made it to Hawaii!

Here we are on Oahu in Hawaii. We have an apartment in the town of Kailua, on the southeast coast. Kailua has a beautiful beach, great for boogie-boarding, which seems to be a huge thing in Hawaii. Here's Tony, joyous about getting into the water at Kailua beach

this past week was a pretty busy work week, as Tony gave a talk at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu on Wednesday - here he is on campus, reviewing his notes for the performance!

After Tony's talk, the group at the university took us to dinner at the Outrigger Canoe Club, a private club in Honolulu, near Waikiki - it was right on the water and gorgeous - Carolyn was happy to be a privileged "guest"

on Saturday we took some time to drive a little up the east coast to find this island...

recognize it through the mist? it is Gilligan's Island, the island that was shown at the end of the opening sequence for the TV show - the two tall palm trees in the middle of the island are still standing after all these years! (the island now houses a marine research station)
Sunday morning, we did a tour of the southern tip of Oahu to Diamond Head. As you can imagine, water sports figure prominently. Here are some outrigger canoes being readied for a Sunday morning race.

the scenery along the southern coast was very dramatic!

we went on a short hike, trying to get to lighthouse near here - here is a scenic view from part way up

but, it got a little "precipitous"

so we turned back! but the views were great while it lasted...

Further along the coast was "Sandy Beach", which is suppsoed to be the most dangerous beach on the island. Needless to say, although many locals were boydboarding and surfing the waves, we declined.

after forgoing the dangerous activities, we decided we were prepared to do the hike up Diamond Head crater

we're glad we were "ready to climb"; the view of honolulu from the top was amazing

the view of the big bald men from the top was amazing too!

and this is a telephoto shot of the Diamond Head lighthouse at the bottom of the crater

and that was our first weekend in Hawaii!
hope all is well with everyone!

Carpinteria, sad to see you go

We are sad to see the end of Carpinteria, a lovely mix of elements (i.e., a beautiful beach, wonderful scenary, peacefulness, close to all amenities, and lovely weather) that made it a great place to live and work. 

Here is a another view (of the mountains in the distance) of our condo. We are the unit with the colourful umbrella.

Superhero Carolyn, along with her blue cape, ready to ride the waves

Ta da!

A couple of weeks ago, we took a hike in the hills near Santa Barbara

A rattle snake on the path in hills.  Just a baby one, but decided it was best not to pick it up for a cuddle.   

Flowers in bloom on the path in the hills

  A coastal walk with our friends Bill and Bruce, who visited us last week

A beautiful lake in the wine region (Santa Ynez) around Santa Barbara. Oh, the wine is nice too.

We took a trip with Bill and Bruce to the Getty Art Museum in LA.  The grounds and view of the city are amazing.  Oh, the art is nice too.

So long, Carp. You were good to us.  Off to Hawaii!

Carpinteria

We have settled into our Carpinteria condo, and we have been productive.  This is our patio (hey you: stop looking at the view, and get back to work!)

Carpinteria is known for its beach, and Carolyn has been taking full advantage of it.

Do you believe Carolyn has had only one lesson!

 Tony is more modest in his surfing adventure, using the boogie board to ride waves.

Some beautiful golf courses are nearby.  This one is called Sandpiper.

But there are additional hazards to retrieving one's ball from the rough, at least relative to Ontario.

We have bicycles at the condo, and we roam far and wide, as Carpinteria and region is bicycle friendly.

One easily accessible area via bicycle is a beach where harbour seals lounge.

More later!

Palm Springs

The pool and view at our "retro" hotel in palm springs. We felt at one with Frank and Deano, both of whom made this town in the 60s (yea, baby!). Of course, there were pictures of them on the wall.   

Speaking of retro... a diner on the main drag in palm springs.

Hanging with the locals in swinging palm springs...

Speaking of swinging...there are over 100 golf course in palm springs, which may seem a bit extravagant (even to this golfer) given this is a desert.  But, yes, I still played. I parred this tough island green hole on a famous course, the TPC stadium course at PGA west.  

 Is this Palm Springs???? Well, sort of.  On a mountain far above the town.  Mount San Jacinto.  We missed the snow so much, we couldn't resist revisiting the stuff.  

Besides, the view was great from above.  One can understand this cool mountain destination is a routine escape for palm springers during their summer, when the temperture routinely exceeds 100 F. 

No, we did not hike up the moutain, although we were tempted.  We wimped out and took the cable car (you can see the cables and one of the supporting towers in this picture). 

Now, off to Carpinteria!

Joshua Tree National Park

we woke up in Palm Springs this morning; not a surprise since we have been here since Sunday night.
Here are some pictures from Joshua Tree National Park, where we spent Friday night to Sunday night....

Here are some pictures of the Joshua Trees - they dot the landscape, and there is not much else!

and more close up....

we camped there, which was an adventure - while it was very pleasant (about 18-20) during the day, it was close to freezing at night - we wore all of the ski clothes we brought with us. and you couldn't get pegs in the ground, and one night it was very windy so we had to get up in the middle of the night and find more rocks (luckily there are lots of those!) to help keep the tent stable. here is our site...

in the park, you can overlook the San Andreas fault, which kind of makes you think of where exactly what you are standing on.....

The Joshua trees are in the north of the park, in the higher elevations. In the south there are other kinds of strange cactus plants, like cholla...

and ocotillo...

and some more traditional cactus...

we pondered this sign for quite some time.....

then I asked a ranger at the visitor centre, who told me that a "wash" is a dried up river bed, and "fried liver" is just the what they chose to name this one; why? we will never know...


We did a couple of hikes in the park, one up to about 5800 ft for a great view of the desert

and another down into a canyon where there was a palm oasis

Outside of the park, in the same general area of the state, and in middle of nowhere is Pioneertown, built as a movie set for Westerns in 1947 (I think they still use it now and again for filming). One of the things they filmed here was the Cisco Kid TV series (that bit of trivia is for Mom!), and several Roy Rodgers movies; in fact there is a bowling alley there that was built for him because he spent so much time at this location
Here's a shot of the town.

that's it for now...!