Shellandria from Marlon's Camera

Same trip, but from Marlon's camera

The New SFO

The Surfboard Factory Outlet in Kapolei changed locations.  Stop by if you haven't been in a while - the new digs are pretty cool!

Random Pictures from a Random Surfer's Journal

I took a break after lunch - we went back to Patagonia and I sat on their couch and browsed through a Surfer's Journal.  Cool pictures abound -

I love the surf culture and how prevalent it is everywhere you look up here.  Oh, and the shop had these cool patches.

La got the Whale Shark one for me!

Lunch Up North

This is another activity that will never get old - eating at Kua Aina -

I love this food!!!  Mission accomplished!

North Shore Chicken Hunting

We packed up the truck and went out to grab a couple of pieces of lumber - then made a trip out to Haleiwa to grab a Kua Aina Burger (drooling)!  To pass a few minutes in hope of letting any lunch hour lines die down, we checked out the Patagonia shop.  Without fail, there were chicken families in several stages of development.  My kids went into "hunt" mode..

Ever since our trip to Kauai, my kids love to catch recently hatched chicks, study them, and release them to continue hunting bugs.  I love to hear the hen scream bloody murder - I realize the hen may not think the same of the situation as I do, but this never gets old for me or the kids.  I'm sure it gets old for the birds.

No animals were physically harmed in the making of this blog post.  In fact, the chicks we picked up got belly rubs and hugs.

Post Lane Date Night

We spent most of the day getting our home back in order - plants back on the racks, tools and equipment back on the shelves, vacuuming, sweeping, and identifying stuff that we can purge (since we were going through it all anyways).  A friend of ours asked if we could come over to their house to fix a few things that broke in the heavy winds - and that turned out to be a great excuse to go on a date night!

We hit Nathan's and after checking out his plants and fixing a few broken pots, we headed down to the Olive Tree - a greek restaurant that is never open when we are in Kahala.  Awesome food!!!

Next we stopped at the top of Diamond Head.  The surf was waist to shoulder high and a little textured from the gusty wind.  A guy surfing had his leash break and he swam in from the middle break at Cliffs.  The wind kept pushing his board towards Lighthouse and he swam past it.  When he got to the beach, he kept looking around for his board and he finally looked up at us - we pointed and he took off running after the board.

Fun date night!  And....

I love my wife!

Last Day of the Christmas Break

We went fishing in the morning - I caught a papio and a hinalea and let the kids play with them. Noe caught a few hermit crabs for the tank. It was pretty windy and the tide was coming up fast, so we had our fun and left. My phone battery died, but La and I did finally take a short ride on the Ducati and got a Chai Tea Latte (just like the old days when we were dating ;) What a great weekend!!!

The Old Truck and a Long Planter Box

Saturday was Noe's 11th Birthday, so Noe and La did some ceramic painting with friends, while I grabbed some last minute groceries and got Marlon a haircut. While we were walking in the parking lot, I saw a truck that looked like the one that got stolen from me two Aprils ago. I miss that truck... I'm pretty sure I went surfing with Marlon at White Plains (either Saturday or Sunday... no pictures unfortunately), but before that I installed a new sink in the kitchen and I finished one of La's presents - this planter box. It felt good to go surfing again. I need to do it more!

Hawaiiana from Foodland Farms

Now that we live on Oahu, I don't have the compulsive urge to consume all things Hawaii. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate looking at all things related to life in Hawaii. Walking around through the new Foodland Farms at Ala Moana Center, Noe and I stumbled on this stuff - And we left without spending a cent!!!

Checking Out Heeia Pier and the Resident Squid

After Marlon's practice, he wanted to go visit one of the plant nurseries he had not been to in a while (Once Again Succulents). We did that (check out my other blog www.compulsivesucculentsandpottery.blogspot.com for that post) and since we were on that side, we made the trip out to the Heeia Pier. When we got there, the kids went to the closest water and immediately saw four squid just hanging out in shallow water. The General Store was closed so we couldn't eat the ono plate lunches. but at least La knows where this place is now. When we got back to the van, the squid were still at the same spot. Noe said "we should keep a net in the van from now on so we can catch stuff when we see them" - time to find the nets ;)