I know its been a long time for any posts from me and a lot has happened. We did not go to Mexico last winter as another one of our friends that lives in San Blas died.
We decided to go to Hawaii instead. We went to the big island, Hawaii in November. We stayed at a apt in Kona until Feb, then we moved to our new home in Ocean View Hawaii.
We have a great view of the ocean, a real nice two bedroom house and 3 acres of lava.
We did go back to our home in Oregon in June. The man that was taking care of our home in Oregon had died and our renter had moved out without telling us he was moving. He left us with a real mess to clean up.
We are back in Hawaii, loving the warmth and our new friends.

Living furgal in mexico and the US, wow, what can I say, trying to live furgal in Hawaii. We bought a 3 acre lot and home in Ocean View Hawaii. Life has changed, will post more later.

January 8, 2012

I know it’s been a month since my last post. I can’t say I haven’t had the time, just being lazy.

A day here in Kona starts with the school bus stopping in front of our apt to pick up two grade school boys at 6:45AM. Then at 7:00 the divers and their boat leaves to take tourists out for a day of diving. There have been only 4 days since we have been here that they haven’t taken the boat out.

Then we decide what we are going to do for the day. It all depends on the weather. A day with no wind, no high surf and no box jelly fish means it’s a good day for the beach. We have learned that on the weekends the beaches are really full, if we want to go then it’s best to go early.

Larry likes to look for coral that with a little grinding he can make it look like animals.  

If it’s not a good beach day then it’s the public swimming pool. It’s free and most of the time very few people are there.

On the way back from the beach or the pool, if we need, we stop at the Love’s bread store for day old bread. Costco for a drink call POG, limes and anything else we might need. A hot dog for lunch is good, for $1.50 plus drink. Next is a stop at Walmart for milk. Milk from Walmart tastes better than Costco’s.

The school bus returns the boys around 2:00; the middle and high school students don’t ride the bus and walk back home around 3. The boat returns home between 1 and 3.

We have 7 different types of geckos here. I have seen 3 different ones. The one we see the most are called Gold Dust. They are bright green, with red splotches and have a bright blue around the eyes. They are called Gold Dust because it looks like they have a light dusting of gold dust on the front half of their body.

One or two of them have learned they can come in the apt when the screen door is left open. We have learned how to herd them back outside.

We have been going to as many different beaches to see which one we like best. We haven’t visited all of them yet.

We went south to look at a house for rent in Ocean View. The owner was a very nice lady.  The house was very small and we felt she wanted too much rent for it. It was also unfurnished, we would have had to either buy or rent furniture which would have been an expense we didn’t want. We also felt that the house was too close to her house and she had 3 big dogs.

We made another trip to Ocean View last week to look at a house that was for sale. We also looked at a house that had just been taken off the market. The first house needed to much work to get it even livable. We really liked the second house but it was now in escrow.

We are planning another trip to Ocean View this week to look at another house.     

December 7, 2011

We drove to the city of refuge or Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau.

We had planned on going swimming there but the beach was rocky and we were tired from all the walking we had done.

We stopped at the Kona Pacific Farmers Co-op and took a tour of the fruit garden. We also stopped at the Macnut nut factory to get some nuts but they didn’t have any seconds for sale.

  

December 1, 2011

We had a good Thanksgiving meal. Larry had bought a ham and got the 19 pound turkey for $3.50. We will be eating ham and turkey for a while.

As I had said we made an offer on the car and bought it this last Saturday, $1250.00. We had to wait until Monday before we could take it anywhere as that is when we bought insurance for it, $220.00.

We went to the beach by the old airport but it was too rocky for swimming. We did wade in the tide pools. We were surprised by a snowflake eel, which looked like a sea snake. Only I knew it wasn’t a sea snake as I had watched news cast the night before, they had showed what the eel looks like and had said that sea snakes are rare here in Hawaii.

We did make it to the pool for another great swim. They now have hot showers to use.

We went to a beach that we had visited before but it is now a state park so there have been a lot of changes and improvements to it. While it was not good for snorkeling at this time, we did see about 8 green sea turtles very close to the edge of the water.

There has been a high surf advisory all of this last week and there are surfing contests going on, on Oahu, that could have been why the snorkeling was not good at this beach.

On the 3^rd of Dec we had planned to go to the beach but the day was cool, no sun, as we think the vog, from the lava flow was real thick. We couldn’t smell any sulfur but we decided to stay home.

On the 4^th we went to a new to us beach. There were a lot of people going to this beach but the road to it was not an improved road.  It went over a lava field and was very rough. We never went above 5 mph for most of the drive. While it was a nice beach Larry said not that many fish to see, I don’t think we will go to this one again.

Looking northeast from our lanai, on a clear day, we don't see this very often as the clouds or vog covers it up most of the time

We have recivered word that our friends that go to San Blas are leaving and may not return. I understand why they feel the way they do. We miss San Blas, Mexico, I think they will too. We have a lot of good friends there.

Sunset from our lanai

 Larry in the pool

 Waiting for the bus

Snorkling

Wednesday November 23, 2011

Sunday the 20^th Larry learned that the bike repair shop opened at 9:30, he decided to walk down Kaahumanu Hwy, to the shop. It was closer going that way, up Aloha Kona Dr to the Hwy instead of down Aloha Kona to Kuakini Hwy then back up to Kaahumanu Hwy. I had decided to walk to Walmart. I went down the hill to Kuakini, then 3 blocks to Henry, back up the hill were I crossed Kaahumanu, one more block and I was at Walmart. Larry was crossing Henry as I was crossing Kaahumanu. He told me later that he had stopped at least three times along the way. I had made no stops so it would have be shorter and faster to go the way Larry did.

I did my shopping and decided to walk back the way Larry had walked. It was a lot easier to go that way as there were no big hills to walk up.

I was back to the apt before Larry was and had started to worry about him when he showed up. The bike shop didn’t open until after 10:30. He had to buy a new chain for his bike, $15.00 but he is mobile again.

Monday the 21^st a day of rest, we had some rain in the afternoon.

Tuesday the 22^nd we decided to go to the beach. We are still having a time understanding the bus schedule. We wanted to go to Kahaluu Beach Park, down Alii drive. The first bus driver said he didn’t go there (We think he did) so we waited another 30 or so minutes for another bus.  

Larry went out snorkeling first then it was my turn. There was a lady standing in the water telling people were they could walk so not to disturb the coral and not to step on the slippery rocks.  The water was not cold but cool. I did get in faster than I thought I would. Larry said I was taking so long he thought I might not go in.

The fish are so colorful, and so many of them. I even swam along with a turtle for a little while. I will try to get an underwater camera for pictures.

Larry went in again while I was drying off. When he came back and we were looking at the bus schedule I saw the bus going north which is the way we needed to go. We thought it would be an hour and half before the next one came.

I stopped to talk with one of the volunteers to ask what one of the fish I had seen was called. They had a lot of books to help identify the many different fish. His name was Dan and he was very helpful with more information than just about the fish. While he didn’t know the bus schedule, he did tell us of some good places to go to eat.

When we told him we were planning on staying for several months he asked if we were looking for a car. One of his neighbors had one for sale. 

We were waiting for the bus when Dan and his wife Colleen (the lady that had been standing in the water) stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride back to Kona town.

We stopped and looked at the car that was for sale. In fact we took it for a drive and made an offer for it.      

Today we rode the bus to Walmart. We waited for 45 minutes for the bus to Walmart. It took about 45 minutes to get to Walmart. We had a half hour to shop before the bus was to be back, we could have taken our time as it was at least an hour. The ride back to Ali Drive took almost two hours.

I was about five 4 1/2 blocks from our place when a lady took pity on me and stopped to give me a ride the rest of the way up the hill.

Saturday November 19, 2011

Last Saturday I decided to walk to white sands beach. Larry wanted to ride his bike around to learn more of how to get to different places and to look for a fish market.

I did not realize that the beach I wanted to go to was 4 miles away. Half way back I caught the trolley for $2.00. The bus is $1.00 but I had not seen one for a long time and was willing to pay the extra dollar for the ride. I still had the hill to climb to get to our place as no bus goes up that street. Just as I came to the end of the sidewalk a man stopped his car and asked if I needed a ride. While I had only 3 blocks to go I took the ride. He said I really looked like I needed it.

Monday the 14^th I walked to a shopping mall that was not too far away. I got some condiments that we needed for making sandwiches. I also bought some things for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Tuesday the 15 we again set out to go to a beach. As Larry rode across a busy street the chain fell off his bike. I had seen a place where they rent bicycles and thought they might have a repair shop there. They didn’t but told us where there was one. Just down this street to the 4 way stop signs take a right to the stop lights then another right and 3 driveways to the shop. Yea right, she didn’t tell us how many blocks between the stop signs and stop lights, another forced march. Oh I could have stopped and waited anyplace along the way but I wanted to see how to get to different places.

Wednesday the 16^th we meant one of our neighbors. Her name is Nina and she lives across the hall. She has a car and was telling us of some places we may be interested in going to.

Thursday the 17^th Nina took us to the free public swimming pool. Then to Walmart so we could get some things we needed that were too big to carry home on the bike or in our daypacks.

Friday the 18^th Nina took us to a beach that we could snorkel at. I will need to find a bus that goes out that way if we don’t have Nina or a car.

Saturday the 19^th I walked down to the farmers market, Larry rode his bike. He locked it up and we caught the bus headed south. The bus driver was upset that we stopped him were we did but I told him we didn’t know where the bus stop was.  Then when we said we were seniors he said what-ever, we didn’t have to pay the dollar for passage. We found a beach that we can go to on the bus and where we can catch it without the driver getting upset with us.

On our way back home I left before Larry did and got home before he did. I was really surprised that he didn’t catch up with me. But when I saw him walking his bike up the hill I knew his chain had broken again.

One of the Geiko's that lives on our lania.