Hawaii Vaca, Post 3 - Snorkeling at Hamaunu Bay

We wanted to go snorkeling while in Hawaii, but it was something we didn't have scheduled ahead of time like some other adventures. 

Not a big deal really, as there are all kinds of places to that do tours/trips and whatever. We don't have a car, so it's best that we find one of these companies to work with.  

I don't recall if it was at the airport or the hotel, but we picked up one of those little touristy books with fun things to do, coupons and other stuff in them.  One of the things to do was a snorkeling package with pick up and drop off.  Sounds like what we're after so Mama reserved us for the next morning.

We had to be down on the road outside the hotel by 8:15 and it sounded like we had options on when we could return.  That part turned out not to be true, but whatever...

Here we are waiting in the lobby of the hotel as we were a few minutes early and got us some coffee at the Starbucks around the corner.  Caleb took the opportunity to dab for you all...

After we got dropped off (us and another couple) and before she fitted us with our flippers that no-one used, and our googles/breathing apparatus.  We had a few short opportunities for quick pics.

I got in on the action too...  It's a shame that I ruined so much of the beautiful scenery behind me!

A better shot of where we're actually going to be once we get down the hill and into the water...  after getting tickets, and watching a safety film, and hiking from the far end of the parking lot over to...  alright, I think you get it.  It was a lot of hullabulloo to get to the point where you're actually in the water. 

Once we did make it into the water, we discovered that our equipment was not fantastic.  The flippers, the first I have ever worn, to my recollection, hurt my back really bad when walking in the water.  So Calebber and I lost the flippers pretty quickly and just went with the head gear.  Much better.

There were a good number of fish to see swimming along with all of those people, but it was still sort of a let down for Lesley and I as we had done the snorkeling bit at Discovery Cove in Florida some 13 years ago.  Sure, that's a man-made reef but with that, the amount of fish/critters swimming around you is 100 fold greater than this silly natural stuff.  Plus, you had all day to spend there and as it turned out, we had an 11:30 (I think) deadline to be back up in the parking lot to be picked up.

On our hike back up the hill to the far side of the parking lot.  A little better perspective on how big of an area it is once you're down there.  Didn't feel like it when we first got here.

Obviously from the parking lot as we await our chariot.  Not sure what that mountain is, but it's neat and therefore worthy of a photo.

So our first real adventure in Hawaii was sort of a bust.  We didn't have enough time to really get into the coral reefs to see fantastic-ness (but we did see cool things!), Rob's goggles/mouthpiece weren't working well and neither were Calebs for that matter.

Regardless of that, it was still fun and we were still in Hawaii!  It can't be that bad.

Hawaii Vaca, Post 2 - Morning On Waikiki Beach

Our first full day in Honolulu, and quite frankly, Hawaii!  

So what do we do?  Who the heck knows...

Mama and Calebber got up early and went for a sunrise walk on the beach to get things started.  Robby and Dear ol' Dad stayed behind to make sure that nothing nefarious happened to our hotel room... or something...

Mr. Sassypants on Waikiki beach, across the road from our hotel.

Again with the sassypants, this time with a little Honolulu skyline in the background.

A shot of a little boy who, 3 or 4  years ago, would have never got so close to waters such as these!  He is a beautiful little critter who never ceases to amaze me!

A bit blurry, but I love the boy and I really liked these types of trees!

Yoga on the beach!

Our hotel is the "mostly" center building.  The Tiki restaurant is dark, straight line you can kind of see behind the palm trees.

The man-made wall ("reef") that makes swimming at Waikiki possible for big, fat sissies like me, possible!

And a selfie from the morning glories themselves!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 1 - Travel Day

It's the first post of vacation 2017for the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit!

Much like our trip to China in late 2011, I will post mostly pictures first and then I will type up my hand-written journal when we get back home and have decent (meaning, non-laptop) keyboards and a handy little mouse to click on things with.  

I have several pages so far and that's only for the about 1.5312932 days.

So this first post is to cover our first day, mostly traveling with a slight detour to the Waikiki Beach in the evening, since it is across the road from our hotel.

Here we go:
 I had the window seat for the take-off which was great, because we flew along I-80 westbound for quite a while.  I would say to the kids, "there's Diamond Head Lake where Uncle Vince and Aunt Kristie used to live" or, "there's Wanda's house" or, the one that really blew their minds because of how fast we got there, "Uncle Steve and Aunt Kathy's house is probably just outside the other side of the plane" and by the time they got over that, "Henry Doorly Zoo is right below us!".  They couldn't believe how fast we got that far but then I lost the interstate for a while.  When I found it again, I had NO IDEA where we were at. 

Soon after that, we started trading seats so everybody would get a turn at the window and get to experience the sights below.  Since we were only flying from Des Moines to Phoenix, we weren't traveling at a great elevation and the ground was highly visible from the plane.

After leaving Phoenix with Caleb at the window, we again traded seats once we were "out to sea".  There's really not a ton of stuff to look at after that, but the cloud formations were fantastic and it was interesting because you could see the sun reflect off of white caps on the ocean due to our angle.

Here's a few pics:

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.  The clouds in the distance could truly be icebergs just as easily as clouds from the way they look!

On the plane after many hours...  I'm back manning the window seat...  Whats hard to see in this picture is how bad our bones are sick and tired of this freaking airplane!!

This is from the tiny little deck outside of our hotel room.  The pool area and the ocean right off of Waikiki Beach.

This photo is from Lesley's phone while Robby, Caleb and myself are in the water.

And speaking of the three lads, we're somewhere out there in the water in this pic...  which is just about as close as I'm comfortable with being photographed without a shirt on!  :-)

And so was day 1 on our Hawaiian trip.

8 lbs of Awesomeness!

Two 4 pound zuchinnis and a happy little Chinaman who got to pick them!

Dryer Than A Popcorn-Fart!

Our June of 2017 was miserable as far as rainfall was concerned.  It was sort of nice on one hand as I was attempting to grow some grass on a couple of "hilly" areas and it's always nicer to control the water supply on those until the stands of grass get filled out enough to support the dirt around them.

However, there is the rest of the 1.7 acres to deal with too!  Including the garden!  Well, we've been watering fervently and watching the weather and hoping/praying for storms.  

We've had very little in the way of precipitation...   I shouldn't complain too much because a good friend of mine who lives east of us, and a bit South, got hit by a storm that narrowly missed us, and he has to get new siding, windows, doors, and a roof.  Or another way to put that would be a new exterior to his home.  

They built the same year as us, 2005.

So here we are again today...  I'm outside working in the yard and I happen to look to the North.  Oooooohhhh,  dark clouds with some nice elevation above some of them!  Thunderheads!!  

So I decided to taunt the weather by doing the trimming in the yard that I've been neglecting for several weeks.  During trimming, with a loud motor running, I heard a good rumble of thunder coming from the near North!  Yesssss!

So how'd it all turn out?  About the same as most of the other "storms" this year.

Looking North over the neighbors house.  The clouds look much bluer in the photo than they did in real life.  The were a nice smooth dark gray and just rumbling!

So then I stayed in the same place, and turned to the East.  Here's the shot over the roof of the house.  Yes, you're seeing that correctly.  Storm clouds and mostly blue sky...  Ugh!

Here's the radar.  Note that we are under that pink flower just Southeast of the center of the photo.

Ah!  But it did rain!  Just like most of the other storms, it just about got the entire surface of the sidewalk wet...   I want a good 3-4 day drizzle with occaisional light showers.  That would be fun...

Until then, we shall take turns managing the hose...

Couch Full'O Trouble!

Robby attended the birthday party of his buddy Noah (in the flag shorts) last weekend.  This is a couch-full of his buddies who probably terrorized Noahs parents for the night...

MAGA Championship!

Mini-Amatuer-Golfers-Association! 

What fun stuff happens while dad's at work?  First, sushi for two ravenous boys and second, mini-golf!

Master C banging out a masterful putt!

The former hippie getting ready to teach his opponent a lesson or three!

Annnnddddd...  there's this.  Robby fishing mama's ball out of the drink.

Lining up the big putt!

That is the posture of a grumpy boy...