First Hike of the Trip

October 15, 2013October 15, 2013 CharliExplores4 Comments

Let me explain the difference between a “walk” and a “hike”. When we’re walking the neighborhood, on sidewalks or paved roads, it’s a walk. When we’re off-road on a trail, then it’s a hike. We’ve done a lot of walking on this trip, but today was our first hike.

Along the trail.

One of the rougher parts of the trail.

We started out early – 7:00 – because it gets hot and humid fast around here. Anyway, we drove about 7 miles to the head of the Kealia Trail. As trails go this is a pretty easy one – not a lot of climbing or change in elevation.

One of the great aspects of hiking along the coast is the spectacular views.

Nature’s Sculpture. (Click on this to see a larger view.)

We hiked to Kealia Point where there is a wildlife preserve and a lighthouse. It’s a very pretty area.

Kealia Point

You call this a lighthouse???

However, the lighthouse did not match the romantic picture I had envisioned… . Modern technology…heavy sigh…

Still, we got to see some of the wildlife. Two monk seals were snoozing and basking on the shore.

As we headed back we got to see a Shearwater nesting near the trail.

Nesting Shearwater

On the drive home we stopped by a very cool cave.

Tom at the cave entrance.

Standing in the cave entrance.

Tom inside the cave. (Kind of blurry, but gives perspective.)

Inside the cave.

A pretty busy day with another beautiful sunset to top it off.

Walking and Flowers

October 13, 2013 CharliExplores3 Comments

Tom and I have stepped up our walking (pun intended) to about 5 miles a day so I thought that I would show you some of the sights along our walk.

This is an area that we’ve walked the last couple of days – very scenic and serene.

I thought the cactus garden was pretty cool.

And then there are the flowers. For those of you who might not know, I am a flora and fauna enthusiast. I love to photograph flowers, plants, animals… it makes Tom kind of crazy.

There are flowers everywhere you look – Hawaii has a bounty of hibiscus, plumeria, oleander and, my favorite, bougainvillea. Even the names are poetic.

Pink Hibiscus

Red Hibiscus

Yellow Hibiscus

Bougainvillea

Fuchsia Bougainvillea

: Pink Plumeria

Pink Oleander

White Plumeria

I don’t know what these are but I like the color.

Peach Bougainvillea

I think this is a kind of privet. The flowers are delicate and the fragrance is intense but lovely.

More Bougainvillea

Sunset on our second day -breathtaking!

I also love sunsets – natures way of saying Aloha to another day.

The Beginning of a Brand New Adventure!!!!!! 10/10/2013

October 12, 2013 CharliExplores9 Comments

Today we arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. You might say, “Hawaii, again????” But this is where this brand new adventure starts. We’ll be hanging out here for a couple of weeks because it made more sense to come here from the Uniform Retail Alliance show – which we attended 10/6 – 10/9 on Jeness (that’s our uniform business) business – which was held in San Diego, CA rather than fly home (Virginia) for two weeks and then make the trip all the way back to Hawaii. This way we can write the whole trip off as a business expense – okay, just kidding. We can write off the trip to San Diego but the rest is ours.

Sunset from our lanai.

Anyway, that is probably way more than you wanted to know, but we are here on lovely Oahu staying in a little VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) condo on the south western side of the island.

We’re on the fourth floor in the smaller building.

The beach outside the condo.

It’s away from the touristy part of the island and in an area we have yet to explore.

This adventure is going to be pretty awesome!! It hits all kinds of things on our very extensive Bucket List -traveling south of the equator, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, The Great Barrier Reef, hiking in the Out Back, Tasmanian devils…. this trip has it all, so let me show it to you as we go.

PS I wasn’t very experienced in blogging on the last two trips, but I’ve got the hang of it now, so if you comment, I’ll be better about responding this time, I promise!