BBQ

We had the first BBQ in celebration of Rickey the other night. Good food, good friends, good times.

It was really fun to finally get everyone together. If you notice, a lot of us had on long sleeves. It got cold! Don't laugh, anything below 70, we are chilled. That night it got down to 55 degrees!

Rickey

Our very good friend, Rickey, came back to Hawaii last week. He used to live on the other side of the crazies and went to every court date with us. He's been such a good friend to both of us and also the whole neighborhood, that everyone was very, very excited to see him. He's such a nice guy and we were all very, very sad when he moved to Big Sur almost a year ago.

He's staying with our other friends Travis and Marisa. The three of us went to the airport to pick him up in all the wind. Strange there wasn't any wind on that side (go figure). He couldn't wait to get his "hard shoes" off and slippers on.

He said that he really felt like he's "home".

Welcome home Rickey!

Wind

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Last week we started getting news of high winds coming. Hubby took down our tarp and we brought in anything that we thought might blow away. In December 2007, there were also high wind warnings...those turned out to be 75 mph! Those are hurricane force gusts, so no one was taking any chances.

On Thursday afternoon we got the announcement that ALL schools, courts, public works were going to be closed on Friday because of the winds. They were taking this very seriously. We brought in our emerengency kit and got ready.

Even though the winds were strong, they weren't as bad as expected. We were lucky that's for sure. One thing we've learned here is that, if it has to do with the unstable weather, pay attention.

J

"Local Boy"

As you can imagine, Hawaii is taking pride in our very own "First Local Boy". Since the election it's been building for tomorrow. Not often that someone from the most distant group of islands in the world can be called "Leader of the Free World".

Here, it really doesn't seem to matter who you voted for, now it comes down to...local boy makes good!

A couple of the shirts that Crazy Shirts has put out to celebrate.

65!!!

Today is this guy's 65th birthday! Hard to believe isn't it? I searched through some very, very old photos and came up with these. I really don't think he's changed all that much!

Terry a few months old in Vancouver, BC, Canada. A lot of people don't know he's Canadian

Even in Canada he liked working in the yard 3 years old
At a beach in Vancouver with his school uniform on...looks like he's trying to take off his shoes.

Passport photo
The "grill master" even in high school. Is that the same outfit he had on today?High school graduation picture (hair has never changed)

His first car, a "bug eyed Sprite"

College days, even then very dapper in a suit

Today, the same smile, laughing eyes, dapper look in a suit (except for church here he never wears a coat).

Love you Terry. Happy, Happy Birthday. Here's to 65 more!

Waialua Town

I was trying to organize photos on my computer and came across a folder "Waialua Town". I had gone around and taken tons of photos just of Waialua for a scrapbook I made for a friend who was moving. So I thought I'd put together a couple of post just about Waialua.

Waialua sits at the base of the Waianae Mtn. range. Mt. Kaala is the highest peak on Oahu. Waialua is bordered on the north by Kaena Point, the northern most point on Oahu, Haleiwa on the east and through the open fields is Scholfield Barracks and Wahiawa.

This actually shows our street, at the top of this, in the middle surrounded by the green. The housing tracks that you see are the Paalakai homes.
This is the Waianae Range, on the other side of this would be the "West Side"...Waianae, Makaha, Nanakuli.

Ka'ena is the northern most point on Oahu. It's actually in Waialua District, what this whole side was called many years ago.

This is AweoAweo Beach Park in Waialua. The point you see is Waimea.

Waialua had a sugar mill that was still operational until the late 90's. This photos shows the mill in the background with the Waialua Bandstand in the forground. This area was the "center" of town. There are still concerts held at the bandstand every month.

Waialua Library. This little library was named "Best Small Town Library" not only in the state, but also the nation! It's across the street from the bandstand.

Waialua is still an active farming community, so it's not uncommon to see a tractor used as transportation. I read something that said it is believed that because of the land being so good in this area, it may have been one of the first large areas of settlement.

At the end of our street, sits "The Market". Amazing stuff inside there!

And next to it is "The Bakery"...step through those doors and your stepping back into time. Butter rolls, yum!

Next to "The Market" and "The Bakery" is the Oils of Aloha building. As I understand it, this was a movie theater at one time. It's good to see that this great building is still being used for something.
To be continued...

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

Last night was pretty mellow on our actual street. What I mean by that is that no one did anything here on the street, except for some small fireworks. We missed the past years when the whole block has gotten together to do something...oh well.

Now don't think just because nothing was done outside our door, that we didn't get to see the celebrations. Oh, No! Fireworks are legal here, so they sell them just like they do for the 4th of July, everywhere...Costco, Foodland, Longs, the used furniture store in Wahiawa... for the big "Chinese style" roll of firecrackers, you have to have a permit. It's not a big deal to get a permit, I'm just not sure where you buy the actual firecrackers (probably Chinatown, you think?).

So since we got home Tuesday night, we'd heard random rockets, etc being shot off during the day. We live in a very country area, surrounded by local neighborhoods, so as the night wore on, we could hear more of these going off... All the paper you see in this photo is from the firecrackers exploding. These firecrackers are in rolls of 1000 and 5000, that you hang up high and light the lower end, step back and cover your ears. In Paalakai you can't drive down the street closer to midnight because the street is so full of the papers. Interesting fact: by saving a small amount of the red paper after the cleanup will bring you good luck.

I've seen many, many fireworks in my day, but NOTHING is like this. New Years Eve around here makes Disneyland fireworks look tame. At the stroke of midnight, as you turn around this is what you see from every direction...

We laid in bed and watched it, then went outside and stood in the street. Only one word "AMAZING".

The sound, the sights, the smell, nothing like New Year's Eve in Hawaii.