JILL'S SURPRISE KAUA'I TRIP PART II

We arrived on the island of Kaua'i just before 6pm. As we approached the island - the Boeing 707 flight was less than 30 minutes - I had grown cranky about the three hours that we lost stuck in the Honolulu Airport. It did not help matters that it was 9pm at home in Hillsboro and we were somewhat famished because we never exactly knew if the next plane was ours, so we didn't take the risk of missing a flight sitting and eating a $9.00 hamburger. Mechanical issues held the plane to the ground at Maui, its point of departure. But the Hawaiian Air knuckleheads wouldn't get a substitute plane for us, as would a professional carrier, and while we waited, three similar Hawaiian Air flights departed for Kaua'i while we sat, tempers simmering. The other flights were booked, so there was no chance of stand-by.

Not only that, but our gate (beware Gate 41 - it's the one with dead tumbleweeds accumulating in the corner) was the last at the end of the interisland terminal, so Hawaiian personnel never felt compelled to provide us with updated information about our flight, which gate the plane would utilize - that was never a done deal until the last minute - and whether or not anyone could fly stand-by, how, where and at what cost. All of this information was only had by hunting down a Hawaiian rep. somewhere in the terminal like a wild boar - not an entirely inappropriate metaphor - and practicing interrogation with a smile. Complacent is the adjective that comes to mind when I think of Hawaiian Air staff, but it somehow just doesn't characterize their slack-jawed shock that a passenger might not only dare to expect punctuality as the norm, but also some measure of effort to inform passengers of delays. I expect and plan for manana mentality south of the Border, but we quickly learned that Hawaiian Time is very real.. and provides evidence that Polynesians did indeed cross the Pacific and land in South America looking for new foodstuffs. The Incans not only gave them the sweet potato, but clearly passed on their Mesoamerican bad habits.

But upon first glance of Kaua'i through the airplane window, much was forgotten. The island is spectacularly rugged; more on this later. Lihue, the location of the airport and the island's largest town, is located on a valley plane that slopes from the nearly 6,000-foot mountains to the northwestwest down into the ocean. To the immediate south of Lihue are the closest peaks, a short but imposing chain running due east and right into the crashing surf - a frozen echo of the lava that once flowed here, into the waves as if it truly had been seeking reflief in the cool waters.


Map courtesy of the Kaua'i Visitor Bureau - I'm sure they don't mind the traffic

Kaua'i is the northermost and oldest of the Hawaiian chain of islands. As a result, God's hammer and chisel - wind and rain - have had longer to shape Kauai's geology. Thousands of years of erosion have produced dramatically-carved peaks and valleys on the island, all covered in the brilliant, moist greens of which only tropical climates are capable. But, as we would find out a few days later, none are more impressive than the northern Na Pali Coast, a photo of which I posted a while back and can still be seen if you scroll down to April 14 or click here.

Our hotel for the four-night stay was the Aloha Beach Resort between Wailua and Kapa'a on the east "Coconut Coast" side of the island. The resorts are older (1970's), particularly compared to new development on the south coast in Poipu. Ours was a former Holiday Inn resort, as evidenced by the elevator's visibly expired permit enclosed by a cracked plastic sheath. Popcorn ceilings, somewhat outdated carpets in the common areas and other little features left no doubt that if you had the patience to sit in the lobby, the mobs of Japanese package tourists would clear long enough that you might spy the ghost of Larry Dallas. But it was still well-maintained, had lovely Hawaiian landscaped grounds and was immediately adjacent to Lydgate Beach State Park, which proved on our last morning to have the best snorkelling Jill's yet experienced - though not necessarily the best location; San Blas/Kuna Yala in Panama is is hard-pressed to lose its top position. After a great Korean BBQ dinner in Kapa'a, we concluded the night at the hotel room planning the next day's activities.

Aloha Beach Resort & Lydgate Beach State Park


More in Part III Later!

KATE GIVES HER NOTICE

Congratulations, Kate! She gave her two-week notice to Hanna Brophy and will be taking up a new position at another law firm in Sacramento thereafter. I can't say I know much more than that, but a clean break from something old to something new and better is always worth celebrating. If anyone knows anything else, I'll post it.

MATTHEW AND DANA GARDNER HAVE A BOUNCING BABY BOY

Wednesday night, Dana (wife of Matthew Gardner, Seattle Principal of my company Johnson Gardner.. Gardner Johnson up there) had to have emergency caesarean section due to complictions with her health. At 34 weeks, the doctors felt the baby would be developed enough to do just fine. And after a very successful surgery, they were right! William is just over 4 pounds and happily occupying special accommodations in the Premie ward of Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington.

Congratulations Matthew and Dana!

RICK AND LIBBY BAHR GET EMAIL

Rick and Libby, living in Las Vegas, sent an email recently to make the announcement. I quote:

This is just a note to let everyone know that we have jumped into the 21st century, and finally have broken down and got E-mail. We also have a new phone number as follows, 702-644-2247(BAHR). We hope everyone is doing well, and hope to read or hear from anyone soon.

Lots of Love,
Rick and Libby

The new email address is: mannymoe3@netzero.com

Now I better not hear of anyone signing them up for Peter Pan's electronic newsletter... but if you do, let me know ASAP!

UPDATE YOUR LES HARDISON EMAIL ADDRESS

Les Hardison, Judy's uncle in Florida, emailed the other day to remind me that his new email address is les@hardison.info - the old URL and email address have expired. I have updated his website address for the Les Hardison link in the left margin of this page. Give it a look sometime. I personally appreciate his dry sense of humor.

BABY PHOTOS DELAYED

Yes, it's been a while. A whole month since the big ultrasound March 31, even. I hope to utilize Mom's new scanner with the ultrasound photos, but I will say that the baby (of undetermined gender) is very happy, healthy and active. All systems and organs checked out just fine. We have prints of the the little tot yawning (it looks like), a wisp of a hand near it's mouth. It has a Charlie Brown head with a high forehead, so Jill says it's "definitely Bill's kid."

Photos will be up soon. It was 1lb. 10 oz. or so a month ago, so we figure it's about two pounds now. It kicks and squirms all the time now, so now even I can reliably tell when it's moving.

HAPPY 55TH BIRTHDAY TO DAD

Dad was in town this weekend for his birthday. Well, only until noon on Sunday the 25th. But after a day of looking at properties in Clark and Cowlitz Counties, Washington, he came back to town and we took him out to Campbell's Barbecue for the largest display of meat I've ever seen in my life. Here's a shot of the founders of Campbell's, now passed away. He was a former NASA technician that moved his family up to Portland back in the 1980s as I recall. Plus, a shot of their infamous beef ribs - Jill's favorite.



For fun, I'll repeat the joke he told at dinner:

An elderly lady went into the doctor for her annual check-up. The doctor asked her if she noticed any unusual changes in her health. She replied nothing really, other than that she has developed frequent gas but it was odorless and silent. The doctor gave her a little bottle of pills and told her to return to his office when she ran out. A month later, she returned and upon seeing the doctor, expressed her frustration with the medicine. "I took those pills you gave me and all they did was give my farts a horrific odor." The doctor replied "well, now that we've fixed your sense of smell, we'll work on your hearing."

On the real estate front, it looks like they are going to pass on the big land deal (lack of investor interest, really) and go for a five-acre parcel upon which to build their own home. They'll likely buy a house in Clark County (Vancouver) in the meantime, so we'll see how things progress.

JILL'S SURPRISE KAUA'I TRIP - PART I

With some conspiring with Judy, I was able to pull off a surprise trip for Jill to Kaua'i, Hawai'i. She did expect a 5-day trip to New Orleans and the Gulf, but it was a big lie. She didn't seem to be too upset about it when she found out, though. I booked flight, hotel and rental cars in Honolulu and on Kaua'i. I just had to keep it a secret until we got to the airport - and manage to sneak the snorkel equipment into the luggage when Jill wasn't looking. I scored on both accounts.

John and Judy dropped us off at PDX Thursday morning for our flight. They knew (well, pretty much everyone but Jill knew) so they had big smiles for her when we left. I'm surprised she didn't get tipped off on that, but I think she was tired from packing the night before. We headed into the terminal and I pulled out our E-Tickets on Hawaiian Airlines (non-stop from Portland to Honolulu - no hassles through San Francisco or LA!). She looked a little puzzled, inspected them carefully, and then looked completely dumbfounded - in shock you might say. I pulled the wool over her eyes! She was pretty much speechless and stunned through security and half-way to the gate.

She stopped at the ladies' room, and when she came back out I guess it had sunk in because her face was kind of red and she had the biggest smile on her face I've seen in a long time. Poor girl, dealing with the awful pregnancy rash a few weeks before that kept her home from work for a week. The doctors still don't know what it was. And it's making a comeback of sorts right now, but not as severely. But for a while at least, she forgot all about that. In fact, on the levelator to the gate, her eyes even leaked a little bit. But that's okay - it was because she was happy.

The flight to Hawai'i was uneventful - the best kind. We quickly became acquainted with Guava-Passionfruit juice as it's everywhere on the islands when you ask for "fruit juice." I suppose it is if you consider fruit juice to be a drop of concentrate and "high fructose corn syrup/and or cane sugar." But I digress. We left Portland at 9:05am our time, but arrived at 12:30pm their time.. they do not observe daylight savings.

Honolulu had become a sprawl, the older city like the head of a gray octopus whose tentacles slithered far up onto the sides of the surrounding green mountains, house after house in all directions. I don't remember Honolulu being so big, but then again, I had not been there in twenty years. It was cloudy and slightly rainy and I confused the clouds with plausibly dense smog. Waikiki was clear, however, and to my surprise, Diamond Head is still protected by a barrier of greenspace so that uncomfortably close highrise hotels cannot be developed and block its view. Even through the airplane window on the ground, there are good views of Diamond Head crater to be had (the one below is from another website).



We had a 3.5 hour layover in the Honolulu Airport, so I rented a car from the Honolulu airport to do whatever sightseeing we could in that amount of time. I had heard all sorts of horror stories about the security at the airport, Honolulu traffic - "don't do it" was all I had heard online when I did research. But what the heck.. how many times am I in Hawai'i, right?! We got the car and took off for downtown Honolulu. And in the amount of time we had - thank God we had our E-Tickets - we only got to see the famous statue of King Kamehameha. Here he is on King Kamehameha Day, when the locals adorn him with countless flower lei's.



We had time only to spin the block a few times and never got to park and take a photo. Well, it was an experience, anyway.

We returned to the airport in time - only to realize our flight to Lihue on Kaua'i had been delayed.. and would continue to be for three hours. We could have gotten over to Waikiki for photos of the beach and Diamond Head. The lesson is that you should use Hawaiian to get to the islands, but use Aloha Airlines for interisland travel. We finally managed to get our plane and off we went to Kaua'i, the northernmost island in the chain and geologically the oldest!

More in Part II Later!

JUDY TO HAVE FOOT SURGERY... SORT OF

Judy got in to see a real surgeon and he said that her foot can be fixed, but she needs to schedule surgery sooner rather than later. So, she's at a dilemma about when to do it. She doesn't look forward to the six month recovery and how it will affect her ability to help Jill with the baby, but at the same time if she doesn't do it soon, who knows what permanent damage she'll do to her foot by not getting it fixed. We continue to urge her to move forward quickly.. the baby's always going to be there! More when we know what she's going to do.

TOM HAS HIS BAR EXAM REGRADED

Tom has asked to have his bar exam essay questions regraded. He missed passing by only 3 points.. practically nothing. Tom, did you spell your name correctly?! Maybe you can get points for that. Anyway, he's still signed up for a retake on July 31-August 1, so we'll be seeing him soon, either way. Good Luck, Tom. And my condolences to your Nevada Wolf Pack. They played admirably, but a team of 5 superior players can only beat teams with deeper benches for only so long. Georgia Tech just happened to be the one to do it. Either way, UNR is bound to have a much better recruiting season this year. Here's to the future!

NOAH CHOW-MONREAL IS BORN

Inga Chow-Monreal, my old friend from Baylor, emailed recently with a photo of her and Richard's newborn son, Noah.. see below. He's a cutie. Inga reported that she went to the hospital with an awful belly ache from eating too many cookies, only to find out she was nearly completely dilated. (?!) She only went through two hours of labor and Noah was born.



Welcome to the big world, Noah!

TULIP FESTIVAL IN WOODBURN

The first weekend in April, Judy, Mom, Jill and I went to Woodburn, Oregon for the Tulip Festival. The event is held at the fields of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. The link gives all sorts of information about the event, as well as information on getting a catalog. It's well worth it - they have a great selection of all sorts of spring and early summer bulbs.

We walked through the fields, snapped a lot of photos and enjoy the sunny views of Mt. Hood in the background. None of my photos of Hood and the tulips turned out well, of course. Afterward, we had a great meal of Dutch-style homemade sausage! Good eatin'. Here's one of the better photos

THINGS ARE KINDA CRAZY - HERE'S SOME EYE CANDY

I haven't updated in a while, much has been happening, but unfortunately it's going to have to wait. In the meantime, enjoy this view of the Na Pali coastline on the north shore of Kaua'i, the destination of my surprise trip for Jill.



More soon enough!