Happy Saturday!

Yes I've been slacking on the updates once again. This one will include several items.

My birthday came and went on January 12th, as usual. They gave me the day off from work, which gave me some time to just tool around the property. I took some photos of the retreat, which included several signs that Kana posted wishing me a happy birthday. They've been added to my "Kalani Miscellaneous" page. I've also added a few pics to my "Kalani People" page.

On Friday the 14th we took a group trip to Makalawena Beach on the Kona side of the island. It's a beautiful, secluded white sand beach. Lots of sunshine. Warm, clear water. Whales breaching in the distance. All in all a pretty good day, despite the fact that my supposedly waterproof camera crapped out on me after apparently developing a small leak. I bought a cheapo replacement the next day to tide me over while awaiting resolution with Pentax. So far it has treated me fairly well, and it did not leak when I took it snorkeling. Pics from the day are here.

 

On the 18th I drove Kana to Kona opposite side of the island) to pick up her friend Jason from the airport. As usual, it turned into a bit of an adventure. Two of us, driving to pick up a third, turned into four of us dropping off one and then picking up another, reacquiring the one we dropped off, going snorkeling, buying a bike, meeting up with two more, having beers and appetizers at Kona Brewing Company followed by sushi, then dropping off two and driving back to Kalani as three. Quite a day. Pics are here.

Yesterday (Friday the 21st) some of us went to Akaka Falls State Park. In order to skip the entry fee and get closer to the falls, we followed some verbal directions that resulted in us hacking our way through the forest for a couple of hours. Of course, we never made it to the top of the falls, but we exited the forest onto the paved state park path, thus avoiding the $1 per person fee. Pictures will be posted later.