Monday, January 21, 2013

Our trip of Oahu and Kauai

I'm hoping the photos will tell most the story..

North shore Oahu
Click to enlarge photos they are amazing 

 It was an amazing trip with so much we didn't have time to do..

Hope you enjoy this slice of paradise, we sure did. 
 I can't share the heavenly smell of sea air and flowers and volcanic dirt
 but I can show you the colors and beauty of this Island masterpiece God made!

Because this was a working trip we were on a heavily loaded deadline.
Some photos come from the car...the only choice I had I spent most of Oahu in the car.  
The one day I pushed for photo stops we didn't finish our work for the day.
Oops!  

 This is the view out our deck at Waikiki
I don't have much good to say about this hotel, so moving on.

Here is what we saw the most of in Waikiki


Yes traffic, always lots of traffic. It takes so long
to get anything done in this area.

The photo at the top of this post is on the North shore of Oahu
The first cell site was in a building next to this beach
I walked it while the men were doing a job walk through to
review work done.  I think I had the better job. 



So many interesting plants everywhere.
What does this look like to you?  Fun branch.




Rain comes on hard and suddenly in the tropics.
I headed for the car as it began to down pour.
warm big drops.  It comes and goes quickly and 
smells interesting. 

 Picking up the key for the work crew boss

 So many colors so many flowers

We drove by Dole and I caught pineapple fields 
and banana plantations through the car window. 

bananas

Dole

 yes pineapples


miles and miles of pineapple and ocean



You can't drive a road and not see this out your window!
 
All my photos are untouched. No filters...
Just camera and lens...I do have some nice
lens but this is the colors as they were!  I haven't had
time to open the Raw photos so just j-pegs.






This is our 1st working day in Oahu and what luck it was
to go by the Temple I longed to see as a child! 
My heart was lifted to see it. 
 There were few temples in the 50's and 
this was the one that looked so interesting to me when I was little.
It is every bit as wonderful as I had hoped it would be.

We took in a 5 minute video at the visitors center
about how the temple BYU and the cultural center came to be.
 Ask me about it sometime.
The sister missionaries were all in long Hawaiian patterned dresses.

A man sitting at the door to the temple told us an amazing story
of how he found his family after a hurricane. 
 He was in Oahu working and his family was in Tahiti. 
 I'd be happy to share this interesting story with you also. 









 Eating was delightful in the Islands.
If you find a stand or a truck or a trailer with a sign
Don't be afraid to eat there.  
Even taco places are open air eating
It was like my dreams 
I never dream anything in a building I am always outside! 
always!

On our way home we ate at a shrimp truck.
Got a giant plate of Shrimp Scampi...Oh my!
I licked even my fingers!
I topped it off with a tropical fruit smoothy
All the while the ocean was making music behind us. 

This was day one! Just wait for day 2!



Day two working in Oahu

It didn't take me long to feel really at home in the Hawaiian islands! 
Day two was happy day for me...
Lots of work to do so off we go

We traveled with company today...
Our cranky GPS named Jill and her GPS tourist guides
&
My niece Alicia who lives in Oahu
So more of this.....




 Picked up Alicia here



And with cranky Jills directions
We went to get Phil's key corrected.
Seems they didn't set his key
 up for Hawaii as
planned. 

No time for breakfast so Alicia and I, ever
watchful, saw a farmers market and walked down.
Oh heavenly stuff.

 Came back with Kaula pork yummy!

Off we go to the job site.

Jill's GPS travel guide friends pop in & out telling us the sites.
Once is good but we drove back and forth
Do you know how many times I heard about
Laie? At least 6 times!  These two Hawaiian voices
male and female really got into their stories...Actors really.
How can we turn this off?

These are the photos on the way to the first cell site
it was on the roof of a golf course building.




 
 
Tripod photos
no one was around

 


So that is the first cell site of the day.

It can take Phil a while to get into a location. It goes like this;
Get permission and passes to enter the site
(this applies to the inside sites)
un-lock the multi doors
(the locks can really freeze up between uses!)
Call some mystery line to report you are in a site
(This keeps them from sending security to see who broke in)
Take photos and record any issues.
These have been quality checks
Yesterday was meeting crew bosses to start other sites,
different drill.
Don't forget to call the mystery lne as you leave to
report you are OUT!


During that 30 to 40 plus minutes I just take wander around
taking photos looking for neat things!
 Adventures for sure.

Next cell site was on a hill behind a neighborhood
we had to wind and wind to get up there.
The brushy trees made photos challenging
 but A. and I managed some
fun shots of things far far away.

short lens
long lens




No one is around up on these high sites



A and I took what ever measures we could
to get photos and not fall off a cliff..
Look out A. That's a long fall.
 Her foot is tucked into a root I think



Now for the other side of the cell site



loved the red dirt everywhere.  Makes a colorful back drop

Heading down and out of the cell site.



We stopped for photos on the hill down
remember I said we slowed Phil down a bit today!

Phil wasn't smiling in his photos
 (he is work focused so we reminded him to smile!)
Phil and A.






This is just our morning.
I think I'll stop here and add the 2nd half of the day in another posting.
We ended the day late at night at a frozen yogurt shop.
There is lots more to tell!


After the next posting I'll re-arrange the posting by order
of day so check below for the next day.

Day two continued......

As we got off the hill and started to the next cell site
 we trusted Jill not to lead us a stray.

Alicia was wonderful giving us history facts and 
showing us her favorite beach areas, telling
us where different movies were filmed
but even she could not keep on top of Jill's
 crazy directions!

Here's a nice photo to show you where we are going...Keep reading will you?

First a stop for a vial of sand for Auntie Georgia
She requested some sand for her collection.


We collected Waikiki yesterday day 
so today it's somewhere between Punaluu 
and Kaaawa, no I didn't spell that wrong!

Phil is opening the little bag of vials and taking out the 
Scotch tape...This is a process! 



A. & I are just thinking bathing suits...hop in water.
We had them with us and we were dieing to get in the water.



 writing the beach location on the sand vial. 
Told you it was a process. Try writing on 
a piece of tape with a pen in the 
salt air and sand.

This was a lovely beach picnic area.
It was hard to leave. 

 coconut on the beach, they are everywhere.





Saw my first Hawaiian Cardinal They are much
different from Eastern Cardinals

look closely

One last look at the beach and off we go!


Seems Jill lead us a stay
we try to correct our issue but she keep telling us to turn around. 
Cranky Jill tells us 10 ways to turn around.
but we know better.  We keep driving the way we started.

First a view site and some photos.
We saw a few whales breach here 
and some very interesting plants etc.
we are up on a hill above the ocean.
People are friendly guess because they
are on vacation. 


The dark areas are coral.  It is everywhere.



The next few photos are of the whales, look closely
you can see them blow!





Phil loved these plants this must be the dry side of the island



This is Alicia's favorite swimming beach
I can sure see why.  She rides that little
scooter in the garage, on the beginning of day two,
out to these lovely places.



At some point I switched lens with A. so she could
use my new 17-50 2.8
as you see her stock lens isn't so bad.
I'm wondering what she thinks of 
her photos from the 2.8?


Thank you Alicia for sharing the photos you took!

 This is a map so you can tell which islands 
you are seeing in the distance

ready see what if you see the next island


see that land in the distance?

So to tie up this day quickly now....
Jill was going crazy with our poor choices
A. tried to disarm our chatty Hawaiian tour voices
No go!  We had to live with it.

We found our cell site after some switch backs.
It was in someones back yard, so A. and I stayed in
the car.




 Just driving to our last site.

This is China mans hat. A storm is brewing

a view from further down the road


everything has a flower and a fruit.
Not sure what we can eat really.


Dinner was in laie 

Entertainment is old surfing movies
Look who is really enjoying that.



Clint called while we were here.
Fun.
I had fish tacos.  Yummy


 A. Collected Georgia sand
at the famous Sunset beach!




we got back to Waikiki and had frozen yogurt and
any topping you wanted.  I had taro yogurt, a sort of
purple and it was very tasty!

 This surfer had just left the water and talked
with us as we collected sunset beach sand


Go to Older posts to see the next day







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