Work Continues in Hawaii

I've been posting wonderful things about our days off, but I certainly wouldn't want you to think we are here on vacation!  Here's what we've been doing:

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Art headed up the project of painting the front, side, and back lanais, plus the floors in the main areas downstairs in the plantation hale.  It was a huge undertaking!  Dexter and Tim helped.

This is actually before the paint. Just wanted you to see the space.

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Tim headed up the project of repairing the terracotta roof of one of the dorm rooms.  After he repaired the roof, he moved inside to repair the walls and ceiling that had been damaged by the leaky roof.  Fred and Art helped.

Blowing the tree mess off the roof while he's already up in the lift.

Blowing ceilings and sanding drywall made a MESS in the rest of the dorm.  But Tim helped us clean!

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Denise and I have continued to clean.  When a group leaves, all the rooms have to be cleaned and sanitized, and the bedding has to be washed, dried, and put back on the beds in the private rooms.

Denise and I took pictures of each other so people would believe us.

These are three of the private rooms in the Plantation Hale.  Some of the rooms also have a twin bed or bunks so families can stay in them.  There are five of these rooms, with two shared bathrooms.

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These are two of the four Hikina Cottages.  They are also private rooms, and they each have their own baths.  When people stay in any of the nine private rooms, we wash linens and re-make beds.

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These are called the K Cottages.  (They all have Hawaiian names that begin with K.  We call them K1, 2, and 3.)  Each one contains 3 rooms of bunk beds with a shower room on each end.  (These remind me of our church youth camp.) We don't make these beds, but groups can rent linens if they choose.  Each "bundle" has a flat and fitted sheet, pillow case, towel,  and a washcloth. We launder these and remake the bundles as needed.  Joyce has done most of these--her apartment is covered up in laundry!

Denise and I haven't done too much of the laundry.  We have, however, scrubbed many showers and commodes.  Numerous times.  :)

 

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This is Barker.  It has three rooms of bunk beds, each with a shower room.

And this is me resting for a minute and talking to my mama on the phone!

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This is Peterson Cottage.  It has several rooms of bunk beds, baths, a kitchen, and a living room.

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And this is Komohana.  It is a large meeting room with a kitchen and bath.

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Food service is on-going.  We set up and clean up.

 

And we eat!

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The weed-eating and mowing are continuous.

But what a beautiful place to mow!

Art and his tools of the trade!

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This is what we came for!  And while we may not always exactly love working when there's an island to explore, we do love each other's company.  We love the people here.  And we love Pu'u Kahea and what it stands for.  We're VERY thankful and happy to be here doing our small part.

What a Fabulous Day in Hawaii

As of yesterday (Sunday), we have been here at Pu'u Kahea two full weeks, and it has flown by!  And yesterday was also our fourth day off, so once again, we loaded up in the dark and headed out with the Smiths for a great adventure.  Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head, here we come!


Hanauma Bay
Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve, and it's the first "attraction" we've had to pay for since we've been here.  So worth it!  It's a crescent-shaped bay, protected from the ocean by a reef, with lots of beautiful fish.  It's probably in the top three tourist attractions on Oahu, and gets crowded very quickly, which is why we wanted to arrive early to go SNORKELING!

The brownish parts are the coral and coralline algae, and that's where the fish love to swim and feed.

There weren't very many people when we arrived, but it did get a little more crowded as the morning progressed.

Thank you Fred and Joyce!

Photo of the Smith feet by Denise!

Tim and I were able to borrow equipment from our wonderful co-volunteers, Fred and Joyce.  They graciously offered to let us use everything they have--flippers, several pairs of goggles, mouth pieces, and even defogger so I didn't have to spit on my goggles!  Denise and Art invested in their own equipment because they're flying to Kauai when they leave here, and plan to do a lot of snorkeling there.

Tim was able to rent goggles with prescription lenses, and it made ALL the difference in his snorkeling experience.  (He says he looks like an egg-head in this picture, but he is a good enough sport that he let me post it anyway.) 

I bought a water-proof phone case before we came to Hawaii, AND a water-proof phone pouch so that I could take pictures when we snorkeled.  Both worked great--not one single drop of water got on/in my phone.  The problem was that by the time I got my phone camera turned on through all that water-proofness, the fish I wanted to photograph had swum away.  Just take my word for it--there were lots and lots of amazing fish.  Big ones, small ones, spikey ones, neon ones, dull and colorful ones, fat and skinny ones.  Oh so wonderful!  Tim and I had never been snorkeling before, and I was a little nervous, but I did okay!  There were a few panicky moments, but I think that's pretty normal.  It is very easy to become disoriented when your head is under water!

And as it turns out, I needed all that phone water-proofness to protect my phone from the RAIN.  It poured.  We could hear it and feel it on our backs.  But, what matters?  We were already wet.  When we became chilled and wrinkled, we decided to move on to our next adventure.  WE LOVED SNORKELING, and we will definitely do it again!

Diamond Head

According to our favorite guidebook, Oahu Revealed, by Andrew Doughty, "Many vacation destinations have that one thing that you're practically required to do.  In New York, you're supposed to visit the Statue of Liberty.  In San Francisco, you've gotta see the Golden Gate Bridge. And in Honolulu, you're supposed to climb to the top of...Diamond Head."  We drove into the crater through a tunnel, and then walked one mile up the side of it to the top.  It is a steep incline with a lot of steps at the end.  But at the top, it's so worth it!  (I must admit that I got really really hot on the way up, and really nauseated from the heat, and I did NOT walk the last 20 or so steps up to the very tip-top.  But my view was still amazing!)

That's Waikiki in the distance.

 

Can you tell we're inside a crater?

The trail is rocky, and winds around and around to the top.

See Denise and Art waving?

Resting at an overlook, catching our breath AND a cool breeze

This is the bottom of an artillery observation platform built in 1908.  At the end of the climb up Diamond Head, you go through a tunnel, then up a set of 99 stairs, then up a spiral staircase into this platform.  (After the tunnel, there's a alternate way that's a little bit longer, but with fewer and less steep stairs and no spiral staircase.  That's the route I took!)

When we reached the top, we watched a big, dark cloud of rain coming towards us.  The trip down was much easier, of course, but we were soaked again!  We had planned to have a picnic at the bottom, but ended up eating our sandwiches in the van.


Waikiki
With somewhat full stomachs and very wet clothes, we drove into Waikiki and stopped at the first interesting place we saw, which was the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial.  The natatorium (big fancy elegant swimming pool) was built as living memorial dedicated to "the men and women who served during the great war" (World War I).  It's in a terrible state of disrepair, but we could tell it had once been beautiful, and we enjoyed the park where it's located.

We stopped in at a little cafe for some refreshment.  The girl who waited on us asked where we were from, and when we told her North Carolina, she was SO excited.  She is from California, but graduated from UNC-W, and recognized our accents.  She said she had been missing those Southern accents, and we were the first North Carolinians she had run into while in Hawaii.  It was a fun little interlude!

We found Waikiki to be beautiful!

Tim and I especially enjoyed the marina.

We finally decided that we needed head back to our side of the island so we would feel like working the next day.  We got on H1 and sat in traffic for an hour or so.  (So close, so close, but yet so far away!)

When we arrived back safely in Waianae, Michael, the Pu'u Kahea chef,  gave us leftovers from dinner--fried shrimp, roasted vegetables, and delicious brownies.  Thank you Michael.  Wonderful ending to a wonderful day!

Our Second Day Off with the Smiths in Hawaii

Yesterday was another day off.  We woke up to rain, and it rained and rained and rained all day long.  But that's okay!  We loaded up early and headed for the North Shore anyway.  The rain not only lowered the temperatures, but it also kept the crowds away.

We headed to Waimea Bay, where the big-time surfing takes place in the winter.  The water was as calm as a lake--hard to imagine that in the winter the waves are 40 feet high!

One of our favorite things was watching the crazy people jumping off the high rock.  Denise, Art, and Tim think they're going to do it next time.  I will be HAPPY to take their pictures.

I'm thinking some people must not be successful at the rock climbing/jumping.  I wasn't concerned that they would get hurt when they hit the water.  I worried that they would slip before they jumped and fall on the rocks!

After Waimea Bay, we visited the Waialua Sugar Mill, which is a historical sugar refinery that now produces coffee and chocolate.  The refinery closed in the late 1900s, the last sugar refinery on the island to close.  Because of the rain we didn't take the tour, but we loved looking through the gift shop and sampling their coffees and pineapple/coconut/mango/etc. flavored sugars!

An unassuming looking building with lots of goodies!  We were chilled and wet, and the coffee was GREAT!

We visited the wonderful little 100 year old surfing town of Hale'iwa again.  It's one of Denise's and Art's favorite places from their time here last year, and it's where Tim and I went on our first full day on Oahu.  We visited the shops (Art was on a mission to buy a shirt with his birthday "coupon" from Denise),  and we rested and relaxed over a delicious lunch.

Hale'iwa Boat Harbor

We headed on up the shore, stopping at the famous Ted's Bakery on the way.  We sampled the Hawaiian originals--Dobash cake and Chantilly cake.  Dobash is a chocolate chiffon cake with dobash icing (rich, chocolate pudding like icing), and Chantilly is a chiffon caked filled and iced with a smooth buttery-vanilla icing and sprinkled with almonds.  Both were delicious!  We feel obligated to try all things Hawaiian that we don't get at home!

I'm not sure why I took pictures of the building instead of the cakes!

Happy as could be, we continued on to the La'ie Point State Wayside, where a tsunami had at some point punched a hole through the rock!

Dry as could be in our Lee County Schools wind breakers!  Thank you Caroline and Olivia.

We imagined what it would be like to live here, in this very spot.  Would anybody come visit?

As we left this beach and headed on down the windward side of the island, the rain picked up pretty steadily.  We stopped at a macadamia nut farm, but they were closing to try to get home before the road flooded and they couldn't get there.  With our phones beeping with weather alerts, we decided it might be time to hurry back to the "dry" side of the island.  To get there, we once again traveled on H3.  This time, there were dozens of waterfalls shooting from the top of the mountains.  It was incredible--just the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

(Actually, that wasn't quite the end.  After the waterfalls we found a Walmart with a McDonalds, we drank coffee, and I got new sunglasses.  Woo hoo!!!)

The Birthday Boy in Hawaii

Today is Art's birthday.  How fun to celebrate in Hawaii!  We started the day by walking up to his and Denise's cottage for coffee.  We had two malassadas left, and knew Art loved them, so we split them in half, heated them up, and took them up for a little morning birthday treat.  He took a bite and had to spit it out--they had gone bad!!  Happy Birthday Art.  :(

Denise, Art, Tim and I were the only ones here today.  The other three volunteers had the day off, and the director and his family also took the day off.  So we all worked hard to get ready for the next groups who will be coming in tomorrow, but we had birthday breaks as needed.  :)  For the morning break, Denise brought snacks to the lanai, and Art opened his cards and gifts that had come in the mail.

Jenelle came through as usual with a card that made us laugh!

His shirt from Kelsey is SO perfect for our time here.  "Not all who wander are lost."

For our afternoon break, Denise brought birthday pie, complete with candles of course.  The pie was chocolate haupia (chocolate pie with a coconut cream topping) from Ted's Bakery on the North Shore.  Supposedly they're famous for them, and I understand completely.  Delicious!!

He had a little trouble with the "candles in the wind".

And what's a Hawaiian birthday without a lei, especially a milk chocolate one?!

When work was completed, we went to The Sunset Cafe (the army restaurant we had gone to on our very first night here), watched the sunset, listened to great music, and ate a delicious dinner.

Happy, happy birthday Art!
So glad we were able to share it with you.

Three in One in Hawaii

Three good things in one night.  Last night we met the other three volunteers at the turtle beach and saw a turtle, a double rainbow, and a beautiful sunset. 

Joyce, Fred, Dexter, Tim and Art

It was an evening well spent!

A Mystery in Hawaii

There is another purpose in this lovely picture other than to show you how my hair is looking the ENTIRE time we're here.  Uggghhhh.

See the sunglasses.  THEY'RE NOT MINE.

I have two pairs of glasses--my prescription glasses and non-prescription sunglasses with a bifocal lens so I can read on the beach, take pictures outside, etc.  I have a little cloth glasses bag.  When I'm wearing my sunglasses, my "real" glasses are in the bag.  When I'm wearing my "real" glasses, my sunglasses are in the bag.

I reached into my pocketbook, got out my little glasses bag, removed my sunglasses, and put them on my face.  They fell off.  I put them on again.  They fell off.  Then I looked at them.  THEY'RE NOT MINE.  The color is the same.  They have a bifocal lens that I can read through.  But they're not mine.  They don't look like mine.  They don't fit like mine.

WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?  I have asked everyone here, including the volunteers who were here before us but have since left.  I discovered this "switch" before any guests arrived, so none of them have them.  Who has my glasses, and how did these get in my little bag?