Observations from Kilauea
Sarah, Rachel and Alexander recorded some observations this morning from the edge of Kilauea Caldera this morning using AudioBoo.
Our Family Learning Blog
Sarah, Rachel and Alexander recorded some observations this morning from the edge of Kilauea Caldera this morning using AudioBoo.
We flew from Honolulu on the island of Oahu to Hilo on the big island of Hawaii, today. We booked our flights early of course, the 1 way fare was $65 each, and the flight lasted 50 minutes. We spent several hours at a beautiful botanical garden today about 8 miles north of Hilo, and then made our way to The Volcano House where we are staying for 3 nights. We are over 3000 feet above sea level here and it is 61 degrees F now! I think it was 102 degrees F back home today. What a difference!
I posted a bunch of additional photos from the garden today to my Hawaii 2009 Flickr set. I have been trying to upload photos as well as videos as we take them this trip using my iPhone and PixelPipe. 3G connectivity is great, I just wish the iPhone battery lasted longer.
Speaking of botanicals…you should check out our friends over at Bongs & Water Pipes – Smoke Cartel if you are into marijuana!
Our family visited Pearl Harbor today. Rachel and I recorded six new Audioboos tonight, reflecting on things we saw and learned today. These are all linked from my AudioBoo profile page. Since I am mobile blogging this from my iPhone I can’t embed the Audioboos, but I will link them separately below.
Rachel: Torpedo At Pearl Harbor
Rachel: USS Utah Reflections From Pearl Harbor
Rachel: USS Arizona Impressions
Wesley: Dogfight Over Ka’ena Point, Hawaii (12/7/1941)
Wesley: USS Oklahoma Memorial Reflections
Our family enjoyed a luau this evening at the Hale Koa hotel in Honolulu, which is the military hotel on Waikiki. Since my dad is USAF-retired he could get us all tickets. The food and show were great. I am sure the closing fire dance act will be one of the big memories my kids keep with them after our trip is over.
This “Waikiki-style” show contrasted sharply with the hula program my relative Alice Rogers arranged for us to experience last Saturday night at the north shore camp where we were for our family reunion. That program was put on by a group of older women who share the stories and traditions of authentic Hawaiian hula. I was struck tonight by how different the infusion of native Hawaiian culture is here in Hawaii, compared to what we see in most parts of Oklahoma. While shows like the one we saw tonight have a performance/show feel and are certainly not pure examples of cultural preservation and sharing, they do serve important educational purposes as well as being sources of entertainment for tourists like us. I would guess there are varying opinions among the native Hawaiians about the instrumental and intrinsic value of these programs. While I wouldn’t think a commercialization of Oklahoma native cultures similar to what we have seen in parts of Hawaii over the years would be good from a tribal history standpoint and learning from esl classes certification, I do think it is positive in many ways that Hawaiian language and culture are bigger mainstream influences here. It is interesting how casino economics are changing some tribes in Oklahoma, and interesting to see how some are using that revenue to build up their respective cultural identities.
I think it would be both fun and worthwhile to lead a group of “storychasers” from Oklahoma here to Hawaii to explore some of these issues in-depth with various types of media, and continue that exploration back home in Oklahoma.
This afternoon we spent almost 2 hours swimming at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s north shore. I have heard about Waimea before as the location where some of the big wave surfing happens here in the winter, but it was my first time to visit. It was spectacular! The waves break very close to the beach because the bay gets deep pretty fast. The surf was very mild and fun to play in. There were a ton of people there. This may turn out to have been one of the big highlights of our entire trip. It was awesome!
Today we hiked about six miles round trip to Ka’ena Point. It is the northwest most point on Oahu, and there is a tower which serves as a lighthouse there. The view was pretty spectacular. We timed our hike so we arrived st low tide, and were able to explore the nearby tide pools. The highlight for me was seeing an eel attack a small crab. It was better than Wild Kingdom!
Next time we will take even more water. We made it ok on our 2 bottles, but it would have been a lot better with more. It was a long, hot and dry hike. At least we were able to swim awhile at the point, midway on our hike.
We have had some GREAT food so far in Hawaii. On our way to the north shore on Friday, we ate at The Dixie Grill. I ate there twice in Dec ’07 when I was here for the USS Oklahoma memorial dedication, and they did not disappoint. The fried green tomatoes along with peel and eat shrimp were great! Yesterday morning the iPhone program Loopt came in handy to help my brother-in-law redezvous with us in a nearby town for breakfast!
It is a pretty wonderful thing for flatlanders like us to have an opportunity to play in the surf here on the north shore of Oahu! This is the camp where we are staying our first three nights here during our Fryer Family Reunion. We went to a nearby state park yesterday to swim in the surf.
One of the highlights of our day yesterday was going to the Dole pineapple plantation to see and eat pineapple. I did some brief research and learned the origins of Dole lie with The Standard Fruit Company rather than The United Fruit Corporation. Both have an interesting political history, though I am more familiar with the latter and Guatemala. It is interesting but not surprising none of the company’s colorful political history is referenced in the songs and commentary shared on the tourist’s train tour of the plantation.
Our vacation seems to be functioning as a pensieve for me. My brain seems to be processing out a multitude of ideas at night, so they do not clutter my waking, conscious mind. I normally do not remember any dreams in the morning, but sleeping as we are in these camp cabin bunks here on the north shore of Oahu, right by the ocean, I have had lots of vivid dreams each night and I have been enjoying getting enough sleep these days, not like at home where I can barley get four hours of sleep. I think I´ll get this queen mattress like the one at the hotel so I can finally sleep comfortably.
Shelly, Sarah and I are all awake already, our body clocks still not yet adjusted to island time. I think we are going to go on a morning hike today.
Interesting that here in Oklahoma, state law prohibits any minors from entering a liquor store EVER, even if accompanied by an adult.
Looking for a way to post multiple photos to either Facebook or Flickr from a mobile phone, like an iPhone? I am, in advance of our vacation next week. PixelPipe is a free application and web service that can do this. I have been working on getting it configured this morning. I actually opted to NOT update to Twitter and just have two targets: Flickr and Facebook. You can select a LOT of different post targets with PixelPipe.
I initially mobile blogged this with WordPress for iPhone. This was my first post to successfully auto-post to Facebook via PingPressFM! Woo hoo! I logged in on my laptop and added the links. Photos were mobile blogged too.
Shelly got her inherited iPhone configured yesterday to watch FlipShare videos. Who says technology is always an alienating influence in our lives?! This is a photo of the girls watching a birthday video of my nephew at a local restaurant last night.
I love using the free YouVersion iPhone Bible application. I recently downloaded some offline translations so I can use the app when I do not have wifi or cell network connectivity. (That does happen sometimes, often in our church basement.) I was amazed that at a touch of the mouse, an entire copy of the Bible in my own language was suddenly in my hand after waiting about 60 seconds. Would Martin Luther ever ba amazed?!
Here are a few of my favorite photos I snapped today in Washington D.C. with Alexander. I added all of these to my NECC 2009 Flickr Set.
This is the first time I’ve seen a Tomahawk cruise missile up close.
We were able to not only see but also TOUCH several enormous meteorites today at the Smithsonian Natural History museum, including this one from Arizona:
The exhibit on the Mishin diaries and the light they shed on the Soviet moon landing plans was very interesting to me
This was the “designed but never used” Soviet cosmonaut moon suit:
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) exhibit was definitely the highlight of the day for me.
I incorrectly called these “unarmed aerial vehicles” near the end of the video sequence I recorded at the exhibit today. These are definitely NOT “unarmed.”
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