes me think of the Clampetts. When they moved to Californey, they went out and "shot golf" a time or two.

The Clampetts actually had a lot of shotgun references and scenes. &... I don't know, for some reason these guys brought back memories of the Clampetts - The Beverly Hillbillies.

Here's a clip of some of the Clampett Confusion.

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Here I'm guessing Tommy is showing Will the correct method to mount the shotgun and perhaps some common errors to avoid.

& maybe he's telling Will how to fling the target diagonally across the field and not into HWY 302, just to their left.

& maybe he's talking about body position and follow-through.

& most likely adressing how to hold the gun properly without injuring any arm and neck muscles.

'cause it's lookin' here like Will's got it.

I see confidence, satisfaction, control... I see mental rehearsal & acute awareness skills .... as described at skeetshootingtips.com.

"Be proud of your accomplishments, but never be fully satisfied with the outcome of your shooting."

Like the frisbee, skeet shooting has spread and become very competitive. It scares me, but y'know, most things do. The whole "skeet" thing sounds silly though. Here's one place that gave me an explanation for the name skeet:

"The word "skeet" is derived from the Scandanavian word for "shoot." Credit for naming the game goes to Gertrude Hurlbutt, a Dayton, Montana housewife, who in 1926 won a contest for naming the new game. Among the thousands of entries in the contest were "Bang" and 'Bye Bye Blackbird.'"

So. I guess a sport named by a Mrs. Hurlbutt has to be kind of fun. It is to you, Mrs. Hurlbutt, we submit our thanks and continue to enjoy this quirky sport.

OK, Will, rip one for Mrs. Hurlbutt.

Holiday Card Game Winner

Congratulations, Lisa a/k/a Cecil a/k/a Sour Bunny for winner our Holiday Card Game last posted here. She was overwhelmingly the winner with 133 points and has won herself a gift card to Mimi's Cafe in Charlotte, NC. Mimi's started in CA in 1978 and can now be found in over 22 states. Click here to locate a Mimi's near you.

Watch your mailbox, Lisa, for the giftcard to arrive soon & Enjoy!

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Thanks to all who participated in the game, hope it brought a smile to your face.

Wham-O Frisbee Anniversary

52 Years ago today, the Wham-O Toy Company introduced "The Pluto Platter." Two years prior to it's release, it was presented to Wham-O founders Arthur "Spud" Melin & Richard Knerr by it's inventor, Fred Morrison, a little known building inspector who, apparently, had been playing around with a plastic flying disc as he went from site to site and one day realized it would make a nice toy. Another story goes that Knerr and Melin saw Morrison playing with it on the beach and approached him. Either way, the Pluto Platter hit the stores. One year later, it underwent a name change to "Frisbee". Marketing genius at work, eh? 52 years later, "Let's go play Pluto Platter" wouldn't get anyone off the couch. "Let's throw the frisbee" sounds way cooler.

Wham-O was known as a place where "garage tinkers could show up with wacky ideas and watch them turn into national fads in a matter of months."
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The Frisbee followed on the heels of the wildly popular Slingshot and was itself followed by the Hoola-Hoop, the "Grandaddy of all fads." The Hoola-Hoop originated as a bamboo ring Australian children used for exercise.
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Wham-O is responsible for many toys we all have enjoyed, some of which are The Slip N Slide, Hackey Sack, & Silly String. (Well, the silly string thing gets on my nerves, but everything else is pretty good.)
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In 1997, Wham-O introduced the Frisbee® disc Max Flight. It was thrown & caught over 350 feet at the 1997 Frisbee U.S. Open Flying Disc Championships.
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Here we are 52 years later with a World Flying Disc Federation & and an entirely new sport: Disc Golf or Frisbee Golf, which my family has recently gotten into.
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Personally, as far as the greatest toys ever, I have to stick with the Mongo Bat. But I understand the appeal of the Frisbee, too, so versatile, almost unbreakable, and easy to transport.
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Go grab your Frisbee (everyone's got one) and have a great day!

Indescribable, Chris Tomlin

It's All About the Tickets

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When the children were little, we would spend an entire hour in front of the glass enclosed display of prizes at Chuck E. Cheese. We would have spent about $50 by then on games so the children could win tickets with which to purchase pieces of crap we could have gotten at WalMart for 15 cents.

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Tom & I always dreaded trips to Chuck E. Cheese. Hours of smashing into people, jostling our way from one game to another, hearing the kids cry over losing tickets or losing tokens or just losing the game.

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The bright, flashing lights, the noise, the crowd, ugh, it was way too much for this introverted, highly sensitive person to endure.
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We very much looked forward to the day they would outgrow arcades. Before long, we realized that day would not arrive until they were parents, dragging behind their own children, running zig zag through a Chuck E. Cheese like a soldier in a battle zone.

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But what really, really surprised us was how much they covet the tickets. Now that we thought they'd outgrow. Even at 16, 17, 20, 23, it's still all about the tickets!

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And, darlin', greed is contagious. You can't hang around these kids without getting sucked into the madness. You begin to think "I gotta have more tickets." You scour the place for the machine that has the best output. You lurk behind ticket moguls, experts; you study their technique.

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Ross, the youngest member of our youth group, was the first to land a jackpot. He got 500 tickets or more in one single shot. (and, yes, at the end of the day, he took the most time choosing his prizes at the glass display case) (y'know what, he chose some things for his sister who stayed at home!) (suh-weeeet)

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They had to play more and more games to get more and more tickets. More! Must have more!!

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& for what?? Junk! Silly clown hats, cheap stuffed animals, a plastic ring, a ball on a paddle....

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Marj one time hit a jackpot and got over 4,000 tickets in one day, spent 30 minutes at the prize display case while 3 year old Eva, next to her, cashed in her measley 35 tickets for a ring. What sane person would do this? These arcades suck the sanity out of everyone. If you enter, you are powerless, trust me.
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We could have such a good Bible study on this, don't you think. The world and all it's enticements, sucking us in until we are doing things we wouldn't even want to do in our weakest moment. Eyes glazed over, craving useless things.

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Must play more. More!

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Must have more tickets!!

Youth Ski Trip

For those of you who have been asking about the ski trip, I have two posts thus far about our ski trip. Click here for one and click here for another. The rest will be coming over the next few days. I do have to work, y'know.

In Which Obama Promises the Moon

Me & Chris Matthews go back a-ways. We've had our share of public debates. We haven't always agreed on everything; as a matter of fact, we disagree quite often.
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We get a little tangled up every four years or so whenever the election rolls around. I might get too riled up, a little rowdy, hence the iron bars between us, but still.
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I love 'em.
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This election has been no different.
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But his interpretation of the inaugural speech has actually been impressive this year. In his day-long chatter, I think I only rolled my eyes and got fed up with him once. Chris only exasperated me when he repeatedly & doggedly tried to steer post-speech conversation towards Obama's ugly condemnation of the Bush Administration, identifiable by torture, abuse and surveillance. Chris believes that this was the heart of Obama's message.
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To which I said, "What the heck?" {eyes scrunched, brows furrowed}
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It may be the heart of the partisan discord of Chris' life, but it wasn't the heart of Obama's speech. The heart of Obama's message, in my "bear-of-little-brain" opinion was: He's a good fixer. (That's what Eva says of Doug Busbee) (Experiencing a warm, fuzzy moment here)
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This good fixer of a President is going to fix:

• the economy
• global warming
• foreign policy
• health care
• tribalism
• national conflict and discord
• petty grievances
• false promises from the government {snickers}
• worn-out dogmas {raises eyebrows}
• bias towards narrow partisan interests
• terrorism (leaders of rogue nations are now going to listen to & heed Obama's advice)
• racial inequities
• oppression & slavery

And that, my friend, is why I say "Obama promises the moon." He also said:

"There are some who question the scale of our ambitions," (who, me?) "For as much as government can do and must do, it's ultimately faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies..... kindness.... selflessness.... courage.... parental nurture...."

OK, well, I do like his basic premise about the price and promise of citizenship & his recall of hardwork & diligence.

More of Obama's speech:

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.... and so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today... know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity and that we are ready to lead once again."

Pat Buchanan's interpretation: Obama is saying that Idealism now triumphs over security concerns. This sense of hope ignites Americans. This attitude will sit well until we have a problem. For example, releasing the Guantanamo Thugs could result in more terror & Americans will very quickly turn against Obama.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown argued against this thought that Utopian Hope is something fickle by saying that Obama made it clear that America will not change overnight, "but be clear we are going to turn it around." He summarizes Obama's theme as "all you have to be is candid, open and honest and ignore the process that has driven you for greed." To which Chris pumped his fist and claimed Obama was "stickin' it to the Bush Administration."

Brown speculated that Obama's speech wasn't as magnificent as we expected based on Obama's previous speeches because Obama adopted a more "business-like tone -- no stellar, memorable lines, no quotable quotes or applause lines."
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Michelle Bernard, a political analyst for MSNBC, had an interesting observation about Obama's claim that leaders of terrorist and oppressive nations will suddenly come to their senses & comply with America now that Obama is the leader. (A great example of the audacity which I've seen & found repulsive throughout his campaign, but - hey - that's just me) Bernard said perhaps the people, not the leadership, of rogue nations will respond to Obama and we "might see a civil rising where they might begin to judge their leaders." Bernard emphasized how Obama "reached out to the Muslim world in his speech.... he reached out with a message to our Muslim brothers and sisters." Now frankly, that just scares me.
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Now, moving on to the more frivolous ... I was very annoyed with the boos and hisses from the 2 million + crowd upon the arrival of President Bush. I thought it was boorish and discourteous. I suggest that this behavior is indicative of the caliber of this particular crowd, that it was a persuasive component that distincts this election from previous ones. I think it was honorable of President Bush not to reciprocate in kind. Bush pleasantly applauded after Obama's incisive speech.
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Willie Brown speculated that "maybe Bush wasn't aware of what Obama said." While Chris Matthews loved that, he did reprimand Brown for such a partisan remark (it takes one to know one). Then Chris snickered that he thinks Bush was "quite aware."

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I really, really appreciated both prayers at the Inauguration. They were wonderful, but it perplexes me how our leaders continue to emphasize prayer and a reliance upon God, yet deny it to our school children. But anyway, back to the prayers.... I thought it creative how Rev. Lowery concluded his with the lighthearted but loaded rhyme. I'm never quite sure of my politically correct footing though. Like, wasn't that demeaning to indicate that due to the racial nature of this president and this crowd, we should include some rhyming, an art form largely prevalent in the African American heritage? Like, I mean, if Pastor Rick Warren had concluded with a little rap, wouldn't that be politically incorrect? Nobody seemed to get upset, so I'm guessing it was OK.
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My last frivolous, random thoughts:
1. Doesn't Rick Warren, Chuck Todd, Chris Brogan, & Brian Clark all look alike? What's up with that?
2. Does anybody out there like Keith Olbermann? Must he be on TV?

Happy Days

Enjoy some of the "best of Happy Days." (My favorite is Mrs. C asking Mr. C if he is getting frisky when ".... it's only Thursday!")

Yabba Dabba Doo, Gatlinburg, TN

It wasn't exactly

a "loud mouth in a leopard tunic and his trusty sidekick Barney."

But it was close.

We went to the Hollywood Star Cars Museum in Gatlinburg, TN. The museum's a fun little way to spend an hour or two. Learning about the history behind the making of famous TV and movie cars is interesting and the museum has a great location - right on the main strip in Gatlinburg. I particularly enjoyed the Jed Clampett mobile, Andy Griffith's police car, and a particularly unusual wax figure of Tom Cruise. In addition to seeing Elvis' lincoln, we got to test drive the Flintmobile.

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Oh yes.

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Me, Connie, Christie & Jackie.

- Typical of Connie's driving, we took a few hard turns & a few sudden stops.

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AND.....

. . . we found Pebbles.

"Cuddly & Cute, the apple of her parents' eyes.."

Punta Gorda, Florida Gulf Coast

Peace, baby.


It's the Peace River, Punta Gorda, Florida, the land of sunshine.


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Punta Gorda is in Charlotte County where the Peace River meets Charlotte Harbor, down on the gulf coast side of Florida ,100 miles south of Tampa, below Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice Beach. This is not a beach town; this is a fishing town, a quaint cobblestone & palm tree kind of town, a "let's walk across the bridge" kind of town.
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The walk (or jog) across the bridge is a favorite of the locals & since we have relatives that live there, we felt this included us. So one morning after Christmas, we put down our eating utensils and headed out for a little exercise.
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The walk was fantastic. We parked somewhere along the Retta Esplanade, which runs alongside the river, another great walk, and leads to the Fisherman's Wharf. The bridge walk is deliciously breezy and provides an energetic amount of exercise due to its little slope. If you go over and back, it might be a three mile walk, maybe a little less. Stop and watch the boaters, pelicans or fishers, plan out your day, clear cobwebs from your brain, whatever.
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Eva didn't exert much energy, as you can see.
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For nature lovers, the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center offers some guided nature walks and you can take a swamp buggy tour through Telegraph Cypress Swamp & the Lemon Bay Park and Environmental Center is a nice visit. For people who like to fish, there are some charter options to get out on the water. The specialty in the local bay area is trout, sheepshead or snook & if you get out into the gulf, your catches will include grouper, mackerel, snapper or tarpon. Check website schedules, several fishing tournaments are held here throughout the year. And remember, you are on the gulf, so of course there is plenty of golf and bingo.


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Walking along the espalande is another great walk where you can find some picnic tables & a great playground for some quality family time.

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Keep walking and you'll come to the docks and
Fisherman's Village. Fisherman's Village is an up & coming boardwalk of cute gift shops and gimmicky restaurants.

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Punta Gorda isn't exactly a vacation destination, but if you are visiting the Gulf Coast beaches, Punta Gorda is a great day trip, especially if you're gonna go out on a fishing charter boat, but even if you're not, it's a'right.

Venice Beach

Anna Maria Island
Lido Key Beaches (Uncle Pete's faves! )

How Great is Our God, Chris Tomlin

It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!

Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Ephesians 2:1-6, The Message

14 Points for Peace, 2009 Version

Woodrow Wilson, in January of 1918 penned his famous "14 Points for Peace" as World War I was approaching its end and peace would, presumably, be up for negotiation. So as I was studying his inspirational document, I began to think of my own life, my own battles fought and the peace I'd like to negotiate for 2009.
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I've revised Wilson's legendary document and have come up with my own "14 Points for Peace," most of which cover territorial conflicts, which I hope my familial colleagues will ratify at our next Peace Conference.
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1. Put your own dirty dishes in the dishwasher. (Sounds simple, I know.)
2. Put your clean laundry away the day I deliver it.
3. Move all your clutter out of the Living Room before bed each night.
4. Move all your clutter off the Dining Room table before bed each night.
5. Don't leave more than 2 pairs of shoes by the front door.
6. File and store the papers surrounding your computer 3 times a week.
7. Four times a week, properly store all the belongings you've left on the floor, dresser and table tops throughout the day.
8. If you splatter food particles on the wall behind the trash can, sink or stove, wipe them clean immediatly.
9. If you use the oven or stove, clean it afterwards.
10. If you drop or leave things on the patio or in the yard, pick them up and put them away.
11. If you splatter toothpaste in the sink or on the mirror, clean it up.
12. Clean out your vehicle, vacuum and scrub it once a month.
13. If you want me to pay for pet food each week, do something with the pet each week.
14. Don't leave bits of cheddar cheese in the sink to dry and harden up.

The Defense Rests, Your Honor

Marj's defense to my Ice Skating Post. Let the record so note.

Moonlighting

My post is over here today. God bless & have a great day!

Every Moment is a Choice, a Decision to be Made

I'm working two opposite ends of the spectrum today. One the one hand, I'm flitting haphazardly through the mall of inspiring, upbeat, motivational views of Seth Godin, Tim Siedell, and Mark McGuinness, trying on ideas and opinions and observations like clothes in bright, offbeat colors. I often play with and love to view offbeat colors and textures, but rarely wear them.

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And on the other hand, I'm paddling silently through the brackish waters of Kathleen Norris and the likes of Madeline L'Engle &, while not exactly the same, but still spiritually murky & thick... Phil Johnson, reverently navigating around the tall, historic, solid cyprus roots of acedia, spiritual obscurities and certainties.... Mmmmm, drifting lazily around familiar shadows and sounds, when suddenly, I'm back in the blinking lights and sounds of the mall, shopping for a new idea, celebrating this evolved world of technology and idealistic work environments, individualized, personalized and fitted for each and every personality or temperament. A hippie-like reaction to the cookie-cutter "dark suit, briefcase & always home by 5" mentality of the workforce of the 20th century. Avant-garde is the new weird.
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A friend wrote me the other day, "See, I can be weird like you." I've always suspected that I am weird, but this was the first confirmation, other than my mother, and certainly the first written confirmation. Lucky me, in today's climate, it's a badge of honor. The world is mine for the taking. Is it weird to wake up and decide what kind of day you're going to have? Is that weird or "creative control?" Call it reconfiguration. Is it weird to think like a Senorita today and a Fraulein tomorrow? To pop into the library and peruse a newspaper from a foreign country and to listen to music in a foreign language?

What's the point of a culturally diverse environment and a global awareness if you're not going to personalize it, adopt it, make it pertinent to your day, your life...
If you must get in a carline, drive thru gridlock or sit in a cubicle every day {{I shudder}}, why not shake it up a bit? Broaden your horizons. Think outside the box. Monday - Friday should not be exact duplicates, cookie-cutter days. Be the artistic director of your day, your life. Take control. When you have to do mundane, routine things, jazz 'em up a bit, infuse them with some funk, some attitude. Take a step back & look at things from a different angle.

Every single moment is a choice. Take ownership of that choice. Spice it up. Let's eradicate dead-end faces plodding through life anticipating 5:00 Friday or the increasingly elusive retirement. Your life is now. Pursue it doggedly, imaginatively and aggressively.
What if today was your last day. Can you go out with a smile? Fond memories? Or would you have done something differently?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see what's around that bend.

Hawaii: Oahu: Hanauma Bay, Halona Blowhole, Coastline

One of three in a series on Hawaii, links at the bottom.

On our first morning in Hawaii, we slept in to counteract the time change and we hiked the Maniwili Falls and did some other stuff.

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But on our second morning, baby, on our second morning we woke early to drive across Hwy 72 to the Winward side of the island and make our way down to Diamond Head Crater. We pulled over at Kaiona Beach Park to catch the sunrise along the shore on our drive. It was spectacular. So much fun to drive through small, local towns at sunrise and see how the locals rise & shine!

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Here's a good picture of the Winward shoreline.

It is full of lava stones. Not a great swimming area, but it is great for fishing and diving for squid.

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Driving along the coast, you can see buoys scattered around the water like pinheads marking a map. Each one, we later learned, is attached to a diver who is catching squid. We stumbled across a local diver bringing up his catch & I got a nice picture. I still won't eat squid, but enjoyed learning about the fishing process.

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So here we have Rabbit & Turtle Islands. This is where we started getting into a lot of Magnum P.I. shooting locations. That's pretty cool since I am a child of the 70's and loved Magnum P.I.

"Magnum, I want you to know I'm quite touched, I never thought you were capable of those admirable sentiments, I really mean that."-

We zoomed along the coast, listening to all Elvis, all the time, thinking about my brother, and pulled suddenly around to the famous Halona Blowhole.
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If you're saying "What the heck is that?", well, so are we... and we've been there. But it's a pullover on the side of the road, so go ahead and pull over, it's beautiful, relaxing.

"The blowhole is a natural occurrence formed by molten lava tubes from volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. The lava tubes run to the ocean and, when the surf is right, the blowhole shoots water up to 30 feet in the
air."

It’s not clear what or where the blowhole is, it looks like a little bay/inlet and since it didn’t "blow," I have no idea what on earth it is. If driving by, pull over and look, but don’t plan a special half day trip for it. We never, ever saw what the guidebooks describe despite stopping there several times during the week. So then we circled around the lighthouse & came upon Sandy Beach. Ooo la la. We pulled over and ran our toes through that sand. We watched the surfers for a bit. These waves were pretty big for this side of Oahu.

The next big stop, circling around the island's perimeter is the very popular, Hanauma Bay. Formed thousands of years ago by the flooding of a volcanic crater, this bay contains amazingly diverse fish life. Hanauma Bay is one of the best snorkeling and swimming areas in the world. Due to the excessive swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving the bay’s marine life is being threatened so in 1990 strict visitor limits were initiated, which means you should give some attention to planning this visit ahead of time.

If you are experienced in snorkeling, you should probably do your snorkeling elsewhere. This is a great beginner's place, but is overcrowded & not very adventurous. If you are experienced, though, you can cross the reef and get more adventurous. This was our first time snorkeling, so we stayed in the comfort zone, close to shore.

Since this trip, I have snorkeled out in the deeper waters in Belize, but I saw more marine life here in Hanauma Bay. Belize was actually disappointing in that respect.

If you are going to swim, layout and snorkel at Hanauma Bay, plan ahead and arrive early in the day for a visit. Only a certain amount of people are allowed in at a time and parking is always a problem. You will wait in line to get in & once inside, you have to take a 10 or 20 minute film about preserving the reef while you’re there. THEN you can get your gear and enter the water and stay as long as you like.

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We only had a half day & we arrived late in the day, but if I went again, I’d go earlier in the morning (before they open) and I’d stay probably til 2 or 3:00. I think you can take your own cooler, but it is a strenuous hike down to the water and you have to carry it or pay to ride the tram and WAIT for the tram (we didn’t).
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This eel is one of the first creatures to slither past me. I screamed. It was exhilarating.

A visit to Oahu must include Hanauma Bay and a drive along with Winward coast. Hope you enjoy it!

Hawaii:  Honolulu and Waikiki

Hawaii:  Winward and North Shore