Church Row Chant

Keiki from Kanu o ka Aina provided the opening ceremonies for a gathering of service groups in Waimea at Imiola Church hall. The guest of honor was Senator Daniel Inouye who visited with the various groups.

Click on the image above for a short video clip.

Yet another no POTD

This would have been a good week to put the POTD on vacation.

No POTD...again

Aloha Ahoy

A new cruise ship in Hawaiian waters is the Pride of Aloha which got an exemption to be an American flagged vessel and dispense with the Jones Act. Sorry for the poor quality of the image but it's with a cameraphone. My 'real' photos were for the newspaper.

Dolphin watch

Almost forgot to post this image of a pod of dolphins crusing past our zodiacs that we took out to the cruiseship.

Living In Question

One the Big Island's own bands is Living In Question which rocked the house at the Hard Rock Cafe in Kona. We sometimes refer to them as Rage Against Puna as that's where they're from and their style is similar to Rage Against the Machine. Their music is often used as a backdrop for MTV's Real World episodes.

The last time I saw them was in Hilo during a free live show before they did a tour of the mainland. The show was supposed to start at 10p.m. but got started kind of late and the crowd wasn't as good as it should have been but with no advertising for the show and the Relay for Life event going on at the same time it's understandable.

We really wished they played a longer set, they opened with all the standards from their debut CD. Now if they would just release their new CD that would be great.

Click here to hear a sample of several song clips stuck together

Relay for LIfe

Saturday was the kick-off for the Relay for Life event which raises money for the American Cancer Society programs. Here's the newspaper's crew starting-off on their first lap. The newspaper came in second place for the most laps! Seems that the first place team had a set of cross-country type kids in as ringers to burn-up the laps.

Return to another universe

Dropped into C.C. Jon's Snack-in Shoppe again in Honokaa but this time for the benefit of Karen to check it out herself. I had written about the shop before in an earlier blog post.


Here's a look at thier menu of local kine grindz. This time there were no school kids at the shop since it's summertime and a Saturday at that. But the place still has its charm and there's even a very large poster photo on the wall from a magazine article that looks like a Norman Rockwell painting of the shop capturing the atmosphere.


Karen had a burger while I had brought my own lunch which they said it was okay to eat in the shop. I did order a diet coke with vanilla syrup in it which was a nice treat. Karen said that this was her kind of burger. I'll have to try one next time I'm in the shop.

No POTD

Adventure Thursday

One of the many moss covered trees on the White Road hike to Waipio valley.


This time on the hike I took Joe our Sports Editor. This has become one of the favorite hikes for new staff members as it's pretty easy to hike and delivers on impressive scenery and views. Here Joe checks out the bamboo forest near the start of the hike. The first part of the hike to the overlook into the valley tends to be muddy with the rest being somewhat drier.


Some ginger plants growing alongside the trail.


The view from the overlook. That waterfall is about 3,000 feet away on the opposite side of the valley. Although it was cloudy all the way to White Road in Waimea and it was cloudy on the first part of the hike the valley cleared and we had spectacular views from the back of the valley all the way to the mouth of the valley and the ocean.


Less than 50 meters from the overlook as you continue back is this cave. This time I remembered to bring a flashlight though there wasn't much to see in there.


One of the many water flumes that sends water to the Hamakua coast. Some of the flumes have been damaged with the supply being diverted to reservoirs.


With all the rain the trail has become overgrown since I last hiked it.


We went just about as far as we could due to the trails still being wiped-out from a landslide but here's the view of the back of this valley, one of the fingers of Waipio valley.


Here's the view in the opposite direction looking at the mouth of the valley with the ocean beyond.

I recommend this hike for everyone. It's not strenuous but expect to get muddy and be prepared for rain. If you want to try the hike yourself here's how to find it with a GPS unit.

Using WGS84 on a GPS unit these are the coordinates for the trailhead. Just go through the gate (there's a swinging part on the left) and head up the road.
N 20º 03.013'
W 155º 37.435'

No picture

No picture of the day.

Costco Road Sunset

When it's sunset cars pull-over onto road shoulders all over Kona to enjoy the view and today was no different. This was on Hina Lani Drive (aka Costco Road) on my way home.

In full disclosure there were the tops of some light posts on the left that I Photoshop'ed out. But this isn't a news photo is it? Just a postcard type photo, sans posts.

A Bulldog take a bullet

Here's my classmate, Ermie Barroga. Ermie made the news this week when he took a bullet during a shoot-out in Honolulu. Ermie used to play tuba in our band and now he's a cop. A cool guy when he was at Kaimuki High School I didn't know he had joined the force. When I saw the name I knew it had to be the same Ermie that I went to school with, how many can there be? Best wishes to Ermie and hope he recovers quickly.

'Shrooms

It's been wet and cloudy the past few days and that's all it took for a bunch of mushrooms to sprout on the lawn at the paper near the employee entrance.


The mushrooms were in various stages of growing.


The biggest muschrooms were up to about six inches across the tops.

Honu = Turtle

Carolyn has her list of things to see live up close: Turtles, Sharks and Manta Rays. She went down to the black sand beach at Punaluu last week where there are usually turtles but came-up empty. So I told her I'd guaranteed her to see a turtle and I knew just where to go. I took her over to Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park near the Aiopio fish-trap in search of turtles.

I almost promised her that we'd see at least five turtles or I would buy her dinner. Good thing I didn't bet as it was late in the day and high-tide. Not good for turtle finding. After walking through billions little black fungus gnats along the beach we didn't see any turtles and started to head on back. Some folks were walking past and Carolyn was smart to ask them if there were any turtles to be found and they said "there's a big one up the beach" so off we went trekking farther north.

And we found this big fella lying on the beach. Carolyn got her shots of the turtle who didn't seem to mind at all. We didn't get too close to this sleepy honu.

Food fit for a pirate

Tommy "The Polynesian Pirate" Ching digs into Hawaiian food for lunch at the Waikii Music Festival. Tommy is a local radio DJ who often emcees events and he told me to forget the backstage free food (chili and hot dogs) and grind on some Hawaiian food being sold by vendors. Here Tommy goes for some sashimi and he's already scarffed-down some fried fish, poi, laulau, lomi lomi salmon, rice, and fresh crab. ono kine grinds as they say.


So I decided to go local and got the lau lau plate. Clockwise from the top left: macaroni salad, lomi lomi salmon, pork/fish laulau, rice (with some shoyu on it). You could bust a gut eating this plate of food and I couldn't finish it.


Here's my view of the stage while eating lunch. Could there be a better place to enjoy a lunch? Clouds on the edges but sunny, a cool breeze that was a little chilly if you were in the shade too long. You couldn't ask for more comfortable weather. And on stage was the group Keahiwai doing their set.

I've got to hand it to Ed Yap and his beautiful wife Nani Lim-Yap for putting on this event every Father's Day weekend. I had heard earlier a month or two ago it was cancelled but somehow they managed to pull it off. They were expecting a bigger crowd on Sunday as that's Father's Day. And what a way for dad to relax. Pull up a beach chair or beach mat, Hawaiian food, Hawaiian music, places for kids to go play games and cool weather to fall asleep by.

Things that crawl

Found this centipede not far from my front door this morning, lucky for me it wasn't alive. Do these things travel in packs?

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee....

Ali joined us, or I should say we joined them, with his wife at Michaelangelo's for a night of drinks and dancing. Here Ali 'cuts-a-rug' with his wife on the dance floor.


Of course that wasn't enough so Carly and Chula had to join-in on our exclusive dance floor. Although the club is packed on Wednesday nights when it's Ladies Night it's pretty slow with customers on Thursdays which we can't understand.


Thursday night has no cover charge and well drinks are only $1. How can you go wrong? For $5 you can have 5 drinks. For $20 you can have more than you can drink along with a DUI conviction. That's Bodee (Sp?) the DJ spinning tunes in the background. He also DJs at Reuben's Penthouse other nights of the week but is at Michaelangelo's on Mondays and Thursdays.


Here Joe, Carly and Chula try to polish-off their drinks, Joe with a single ($1) and the girls with doubles ($2) drinks. Mine is on the table somewhere.


Joe hit the dance floor too.


What's up with all the tongue action?

Our daily bread

Here's the finished bread sliced and ready for bagging. I let it bake and cool overnight. This bread is much chewier than normal bread but it's a nice change for low-carb diets which I'm headed back to from a few months of over-carbing. So much for the beer. Note that hard liquor doesn't have carbs, just alcohol. ;^)

Show me da dough!

Dumped a bunch of ingredients into the bread machine to make a loaf of low-carb bread. The usual packaged mix is pretty darn expensive, think maybe two to three times the cost of a normal loaf of bread (and you still have to bake the stuff too.) I found a recipe that has ingredients from the natural food store. High in fiber and pricing becomes more like normal bread.

Here the ingredients go spinning around in the bread machine during the mixing/kneading process.

TGIW - Thank God It's Wednesday

A cloudy day driving up to Waimea from Kona. A little bit of rain in Waimea but nice and cool with a nice breeze.


Got to be serenaded at dinner time by a group of seniors playing Hawaiian music at Kona Coast Shopping Center. How did they know it was Aloha Wednesday, the end of the work week for me?

The cat ranch

The parking lot of West Hawaii Today is a cat ranch. A pride of feral cats makes the parking lot their home where they go dumpster diving, walking on cars and taking handouts from some employees. A lady on a moped often makes a mealtime mecca at night to the area behind our parking lot to dump bags of cat food for them to eat.

I love cats, they tend to be low maintenace and are self-cleaning, but there needs to be some control. Much of the cat food gets eaten by mongoose who also make our parking lot home. You can draw your own conclusions.

Another day, no picture of the day

A long day at work but no personal shots today.

The first Honu Triathlon

Okay, I get tons of hits on this blog by people thinking they're going to see a photo of Lokelani McMichael due to a comment I made on an April 3rd post. So here she is before the triathlon. But really you should just go to Loke's own website if you want to see photos of her. Her dad Mike helped out for the water patrol.


Top Big Island female finisher Bree Myers along with Linda Jane "Mouse" Kelley after the triathlon. Bree finished second woman overall.

We honor a king (and I don't mean Elvis)

One of the floats in the King Kamehameha Day parade in Kona. Click on the image above for a QuickTime movie.

Life is like a box of chocolates....

Chula relaxes at Bubba Gumps where we spent Friday after work having drinks and pupu (appetizers/hors d'oeuvres).


Brian performs damage control after knocking over a pint of beer. We could have just applied the five-second rule and just given Brian a straw to clean it up.


Travis Gump. I'll let you supply an appropriate caption via the comments link.


Joe Gump


After Bubba Gumps the gang trekked over to Durty Jake's. Joe displays a proper 'shaka' sign, note that the knuckles face the person receiving the shaka. It's means 'hang-loose', 'right-on' and other similar connotations. Brian checks out sports on a TV set, probably going through withdrawal since he isn't the Sports Editor anymore.


Peggy and Travis are either: Watching a game on TV or contemplating Chula and Carly's request to move the action up to Lulu's.

Old School

One last look at the old school way of doing newspaper photos, in the darkroom with film and chemicals. The darkroom is being deconstructed to make way for our expanding editorial department. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks we will be able to occupy a roomy area where we can deal with photos and put our gear when we are in the office.

Anyone wanting to buy an enlarger, darkroom sink, and other items should contact me as we have to clear out all that stuff.

No POTD

M-K & A, as Brian calls them

Andrea cranks out pages at work with various caffeinated beverages at hand.


Carly also churns out the pages, that's her man in the photos on the bulletin board behind.

Brian shot these photos as he played with my camera in an underwater housing I brought in for a future story.

The Thwacker™

Who needs a fly-swatter when you have the Thwacker™. The hippy hut is also home to various crawling and flying things that scoff at swatters and rolled-up newspapers so Chula created this long reaching gizmo.


A close-up reveals the precision construction of the Thwacker™.

No POTD

The newest addition

The newest addition to our staff, Carolyn, at one of our favorite watering holes, the Kona Brew Pub. Carolyn is a reporter and will be put right to work this week.

Saturday night morning fever

Another long day at work, another night out at the steamy Lobster Lounge at Lulu's. Joe shows his multi-tasking ability by having a Corona and dancing the night away.


Identity withheld to protect the innocent. Nothing happened except dancing, but try to explain that to the wife.

I had to re-check the times these photos were taken, they were after midnight so they were actually taken very, very early Saturday morning, not Friday night.

Quesadilla break

Here I am at Tacos El Unico courtesy of Dawn using my cameraphone. Okay, so I didn't shoot the photo but the food was eaten too fast to take a photo and there's a possibility of more photo-ops tonight.

Cooking Tip of the Week

When cooking frozen pizza make sure you remove the cardboard under it first. I didn't see the cardboard, I thought I had checked and it became cooked to the bottom of the pizza. Though the cardboard was nice and crispy the pizza crust was a little mushy since the bottom half was stuck to the paper.

Mud, mud and more mud

Visited the Kamehameha I birth site today in North Kohala. The road has really gone downhill in the past years with huge ruts and mud lakes to cross with 4x4 vehicles only. Here's one of the mud bogs, one of the smaller ones that was about 15 meters across and about eight inches deep. There was another bigger, deeper one farther on with soft piles of mud. Got the windshield splattered going through that one.


The mud covered wheels after coming back out to Upolu Airport parking lot.


It's hard to see but I've got big chunks of mud stuck to the lower portions of my car, splatters over the hood and sides. Folks who have seen my car think I should not wash it as it makes it look like a real SUV instead of the normal urban 4x4-wannabe.

So many folks own big SUV vehicles that eat lots of gas, hog parking areas and look almost ridiculous sitting shiny in parking lots. Seems silly when I see some giant H2 Hummer in a parking lot with a beautiful metallic paint job, shiny chrome and perfectly cleaned windows. PF told me James Cameron (the Titanic, Terminator director) owns a Hummer and orders his employees not to wash it as he likes it looking like a real off-road runner.

The car is running pretty good with the rebuilt engine but I noticed mud now inhabits the engine compartment.

Okay, I caved

No POTD for the first of the month but I did cave-in to update the site. Can't help but to shoot photos sometimes and if they don't get posted here they'll get filed away on the hard drive.