2/28 Museums and Swimming

We got up and showered and then ate breakfast in the room. It looked like another beautiful day and we are anxious to see the volcanoes, but we knew that we had to get my stitches out first. We went to the clinic recommended by the hotel only to find out that it is a mental health clinic! Fortunately, it was right next door to the emergency room of the hospital so we walked across the parking lot and had the stitches out with no problem at all. Everyone was very nice. We were near Rainbow Falls so decided to stop there on the way back into town (see photo). Apparently, the spray creates a rainbow in the early morning, but we were a bit later so no rainbow - a beautiful sight nonetheless - an 80 foot drop into the water below. We went back into town and visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum. It was very interesting and highlighted the 1946 and 1960 tsunamis which devastated downtown Hilo (see photo of a parking meter that was bent during the tsunami of 1960). We then walked up the hill to visit the Lyman Mission House and Museum. The Lyman's were a couple who came over from CT to spread Christianity to the native Hawaiians. The house was fairly interesting (double lanais (verandas) - both top and bottom floors that ran around 3 side of the house). The museum was more interesting: history of volcanoes, plants and animals at various elevations on the island and a wonderful shell and gem collection - some from the islands and some from all over the world. The upper floor highlighted the native Hawaiians as well as the various populations who came here to work in the cane fields - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese. We then walked down to the waterfront and sat on the roots of a banyan tree to eat our lunch and watch the waves (see photo). There were a handful of surfers who were catching the wave that you see in the distance and riding it right to shore. We walked around town a bit and then went back to the hotel to change into our suits. We walked over to Coconut Island to take a dip. This is a very small island near our hotel. At one time it had a high diving board and a slide into the ocean (we saw pictures at the Tsunami museum from 1918). Later it was used as a sanitarium for people with leprosy and small pox. During the war it was used as a training place for soldiers. There were pictures at the museum of men jumping into the water fully clothed and with packs on their backs from the high diving board. Now it is just a lovely park and we had a nice dip in the ocean for the first time since we have been here. Dave took a long swim and I stayed closer to the shore. We are now back at the hotel and soon we will go out for dinner. As usual, the skies have darkened and I think we will get a shower soon. Apparently this is the pattern here at Hilo. Tomorrow we will head out to see the volcanoes and do some hiking.

2/27 A Travel Day and a New Island

We got up early again this morning and caught the 6:45 shuttle to the airport. Even though the flight is less than an hour, you have to be at the airport two hours before your flight time. We chatted in the gate area with a couple from Minnesota who are going to the big island on an Elderhostel trip. When we got on the plane, the pilot discovered that there was a problem with the computer system - so, back to the gate. We sat on board while they switched out the computer system and after an hour, it was fixed. We got on the runway and had to wait again before take-off as an incoming plane had some sort of problem and there were emergency vehicles on the runway waiting to escort it in when it landed. It looked fine to me as it went by, but maybe they had a minor glitch also and the powers that be were taking precautions. At any rate, we finally got off the ground and landed in Hilo with no problems. Our hotel is right on the water - it is a little dated looking, but seems adequate. We walked down the street and found a small deli to have a late and very delicious lunch. Along the way we passed a public park and there were lots of families playing in the water and picnicking. We watch some 10 - 12 year-olds jumping off a high sea wall into the water and then climbing up the rocks to do it again. They looked like they were having fun. We found out that there is no free breakfast at the hotel, so we drove to a grocery store to get some supplies. The room has a fridge, but no microwave so we were limited, but we will manage. We found downtown Hilo. All of the buildings are from the teens and twenties - a very old downtown area. We walked around and did see one interesting looking tee shirt store, but it is closed on Sundays - we will come back another day. We drove past our hotel the other way and noticed that we are within walking distance of a lovely Japanese garden (shades of our October trip) so we will be back to walk around. We got back to the hotel just in time. It had been a beautiful sunny day, but just as we were getting the groceries out of the car, the skies opened up. It is still raining, but not as heavily. The internet doesn't seem to work in our room, so I am sitting in the lobby. We will have cheese and crackers for dinner later as we are still full from lunch. Tomorrow will be the clinic to get my stitches out (I can't wait as I haven't been able to go swimming yet) and then we may visit a couple of museums. I think when we go to Volcano National Park, we will want to spend the whole day there and start early.

2/26 Remembering WW II

We caught the city bus at 5:45 this morning and took the ride to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial. We got there a little before they opened at 7 and got into the first round of visitors to the memorial (8 AM). While we were waiting for our turn, we walked through the museum, which was very interesting. At 8, we went to the theatre to view a film on December 7, 1941. For the grandkids, this is the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. One of the battleships that was destroyed was the Arizona. They ship sank where it was moored and they built a memorial (see photo) to the men who died right over the ship. You actually can see some of the ship just beneath the water’s surface, which is very oily as the ship is still leaking all these many years later. It was a very solemn occasion, but I’m glad we went. When I went to elementary school, it was named after a native son of Groton who died on the Arizona – William Seeley. I remember bringing in pennies to help to build the memorial. We took a picture of his name on the wall of honor inside the memorial. From there we took a shuttle over to Ford’s Island and visited the Pacific Air Museum. They did a wonderful job with the exhibits and Dave was in his element looking at all of the WW II planes. We went back to the Arizona and Dave bought a set of books about the war from the author. We will carry one on the trip and the author will send the others by mail. We came back to Waikiki and put our feet up – it was too hot to walk around. Later in the afternoon we walked down to the beach, but stopped at the Army Museum (an old Army fort on the beach). This was Dave’s day so we spent some time looking at the war from the land perspective to round out the sea and air that we had done this morning. We finally did get to the beach and watched from the pier as a woman paddled by on her surfboard – the unusual thing is that she was also giving her dog a ride! (see photo) He seemed to enjoy it and was very good at keeping his balance. I stuck my feet in for a bit of a wade – the water was very nice. I hope to get these stitches out on Monday so we can go in for a swim! We had an early dinner and have just come back to the room to write the blog and to get everything ready for tomorrow. The shuttle will pick us up at 6:45 AM tomorrow to take us to the airport. Tomorrow we will be on the big island.

2/25 Waikiki

We got to Honolulu and then had to wait quite a while for the shuttle to the hotels. It was a difference of a $40 - $60 cab ride or the bus which was $30 round trip - a no brainer, we waited for the bus. When we got to our hotel, we had to change rooms right away as the air conditioner in our original room sounded like a 747 taking off. There was no way we were going to sleep through that noise. We got another room on the floor below and it is very nice and quiet. We walked down the street for dinner and then walked down to Waikiki beach. We got there just after sunset, but were able to get a pretty good shot even with the low light. We tried to get a tour of the Arizona, etc., but the tour bus only runs M - F so we are going to take the city bus. Unfortunately, the bus that we would take is at 5:50 AM, but fortunately, the bus stop is only a block away. So early to bed and we will look forward to a good day tomorrow.

2/25 On the Move

We are sitting at the Lihue airport waiting for our flight to Oahu. We have just published the last blogs from Koke'e and checked our email. We are supposed to have Wifi at our hotel in Honolulu so we will let you know when we get there. Interestingly, I got stopped at security so they could swab my bandaged hand for explosives - I really didn't think about that when we put the new bandage on this morning. We have quite a wait as we left camp earlier than we needed to. Today and tomorrow are Waimea Days at the bottom of the mountain and the traffic was starting to build up even at an early hour. We didn't want to be caught up in a traffic jam, hence the early leaving. The good news is that we may be able to catch an earlier flight if there is room - we will see. Meanwhile, the weather if awesome again today. It was 49 degrees at camp, but 67 in Waimea and has been getting warmer as the day goes on.

2/24 Our Last Day at Koke'e

What a lightening show and thunderstorm last night! The thunder seemed to go on forever, but strangely very little rain up here. It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day – one of the best yet – bright sunshine and blue skies. Eben said he saw on TV (what’s that – we haven’t seen one for 3 weeks) that the east side of the island got 5 inches in 2 hours last night! Katie has the day off today, Kyle and Mapu are still sick, so Eben, Dave and I (mostly I just watched or supervised) finished the fence project. We went up the road and found some very straight and tall guava near the road which Dave and Eben cut down with the chain saw. We then tied the new wooden posts to the existing fence posts and put the new wire on the bottom four feet of the fence. We raised the chicken wire to overlap that so now the fence is 8 feet high. We then put a white ribbon around the top so the deer won’t try to jump the fence. After lunch we went back and cut more guava to put around the bottom to keep the pigs from digging under the fence (see photo of Dave and Eben wiring the logs to the bottom of the fence). It was nice to get the job done as we didn’t want to leave having done a partial job. In a few years, when the native plants have really taken root and grown a bit, they will take down the fence. Apparently, the deer and pigs are partial to the young plants. We said goodbye to Eben and will email the rest of the staff to say goodbye. We did some laundry and have repacked our bags so that we can take off tomorrow morning. We have been cleaning up here – Dave just swept the kitchen and we gave any leftover food to Eben and L. B., the handyman. We will fly from Lihue to Oahu. We hope to visit the Arizona at Pearl Harbor on Saturday and then fly over to the big island on Sunday. We have enjoyed our stay here, but are looking forward to the warm weather at sea level.

2/23 A Mixed Day

The photos for today's blog is of the forest before the ginger has been pulled and treated and then after - quite an amazing difference. Eventually, native plants will fill in the empty spaces.
We woke to a glorious, sunny day. It was quite chilly to start, but the sun warmed things up quickly. Kyle and Mapu are out sick today, so Dave and Eben went up the hill (about a 45 degree slope) behind the Museum and killed guava for the morning while I was stuck in the office again. I entered more data sheets into the computer (boring, but easy on the hand) while Katie continued to work on grant writing. The boys came back just before noon and we ate lunch together. After lunch, Dave and Eben and I went to the Discovery Center to meet a different class of fifth graders. We walked with them through the forest as the environmental instructor (Billy) pointed out a variety of native flora. We again divided into teams and the kids attacked the ginger with shovels. By this time, we were hearing thunder so we cut the session short. This class was even more into digging out the ginger than last week’s class. In less than an hour, they dug out over 2000 ginger – pretty impressive! When the kids had gone back up the trail, Eben poisoned the rhizome piles and then we carried the buckets and shovels out another path to the truck. We washed the tools and then hopped into the shower. We just had dinner and Dave will re-bandage my hand shortly. We have had a few showers associated with the thunder, but right now (6:45) the sky is a mix of clouds and blue sky. The sun is setting and some of the clouds are pink. We have one more day of work and apparently on our last day, we get to choose. We have chosen to finish the fencing project that we started. They have gotten the last of the fencing we will need and this will prevent the pigs and deer from eating all of the natives that we planted last week. If it should be pouring tomorrow, we will have to come up with a plan B.

2/22 Office Work for Me (light duty)

To finish yesterday’s blog: we drove down to the beach and sat in the car to eat our lunch. The rain stopped after a bit and we watched several groups of people in the water. We were a little anxious as a couple with what looked to be a 4-year old were standing and watching their son jumping in the waves. Every once in a while, he would get knocked down. This beach is not a particularly safe beach for swimming (even though many people do) as there is a strong current not too far offshore. There was another family of native Hawaiians with teenage boys who were having a good time body surfing. We drove back to camp and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon until it was time for Dave to cook dinner. He also has to do the dishes (see photo - also note that he has his down vest on). I do put them away after they are dried.

Today when we woke up, we could tell it was cold (well, for here) outside. Dave started the car to check the temp and it was 48. We had breakfast and reported for work. Katie decided to put me on office detail so I wouldn’t put a lot of pressure on the stitches. I entered data in the computer for Mapuana and then did a couple of minor rewrites on grants for Katie. Dave, Eben and Mapu went back to the area that we had worked with the Cornell folks. They went armed for both guava and ginger, but found much more ginger than they expected. In fact, they ran out of herbicide and had to quit a bit earlier than usual. We both took showers and then had dinner. We cleaned up the kitchen and are just relaxing now. It is quite clear out so we will probably have another cold night.

2/21 Our Last Day Off

2/21 Our Last Day Off

We woke to a cloudy day, but so far it seems that the rain will hold off. We chatted with L.B., the handy man, and he said that there were flash flood warnings across the island yesterday. The forecast calls for more rain today, but that is the typical forecast so we will see. We took our leftover pizza for lunch and headed down the mountain to see if maybe the sun is out on the coast. Just a short way down the road, we saw a young couple with big backpacks hitchhiking. We stopped to give them a ride. They are from Germany and had been camping and hiking on the mountain for the last two days. They were on their way to Waimea to another campground and were meeting friends there before they fly home on Wednesday. Before coming to Kauai, they had been in Australia for six weeks. They are both physical therapists. We stopped at a viewpoint as it was fairly clear (note the large waterfall from all of the rain last night) and then continued down the road. We dropped them off at their campground and are now at the Cottages to post our blogs. I will post this short one today also and then you won’t hear from us again until Friday when we will be in Oahu. I do hope it is a bit less rainy over there, but at least here we don’t have to shovel! By the way, in the short time we have been sitting here, it has started to rain again!

2/20 The Other End of the Island

We decided to postpone our shower time to let the Cornell kids rotate through the bathroom as they we leaving. They got off at 6:45 and then we got showered and dressed and headed for the North coast. We ate a small breakfast in the car and got up to the top of the island quite quickly. I think it was a combination of being Sunday and being early on the road, which helped. We drove to the end of the road (now we have been to both ends as far as you can go), which is Ha’ena Beach and the beginning of the Kalalau trail. The beginning of the trail was quite steep and rocky (and tricky in spots where the path was wet), but it eventually flattened out a bit. We found a few good scenic spots to stop and take a picture and at one spot I took a picture of an emergency helicopter landing spot (see pic). It was quite tiny and on the edge of the cliff. I would have been scared to death to get on it there, but I guess if you were badly injured and needed a lift off of the cliffs, you wouldn’t care how you got down. We walked on for a bit (the whole trail is 11 miles, but we had no intention of doing the whole thing- see photo of the other side of the Na Pali coast) and then turned around and walked down with a couple from the Boston area. They are recently retired and we had a nice time chatting with them. We walked down the road a bit and took a picture of a huge sea cave next to the road and then got back to the car. There were lots of people waiting for parking by this time and our spot was taken immediately. We drove back to Hanalei and stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the taro fields (see pic). We were going to stop for lunch on the road, but it was quite busy by this time and all of the café parking lots were full so we ate a few crackers that we had brought with us in the car. By this time, it had started raining and we drove back towards camp. It poured in places and even though it was only 3:00 we decided to stop at Brick Oven Pizza for takeout to eat when we got up the mountain. We were so lucky because the rain stopped for about 5 minutes as we pulled in and we were able to unload the car without getting soaked. We ate an early dinner and since it was so cold in the great room, decided to go to our room and read in bed. We climbed into bed at 5 and it started absolutely pouring. I thought that maybe we were going to get the whole 90 inches of rain in one night! It finally stopped a little after 8 and shortly thereafter we shut out the lights. It felt a little weird to be at the camp as we were the only ones there.

2/19 Pig Hunting and the Beach

We woke up to a slightly cloudy, but otherwise nice day here at camp. We were going down to explore the shore some more a bit later after breakfast, but two of the students, Mike from St. Lucia and Carl from Long Island, had been invited by Jim Cassell to go pig hunting. Rather than have someone drive them down the mountain and then turn around and come back up (about 1 ½ hours out to the farm and back) we said that we would go a little early and drop them off. The boys were very excited, neither had been hunting before and Carl had never ridden a horse. It started raining when we were at the farm, so Dave loaned Mike his Australian hat. We then took a leisurely ride and stopped along the way to see whatever looked interesting. Dave stopped at a shop and bought a new cap as he had left the one he brought on the plane (it had paint on it anyway). We stopped to look at the roiling waves where the mouth of the Waimea River meets the ocean. Eben says he has seen sharks there in the past, but we saw only a mom and her two girls fishing and playing in the sand. We stopped at the Russian fort, which was a star shaped Russian fort built in 1816. Only the foundations of the walls and buildings remain. We then stopped at Plantation Cottages to post yesterday’s blog and to check email. The rain had stopped and it was getting quite warm (80) and sunny. We decided to drive to a further beach (17 miles long) and eat a quick lunch (see photo). We enjoyed watching the waves (about 4 to 5 feet) and the people boogie boarding. We then decided to drive to the end of the road at this end of the island, which is at mile 35. The road winds past the Pacific Missile Range facility. Apparently their equipment is so sophisticated, they can detect a bottle bobbling in the waves! There is a dirt road that goes about 4 miles further, but with all of the rain we have had lately, the puddles looked as if they could swallow our car! Coming back into town we stopped at a local souvenir shop to look around. We had passed a huge gathering of people just before getting there and asked the owner what was going on. She thought they were hosting a bazaar today so we decided to go. As we were approaching the gate, I noticed some funeral flowers on the ground so I asked a man near the entrance what the event was. I was a funeral. After the church service it is customary to host a party celebrating the deceased’s life. I’m glad we didn’t go in and embarrass ourselves! We stopped at the Post Office to send a few more postcards. I took a picture of a statue of Capt. Cook (a distant relative - see photo) who first landed on the Hawaiian Islands here in Waimea in 1776. Later, he died on the big island when cannibals ate him. We also stopped at the Big Save to get a loaf of bread as we are out. We are going to try to finish our food this week, as we can’t take it with us when we fly to Oahu. We hadn’t heard from the pig hunters for a ride back up the mountain, so we left the shore and went back to camp. We read for a little bit and then Dave cooked dinner and washed dishes (remember the stitches?). We are all done and the students are just starting to cook. They are making fajitas and rice tonight. After dinner they will be cleaning up around here as they are leaving at 6:45 in the morning. We will have to figure out a shower schedule, as our plan is also to leave early in order to get up on the North Shore that we didn’t finish exploring last weekend.

2/18 A Small Adventure

For some reason we had trouble getting on line with Navigator and had to switch to Safari and the type on the blog is HUGE! - so sorry about that. I tried to put on some extra pix to make up for the not getting any on yesterday. The first picture is of Spouting Horn, then Scharlie, a fifth grader in my group holding a

ginger that she had dug up. The next pic is of a "moss dinosaur" that I spotted on the Alakai swamp trail. You also can see the boardwalk that we walked on (and I fell on). The next picture is one of Dave standing near a huge Banyan tree on the grounds of the Plantation Cottages. The last one is of my group from Cornell taken on the day we dug ginger in the forest. And now for the news. We woke to a beautiful day. After breakfast, we spent some time packing up (Smidgie and Alastair to their car and Dave and I back over to the main building). We also cleaned the cottage so that the new people coming in this evening would have a clean space to live. We said goodbye to the Macphails who are going to stay tonight in Lihue and then will fly over to Oahu to visit their daughter for 10 days before flying home. We then changed into shorts and went down to Plantation Cottages to post our blogs. Unfortunately, we were short of battery power so we didn’t get to put any pictures on the blog, but we will try to make up for it this weekend. We did, however, bump into the Macphails who were there checking their email. After we all finished with the computers, we decided to stay for lunch at the Plantation. We said goodbye again and then went to the Post Office to drop off some mail. We then took a leisurely drive down a nearby coast road. The temps were perfect – 85 and sunny. We discovered a lovely beach community and then stopped at a place called Spouting Horn. It was a blowhole in lava rock on the oceanfront. Apparently, it used to shoot up 200 feet, but the manager of a cane production company in the 30’s was upset that the salt spray was ruining about 10 acres of the sugar cane so he had some of his crew throw some dynamite down the hole. Now it only shoots up about 20 feet – still pretty neat though. We were going to go a little further, but it was 4:00 and we were about an hour away from the camp. We started up the mountain and, not unexpectedly, it began raining about 2 miles up the road. We went through some fairly heavy rain and quite a bit of run off on the road, but fortunately it was just sprinkling when we got to camp. We were the only ones here so we decided to do laundry while the machine was free and then ate dinner before the students got back. There are 15 students, 2 professors, and 2 children of one of the professors. Actually the students just got back (8:30) and they had eaten dinner on the shore. We will chat a bit with them and then head for bed after everyone has rotated through the bathroom. I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow, but we will definitely go down to the shore to enjoy the sun and shore.

2/17 The Garden and the Swamp

We went back to the garden today to finish our weeding and to put some taller stakes in the corners of the second garden so that we they get more fencing, the project can be done. We also chose a dozen plants from the nursery to plant in the garden. Now that it has been weeded and replanted with natives, it looks 100% better. It was a bit sprinkley, but not raining so we decided to go do weeding along the Alakoi Swamp Trail. Dave wasn't feeling great so he stayed back at the cottage to rest. Smidgie, Alastair, Kyle and I drove for about a half hour on muddy, potholed roads in the 4 wheel drive van to get to the trail head. It started raining lightly when we got there so we decided it was too wet to poison, but it was okay to take a hike. About a quarter of a mile in there is a boardwalk covered with wire mesh to walk on which goes for miles through a beautiful swamp. There were many different types of ferns and mosses along the way. At one point, being the graceful person that I am, I tripped on the mesh and went down. The biggest thing that was hurt was my pride, but then I discovered that I had cut my right hand on the mesh. Fortunately, I had a band aid with me and we continued on. We had a late lunch on the trail and then walked a little further, but decided to turn around as the rain was picking up. It was raining quite hard by the time we got back to the van and we certainly had an interesting ride out as the small puddles we had driven through were now quite deep. We got back and found that Dave was feeling a little better. I washed my hand in warm water and dish soap, but it looked like there was still some dirt in the wound and one end looked a little deep so we decided to drive down to Waimea to have it looked at. Part way down the hill we hit some fog and then Dave started not feeling great again. It was an interesting ride. By the time we got down the mountain, the clinic had closed so we went to the emergency room. Dave asked the nurse if there were any bugs going around and she said that people were coming in complaining of his same symptoms. Apparently, a volcano is erupting on the big island and the ask particulates are mixed in with the fog here and are affecting people who are prone to respiratory ailments, which, of course, Dave is. He at least felt better know what the problem is. The nurse cleaned out my cut and did get some more dirt out so our instinct were right. She thought the deeper part might need a stitch so was sending the doctor in. He took a look and decided to numb me up for the stitches. While we were waiting for the Novocaine to take effect, we chatted about how he came to be here. He was from North Carolina and did his residency in Southern California where he took up surfing (he was kind of cute (and young) like a surf boy). He went back to NC, but couldn't find a job. Soon after one of his classmates from California called and told him of the vacancy here in Waimea. He flew out, fell in love with the waves and here he has been for 2 1/2 years. He met a married a native girl and he expects to live here the rest of his life. Back to the stitches. It turned out that he had to put in six stitches - so I will have to compare with the grand kids to see who has the most. We came back up to camp just before dark, thank goodness, and had a small dinner. We watched a DVD on ferns that Katie had loaned us that wasn't great and then one that a student had made about the program up here. This one we will try to copy to bring home as it shows the camp and the work we do on the ginger and guava. We will have to move back to the main house tomorrow as someone is coming in and has been promised the cottage. Smidgie and Alastair are leaving tomorrow so it will be Dave and I and the Cornell students vying for the bathroom - should be interesting.

2/16 A Day with Cornell

It was quite windy in the night and the roosters were crowing at about 2 AM! We finally figured out that the moon must have been confusing them. After breakfast this morning, we met with the Cornell students and went into the forest to get rid of ginger. We were each put in charge of three students. I had two girls and a boy. Two were from upstate New York and the third was from Long Island. They dug out the rhizomes with shovels and make a pile that I would treat. I was on the lookout for guava as I followed along behind them. We had a full day of work and then came back to shower and have dinner. After dinner, we were invited over to the common room to meet with the students and to share what we have learned from being here for our two weeks and to listen to the students describe how they felt about their day. There was quite a philosophical discussion about the costs and benefits of using herbicide in the forest, but in the end I think we all agreed that sometimes you have to put up with a little evil to dispel a bigger one. One of the professors then gave a lecture and slide show on the Sword Alliance. She also show pictures of something a student had discovered last year here. They originally thought it was a cup fungus, but it turned out to be a gall. It was all very interesting.

2/15 A Mixed Day

We started this morning by getting rid of guava near the camp. It was a bit strenuous as we were working uphill most of the way. We worked until 11:30 and then drove up to the lookouts to take pictures and have a picnic. It was a bit foggy at the lookouts, but the picnic was delightful. We were to meet a school group at the Discovery Center, but found that they had left earlier than expected so we walked down the path to find them. We knew we were on the right path as I spotted some M & M’s on the trail. After walking for 45 minutes, we came upon the students who were assembled and about to get directions on how to dig up the ginger. This was a fifth grade class from Kapa’a Elementary School – 22 of them. We divided them up into small groups and took them out in search of ginger. I had five girls who called themselves The Island Girls. They worked quite hard and destroyed 458 ginger plants. They had to dig them out and I cut of the rhizomes into a bucket and counted. We emptied the buckets into a huge pile which Kyle would then poison after the children left. All together, the 22 students destroyed 1729 ginger plants, which I thought was quite a large number for only an hour of work. We caught a ride from Katie who was parked not too far away. She actually parked in the area where we had cut the black wattle last week. On the way back to our car she took a detour to pick some tea leaves. We will try to steep some tonight to make green tea (actually it will be quite green as we are not going to dry the leaves). We waited at the Discovery Center for the kids to get back so that we could pick up the student waiver forms from the teacher. Back at camp, we rotated through the shower and are now relaxing on the porch before dinner. After dinner, we sat with the Macphail’s in our cozy cottage kitchen and chatted. It was a lovely night with an almost full moon so we went for a walk. It was lovely.

2/14 Happy Valentine's Day

We woke up at 5:30 this morning and began moving our things over to the cottage. We finished in time to have breakfast in our new digs. The cottage is quite nice for the four of us. There are two bedrooms, each with a bunk bed and a single, a bathroom and a small kitchen. We made our lunches and since it was sprinkling, Katie thought that we should finish the garden enclosures that we started the other day. We were joined by a young man named Dan who is a Fisheries and Wildlife person from Washington state. He and his wife, a nurse, are taking a year off after the birth of their son who is now 4 months old. Some of us worked on replacing the chicken wire fence with a hardier pig-proof fence and then attached the chicken wire to the top to prevent the deer from jumping over. The rest of us weeded the second garden – it was really full of that horrible grass that has long underground runners. The day turned out to be a nice one despite the rainy start and we got almost all of the weeds – there is just one corner left to do. We got back to the cottage and took turns in the shower and then sat on the porch and enjoyed cheese and crackers until it was time for dinner. The Cornell students arrived in four vans. Apparently they are in Hawaii for a semester. They are taking a course called An Environment Study of the Hawaiian Islands. They will be here just a few days and then will move on. Dinner prep was very easy tonight has be had leftovers from the party. We did the dishes and then drove up the road to the U S Air Force tracking dome. It is part of the NASA system – all fenced in, but you supposedly you can see bats flying in the lights. Well, we waited quite a while and saw only one bat. A guard came out and asked us to move our car out of in front of the gate which we did and after waiting a while longer with no more bat sightings we decided to give up as it was starting to get quite chilly. We came back and settled into bed with our books ready to enjoy our first night in the cottage.

2/13 A Day at Camp

We woke up this morning to a beautiful day. After breakfast, I got started on the cooking. I made key lime pie and cornbread for the going away party for Alan and Leilani tonight and then made a batch of cherry/almond muffins to have with our oatmeal for breakfast this week. Dave swept the kitchen and the community room. After showering and starting some laundry, we went up to the two lookout spots above the camp to take some pictures of the Na Pali coast. When we came back down, we stopped at the restaurant next to the museum for lunch and then headed about a mile down the road to the only telephone pole where you can get cell phone reception. We called the kids and it sounds like everything is going well at home except that it has been cold. We are now back at camp and I am finishing the laundry. We will sweep out our room tonight so that it will be clean for the next people when we move to the Cottage tomorrow. Everyone will be gathering here at 5 for the party so we want to have everything ready for them. We lazed around camp this afternoon just reading and enjoying the sunshine. At 4:30 we started getting ready for the party. Katie and Jim came as well as Eben and his girlfriend, Tammy. Mike and his friend Michelle came. Mike worked here just before we came and Michelle is from Germany. The six of us volunteers made up the rest of the party. Everyone brought something to share so we had cooked wild pig, pork and cabbage, chicken and rice stir-fry, salad, Lilokoi pie, Annie bars (which are like peanut butter rice krispie bars as well as what we had made. We had a wonderful feast, told some great stories and had a wonderful send-off for Leilani and Alan. We cleaned up and went to read in bed.

2/12 Shopping Day

This week's blogs may be devoid of pictures until later as were are sitting on the verandah and have realized that the computer is only half charges. I will try to add some later. It was 59 degrees when we left the mountain this morning and 72 at the coast. We showered and had breakfast and then went into Waimea. Our first shop was the book drop at the local library. Leilani had finished a book that she had borrowed and we offered to drop it off so they wouldn’t have to drive down the hill to return it. They had been packing and cleaning so they will be ready to leave at 5:30 AM on Monday to go back home to Alaska. There was no rain at camp, but we hit rain on the way to Lihue. We stopped at Kmart to buy a small hand mixer (last weekend we used the Armstrong method – Dave’s strong arm!) and a candle just in case the power goes out again. We also stopped at Home Depot to pick up a file for sharpening our machetes and weather-stripping to muffle the banging of the screen doors at the cottage. We got our dry grocery goods at the Times store and stopped at a local farmer’s market to pick up some tomatoes and native oranges. Driving back through the rain from Lihue to Waimea we found that Waimea was dry. We stopped at Plantation Cottages to post the blog from yesterday and to look at email. We then went for a late lunch at Obsessions and then into Big Save for our cold goods. When we left the store, it was 77 degrees and it was 63 at camp. We put away the groceries and then we had a bit of rain here. We read for a while and then had dinner. After dinner we watched Social Network – a bit dark and awkward at times, but not a bad movie. Leilani and Alan had company so we were by ourselves for the movie. We went to bed to read and get warm in our sleeping bags.

2/11 Our First Day Off

We woke up this morning to guess what? (rain, of course) and 60 degrees. I showered and stubbornly put on my shorts with a sweatshirt as we were going down the mountain today. We cleaned up a bit after breakfast and then went down to the Plantation Cottages verandah to post the blogs. The temperature there was 73 degrees and sunny so the sweatshirt came off. We successfully published the blogs for the week, but couldn’t get on email so decided to check it when we get back to town. We then went to the Habitat Restore, which is located in the next town and bought a couple of drinking glasses and teaspoons, which are in short supply at camp. From there we decided to drive up towards the North shore to explore a part of the island we haven’t seen yet. Our first stop was Kealia beach where we saw boogie boarders in the 3-5 foot waves. It was a little misty there and in fact the whole day was mist, cloud, rain, sun at various times. We drove on to Anahola where we passed Kalalea Mountain, which is also known as King Kong Mountain because of its unique profile – it really does look like King Kong! Actually, it is quite appropriate as the remake of the movie was filmed here in 1976. We stopped for lunch at Duane’s Ono-Char Burger – a small spot with very good burgers, even better onion rings, and a wonderful mixed berry shake. We continued on and stopped at a place called Hawaiian Hardwood where the artist does wonderful things with driftwood (Lana would have been shipping tons of stuff home) and native woods including Koa and Monkey Pod. He did carvings as well as furniture. Everything was quite stunning. We then stopped at the National Wildlife Refuge at Kileaua Lighthouse. The lighthouse sits on a bluff that is the northernmost point of the main Hawaiian Islands. The lighthouse itself was quite picturesque, but the surrounding cliffs and sea were stunning (see photo of waves smashing against the cliffs). We saw hundreds of red-footed boobies, an albatross, some gulls and 24 whales (or maybe 3 whales 8 times each). The whales were spouting and breeching just off the coast. We stayed there for a good long time, as it was a wonderful place to see and visit (see photo of unknown purple flowers). We decided we had better head back so we stopped at Banana Joe’s for a fruit smoothie and then headed back toward our new home. It is a good thing we started back when we did because the traffic was awesome! We stopped again at the Plantation to check email and then headed up the 15 miles of twisty and foggy in places road back to camp. This is not a road that you would want to drive at night! It was 76 in Waimea and 62 at the camp when we got back at 5:30. We fixed a quick dinner and I think we will just read tonight. It is not raining yet, but it is foggy and I’m sure it will rain in the night as usual. We will try to post this blog tomorrow if we go down the mountain again.

2/10 Weeding the Garden

Today was another rainy day. It wasn’t too bad in the morning so we decided to go out to cut down some black wattle and black wood trees near Berry Flats to use as pig deterrents. Dave was in his element using the chain saw and the rest of us used our machetes to clean off the branches to make long poles about 3-4 inches in diameter. We then loaded them on to the pickup truck and drove down the road to the parking area of the Awa awa puhi trailhead. There are two enclosures planted with native plants of the area. They are fenced in with chicken wire, but the wild pigs have figured out how to dig under the fence to get to the plants. Some of us weeded around the edge of one fenced area and then laid the poles down on the ground against the fence and wired them on while the rest of us spent our time weeding around the native plants that were left. We didn’t finish everything as it started to pour so we finished cleaning up what we could and then went back to camp to have lunch at around 1:30. It was still pouring after lunch so we decided to call it a day and the Macphails and we jumped in the car and went down the hill to the museum. We had a great look around and bought a few hiking trail books that I hope we can use this weekend if it ever stops raining. The Hawaiians call rain Hawaiian snow that is better than our snow because you don’t have to shovel it! We drove the Macphail’s down to the telephone pole where you can get cell phone reception so they could call their daughter who lives on Oahu. The daughter and son-in-law are coming to Kauai tomorrow night so they will stay in Lihue for the weekend. When we got back to camp we spent some time making out a few postcards and then we had dinner. We might watch another movie tonight if we can stay awake. We will have a gathering here on Sunday to say goodbye to Leilani and Alan who will be leaving early Monday morning to go back to Alaska. Next week a group of students from Cornell will be coming in to work so the four of us are going to move into the cottage where Leilani and Alan have been staying. The cottage has two bedrooms, a bathroom and an eat in kitchen. This is going to be lovely as we were having nightmares thinking of sharing one bathroom with 20 college students! We started to watch Social Network, but it started raining so hard it drowned out the sound on the movie so we gave up and went to bed to read.

2/9 Hacking the Wild Ginger

We watched Red last night – quite amusing. We read for a while in bed before falling asleep. We woke up about 6 and could see that it was going to be a gorgeous day so Dave and I had an early breakfast and then hopped into the car to go up to the end of the road where there is a great viewpoint of the Na Pali coast. The sky was clear and the sun had just risen so we got some lovely pix. I can’t remember if I have talked about the wild chickens and roosters that are all over the island. They are all around camp and even way up on the last viewpoint! It is against the law to kill them, but all I can see is Sunday dinner when I see them crossing the road in front of our car. We got back to the camp and made our lunch and then we were off. Our target area was close to the upper viewpoint along side of the Awa-awapuhi trail. Our focus today was eradicating the wild ginger (see above photo), which grows from rhizomes just under the surface of the earth. We would treat each cut part with a Round-up type of herbicide. We also found plenty of guava here to treat also – this uses a different herbicide so we were supplied with two different bottles. To prevent using the wrong herbicide on the wrong plant, they were dyed green (for the ginger) and red (for the guava). We also found a few karaka nut trees that are not native so we treated them also. We worked until 1 and then stopped for lunch in a grassy place along the trail. We then continued until 4:15. We drove back to camp, dropped off the herbicide bottles, and washed the gloves that we wear to protect our skin. I didn’t hear the final count – will try to find out tomorrow. We carry a clicker with us to record each weed that we kill. We are not back at camp and waiting our turn in the shower. We are pretty filthy today so I am going to wash our outer work clothes after the shower and before dinner. I think we will have some leftover mac and cheese and meatloaf tonight along with a fresh pineapple. If we can stay awake, Alastair is going to show a slide show of the restoration of an old mill that he owns in Scotland. Now that it is done they are going to spend 4 months over there beginning in April. The other photo is of Alan and Smidgie scraping a wall yesterday in the future wood working shop.

2/8 A Rainy Day

It poured last night and when we woke up, we discovered that the power was out – not just at the camp, but also all over the top of the mountain. Fortunately, the stove is gas so we were able to make our hot cereal and cocoa for breakfast. Katie and the staff had a meeting with someone from the Nature Conservancy so the volunteers worked out in the outdoor plant nursery for the morning. We transplanted seedlings of many native plants and repotted some of the bigger specimens into gallon-sized pots. The whole nursery area looked so much better and more organized after we were finished. We were going to eat lunch out on the picnic table, but it started raining again. Apparently, the camp gets 90 inches of rainfall annually. Just 3 miles down the road, the annual rainfall total is 45 inches and down on the coast in Waimea, the annual total is just 12 inches. At any rate, the power was back on and we all came inside to eat. A neighbor came by as we were finishing lunch and said that a pair of hunting dogs was loose in the area (actually we saw them yesterday as we were loading up the vans) and they had killed two young pigs that belonged to his next-door neighbor. They were able to catch one of the dogs, but the other got away. As it was still pouring out, we couldn’t go out to the field to put herbicide on the ginger as it would just wash away. Katie called the head of the museum and she found some work to do on one of the 3 other buildings on the property that are not in use. One of them is almost done – it is to be two huge bunkrooms with large bathrooms on each side. The one we were working on is also divided into two sides, but is intended as a wood working shop. The dream is to teach children to use the invasive woods to make items of use or items that can be sold in the museum. We scraped and plugged holes on once wall. It was quite a job. Alastair, meanwhile, worked in the first building using a razor to scrape paint off the windowpanes and then washing the windows. This whole camp was built by 100 boys hired by the CCC (Civil Conservation Corps) in 1934. They were paid $30 per month and had to send $21 home to their families. We quit working at 4:00 (it was getting hard to see and we had no electricity in the building) and jumped in the shower. We will make dinner soon and may have another movie night, as I don’t think people are as tired as last night. The photos today are of Dave and Alastair sitting outside due to the power outage. Dave is finishing his cocoa and Alastair is repairing the knees of his jeans. The patches let go from crawling on the forest floor yesterday. Somehow I got the hibiscus in again instead of the photo I wanted. I will try again on tomorrow's post.

2/7 First Day of Work

We had a lovely time at the Super Bowl party. Unfortunately, it poured for most of the afternoon so we couldn’t sit out on the decks, but we did enjoy chatting with people from all over. People brought food to share and there was plenty of it! Ruth gave us bunches of bananas to take back to camp which she grows on her farm. We ate and decided that the one meal would serve for both lunch and dinner. We met the Macphail’s who are from Niantic and will be working for two weeks up at the camp. We led them up to the camp and helped to get them settled in. It was a much quieter night than the one before – no wind and very little rain. We woke up this morning to bright sunshine – yeah! We had breakfast and made our lunches to take out to the field and then met the staff for an orientation and safety talk. The six of us, Dave and I, Smidgie and Alastair McPhail, Leilani and Alan from Alaska, were joined by a couple of ladies for the party who live locally. We went to the shed and got geared up with utility belts on which we carried a machete, a pair of clippers, and a bottle of poison. We also got rubber gloves, a compass and a clicker (to count the number of plants we killed). Today we worked on just one species of invasive and that was the strawberry guava. The small ones we were able to pull out. The larger ones had to be frilled (cut all around with either the clippers or the machete) and then had poison applied. We ended the day by killing over 6000 guava! We came back to camp, showered and ate dinner and I know that we will be going to bed soon as we are all beat. Our bodies will have to have a few days to get use to the work so maybe we won’t be so tired tomorrow and the next day. The picture of the camp shows the largest building to the right which is the community kitchen and great room. The second building behind it is the sleeping quarters. The three buildings in the back are empty at the moment. The closest one to the sleeping quarters is the new bunk room. The second to the left is going to be a wood working building and the third one is just an empty shell. All of these were barracks during the CCC time.

2/5 and 2/6 Settling In

We took a walk to the beach before going to the grocery store. Food is so much more expensive here, which makes sense since we are on an island. We bought most of the goods at the Times grocery in Lihue and then drove to Waimea. We intended to have brunch at the Plantation Cottages where we can pick up wi-fi, but due to the sagging economy, they only serve lunch and dinner now. We went back to town and ate at Obsessions, a small café next to the Big Save grocery store. The food was excellent. We picked up our milk and meat at the Big Save and then headed up to camp. It was a beautiful day – sunny and 79 in Waimea. The views on the way up to camp (a twisty 15 miles from sea level to 3500 feet) were magnificent. The road follows a beautiful canyon – many people call this the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We didn’t stop at any of the viewpoints, however, as we needed to get our food stored away at camp. By the time we got to the museum to pick up our key, the temperature was 63 – a bit chillier than on the shore. We got the cold food store away in one of the fridges in the community kitchen and put all of the dry goods in a huge food locker (apparently critter-proof). We then set up our room. There is a bunk bed and a single. Dave is using the single and I am in the bottom of the bunk. We are using the top bunk for storage. We bumped into Lelani doing laundry. She and her husband, Alan, were here last year. They live in Alaska and have been coming here for a month to 6 weeks for the last 12 years. They have one week left so we will be working with them this coming week. We went to the kitchen to start cooking. The plan is to cook most everything on one day and then just heat up after work each day. There is a Super Bowl party at Katie’s mother’s house in Waimea (we went last year), so we made snickerdoodles to take there. Finding an oven that worked was interesting. We finally got the smallest oven lit, but the numbers were worn off the dial so we had to guess the temp. We couldn’t find any cookie sheets (I’m not sure one would fit anyway) so we baked on a small pizza pan. We must have been pretty close on the temp as they came out perfect (according to Dave and Alan, the cookie testers). We then made meatloaf, macaroni and cheese and a pan of brownies for the week. We had sugar snap peas with our meatloaf and macaroni for dinner and then invited Lelani and Alan over for movie night. We had brought a number of DVD’s with us. We watched “The Fastest Indian” with Anthony Hopkins – a great movie – and snacked on brownies. It was a very enjoyable evening. The wind picked up and then the rain came down. It lessened a bit when Lelani and Alan were heading back to their cottage so that was lucky. It was a wild night – the wind blew and the rains came down in torrents. The wind blew open the door to the bunkroom several times until finally we put a heavy bin in front of it – even then it blew the bin a few inches as we discovered this morning. It was not a restful night, but we will deal. We showered and then went to the kitchen (about 10 feet away in the next building). We had hot cereal and cocoa for breakfast and are now baking banana bread for the week. We will go down the mountain early so we can post this blog before going to the party. You will not hear from us again until Friday when we come down the hill again, but you can email us and we will pick up the messages Friday through Sunday. For those of you who are football fans, good luck to your team.

2/4/11 Finally Made It!

After a long, long, long day, made up of 4 different flights and 23 hours from waking up to setting our heads on a pillow again, we are here! We flew from Providence to Philadelphia to Denver to Oahu to Kauai. Fortunately had plenty of layover time except at the Philadelphia airport due to de-icing at Providence which made for a late take-off. We got to walk around and stretch our legs at the other stops. We met some lovely people on the planes and at the airports - most people are anxious to get out of the weather. We chatted with several people from Canada who are also experiencing cold weather at home. Actually, it was rather interesting that as we traveled across the U. S., the whole country except for the strip in California after the Sierra Nevadas was covered with snow! Denver actually had less snow on the ground than CT (maybe a foot), but to see the whole country covered with snow was pretty awesome! We picked up our rental car for our stay here - a Chevy mid-sized SUV that we are nicknaming "The Beast". Fortunately, the motel we stayed in for the night was close by as both Dave and I were pretty beat by the time we got in (9 PM Hawaiian time - 2 AM CT time). We did love the temps upon landing - not to make you jealous, but it was 81 when we landed in Oahu! So, now that we have had a good night's sleep, we will go for a walk on the beach, have some breakfast and then go grocery shopping before heading up to camp. I will try to post again later.

2/3/11 Get ready to fly

Well, we will be leaving for our volunteer stint in Hawaii tomorrow morning. We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Warwick so that we can get to the the airport early in the morning and so we can take advantage of the low cost of leaving our car here while we are gone. We checked in and then took the shuttle to Chelo's for dinner - very good. We will go to bed early tonight as we have a wake-up call for 3 AM! We will fly from Providence to Philadelphia to Denver to Honolulu to Kauai. We will stay tomorrow night at a hotel near the airport in Lihue, Kauai. We will let you know tomorrow night how the flight went. Good night and Happy Birthday Amy!