Thursday, August 27

House of the Sun, Haleakala

Another reason to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center

The Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Kauai Island

The Spouting Horn at Po`ipu, Kauai

Bet you thought we had turned around and headed back for Hawaii! No, we are still here trying to get caught up on everything around the house. We've also had 3 doctors appointments, all with very promising news. Today was no different. Dr. Fillmore gave Mr. Bichler the "thumbs up" for driving school. He is going to fax the results of today's vision test to Dr. Myshiw for the referral. His vision field cut has not improved but....it hasn't gotten any worse. Now he is looking forward to getting some time behind the wheel in the simulator. Tomorrow we plan to get to work in the garage and start getting things organized.

Wednesday, August 19

The town of Hanalei on Kauai, and no we didn't see Puff!


Alaska's state bird the Nene or Hawaiian goose.


Bubba Gump Restaurant on Maui. "Life is like a box of chocolates"

Well according to Mr. Bichler, today was one of the best doctor visits in a long while. He had an appointment with his rehab Dr. at OSU. It began with Dr. Myshiw asking him what he wanted to discuss. Of course working and driving were the two things on his list. After asking some questions and doing some cursory testing, Dr. Myshiw said that he thought that substituting and coaching would be very beneficial to Mr. B's recovery. He also said that if he gets approval from the optometrist that he will refer Mr. Bichler for the driving program. On top of all this great news he has been taken off another one of his medications. The only bad news today was that it is going to cost $1,000 to fix the air conditioning on my trailblazer. Hope we get some cooler weather soon! Mr. Bichler has decided that being retired isn't really that bad at all. He realized this when he found out that the first teacher work day is this Friday. Retirement Rocks!!

Sunday, August 16

Sara, Matt & Shorty playing in the sunset surf at Hickam AFB Beach


Sharon getting ready for the new school year!

Canoe surf riders at Waikiki Beach.

Aloha Buckeye Cousins!

We made it back last night around 6:30 pm. I think we had the noisiest express jet that United owned on our flight from Denver to Columbus. I was quite excited when I saw that we were in row 17 thinking we were moving closer to the front of the plane. That was before I realized that there were only 17 rows in the plane we were flying on. It was so small that all the carry-ons had to be stowed below because the storage bins were so small. Oh, well we are back home and though it was hard to leave Hawaii, it is good to be home. I did manage to get to church this morning and even stayed awake. This coming week Mr. B has two doctor appointments so it is back to life as we now know it. The weather is very nice here for August, but what I do miss about Hawaii is the sound of the ocean, the rainbows and mispronouncing all the Hawaiian street names! Mahalo to all those who helped take care of things for us here at home while we were off playing! Have a wonderful week!!




P.S. I took over 700 pictures so I will randomly put several in each day to share with you.

Thursday, August 13

Ala Moanu Beach

View of the ocean towards Waikiki

Relaxing on the beach!

Dinner last night

Happy birthday, Dad!

Aloha!
Dinner last night was absolutely awesome! We ate at Ruth's Chris in Honolulu and the steaks were great. Mr. B really enjoyed his belated birthday dinner from Sara and Matt.

Our last full day in Hawaii but at least the sun was shining when we got up this morning. Sara had to work a full day today so we were on our own to choose what we would do for our last day. We decided to go to the beach in downtown Honolulu. We actually got there with no missed turns and we parked right on the beach. It was a nice beach and we found a perfect spot under the palms and we just sat and watched the surfers and listened to the waves. It clouded up as we were leaving and even rained a little. They call it liquid sunshine here! On the way home we stopped to do a little shopping at Hilo Hatties. Sharon flies out tonight and we leave at 8 am tomorrow morning. Pray for our safe travel but do not expect us in church this Sunday!

Wednesday, August 13

This is Sharon's new favorite bird. She calls it a Buckeye bird but it is actually a red-crested cardinal.

Sharon filming another sunset. I made her pose for this picture and she missed the sunset! Oh, well it will set again tomorrow evening.

Butterfly garden at the Rain Forest Zoo on the Big Island.

A variety of plumeria, a favorite for making leis.

Today Sara took us to the Aloha Swap Meet. It is a flea market set up around the Aloha Bowl. Lots of vendors selling t-shirts, jewelry, Hawaiian shirts and other stuff that tourists would buy. Not really the kind of "treasures" or junk that Mr. B would be interested in but it was very interesting and we picked up a few last minute souvenirs. Betty I think you will be pleasantly surprised! Sara is taking her Dad out tonight for his belated birthday dinner. Should be lots of fun. Rained today and tomorrow is our last day. Hope the sun shines for a little while!

Tuesday, August 11

Mixed species yard, black rhino, giraffe & zebra

Meercats, too cute

The Punch Bowl Memorial

Letter of apology from Lincoln

The chapel at the memorial

Still no rain, all we heard about on the Big Island was that we needed to prepare for Felicia, but now we don't even know where she is. So this morning, since Sara had the day off, we went to the Honolulu Zoo. It was a great zoo with Diamond Head in the background and Waikiki in the opposite direction. They have a very nice animal collection and lots of birds. I loved their duck collection. They had some very cute meercats as well as some great mixed species exhibits. After lunch at the Big City Diner we stopped by the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery at the Punchbowl. We were very impressed and glad we stopped to see it. It is a memorial to all the veterans who have been missing in action or their bodies have never been recovered from WWII, the Korean War and Viet Nam. It was very sobering to realize how many soldiers were never brought home. The front of the memorial had a sculpted Lady Liberty with the letter of apology from Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, who lost 5 of her sons in the Civil War, inscribed underneath. Inside the memorial were maps of all the islands where soldiers were lost and a beautiful chapel.

Monday, August 10

Sunset on the Kona coast

View from our room


The "Painted Church"

Inside the painted church

Overlooking South Point, no rental cars beyond this point! and we are too tired to walk!!

Yesterday after our Safari Helicopter tour we drove north to get to the Kona coast. We had booked a room at a condo that was right on the coast with a great view of the ocean. Because of the possibility of hurricane Felicia causing high winds later today, Matt decided to get a flight out early this morning from the Kona airport so he could be sure to be on Oahu for work on Tuesday. After a good breakfast at Bongo Ben's we dropped Matt at the airport and continued around the island on our way back to the Hilo airport. Two things we wanted to do were to stop at St. Benedict's Catholic Church which is known as the Painted Church and to drive to South Point, the southern most point of the United States. We made it to both and got to the airport in time for our flight and luckily there were no delays due to Felicia.

Sunday, August 9

The white tiger at Pana`ewa Rain Forest Zoo

Lava flowing into the Pacific

Hot lava making it's way towards the ocean

Returning to Hilo

Posing with our Dispatch Travel section

Up early today! We are all excited as today we will be taking our helicopter ride over the lava fields. Our reservation isn't until 12:45 so we are going to stop at the Pana`ewa Rain forest Zoo & Gardens. It is the only rain forest zoo in the United States. The zoo is on 12 acres and is home to more than 75 animal species and 100 varieties of Palm. We really enjoyed our time there and especially liked the white tiger. There was also a nice collection of primates including tamarins, spider monkeys and capuchins. After the zoo we gulped down some pizza and headed to the Hilo airport to the helicopter pad. We had a flight briefing and then it was out to load up in the helicopter. Richard was our captain for the tour and with over 28 years of experience he was great. He made sure everyone in the helicopter got a good view of whatever we were looking at. We flew over a housing development that had been completely covered by lava as well as a red hot lava stream flowing towards the ocean. The trip was absolutely awesome!!

Saturday, August 8

Kilauea caldera (Pele's home)

The Thurston lava tube

Devastation Trail

The Sea Arch at the end of the Chain of Craters road

End of road. Ironically the sign you see says, Road Closed

Up kind of late last night. We had a nice breakfast at the Crater's Rim Cafe at the camp and then went to the Visitors Center to check out the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We took a short ranger-led tour and learned a little more about the area. We drove to the Jagger's museum which had a lot of the seismic machines that measure the numerous earthquakes that occur almost daily in the park and information about the active volcanoes on the island. We saw the Kilauea caldera where, according to Hawaiian legends, the goddess Pele lives. Some of the park roads were closed because of the sulfuric acid in the air and possible explosions. After lunch we drove the Chain of Craters road. One of the most interesting trails we took was the one through the Thurston lava tube. We also walked the Devastation trail where we saw first hand the destruction caused by the erupting volcanoes. The road went all the way back down to sea level and we could see where the lava had flowed across the road.

Friday, August 7

Akaka Falls


Rainbow Falls

Road through Mango Grove

Lava Tree State Park

Steam from the lava emptying into the Pacific

Landed on the Big Island around 9:30 a.m. and headed north on Hwy. 19 to check out some of the falls in the area. Sara and Matt won't fly in until later this evening so we are checking out as much around Hilo as possible without going too far. We had to settle for a turkey frank, tortilla chips, banana and papaya for breakfast on our way to Akaka Falls. This was one of the prettiest walks to a falls yet even if it was in the rain. We also tried to see Umauma Falls but it cost $6 each so we opted to see it from the highway. On the way back into town we saw Rainbow Falls. Then we headed south towards the lava fields. We stopped in Pahoa at the Shaka Cafe for lunch. We were greeted at the door by the host/waiter/bartender and entertainment all in one. Our first stop was to be the Lava Tree State Park but somehow we missed the turn and ended up on Mango Grove lane, a road that appeared to go on forever with no end in sight. We finally found civilization and went around again and found the park. My biggest find at the park was and Io or Hawaiian hawk. After walking the trail through trees fossilized by lava we found ourselves on a one lane road headed towards the area where the lava flows into the Pacific. We did get some great pictures but couldn't get much closer than 13 miles. We picked up the kids at the airport at 8:30 p.m. and made our way to the Volcano National Park to stay at the Kileaua Military Camp. We had a 3 br. apartment reserved right next to the park. Very convenient.

Thursday, Aug. 6

Early morning, from our room at the Maui Lu

Sharon by the Wailua Falls on the road to Hanna

Sunset from our room after a day on the road!

Today we packed ourselves a box lunch and headed out to tackle the Road to Hana. This is very winding road with over 600 curves and 56 one lane bridges. It was a very scenic drive and we spiced it up by getting Uncle Boy's CD that gave a narrative of the road and pointed out interesting spots on the way to the end. In between the factual info we were treated to Hawaiian music by local musicians. The CD was quite humorous and entertaining. The drive down and back was about 6 hours.

Wednesday, August 5

Our 2nd day in Maui was pretty relaxed. We drove south of our hotel as far as the road would go and then back north to Laihena. It was a beautiful drive and we saw many para sails and snorkelers in the bays. Lunch at Bubba Gumps was great with a view of the harbor and we even saw a yellow submarine.