Diamond Head

Since January 19 was a holiday (MLK Day), Lauri and I decided that we would get up fairly early, before it got too hot and go hike Diamond Head. Not too bad a hike if you drive up into the crater and park. If you go on the bus, and have to walk up the road to the crater, it would be a little more of a deal.

How you get to the top:




Looking out of the bunker at the top of the trail:

The last climb from the bunker to the top of the hill:

We made it!

Diamond Head lighthouse:

Coral reef:

Waikiki:

The crater:

Koko Head and Hawaii Kai:

Pausing on the way back down:

Back into the rabbit hole, Alice:

What goes up, must eventually come back down:

Fun way to spend some time together. Not a "must do" for every trip, but. . . .

Monster Surf

The surf had been raging on the North Shore for the past couple of weeks while we were in Honolulu in January, so we headed over there to see what we could. These are only about 20-foot breakers. They have been in the 30 to 35-foot range, so it is even more difficult to imagine what that would be like. These were pretty impressive!

Valley of the Temples

Years ago, in one episode of Magnum, PI, the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples was used prominently in the story. Each time that Lauri and I have been to Hawaii, we have talked about going to see it, so this time we did. On January 17, we figured out where it is and went to see it. It is a replica of a 12th. century Japanese Buddhist temple built in the late 1960s. Its name translates to the Phoenix temple, because of the two majestic metal phoenixes along the top ends of the main temple. It is a recreation of the Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan. Inside the main part of the temple there is a 12 ft Buddha sitting on a gold leaf lotus.



Ringing the bell:




Feeding the birds and the fishes! This little girl was having a ball getting the birds to land on her hand.

Pali Lookout

On January 10, Lauri and I decided it was time to go see the Pali Lookout. We have driven by it numerous times, but have just never stopped. It does give a good look at Windward O‘ahu and Kāne‘ohe. It is hard to imagine what it was like when there was no tunnel or road and only a narrow footpath along the cliffside.



Self portrait - only took four tries to get us both smiling!

We continued on over to Laie and wandered around the Visitor's Center. The workmen have already begun the remodeling of the Temple. The Plumerias have all lost their leaves during the winter and they look pretty forelorn. There are a few flowers trying to come out, but the sister missionaries keep them pretty well plucked off for hair ornaments this time of year.

The nativity set is still out.

The Hibiscus are in full bloom and are gorgeous!



To end the day, we stopped by our favorite Mexican restaurant on the island in Hale‘iwa and took another self-potrait.

Trail Cam

CH2M Hill folks are working on the I-90 upgrades at Snoqualmie Pass. One of them collected this video to estimate the number of critters that try to cross the highway. They're planning on building some bridges for them to keep doing so without dodging cars.

You might enjoy the black bear "using" the tree and the elk who is ready for his closeup.

January 1, 2009 Dives - Deep LCU & Black Rock

On Thursday, January 1, 2009, I dove with Maria Zitney and Jo (divemaster) from Ocean Concepts. We did two dives, the Deep LCU, a 106 foot deep dive on a Landing Craft that was intentionally sunk as an artificial reef and Black Rock, an 80 foot deep dive on a deep coral reef.

I dove with Maria. Jo was the divemaster for our group. I was the only one with a camera. There were 9 divers and three "guides."Three of the divers were taking lessons, so Jo took the other six of us.

Our group was the first in this time, and Maria and I were the last pair in the water. Headed down the mooring line when all of our group was in. No problem with the camera today. I put fresh batteries in just before the dives, so I now know it was a battery problem last time.

We dropped right down to the bottom at the bow and did a circuit around the wreck near the bottom. Saw a little Whitemouth Moray Eel and a few Blue Dragon Nudibranchs which I got photos of. We then came up to the top of the wreck and did a circuit there as well. Maria just kind-of hung back a little and stayed a little higher in the water than me, so when I was about out of botton-time and my computer was beeping at me, she still had time left.

Whitemouth Moray Eel

Blue Dragon Nudibranch

Blue Dragon Nudibranch

Common Longnose Butterflyfish

Blue Dragon Nudibranch

As I started to ascend to avoid a deco-stop, she spotted a Kahuna Nudibranch. I dropped down and got a photo of it with my computer screaming at me. I only had 1 minute left at that depth. I immediately started to ascend again to the handrail depth and got two more minutes.

Kahuna Nudibranch

Just as I got there, Jo spotted a Commerson's Frogfish on the rail. I got one shot of it and then signaled that I was out of time and slowly started ascending.

Commerson's Frogfish

As I was ascending, suddenly a Spotted Eagle Ray showed up. I got one photo, but due to relatively poor visibility, the photo did not turn out well. Did a one-minute stop at mid-depth, 48-feet, and then did two three minute stops at 18-feet since we were doing two deep dives due to the poor visibility on the shallow sites. Hung out at 15-feet while Maria finished her stop and then slowly ascended and got out. This was my first dive ever where I ran out of bottom-time before I ran out of air!

During the surface interval today as we were moving from one dive site to another, suddenly a whale surfaced just off the port side of the boat. The Captain slowed down and we trailed the whale for more than a half hour. Most of the time we could see the "shadow" of the whale just under the surface 30-50 feet off the side of the boat.


Every few minutes it would come up for air and we all got some great shots of it!



After a while, it came even closer to the boat and was only about 20 feet away! Pretty awesome!







After about 35-40 minutes, it decided it had had enough of us and sounded and was gone.

Humpback Whale

For the second dive, I got all ready and giant strided into the water off the boat. As soon as I hit the water, I knew something wasn't right -- no fins. I felt like a dope! I swam back to the platform and got out and the Captain retrieved my fins and I went again.

The visibility was awful! The water was greenish and full of junk. Leaves and trash were everywhere. We descended and it got darker and darker, and on the bottom was like an evening dive. Visibility was 5-10 feet at best. I got my back-up light out and looked around at the coral wall. Took one photo of a Pebble Collector Urchin and then looked for Maria.

Pebble Collector Urchin

She was not willing to come over to the wall and so I went over to her. She was pretty apprehensive and was not moving -- just hanging in the water. By the time she calmed down, the rest of the group was gone. I couldn't see the wall at that point and we could not find the group or their bubbles.

At that point I decided to call the dive and Maria agreed, so we slowly ascended. Did a three minute open-water stop and then surfaced. We were about 100 yards from the boat, so we swam over and got out.

Good experience, but not a great dive. Maria thanked me for "saving" her once we were on the boat. She is a pretty experienced diver, but apparently had never seen visibility like this before. It was just like being in Blue Lake all over again!