Thursday night's sunset on Waikiki Beach. Today we went surfing again. Ken did better; he had several nice long rides. I, on the other hand, struggled for two hours for nothing except sinus cavities full of sea water. Oh well.

Thursday evening we watched some of the sunset on Waikiki Beach. Nice location, despite the crowds.

Today we drove up the Pali Highway to visit the Pali Lookout. Here's the view toward the windward (east) coast. Nice golf course down there.

Ken's working on a video for our parents. I have a DVD burner in my computer that I've never used, so he's got the urge to try it out.

Further down the trail from the lookout, we turned back for the view of the lookout itself. There it is in the middle.

We hiked down the trail from the lookout and found this neat tree.

After visiting the Pali Lookout, we drove to the north shore area to tour the Dole Pineapple plantation. I think Ken looks good with the ukelele, don't you?

I've had so much pineapple, I think it's starting to show. Good look for me?

The Pineapple Express train chugs around the bend during our tour of the Dole plantation.

We enjoyed a tour of the Dole plantation on the Pineapple Express train, complete with theme music. Very interesting.

We enjoyed the famed Dole Whip, which is basically pineapple ice cream. Tasty.

Worn out

Well, we went down to Ward Warehouse for supper the the Old Spaghetti Factory. Had the mushroom and mizithra duo and Ken had their special, which was a pesto cream sauce. Quite good. Then we went by WalMart to pick up a few things. Now we're ready for sleeping! My sunburn hurts, so I probably won't be lounging on the beach much this week, not that we planned to anyway. But we got some 48 spf sunscreen, so maybe that plus a shirt will help prevent further injury. Glad we have a dermatologist appointment coming up soon!

We went surfing this morning. We were very careful to slather ourselves with waterproof SPF 30 before we went, but apparently it wasn't enough. We're both hurting with serious burns, especially our backs and back of legs since that's what was up for two hours. We rented the boards from 10:30 to 12:30. I only caught one wave, but at least it was a nice long ride. My upper body is weak, so paddling is very difficult.

Here's our view looking left (north). They're building a new hotel there, as you can see. We just took a nap and woke up to find that it had rained.

Here's the view from our balcony looking right toward the beach. The hotels you see in the distance are oceanfront, so you can see about how far it is to the water.

Here's the one I mentioned with the thick red skin and white sectioned meat. Delish.

The little ones are lychee, which are a bit like grapes, but you don't eat the skin. No idea what the other two plum-looking ones are, but they were really good. The one with the long leaf thing attached was reddish inside and the one with small green leaves tasted like soursap, but had a thick maroon skin and the fruit itself was sectioned like a mandarin (except white). I love tropical fruit!

Not sure what this one was called. I'll have to find out. Sorta tasted like mid-ripe coconut.

We went to Chinatown this morning to get fresh fruit. We found so much good stuff, albiet the more exotics weren't cheap. Soursap (the cut open big one) was one of my faves from Pohnpei.

After cleaning up and resisting the urge for a post-scuba nap, we walked down to Duke's for birthday supper. We both had Ono, but cooked different ways. Both delish. We had a little spit of rain on the walk home. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow; maybe the Cultural Center or some surf lessons. Yeah, life's rough.

For Ken's birthday, we went scuba diving. We did the Sea Tiger wreck and Turtle Cove, both off Waikiki. The Tiger is a Japanese or Chinese ship sitting in about 120 feet of water. We saw lots of small fish, one big one and a small eel. For the second dive at Turtle Cove, we saw about four big sea turtles and a Viper Moray, which was posing for us on a beautiful mound of coral. Wish I'd had a camera; it was like something right out of a scuba mag. The Oaho Diver Center crew was great to us and we had much fun!

Here Ken is playing ball with my mom's golden retrievers when we were there in March.

This was at Heavenly in Tahoe last year (2004). Just pulled the MMC out of my digital video camera and wondered what was on it. Now I know!

Spring Productivity

Friday we bought a Dyson vaccuum cleaner, a lawn mower (rear wheel drive, rear bag, mulcher type), and a string trimmer. Sears; gotta love 0% financing. We're very pleased with all three purchases thus far. The new toys and the gorgeous southern California weather inspired us for outdoor productivity today. Unfortunately, we didn't think far enough ahead to slather sunscreen, so we're both a little crispy. Ken is now officially a redneck, and he is NOT happy about that. We're working on a life makeover — more time with God, more organization in the household, etc. We even developed a family schedule with a chore list. So far, so good.

Bright sunshiney day

So this is the kind of day that southern Cal is famous for. In fact, it's been sublime weather all week, save for the wind. I'm not complaining! I'm really looking forward to some camping this summer. Also looking forward to Thai food for supper. My hubby and friends are late, so I'm starving! I highlighted my hair a couple weeks ago, so I'm feeling much summerier. Going to Hawaii at the end of this month; can't wait! Need a scuba fix; it's been too long since our Jamaican honeymoon last year. :o)