Randy and Jane Guthrie Family

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Melissa We Miss You

We love having Jarom and Melissa living with us, and they really do help out an awful lot. But it's really apparent what a blessing they are, how much we've come to depend on Melissa since she's been gone visiting her family in Seattle this past week.

Hawaii Wrap-up

I'm sure most everyone that follows this blog is probably ready for a new topic, but since Allie and Staci in particular wanted to see the rest of Jane's (Mom's) outfits, plus the fact that I hadn't really shown any of the underwater camera pictures, I thought I'd wrap things up with a lot of random pictures that I particulary liked. BTW, its harder than you think to hold a camera on the bottom of a pool with one foot and click the shutter with the other.

This is a 5 minute video "tour" of the pool at the Grand Hyatt where we stayed. We had a lot of fun swimming here. If you are goofing off and relaxing, it takes about an hour to go from one end to the other.

Jane thought our Hawaiian lifeguard was pretty interesting.

These fish have teeth! One bit me while I was feeding them part of a dinner roll.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Hawaii Day Seven - Waimea Canyon

On our last day in Hawaii we started out with early morning stroll down the beach to see if there was a place to snorkle. Then we went swimming one more time in the resort's big pool. Then we sadly packed up our bags and checked out of our room. We loaded up the car and headed west to Waimea Canyon area, a ten-mile long canyon that is kind of like the Grand Canyon. From the top of the ridge you can look down in the Napali coastal mountains where Jurrasic Park and King Kong was filmed. There are many scenic lookout points on the road and we stoppped at every one and took pictures. After spending about three hours in the canyon, we drove down to the Waimea beach to an area called the salt ponds, and went snorkling. We found a protected little cove that wasn't too deep and spent a good hour face down looking a schools of angel fish and lots of other "tropical fish". After snorkling we ate a picnic lunch and headed towards the airport hoping to find another snorkling spot before the sun went down. Alas, it was not to be. We finally found a highly recommended spot that turned out to be a 1/2 mile from our hotel, but got there just as the sun was slipping over the horizon. We saw a huge green sea turtle on the beach, and Jane washed the salt out of her hair in the rinse-off shower at the beach. We then changed into our travel clothes in the bathrooms and headed for the airport. We got checked in, waited a bit to board and headed home. The plane left at 9:45pm, and we arrived in Los Angeles at 5am local time. Our connection left at 7am, and we arrived in Denver at 10am local time. By the time we got our bags and drove home it was noon. Jane took a nap and I started working on yard because I was going to be leaving on Monday for another trip and wanted to be prepared in case we got snow.

This was without a doubt the best vacation we've ever taken and I really was grateful that Jane could get some reward for all of her sacrifices and work to manage our house and family while I am gone so often travelling. It was so nice to spend quality time together, and we actually had to get to know each other a bit better because we haven't spent a lot of time together in the past couple of years. It was a real treat and we're already thinking about where we can go next!

The Napali Coast from the top of Waimea Canyon

Looking east

Funny sign at the beach where we snorkled

Looking at the protected cove where we snorkled

Jane overcame her fears to have a total blast. She says that looking at all of the life in the ocean helps her appreciate the Creation all that much more

Beautiful clear water

The giant sea turtle. I bet it weighed over 200 lbs

Sunset over Poipu Beach as we get ready to leave for the airport

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Hawaii Day Five - Exploring the North Coast

On Thursday, November 6th we rented a car and started touring the island on our own. When we went to pick up our car at the airport they offered me a Suburban at first, but with gas prices so high I asked for something smaller and they gave us a Mustang convertible, which we were completely happy with. Our first destination was a town on the north coast called Princeville, where we had heard about some swimable (at low tide) tide pools called "The Queen's Bath". On the way there we stopped at several scenic lookouts. We didn't know exactly where they were, but we took a chance and by luck or whatever we drove right there. We parked high on a cliff and then had to climb down a muddy trail to the rocks. When we arrived we found that the tide was coming in and the pools were very dangerous so we took some pictures but didn't get too close for risk of being swept out to sea. After visiting the tide pools we continued driving north until the road ended at Ke'e park, which was closed due to heavy surf. The drive was very pretty and we stopped a lot. We had dinner at a local burger place, and got home just as it was getting dark.

Our fun convertable

The Queen's Bath area from the top of the cliff. You can see one of the pools at the bottom of the picture just to the right of the center and another just left of center.

This is a taro plantation where they grow the plant from which poi is made of. If you look carefully in the river you can see two kayaks

Admiring the view...

Some of the houses near the beach are built to survive hurricane tidal surges

Jane tries a coconut. The Hawaiian guy that sold it to us got them off of local trees and loads them in his pickup truck and sells them at a camping beach where we stopped to look at some neat caves

Machete expert opens the coconut

Brave Jane tries the coconut milk

This philodendron is the same kind of plant we've had in our homes, only the rainy climate helps it grow MUCH bigger. The cave we explored is right behind Jane in the photo.

Inside a tidal cave

We stopped to look at a waterfall and while I was getting the camera ready one of the local chickens was trying to figure out if Jane had something to eat in there. Jane is holding a newspaper ready to give battle

Here is the waterfall. If you look closely you can see that someone has a house just above it

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Hawaii Day Four - Kayak Trip

Today is/was Wednesday, and we started the day with a buffet breakfast at one of the resort restaurants. This one is called "Tidepools" and its located over a big pond. Microsoft took over the restaurant in the mornings during our stay exclusively for event attendees. Then we took a stroll on the beach before getting ready for our kayak adventure. We boarded a shuttle van at 9:30am and arrived at the "kayak shack" about an hour later. First we received some basic instruction and then we set off on the Hule'ia River. Even though we were headed upstream, the wind was at our backs and pushed up the river. We paddled about an hour until we arrived at the trail head. We then left the kayaks and started hiking on a very muddy trail through the forest/jungle. We hiked about 30 minutes to a big swimming hole where some of us (me included, not Jane) tried out a rope swing into the pond. After our cool off break we continued hiking to a small waterfall where we had lunch. After lunch we hiked back the way we came and were picked up by a motor boat for the ride back. The motor boat towed our kayaks behind. We were done about 3:00pm. When we got back to the resort Jane and I washed up all the mud off of our shoes and got ready for our last evening party, which featured the cruisine of many of the local chiefs who were their in person preparing dishes. When we got back to our room after the party we received a small recipe book on our bed with all of the recipes. Sweet!

Breakfast at Tidepools