Nice Weekend

It's been a nice weekend.

I got a shift change (from 11a-11p to 6p-6a) on Sunday night, so I was able to spend about fifteen hours at home. This was spent first sleeping for ten hours, then hanging out with the inlaws and BBQ-ing for Memorial Day. It was nice to see them before they had to leave to head home. Even better was the lawnmower they dropped off so we could finally start mowing the lawn.

Spending time with the family. Well, the adults anyways, the kids can eat in silence and isolation - this is the way of the holiday feast.

Stacey had been wandering about earlier when she smelled something sweet. Thinking she had found some wild jasmine or something, she followed the scent to it's scource: juniper trees. Apparently juniper trees in the area are in blossom. I had no idea they blossomed, but it made sense since I know they produce juniper berries. Stacey brought some home and pit them in a vase.

The white-petaled flowers are the juniper blossoms (that smell awesome).

After eating, we were hanging out in the back yard when we noticed RJ had disappeared. Stacey found him, but not before that jackass had eaten the last steak that was on the counter. I totally had plans for it tonight. I swear, as soon as the fence is built (hopefully next week), his ass is going be spending a loooooooot of time outside.

We had an old tire in the backyard that came with the house. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with it, but with her dad's help Stacey re-purposed it into a tire swing. Of course it was an instant hit.

Tire swing!!

We also found what is apparently a wild rose. It is the first rose to bloom, seeing as the other roses (on the arbor) have buds, but no flowers yet.

The only rose so far.

And while I was walking around the back yard, I walked over to check out the apple tree. Being impatient, I was really hoping to see something that looked like and apple, since last time I looked (a few days ago), the tree was on the backside of the blooming phase. What I found actually surprised me - a whole mess of marble-sized, green, baby apples in their beginning. It'll still be a while before we have apples, but at least they're progressing in a more visual manner now.

Turning into apples.

Our flower planters are looking nice as well, blooming with all manner of flowers. I guess that purple-orange-black, tiger-striped flower I put in the last post is an iris. We have more of those, but in other colors, though mostly white.

White Iris's, and whatever else is growing in the planter.

Stacey got a start on the garden this afternoon, planting out starter vegetables. once those are planted, it'll be time to start planting the seeds we have. It'll be interesting to see how much we'll get from the garden, though I have a feeling it'll be a lot.

The beginnings of this year's garden.

On the way to Kayenta for work, I got called to start early. So now I will most likely be off two hours early, which works for me as I have an appointment in Blanding tomorrow morning, then I'm repositioning to Gallup. I'll be there for a while, then to Chinle for a few days, then to California on my days off for a wedding and to see some friends.

Gratuitous "Monument Valley scene location from Forrest Gump" shot.

Back on the res

Since I've come back from Hawaii, I've been decently busy flying.

Last night on the res, the Memorial Day weekend started with a GSW to the chest that we thought we might be transporting. Unfortunately, one of the major side effects of sudden-onset acute lead poisoning is death, and they never made it further than the bed in the clinic. I'm hoping it's not like this all weekend, but we'll see I guess.

Speaking of Hawaii, I have my list of stats. I was there for thirty-six days, during which time I:

-Transported eighteen patients
-Flew a total of about forty-one hours (did a lot of repo's, practice approaches, and mainetnance flights)
-Ate:
--six bowls of loco moco
--four bowls of pho
--thirteen pineapples (just about singlehandedly, the biggest ones I could find)
--about four pounds of poke (most if it being sesame-kukui-marlin)
--about ten pounds of various macadamia nut variations (mostly honey-roasted though)
--about ten pounds of kalua pork
-Bought thirteen bottles of rum (about two-and-six-tenths gallons), though to be fair, I brought two of those home from the Koloa Rum Company - One for drinking, and one for looking pretty (the rest I drank the hell out of).

I have been able to go home a few times this week. Its been nice, seeing all the plants green and growing, especially after this last winter. It reminded us of what attracted us to this property in the first place. The lilacs have pretty much filled in, creating a nice privacy screen.

Hopefully next year they'll be through the fence and hiding it.

The lilacs on the side of the house have been blooming as well, and for some reason are doing even better then the ones in the above picture. I don't know if they need part shade and get it on the west side of the house or what, but then again the sewer line runs not too far from them there...

The smell is awesome.

The rose arbor in the front is coming along nicely as well.

We have no idea what color/kind of roses they are.

Our fruit trees are all starting to produce as well except for the apple tree, as it's still in the flowering stage. However, it's in the declining phase of that stage and I expect to see something resembling an apple fairly soon.

Awwwww, but I want it now!

The apricot tree has become Gary cat's favorite I think; according to Stacey he enjoys running up the tree, and batting and gnawing on the green apricots. If he knocks one down he'll play with it forever, as apparently it's more entertaining than a gopher snake, or hunting down yet another bird (he's gotten three so far I think). I wonder what he'll do when they're ripe - we can totally see him eating them.

The cat-toy tree.

The cherry trees are getting ready to produce an insane amount of cherries. We've been told by those who have been there in recent years that the cherry trees on our property are well known for their capabilities to produce. We've already starting telling people they can just come and pick them if they like.

This many...

...Times that, for three months at least.

The pears are just starting to form. I think by next month we may be seeing the first Bartlet pears coming off the tree.

A few of the pear blossoms turning into pears as we speak.

The garden has also gone a little crazy. The existing asparagus and green onions have gotten a little out of hand. I blame Stacey. And rap music.

This little guy...

Turned into this.

And these...

...Turned into that.

We also have some new and interesting flowers coming up. All the tulips have pretty much completed their cycle, and their absence is noted, but the other flowers springing up are nice in their own right. I'm waiting to see what other flowers pop up, as we don't really know what all is planted around our house. The owners prior to the people we bought it from apparently loved to garden and planted all kinds of stuff around the property.

Including whatever the hell this is.

I'm really hoping the berry bushes survive through next winter too, as I would really love to have some homegrown boysenberries to cook with and such.

I was a little dismayed to come home and find some wind damaged shingles on the roof. I had just replaced about six before I left for Hawaii, and now there's about a dozen more that need replacing. However, we are in the process of getting the roof re-done as it is, so I'll just let them deal with.

We wanted to get a standing-seam, steel roof, but insurance is covering part of it, and we need to get it done before the monsoons start, so we'll be going back with a shingle roof. However, this time the roofers will be installing architectural shingles which should hold up to the wind a lot better. I'm also wondering how extensive the replacement of the old sheathing will be, especially on the backside. Since that's the shady side, it took the heaviest loading from the snow this last winter. In order to avoid that in the future we're going to look into installing some heat ropes to help melt it away.

I should have about fifteen hours at home tomorrow, so I'll get to spend some more time with the family before they have to leave. Plus, they gave us their old lawnmower, so hopefully tomorrow the grass will be cut. Well, lawns I guess I should say, it's like fifty-fifty grass and dandelions right now.

Departure and return home

The next morning we actually slept in.

It had been the first time we slept in since Stacey had arrived, and it was nice. Most of the day was spent packing, cleaning the crew quarters, and doing laundry. We did take one break to go check out some surf shops to see if we could find some engraved carabiners I had seen a month prior, but it was to no avail.

Our flight left at nine-ten that night. We left to have dinner one more time at Dukes, again with the mango ribs and muy thais. After that it was off to the gas station to fill the jeep up before returning it. That's when I ran into a snag.

I had somehow managed to lose my ATM card. I have never lost one, and of course was more than irritated. I called Dukes to see if they had found it by chance, but when I finally got a manager on the phone, I was disappointed. Immediately Stacey phoned Visa and had them place a hold on the card. Since it had only been a couple of hours, I wasn't too worried about it, but it was a major irritant.

Once the Jeep was filled with gas (using Stacey's card), we headed over to Dollar to return the adventuremobile. That was surprisingly short, with a curbside check-in and inspection, the whole process taking maybe five minutes. In short order we were on the shuttle and at the terminal. It was six-fifty-five, and here's where the real cluster f--k began.

The shuttle dropped us off at a crosswalk that was seemingly close to where we needed to be. We crossed the street and got in line at the US Airways counter. That's when an attendant stepped up to us and asked us to place our bags on a pre-screening scale for a weight check. Our heaviest bag was forty-eight pounds, so we were ok for the fifty pound weight limit. However it was then that we were informed that we had to pass agricultural inspection before we could check in.

Imagine if you will, a row of check in counters. We were on the extreme left side. We now had to go through a crowd to get to the center of the counters to get to the agricultural inspection station. And we weren't the only ones. However, there were a bunch of people that just couldn't figure out to move to one side or another and decided to take us head on. A decision I think they came to regret when after getting tired of asking people to move every three seconds I simply started walking through them.

Once at the inspection station, I once again saw all that was retarded with Hawaii: it's simply an x-ray machine, just like the one TSA was going to use on our bag once checked in. That's right, instead of being smart and efficient, they implemented their own system for checking peoples bags for fruit and such without regard for how it could be done better.

Once our bags went though, they were tagged with a green sticker, and back we went to the checkout counter. So far, it was irritating, but not horrible. Then we got back in line.

At some point the computers at the check in desk went down. There was also a couple that was at the counter the whole time we were in line. They wound up being on our flight, and I never did find out what took them so long. So, in line we waited. And waited. And waited.

Numerous times we heard people being told they had to head to agricultural inspection before getting into the check-in line. Numerous times we heard these people say how they didn't see a sign or hear an announcement, and wondered why they hadn't been told this to begin with. And now the line was even longer making travel to the agriculture inspection station a hell of a lot harder.

Meanwhile, in the line it was getting warm. It was probably in the mid eighties, and very humid, with maybe an occasional breeze. And now there were upwards of three hundred people crammed under the overhang to check in for flights with US Airways and it's competitors. And that's when someone snapped.

I think he was German, seemed to be a very "alles-in-ordnung" type. He was at the front of the line when the attendant told him he needed to go to the agricultural inspection station. And he flipped. He started screaming at the attendant, wondering why he hadn't been alerted to this before. She, of course, took offense to this and got her supervisor. This guy then proceeded to tear her a new hole like he was some kind of over-eager proctologist. Finally he left for the station, and we could hear him the whole way down there. What we didn't hear was that sneaky bastard slipping back in front of the line to check in.

After forty minutes we had moved a whole ten feet forward in line. We had at least another ten feet to go. Then just as the line started to move again, the first class people decided they were ready to check in, and stepped into the priority line, and of course got to check in ahead of us. Now, I know they paid for the privilege of checking in early. But when you're being eyeballed by two-hundred other irritated passengers who have been waiting almost an hour to check in, and knowing that the only thing holding them back from a full on riot and shanking your ass first is a single guy with a firearm and not enough ammo...well, that's gotta be just damned unsettling. Hope it was worth it.

Finally, after almost an hour, we got to the check-in counter. We were hoping to get seats together, but alas, it just wasn't happening. On the plus side Stacey's seat was only two rows and directly ahead of mine. Then came the next big pain in the ass - dropping our luggage off.

We now had to walk all the way past the agriculture station, towards the other end of the terminal to drop off our checked bags for loading and TSA. Of course we had the same problem once again; people who can't figure out to move. Added to this were the special needs passengers who can't figure out how to make a roll-along bag and an additional piece of luggage convey with out looking like they just stepped straight off the short bus. I found once again that asking and being polite wasn't working, but making eye contact, raising eyebrows, keeping a low shoulder, and maintaining momentum did.

Once the bags were dropped it was back to the center of the terminal to clear TSA. I have to say, of all the airports I've been to and had to airline from, Hawaii has the best TSA agents and facilites. They, beleive it or not, were the easiest part of getting to our gate.

Finally, between check-in, bag drop, and TSA we were at the gate, an hour-and-a-half after we had arrived. On the plus side, this meant we only had to wait like fifteen minutes before boarding the US Airways 757-200. Once aboard Stacey and I settled in, and after another forty minutes of waiting, the plane finally pushed back and departed.

Never were we offered anything in compensation for the cluster f--k that was their (US Airways) responsibility. Stacey and I agreed from now on, we'll fly Hawaiian, even if it means added cost. We'll have to route through Honolulu, but the service is so much better, and the amenities superfluous when compared to any other US based airline. Oh, and we'll avoid US Airways like the plague.

I woke up about five hours into the flight, just about the time the sun was coming up.

Nothing like picking up four hours to screw with your head.

I don't know if it's a standard 757 thing, or if we were just fast the whole time, but the spoilers were out for almost the entire descent.

That means they're working.

Once on the ground, we got our bags fairly quickly, got to the economy lot and paid to get our cars out. For me, it was two-hundred-ninety-seven dollars. That's five weeks my car was in there. Thank goodness I get reimbursed for it.

Right where I left you...

We stopped in Flagstaff at Cracker Barrel to have breakfast with my mom and company, and relieve them of the kids. Then we were on to the last stretch of the trip home. This turned out to be the most depressing.

We managed to come back to a full on resicane - high winds, dust, and generally miserable. At times the visibility was down below a half mile from the dust. Even worse is the thought that it's just floating dirt.

It's nature's dermabrasion!

Of course, in some spots there was no blowing dust, mostly cause there isn't anything there at all. There are some places where the word desolate is a understatement, where stretches are devoid of all life.

Seriously, there isn't shit there - click on the picture to enlarge it if you don't beleive me. This is the exact, polar opposite of Kauai.

Finally, about seventeen hours since we dropped the adventuremobile off, we were home. The whole property looked far different than when I left it. But I'll leave that for my next post, when I cover the property and everything else up to that current point.

These Hawaii blogs have been fun to post, but tedious as hell. However, it was totally worth disappearing for four days to decompress and just chill out in paradise.

Totally...

...Freaking...

...Worth...

...It.

Totally.

The last full day

We once again woke up early on the last full day we had.

We had to check in with Ali'i Kayaks at eight thirty, and just as we got there, a could burst opened up on us. Stacey got a little video from the very end just as it let up.



After check-in, we placed our belongings in a dry-bag, and it was time to put in and start paddling up the Wailua.

Someone* decided to take a picture instead of paddling. Love how it looks like I'm about to dial her in.

*Stacey

Our guide was pretty informative - apparently the Wailua valley was kapu, or forbidden. If you were caught in the area and not ali'i (highest rank of Hawaiian society) you would be put to death.

The western marker of the kapu area.

The eastern marker, also known as The Sleeping Giant (this is his head; high point is the nose, chin to the right, eybrow and forehead to the left, respectively).

The whole kapu system of laws, which include some real zingers, were eventually abolished, but their mark still lives on, with signs reading "Kapu!" if you're not supposed to do something (like trespass, defacing monuments, etc).

The paddle up the river was scenic, with the mountains and such in the background, and several large bushes that had black-and-yellow flowers on them.

One of the many, many flowers on the river bank.

After about forty minutes of paddling we hit the beaching site and started the hike towards the islands interior.

The beaching point.

The hike was mostly easy. There were a few rough spots, but nothing that was insanely challenging or tricky.

Stacey photobombing me on the trail.

The hardest part of the hike I think was probably fording the Wailua river. It was just about waist deep, but moving swiftly.

To be fair, it's only waist deep in the center...where it's also the fastest moving.

Down river from the fording point was a debris pile probably twenty feet high - from the last time the Wailua went all insane with a flash flood. I asked Stacey to get a picture, but was met with disdain and the look for vocalizing my artistic direction.

But she still took the picture!

Once across, we continued inland for maybe ten minutes.

Me, our dry bag, and my trusty PVC hiking pole...that I almost snapped in two on a slip.

Saw some cool sights as we went, and even passed the site of an old ali'i villiage, as evidenced by the numerous lava-rock foundations scattered around the site. There was also a peculiar rock that seemed out of place. Apparently, under it's moss was a glyph alerting any who passed that they were entering a kapu area.

The ali'i village/kapu marker stone.

Just up the trail from the village was the terminating point of the trail; Secret Falls. At the bottom of the falls is a small pool that is just deep enough for swimming. And the water was cold, coming down from on high, the wettest spot in the world. It was a little odd, after swimming in the ocean for two days, to be in fresh water and not have salty jerky-lips.

Shrinkage!

The falls are strikingly tall, and to get perspective I had to back up to the very back of the accessible area, probably around four hundred feet or so. Otherwise all I could get was bits and pieces of it.

Even then I couldn't get the whole pool in with it (we figured it was about one-hundred-twenty feet tall).

After swimming and hanging around for a bit, It was time for the hike back. It was mostly along the same trail with one minor deviation. Along that deviation we saw two things of interest; a walking tree and a parasitical umbrella tree.

The walking tree apparently gets it's name from it's roots. Mature trees will send out a new root towards their water source. When it sprouts the new root, it will break off a root in the opposite direction, thus it "walks" to it's water source.

To be honest, the new roots look like the tree is just well endowed.

The parasitical umbrella tree was interesting, as it was a tree growing out of another tree. Somehow it managed take root in a fairly large limb of an older tree and just decided it would live there. According to our guide that's something that is seen fairly often on Kauai.

The Hawaiian parasitic umbrella tree.

We also saw evidence, that indeed, the damn chickens are everywhere on Kauai.

Even deep in the jungle.

From there it was back across the river, which thankfully had gone down while we were at the waterfall instead if rising. (Remember, the Wailua changes drastically with rainfall.)

Coming back it was only hip-deep (pictured is our shoeless guide, Rick).

Then back to the kayaks, and downriver we went. At the meeting point where we assembled prior to heading back into the loading ramp, we saw what was probably the most colorful spider of the trip. Also, the couple next to us capsized their canoe, but we didn't get any pictures of that.

A cross spider on the riverbank.

After the kayak tour, we went home and showered, and headed back out to check out the Kauai museum. The museum was pretty cool, they had two parts; a natural history section, with some awesome artifacts (like a four-hundred year old feather-cape for starters). The other part was a more modern history exhibit, with artifacts and photgrpahs from the plantation days, artifacts from the first Asian immigrants, a whole collection of Ni'ihau shell leis (that Stacey and I estimated to be worth like three hundred thousand dollars), etc. The shell leis and their story were most impressive; Apparently not a whole lot of flowers grow on Ni'ihau (the Forbidden Island), at least not enough to make leis from. Instead, because of the currents, the locals are able to go hang out in the surf and collect all manner of shells. They then hand-drill and -string the shells together into a lei. They are considered the finest of all Hawaiian leis, with Hawaiian royalty often seen wearing them in numerous photos. Their price seems to support this: we saw "cheap" examples for around five hundred dollars, and even a few worth twenty-five thousand dollars. I think the median was probably around five thousand dollars. (This is what we used to estimate the shell leigh collections monetary value, though we were probably off (low) a fair amount.)

However, the Kauai museum had one massive flaw that really left me in a mood: no pictures. For what ever reason, they confiscate cameras and cellphones with cameras at the door. The only two pictures of the entire museum venture was of an old steam plough out front, and its associated signage.

The steam engine...

...and the aforementioned associated signage.

To try make up for it, I got a picture of the monument that was given by the Japanese as a gift (in, I think, the sixties) that sits across from the museum.

It's cool, but no consolation when compared to hundreds, nigh thousands of years of tangible history just out of pictorial reach.

After that it was back to the crew house for a dinner of pineapple, papaya, more kalua pork, and some smoked marlin. We also started laundry since we'd be leaving the next day. While talking with one of our flight nurses, we finally learned the actual name of Turtle Beach; Brennecke Beach.

The property owners papaya tree.

The end of the day kinda snuck up on us; we had been doing laundry and such when we sat down on the couch to take a break. It was a few hours before we awoke and got back up, and even then it was just to go to bed.