Two Camels Walk Into a Bar...

The result of staying up too late and giggling too much with your spouse:

Two camels walk into a bar. The first camel asks the bartender for a drink. The bartender says, "we don't serve your kind here." The second camel asks the bartender for a drink. The bartender says, "Didn't you hear what I just told your friend? We don't serve camels." The camel replies, "I didn't order a camel, I ordered a drink."

Winskye wit at its finest.

Happy Thoughts

I thought I'd share a few things I've seen recently that make me happy. Please pass these on to others who may get a smile out of them.

A great web comic: A Softer World


Need some new art in your life? Check out the wonderful work of Spencer Meyers. Florida people, go support! He's in Tampa. Not in Florida? No worries, check out his Etsy Shop.


Remember my rant about libraries? Check out this cool photo project.


Want stuff to read? Check out blogs by friends:
A Christmas Tree in Asia
A Man with Tea


For the sentimental people out there: Moment Junkie

A couple of fun Star Wars themed videos I've seen lately:






And we'll finish with a classic: Carol Burnette

Shaw and Kris part 2!

The wedding photos are finally available. Shawn has proven once again that he's prettier than me, but I don't hold it against him since it was his wedding. Photographers were Alicia and Harlan of SoHo Images, based in Tampa, FL. Hire them! They are the nicest people EVER!

I think I will let the photos speak for themselves. There are way too many to post, but these are my favorites. Check out the link at the end of this post if you want to see them all.

See the rest plus some that the family took and added, here.

Moanalua Valley Trail

Or the Kulana'Ahane Trail, if you want to get fancy, which the Hawaiian Government did, several years ago when they decided this trail needed a name. It was my favorite hike we've done so far, because of the many different terrains that you traverse on this one hike.

I've unofficially become the hike planner, or stage manager of hikes, so I've been looking around a lot for new hikes of varying lengths and difficulties. We wanted something interesting that was an all day hike, so I chose this one. It actually would have been all day if we'd explored everything there was to explore, but my knee decided to give up on me around lunch time, so we headed back without reaching the waterfall or the summit. As it is, we hiked for about 5 1/2 hours. A six hour round trip with our lunch break and a couple of short rests for my knee to recover. I guess we'll just have to go back!

The hike starts with an old cobblestone road that leads to the remains of the historic Damon House. For a history lesson, read more here. After about 1 1/2 hours you reach the trail head, and then it is up and over, around, through mud, under trees, leaping across rocks, walking through the stream bed, and scrambling through forest and jungle. Not bad for a day's work. On our way back, Cher discovered a scorpion in our path that I had apparently blissfully stepped over, oblivious to its scorpion-ness a few seconds before. Joe would not let me go back to look at it, so I have no photo and no proof it existed. I did see a really cool worm, though, so I'll share a picture of that instead.

Part of the old Damon Estate

Lots of places where we had to go either under or through the trees.

Joe conquering the Damon steps...what's left of them, anyway

The path

Many bridges cross the old road. You can take the high road...

...or the low road

When I described it to my 4th graders they called it a hammer head worm. Turns out they were right!

Next time I'm climbing out to that rock

Where we ate lunch before heading back

The Joys of Midday Dessert

A week ago I had the pleasure of having lunch with my friend, Yvette (Hi, Yvette!). We ate at the Hawaii State Museum of Art . Their cafe is delightful, and the museum is always free to the public, though we didn't stay to see it. That will be another trip for another time. We were on a dessert mission.

After lunch we headed back to my neck of the woods and walked down to a cute little French pastry cafe that Joe and I have been eying but hadn't tried yet: JJ's Bistro

The pastry case is full of sinful and delightful items to torture yourself with. I guess I'll just have to keep coming back to try new things!

Yvette making her final choice

I chose mocha cheesecake

We each had different coffee cups with cute saucers

Yvette got the rum walnut tart

Individual pastries range from $1.50 for small items like cream puffs up to $5.50 for fancier fare. Tarts and cheesecakes were about $3.75 each. Coffee was cheap and refillable. All in all, a delightful experience. I will definitely be going back to indulge my sweet tooth.

A Post about a Cat and a Jet Pack

At the end of my second class today, a class entirely of students moving from 2nd to 3rd grade, one student could not contain her excitement to share a story with me. Let's call her Rocket Girl. I ended the session, as I usually do, by asking the students to sit down, "bottoms on the floor, bodies facing me," and to take a deep breath. Rocket Girl's hand shoots into the air, wiggling, "Miss Lani!"

I ask the the class to let out the breath and whisper to her to put her hand down. We take a second breath, her hand goes up again. We let it out. Rocket Girl is wiggling uncontrollably with excitement. I finish my post-class ritual by asking the students to turn and face their teachers and not to move until their teachers give them instructions.

Rocket Girl immediately turns back to me, hand desperately in the air. I once again, gently, ask her to turn back to her teacher and wait to tell her story until another time. As students are dismissed one at a time to line up for lunch, Rocket Girl is one of the last to be called, the yearning in her little heart to get this story out making it impossible for her to sit still. When she is finally called by her teacher to stand up, I call her over.

"Rocket Girl," I call, beckoning her over. "What did you want to tell me?"
"I made a jet pack!" she exclaims proudly.
"You did what?!"
"I made a jet pack."
"Did you fly in it?" She shakes her head 'no.' "Are you going to be a rocket scientist when you grow up?" I ask her.
"Yes!" Her class is leaving, so I tell Rocket Girl I will walk her out. We follow the line as the class heads out of the library.
"That's great!" I am trying to exit this conversation now, as we reach the door.
"I strapped it to my cat's belly." Uh oh. All kinds of scenarios are now running through my head.
"I made her paper wings and she had wings and a rocket so she could fly."
"Is your cat afraid of heights?"
"No!" This is said by Rocket Girl in a 'of course not, you ridiculous adult!' tone of voice.
"You are so silly! Have a nice lunch," I say as we exit. Her class is getting further away. One teacher is lagging behind to keep her with the group. The conversation should be over. It isn't.
"I shot her straight up in the air!"
"Crazy girl! Go to lunch," I say with a smile.
"And then, she went up like this," Rocket Girl gestures with her hand to demonstrate.
"Wow. You ar going to miss lunch, go catch up with your class..."
"And then..."

Anyway, you can see how this is going. Eventually Rocket Girl got to eat lunch and I got to ponder the physics behind sending a cat into the stratosphere on paper wings. I hope she does grow up to be a rocket scientist. Then maybe I can fly on paper wings, too.

Credit to RaineDrops18 at DeviantArt for this downloadable image.

The Bamboo Forest

A few weeks ago, Joe and I went hiking with Nicole and I've been terribly remiss in not posting those pictures yet.

We were at the Puu Ualakaa State Park again and the hike was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that Joe and I went back a week later and tried a different trail. But that's a story for another post.

Joe, Nicole, and I were traveling through the trails, reached a few forks in the trail and suddenly found ourselves in a bamboo forest. It was beautiful. We felt like we'd been transported somewhere else. That is part of the beauty of Hawaii, really. One minute you are looking at the vast Pacific Ocean, the next you are in a highly forested mountain area full of tropical plants, but ten feet later: bamboo forest. I can't even hope to describe how peaceful it was. With every breeze the bamboo would click together, creating the most wonderful sound. Nicole tried to record it, but to no avail. Since I can't bring you all into this glorious place, here are some pictures that I hope will do for now.

This is before the bamboo forest and we're already excited!

We're not really sad, it's all an act. Do you see the bamboo behind us?

Look, Joe was there, too. And I think he was scaring Nicole.

Look at all the bamboo!

Nicole's walking stick is comically large. Joe's is comically small...

Apparently this is where we were.

Recess

Remember recess? That much anticipated time of day when you could just run around the playground and do whatever you wanted? I got to witness recess again at one of the elementary schools I'm teaching at. It went something like this:

Boy with ball: "Miss, this ball can bounce higher than any other ball."
Me: "Oh?"
Boy with ball: "Yup! I'll show you." Boy with ball runs over to the covered walkway outside his classroom. "I can make it touch the ceiling." Bounces ball. "See?"
Me: "Wow. That was really high." Boy with ball runs away, beaming.

To my left are some over-sized tires, on their sides and half buried in the ground. Three girls are playing a game where they stand on these tires and shout fruit at each other:

Girl on green tire: "Hey orange! Hey orange! Hey orange!"
Girl on orange tire: "Hey pear! Hey lemon!"
Girl on yellow tire: "Hey pear! Ok, now we have to switch." They scurry down, change tires and continue calling to each other. Fruit seems to correspond to the color tire they are on. Another girl walks by and they call out to her to join them. Only they know the rules to this game.

I turn behind me to see a boy run up to the flag pole and cling to it out of breath, shouting: "I win, 'cause I touched the pole first!"

Sometimes I miss those days.

Also, I had a boy in class last week who, when asked to say his name, repeated the phrase "I like cheese" and giggled. I informed him that I also liked cheese but was worried that he'd forgotten his name. The other kids in class started whispering his name to him to help out! I have no idea what 4th graders find funny, but I love them for it.

Koko Head

Hi. What did you do with your Saturday morning? I got up at 6am, went to Koko Head with Joe and couple of friends and we climbed that mountain. At 7am. Done by 9am and eating burgers for breakfast by 10:30am. I know you are asking, "Why is this news? Haven't you guys climbed plenty of mountains since you've been in Hawaii? We've all seen the pictures; this isn't your first mountain."

You are correct, gentle reader. This wasn't the first hike. This wasn't our longest hike.  It won't be the last hike either. It was the hardest. Koko Head has about 1100 steps to the top which are really an abandoned military railroad track used to transport supplies to soldiers at a lookout on the peak. That means it is dusty, uneven and hard on the knees. I was asked yesterday by a friend who was not with us how it was. My reply: awful/beautiful depending on whether you are asking my knees or my eyes.

Am I glad we scaled Koko Head? Yes. Will we ever do it again? Not likely. On the way up an 8 yr old girl with her iphone in one hand, water bottle in the other, headphones in her ears, trekked right by us as if she does this climb every morning and it's no big thing. Reaching the top I realized that maybe she does, because she was with a group of adults who were circuit training at the top. They climbed a mountain to work out some more and then climb down. *shudder*

Anyway, here are some pictures from our early morning hike:

They aren't kidding

The beginning of the trek

View from the bottom

Pausing half-way up and looking around

Still a bit to go!

The reward at the top

Victorious at the top!