Hide n' Go Seek with the Whales...

While the Zallas and Smess were here we all went whale watching.  February is the height of humpback whale season.  They migrate to Hawai'i's warm waters to give birth to their calves.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales.  It was still a nice change of pace to be out on the ocean for a boat ride.  This day was a bit of bad luck all around: as I explained in the last post, we weren't able to go snorkeling and now the whales decided to hide from us.  Can't blame the whales though: they are wild animals and go where they please.  It was kind of a bummer, but we did not let that deter us from having fun anyway.   Below are a few pictures of the trip.

Relaxing on the boat's bow.

As we headed out we got a good view of Koko Crater

Various ridge lines descending from the mountain to the water.

Smess dutifully watching for the whales.

Neighborhood of Portlock and Hunama Bay Crater

We saw a vast amount of ocean, but still no whales.  Unfortunately, for our visitors they were not able to go whale watching again.  The whales won this game of Hide n' Go Seek but they will not win next time.  I'll have some pictures of the whales from my second trip whale watching up on the blog soon.

A few days later we went circle-island and stopped for a hike to Waimea Falls.  To the right is a picture of the Zallas braving the chilly fresh water.

I have several blogs from my recent trip to Hawaii Island (ie. the Big Island), so stay tuned and a big mahalo for visiting.

Lizard Stalking...

I recently took a picture of a flower and when looking at my LCD screen to see how it turned out, I suddenly noticed a slightly blurry little figure on the back side of the flower.  To my surprise it was a little lizard!  I had been looking through the view finder, so it was hard to see him when I actually took the picture.  I love little lizards/toads/frogs.  In fact, I used to have a fire-bellied frog as a pet.  His name was Snickers.  Unfortunately he had a traumatic ending...I accidentally killed him...with a couch (yup, you read that correctly; it's a long and traumatic story).  I digress...

So what did I do?  I stalked him and ended up with these shots.  Mahalo for visiting!

Blurry little guy on the back side. 

Stalking him was initially difficult but became easier.

This is my favorite shot since you see the underside of his chin and belly, and especially because you can see both eyes on either side of his head.

Waimea Valley Waterfall...

Waaaaaay back when CJ and Danielle were in town we went to visit the Waimea Waterfall.  If you check out Dave's blog from time to time, then you have seen this waterfall on this post or this post...since he's been there like 4 times  The first time I went to Waimea I mistakenly left my SD card at home (oops), so I didn't get to take any pictures.

Waimea is an Ahupua'a.  What is an Ahupua'a?  Well, I'll tell you!  First, you sort of pronounce it as awe-who-pu-a-a (at least that's as close as I have become to the actual pronunciation ..only true locals seem to pronounce it correctly; every time I think I said it just like a local did they just shake their head and say 'nice try, but still no.'  Ha).  The word literally translates to mean from the mountains to the sea.  It was how land on the island of O'ahu was initially subdivided between different tribes.  So each tribe, or group of people, had a mountain area (where streams would develop), a plains area (to grow crops), and the sea (fishing).  This ensured that each group had a mixture of necessary natural resources.

Today, for the most part, these ahupua'a's are gone, with the exception being Waimea Vally.  Waimea Valley is now a protected sanctuary for protected plants and birds.  Many of the cities around the island are actually named after the old ahupua'a (example: Honolulu and Waikiki were previous ahupua'a's).

OK, well on to some of the pictures.

Danielle, Dave and CJ crossing the bridge

Here is the beautiful waterfall.  It is very refreshing to be in since it's fresh water, but it's pretty cold too.  If it looks famaliar then that's because its often used as a filming location for TV shows or movies (ie. Lost, Jurassic Park, and so on).

CJ and Danielle in the waterfall

Battling a thorn...it was so big it went through my sandle and was poking me in the bottom of my foot.
...and I need a haircut, but don't worry: I already got one.