Another Episode of About Town

I've talked about the parking lot car ballets before. This one took place at the local Caribou Coffee. I believe 2 have opened here now but this one was the first. The lot is very small and they park the cars 3 deep. As customers come and go they must move cars in and out. First 2 cars in front of the red car had to be pulled out. Then the red car exits. Then the two cars are put back in the row. A parking helper guides the attendant who is valet parking the cars.  They repeatedly yell terus at the driver. Terus means continue. It is fun to watch and requires real skill. The parking guys will do this all day long.

I don't know if I've mentioned that this year we've had no dry season. Last year it rained for the last time on June 4 and didn't rain at all again until sometime in October or November. This year we've had pretty consistent rain. We've had a couple of dandy storms recently. What a sky! It's early afternoon in this shot.

This has twice resulted in a little bit of water pooling in the tunnel access to our apartment. There have been some recent flooding issues in a few parts of town.

There are two types of 3 wheeled modes of transportation here. They are called bajaj. The orange ones are like lawn mowers and are heavy polluters. I know I've shared pictures before of the orange bajajs but I'm not sure I've shared a photo of one of the blue ones. Here is one of the new blue bajajs. By the end of 2016, all orange ones are supposed to be replaced with the blue type which use compressed natural gas as fuel and are much cleaner for the environment. It's September now and I am still seeing an awful lot of orange bajajs.

While I was away the country's flag appeared on the side of the bank in view from our apartment. Permanent? Who knows. Ibu Tin said it took them days to install it. It follows every contour of the building. It's not just a banner hanging there. (Note: I delayed publication of this page for a bit and now the flag has been removed. Days to install, days to remove.)

Sometimes folks just don't want to sell! On this toll road the road can't be used in one direction due to the still existing home site. This is a photograph, not an artistic rendering.

New Apartment Furnishings

We've purchased several new items for the apartment. First we bought this rattan basket. We bought a rattan topper for it too. B says it's for the cobra we will get. Ha, Ha...

We also found an interesting ceramic pot store and liked this one. At the same spot we purchased the leafy/curvy, branchy things that are sticking out of the top. I have no idea what they are but they might be botanical in nature—wood or possible palm or banana leaf parts.

Lastly, B has wanted to purchase a wood carving like this for quite some time. We finally agreed on this one. (B: it is Kakek Neyalan - Grandpa fisherman).

Art Bazaar and Puzzle

We recently attended an art bazaar in town. Much of the collection was very modern art. There was even a section for bizarre modern art. In a more classical or traditional art section, I was struck by the beauty and intricacy of this work. So many tiny, tiny wires and metal pieces. It must have taken years to put this together.

A close up. Wow! So detailed.

The Bazaar also presented a Wayang Shadow Puppet play. This time the audience was seated behind the puppeteer rather than in front of the screen. This allowed us to see the puppets rather than just the shadows. The puppeteer had no helpers. However, I've learned that a puppeteer really needs helpers to hand him the puppets. Only one man performs with the puppets and does all the voices, but he needs helpers and this guy had none!

I mentioned puzzles in the title of this post. Everyone may not know that we enjoy jigsaw puzzles. We always work a puzzle or two with family at holiday time and B and I have worked quite a few ourselves. We purchased 2 puzzles just before we moved here and had yet to crack them open. I got inspired one day when talking with another puzzle lover who also happens to be in my crafting group. She had a puzzle she and her husband had already worked and I traded with her one of our new puzzles. Puzzle in hand we now had to purchase a table to work the puzzle on. Voila! The puzzle is finished and here's our new table.

I've returned this puzzle and we've already opened the other one we brought. We really enjoy working the puzzles so we are going to have to find a source here or just bring puzzles back with us each time we travel home. PS. This one was much more difficult than it first appeared.

The Other Beach Photo

While I was away, B visited the plant site and stayed overnight at the nearby hotel. He snapped a photo of his view from the restaurant terrace during dinner. I'm not sure if a storm was coming or going.

Is that Krakatoa in the distance?? (B: No but Krakatoa is visible if I had turned a little more to the left).

Curiosities While Shopping

Saw these "must have" shoes in a shop window. Well, maybe not for me, but they are sparkly.

There is a little bit of performance art here in the old part of town. But this guy was spotted in the shopping center we visited to buy a replacement wi-fi extender (our old one got fried during a storm while we were away this summer). It's a tech shopping center. I remain curious as to how this performance is achieved. Note: The guy is just outside the shop entrance. He's wearing a green trench coat and appears to be holding himself up in the air by just using a pole under one hand...

Hawaii Vacation- Last Notable Mentions

About one mile from our hotel there is a GIANT shopping center. Mom's electric scooter had a range of 20 miles on a full charge so off we went. The scooter was hard to keep up with when she switched it up from "turtle" mode. It turned out that the entire center was very high end merchandise so the shops themselves weren't that interesting to our trio. We went into a few shops but mostly we walked and window shopped. We had a nice lunch in the food court. S and I had smoothies. Mine was a kale, apple, lemon and ginger; a winner! And, coincidentally, a green drink (B comment - bet you thought she forgot!).

 Mom found a really nice chicken soup.

It's a well-known fact of life. Food just seems to be expensive at resort restaurants. If the resort is on an island, the price jumps further. This place certainly kept to the same standard. Fortunately on the resort grounds there were several small mini-markets in addition to a very close self-serve mini-cafeteria. However, our most frequented place turned out to be CJ's New York Style Deli. A huge menu, more reasonable prices and the food was good. This is 1/8 of the full menu. Something for everyone. The staff was really friendly here, too. The only issue with this place was the location. It wasn't far to go but it was pretty well hidden back in a corner.  It did take us quite a while to find it the first time we went hunting.After that, piece of cake! And yes, they had cake on the menu.



We all arranged transportation to the hotel and back to the airport. This is a shot of the actual van my mom and S were in just before the van drove away taking them to the airport.

I departed about 6 hours later. Here's a shot of one of the airports I visited on my return trip.

Pretty Hawaiian fabrics.

Hawaii Vacation- Life's Better At the Beach

I believe this statement to be true... at least in part. I don't really believe in just being on a beach, rather I believe in using the beach to access the wonders of the ocean- specifically coral reefs!

First day! Feet in the water!

Fun on another day!

Just because you may only get one opportunity to do it...

Hanauma Bay
I was excited to re-visit this spot. This was one of the first spots where I first snorkeled twenty-five years ago. We didn't exactly schedule the best time to visit. The waters are rougher around a full moon and we were nearly at a full moon on our visit. The rougher seas created quite a bit of turbidity so it was difficult to see near to shore. Also, the sheer number of visitors kicking up sand exacerbate this phenomenon. We got a lot out of the visit nonetheless. We were able to use a beach wheelchair for mom for free and mom got to ride the shuttle from the upper parking areas down to the bay for free. Mom and S on board coming back up the hill!

The real goal was to introduce snorkeling to our niece S. She was able to learn how to snorkel and got comfortable enough to really enjoy it. I think there will be more snorkeling in her future.

The first mongoose S ever saw!

As we were leaving Hanauma Bay a man had the responsibility to stamp everyone wishing to return that same day: Aloha!  We thought why not get a stamp even though we wouldn't be able to return. Mom got one. S and I got one arm stamped repeatedly on both sides. I think he just liked holding our hands.

Back at the hotel one evening...      Ahhhh....

Hawaii Vacation- Diamond Head

Early in the planning for our trip our niece sent me links to all sorts of hiking options while visiting the Island of Oahu. At a certain point I did ask that she consider our "hiking" more of a forest walk than scaling Mt. Everest. She settled on Diamond Head.

Though cooler in Waikiki than where I live, it was still warm and this hike is pretty exposed. I am not a warm weather hiker. My preference would have been to arrive at the trailhead at 6 am when they open. My buddy was not on board with that schedule. We were told that the easiest way to get from our hotel to the trailhead was via city bus #23. Off we went at about 6:30 or 6:45 to walk to the bus stop. Bus #23 never came. We waited nearly an hour and no bus. Apparently they run on "ish" time. Neither of us could figure out the online bus schedule either. We returned to our hotel totally defeated. S really wanted to do the hike but by this time it was already after 8 and getting warmer. I decided to just pay for a taxi to get us there and off we went. The "pros" were already on their way back down when we began our ascent.

I must point out that I managed to accidentally delete all of my camera photos from this hike so most of these were taken by S. Some I captured with my phone which I managed to keep.

This is not a difficult hike really, though you begin down inside the cone and climb up.There are lots of switchbacks and stairs.  I slowed us down and S let me slow us down, graciously. The trail itself has pretty uneven footing in many areas. In the worst spots, it's very narrow and you've got folks coming in the opposite direction. No twisted ankles!

A few views on the way up or down:

 At the top:

At the top of Diamond Head there is a concrete structure that has "keep off" all over it. S captured this photo of feet hanging over the side of the structure you are not supposed to climb on.

We also saw folks climbing under railings meant to keep them safe to get that " prefect selfie." I overhead a young man suggest to his father that he climb through a gate to take a better picture. The father replied that he wanted his son to learn to obey rules. The son replied, " So not cool!"  Good for the dad.

Notice the crowds that can be seen on the trail. It's actually more of a parade as the day wears on. This density was seen in a few spots on our descent. The closer we got to the bottom, the more dense the crowds walking up became.

I must mention this bird we saw. I thought at first it was the same bird I've seen in the Southwestern US. Nope!  It's not the Pyrrhuloxia cardinal, this bird is species Paroaria coronata and it's a tanager.

These 3 looks pretty similar to me but 2 are in the cardinal/grosbeak family and the other one is now in the tanagers along with summer, vermilion and scarlet to name a few. I know DNA is the gold standard, but... . Thoughts?