2007 PB Christmas Party in Honolulu

So, this year, since I was not in Utah and able to attend the PB Christmas party (seems like that has been the story the past several years, actually), I was in Honolulu and was able to attend theirs instead.


I have to say, it is sooo different than the semi-social bunch at the Murray office. These folks over in Honolulu know how to have a good time. And they did it without alcohol!! That is unusual for the Honolulu office, but it does follow the actual Corporate guidelines to the letter. The guys planning the party didn't know that the guidelines are always ignored for the Christmas party, so they all did without and had fun to boot.

Jim Dunn and Kanuji (Kanu) Parma

We had dinner;

The Dunns & Linda Sebald

They passed out door prizes;

Going to Get My Prize

Getting My Movie Tickets

We had a contest to see which table of engineers could build the tallest structure out of toothpicks and marshmallows;




We tied for first at 10". (No photo of the structure.) No matter what anyone tried, 10" was as tall as you could build; try to go above that and they just collapsed. Marshmallows make lousy building materials--think marshmallow sidewalks. Scary!


So we had a group karaoke contest to determine the grand champions--we lost!!!

It was a fun party, even if I was by myself.

Halloween in Waikiki

I have never been to Carnival or to Mardi Gras, but they can't be much stranger than Halloween in Waikiki!

Lauri came with me for a week at the end of October 2007. We stayed at the Imperial Hotel in Waikiki. It is a timeshare, so is a little more comfortable, but the neighborhood is loud and the facility is old. It is about 2.5 miles from my office downtown.

On Halloween, everyone in town flocked down to Waikiki for the evening. Many were driving down, but thousands were walking along the streets, most of them in costume. They were the most outlandish costumes I have ever seen. Many were Japanese and I think they were attempting to all dress as streetwalkers. The streetwalkers must have been hating life, because no-one could tell them apart from the crowd. I did not have my camera with me and by the time I got to the hotel, did not think to take it when we went to get dinner, so I do not have photos. Wait till next year!

It took me 2-1/2 hours to drive the 2.5 miles. I could have walked it in less than 1/2 hour.

On the flip side, on the Saturday before, we went to the Arizona Memorial. The movie is a sobering and thought-provoking experience. The emotions it evokes are hard to explain.

This plaque is only for those lost before and after WWII.

For me, however, the Lost Submarine Memorial was even more emotional. There are no multimedia presentations, no crowds, very few who came, seemed even to notice that it existed. Just a large circle of individual plaques--one for each submarine that was lost in the Pacific during WWII. So many men lost at sea, far more than at Pearl Harbor--most without us even knowing for sure where. They simply did not return from their final mission.


That is the horrible price of our freedom!

Here are some more photos:

PB Office Blessing

On October 9, 2007, the new PB Transit Office in the Pauahi Tower in downtown Honolulu was "dedicated."

It seems a little strange to us in Utah where not only is church separated from the state, but also persecuted by the state, but in other states it is not so. Especially in Hawaii. The have "Blessings" for everything and talk openly about spirituality.

We had a native Hawaiian priest come and he blessed the office in hawaiian. During the blessing he sprinkled "pure water" from a mountain spring on the door posts and lintel and key manager's hands using a bunch of Ti leaves.

I also included a couple of photos from my lanai:

October 6, 2007 Dives - Kewalo Basin Pipe & Secret Reef

On Saturday, October 6, 2007, I dove with Ryan from Dive Oahu. We did two dives, Kewalo Basin Pipe, a 60 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef and an old outflow pipe off of Ward Center, and Secret Reef, a 45 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef.

I was still a little nervous about the deep dives, so I decided to be a little conservative again and I chose 2 shallow reef dives for my second dive adventure in Hawaii.

We descended along the bow mooring line to the pipe. Right after getting there, I saw and took a photo of a Zebra Moray Eel which is pretty rare. Swam slowly down (Makai) the pipe to the end. Saw lots of reef fish and eels. Took photos along the way. At the end of the pipe, there was a moray and a school of Bigscale Soldierfish in the very end of the pipe.

Swam slowly to the west and then mauka back to the mooring line. Ascended slowly along the mooring line and got back on the boat with 900 psi to spare.

The second dive was really from the same place. Once again Ryan and I swam around to the bow and descended along the mooring line. We swam mauka along the pipe and the reef along side for a ways.

Turned to the east and swam over to Secret Reef. Swam around the reef and looked under overhangs and saw the whole reef. Swam back to the pipe which sucked up all my air. Only had 400 psi left and Ryan found two Day Octopus swimming. I got a quick photo and ascended.

I took lots of photos, but not very many came out so you could see what was supposed to be in them.

September 22, 2007 Dives - Turtle Canyon & Portlock Point (revised)

For my first dives in Hawaii, I decided to be a little conservative, so I chose 2 shallow reef dives rather than the standard here of 1 deep dive followed by 1 shallow reef dive.

On Saturday, September 22, 2007, I dove with Daryn from Aqua Zone. We did two dives, Turtle Canyon, a 40 foot deep dive on a shallow coral reef off of Hawaii Kai, and Portlock Point, a 50 foot deep drift/wall dive.

I did not take my camera on the first dive since it was my first dive in the islands. I wish I had. I was the only one to see the Commerson's Frogfish, so I did not get a photo. Daryn had his camera, and I bought the CD from him.

Did a backroll from the side of the boat to enter the water since it was a small boat without a dive platform. Descended along the mooring line and struck out in a northerly direction.

We swam in a large circle around the reef. Saw lots of reef fish and a couple of moray eels. Ascended slowly up the mooring line and boarded the boat.

Here are the photos from the first dive:

Right at the end of the dive, as we were nearing the mooring line, we came across a large greenish Whitemouth Moray Eel that was swimming. We followed it to a coral head where it hid and watched a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse attempting to clean it. It snapped at the wrasse a couple of times. Daryn shot this video:



The second dive was really cool. I had no idea at the time, just how good conditions were, since I had nothing to compare with. It is by far, my favorite dive of all the ones I have done here in the islands in the year since.

The water was absolutely clear. Far and away the best visibility, and I like this site better than any other I have dived. Only problem is that it is a rarely visited site and getting someone to take me there again will be difficult, since the conditions are a little challenging.

Backrolled in and immediately descended to the base of the wall at 50 feet. Daryn deployed the float and we swam along the wall. The bottom is covered with huge boulders. Lots of reef fish and the vis was excellent.

There are several small caves in the wall, and in the first, we found a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Took some photos in the cave and while it was swimming. In the next cave we found a 5-6 foot Whitetip Reef Shark. Same routine - took photos in the cave and as it swam away. Saw one more turtle just before swimming out from the wall a ways and ascending.

I took the camera on the second dive:

September 8, 2007

Nampa, Idaho

This was an unusual sunset. The darker it got, the more magenta this cloud formation became and the more intense the blue in the sky. Nampa, Canyon County, Idaho, USA, September 8, 2007. f/3.2, 1/48 second, ISO 50.

This was an unusual sunset. The darker it got, the more magenta this cloud formation became and the more intense the blue in the sky. It was almost like the cloud formation divided the night sky from the fading day below near the horizon. Nampa, Canyon County, Idaho, USA, September 8, 2007. f/3.2, 1/48 second, ISO 50.

Unexpected Visit to Honolulu

About the middle of March 2007, I was busily engaged working on the projects that I had going at the time when suddenly on a Thursday afternoon I received a phone call from Honolulu inquiring whether I could drop everything and attend a Schedule Workshop for the Honolulu Transit Project beginning the next week. Lauri and I talked it over and she said, "Only if I can come too!"

So we made arrangements, left on Sunday, and the next week found us in Honolulu. I spent the first several days attending meetings at the PB office and working on developing a tentative project schedule for the transit project, while Lauri enjoyed being in Paradise and relaxing.

We did a little site-seeing on evenings and on Friday we tried to go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel, but we were too late in the day. On Saturday morning we got up and drove over to Laie, attended an endowment session in the Hawaii Temple and then spent the day in the Polynesian Cultural Center. We flew home the next evening, arriving Monday morning.

That was the beginning of an adventure, that is still on-going, and will likely continue until at least January 2010, since from August 2007 until now (July 2007), I have spent about half my time in Honolulu.

Sure! I Have One Too!

I decided that if you can't beat them, you may as well join them!

But I also decided that this was a good way to document my travels and the time (way too much) that I am away from home, so I decided to make this Blog about what I am doing while I am away. That way you can all share in some of those things, such as my diving.

It provides a great way for the divers among us to see and share and be jealous too, but it also gives Caleb and Spencer a way to see lots of fish and turtles and other neat critters.


Because of that, I am going back to March 2007 to start and will catch up over the next few weeks. So sit back and enjoy the slide shows!

Mahalo and Aloha!