On the way to the beach, Andrea raced this Ferrari.
View to the east on Monday.
View to the east on Wednesday.
View to the northeast on Wednesday.
View to the west on Wednesday.
Andrea and I went to the beach on Monday, August 1st (and 2nd and 3rd).
View to the east on Monday.
View to the east on Wednesday.
View to the northeast on Wednesday.
View to the west on Wednesday.
Andrea stayed home to help with the bridge party while I went to the Diamond Head courts on Thursday, August 4th.
BigWaveDave (right) with the stars of Hawaii Five-O.
Later Andrea and I went to Re-use Hawaii to look for stuff for the house.
We also went to Sans Souci Beach on Thursday, August 4th.
View east toward the Hao Tree Lanai and the Sans Souci apartments.
View of Andrea.
We went back to Maile's Thai Bistro on Friday, August 5th.
With our Maile-tinis.
A little appetizer with chopsticks.
Saturday, August 6th, was a day devoted to work in the yard and a barbecue afterward.
Down and across the street, some cleanup of junk cars is underway.
This car was pulled by cable from the thick growth in the yard.
Three cars were hauled away.
Andrea works hard to clear the aloe plant that had taken over a tree.
The bonsai shelf is suspended from ropes. The eyebolts are cemented into the wall.
The first bonsai go onto the shelf.
Andrea photo-documents the accomplishment.
We started the celebratory activities on Wednesday, August 10th.
Looking east at Sans Souci beach.
On the way back from the beach we drove up Hind Iuka to see the construction of a retaining wall on city
land to protect a neighboring home from runoff water.
On Thursday, the 11th, my 62nd birthday, we walked up to the end of Hao Street to meet
Councilmember Stanley Chang's Chief of Staff, Kekoa McClellan, and his assistant Steve. Here is a view of the
stream with an excavator just above the debris basin. We are concerned that use of an excavator lower down in the
stream will cause unnecessary erosion of homeowners' properties. I am also concerned that the use of grass cutters
will leave debris that will get washed out to sea in the next big rain.
The group of concerned residents with Kekoa (second from right) and Steve (second from left).
Kekoa and I talked for a while. We agreed that the best approach would be to have the Councilmember's office
emphasize to the planning department the importance of proper engineering for permitting in slide-prone areas.
Kekoa listens to residents on the cleared site for the eight new homes planned for development in the slide zone.
Everyone got a turn to speak.
Steve and Karl come back up Hao Street after a walk up Ahuwale Street.
We went to Ala Moana shopping center to meet Jerry Corbaley at Ruby Tuesday's on the fourth floor.
Andrea, Lenore, and I went to the Robert and Roland Cazimero concert at the Waikiki Aquarium.
We had the Barefoot pinot grigio.
The brothers put on a great show.
On Friday, the 12th, we went to the Top of Waikiki restaurant for dinner. Here we enter Hawaii's only
revolving restaurant.
Here we are enjoying the view to the west.
Andrea likes this rooftop sculpture.
Lenore and I continue to ponder the menu. Great selections.
Andrea enjoying the views.
Surf was up! Those waves are approaching eight to ten feet.
Tiki at the entrance to the mens' room.
The book Waikiki Tiki suggested going to the second floor of the Princess Kaiulani Hotel to look at the tikis, so we did, on Monday the 15th.
I gave a talk on the history and future of robotics.
The students asked many interesting questions, such as "can robots do art?"
Andrea peeks out from behind one of the tikis at the top of the escalator.
Two more tikis at the desk.
An interesting painting at the end of the hall.
Andrea photographs a wrap-around painting in the stairwell.
Two tikis guard the door to a banquet room.
We went to the Moana Hotel for pupus and drinks.
A very pretty hula dancer.
The next day we attended the kickoff meeting for the Kalani team. Over 50 students this year!
Cousin Jackie Stong flew in on Wednesday the 17th. See this section as a separate Web page.
Andrea concentrates on making a beautiful lei. In the old days, lei's were kapu: only alii could wear them.
Greeting Jackie at baggage claim F2.
Jackie with Lenore and Andrea.
In the afternoon we went to Sans Souci Beach for a swim.
In the evening we went to Bluwater Grill for dinner.
On Thursday we went Waimea Falls Park. Here Jackie photographs a banyan tree.
Jackie and I pose with this flowering vine on the 3/4 mile hike up to the falls.
Andrea at the falls.
Jackie at the falls.
Andrea and Jackie on the bridge to the falls.
One of the two lifeguards at the falls.
On the way back we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation.
On Friday the 19th I took Jackie to see the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
Inside the memorial.
Interesting architecture.
The architecture is similar back at the visitor center.
Jackie with the forward torpedo tubes on the USS Bowfin.
We had lunch at La Mariana Sailing Club.
The inside of the La Mariana Sailing Club men's room door has this photo of a bare breasted woman.
Jackie with the photo from the USS Bowfin.
Later we went to the beach.
In the evening we went to Chinatown and ate at Epic restaurant.
Later we listened to jazz at the Dragon Upstairs.
On Saturday the 20th we went to the VEX robotic competition at McKinley High School.
With the robot and students in the Kalani pit.
Setting up the robot for the programming competition.
The robot scores in autonomous mode during qualifying rounds.
We hiked Koko Crater Botanical Garden loop trail (two miles) in the afternoon. Here is the plumeria grove.
About half way up we stopped for a picture of the crater rim by the cactus garden.
We saw many interesting boulders along the way.
Jackie photographs me with the fruit of the baobab (dead rat) tree.
Jackie photographing an interesting flower.
Looking back at the peak on the way out of the crater.
Looking back at the ironwood trees where we have set up our chairs.
That evening Jackie treated us to dinner at the Top of Waikiki restaurant.
A tourist from Germany offered to take this photo of the four of us.
Andrea photographs Lenore.
On Monday we had breakfast at Jack's Restaurant in Aina Haina shopping center while Andrea met with the
architect and designer in Kakaaka.
We went to the Waikiki Aquarium when Andrea got back from Details International.
We stopped at the Diamond Head Lookout with the Amelia Earhart memorial.
We had lunch at Zippy's in Hawaii Kai with a view across the water to Bluwater Grill.
We continued on to the Makapuu lookout.
In the evening we enjoyed music and hula dancing at the Moana Hotel banyan tree courtyard.
Jackie watches the hula dancer.
She dances very well.
Carol asked me to make a mat with honu like the one she admired in our back yard, so I obtained the materials and painted three honu in different sizes on a beach mat. On August 23rd we went to Carol's house to install it. Carol's daughter Julie had suggested honu to improve the feng shui of the home.
Julie and Andrea helped to install it to the fence with number six self-tapping screws.
A final coat of varnish will help to protect the mat and the acrylic paint from the elements.
Bob McGlone picked me up at the house to go play tennis at the Diamond Head Courts with two of his friends on August 25th.
After tennis, Andrea and I went to Sans Souci beach for a swim.
Sans Souci beach has a dual shower in which swimmers can rinse off the salt water.
The hao trees look healthy at the Hao Tree Lanai at the Kaimana Hotel.
The Sans Souci apartments were named for the beach.
That evening I attended a board meeting of the Aina Haina Community Association (AHCA). Here board members
discuss the plans for a new development of eight houses at the end of Hao street.
The AHCA board meeting gets underway.
Andrea and I attended ambasador training at the Hawaii Kai office of Malama Maunalua on Friday, August 26th.
There were eight of us trainees. One came in late.
I attended the weekly working meeting at UH in Holmes Hall on Friday, August 26th.
More members.
And more members.
Bryan Silver, two students from Kalani High School, and Andrea and I attended the workshop at the Convention Center on Saturday and Sunday, August 27th and 28th. About 150 adults and students attended the two-day event. See this section as a separate Web page.
People line up to receive boot loader program for their microbots.
Andrea with the microbot.
Ready for programming.
It actually works.
The next day (Sunday), Grant, a student at Kalani, and I test our robots against each other on the sumo ring.
It's much cuter with eyes and hands. This robot ended up winning the sumo contest.
Second match against Waialua. Chester Lowrey of
Easybotics,
Art Kimura (event organizer), teacher from Waikea High on the Big Island (announcer), my opponent,
a mentor with The Hawaiian Kids (FRC 359).
Third match against the Mohawk robot.
Fourth match against Grant of Kalani High School.
Final match.
Andrea and I went to the beach on Monday, August 29th, and Tuesday, August 30th.
It was breaking across the channel at Sans Souci. We went for a swim anyway.
It was a new moon high tide and waves were washing up onto the beach.
Just another day in paradise.
We stopped to look at the surf at Diamond Head lookout.
Breaking about ten feet.
On Tuesday Andrea wore her new purple swim suit.
Looking fine reading her book.
Lifeguards saw action all day that day. Breaking 12 feet in Waikiki.
Returning from a little beachwalk.
Andrea and I took Lenore to breakfast at Longhi's in the Ala Moana shopping center on Wednesday, August 31st.
We got our preferred table five again.
We drove to Magic Island and walked out to see the surf.
Andrea took lots of pictures.
Oh yes, breaking ten feet at "Bowls."
Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com
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