Link to my New Blog

I've started up a new blog for all my ummmmm, edifications. If you are so inclined go to:
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Catching Up

I was on a roll for awhile describing the June trips to both Hawaii and Utah when I was rudely interrupted by the laptop crashing. *Sigh* It's still in the hospital and there's a good chance that the hard drive is fried beyond repair. *Deep sigh* The worst would be that I've lost photos. I was working up to a post about the night we watched the sun go down over Hanalei Bay that was the most spectacular sunset that I've ever witnessed. Here I go again using superlatives when speaking of Hawaii, but it's true. Fortunately, I do have my photos intact from the Utah trip and I'll be adding those soon. In the meantime, last week we had a 5-day visit from our daughter-in-law Sara and her newborn baby boy Jameson. We babysat while Sara went to Dallas for a Mary Kay seminar. Cuteness Alert! The photos you are about to see are the cutest!



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Jamie is posing on Matt's bed. He's less then 3 months old, born in Amery Wisconsin on 5/11/08 so at this stage of life he is into sleeping, eating, going thru diapers, posing for photos in his tiny little onesies and outfits, and generally making the whole household very happy with his extreme baby cuteness.

Kimmel fed Jamie a lot of bottles and they took right to each other. Here is Jamie all tuckered out after eating, snuggled up with Kim deep in the heart of Texas:-)

Rosey was very curious about this tiny human. She wasn't at all aggressive and kissed and licked Jamie on his chubby cheeks and was very protective of him.

Matt too was curious and I think infatuated, and has taken to being an uncle. Here's Matt the lifeguard home on a break from the pool that day, guarding Jamie.

Jamie can't yet sit up straight on his own power but was very cooperative during all the photo shoots I put him through.

I let him sleep on Casey's bed. He doesn't roll over yet, but I kept checking on him about every other minute just to make sure. It was somewhat exhausting taking care of a baby. I had to get my naps in, too, while the baby slept.

There's something about having a baby around that just makes everything all right.
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Hawaiian Cribs

We were the luckiest tourists to have friends and family who put us up and put up with us in Hawaii. All I can say is, if you know people who live in Hawaii and you want to go visit, nurture the relationship, buy gas and groceries, pick up restaurant tabs, make quilts, lay low and be very cool exemplary houseguests. Above is the home of my sister Katie in Kilauea on the garden isle of Kauai where Kimmel and I were lucky enough to stay for the second week of our vacation.


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Tom and Katie celebrated their silver wedding anniversary while we were there with a very fun party - lots of good friends, their older daughter Erin, a gourmet potluck, a very boogie dance band on the lawn, a bonfire after dark, a special hula dance in their honor, and cutting the cake that Tom the Baker whipped up that day in his bakery. I was so happy to be there and included in the festivities.

The back porch of T & K's house from the back yard all cleaned up a few days after the party:

If you've been following previous posts, I'm sure you're wondering about my scraped knee:-)

One of Katie's many orchids:

An orchard of Lychee trees by the side of the lane driving back to their house from the road:

Katie's shade house where she grows dozens of orchids plus other plants:

What is this awesome flower? I'm stumped. Send me the name and I will mail you a fat quarter of Honu batik fabric.

The side of the house. The plant is a type of ginger I believe:

Another mystery flower:

We walked to the bakery one morning for bialys and sticky buns. My pretty little sister checking out the poinciana trees:

Katie is a master gardener. There are six large raised beds by the side of the house:

Just published - a children's book by a local Kauai woman about our President. I ordered a copy for myself and the young people in my life.

Back to the Big Island. This is Tom and Rosemary's geodesic dome home on Painted Church Road in Captain Cook:

Around the yard a banana tree. I must say there is something very sexual about banana trees. Rosemary said that the ancient Hawaiians forbid their women to eat bananas. It was kapu.

I think this is heliconia. I want to get a pedicure with these very colors.

Rosemary treats the family geckos very well and puts out jelly on the rail each day so they will come around for a visit. Only one in this photo, but it's normal to see a dozen at a time all around the porch.

Delicious breakfast! Bagel, cream cheese, lox, capers, papaya, dragonfruit. Before setting out for another perfect day in paradise. And of course, the Kona coffee grown right across the road by the neighbors. You can mail order some Kona coffee from Mary and Ron, owners of the Kona Lisa Coffee Company.

The painted church on Painted Church road. A Catholic church and graveyard in the lava:

Inside St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church:

Stephanotis on the fence by the church. I placed the plumeria blossom next to it for the photo. Rosemary gave me a gardenia from her garden that day for my hair.

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Utah- Beautiful Strange Land

I was lucky enough to go to the General Assembly of the UUs in Salt Lake City last month. I loved being there for five days. I'd almost forgotten how much I miss and love the intermountain western U.S. I didn't photograph much inside the convention center but much of the conference itself was great. UUs in general do a good job of convening and I enjoyed great traditions like the banner parade, the service of the living tradition, the Ware lecture, the UU University, seeing friends from elsewhere including my two brothers-in-law from Illinois. On Friday, we lit out of town up into the high alpine country.


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A view of the Mormons' Temple Square from our 13th floor hotel room. You can see the temple and in front of it - the shiny oval domed roof building is the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. You've got to pass full Mormon muster to go inside the temple itself but you can tour all the other buildings.

So for our road trip we headed to Mount Timpanogos about an hour away in the Wasatch mountains:

Going up the road:

My fabulous UU women travel companions from First Jefferson Church in Fort Worth - Sue, Kathy, Julie. We were all Standing On the Side of Love the entire time.

We came to the most wonderful spot called Cascade Springs and spent a lot of time here:

The natural springs formations make travertine in the rocks:

Moi. God this was such a beautiful place. We saw these small spotted brown trouts jumping out of the water to catch bugs, tiny yellow warblers, a pheasant, tons of wildflowers. I collected a water sample here for our UU water ceremony.

Yellow columbines:

Large dandelion like flower:

The Mount Timpanogos range:

More cascade springs:

Going down the mountain on a curvy switchback, we saw many beautiful old growth aspen trees. The photo doesn't do justice:

Another vista of Mount Timpanogos - alpine wonderland:

Returning to our hotel that night, after the evening's activities this is a Chihuly-like glass sculpture inside the performing arts center. Rev. Mary Harrington preached a sermon that night "A Lifetime Isn't Long Enough" that was one of the highlights for me during the conference. After the day we had, I was feeling quite emotional.

Next day, inside the temple square visitors' center, a big display about building the temple. I was fascinated by the creepy appearance of the architect:

The spires reaching to heaven. I can't remember who the golden statue is, either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young:

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Testing the Jump feature

I just followed the blogger instructions to post the first summary paragraph of my post, followed by a read more link to another page where the rest of the post appears.

Trying to figure it out


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and if I'm doing this right you've clicked on read more! and are now reading these lines.
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Kilauea Sunset and Around the Big Island

Above is the sunset near Tom and Katie's place in Kilauea on Kauai. We had just returned from a a full day at Ke'e beach at the end of the road. We decided to drive out to the lighthouse and on the way back we stopped by the side of the road to watch the sun go down. What follows in this post are a lot of pics around the Big Island the week before.


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The Hawaiians used this as a sacred site. Another sign said that Captain Cook read an english burial service for one of his men at this site in January 1779 and that it was the first recorded Christian service in the Hawaiian islands. Across the bay (not visible) is the Captain Cook monument that marks the spot where the Hawaiians did him in a month later Feb. 1779. The history of Captain Cook is very interesting. I can't say what it was, but I did feel something spiritual standing here. It was a little bit eery.

This is near Manini Beach where we went swimming but couldn't snorkel that evening due to rough water. I didn't venture too far out.

Tom and Rosemary:

Surf near Manini Beach. I never got tired of the white surf on the black lava rocks.

Another hole in the lava rocks near shore where the surf crashes in. You wouldn't want to fall into this hole. This was near the southernmost tip of the big island of Hawaii.

This is Punalu'u beach on the way to the volcano. It was cloudy and windy while we were there.

The choppy sea and surf at Punalu'u. I waited awhile for some honu to swim up out of the waves. But no luck that day.

The child on the turtle's back. I believe this is a verdigris bronze relief sculptural piece. I thought it was very sweet.

Our snorkel place -- Two Step at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau

Across a little inlet from Two Step is the Place of Refuge. While we were getting ready to leave one morning after snorkeling, we noticed the hula dancers come out and we stood and watched for awhile. Because King Kamehameha Day was the next day, we assumed they were practicing for a celebration. Aren't the coconut palms spectacular?

The big cruise ship Pride of America outside of Kailua-Kona harbor. The modern cruise ships are like giant floating hotel skyscrapers. I have never had an urge to go on a cruise and seeing this ship didn't change my mind about that.

Back at Two Step, each time we were there we saw painters setting up their easels and I stood nearby and watched them work for awhile. Such inspiration for an artist!

I joked with this guy about the conditioner I was using to untangle my hair after a swim. He asked me if he could borrow it:-) Notice the cool tattoo on his back.

Another shot at the Place of Refuge right before we went to the airport to catch a flight to Kauai after our very wonderful week on the Big Island. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to T & R after being together and a great visit.

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