October 2011 Photos

Maui

We flew to Kahului, Maui, on Friday morning, September 30^th, in support of the Kalani High School robotics team. Continued from the September Photos page.

Setting up for the VEX competition in the Baldwin High School gymnasium in Kahului.

Both robots were an eighth of an inch too tall to pass inspection. Team S robot gets shortened with tin snips.

Team G robot gets filed to fit. The students learned a valuable lesson in design, and to wear safety glasses!

Kalani Robotics had a great team presence at the event.

Students were busy getting the robots ready for competition.

Team S takes the field. They eventually made it to the eliminations. Team S was eliminated in their quarterfinal
and Team G was eliminated in the final.

The first match of the final.

Anne and Andrea share a lighter moment. Photo by Hailing Li.

Saturday night we had dinner at the Coconut Grill next door at the Maui Seaside Hotel. They had great pupus.

The Coconut Grill also has a great atmosphere and great mai tais.

We drove to Lahaina and had breakfast at Longhi's (on the left).

Andrea took this great shot of Longhi's restaurant in Lahaina.

We had a great breakfast at a table with a view.

The tiki Lono across the street and a hula girl.

The old coral block fort in Lahaina.

Molokai from Kaanapali.

Kahoolawe.

Lanai.

Haleakala.

At a small beach park in Kihei where we ate lunch and talked to Glen who was there with his bicycle, backpack,
and a beer.

Makena Landing.

In our hotel room with my new surf trunks, ready for a swim in the pool.

Back at the hotel, the view from room 235 lanai, cruise ship docked in the distance.

Dinner at Cary and Eddie's Hideaway.

Drinks and a snack at the Coconut Grill.

At Coconut Grill for breakfast.

Breakfast Monday at the Coconut Grill.

Walking back from breakfast, Andrea in the gazebo with kolea.

Andrea and her kolea.

The park at the upper end of Iao Valley.

The Iao Needle, also called the phallus of Kanaloa.

Impressive.

Looking down the valley toward Wailuku and Kahului.

Waiting to get on the Boeing 717 (formerly McDonnel Douglas DC-9) with Haleakala in the background.

Kolea

We spotted a kolea (golden plover) in our yard after we arrived home from the beach on Tuesday, the 4^th of October.

Our kolea.

Maunalua Bay Science Symposium

Andrea and I attended the Maunalua Bay Science Symposium on Wednesday, the 5^th of October, held at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office in Hawaii Kai, after stopping at the Kalani Robotics Academy and going for a swim.

The middle school students did VEX robotics.

The elementary school students did LEGO robotics.

The Kalani High School students kept the acadamy participants busy.

Code, compile, download, test, code, compile, download, test.

Beautiful Andrea after her swim.

The view to the west.

Symposium attendees have pupus in the NOAA foyer.

The Science Symposium was well attended. I counted over 70 chairs in the conference room.

Neighborhood Board Meeting

Andrea and I attended the Thursday night meeting of the Neighborhood Board Number Two on the 6^th, but first Andrea walked around Diamond Head while I played Tennis.

Andrea photographed the Peace Garden where Fort Ruger used to be on Diamond Head.

The fire department representative gives his report to the neighborhood board.

Hooponopono

I attended the Friday night meeting of Hooponopono at UH on the 7^th, but first Andrea and I stopped by Kalani High School for the Robotics Academy wrap-up.

The LEGO kids show their robots while teacher Brian Silver and high school instructors watch.

The VEX kids with their robots and high school instructors.

All together as a group.

Kids with their LEGO creations.

Hooponopono engineers discuss test plans.

Everyone is busy working in the Hooponopono laboratory.

Sunset Boulevard

Andrea and I did maintenance Sunday morning the 9^th, and in the afternoon we took Lenore and picked up Estelle Murphy, stopping first at Doris Bitner's funeral, and then going to see Sunset Boulevard at the Diamlond Head Theatre. Afterward we had dinner with Carol, Flo, and Lynn at the Golden Duck Restaurant in Kahala.

After repairing a broken dowel and cleaning the disassembled school chair, I glued it back together
with epoxy. The twisted bonsai wire clamps the joints while the glue hardens. The tool box is a dead weight
so the feet will be coplanar. Later I will varnish the chair, assemble the seat, and return it to the
Robotics Lab at Kalani High School.

Andrea pruned some bushes and trees.

Intermission at the Diamond Head Theater.

Lenore, Estelle, Flo, Lynn, Carol, and Andrea at the Golden Duck Restaurant. Food, wine, and service were
excellent.

Wailupe Stream

The Wailupe Stream has been behaving strangely lately. No water flows behind the house after rains. We think that the cut grass from the city's "clearing" program (that is left in the stream, no clearing is actually taking place, just cutting) is damming the water allowing it to soak into the water table. Andrea went up the stream to take photographs and found striped fish and crayfish. The photos below were taken on Monday, October 10^th.

Crayfish walking over a rock.

Crayfish.

Several crayfish.

Crayfish and tadpoles.

Black and silver striped fish.

After photographing the stream, Andrea took this one of me finishing the robotics chair. It's one of the
original mahogany chairs from the Kalani High School library when it was built 50 years ago. I restored it
and will return it to the robotics lab tomorrow.

Holmescoming Celebration

Andrea and I attended the Tuesday night engineering fundraiser at UH Stan Sheriff Center on the 11^th.

Andrea looked great in her new top.

I knocked over all the ugly birds at the student game.

Guitar player.

Afterward we had drinks and a desert at Roy's restaurant in Hawaii Kai.

The Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific at Punchbowl Crater

Andrea and I drove up to Punchbowl on Wednesday the 12^th.

We stopped first at POP Marine to buy some charcoal and then we had lunch across the street at Uncle's.

Inside Uncle's.

Andrea at the center section.

View of Diamondhead from the top of the Punchbowl lookout.

When we got home, the mailman had brought a box of Hedonist chocolates for Lenore from Andrea.

Hooponopono

I attended the regular Friday meeting on the 14^th, after inspecting Wailupe Stream and going to the beach. Afterwards, Andrea and I went to b.k Steakhouse in Waikiki for pupus and drinks.

Andrea took photos of several stream access points. This is the catch basin at the top of Hao Street.

Andrea soaking up the solar warmth at Sans Souci Beach after our usual 1/8 mile swim.

Larry Martin (left) ordered pizza for the team.

Eating and working. Progress has been steady. Flight solar cells have arrived.

Andrea photographs a ceramic water feature sculpture in the shops area of the Marriot Hotel in Waikiki.

Andrea looks fabulous in her white blouse and new matching earrings. A great sunset too.

Yum. The pupu sampler platter.

CERT Training

Andrea and I attended the first of three Saturday Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training sessions on the 15^th. See this and the other two CERT sections as a stand-alone Web page.

The instructor, Mr. Fake, demonstrates a technique to stop bleeding.

Carl practices the compress and bandage technique while Andrea watches.

Visit to Horan's

Andrea and I drove around Makapuu to Kailua for breakfast and then on to Horan's for a visit Sunday moorning, the 16^th.

We stopped at the parking lot to photograph Rabbit (Manana) Island.

Andrea with her camera.

At Cinnamon's restaurant, seated in the gazebo.

A spider Haloween decoration above and behind my head.

Claude and Suzy Horan liked the spider we brought them for a Halloween decoration.

Suzy adjusts the spider.

Making final adjustments to the spider.

Horan with the spider pendant birthday card.

Art is everywhere at Horan's.

Menehune Mac Chocolate Factgory Tour

Andrea and I took the morning Menehune Mac Chocolate factory tour on Thursday, the 20^th.

The company president (holding 10 pound bar of chocolate) give the tour.

People pass around a 10 pound bar of chocolate.

Demonstratin of the hand scooping technique.

Where the chocolates are made.

Later I played tennis with John, Anne, and Bob.

Bob, Anne, and John.

Debris Generation in Wailup Stream

This morning, on Friday, the 21^st, five city workers used power cutters and a machete to cut grass and vines in the stream behind our house. Andrea and I had removed several fallen branches from the stream behind our house in the previous weeks. Stand-alone page version of this section.

Although the Army Corps of Engineers, who permitted the work, call it stream "clearance," nothing was
actually cleared from the stream. The cut grass and branch debris stays where it falls.

Cutting grass on the far side of the stream.

The cutting approaches the blooming yellow shower tree sapling.

He cuts around the fallen branches. Even though it was branches jamming a bridge that caused the Manoa
flood on the UH campus, branches are not removed from the stream.

Hooponopono

I attended the usual Friday meeting on the 21^st. Progress continues to be steady.

Larry Martin had pizza delivered to the lab.

Andrea donated some home made chocolate cake (in baggie in center of table).

Everyone is busy.

Work in the back room.

CERT Training

Andrea and I attended the second of three Saturday Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training sessions on the 22^nd. See this and the other two CERT sections as a stand-alone Web page.

Jeff gave many of the lectures today.

We went to lunch across King Street at the Kabuki restaurant. Here Karl expounds on a point.

The food was very good at a fairly reasonable price.

Iolani High School VEX Scrimmage

Andrea, Lenore and I went to Kahala Mall theaters to see Johnny English Reborn, a spy farce with Rowan Atkinson. Afterward we drove to Iolani High School for the robotics scrimmage, on Sunday the 23^rd.

Kalani High Schoool students.

Sacred Hearts Academy team Z students and teacher.

Students working on the mechanics of the robot.

Watching the event.

A scrimmage match is on.

Andrea took this one of the match.

Meanwhile, back in California, our friend Kevin Ryan visited Beach Cities Robotics (FRC 294) and took this photo.

Northrop Grumman Visit

Andrea and I went on Wednesday the 26^th to visit the Northrop Grumman corporate office in Honolulu, at the gracious invitation of Donna Batangan, the Executive Administrator of the Corporate Lead Executive Office on Bishop Street. We talked about potential support of the Kalani High School robotics team (FRC 3008) and had lunch at the sandwich shop downstairs.

The previous Saturday, we bought this paphiopedelum orchid at the Hawaii Products show at the Blaisdel Center.

The day before (Tuesday), Andrea reads on the beach (Jack London's Tales of the South Pacific).

Andrea photographed me posing with a large brass screw propeller in front of a four masted schooner.

We parked at the Aloha Tower public parking and walked Ewa. Andrea poses with the four masted schooner.

Andrea phogotraphed most of the many hula dancer sculptures there.

We reached the Aloha Tower, fulfilling one of our to-do list items.

The view from the 31^st floor of the Makai Tower at 737 Bishop Street.

We like the tile mural at the Alexander and Baldwin building.

We found a great wooden tiki at a restaurant in the Aloha Tower Center.

RAX-2 Tracking

The Northrop Grumman-built National Prepratory Project (NPP) spacecraft was launched on Thursday, the 27^th, just before midnight with six pico-sats on board. The Hooponopono team met in the UH lab at 10:00 PM to set up tracking equipment to read telemetry from the RAX-2 Aurora Explorer pico-sat during the third orbit pass over Hawaii.

Students carried the antenna and support equipment up to the fifth floor roof of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics
(HIG) building on the University of Hawaii campus.

Students install the antenna on its altitude and asimuth pointing equipment which is automatically controlled.

Community volunteer Ron Hashiro helps students set up the receiving and telemetry recording equipment on the fourth
of the HIG building.

CERT Training

In the afternoon of Saturday, the 29^th, we picked up Karl Schwartz and drove to Diamond Head for the third and final training session for the Community Emergency Response Team training, where we did some simulated emergency exercises. See this and the other two CERT sections as a stand-alone Web page.

Andrea with the extraction team walks a simulated wounded person to the medical area.

Handing off the simulated wounded to the medical team.

Jeff leads the exercise debriefing.

Group photo around one of the four mortar mount holes in this one of two batteries.

Claude Horan's 94^th Birthday Party

In the evening of Saturday, the 29^th, Andrea and I put on our Halloween costumes and drove to Kaneohe for Claude and Suzi's party. Claude Horan was a lifeguard, swimmer, surfer who named Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, ceramist, and professor of art at the University of Hawaii. The floor tile installation at the Waikiki Aquarium was done by Horan. See this section as a stand-alone Web page.

Andrea, Horan, Ming, and Richard.

Andrea and Suzi.

Suzi, Ming, Richard, and Donna.

Horan photographs Donna.

Donna and Leland.

Richard, Ming, Suzi, Jean, Karen, Mary Ellen, Jesse, Mary, and Leland.

Rick, Jean, Horan, and Suzi.

Mary Ellen, Mary, Ron, Donna, Andrea, Leland, and Horan.

Kaiser High School Rain Garden

On Sunday, the 30^th of October, Andrea and I drove to Kaiser High School in Hawaii Kai and helped the volunteers install a rain garden to capture rain water and help prevent flooding and erosion. We started at 8:00 AM and the volunteers were still going strong when we had to leave at noon. Representative Mark Hashem and City Councilmember Stanley Chang also attended. See this section as a stand-alone Web page.