ALOHA!

so, without telling too many people, we left Oregon (getting up at 3:45 am) to catch a flight to Seattle at 6:55; to catch a flight to Kona at 8:40; to arrive around noon  (two hour time change) in Hawai'i - by the way did you know that the - ' - in Hawai'i is one of the 13 Hawaiian letters????  Heh, Heh- just a treasure trove of information, I am.

Sunday was a bit exciting at times ... first of all for the flight; did I mention we're in Hawai'i!  That makes 49 of the 50 states I been in - all but NORTH DAKOTA!!!  While living in South Dakota for seven years, it was known that there's nothing in ND worth seeing!  Have no idea when I will make it to ND anymore ... still can't see making that a destination holiday!

but Hawai'i is home for about two weeks to celebrate Karina's 50th B-day.  Only about 4 months late, or if I work this right, 8 months early for the next B-day ... no, I better no go there!

so what does one do when there's no relatives houses to work from for a vacation?  Well, last night and today we've been busy.  Were starving to death upon arrival, we had to get a car. Got to the Budget place in no time:  oh, almost forgot - I've never been to an outdoor airport before.  All the gates are under covered sitting areas, the baggage claim is under a roofed area to keep the rain off, but no walls! How cool is that???

Got our baggage in about twelve minutes - or less and  then off to the rental place via shuttle bus.  There were about 4-5 people heading to Budget - HOWEVER - upon arrival there were about 20 people in line.  About 1 and 1/2 hours later we finally got our car.  Got to know the folks in line pretty well, from White Horse Canada; and Calgary Canada, and Wisconsin - two of the wives had on their  Green Bay paraphernalia - but thank goodness not the cheeseheads! For the record we're in a beige
Nissan Altima - that had less than 2000 miles.  Great car!

Then to head south to our bed and breakfast.  Karina had bought me a GPS for Christmas - what a great toy, er, I mean tool for driving.  I think it also saves on tense marital relationships when the one partner doesn't need to have his/her nose in the map, reminding the driver that he/she should have been heading in the other direction about a 1/4 mile back down the road.   :)

Before making the whole trip (some 20 miles) as I may have mentioned earlier, we were hungry!  Well much of Kona (and perhaps Hawai'i) still observe Sabbath laws - not open on Sunday.  Except for all the junk  food places, at which we chose not to indulge).

Well, we happened upon this delightful Mexican restaurant - "Martha's" - which was only open for the Super Bowl festivities.  The bar-keep said "so many of our customers said they would be in if we opened on Super Bowl Sunday!"  Hah!  It was halftime and there were about 10-15 locals (relatives, I think he called them) and us.  You could tell we were the odd ones out - with long pants, shirts, jackets and 85 degree weather!  But what a delightful time.  One margarita and two beers and 7 tacos and nacho's and other stuff later, we were out of there!  They wanted us to stay at least to the end of the game, but we had places to go!  So "back on the hiway again" (still sounds like a song).

got to our B & B and were we impressed.  Ken, the owner, opened the gate automatically and met us at the door).  We have a room with kitchenette, king-size bed, a somewhat private grassy area out our door, access the swimming pool (in which we swam last night - an outdoor pool in February! and hot tub - they both look over the ocean (some 1000 feet below and perhaps 1 mile away).  Even saw a pod of whales fluking out in the water!  Wow!  It is a paradise!  the Luana Inn if you want to check it out online - on Na'po'opo'o Road.

trying to stay up as long as possible we went back into town for ice cream.  yum!

well, that was yesterday ... gotta quit for now ...  have to get up at 3:45 to catch a 6:00 am flight to Honolulu to see the Pearl Harbor stuff.

Karina says - it's soooo relaxing - got sleep and rest and the tension is leaving my back alone - and awaiting tomorrow.

Bye for now.

d

Then - today