a snapshot of our Hawaiian experience

Aloha! I have been back from Hawaii for a couple weeks now, seems that being gone for 2 weeks it takes another 2 weeks to catch up on things. I wanted to share some photos of our trip. We have been to Hawaii many times. It is an affordable trip if you live on the west coast as we do. It is a chance to get away and immerse ourselves in the Hawaiian traditions.

Morning walk on the beach

We are not much into going to Honolulu as it really is such a big city and a tourist trap. Many folks start there for the first trip. But I always try to recommend visiting one of the outer islands as the experience is much more laid back and certainly more "Hawaiian style". We have visited all the larger islands, each one offers its own uniqueness so I cannot be the expert to tell you really which in is the best. It really depends on what activities and lifestyle you enjoy.

Usually our Hawaii vacations take us to the Big Island of Hawaii (Kona) since it is our favorite island. But this trip we were invited by friends to join them on Maui. We couldn't bear to miss our favorite island, so we tacked on a few days at the end of this trip to visit Kona:). We visited Maui about 20 years ago when we took our school aged kids to enjoy the beaches, so this was a rediscovering of Maui for us.

morning sunrise on Maui

Upon the recommendation of a friend, we chose to stay in Maalaea which is located centrally between Kihei and Lahania. this was a nice quiet harbor area with sugar cane fields behind us and the ocean in front of us.
We were thrilled to be able to watch the humpback whales and green sea turtles right from our lanai!

We were also close to the Maui Aquarium. I got lots of good pics of the native fish of Hawaii without going snorkeling!

and those sandy beaches of Maui are abundant..this was Kamaole Beach #2 in Kihei
we put our toes in the sand and swam in the surf

A visit to the Iao valley and Iao needle, beautiful scenery

We also made a trip to some upcountry towns that had some great shopping. For some reason, I did not take pictures that day...

this is a bit of a funky pic of Jim and I--we were lucky to celebrate our 35th anniversary while in Maui. We went on a sunset dinner cruise. While I am not big on this touristy stuff, I did a bit of research on this particular one, and it was worth it...all inclusive prime rib, chicken or fish plus drinks---and they were very generous with the food plus live music and a great crew.

(the blue bracelets were touristy tho signaling our dinner choice)

Sunset wasn't great on this particular night, but everything else made up for it.

!0 days in Maui has ended and we hopped a puddle jumper plane to the Big Island of Hawaii. I knw the plane was smaller--but this plane only held 8 passengers! It was an Indiana Jones type of experience, but really I was surprised how smooth the ride was.

The pilot told us we could take pics so I snapped away. the best part was we flew lower than the jets do so the view was awesome. The bay you see in the above picture is Maalaea Bay were we stayed.

Below pic is over Kihei and Wailiea, some of Maui's best beaches

After landing on the Big Island (our fave) there are a few things that are must do right away after getting settled in our condo.

Local mangos from the farmers market. These are "golden globes" and once you have tasted one, you will be forever spoiled. The little apple bananas and local pineapple are must haves too:)

First stop for Jim is happy hour at his fave hangout in Kailua village. Birds nest view of what's going on below.

a few pics from our lanai in Kona

The beaches are mostly rocky here, but there are some white sand swimming beaches too.

ahhh  yes, a Kona sunset

 there is nothing better than having liquid aloha at the Kona brew co. 

 Kailua-Kona has lots of waterfront restaurants. this is one of our faves too

Bubba Gumps. 

It was our last night in Hawaii and we were able to meet up with my cousin who lives there for a wonderful farewell evening. Our dream is someday to be able to live on the Big island at least half of the year, maybe even full time. We love the islands.

Aloha

a hui hou!

a perfect weekend at the beach....

If you live in Oregon or Washington, you know that hitting it "just right" for a perfect summer day is hard unless you live at the coast. As valley dwellers, 65 miles from the ocean, so our trips to the coastline are limited to a few times a year. This jaunt was planned several months ago as securing a camp spot for our motorhome must be made well in advance. So you always hope for good weather...and we lucked out this time!

We camped at South Beach State park which is just south of Newport on the central Oregon coast. The funny thing is, we have camped here a couple times in the past, have hiked the dunes, walked the jetty, but never knew the history of this immediate area....pretty sad since I grew up in Oregon!

Click on the pics to see full size photos

The above pic is the start of our hike to the beach---a paved walkway thru dense conifers and deciduous trees, about a quarter mile with markers of where the old shore line was as early as 1830.

The start of the boardwalk to the beach and sand dunes

Arriving at the beach---a history of how the jetty's formed this area...

acres and acres of sand dunes--all under water only 35 years ago!

is this not just gorgeous? You can see the south Jetty in the distance

okay--we had to prove WE were there!

A nice guy stopped to take our pic as we were trying to set up for a self portrait:)

It doesn't get much better than this!

The Yaquina Bay Bridge in the distance~at the far left you can see the North jetty

then there was the hike thru the soft sand back to the campground

ahhh...what a wonderful summer weekend we will not soon forget!

My mini vacation

Usually we try to do a tropical vacation every spring, but didn't work out for 2009. So we have been taking some "mini" vacations. This last weekend we headed out for Three Rivers which is located in the high plateau country of central Oregon. The views are breath taking here at Lake Billy Chinook which is a reservior of 3 rivers--the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolious rivers (hence the name of this recreational area). My daughter Alissa and granddaughter Lynsie came along with Jim and I as we joined our friends Kathy and Ron on their 5 acre property. This area is "off the grid" meaning there is no power, water or sewer. So it was dry camping! There also is a State park campground and forest service campgrounds along this large lake.
Ron and Kathy took us out on thier pontoon boat one afternoon too. I took the liberty of borrowing the slide show Alissa did for her blog to show some of the photos. Lynsie hated that lifejacket (and I don't blame her) but now in Oregon all kids have to wear lifejackets at all times when riding in a boat. In a couple of the pics I have her on my lap. I guess I was lucky there wasn't a full body shot of me LOL!!

I will miss Kona this year

Usually after Valentines Day I start to really get excited about our spring tropics vacation which we take almost every year sometime in April or May. But things just did not work out for 2009, so home bound we are and I am blue, not being able to look forward to spending time on my favorite Hawaiian island--Kona or more properly named The Big Island. This is one of my favorite pictures (I even have it on my as my computer wallpaper most of the time). It overlooks a small bay near Keauhou. That is a Sherton Resort in the distance. We rented a condo there one year and this was our breathtaking view from the lanai.

This is one of my favorite sunset pics--everything was so pink that evening

And this is my fave flower--the plumeria! In fact to make myself feel better, I ordered myself some Plumeria bodywash and lotion direct from Hawaii (and its made in Hawaii too)

So it's just dreaming of the warm humid climate of Hawaii this year for me! We are planning a Southern Carribean cruise with friends for 2010, so Kona will wait until 2011.