North to Alaska

It's been over two years since I have done this so it's like learning to ride all over again. We left home on the 14 of June to go to Salina, Ks for the Redding Cousin's Reunion.  We had a great time and will try to post some photos. Carol and all of the cousins there had worked very hard to make it a very successful and pleasureable weekend. 

We visited the Eisenhouer home place and musuem. 

Happy Birthday to me

Have you ever seen a roasted pig in the dirt. I forget what they called the pit he was baked in. But it tasted wonderful. The food was good, the entertainment was wonderful. What a way to end the day. I tried to take some photos of the dancers but it was too dark.





I'm forever taking sunset photos. This doesn't seem to have as much color as some but there were clouds that took away the color. As the Lu'au got underway the sun was going down,






After spending over 6 hours on the beach today we went to our first real Lu'au. Roger and I really enjoyed relaxing on the beach and later I took the boogie board and he had his snorkel gear... we went way out probably a quarter of a mile from the beach... and swam with some huge turtles. I mean huge. This one guy head was as big as my leg. What a wonderful birthday.

Whale watching and snorkelling

Sunset in Lahaina. All we can see is the sun going down over the other islands but it's still beautiful. Our time is going very quickly.







After spending a day on the ocean we went to Lahaina to shop and eat dinner. We could not leave Maui without a photo of the largest banjain (sp) tree in the world.

We left early with The Pride of Maui for a Snorkel Molokini and Turtle Town Whale watching. The waves were so high we could not got to Molokini. I did manage to get in and snorkel for about 15 minutes. The water was very cold and the waves still pretty rough. Roger enjoyed it but the underwater photos still didn't turn out as good as we would have liked.

Wednesday February 3, 2010 This was our sunset from the hotel. We had just finished with a mini show of the Polynesian

culture here at the hotel. Its

fascinating to learn of their language, traditions, dance and song.

This morning we drove the Highway to Hana. I drove so Roger could enjoy the view. 600 hair pin curves, one lane bridges.... little stressful for me but we made it to about 5 miles this side of Hana. We decided that was enough. The seven pools the other side of Hana are completely dried up. It was a little disappointing from our trip 15 years ago. This time around we seen very few waterfalls. Actually the higher you climb the dryer it was.

We did have some wonderful views of the ocean. We stopped at the first Twin Falls and hiked back in the rain forest for over an hour. Talk about banana plants......... HUGE!

Our hotel is on the west side of Maui so I am trying to get some sunset photos. Sunday evening when we arrived I got a couple off the beach but there were clouds then too. This is the sunset last evening while we were having dinner in Lahaina.







Another look out over the ocean as the sun goes down. We had had a beautiful day lounging on the beach.

We had gotten up early (still on St. Louis time warp) and enjoyed walking the beach and watching the whales. We have several right out from our hotel.



First we got some boogie boards and played in the water then Roger wanted to surf.

This was taken after he had been out in the water for over and hour. Guess what folks... he actually got up and came all the way to shore. Trying to get a photo with him catching a wave was just impossible. Take my word he did get up.






Here we go again with the darn side way photos that I can't seem to turn from here. Trying to show you just how long the board was. What's most exhausting is getting out beyond the surf so you can come back in. I was afraid for him more than once when a huge surf would go over the top of him.

We both got quite a bit of sun today.

It was a little disappointing that we had some clouds that impeded our sunrise. Still worth the view and glad we went.








It never seems to amaze me as to what the eye can see and what the camera captures. This is our sunrise.




You can see the cloud in front of the sun. February 3, 2010.

Here we are all ready to ride these machines for the next 26 miles. Temp is somewhere in mid 40s.

By the time we got back my body cussing me from multiple locations. :)





We had a wonderful guide who picked us up at the hotel at 2 a.m. We arrived at the top around 6 a.m. Frank was great with information and helping us take photos. This is his capture of us flying in the clouds. Pretty convincing huh?





This is the crater in the background. Can you see how cold I am? This was just after sunrise.








Look mom we made it to the top.