3-28-10 Beaver Pond

 was doing some yard work yesterday and decided that I would rather be driving the back trails than pulling a rake. I grabbed my Video Camera and headed out to a Beaver Pond and dam I had found a couple years ago. It is in a remote area, very hard to find in the meandering trails.

I finally found it.





After I got home and grabbed the rake again I looked at the sky, it was so nice and sunny but a bit cool and windy. I decided to go for a Scooter Ride. No place special, maybe out near Lake St Helen and see if the Eagles had started nesting yet. There is a nice Eagle Nest in a tree near the lake.

Again I grabbed my camera and took off. It was cold on the scooter but I ignored it and headed out. I drove past the eagle nest area, I was expecting to see some sign of it as I saw an eagle the other day while eating at Houghton Lake but the nest was empty.

There is a big tree, or at least was a big tree, just outside St Helen that the local kids throw their tennis shoes in for some reason that only an adolescent brain can make sense of. You can bet that they don't pay for the shoes. I just hope their values change when they have to work for the money.

Anyways, I headed over there and sure enough, the tree was cut down and the only sign of shoes were the ones that caught on the power lines. I noticed that they had decided to use a tree down the road a ways and it was now loaded with shoes. Not nearly as many as the other tree, nor was the new tree as big.


I continued down the road and off to my right, way out in a field I thought I saw two deer grazing. I looked closer and it was two Sand Hill Cranes. They are huge birds that stand 3-5 ft tall and have up to a 8 ft wing span. They looked so majestic. I got off my scooter and broke out the camera and took some video.

They were a long way off and I had to use the zoom to max and even though I have anti-shake the video was poor so I walked down the road a ways to where I could get over the water filled ditch and leaned the camera against a fence post for some stability. This is the video of the birds I got. I just pitched the first two clips. I was closer but the wind was blowing me all over the place :D

Wings Over Kauai

Mary and I had been thinking about going on another Helicopter ride over Hauai, which was to be our last island we would visit on vacation.

While we were on Kona we got talked into going to a Time Share sales pitch for a deal on an aircraft ride over that island and I was not going to set through one of those things again. We sat through it and said, No Thanks and pizzed them off. We took the deal on the discount but I was not going to do it again.

Well we had been talking about another copter ride but those things are just Sooooo expensive. Mary and I were in a small mall like area close to our Resort and we were in a small junk shop. I was bored and told her I would wait outside.

I went out and watched the chickens for a while and then saw a small booth offering discounts. I figured it would be a great place to check into a copter ride.

Well I went in and the guy was all over me, telling me what a great deal he could get us on anything on the island. I laughed and told him flat out that if he was selling Time Shares I was not gonna talk to him. I was not gonna set through another two hours of that crap for no 200 bucks. Once was enough.

Well he told me it was not necessary and that he could give us a great deal on a ride around the entire island on a 172, which I took some flying lessons in and also a ride along the cliffs on a tour boat. I told him that I was not allowed to make those decisions that my boss was in a shop and I would talk to her and maybe be back.

Well I caught her when she left the shop and told her about it. At first she said no because she too was fed up with the Time Share thing. I told her that all we had to do is listen and then decide, she didn't want to listen to him at all.

Well he showed us the brochures on both trips and gave us the price, which I thought was great.

http://www.wingsoverkauai.com/

http://www.kauaiboats.com/

I had flown lots of times in a 172 but Mary had never been in one. We had flown in the helicopter and the twin engine aircraft on Kona but I was wondering how she would take to the little 172. Well what the heck, she had run off the cliff with a rag on her back at Jackson Hole hadn't she? :D

Well we got to the airport early and Bruce was there with the aircraft ready to go.

It could not have been a better flight. It was very smooth and Bruce was a great guide. He took us over the  Waimea Canyon-  http://www.hawaiiweb.com/kauai/html/sites/waimea_canyon.html

The Na Pali Coast-  http://gohawaii.about.com/od/kauaiphotos/ig/captain_zodiac_photos/captain_zodiac_03.htm

and many other points of interest. It was my favorite flight of our whole vacation.

Botanical Garden on Road to Hana

While on Maui Mary and I drove to Hana. The road to Hana is world famous because it has over 700 turns in it, at least that is what they say and 50 bridges or so. It runs along the coast and is just beautiful, at least that is what they say as the driver does not get much of a chance to sight see.






As we were driving, up the road an hour or so we saw a sign to a Botanical Garden. Mary wanted to see it and I sure needed a break. This is the video we took. Because of Marys messed up feet we could not really walk the whole thing and the fact that I know next to nothing about taking video this is a short one.

It is owned and run by a guy and his daughter and is well worth the 10 bucks a head they charge. There are many walking paths and everything is well tended and much is labeled.

Whale Watch off Maui

We saw many whales on all the islands we visited, even when setting on our balcony having an adult beverage. Any place we stood on shore and looked seaward we would usually see a whale spout or breaching eventually. This was especially true when we were staying on Maui.

The area in the picture bounded my Maui, Molokai (Where Father Damion had tended to the lepers) and Lanai. This is a preserve with a fine of a quarter of a million dollars for molesting them. That means coming within a hundred yards of them. Now the boats can go out and stop and if the whales come to them,it is just fine but there is no approaching them. Two were hit last year I was told, one by a Coast Guard boat and the other by the Whale Research Vessel. Whoda thunk it?

Mary really enjoyed watching them as did I so we decided to go out on a Whale Watch boat. Now we had no idea what was best so we just picked one. We headed out and I found out that it is best to go on a smaller boat. Ours was just too crowded for my taste and it was hard at times to get a good look at the close ones because of the crowds on the side the whales come up on. Mary had one right below where she was standing, five feet from her but it just would not surface. She was excited for sure.

I imagine we saw 20 or more but some were at long range. Actually they were all over the place. I saw a big adult broach right next to a small boat a half dozen times. Heck it was not a hundred ft away from it. What a thrill that had to be.

They yellow stick pin with the Whale lable is where we were in the boat. The other one is where the resort we were staying at is.




I hope you enjoy the video

Kona Flight

Mary and I took a flight over the big island a couple weeks ago and this is the video I took. It is in two parts as there was a lot to see. The first is mainly the volcano which is toward the southern end and the second is on the northern coast which is totally different. The north is so green and beautiful and the volcanic area is so bleak. You can still see some of the homes that had to be abandoned when the eruptions started.

It was a great flight and as usual the videos have no chance of really letting the viewer see what we saw.

This flight was very enjoyable and cost much less than our helicopter flight but it was also at a higher altitude, which disappointed me. I still enjoyed it!

Waipio Lookout, Kona

this is one of the beautiful valleys we say while visiting Kona on our vacation. It is called Waipio Lookout.

"Located along the Hamakua Coast on the northeastern coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i, Waipi'o Valley is the largest and southernmost of the seven valleys on the windward side of the Kohala Mountains. Waipi'o is a mile wide at Waipio Valley, Hamakua Hawaiithe coast and almost six miles deep. At the coast there is a beautiful black sand beach constantly pounded by the Pacific Ocean waves. On either side of the valley are cliffs reaching almost 2000 feet in elevation with numerous cascading waterfalls. Hiking in the Waipio Valley is amazing."

What a great vacation!