Never too old...

to dress up for Halloween.

We had a Halloween party on Kaamooloa Road the other night.

There were some great costumes.  I only got a few because my camera started

acting up, but you get the idea.

Dog the Bounty Hunter & Wife,

Dead Little Red Riding Hood,

Batwoman,

Cleopatra, the lovely hostess of the party and

an old surfer.

As with any party there was a ton of food...this was just at the start.

 The Adams girls outdid themselves with the the kids games!

Great Party!

It was "SPOOKtacular"

Sunset Beach Fresh...

I spotted this new little stand on Kam Hiway (towards Kahuku).

I loved the way that he had all of his local fruit displayed!

These are the real "local" fruits...not like the stuff you see at some of the other

stands along the road (where they have the boxes the fruit came in sitting on the side, not really

alot of it local grown).

apple bananas, lilikoi, avocados, pineapples, star fruit papayas

just another reason to "buy local"

First Sign...

that the surf contest season is fast approaching.

Post script, ..."Gone"

When I posted this I knew they were close to the end, but everyday when I drove by the walls

were still up until this morning...it's finally gone.  I had to laugh at the toilet left sitting

out there.

Eastside came North...

The Kailua smoothie place made famous by President Obama has

come to the North Shore...finally.

Seemed like they were working on it for months and months.

Nice to have another choice.

Going, Going, Almost Gone...

 If you've ever come down Kaamooloa, you've probably seen the "pink compound"

before you turn into our lane.  I found out recently that it had been sold.  I started noticing that

there was a guy there that was doing a lot of trimming, etc.  He told me that he was the new owner

and explained that all of the houses on the property were "illegal" so he was going to take them

all down.  That's what he started doing...by himself!

This is what he used to knock them all down, except for one.

This one was closest to the road and he knocked down one that

was attached to it.

Then I noticed that the front house was being taken apart, board by board.

There were a lot of guys over there working on it.  Seemed like it went slower

than the othere ones.  

Today he told me that everything is going to be used by someone else down the

street.  The whole group came and worked in exchange for all the free materials.

Cool that it's being reused.

The whole property is almost 2 acres, has a great view and even has an underground spring.

APEC "spruce up"...

In a couple of weeks Honolulu will host APEC (Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation).

As its gotten closer, the news has been filed with new articles about how this is going

to affect all of us.  What roads will be closed, parts of the airport being given a face-lift,

court cases being moved from downtown to other courts around the island, events being

cancelled because there won't be any extra police/sheriff officers (they will all be working

on APEC), etc, etc, etc. 

I've read these articles with interest, but they really don't have any affect

on us out here since the majority of the people will be staying in town.

I've been following the controversy of the Nimitz Hiway palms.  If you've ever driven from the

airport to Waikiki and not gone on the freeway, you've gone along Nimitz Hiway. 

There are parts of it that are industrial and then it goes along the harbor, skirts downtown past car

dealerships, small local food stands and then changes into Ala Moana Blvd. around Ala Moana

Beach Park. 

Around the harbor area there's a median strip down the center, this is where the guys selling

newspapers stand.  And its this area that has lead to numerous articles.  In an effort to "spruce-up"

Nimitz, the C&C has planted coco palms and laid sod in the median.

Honolulu is an urban area, but it's not lacking beautiful trees.  Kapiolani Blvd. is shaded

with huge trees, there are shower trees downtown, Kuhio Blvd. in Waikiki has beautiful trees.

Now we have the Nimitz palms. 

They are nice to look at, hope they don't die in the next 2 weeks (which is one concern),

If they really were moved from one vacant area to Nimitz and didn't cost much, that's OK.

They really do add something.  Isn't a coconut palm one of the things visitors

expect to see in Hawaii.

Only one problem that I can see...

how are they going to move all of the homeless and their tent cities

off the sidewalks or from under the shade of the palms?

Paya...

A few months ago, the big news on the street was the birth

of Misty's kittens.

During the last month a lot has happened with the kittens and Misty.  Misty kept moving

the kittens around from under all the houses, except the girls (she would never keep them there).

Two of the kittens were given away to a friend.

Long story short, after several run-ins with the girls male dog, Koda, there is only

one kitten left (Misty is also gone).

This girls named this little guy Paya, as in papaya.  When he was smaller, he would climb

a papaya tree and sit up there.

Now that he's bigger, he hangs out in the mango tree in the girls front yard.

He really is pretty cute and has a playful personality.

Lets hope he is smarter than the other ones and stays

away from the dog!

Welcome Home!

Quite a group came to HNL to welcome Carly home from her 18 month mission

to Toronto Canada.

Cousins (who were now taller than her), Aunts, Uncles, Brother and Sister In Law, Sister,

Grandparents and Friends all came out.

Since her sister is a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines, she was able to get her

parents out to the gate to meet Carly when she landed.

She still had on her warm Canadian clothes! Long socks and a sweater!

I love this picture of her dad taking a picture of the crowd.

Welcome Home Carly!

Sunset dinner...

Last year at about the same time our good friends the Iwanas and the Nitchmans came out

for dinner.  We decided to do it again this year with an added couple. Since this was a bye

week for UH football, it seemed perfect. The weather

had been so nice up until Saturday, when it was hot and humid.

We headed down to Kaiaka and set up our little table.

Food was the center of attaction again (or as always).

The rainbow was beautiful, but the dark sky was not.

Paalakai fried chicken, Kahuku corn, Paalakai bakery butter rolls, musubi,

and Benita's famous Mac Nut Brownies!

What could be better?

Right after I took these pictures, the rain started.  We stayed a while since it was

more of a mist and it was warm, but finally had to retreat back to our house.

In any case, good food, good friends means good fun!

Thanks again guys for coming "all the way out to the North Shore!"

A Small Kine Hoike...

Our neighbor, SuSu started taking hula.  Her dad stopped me when I was leaving

for hula and said she was doing a hoike in Haleiwa.  So I left hula early and rushed

back out here so I could see it.

I'm sure this was her first one and I could tell she was a little nervous.

She, and all the girls, did a great job!  I could tell she knew all of her songs and

the motions that went with them.

They were dancing "My Yellow Ginger Lei", and I love their

little hands showing the "flower"

I actually knew three of the other girls that are SuSu's hula sisters.

One from my class this year,

a friend we've known since she was born,

and a girl from my class last year.

I loved that they had live music!  It always adds so much.

just one little thing missing...a smile.

Afterwards I asked Su if she was nervous and she said "no, she just

didn't want to smile".

I know how that feels.  It was really nice to see these young girls

dance such beautiful hulas.

I'm glad I got to go.