Today we didn’t do anything that involved tourism except tag our bags for the ship.

I cooked the remaining eggs, and bacon, ate it all with two pieces or wheat toast. Diane had two pieces of toast. That pretty much cleaned out any plans for another breakfast but that’s OK. Tomorrow I’ll eat a banana then wait to eat after we board the Eurodam. After that I’ll no doubt eat way more than I should. Unless I restrain myself. Which I will.

After breakfast we took a road trip to one of the 26 Walmart*’s in the area to return a really nice water pik Diane got me. I really liked it but I managed to break it within the first 30 minutes of taking it out of the box. Yup. I’m that good. It still worked OK. There was just no way I was ever going to release the water tank from the motor unit for cleaning. So, we took it back to Walmart* and gave it back. I explained what I’d done and they totally understood. Then we picked out a different one that looked like it may be harder to destroy right away.

I think there were a few more odds and ends Diane wanted to ensure all the nooks and crannies in our luggage were fully engaged.

Back ‘home’ at the ranch we took laundry to the guest laundry room where I used my cell phone to access, and pay for, the use of the two washers that were available. Pretty tricky stuff. Each machine has a unique QR code that is controlled through a laundry app you can easily download from the App store.

Then I made supper. We had street tacos using the meat I cooked yesterday. They were really good. Diane ate 4 and I ate 7. They were really little. Honest. All that was missing was a little salsa but we used some Avocado Ranch dressing which is even better.

The only other thingi did today was relax. Once the laundry is done, Diane can relax, too.

Today we travelled south to Miami to take a peak at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden on Old Cutler Road. Diane drove us there like she’d done it a hundred times. She’s attuned to listening to the GPS on my phone, or the car, in order to find her way when we travel together. But, she’s a natural navigator who gets around exquisitely on her own. This is true. She has this innate ability to reverse engineer her trips even in hostile environments. No matter where she goes she can easily find her way home. With me, no matter where I go, there I am. Sometimes for a long time. Unlike Diane, I get to see a lot more foreign territory as I drive in circles looking for something familiar. Diane, on the other hand, just knows the way, like a Ninja.

This Florida trip was planned a long time ago and Diane had high expectations about seeing wonderful things. Today was a trip to one of them.

Getting to Old Cutler Road was a great journey down enormous freeways and through pretty classy neighborhoods that don’t have sidewalks. We followed all the signs and wound up in the employee’s parking lot for a little while before taking another stab at the proper location. We found it quickly as it was only about 20-30 yards down the street from where we were. Piece of cake.

Once in the parking lot we, well … we parked. Actually, ‘we’ didn’t park, Diane did. I was just along for the ride, like normal.

After leaving our assigned vehicle we followed signs to the registration office. Once there we showed the nice man the tickets we’d printed at our temporary domicile in Weston. Apparently they were authentic because he accepted them and let us pass, giving us stickers to put on our shirts so everyone in the park knew we were legit.

Our objective was to get to the tram stop before everyone else did. We were told to head down one of the many incredible brick paths to a spot where the tram would stop. Sad to say I did not take one photo of the bricks.

Shortly after sitting down for the wait, a gentleman drove up in a 10-seat golf cart and explained that the tram ride wouldn’t be back until noon so we had 45 minutes to go check out the butterfly display. He said he’d be happy to drive us there.

Not having any idea where the butterflies lived, the only obvious choice was to accept his offer. So, we did and he drove us right to their front door. His name was Dan.

Upon entering the enclosed display that looked a lot like many bird aviaries we seen, our eyes were immediately engaged with the antics of about 30-40,000 butterflies flitting everywhere. Seriously, it was non-stop motion and It was quite astounding. What I immediately noticed was that they fly either alone or in groups of their own kind. They don’t mix. If you’re blue with black stripes in this world, that’s who you flitter around with. If you’re not with your group, you flitter around alone while you look for them. It’s quite stunning to see a flock of bright blue butterflies coming at you, flying around you, and never touching you. They are really good pilots. I took lots of photos, of course, but I wasn’t able to catch them standing still. They seemed to always be in motion, even when they were standing still. So, I took a few videos and took a shot at editing and came out with this. Just a brief glimpse, at the right moment.

Inside this enclosure we met a few new people and a lot of volunteers, all of which were very friendly. We also saw a ton of orchids. We detected a theme with the appearance of the orchids. Interestingly, the ones made available for the butterfly playground didn’t reside in pots. They lived freely without boundaries by clinging to trees, and walls, or just by hanging on a string tied to a branch. Apparently they survive nicely by absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. I don’t know if that’s true or not because I never really heard anyone in authority actually say that. It just made sense.

We got back to the tram stop at the appointed time and jumped on a 4-wide golf cart that holds 23 people. We sat in the last row that faced forward. Another row behind us was a row that faced back.

If you did a little math you may question my claim that 4-wide works out to 27 seats. The front row only had 3 seats so the driver wasn’t crowded like everyone else. It was important, we were told, so the driver (Dan, again) could properly operate the foot pedals that were located close to his seat. This became immediately evident when we pulled away from for the tour because apparently the only way to move forward was for the Dan to alternately floor the accelerator the let it go. Pretty jerky making Diane, and me, cringe. Once he got up to speed it was OK, but he was forced to stop frequently for the narrator on this journey who gave detailed history about every one of the trees and bushes he pointed out. And, he pointed out all of them.

He even picked some of them up

On this 80 plus acre site there are a bunch of lakes around which Dan had to navigate. Lucky for us we were on a well maintained gravel path that we could have easily walked if we had a mind to. Iguanas were everywhere and, we were told, alligators lived in the lakes so walking really wan’t an option for us. Personally, I bet there were also a bunch of snakes prowling around the area. Again, not walking. We stayed on the tram for the duration of the trip.

Once that was done we wandered around in the gift shop before going outside to look for our car. Surprisingly, for one of us, we found it quickly and were soon on our way. It was pretty warm, 88 or so, and I asked Diane to get in the car and cool it off before I had to get in. She declined, suggesting instead that she’d get in and drive away if I didn’t get in also. So, I did.

We didn’t stick around in Miami to view the sights but instead headed north to the safety of our condo in Weston. For fun, we had both GPS systems engaged (the car and my phone). The car wanted to take us east toward downtown Miami, in the middle of the day, during Spring Break. When we realized what the car was doing, we switched to my phone which was more in line with our thinking and guided us on a more northerly route.

We arrived in good time and Diane opted to drop me off at the condo, suggesting that I get busy cooking while she made a speed run to the nearest Walmart*. I did that. But, I didn’t actually cook because we were having chef salads. No cooking involved. It wasn’t too bad for a meal, but the time was wrong for lunch because it was after 3 pm. This lunch was invading the dinner hour. So, I also fried up the hamburger we had for tacos later in the day.

It didn’t really matter because we’re on vacation and can eat any time we want. Right?

So, now, I leave you some photos to ponder. I will attempt to give descriptions that I remember. The others you’ll just have to enjoy for the fun of it. Cheers.

The above photo is of a bunch of bananas sliced in half and laid out on a lava rock pedestal. Look closely and you’ll see a bunch of butterflies sitting around on them snacking. They like pineapple, too.

Here’s one resting, looking for his family.

The next one is sitting on an orchid and looks like he ran into a wall with his right wing .

Here’s some interesting glass art.

Just us.

Then we went ‘home’. Go right to Miami proper, or left toward Weston? Hmmm.

Today we drove to Fort Lauderdale to tour the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens which is a 35 acre beach front estate located pretty much in the middle of the city. We had a walking tour scheduled at 1400 so we had to get up early. Yes, that’s early because our bodies haven’t really adjusted to the 3-hour difference. About the time things click time-wise, we’ll be back in the PST zone. Knowing that makes it difficult to even try to adjust. Both of us would rather take a nap.

After we returned from the tour that’s just what Diane did. She took a nap. The main reason was because of the horrible traffic coming back to Weston. The Bonnet House is only 23 miles away and going over wasn’t a big deal. It’s like a drive to Portland on roads 8 lanes wide. Coming back it took an hour and a half because they have traffic lights every 1/4 miles or so and we had to stop at most of them. Making it worse, they stayed red for a long time. Kinda like Waimono Home Road in Pearl City. The red light there stays red forever. While waiting at that light one time, Jeff commented that her could probably drag himself around the car with his lips before it turned green. I was curious to see if he could, of course, but Diane didn’t think it was a good idea. So, that will remain one of life’s little secrets we will never be able to verify. Kinda makes me sad. Jeff, too, unless he secretly made that attempt before we left Oahu.

Anyway, the traffic was terrible because everyone was getting off work, the traffic lights were rigged to favor all the cross traffic, and it was somewhere between 93-102 outside the entire time we walked those 4-6 miles around the estate. We made it “home” but we were really tired when we got back.

Then I had to cook! Diane was all pumped up for stir-fry. We purchased all the required items at Walmart* yesterday. She just told me that there are 26 Walmarts* within 15-20 minutes of our location. Guess that tells a story about population density, huh? We feel privileged to live in a town where the only Wallmart* is just a couple of miles away. That would be the one in St. Helens, of course.

The walking tour of the property was interesting but didn’t include the living spaces. The owner was an artist so the parts of the home we did see were well decorated with his artistic endeavors. It was all very interesting. The estate was donated to the city with the stipulation that it must always remain in the same condition it was donated. No changes could be made. So, it’s 35 acres along the beach in downtown Fort Lauderdale that will never be developed. I bet that really upsets those folks who would like to turn it into a condo city.

One fun thing we got to see is the last remaining monkey that lives on the property. I believe our guide said there used to be 90 or so monkeys at one time. The one remaining is purported to be over 100 years old. Here’s the photo I got of him:

Someone said what kind of monkey he is but I wasn’t paying attention.

I have other photos, but they aren’t nearly as good as the ones you can see by checking out the link at the start of this missive.

With that, I’ll bid you all adieu. Tomorrow we’re driving down Miami way for a tram tour of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Gotta leave by 0900 as it opens at 1000 and it’s an hour drive.

It appears that I’m posting on a monthly basis now, not daily when I started this almost 11 years ago. At that time, I had energy. I had an unlimited supply of words that were eager to escape from my brain. Now that I’m older I find that the words don’t come as easily and there are fewer to choose from. You would think that at my advanced age conjuring up coherent sentences would be less complex considering the depleted supply of words available. But, it snot.

Many interesting things have happened in the past month but I’m not going to bore you with a chronological narration to share everything mainly because I can’t remember stuff like I used to. That was the advantage of posting every day – it was fresh news. Easy to remember stuff.

The main event for us, me and my Bride, is our upcoming trip to cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle through the Panama Canal to celebrate our 55th anniversary. I’m pretty sure it’s our 55th. If it’s not I suspect I’m in for a world of hurt. Thankfully, I think the thrill of making that trip will ease the pain of being wrong. If I’m wrong, but I’m not.

I’m sure.

Another exciting bit of news is the progress on Diane’s “new” home. It’s actually in the city limits of St. Helens so we can legally get a library card for nothing. Couldn’t do that previously because our current home is in the county.

The “new” home is Diane’s Mom’s old home with a few updates. To accommodate the updates we totally emptied the house and had a crew install LVP flooring everywhere. No more carpeting except where Diane wants to roll out a throw rug or four. She loves those things. She also had me rip out all the counter tops in the kitchen and both bathrooms so another crew could install the quartz replacements she ordered.

Since that’s all done now the only thing remaining is to paint selected walls/rooms then populate the house with only the things she want to keep, or the new things she wants to buy. That’s what’s going to make it new for her. She’s taking it slow with her decisions, savoring the process and I totally understand.

Another significant event is the addition to our family of two new Grand Sons. Yup. Our daughter, Jennifer, and her first husband, Daniel, after raising three children to adulthood, went out and adopted 3-year-old Jasper and Almost-2-year-old Siah. Everyone is very happy. Even the older siblings. Everyone is extremely happy. These are the ‘guys’ with their new older brother, Jeran, and happy ‘new’ dad, Daniel …

The most recent event is our adventure with airplanes, rental cars, and a cruise ship. At this precise moment in time the airplane portion is mostly complete, we’re working on the rental car piece at this time, and are currently anticipating the cruise ship.

First, the airplane … it involved an early morning ride from PDX to SEA yesterday where we boarded our second flight of the day at 0815 bound for FLL. Our trip started at 0400 and ended at about 1400. At that time we immediately shifted into Rental Car mode.

Getting to FLL was child’s play compared to the interminable wait to obtain a vehicle for getting to Weston, Florida, our final stop of the day. This effort took 2 full hours, standing in a Disneyland-like line in a huge room that didn’t have even one chair to sit in. Diane stood in the line while I did the hard part of guarding the suitcases. This is close to the end of my guard duty. Diane is standing just to the right of the big pole. It took her about 1.5 hours to get that far. Wore me out.

“Ha!” you probably said. “You should have stood in the line and let your lovely bride guard the suitcases!” To that, I retort, “I offered but she declined. At first I thought it was simply to make me look bad but finally decided that she was just tired of sitting after that 5+ hour flight. Since she had the window seat she wasn’t allowed to get up and wander around the plane at all. That’s an old airplane rule that I read somewhere … “Passenger in window seats are not allowed to leave their seat at any time during the flight and will be the last passengers allowed to leave the plane after landing no matter what condition their bladder and/or bowels are in.” That’s on page 17 of the passenger’s rule book. This is true. Honest.

Finally, she got to the counter and obtained our transportation. It was interesting the way we got the vehicle. Once in the garage area, an agent pointed us to the Small SUV row of vehicles and told us to take the one we wanted. After sitting in a few of them, Diane chose a Nissan Rogue Sport. It’s gray. She really likes it.

As we checked out with the gate guard, he noted the vehicle we had, noted our point of origin, then said, “St. Helens, huh? My old rival high school,” he said. “I went to Parkrose!”

Interesting. Here we are, on the opposite of the USA and one of the first people we encounter went to Parkrose High School. Go figure. It really is a small world we inhabit.

By now you surely figured out that FLL is Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Our destination for the night was 1775 Bonaventure Blvd, Weston, Floria. That’s about 20 miles west of FLL and why we needed a vehicle.

Diane drove to our condo like she’d done it a hundred times before. We hurked the overweight suitcases to our abode, went out for some food at a local Publix market, cooked some of it for dinner, then went to bed.

We landed 24 hours ago and already had a meal and a long night of rest.

Now we must go out and see what’s going on in FLL.

Here’s the first place we went …

This was a necessary stop to obtain enough food to survive until Sunday when we board the cruise ship Eurodam and head south through the Bermuda Triangle…

If you haven’t visited the Fort Lauderdale area, I had a photo of Google Maps Diane sent me but I can’t find it. You’ll have to look it up yourself. Oh, wait! That link is for the place we’re staying. This link is for the water photos. Personally, I’m stunned by the amount of water just laying around in the area. It’s everywhere. Check out Weston, Florida on Google Maps.

Lastly is a photo I took yesterday, on our way from the airport to our condo. My impression is that this one cloud, in all of this huge sky, chose to block the sun from shining on us. Another possibility is that this one cloud chose to keep the sun from shining in our eyes and blinding us.

Either of those choices might lead you to think I’m OK thinking that clouds are sentient. That’s just silly, right?

Right?

Today is March 7th. I’ve been hanging on to the following post since February 23rd. I suspect it’s time I let it go, right? Part of the delay was because I couldn’t access my photos for some reason. Now I can.

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Greetings from sunny Newport. We’ve been in site B-16 since last Monday, February 20th. The trip was planned years ago by my partner, Diane, so we could spend a few days with friends at the coast. What a surprise to discover that Portland was on the verge of almost breaking an 80-year-old record for snowfall in a 24-hour period.

Really? C’mon. We’re at the beach for crimeny sakes and the weather is supposed to be really nice. It’s expected. But, no, some silly cold front stalled off the coast near Astoria which created a perfect situation for snow in a very large area. Even here.

At home, in St. Helens, the snow got about 8 inches deep and in Portland there was a bit more than 10 inches. That was at the airport, of course. For some reason the only measurements that count re at airports. Some villages in the Portland area exceeded 12 inches. We know this is true because that’s all the news reported on for the past few days. Over and over and over. It’s like it never snows in Oregon so when it does, it’s important news. Every time.

Now, about the beach.

As stated, we are in B-16, just two spots away from the coveted B-12 which has an unblocked side view of the grand Pacific Ocean beneath the bridge that carries Highway 101 traffic over Spencer Creek that empties in to the ocean. That’s all true. I looked it up on Google Maps. Until just not, I didn’t know that the stream had a name. It was just a crick.

The first morning show us an angry sea that did its best to batter down this large rocky obstruction.

Then, suddenly, everything turned nice and the snow mostly went away. You can see the large rocky mass under the bridge arch. Still there.

At the park we didn’t get much snow, but it sure got cold, let me tell you. Into the 20’s, it got and the wind chill made it worse, yet. Consequently, we didn’t do much walking on the beach. We did, although, look at it a lot because it appeared to be in a perpetual state of high tide. There was no beach. Really, there was no beach because it was covered with water for the entire 3 days we’ve been here. Kinda weird, huh?

We left a footprint on the beach to show others we had been there.

Near us were our friends Cliff & Suzie, and Les & Sophia. Terry & Carolann were supposed to be here but Terry thought having back surgery was more important at this time. It was a success, and they are well. We’ll catch up with them later, but we did learn that at their home in Gresham the snow dumped around 12 inches on them. Lucky ducks.

Having only two vehicles we designated our as the Girl Car, and Les’s as the Guy Car. We’ve done that previously and it works OK. The girls go shopping at thrift stores and the guys go look for RV parts.

This time the guys we looking for something to resolve the issue Diane and I have with the inverter in our rig. It just doesn’t work. Therefore it wasn’t recharging the four new 6VDC batteries that power pretty much everything from the floor up. If they don’t get recharged then everything stops – lights, mainly. They are kind of important when it gets dark.

We found a place that could fix the inverter but they couldn’t get to it until tomorrow. That’s the day we’ll be on the road back home. So, we went back to Beverly where Les and Cliff practiced their magic and cut and spliced selected wires to take the inverter out of the system. It was isolated and restored functionality to circuits that were previously not working. To resolve the charging issue, I purchased a handy battery charger at Wallmart and we just hooked it up directly on the battries.

I realize that’s a lot of technical stuff that’s probably less than interesting to most of you. So, we’ll move along.

We only ate out once as a group, at the Rogue Bayfront Public House on Newport’s historic water front on the Yaquina River near the bridge over the Yaquina connecting Newport and South Beach.

There’s a ton of stuff to do in the Newport area and lots of places to get terrific sea food. They even have good hamburgers, if you prefer.

Now it’s late and I must get some sleep. Last night I spent most of my time sitting on the couch nursing my crappy back. Hurts to lay down. Maybe I should have it looked at.

Later.

I suspect that many of you have engaged the services of clipper yielding folks to get a pedicure. I’ve one that, too, at the insistence of my first wife. When she went to get her toes done every 6-8 weeks she would make an appointment for me, too, but that changed last Thursday when I met my new friend Alisha.

What’s special about Alisha is that she caters to old people. Now, I don’t personally know why, because I didn’t ask her, so I’ll have to peculate a little here.

Foremost in my mind is that she just likes to help people out by tending to their toes. That sounds most like Alisha.

Then there are those who wonder if carving off the crispy ends of their toes would help with sock longevity. My experience in that area is profound as I could not get my socks started without bending my toes down to prevent snagging them on my toenails.

I’ve lost a lot of nice socks that way and Diane was getting tired of replenishing my sock supply. Socks just aren’t as cheap as they once were.

I met Alisha at the St. Helens Senior Center at the appointed time. Inviting me in to the work space the center provided for her, she asked me to undress, from the ankles down. I did that.

Then she draped the towel I brought over her legs and went to work on my right foot. Regarding the towel – you must bring your own which makes perfect sense as the room she uses does not come equipped with a washer. All of her work is done on dry feet.

She has the quietest toenail grinder I’ve ever heard. It was battery powered and, truly, didn’t make a sound. It’s amazing and I want one of those.

While she worked, we talked about all kinds of stuff. Mostly, I talked. I believe she encouraged that because the fear in my eyes was no doubt easy to see and she didn’t want me running out the door, waving my hands in the air, screaming. That wouldn’t have been good at all. I alerted her to my previous pedicure experiences where I was injured. That’s a story for another day. I was diagnosed with PTTD which is just a bit different from PTSD but the symptoms are the same. I was so traumatized that I lost weight. Not a bad thing, really, but still disturbing because I kinda like to eat.

I just ran out of time for getting this done. Diane’s hungry so I must venture out and fetch something for us to eat.

To end this, I encourage you to give Alisha a call, or shoot her an email, if your feet are giving you trouble.

Alisha McCord, LPN

503-528-6140

alishasfootcare@gmail.com

Today is a travel day so we had to get up early. Diane packed all our suitcases and other carry on bags yesterday so all we had to add anything dirty that we may have worn after the packing was done. That worked really well and I especially liked the part where Diane told me to “to go away and leave me alone.” I was just hanging around in case there was something I could do to help. Obviously, there wasn’t, so I finally left her alone. She only had to tell me about three times. I didn’t believe her the first two times.

Oddly, we both had a very comfortable night even though we each woke up about every hour or so to make sure we didn’t oversleep. Kind of ironic, huh? I’m not sure what times Diane woke up but we had a 9am departure from the hotel scheduled but I was cognizant of time at 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30, 6:45 am and finally got up at 7am. I was quiet like a mouse until Diane woke up. Don’t remember when that happened. I was more concerned about having the coffee ready when she woke up. That’s my job. Every day.

We hurked all our luggage to the lobby then I went to get the car. The last thing I did before leaving the room was put the car keys in my pocket. We got all loaded up on my return then headed for the Pearl Harbor Naval Base gas station to fill up before returning the car. It cost us $32.

The tram ride back to the departure gates was uneventful but, like it was planned, we were dropped about as far away from the check in counters as you can get.

The first line we were put in was to just weigh our luggage to make sure it wasn’t over weight. I already knew one of them was. I found a handy scale in that line and put them at 51.5 lbs and 56 lbs. The 56 was too much. Diane kept our place in that line while I went to talk with a nice lady working the crowd at the kiosks. I’d tried them once to get baggage tags but they wanted $30 each which I didn’t understand. We didn’t have to pay for bags coming over. It was like a trick, to get you here for free, then charge you to go home. I was more concerned about the over weight because because that would be $50 extra for each of them that qualified.

After talking with the agent, getting the tags after paying $60 for the two bags, she took us to another line where we could check the bags then head for gate C-1 which was about 1.5 mile walk. She said she’d take care of us in that line, and she did. There ware already 2 agents working the line but there was another station closed. She fiddled around doing “stuff” as we progressed up the line. When we were next in line she opened the closed station and waved us over. Just amazing. She ignored the overweight fee and sent us on our way. That one act of kindness sold me totally on Hawaiian Airlines.

Another thing I like about Hawaiian Airlines is how they deliver their safety lecture before take off. It’s a video that uses Hawaiian employees giving all the information in a suburban setting, and even some young children for some events, like always wear your seat belt when you’re in your seat. Pretty cool.

This guy took off just in front of us to protect us on the way back to PDX

We got off the island on time and headed for PDX.

Arrived before 7:30 pm and checked in to our hotel as planned. Needed supper so bought a couple of noodle cups.

Got up and ate breakfast then Jeff and Baylee arrived to pick us up at 11 am.

On the way home we stopped at Ichabod’s for lunch in Scappoose.

Once home we were greeted with a double rainbow.

I was right. Yesterday was Monday so this must be Tuesday.

We actually did some sightseeing today and Diane were able to get in some extra miles driving around the island. Me? I got some extra steps in getting the car back to the hotel.

First, let’s talk about my extra steps. As I’ve reported previously, to avoid compromising Diane’s iffy knees and hips, whenever we are ready to call it a day, she drives back to the hotel and goes to the room then I drive the car to the parking garage. You’ve heard this before. It’s not a complaint, it’s just information. Me driving a rental car on vacation has never happened previously because it used to cost more money to add an additional driver. This trip is different for some reason. Maybe the rules have changed. Whatever changed, I get to drive this time without paying more. So, Diane goes to the room and I take the car to the parking structure and walk back to the hotel. For the next trip I walk over, bring the car back, let Diane in the driver’s seat, climb in the passenger side, set the GPS and away we go.

It’s been working just great until this morning. I walked over to get the car, was almost there, and couldn’t find the car key anywhere on my body. That meant one of two things. 1). We both forgot the key in the room; 2). Diane had the key and intentionally kept it, letting me walk 2 miles to punish me for some reason; or 3). Diane had the key and just forgot to give it to me. OK. That’s 3. I realized right away and could have corrected it up front, but didn’t want to.

So, which was it? Of the three choices I’m only complicit in one of them, but bottom line is I should have made sure that key was stuffed in my pocket before I left the room. I take full responsibility.

I got my keyless self back to the hotel and Diane was shocked that I was carless. She dug around in her purse and saved the day.

With the key in my pocket I went back, got the car, drove back and got Diane. Then we drove to Pali Lookout on Highway 61.

The final destination was actually Kailua Beach Park, but Pali was on the way so we stopped. I was disappointed that the wind didn’t seem to be blowing as hard as I remembered. It was actually very nice up there staring down at Kailua and Kaneohe. While we were up there a large group of army men and women showed up and assembled on the lower section of the lookout. We wondered what it was all about so stuck around for a bit and discovered that a staff sgt. was reenlisting. He must have been an important soldier because in attendance were at least 3 bird colonels and a Brig. General. We left before the ceremony but applaud his decision to re-up.

Back at the car I set the GPS for a place to eat in Kailua but uncharacteristically made a mistake and chose a place in Honolulu. I have no idea how that happened, but Diane followed the GPS until I admitted my mistake and reset it to take us to Kailua.

The atmosphere was tense for a little while as we made our way back up past Pali Lookout and down the other side. On the trip we decided that we didn’t need to stop anyplace to eat because Diane had packed a bunch of snacks that we could eat while sitting on, or near the beach in Kailua Beach Park. So, that’s what we did.

The parking lot at the beach was pretty small and there were a lot of vehicles circling like vultures waiting for a spot to show up. We got lucky when someone pulled out just before we got to them and got parked having gone only halfway around the lot. We viewed that as serendipity. We were supposed to be there. Karma works.

Diane was prepared for the beach visit wearing pants with legs that easily rolled up. I was supposed to have shorts but they were left behind. I should have changed to them before we left. So, I was left with skinny jeans with no rollable pant legs. I did it anyway, to my knees. They weren’t really skinny jeans. I don’ have any of those.

All of the above and a pretty bird to boot.

… and, or course, chickens. They are pretty much everywhere away from Honolulu. I think the reason for that is because they taste good.

From Kailua we decided to continue on around the island, through Waimanalo to the east, instead of returning the way we came. We’d done that a couple of times already this day. It was a pleasant drive with a few stops.

The first stop was at Makapu’u Lookout that looks back to the way we came. A stunning view.

When we drove into the lot there was a paraglider sailing around the area.

He was fun to watch but the sea grabbed our attention and we lost track of him until he did this …

I noticed a minor commotion behind me and turned to see this …

He came in for a landing on a narrow walk of the lookout. Pretty skillful guy as there were a number of people around us but no one had to move as he landed.

Having seen that happen we decided the events of this day couldn’t get any better so we decided to leave.

Walking down toward our car there was some more commotion outside the guard rail toward the sea so we went to look and here was this guy getting his lines all untangled for another launch. I speculated that the only reason he landed was so he could use the restroom, but that wasn’t possible because there weren’t any at the lookout. Having discovered that, he rose gracefully into the air and sailed away to look for another one.

The next stop was to see the Halona Blowhole along the Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline.

From there it was a surprisingly short trip back to the hotel.

Then we settled down for the night.

I’m pretty sure it’s Monday. That means we only have a few days remaining on this trip but that’s OK. It’s time to go home. The last challenge we’ll have is to stuff everything back into the suitcases. Diane did the packing for the trip over so I’m betting she’ll do it again. She’s good at it, and I’m not.

We drove back to the Navy exchange one more time, mainly to get lunch. We kinda like the food court there. This day Diane got a quesadilla and I had one of those crunch wrap things again. They are pretty good.

After lunch we wandered around in the exchange picking out things for the trip home, then we went to the commissary, next door, to get some food to last us until departure. Diane thought fish would be good as we haven’t had any yet on this trip. Got the fish, but neither we nor anyone who worked in the commissary could find tartar sauce. We had people looking everywhere until we said, “that’s good enough,” and relieved them of their need to search but they wouldn’t quit. It became like a challenge for them to find it because, they all said, “it used to be right there,” as they pointed at a specific shelf in the condiment aisle. But it wasn’t. Long after we’d moved on to get the items needed to make our own there were people wandering around searching for tartar sauce. I’m pretty sure that one of the people I asked for help had been on his way for a break, but the search kept him engaged for a long time. I’m not sure if he ever gave up.

From the exchange we returned to the hotel where Diane released me to be on my own while she went back out in search of a Goodwill store she’d seen earlier. She’s visited every Goodwill store in every city or village we’ve travelled to or through. It’s kind of like Jennie, when she was little, and could spot a McDonald’s from miles away. She was tuned to those golden arches. Diane can find Goodwill stores that way and, once found, she never forgets where they are.

When she left me off in front of the lobby, I carried all the things we’d purchased in the exchange and commissary to our room. I didn’t think it was lot until I got about halfway to the elevators. For our tower, those are about 1/4 mile away. It’s a pretty long walk. Thankfully, there were lots of kind people along the way who helped me up when I fell, and some even offered to carry some of my bags to our room. But, I sucked it up, and kept going. I had to because some of the items I was carrying had to make it to the refrigerator before they melted, or thawed out.

Gasping, I made it to our room and placed the bags on the counter. I had to go to the bathroom real bad, but put that aside while I emptied the bags and got all the items put away in the proper places. Some I left on the counter, but I aligned them, with the labels out, in such a manner that it was easy see what they were. There’s nothing more annoying to Diane than to find cans on a shelf with the label aligned to the back so you have to spin it to see what it was. I actually find that annoying, too.

Then, I sat down on my couch. It is mine because Diane sits in a chair. It’s her chair so I don’t sit there. I like the couch. It’s mine for the duration of our stay. Sitting there, I took the TV remote, turned the TV on, then diligently went through all the channels, one at a time. The guide is annoying because when you push that button you get the list starting with #1 every time. Not the channel you were watching, but #1. I was entertained nicely just scrolling through the channels one at a time, pausing for a while on a one if there wasn’t a commercial on, continuing on if there was. I didn’t keep track of how long it took to got through them all because it didn’t matter.

When I called it quits, I checked my Life 360 app on my iPhone to see where Diane was. She was moving along not far from the hotel so I watched her progress until she made it to the street we’re on. Then I went down to the lobby to meet her. I beat her there by about 7 seconds.

She handed me the car keys then she headed for the elevators with just a small bag. I was amazed. She’d been gone for hours and only had a small bag of stuff to show for it. Putting that thought aside, knowing I’d get the story on my return, I got in the car and drove it to the Hale Koa parking garage to put it up for the night. Then I slowly walked the 1.5 miles back to the hotel. I know, I said previously that it’s only about 1/4 of a mile. but it gets farther away every time I do it. Good exercise I’m told.

For supper I made egg salad sandwiches using 4-5 of the eggs I’d boiled for that purpose. The sandwiches were a bit sloppy because I used too much relish, but I didn’t get anything on my shirt. That’s a win for me. Made Diane proud.

On the news we learned that most of the islands around Oahu were flooding from the storm passing by, but all we see is damp streets. I suppose along the mountains it might be causing problems, but just not where we are. There are a lot of homeless people in Ala Moana Park getting pretty wet from the rain because the police had a round up and made them take the tents down. They are still there with their shopping carts filled, but no tents. It’s a sad state of affairs but one thing that gave me hope was there were no children in the groups. Just adults of varying ages.

Enough of that. I obviously have nothing else of value to share. Except maybe some photos that belong in previous posts.

This one is a shot of the GPS so you could see how fun the freeways connect …

Everything is well marked and the rule seems to be that if you missed an exit it’s OK to cross all the lanes to take it anyway. What fun.

Here’s a rainy day shot …

Here’s our living room …

An interesting point, that I discovered a couple of days ago, is that the DVD player below the TV is a PS3. We don’t watch DVDs on vacation so that little detail escaped us.

And, our bedroom …

Mahalo for your time.

It rained off and on throughout the day so we remained inside again. We really didn’t mind as we’re very comfortable and have lots of things to look at out our windows. Hopefully, the weather will clear at least once before we leave here on Thursday because we still want to visit Pali Lookout and Diamond Head Crater. Actually, what the weather does isn’t really an issue. We’ll go anyway.

About that Crater … the last time we visited Oahu I thought I was still young enough to climb it. I’d done it previously when I was wearing a younger man’s clothes so figured I could do it again. However, half way up, on the really really steep stairs, I discovered that I was wrong. I had to stop because my wee little legs were giving out to the point where I couldn’t go up, or down. My legs would fold up either direction. After resting a while, however, I was able to trudge on to the top without falling down. You’ll have to trust me that it’s a magnificent view but I really do have photos from long ago to prove it. They’re around somewhere. Try this LINK for a comprehensive view of the hike made by someone else.

For lunch we had some sort of beef in juice. I asked Diane what it was and she said it was beef with Au Jus. we discussed it for a while, but neither of us couldn’t remember, for sure, what it was called. So, I retired to the kitchen to dig around in all the cardboard we’ve been saving and found the package it came in.

I did remember that it wasn’t frozen, just refrigerated and found the box. It was “Italian seasoned Roast Beef Au Jus and Savory Sauce”. Four minutes in a microwave and you got a really good meal. With it we had mashed potatoes that came in a box, and some canned string beans. Real classy dining for Hawaii. Made us happy so it was just fine.

In case you missed the post about our visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center, or read it and just didn’t believe we actually went there, I’ve got this for you:

The photo was taken first thing when we entered the gates. The photographer handed us a business card with a QR code on it that was magically tied to the photo. All we had to do was use the code and get the photo online. Pretty nifty. You just have to wonder what these kids will think of next.

That’s it for today.

Aloha