More Visitors

Well, our second group of houseguests headed for home on Saturday night.  My Aunt Karen, her husband, Dale, and son, Dane, spent a week with us.  I don’t think we could have squeezed one more activity into that week!  We’re all pooped!

We went snorkeling in Haunauma Bay.  The water was cold (I know, I’m a wuss!), but we saw lots of fish.  We were counting the fins to make sure we had matched sets. 

We toured the Kamaka Ukulele factory.  Fred Kamaka Sr. says it takes them about a month to make the koa ukuleles but up to 18 months to do a repair!  They are so beautiful.

Dale, Karen and Dane at the Pali Outlook overlooking Kailua and Kaneohe.

One of our trips to the North Shore was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We laughed at the guy representing Samoa, watched the Imax movie, enjoyed the luau and had a great time watching the show after dinner.  

One of the displays focused on Hawaiian Applique’ quilting.  Karen just had to learn how to do it and bought this kit.  After a few pointers, Karen had the appliqué nearly half done by the time she got on the airplane to go home!  She also wanted to learn more about Sashiko embroidery and try to make a quilt like mine.  So off we went to a couple of my favorite quilt stores (Kaimuki Dry Goods and The Calico Cat) for supplies.

On another trip to the North Shore, we stopped the Dole Cannery and a bay where the Green Sea Turtles, or honu, come up on shore to bask in the sun.  That day, there were two lazing on the beach and another half dozen in the water.  One of the volunteers told us that the baby turtles stay in the water and don't ever come up on the beach until they are about 25 years old.

Somewhere along the way, we had to get pretty toes.  I'm afraid mine got lots of sun, hence the "stripes" from my sandals...

And, of course, there were several trips to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium for more treasures.  After shopping, we had to go to The Ice Garden (twice!) for shave ice with mochi balls!  Yum!