Monday – August 10: In the morning, I did 2 more lessons from chapter 7. I need to keep going and not get distracted.

We kept track of tropical storm Felicia, and it looks like she is gradually falling apart, bummer. We were looking forward to some weather action, but … I don’t think it is going to happen!

In the afternoon, we had a FIRE down southwest of the golf course. It started about 3:00 p.m. and at it’s peak, there were 2 helicopters doing water drops. It was pretty cool to watch them do their aerial tricks.

Dinner was spaghetti, delicious. I think we are all starting to get melencholy about leaving. I am sad and do not want to return, but I want to enjoy every minute that we have left!

Sunday- August 9: Relaxing morning and later in morning we headed up to Hawi and surrounds to do some browsing in the artsy galleries up there.

In the city of Kapua’a, we saw the statue of King Kamehameha on the right side of the road. The weather up on the north shore is lush and green and much cooler.

We tried the ice cream at the Tropical Dream place in Hawi, it was OK, not great. We did listen to Grady Keystone, playing outside the ice cream place. He was quite good and I bought his Hawaiian Moon CD for only 10 dollars. He is on Amazon available for purchase!

For dinner, we had Elyssa Goodside and her family over for a BBQ, it was quite fun and the food, surf and turf, were great. They are a nice family, we’l do it again.

Saturday – August 8: The days are flying by now and I am starting to think about packing stuff up. I don’t want to go back.

In the morning, we looked at 3 condos for sale here in the complex, all in the A building, those with an ocean view. Number A-308 is on the top floor with a beautiful view of the ocean. The owner is listing it at 435,000 dollars and it is quite the steal. The others are nice, but it is really the only one I would choose.

I worked on the glass panels up front wit the RainX and finished up the shower door.

Matt Shields came and installed our storage box for the lanai, it came out very nice. A little expensive for 1,200 dollars, but worth the goodwill.

We went to 5:00 p.m. Mass at Waimea, I do enjoy Father Bob’s homilies, they are uplifing and thought provoking.
Rosie made the Taco Bell taco dinner for us and we ended up watching Independence Day and “Shark Week” shows after dinner. Another relaxing day in paradise and we continue to monitor the approach of hurricane/tropical storm Felicia. She will arrive on Monday, by morning is now the prediction.

Friday – August 7: More tweaks on school stuff. I broke out the one classroom page for periods 3, 4, 6 and 7 into 2. One for Algebra (period 6) and one for Algebra 1a (periods 3, 4 and 7). I have period 1 ELL, so I’m not sure, what I’ll do with that page for the website.

Late morning, we headed to Kona to do some errands and to return the Vizio soundbar system. It is so gratifying that Costco doesn’t blink an eye when returning things. The guy behind me, was returning a bottle of red wine, with the cork put back in. I can only imagine the story …

I had purchasd a raised togographical map of the Big Island at the bookstore in old Hilo. I went to get it framed and the frame shop in Kona, took my new map, gave me credit for it and I picked one of their’s already framed. How’s that for a deal!? Pictures Plus is OK in my book!

We continue to watch Felicia approach. Late today, some of the east side beaches were announced via the Civil Defense annoucement to be closed beginning at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday until early Wednesday morning. Fifteen foot surf is being forecast for east facing beaches!

At our weekly Friday happy hour by the pool, it is clear that no one has been in a hurricane before. The prognosis, however, is that the hurricane should be downgraded to a tropical storm or depression by Monday evening. Time will tell.

Thursday – August 6: Work day for me. I laid out the schedule for this new school year. I have to keep track of 2 schedules, for both Algebra 1 and 1a.

My perssonal website was brought up to date and I had to learn the changes to the schoolfusion school website. My password expired, so Ryan had to reset it for me. Most of the afternoon was spent getting my schedules, homework and first day of school packets updated and uploaded.

We keep watching the path of hurricane Felicia … BBQ fish for dinner, ahi and swordfish. The market down at Queen’s has better fish at better prices.

Wednesday – August 5: Lazy day, Mom’s working in the morning.

Took the Subaru down to Lex Brodie’s in Kona to check on the brakes, they are making noise. But, the check out OK, with plenty still on the pads. Honest folks, these guys.

In the afternoon, hooked up the Vizio surround-sound soundbar and tried it out. The benefits of sound quality were drowned out by the addition of one more remote, making life too complicated. It is packed up to be returned.

Dinner was chicken burritos, again, yummy stuff.

Chased the sunset down by the Queen’s bath on the highway, but it was a quick and non-descript drop. Oh well!

We are looking into going up to the Mauna Kea observatory, but we may just go up to the Visitor’s Center instead – all for free!

We are watching hurricane Felicia, time will tell as it marches toward the Big Island as a Category 4! Hmm…

Tuesday – August 4: We (Rosie and Sandy) spent some more time at the marketplace. I was waiting in the hotel for the status that Grandpa was doing ok from his prostate surgery.

We spent the afternoon at the Ala Moana shopping center, that place is huge with a Bubba Gump’s, Ruby Tuesday and Mai-tai restaurants. Lot’s to do and shop.

There are Apple stores in the Royal Hawaiian and Ala Moana. I think our dose of civilization is just enough, it is time to go and relax in Waikoloa!

Time is ticking down …

Monday – August 3: We flew over to Oahu to do some shopping! Left on Mokulele airline and returned on Go! just to see the differences. Prices are identical.

Mokulele was very quick at the Kona airport, departing at 8:56 and we arrived about 9:30 a.m.

Breakfast at Eggs ‘n Things on Saratoga Ave in Waikiki. Good pancakes and such but the wait was crazy, worth to experience once, I’m not sure it’s really worth it.

We stayed at the Sheraton Princess Kuilani right across from the Mauna Surfrider. We had stayed here with the RimBand in 2006. Rosie wanted to shop at the International Marketplace. A nice, but warm afternoon with a Mai-tai at the Royal Hawaiian and dinner at Senor Frogs finished off the day. Forget Senor Frogs next time!

Flight back to Kona was on Go! Airlines. They too were on time, but there is more storage in the overheads on the Mokulele Embraer 170. Go uses the Canadiar CRJ200. I vote Mokulele!

Sunday – August 2: Relaxing and slow morning. There were no trade winds today, so it was hot and humid. We went down to the Hilton Waikoloa in the afternoon to explore, it WAS HUMID and we made the mistake of eating outside next to the Dolphin Encounter exhibit. The food was lousy and the grounds and areas of the hotel look a little shabby, it needs a sprucing up!

Dinner was a refreshing fruit salad made by Sandy, it was a great idea after the lunch disaster.

We are ready for tomorrow’s trip to Honolulu!

Saturday – August 1: First day of August, school starts on the 24th, ugh … too fast a summer. Relaxing day, working on 2 more windows, removing the gunky buildup. I figure about 1.5 hours per panel. A guy from a window cleaning and maintenance outfit doing some work in the complex, saw me working and offered his car. He does this stuff all the time and offered reasonable rates. I may have him do the remaining guest bedroom shower door.

We went to the 5:00 p.m. Mass at Annunciation to see a different service. It was about the same, with the same choir, but no instruments. Time is still about 1 hour too.

After Mass, we were headed to Huli Sue’s for BBQ, but got pleasantly diverted to Solimene’s in Waimea for Italian food. Quite good, I had the Chicken Parmigiana and Sandy had the Shrimp Olio, grilled shrimp on spaghetti noodles with GARLIC! Rosie had the margherita pizza to go, “yummy” she said!

Friday – July 31: Both Douglas and Gabriel are heading back today. We packed them both up, dropped Gabriel off for his United flight at 1:20 p.m. and Douglas for his Delta flight, departing at 8:50 p.m., the same one we will be taking in 18 days. UGH, I don’t want to go back!

Since he was leaving on the red-eye, as just the 4 of us, we saw Ice Age III, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, went to a couple of dive shops for Douglas and had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. A good ending to a great visit, I miss Douglas already…

Thursday – July 30: Today we did the Sea Quest Hawaii Expedition South Kona snorkel adventure. It took us to 3 spots, the first being the City of Refuge/2-step beach/Honaunau Bay, the 2nd being a sea caves area and the 3rd being the Capt. Cook/Kealakekua Bay. The trip was great, with lots of water time. The 2nd place had “supposedly” a local white-tip reef shark, that we didn’t find. Their interesting approach is to swing out the coast, travel south past Capt. Cook’s bay, so that you don’t notice it, then hit it last. This is an 8:15 to 1:15 p.m. or so activity. Make sure you bring SUNBLOCK!

The crew was great and the trip was worth the 82.00 dollars or so. Showers at Keauhou Bay were great, bring clothes to change into and your trip is much nicer back.

As a group, we went on our last dinner together, the 5 of us went to the Marriott Waikoloa Call Restaurant. They are still running their speclal dinner prices, essentially 1/2 off. Our meals were delayed, the waitress worked it (all on her own) so that we ended up paying for 2 meals and free desserts, a great deal!

It was early to bed, the adventure of the day, left everyone exhausted!

Wednesday – July 29: Ke-awa-iki beach is our destination this morning. The Ocean Sports Sea Smoke uses this area as their snorkel spot. The water and area is beautiful with a black and white sand beach.

We started off just south of mile marker 78 and followed the path as described in the Hawaii Underground Guide. The first part is lava road and the second part, around the private property is a trail. It took us about .92 miles and about 35 minutes to arrive at Keawaiki Beach. The a’a trail part is a little rough, just watch your step and go slowly, we did not like this part.

Once at the beach, we discovered another trail leading directly behind the beach to the highway. It is on pahoehoe all the way and is clearly marked with painted arrows on the lava field. The distance to the highway is .75 miles and you come onto the highway about 1/4 mile south of where the cars park. This is a much better approach. It is about 1 mile then, from the parking lot to the beach!

I would recommend you park just 1/4 mile south of mile marker 78, walk down (south) the Queen’s Highway to the second pahoehoe trail and proceed directly to the beach that way. The trail begins EXACTLY at the 55 mph speed limit sign for reference. See this track that I made on the iPhone transferred to Google maps.

Tuesday – July 28: A day to sleep in but Sandy is up bright and early. Her AMEX stuff seems to be working out. We need a new cartridge for the Brother 7840W printer, so we ordered it from Costco and it should be here on Thursday. The world continues to shrink when you have the Internet, it will be amazing what you can do in 5 years!

Douglas had to do some speech homework, so we hung around and sent Rosie and Gabriel down to Kona to do a few errands for us and to get them out for a break.

Dinner was fresh, homemade beans and Costco chicken and avocados and salsa. Yummy!