Loggins And Messina..."Sittin' In Again"...

Ah, the memories! I think the first time I even heard of either one of these guys was way back in the 70's when I was just beginning to raise a bunch of teen-agers. By the time Kim got to college, they had split up and Kenny Loggins went his way and Jim Messina went his. Kim was mesmorized by Kenny Loggins and really got me interested in his music.

I first saw Kenny in concert at a BYU "Stadium of Fire" event in Provo, Utah way back in the late 80's or early 90's. He did an amazing concert. Dean first saw him in concert here in Oregon in 1998 at the Oregon State Fair in Salem. Both of us were fixated on 2 of his best songs (to us) "The Winnie the Pooh Song" and "Rainbow Connection."

Ever since 1998, we have looked for Kenny to be in concert again in Oregon. Well, we got a double treat on Wednesday evening, when Loggins and Messina came to Portland! It was part of their 2009 "Sittin' In Again" tour. As soon as I heard about it, I knew we had to have tickets and go. The best part was that we both were off that day.


We left Lincoln City in the afternoon and drove to Portland. We had a wonderful time, walking in the park, eating a fun meal, having a yummy dessert at a fun little restaurant downtown, complete with entertainment by a solo singer who did Sinatra! It was great.

The Concert was phenomenal! They played lots of their oldies but goodies and a few new songs, as well as each singing a lot of their own individual hits. The band was amazing. They had a sax player that was out of this world. All in all, we were greatly entertained and can't wait for them to come back again!

Hawaii...Day 6...A Day of Rest

I'm going to try and keep this entry as short as possible. It is Sunday, and that is the Day of Rest, so we all decided to keep this day simple. After a short meeting with a World Mark representative, who was really a nice guy whose job it is to try and tempt owners into updating their points and program for the best benefits for them. We had a nice chat, but told him that we were really not in a position to take on another debt at this time. He was congenial and for our efforts in showing up for the meeting, we received a $50.00 American Express gift card. Easiest $50.00 I ever earned.

Dean had done some research and it was decided that we would go to this quaint little church for Sunday services. It is the oldest built church in the islands, and sits right across the street from the Queen's Palace on Ali'i Street. It was a very nice service and the topic of the sermon fit right into our experiences on the island.



After church, we just wandered around town, going our separate ways. Billy wanted to go back to the condo to rest; Anna wanted to go shopping; and Dean and I walked through the boardwalk area, sipping on delicious smoothies, enjoying the beautiful flowers and the ocean view, and just had a really nice afternoon. I think we all really needed this rest today.









Later in the evening, we all got together and went out for a delicious Thai dinner and then walked around some more, enjoying the evening breezes and each other's company.

Though this day was not packed solid with activities, it was one of the best days to just unwind and enjoy our next-to-the-last night in Kailua/Kona. I will be sad to leave! Oh,yes, we got a movie from the front desk at the World Mark and went back up to our room after our dinner and walk to watch "Wall-E!" We all thought it was a good movie. But, then we are all kids at heart and thoroughly enjoy kids movies!

Hawaii...Days 4 and 5

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

*****Before you begin or open the Smile Box, turn off the other music because it will interfere! Then, after you watch Smile Box, you can turn on the music again!*****

A new adventure begins on day four. Dean has made arrangements for us to travel down to the southern end of the island and stay in a wonderful cottage at a Bed and Breakfast overnight. It is a long drive to get to the Volcanoes National Park on the southern tip of the island, but we found a stop along the way that was really exciting!



Life is good when you can find a Black Sand Beach to walk on barefooted! Panalu'u Black Sand Beach was such a wonderful treat. At first we just oooo'd and ah'd over the amazing black sand, and then, we spotted a little family of huge turtles coming on shore to greet us. It was a wonderful phenomenon! There was a "mommy" and her two little babies.

We had a wonderful break in the monotony of driving and all had a great time. We met a young man while we were there, who just happened to be a traveling musician -- and you can imagine that it caught Billy's attention. He played the cello! We talked for a while and bought a couple of his CD's and then listened to them while we continued our drive south. He is very good and plays good, Christian music.

Once we got to the Volcano area, we stopped at a little cafe in Volcano Village and had a really good sandwich! Or, maybe we were just very hungry! After lunch, we found our B&B and checked in and got a little comfy before heading out again to visit the National Park. The only bad thing about the day was that it was raining! They say it always is raining on this side of the island! I guess that explains all of the rain forests and green!

We braved the storm and went to the Park anyway. We walked through a very long, very dark lava tube while we were there. Lava tubes are interesting phenomena. At one time, very hot lava was traveling through this tube to whatever destination it had. It became a tube, because the upper and outer crust hardened around the hot lava, forming a tube. It was a scary thought for me to realize that I was walking where hot lava once traveled.

After we left the park, we drove (in the driving rain) to Hilo, on the east coast of the island. I had wanted to visit some of the fun shops there, but the rain was unforgiving and blinding. Our goal was to get up to the top of Mauna Kea before sunset to watch the beautiful sunsets there. And so, we by-passed Hilo and drove on to the mountain. We only got lost once!

Once we broke the top of the clouds, heading up the slope of the volcano, the sun was very bright. However, at the top (we were only able to go up to the 10,000 ft. height to the Visitor's Center) it was very cold! The road continues up to the top of Mauna Kea (some 14,000++ feet), but only 4-wheel drive vehicles are allowed up there. There are some of the world's biggest telescopes up on top, but people are not allowed to go into them. They study the stars and planets and send information all over the world. It was phenomenal to see all of this.

Back at the Visitor's Center, we drank hot chocolate, walked around and viewed a couple of videos about the volcanoes in Hawaii. Then, as the sun was getting ready to set, we hiked up a trail where we could have a wonderful view of a magnificent sunset. It was breathtaking!

Coming back to the Visitor's Center, they had set up telescopes so we could view some of the planets that were visible in this clear sky, above all the clouds. I saw Jupiter and 4 of it's moons through one of the telescopes! And the one focused on the moon was amazing. Billy and Dean were able to take pictures through the telescope of the planets. What an amazing universe we have!

After some more hot chocolate and seeing all of the planets and constellations that we could see, we headed back down the mountain, and yes, back into the rain. We got to our little cottage at about 11 p.m. This was not good, because we had to be up at 2 a.m. to drive to meet the tour guide that was going to guide us to the boat ramp for our boat tour of the lava flows at sunrise!

It was amazing that we were all able to get up at that hour and get ready to drive -- again in the rain -- to meet our tour guide. There were 3 or 4 other cars with our group, and when we were all there, we followed our guide down some very interesting roads through the rain forests toward the ocean. We rolled the windows down, despite the rain, to hear some amazing sounds. It sounded like birds in the trees, but we think it was the sound of some very prolific frogs that have taken over the islands! Billy tried recording the sounds on his camera! He is always trying to get new and different sounds for his music adventures!

Once we were at the boat ramp area, we all met together and went through a briefing as to what to expect, etc. And, we boarded the boat before it was driven down to the water to launch. It was most interesting to head out over waves into the open sea in the dark. We all had a bumby ride and an interesting trip. It took us about 45 minutes to get to where we could see the lava flows.

Oh, what a glorious experience this was to watch such amazing power flow from land into the sea. This phenomenon is how these islands were formed. Since the volcano, Kilauea has been flowing for these many years, several hundreds of acres have been added to the island. It was a little difficult to get really good pictures, but some of them were pretty fair. The boat just would not hold still!

I couldn't believe how close we got sometimes to the flow! I could actually see the folding motion as the lava entered the water and created an enormous amount of steam in the process. This day was amazing!
We watched the sunrise in the east, took some more pictures, and then headed back to our little "port" to pull the boat out of the water. The ride back seemed to be more bumpy than the ride there. We went a little slower, too, as the guide pointed out several interesting sights along the way that we had missed in the dark going in the other direction. We saw porpoises, flying fish and some swimming turtles. It was a fun trip.

Once back on Terra Firma, we got back in our car and managed to find our way back to the B&B (only took one wrong turn!). We were just in time for breakfast! And, oh what a lovely breakfast it was! Our wonderful hostess fixed us French toast with Hawaiian bread, complete with scrambled eggs, bacon, another wonderful sweet bread and lots of fruit, including a delicious mango! It was delicious!

After breakfast, it was time to pack up, clean up and head back up the western coast going north to Kailua/Kona. We stopped for a while to see some more of the Volcanoes National Park. We drove up to the Kiluea crater where there is another Visitor's Center and took some more pictures; we walked along an area where there were colorful sulfur outcroppings and lots of steam; and we walked on another rain forest trail to view another little crater. All I can say is, Amazing!

Our only stop on our way home was at a little bakery that made delicious doughnuts and sandwiches for lunch. Dean bought some poi doughnuts, and they were really quite good! It was a restful little stop.

Once back to our condo, it was time for rest and showers! This was a very long day and I don't think we could fit one more thing into it! We just ate left-overs and went to bed! Oh, we did catch another beautiful sunset, though. Imagine that -- we viewed a beautiful sunrise on the east coast of the island, and another beautiful sunset on the west coast! These were 2 very good days!

Hawaii...Day 3

We began day 3 with a trip to the pier to catch a boat ride that would take us out to a real-life submarine! We were about to embarq on a 1 hour ride 100 feet below the surface of the ocean. This is the easy way to see the coral reef and some of those exotic fish that swim in and around the islands.



After we all got down the ladder into the belly of the sub, we all chose a good seat next to a window so we could have a great view of the reef and the other sights at these depths. Something I didn't realize was that at 100 feet, the sun's rays are bent so much that you loose the reds and greens, but still blue and yellow are visible. So everything looks sort of "blah" down here. That was a disappointment. We were told that if we were to take the "tree-like" coral up to the surface, it would be very bright red, and the rounded coral would be a beautiful green. I wish I could have done some "magic" with my camera to bring out the color, but it is an impossibility! We just have to use our imaginations to visualize the colors.


After that exotic trip to "another world", we surfaced and loaded back onto the little boat that would take us back to the pier. We all had one super time!


We disembarqed the boat and made our way back to our parked car, stopping at a couple of shops on the way for some souveniers. We all decided to go back to the condo for a delicious salad and other treats, provided by Billy, and rested a little bit before getting ready for our next adventure.

I don't know how many people that I know have ever snorkled with Manta Ray's, but this is one adventure that really excited me and Anna. Billy was "so-so" about it all, and Dean was a little apprehensive, but both were good sports and joined in the activity. I don't have any pictures of the actual swimming with the Manta Ray's to post, because we only took 35mm water-camera shots, and I haven't got them ready to put on the computer yet. Perhaps I will add them at a later date. But the trip by boat to the little bay where we would join 3 other boats and their crews was exciting. We left just before sunset, because this is an activity that takes place at night, in the dark!



After considerable instruction about what we would be doing and safety briefing, and calming Dean down about not being able to swim with a life vest, we all donned our wet suits, swim fins, and snorkles and got ready to "jump into the wonderfully warm water!" There was a crew of scuba divers who had entered the water before us and were positioning themselves on the bottom. They each had a flashlight that they would shine upwards to attract the plankton. They all sat around in a huge circle, with four stationary lights positioned in the middle like a campfire.


Once we were in the water, we grabbed onto a circular styrofoam ring and swam to the "blue" area where the lights were. Once we were in position over the diver's lights, we all turned on our flashlights and pointed them downward. You could see the plankton literally floating like little "dust" particles in the water. The first thing that I noticed were a swirl of probably 50 or so Makeral swimming in a circle below us. They are plankton eating fish, as well.

Then, as if out of nowhere, there was this huge mouth coming up towards me, connected to the white underbelly of my first encounter with a live Manta Ray! It was startling, at first, but as it got closer, it began to swerve backward into a circular motion and away from me. I kid you not -- it felt like it was mere micro-millimeters away from my body and face. It was quite unnerving.

But, then we all settled into watching this amazing "dance" underwater, as the Manta Ray's (we counted 8 or 9 of them) repeated over and over again their swirling motions beneath us. I have never witnessed anything so beautiful and amazing before in my whole life. There was an Australian couple next to us who were filming the entire thing on an underwater video camera. I am anxious for them to send us their video -- so far it hasn't arrived in our email as yet.

We were in the water some 45 minutes, quite enough time to really get our fill of a wonderful adventure. There were moments, when I started shivering, and later the leader of the group told us that there was an underground fresh water source that came into the bay periodically, and that water was colder than the ocean water. That is why we felt cold water from time to time.

All in all, we had an amazing trip and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved the experience, and Dean and Billy said, they were glad that they did it, too (even though at one point one of the ray's got "spooked" and dove right into Billy, hitting him in the neck! It scared him, for a moment!)

This was a very good day!

Hawaii...Day 2

The four of us started our day at a "welcome" breakfast (actually, it was continental style -- you know, fruit, bagels, doughnuts, juice, etc.) and the usual sales pitch for events on the island (in and around Kailea/Kona). We had so many things to choose from that it was hard to make a choice! Input from everybody helped.

For the first day, we selected a Parasailing adventure for Billy and Anna, with Dean and I observing from the boat. It was an exciting "ride!" Billy and Anna rode tandem with this huge parachute-like contraption. Whoosh! And they were airborne! I couldn't see the looks on their faces, but from our vantage point, it looked pretty exciting. The driver of the boat got them up some 400 feet and we were moving at a pretty fast clip. At some point, they asked Dean and I if we would like to go up! My immediate reply was, "No, thank you!" It looked like fun from our vantage point, but I did not want to be the one up in that thing! This was one of those things that you only do maybe once in a lifetime, and Billy and Anna said that they really liked the "high!" For a girl who is afraid of heights, she seemed to be enjoying herself.

After that amazing adventure, we walked into town to a Scandanavian Shave Ice store to treat ourselves to a wonderful taste-treat. We saw some people outside of the shop with huge shave ice's and told the girl at the counter that we really didn't want the biggest one -- maybe the middle sized one. We each got one to share and even the middle sized one was huge! But, I must say, yummy!After cooling off for awhile, we enjoyed a liezurely walk back to where we parked the car. Now, you have to understand that parking is a premium in this little village, and so finding a parking place is a miracle in itself. It seems that there are a lot of really skinny athletes in town training for the upcoming IronMan Triathlon event scheduled for the weekend of October 10th and 11th. Dean's comment was that he had never seen so many skinny people in one place for a very long time! There were bicyclists, swimmers and runners everywhere and each and every one was trim and fit. The run would be a 26+ miler, the swim would be 2+ miles, and the bicycle event would be 100 miles! Amazing. Back at our Condo, we decided it was pretty hot, so we went for a nice swim. The pool was wonderful and clean and we had it all to ourselves. I spent a little time in the jacuzi, too for my aching back and knee.

The nice part about staying in a time share, is that when you can, you can eat there. There is a really nice kitchen, and Billy made a wonderful salad for us to enjoy. We didn't want to eat too much, because our adventure to an authentic Hawaiian Luau was about to happen.


We chose the Luau at the Royal Kona Resort. We opted to walk and get the exercise before a hearty meal! I bought Anna a lei at the local country market and we both wore our lei's to the Luau. (I guess I forgot to mention, that Dean had arranged for a lei greeting at the airport when we arrived in Kona. It was a gorgeous purple orchid one! I loved it, while it lasted!)


We were not disappointed in the food or the entertainment at the Royal Kona. Of course, the big treat of the evening was to watch them pull out the roasted pig from the huge pit where it had been cooking all day. This is so much fun! We all piled our plates high, and even tried the poi! Actually, I quite like it with pork and fish. Not the greatest taste -- sort of bland -- by itself! Billy and Anna seemed to be having a great time.


We watched a beautiful sunset, even cought a glimpse of a rainbow to the east, and I learned something new about sunsets. If you watch closely, under certain conditions, there is a green flare, just as the sun disappears "into the sea." I got to see it! I tried to catch it on camera, but what I was seeing, was not what came out in the picture. Oh, well!

All in all, our second day in Hawaii was all that it could be. We all went to bed tired and reflective of a perfect day spent on an island paradise!

Seven Glorious Days in Hawaii...

DAY ONE...

Dean and I spent the night at his cousin's house in Gresham, so we could get up early to take the Max Train to the airport for our 8 a.m. flight to Hawaii. We always have a nice stay with Lorraine. She is 80+ years old and a wonderful hostess. She always welcomes us at her "Motel Miller!"

We arrived at the airport on time, settled ourselves into our seats and got ready for our 5 hour flight across a very big "pond!" In-flight, we watched the movie, "Night At The Museum II: The Smithsonian." It was a really funny movie and helped pass the time on this very long flight. They served us a nice lunch and we rested the rest of the time. We arrived in Honolulu about 10 a.m. (gaining 3 hours in the flight west) and waited for about an hour and a half to connect to our flight to Kona.

We arrived in Kona about 1 p.m., rented a "big" car. I kept trying to tell Dean that we didn't need an upgrade to a bigger car, because there were only two of us and if the trunk wasn't big enough, the rest of our luggage would fit in the back seat. He kept saying he wanted a car with power to climb the long drive up to the volcano. MEN! OK, so we got the bigger car!

We drove straight to Kona, following the directions to our World Mark Time Share close to the beach. We only got lost once, having to turn around and make the "right" turn onto Polani Drive. (For the life of me, I will never keep these Hawaiian names straight!) We checked in and parked and started packing our luggage up to the third floor to room 313. Dean opened the door and said something about, "I wonder if they got my flower delivery OK" -- he always gets me flowers! -- and as we were walking down the hall, I could see not only some lovely Oriental Lillies in a beautiful orange hue, but a Chocolate/Peanut Butter Birthday Cake, as well. I started to say, "Oh, Dean," but got interupted by a big "Surprise!" There standing in the middle of the room was my son, Billy! And then, Anna jumped up from the corner and also said, "Surprise!" I just stood there in unbelief and started to cry! I said, "You're going to give this mother a heart attack with all of these surprises!" What a wonderful birthday! What a wonderful gift to have my son here with me in Hawaii. (I've been trying to get him here for years!)




Now, I understood the REAL reason for the upgrade of the car. There would now be 4 of us being tourists on the Big Island! After coming down from my fog of disbelief, we decided we needed to go get some groceries for this place and then to out for dinner. There is a very nice Safeway store not far from where we were staying, so we did our shopping there. On the way there, I noticed the spire of the Temple to our right with the Angel Moroni on top and said, "Oh, Dean, look how close we are to the Temple! We do need to go there and get pictures while we are here!"

And so, the end of a perfect day came in the beautiful little village of Kona/Kailua. We watched our first sunset over our western shore. It is beautiful here. Nothing like I remember the Big Island that I visited with Gerry way back in 1971, before I was pregnant with Heather! Much has changed since then.