It is our sixth day here in Hawai'i, on the Island of Hawai'i, locally known as the Big Island. We were picked up early Monday morning by a driver and taken to the Oakland Airport where we boarded a Boeing 737 stretch owned by Alaskan Airlines and five hours and five minutes later we landed in Kona, Hawai'i.

Our first sighting of Hawai'i is poking up through the clouds, directly to the south of us. The highest mountain in the world... if you measure from it's base, which is the bottom of the ocean. Only 13,000 plus change above sea level, is Mauna Kea with the white specks on top which are a dozen international observatories. Another one, the world's largest, is scheduled to be built very soon. The USA and another country are splitting the costs on that one. This is probably the bluest Blue Hawai'i that you will ever see. We are westbound headed to Kona Airport (KOA). The spots you see are not on my lens... they are on the window of the aircraft. They frown on my opening the window to take this shot. :-)

A small course correction and we are turning south-west and crossing over the furthest northern part of the island. The town of Hawi (Haw - Vee) is below us. Once a large sugar cane growing area it was almost a ghost town after all of the sugar cane and pineapple went to the Philippines, until a decade or two ago people started building up the tiny town and it is now visited regularly by locals and tourists alike.

A little further south and we see the Kohala coast. The Brown's home is toward the left, near the cloud bank. At 2,100 feet elevation it looks out over this bay. The white protrusion along the coast is filled in to allow more area for the Kawaihae (Kah - wah - ee - haw - ay - ee) Shipping Harbor, where many of the ships come in to deliver and pick up freight. Mauna Kea is still in the distance, we are dropping down along the west of the mountain at this time.

It was an uneventful flight except for the fact that I was reading a book on Rosalee's e-reader titled: "Heaven Is For Real", written by the father of a 4 year old boy with a serious medical condition that required surgery to correct. The doctors gave him little chance of survival before surgery but he pulled through, amazing everyone. The 'fun' part of the book was that for the following year the boy continued to talk about events that happened before he was born, and never was told about. When asked how he knew these things he said that he had been in Heaven while he was in surgery and met the people he talked about. His dad is a pastor at a church and knows scripture fairly well, and when he asked questions about Heaven, the boy described it as it has been told in scriptures. Mom and dad said that at the age of four, the boy has heard very little scripture about Heaven.

Seeing the family go through the tribulations of the ill child, and the mother reliving the loss of the boy's sister who died before delivery was very emotional, and I have to say I wetted a few napkins reading the book.

I have believed in the existence of God and of Heaven for quite a while now, but some things just don't quite hit you deeply until something comes along to shake you. The boy described meeting his great grandfather, whom he never knew, and his sister, whom he was never told about. I could not help but think about the fact that I had a sister that I never met, and the thought of my meeting her one day just set a little closer to my heart. On top of that, I know that my mother always talked about seeing her baby girl again one day. I could not hold my emotions when I thought about the possibility that she is with her as I read that book. And my brother and dad are with them as well. And I'm tearing up as I write this so I had best move on.

It was a good flight, and Donna met us at the airport with a couple of leis and a big hug. On the drive 'home' we had a good catch-up chat and discussed the recent loss of her own beloved mom which we also were missing. It will be a little less sunny in Hawai'i this time, with our sweet Miss Clyde now gone.

As we drove into "the Ranch" where the Brown's live (the gated community where they live is called Kohala Ranch), we were delighted to see what is usually straw-yellow hills actually tinted with a bit of green from heavier than usual rains. The annual average of rainfall in this location is around ten inches. Not what you expect to hear/see when Hawai'i is the subject. Twenty miles from here, around the mountain, it is one hundred ten inches a year. Major difference. Anyway, as I type this, the rainfall from July first last year to today is 16.29 inches, and we had some rain today.

This is the view to the north from the Guest Room Lanai. Mount Hale'a'kala on Maui would be out there on the horizon were it not a bit overcast. Below is a view to the south from the Master Bedroom Lanai. The crest of Mauna Kea is buried in those clouds just above that little standing of trees.

Dennis had a few small projects waiting for me, but neither he nor I could locate the small electric meter I brought to him  a few years back (to make it easier to do his projects). I will look deeper over the next few weeks.

I have a couple of projects possibly waiting... the Palace in Kona has a music box I have talked about in previous visits. I worked on it to get it to run again. If you don't remember, it is a large cylinder music box that plays five different songs and was given to the Crown Princess Kaiulani by Robert Lewis Stevenson on one of his visits. She was in her teens and he became very fond of her. She enjoyed writing and he would critique her work. I have a meeting with the ladies that run the palace to see if I can bring the box to the Brown's home and do more work on it. Many of the tens of thousands of pins on the cylinder have been bent and now that it runs, the music is really messy. I have a tool to correct that... but it takes a lot of time, and I can't be running to Kona (45 minutes) again and again, plus they have no place to work there.

The puppies were glad to see us... they didn't eat our legs or bark more than a few moments. That is good. LOL. It has been 18 months since they have seen us. They are a bit older... more mature. The Brown's have been working on their barking. I believe they also remember that we are 'those-people-that-don't-like-us-to-bark', and after the Brown's left on their voyage, they really do show patterns we remember them having with us the last time we were here. The proof will be the first night when we go to bed in the Master Bedroom, where the dogs also sleep. The Brown's tell us that the dogs sleep on the bed with them, and are concerned that they will bother us. Last visit, the dogs remembered that we were 'those-people-that-don't-let-us-sleep-on-the-bed' and never gave us any trouble. So... the first night we slept in there, Rajah was on his bed, Rufus was on a low chest at the foot of the bed while Rosalee turned down the bed. When she turned out the light, Rufus 'tested' her by placing one foot on the bed... and waited. She told him "no, you have to sleep in your own bed". She heard four paws hit the hardwood floor and then four more and the dogs went out to the Living Room and got on the couch next to me. They have not tested us since. These are very intelligent dogs... and they have better memories than we do that is for sure. LOL.

We are 'Home'. That rainbow went from sea shore to sea shore. I did not have a wide enough lens to get it all in.

Dennis has pulled more of his plantings out to cut down the watering he has to do. It is not a matter of work, as he has a sprinkler system with something like 18 stations, but it is the expense. Water comes from wells and there is not a lot of subterranean water-bearing soil on an island of lava. So it is expensive. He told me he has turned the sprinkler system off for the last few months, and his water bill is tiny. We will have to take care to turn it on if it starts to get dry. Yesterday we got 1.20 inches of rain in less than an hour and a half, so we are ok for a few more days.

The Brown's have done a lot of work on the house. To our eyes it was a lovely home already, but after nearly 18 years they likely desire some changes. Donna has a new kitchen with all new appliances, new darker cabinets, but the layout is pretty much similar to what they had before. They have done more wood flooring (hallway, previous exercise room, Master Bedroom) which matches the Living Room. They also added new cabinets on the Dining Room side of the Kitchen counter.

A new 'alabaster' light hangs over the Dining Room. We expected to see that as we tried to buy it for her last trip over. A store they frequented was closing out before they were to return. They stayed open a little longer and Donna talked them out of it... and a few more things as well.

We are getting to expect the entertainment center to change each time we come over. We were not disappointed. LOL. The new Panasonic is as wide as a billboard, and the controls are somewhat simpler to operate. Plus there is an option to watch either Satellite feed or Cable feed, so when their pre-programmed recorder takes over we can still watch by switching to the Cable feed. Both feeds seem to have pretty much the same things to watch. At least they both have things that we enjoy watching. Dennis said to push the red button and we get Netflix which is pre-paid, so it is unlimited viewing. I have used it a couple of times. Cool!

The new wider screen required a newer piece of furniture so they put in a nice set of cabinets that match the Kitchen cabinets. They look very nice. Also, they put new cabinets (matching the Kitchen cabinets) in the Guest Bathroom as well as the Master Bathroom.

Thursday evening we went down to Kawaihae shipping port (Kah - wah - ee - haw - ay) about ten miles away and tried a new restaurant Donna told us about. When Kent and Linda were here a few years ago we ate breakfast there. It was the first time I had actually had Eggs Benedict. They are now called Plantation Grill and we tried (sampled) their fish tacos which are fabulous. They use Mahi Mahi (Maw - Hee  Maw - Hee), and it is thick and tender and flakey and wonderful. For dinner I had Fish & Chips with the fish made again from Mahi Mahi and it was like some of the best Fish & Chips I have had. Some day I hope to try some in England so I can find out what they are really supposed to taste like. Rosalee had Shrimp Fettuccini and we were both delighted. They told us that Wednesday nights are Lobster nights and Friday nights are Crab nights... we will be back.

Rosalee's niece Andi and her husband Ed are scheduled to join us for a bit on the twelfth of May so I'm sure we can talk them into checking this place out on one of those nights. I was checking out their room yesterday and noticed that the new screen door on the Lanai was not working well and it jumped out of the track when I tried to open it. I turned it up and noticed that there was one wheel broken on the bottom and one on the top that was broken... two for two. So next trip into town I will see if I can locate a couple of wheels for it.

No critters to report yet... at least inside the house. Outside we are seeing some large black beetles that we seldom usually see... maybe one or two... but not this time. There are several on the front step almost each time we walk out there. The small fish pond has nearly one hundred of them floating on the surface, with a few actually moving. Donna said that they are "Dung Beetles" but they are larger than any we have seen. But hey... they IS Hawai'i so who knows? LOL They certainly are no trouble. They move about slowly and most seem to be on their backs with legs in the air on their last throws. I guess there is not enough 'dung' for them. That sounds like it is a good thing. LOL

There are no open range cows in 'the Ranch' so far. They have a lot of grass up in the higher parts of the mountain I hear, and it may be a while before they come down here. Most likely when it gets warmer and drier.