Peek-A-Boo View of the West Maui Mountains

Or should that be PEAK-A-Boo? 

Taken from our front lanai (name used here in Hawaii for a roofed porch) just after sunrise today. Camera is pointed pretty much due west. It's rare to see these mountains clearly, they are almost always shrouded in clouds. The normal trade winds blow from the east and northeast and slam into higher parts of this mountain range. Clouds build up through the day and end up nearly completely covering the mountains. That's why the rainfall up there is 400 inches a year. The trade winds have stopped (a rare occasion); I think that's why there are no clouds.........
BTW - the front lanai? Great place for a morning cup of coffee!

One Year On Maui

October 20, 2010 marked our one year anniversary living on Maui.  Our good Seattle friend Pamela Dore was here to celebrate with us.

Someone said that a lot of people move here but leave during the first year. If you make it a year most likely you'll stay.  We're staying............no doubt about it!

(Photo by Pamela)

It's About Time

We've been very busy.......NOT Blogging - enough with the excuses.
We've moved into the new house (Sep. 1), hosted Tracy's Mom Ruth and 2 of her friends, flown to Kauai to see my Dad and his wife Dodie at their time share, flown back to Maui to prepare for Dad & Dodie's stay with us here, then Tracy flew to Seattle for her Mom's surprise 80th birthday party and returns this Sunday. On Tuesday next our good friend Pamela Dore arrives from Seattle for a week stay....................and through all this we've been moving in.
Here's the recap with a few pictures:

Staring with moving in, we were too busy to grab camera's but I did get this shot:

September 1, 2010 - a big day. Our 20 foot container arrived from Seattle completely filled with our stuff. There's Tracy checking off the boxes and bundles as they are removed from the container, unwrapped, inspected and then placed in the house per our directions. Nice service!

Also, the cable guys were there pulling the final coax through the underground pipes into the house so that we could get hooked up to internet, phone and TV, same day. Somewhere around 200 boxes, some still stacked in the garage. Moving lesson #1 - If you have to think about it, don't pack it. We moved way too much stuff, especially when one of the reasons for the move is to simplify and downsize. On the flip side, though, it's nice to have some good kitchen knives and some bowls and pots and an extra towel.

Soon after, Tracy's Mom (Ruth at the top waving) came with her friends :

Ruth Johnson, Karlene Chavez & Sandy Denoff, arriving Maui.

Happy reunion

The Maui Ocean Center is a fabulous Hawaiian Island sea life aquarium - not to be missed if you visit the island.

http://www.mauioceancenter.com/

Sandy & Karlene playing at Baby Beach - north shore, Maui, near where we live.

Hanging out on the last night of their visit. We had a blast with them here and so did they, so they say!

Kauai:

We stayed with Dad and Dodie at the Mokihana in Kapaa, about 20 min from the airport in Lihue. Here they are now, out for a little put-put on the "Moki" grounds. We had a nice room overlooking the ocean. This old style complex is located on the east side of the island

On day two Tracy and I had the privilege of using Dad's rental car for the day. They were quite content to remain pool side at the Moki.  Our first goal was an early morning snorkel on a south shore beach we heard about, called Poipu Beach. The northern swells that come in the fall and through the winter have come to all the islands in the last few weeks, so even on the south shore of Kauai the waves were kinda big and messy. But we got into the water and had some fun, especially with a pretty strong rip tide that carried us down the beach in record time.
After some breakfast we were still hoping for a good snorkel so we headed back around the east side and on up to the north shore, all the way to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach.

Well that sign made it clear......but it was evident why, the waves up here were plenty big and nobody was even swimming. Here, we realized there was no place on this island for snorkeling anywhere that day.


So we took a walk down the beach in the tree line. 

The part of a tree you rarely see.


After wandering down the tree line path for awhile we decided to walk back on the beach.

Here's Tracy wearing the sassy new hemp hat that her Mom bought her at the hemp store in Paia, Maui


Looking down the beach, I could see somethin' happenin'!

That huge wave crashing against the cliff got my attention. Woa, some really big waves down there!


So, I added my big lens (70-200 for those interested) and started shooting. Little did I know what I would capture.

A shot of a lifetime! It looked like those huge waves were crashing against the cliff and then racing back out and colliding with the next monster wave coming in. That's got to be 100 feet high or more.


Another day and a road trip with Dad & Dodie to Waimea Canyon

Astoundingly beautiful! Kauai is known for these colorful roosters running wild anywhere there is food! This proud fellow was in the parking lot of one of the many canyon overlooks.



And now, Dad & Dodie come to Maui:

We did a lot of different things including a visit with neighbor and good friend Katie. She has a beautiful 6 acre property just four blocks up the hill from us and she invited us for a tour. Here are Dad & Dodie relaxing in the shade of her most beautiful and favorite Koa Tree.

Katie offered to take this picture:

Big thanks to Katie - wonderful hospitality and friendliness.

Last night visit hanging out in the living room (is this becoming a tradition?). We had a great time in both Kauai and Maui. I realized that I have not lived with my Dad for this amount of time since 1964. We totally admire he and Dodie. They are active and interested and alive and well!

Roger Van De Vanter

I did a "photo essay" recently regarding this fine gentleman.

What i mean by photo essay, is a story in text accompanied by a photo album.
I sent that out to a lot of friends in the form of an email with a link to the photo gallery. We thought this should be posted on the Blog as well. So, if you've been there, done that, ignore. If you haven't, enjoy!

Here is the text with the link to the photos included near the end:

Roger Van De Vanter

So, Tracy saw an add on Maui Craigslist titled something like, “Antique/artiste estate SALE (Haiku)”

Haiku is where we live so Tracy perked right up, next morning we drove right up......and only about 6 blocks up from where we live. Another new adventure had begun!

We arrived at 7:00am and there were only a couple other people there so we were able to meet Roger right away and begin talking, and listening, and finding out things like, nothing had a price tag, only he could tell you a price and it took him a long time, telling stories about the item, eyes darting around and drifting off into other items and their stories and then if he wasn't interrupted too often during all of that, maybe you could come to some price agreement.

His place was covered with a huge collection of his pottery.. It also included shelves of bonsai plants – some that he'd been growing for 45 years, and handmade furniture, rare and valuable Chinese furniture, made, well, by.......Chinese, a long time ago. Also, hand made and painted kites, lot's of potted bamboo and, and.....and just amazing! Everything chaotically placed and piled around his yard on tables and shelves, in boxes and shipping containers – you get the picture. He is the epitome of mad genius, artist-potter.

My mind was reeling with memories of another mad genius artist-potter of whom I was made aware a few years ago by a good friend. My friend and his family have been collecting the works of this potter for several years. Named George Ohr and referred to as the “Mad Potter of Biloxi,”he is a one of a kind, for sure. If you are interested, do an online search for him and check his story and his work. Totally eccentric, totally mad and utterly fascinating.

Who is Roger Van De Vanter, you ask?

He's an artist, a potter, a shoe maker (known for creating the multi-colored, layered rubber in elevated shoes which, at the time, Cher made popular), a self-proclaimed bamboo freak, a bonsai master, a kinetic sculptor aka mobile maker (see more about this in the photo gallery), a kite maker and competition kite flier (more about this in the gallery as well), a wood worker, to include carving and furniture making and a surfer..............but mostly a potter.

Roger's Bio reveals a history of art school study, 3 year apprenticeship with Tasho Shimeoko (master potter and living legend) in Gefu, Japan, owner of pottery studios, a cobblery studio and Professor of Fine Arts/Ceramics at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California. In 2000 he left the Laguna Beach area of California and moved to Haiku in Maui. His work has been purchased and exhibited by many private collectors in the United States, Japan, the White House, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Now he is moving back to California to continue his business, “Eccentric Ceramics” in Oceanside. We got to know him really fast, I took a bunch of photos and did several prints as gifts to him and we are sad to have met such a dynamic, interesting character and new but very close friend just days before his departure.

So it goes.

The photo gallery that was created to accompany this writing is located here:

https://neilvonhof.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumKey=XcN29p

Cut and paste this link in your browser. It takes you to a slide show format. You can control the speed or abort the slide show and review the photo's in various other ways by hovering over the show so that the film strip pops up at the top and over to right you can click on “Return to Gallery,” Note that there are comments beneath each photo.

Where's the Beach?

Our most favorite, local beach has pretty much vanished! This whole section of Baldwin Beach has disappeared. Here are the pics from 'before', taken in May and 'after' taken yesterday.

All the sand you see here in this picture taken by our friend Pamela Dore is now gone - all the way back to the tree line, the whole distance of the tree line down to the end and even the spot where Pamela was standing when she took this - gone. The camera is facing east in this picture.

The picture below was taken from right at the edge of the tree line pretty much down at the end of the trees looking back (west) right at the place where Pamela was standing in May.

Here it is now, taken from just in the tree line looking west. That sand in the first picture is all really gone. All those logs, stumps and roots showing were completely buried under a few feet of sand back in May and that sort of little bay was all beach covering all the water you see in that little bay now and far out past that point of sand furthest back in the picture. The swimmer you see would be standing on the beach if this were back in May.

Wha happen??? So far we aren't really sure. However, the best story we've heard so far is that this happens every summer when the trade winds shift so that they are coming more from due east (behind the photographer in this picture) and the wind and the waves wash all that sand west down around that point to another part of the beach. Then as winter comes the winds shift, coming more from the north and northeast and move the sand back. We shall see............

It's still nice there however, We sat under the trees in the shade at a point where there was clear entry into the water and if the beach was there on a day like this there would have been lots of people and a full parking lot. We counted only about 10 people in the whole area. Nice and peaceful, had a great swim and a great day.

First Snorkel With Underwater Camera

We love snorkeling and we see so many fish and other sea creatures that we finally made the plunge (npi) and got a little underwater camera set up.
Ended up with this camera:  Nikon Coolpix S610  and this underwater housing: Fantasea S-610
The setup functioned well (no leaks) but it's very hard to get good shots mostly because all the reflections off of the water proof housing make seeing the LCD display nearly impossible so, we just shot a bunch and hoped for the best. The real magic was Photoshop. I was able to rescue these few out of the 50 or 60 shots we took.

Threadfin Butterfly Fish

  Yellow Tangs - click to enlarge and look for the tiny white "tang" back near the tail. There is one on each side and they are razor sharp and there to discourage predators . If beeg fish tries to eat'm, it'll feel that tang and spit 'um right out.

Blackfin Snapper

Green Turtle

Parrot Fish - Hawaiian name Uhu (pronounced ooo'who)

Convict Tang Gang

Christmas Wrasse (click on this one for sure to get a better look)

Herd of Goatfish - they hang together near the surface, close to the shore

Oh yes, almost forgot this most famous creature:

Pointing Tracyus Snorkelus - rarely photographed in her native habitat!

Kitchen Progress

The granite counter top was installed today along with the placement of the gas range, sink and refrigerator (covered with cardboard left of the range). The 9 foot ceilings in this house add a feeling of spaciousness. It's beginning to look like we'll be moving in around early September.

Good News

'Nuff Said!

Tracy Gets Published in Another Blog!

Our old friend and neighbor in West Seattle, Eric Shalit has a great blog dedicated to gardening. He asked Tracy to do an article on the transition from PNW gardening to Hawaiian gardening.

Check it out here and enjoy!    Box Turtle Oasis

Giggle Hill

Funny name (explanation below), beautiful place. Just about a mile and a half up mauka (up the mountain) from where we live right now. We had heard many times that you can climb to the top but never got around to it until now.

Our destination was to get on a trail and find the top, the tip-top. We had heard of a least 3 possible trails. No problem finding finding a trail and it was a fairly steep but short climb. What we found up there was a pretty awesome surprise. Notice the tall trees silhouetted at the top.

These are Cook Pines, often confused with Norfolk Pines. Both are plentiful on the Islands. They are very hard to tell apart - easier when they're older. The Cooks can grow to 200 feet and were used for ship's masts in the days of Captain Cook. He "discovered" them (and also the Norfolks) and brought them to Hawai'i.

Hundreds of them populate the top of the hill, Magnificent! I would guess that many of these are right around 200 feet tall.

A friend suggested that this could be Tracy out for a walk with her pet dinosaur. Pictured, I would guess, is Deeno's right rear foot.

OK, as promised the story of the name "Giggle Hill"

"In the 1940s, during World War II, Kokomo Road was a very busy area. At “Giggle Hill” the 4th Marine Division would train, rest and camp. The area got it’s name during that time because it’s rumored that female giggles could be heard coming from the wooded area up the hill where soldiers and spunky little ladies would meet after dark. The author couldn’t  find any women (they would now be in their 80s) who wanted to talk about it “on record,” but assures you that the trees of “Giggle Hill” have many juicy stories to tell, if only they could speak."

Oh those "spunky little ladies" don't ya just love'm?




Another use for Cook pine wood:

Also, on this outing we stopped by to say hello to one of Tracy's new friends owned by our good friend Betsy.

Oatsey

Kama'aina

Another silly but fun milestone for VonhofMills

Kama'aina (pronounced kama eye' na) literally means 'child of the land' and has become a term used for long-term residents of Hawai'i.

Having these new licenses means we can prove we are Kama'aina and get big discounts and bargains! (Not really that big and not really that many, but it's fun to think you're special).

If you look closely at Neil's you'll see a humorous error.

Hint: Neil said that if he ever gets arrested he'll insist on being incarcerated in the womens prison.
(Click to enlarge photo)

New House Progress Report

Dropped by today - nice day, nobody there. Good time for some pics.

Click here for another walk-through video done just before Neil took the exterior photos

Things are moving along a little slower than hoped, but we are happy with the care and quality and don't mind being patient. All the sheet rock is hung and primed and the polished cement floor has been completed as well plumbing and wiring.

This photo is taken from the front porch of the new house.  Looking down our driveway you can see the other house (duplex) - red arrow. Beyond it is the road. On June 15th we will move into the upper unit of the duplex. This will put us on the land and make things much easier. We can start planting, help with the finishing touches and more easily coordinate the arrival of our household stuff, which has remained in storage in Seattle since we left.

Sometimes I just like a photo. I can't explain it, I just like it. This is the back of the garage.

The opened double slider glass door (to the right) goes into the master bedroom. The master bath shower is going to be outside. There will be a deck outside of the double door. We'll walk out on the deck and into the private shower area which will be to the right of the door as you look at it from this view. Outdoor showers are very nice in the tropics! The inside part of the master bath will have a full sized tub, commode & sinks as well as lot's of cabinets for storage.

Another milestone was the installation of the septic system last week. In digging the drain field lots of nice sized stones were unearthed which will be used around the yard for landscaping and such.

The beat goes on.............