Cub Scouts and Rainbow Cones and Birthdays!

Long but fun day! Hiking and fishing with the Cub Scouts —> lunch at Buona Beef and our first Original Rainbow Cone —> Davin’s 7th birthday party —> more birthday fun at Davin’s house. Whew!

Buona Beef – Mt Prospect

The Zone – Mt Prospect

Holiday Weekend in New Hampshire

Dallas and I were out on the East Coast for the long holiday weekend. We planned to catch a flight to Boston after work on Thursday, meet up with Matt, Molly and Lucy, and drive up to Ross’s lake house in New Hampshire that night. Sure, it would be late, but it would be worth it to get there around midnight and be there, rather than waste time on Friday driving. Of course, since we had this timeline in place, that means that our flight had to be delayed. We sat on the runway for hours wondering how this was throwing all of our plans off. Still, in the end, we drove up to New Hampshire that night, not arriving until almost 2:30 a.m.! Luckily Lucy just slept the whole time and made the ride easy.

Ross rents in Boston, but bought a house on Lake Wentworth, near Wolfeboro, New Hampshire last year. I’d never been to New Hampshire and wasn’t sure what to expect. When we woke up in the morning, the views were so gorgeous. And it smelled great. I couldn’t get over it. The water, and woods, and evergreens, and grass. YUM.

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Also, we couldn’t see it at night, but when the sun came up? Ross’s house is beautiful. I’m used to people’s lake houses being cottages or older second homes, but this being Ross’s only house… and this being Ross…. the place was gorgeous. The four bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 pullouts, lake, laundry, sun room, yard, hot tub.. perfect for hosting a bunch of friends. Over the course of the weekend, Ross comfortably hosted Chelsea, Matt, Molly, Lucy, George, Tommy, Marinella, Colleen, John, Adam, Sarah, Dallas and I. So, 14 people! Plus 3 dogs: Koukla, Nookie and Buddy.

Ross’s new toy this year was a water trampoline. On Friday morning, after Matt made us a big breakfast, we all helped assemble the water trampoline.

Ross and Dallas carried it over to the lake, being careful not to drag it on anything.

Then a bunch of the guys helped get it onto the dock and into the water and secured with a rope to the dock and a rope to a weight. Chelsea and I supervised.

Ross had the first go on it.

And then Dallas had a turn. I think it was not as bouncy as people expected, but we still had fun on it over the course of the weekend. I liked swimming out to it and just laying on it like it was a raft.

One day we decided to go for a hike on Mount Major, a short drive away.

I’m not sure if this is a very strenuous hike or whether it was just because I wasn’t feeling well that day and also drink 5 beers right before going on the hike, but I took a rest just below the summit and did not motivate to make it to the top.


Lucy, Molly, Adam, Dallas, Ross, Chelsea, Tommy, Marinella, Matt

Still, the views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the surrounding areas were pretty great.


Koukla, Lucy, Molly, Adam, Dallas, Ross, Chelsea, Tommy, Marinella, Matt, Rachelle, Buddy

I set the timer to get in a group photo and even the dogs made it into that photo!


Matt, Chelsea, John

Over the course of the weekend we spent a lot of time in the lake, playing games in the yard, relaxing, sitting in the hot tub, canoeing, kayaking and even had one crazy night of charades that got pretty intense.


Matt, Colleen, Ross, Chelsea

We, of course, spent a lot of time playing the frisbee, cup, pole game. Ross also got us into a lively game of beer die. I only watched, but Ross and Chelsea won 4 games in a row against Matt and Dallas and Tommy and George. The thing is, winning means you keep playing, and spending all day winning may not always be a good thing. Let me just say that the 5th game was not finished and that some people disappeared until the next morning!

While all the beer die craziness was going on, I was hanging out on the sidelines with Lucy, 10 months, and Koukla, Tommy and Marinella’s dog.

Lucy has grown so much from the last time I saw her. She is such a great baby. Matt and Molly keep her on a pretty strict schedule and it works. She hardly cries and is always so happy. Her thing now is to do a twisty wrist wave at everyone. She loves it!

I also formed a soft spot in my heart for Koukla, who always listens and is such a sweetheart dog. So cute, too!

During the beer die game, this unnamed Adonis did a straight-armed beer chug. Said person may have then disappeared for half the night. Such things cannot be confirmed or denied and should not be discussed in the public forum.


Koukla, George, Matt, Sarah, Marinella, Tommy

The sunsets on Lake Wentworth were breathtaking. One night we all just gathered on the two docks to take it in.


Matt & Adam


Koukla & Adam

Koukla spent the weekend walking down the rocks or the dock steps til she was ankle-deep and then drinking the water. She loved it. And the water was so clean and clear. Not muddy or gross at all, like some lakes can be.

Dallas trying his hand at fishing. All he did was lose lures. The next morning, though, Adam and Sarah took the canoe out and caught some fish.


Koukla, Nookie, Marinella, Matt, Molly, Adam, Tommy, George, Ross


Sarah & Dallas Fishing

What a fun and relaxing extended weekend we had at Lake Wentworth! Big, huge thanks to Ross for being such a gracious host! Can’t wait to come back for another visit!

Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park

For about as long as I’ve known Dallas, I’ve been telling him that I want to see a volcano when we go to Hawaii and Dallas would always say, “But Kauai IS a volcano.” Sigh. Right. Millions of years ago Kauai was formed from a volcano. After almost 7 years of visiting the Hawaiian Islands and never seeing an active volcano, there was no way I was going to the Big Island and not going to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park!

The island of Hawaii, known as the Big Island, is a volcanic island built from 5 different shield volcanoes that erupted sequentially, one overlapping the other. These volcanoes are Kohala (extinct), Mauna Kea (dormant), Hualalai (active but not erupting), Mauna Loa (the largest volcano on earth, active), and Kilauea (one of the world’s most active volcanoes, actively erupting since 1983). Parts of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are located within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park borders.

So, here’s the thing: It’s not like you drive up to the park, get out of your car and there’s lava flowing all over the place. Eruptions and lava flow are extremely variable. And the area is huge. When you get to the visitor center they’ll tell you what parts of the park are closed (due to volcanic activity or poor air quality) and which parts you’re most likely to see lava flow. Park rangers directed us to an area that was about 2 hours away plus a hike, plus we’d already driven 2 hours, plus it was our last day on the Big Island and we didn’t want to be there all night. Long story short, I still did not see any lava flow.

That is not to say that I did not have a good time. We still saw plenty of cool things to make it worth the trip. We started out with a short walk over to the sulphur banks. This was an area where volcanic gasses seep from the ground and deposit sulphur crystals and other minerals on the rocks along the trail. Really cool to see this stuff coming out of the earth. It looked like we were on another planet or something. Very stinky, though! Also, the fumes are hazardous and people with breathing problems, kids, and pregnant women shouldn’t go near the sulphur banks. You have to stay on the trail, because if you slip and fall in a crack you can be seriously scalded because the steam is so hot. And don’t touch anything because it’s coated with sulphuric acid. Yikes!

Next we walked over to the steam vents. This phenomenon is caused when rainwater sinks through the ground and is warmed by rocks which are heated from the lava below. The hot water then rises through fissures to condense in the chilled air. This steam also contains sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, so even though you might want to stand there and steam your face, you shouldnt. The vents were pretty cool. You’d just be walking along and there’d be a hole or crack in the earth with hot steam pouring out. Parts of the sulphur banks were like this too, except more stinky!

The steam vents are nearby the Kilauea Caldera, so we walked over to take a look. It’s hard to show in a photo just how immense this was. The summit caldera measures about 3.7 miles x 3.7 miles. Inside there’s a big pit crater called Halema’uma’u Crater. From our viewpoint the crater looked tiny, but it’s about .5 miles x .5 miles and 270 ft below the floor of the Kilauea Caldera. As a side note, Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire, lightening volcanoes and dance. Her home is believed to be in the fire pit in Halema’uma’u Crater.

We hiked along the edge of the caldera and then entered into the rain forest where we continued hiking for a mile or two, before returning to the visitor center where the car was parked.

We then drove the car over to Kilauea Iki Crater. This is another pit crater. It was cool to see it a lot closer up than Halema’uma’u Crater. We only went to the lookout point, but you can also hike down onto the crater floor onto what was once a lake of lava. Even after 50+ years since the last eruption, the surface is still warm to the touch!

Finally, we visited Nahuku, known as Thurston Lava Tube, because it was discovered in 1913 by Lorrin Thurston. This was pretty cool. Basically it’s a 500-year old cave and they have lights installed because otherwise it would be pitch black. Lava caves are formed when a river of lava gradually builds solid walls and a ceiling. When the lava flow stops, the last of it passes downhill and a cave is formed.

So, we saw a lot of cool stuff at Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, just not actual flowing lava. There was an eruption 2 days after we visited, so we missed out on that too. In hindsight we realized that we should have gone to the park on our first day on the Big Island. Some friends who had been there recently told us about a night walk you go on and you get right next to the flowing lava.. and at night its more dramatic than during the day. We just couldn’t swing a night tour on our last night there.

Also, I wish I could have seen the petroglyphs, but it was too far out of the way. Oh well. There’s always next time. I might not be back to the Big Island for 7 more years, but I’m sure we’ll be back some time.

Diamond Head

On our 3rd day of vacation, I dragged Dallas up to hike Diamond Head. It’s one of Oahu’s most recognizable landmarks. I’d gazed upon Diamond Head many times from Waikiki, but I’d never actually been there. There’s a hiking trail from the crater floor up to the summit, but to get to it you have to drive through a tunnel they made in the crater.

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We have arrived!

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See that white dot on the top of the cliff? That’s where we’ll be hiking to. People think it’s just a quick little hike, but it is actually quite steep and strenuous, especially when the temperature is 80+ degrees. In 0.8 miles the hike ascends 560 feet from the crater floor.

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Again, deceptive. The trail starts out as this nice and wide paved walkway. This part of the trail lasts about 0.2 miles and the reason they poured the concrete here was to reduce erosion. Easy peasy!

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The paved trail didn’t last long and soon we were on to a rougher road. Dallas has been to Diamond about 481 times on class trips, but he came with me anyway. He even offered to carry a backpack with our things in it so I didn’t have to carry a bag. What a good sport.

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Soon the rough trail turned into rough trail switchbacks up the crater’s interior.

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I’d been going to the gym 3 times/week for months before vacation and I still found the hike hard. I pretended like I wanted to take in this scenic view just so I could rest for a second and grab a drink of water.

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Diamond Head was known to Hawaiians as Leahi and then these stupid Britsh sailors came and thought that the calcite crystals embedded in the rocks were diamonds so they called it Diamond Head. The name stuck.

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Here’s Dallas at one of the scenic lookouts.

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Ok. Enough resting. Next up was a steep flight of 74 steps that leads to a dark tunnel. Dallas said back in the day the tunnel was not lit at all and you had to bring flashlights or else just hold your arms out and walk in the dark. These days the tunnel is lit so you can see where you’re going. At the end of the tunnel there were some weary people lingering about. I wasn’t sure why until I looked up. 74 steps was just the beginning. Get ready to climb up a very steep flight of 99 steps.

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I got 99 problems, but a step ain’t one. Hit me!

Groan.

Next was a spiral staircase that went straight up to the top. I wanted to die at the thought of more steps, but we were almost there.

At the top you have to duck down and squeeze through this opening that is only a couple feet tall.

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Once through the opening (on the left) you can walk out to a point and then go up a bit farther to the summit (on the right). Fort Ruger, the first US military reservation on Hawaii, was built in the interior of the crater. At the top there’s a station that directed artillery fire from batteries in Waikiki and Fort Ruger outside the crater. There are also bunkers to be seen up there.

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Diamond Head Lighthouse was originally built in 1899 and still uses the original lens. The current structure was built in 1917. iIn 2007, the lighthouse was on a United States postage stamp.

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Inside the crater. You can see the tunnel we drove though to enter the park on the right.

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Looking over at Waikiki.

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That “little” pink building is our hotel, The Royal Hawaiian.

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Some teenaged tourist from the mainland took this photo of us. It turned out really bad. I did some Photoshop magic on the lighting, but it’s still kind of bad. We asked a Japanese tourist to take a photo of us a bit later. She was so into it she was running all over the summit trying to get the best shot of us. That photo turned out even worse!

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One last view before going back.

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Going down 99 stairs is a lot easier than going up, but it still feels like this.

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By 9:30 we were at Zippy’s eating breakfast. Dallas had a chicken katsu plate lunch and I had a bowl of chili rice. Breakfasts of champions.

Sources: Wikipedia, HawaiiStateParks.org.

Hiking Lion’s Head


Janie, Anne, Colleen :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Buddy kept going daredevil close to the edge :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Molly, Rachelle, Anne, Janie :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Molly, Colleen, Anne, Janie, Buddy, Bella :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Buddy, Bella :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Molly, Anne, Janie, Colleen :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT


Bella, Colleen, Buddy :: Lion’s Head, Salisbury, CT

While the guys went hiking the girls slept off our hangovers and then did some sunbathing. Finally we got motivated enough to go on the hike we’d planned on doing. We went on the Lion’s Head trail, which is part of the Appalachian Trail. It was a 4.6-mile round trip hike. Most of it was mostly easy but there were a few parts that were quite strenuous. Especially since it was noon, really hot and humid, we were hungry and hungover, and I was wearing flip flops and a skirt. Still, I told myself if Bella, Matt and Molly’s 13-year-old dog, could do it, then I could too. It was worth it in the end to see the sweeping views of Northwest Connecticut and The Berkshires.

Waimea Canyon


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Kristin & Dallas – Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Rob, Sarah, Dallas, Rachelle, Kristin, Cousin – Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


A goat on Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Cousin at Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Rooster at Koke’e State Park picnic area


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Hydrangea flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Ginger on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Rachelle & Kristin


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Ferns on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Flowers on a trail in Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Going back to the Jeep & Sebring


Rooster at Koke’e State Park picnic area


Rooster at Koke’e State Park picnic area


Waterfall at Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waterfall at Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Waterfall at Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i


Jo Jo’s Shave Ice, Waimea, Kaua’i


Jo Jo’s Shave Ice, Waimea, Kaua’i


Jo Jo’s Shave Ice, Waimea, Kaua’i


A beach in Waimea, Kaua’i


A beach in Waimea, Kaua’i


A beach in Waimea, Kaua’i


The sky at a beach in Waimea, Kaua’i


A house in Waimea, Kaua’i


Waimea, Kaua’i


Driving through Waimea, Kaua’i

(Photos by Rachelle & Kristin)

This is the post where I try not to be pissy because I lost an entire CF card full of photographs that I took at the Waimea Canyon, the drive up there and hiking on a trail. I know a lot of other people took photographs but there were a few I was really excited about that I took. Sigh.

So on Thursday we drove to the canyon and stopped at a few lookouts before stopping the Koke’e State Park picnic area for lunch. After lunch we started a hike on the Nu’alolo Trail (i think). After a short while, Kristin, Sarah, and I walked back and drove into Waimea for some shave ice and shopping then took a siesta on the beach. Cousin, Dallas & Rob continued to hike for the entire afternoon. Later on we went to Dallas’ Uncle Dee and Aunt Kathy’s for dinner.

See Also:
» Dallas Takes the Quick Way Down (.mov, 108k)