2009 Vacation

Our Holidays in Hawaii

My beautiful wife Andrea and I spent three weeks in Hawaii, including Christmas and New Year's (Dec. 17, '09 through Jan 6, '10) and here are some photos documenting the experience:

Andrea, the photographer for most of these pictures.
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We arrived at Lenore's house a week before Christmas and helped to decorate for the holidays.
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We walked in Waikiki many times and Andrea caught this fantastic sunset with catamarans sailing
across the setting sun. Everybody just had to stop and watch. It was amazing.
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Lenore with her Christmas shirt and decorative snowflake necklace.
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We vistited artist Claude Horan at his house on Kaneohe Bay.
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Suzi and Claude Horan with their Christmas tree decorated with gilded wine corks.
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Andrea at the Laie lookout point on the north shore.
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Makapuu body surfing beach from the Makapuu lookout. Biggest surf I've ever seen there, and I've surfed Makapuu a lot in the last 40 years.
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Lenore gave me a very interesting book to read on the Dutch colonization of New York.
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Makapuu on a typical day, breaking three to four feet.
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Lenore got a duck tea kettle from Andrea for Christmas.
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Rick helps assemble a solar powered tiki torch Lenore got for Christmas.
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Looking up the Wailupe Valley from Lenore's front yard.
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I got a very tiny martini set for Christmas. I'm holding a tiny ice cube tray in my left hand and
the shaker in my right. The accompanying booklet had a lot of good cocktail recipes.
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Andrea's cousin Kim's son Jack came by and we planned a trip to Makapuu to go surfing with
my home-built body board.
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Beach, anyone?
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City Mill lumber and hardware store in Hawaii Kai also sells fireworks at New Years. Here
I'm holding a pair of fireworks turtles we purchased to contribute to the celebration at
neighbor Young household.
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There's a Ferrari store in Waikiki, believe it or not, so I went in to take a look at the formula racing car on display.
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We went to a restaurant called Pyramids on Kapahulu Avenue that features a belly dancer named
Malia. The food was good too.
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Andrea works to help clean up the yard.
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Yardwork is fun!
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Cousins Lynne and Kim with Kim's family came to dinner. Lynne, Peter, Andrea, Lenore, Tom, Jack,
and Kim, in Lenore's back yard under the lichee tree (where Andrea and I were married), Tuesday,
December 29.
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Rick, Jack, Kim, Lynne, Peter, and Lenore, under the lichee tree, Tuesday, December 29.
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Lenore is at the head of the table near the camera. Clockwise from Lenore are Kim, Tom, Jack, Peter, Rick (serving wine), and Lynne.
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I'm watching the Young family prepare the pig for roasting on a spit.
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The spit is inserted and then pinned at a particular position on the spit for optimal cooking.
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The pig is basted with oil frequently.
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I helped with the basting a little bit.
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Just a little bit.
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The pig took five hours to cook, so there's a lot of watching involved. The fire has to be
controlled just right.
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Record big surf was in the news, so the topic of surfing on my bodyboard came up. Here I show
Nicholas the board I made 25 years ago and surfed at Waimea when it was breaking over 20 feet.
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Carl Young and I talk about surfing. The colored design on the board is surf wax.
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We continue to watch and wait.
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When the pig is ready, we carry it to the pans, remove the pins and spit, and cut off the skin to serve as a pupu (hors d'oeuvre).
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The skin is put into a bowl for serving.
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After a lull in the fireworks later that night, we sweep up debris from the street in front
of the Young's house.
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After New Year's we again visited the Horans in Kaneohe. We drove over the Like Like Highway
to Mariana's Restaurant. After lunch we went out onto the marina to look at the boats.
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The weather is calm, almost no wind that day.
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I think I'd like a trimaran if I had a boat.
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Andrea thinks this one is more like my type of boat.
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Rick with Suzi and Horanamoku. Horan was a surfer in Santa Cruz, California, when he coined the name "Steamer Lane" for the world famous surf break there.
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Horan's house in Kaneohe.
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We visited my step father, Mits Aoki, at Pohai Nani in Kaneohe. This is the view of the Koolau mountains from Pohai Nani's garden.
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Mits looks toward the Pohai Nani Garden dedicated as a memorial to my mother, Lynne Aoki.
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Mits and I look at the stone with the inscription memorializing Lynne. Mits presided at
at Andrea's and my wedding. Afterward, he led the attendees in a three banzai cheer.
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Professor Mitsuo Aoki is the retired head of the Religion Department of the University of
Hawaii, and is a world recognized authority in the field of death and dying. He is 95 years old.
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Mits's daughter Sophie Ann and Lenore in the garden at Pohai Nani.
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Mits and Lenore discuss the Chinese goddess statue.
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Mits tells Rick about the tree planted for Lynne.
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Healer Sophie Ann with Lenore, Mits, and Rick. Sophie Ann gave me some frankincense oil that
seems to be healing a pre-cancerous lesion on my cheek. It is no longer painful to the touch
and is much less inflamed. (July 8, 2010 follow-up: the lesion has completely disappeared)
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Mits explains about the tree in the garden. The seeds I gathered later sprouted in my garden window.
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The Chinese goddess statue.
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The breakfast crew.
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We went to Longhi's in the Ala Moana Center for breakfast. There was a strong Kona wind.
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Horan gave Andrea a plate. I hope Suzi doesn't object too much. It's beautiful.
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We visited the Peersons on the North Shore, meeting them in Haleiwa for canoe paddling.
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Jim Peerson and I lift a one-person canoe into the water.
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Jim lets me paddle his own canoe, which is incredibly light, fast, and easy to huli if you don't watch what you're doing.
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Off I go.
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Jim joins me for a paddle up the Haleiwa stream. Dawn assists.
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Off we go.
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I catch a small wave on the way back in to shore.
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The view from Jim and Dawn's house. Jim let me wear his Old Guys Rule shirt while mine dried.
It got wet, not from canoe paddling, but from canoe huli-ing. I flipped it over twice on the
calm Haleiwa river. The outrigger is very light, built for speed.
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Jim and I take a look at his bonsai collection. Jim is a past president of Dai Ichi Bonsai Kai, as am I.
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We sit down for lunch and are joined by Andrea (behind camera) and Dawn (coming from kitchen).
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We stop and buy a carved haole koa tiki from a vendor along the North Shore road (Kamehameha Highway).
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Carving honu (turtles).
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Lots of tikis and other carvings. I now have tikis for Kane (god of life), Peace, and Joy. Looking for tikis Lono and Kanaloa.
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We did some repairs around the house. Here Andrea happily paints.
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Andrea does a good job on the rail that was patched with Fix-All.
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Beautiful Andrea.
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We went to the Moana Hotel for cocktails and music and hula dancing.
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The strawberry guava tree needed pruning.
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We took a long walk through old Waikiki where my friend Roger Taylor used to live with his
wife Mary (we were both stationed at Bellows AFS in the early 1970s). On the way back we saw
this bronze statue of the story teller.
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