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.............

Our Recent Guests

We like to make mention of our visitors. We love you all and appreciate your interest and desire to come and see us, consider it an honor to host you in our home and, of course, we love showing off Maui.
We've kept a record of visitors since we arrived last October. We've had 78 days of guests. If we were to count the "other half" of the couples who've stayed here the days go up 43 to a total of 121 individual person days. We've loved it!
So, the following 3 posts below mention our latest guests. It starts with the most recent and as you scroll down you go back in time.

Pamela Dore Arrives - May, 2010

(Click on a picture to enlarge)

Arriving from West Seattle on the 4th of May for a 6 day stay.

Pamela had a big wish list and at the top was going surfing! Our friends Terry & Lisa Dorries led the way to a good surf spot and Terry provided a surfboard.

Testing the water



I tried shooting a Hi-def video for the first time with my recenlty aquired Canon 5D Mark II camera. Not so good but I learned a lot. Like, when shooting Hi-def you really need a tripod or, better yet, a Steadicam rig because it's almost impossible to hand hold without having camera shake resulting in a jittery mess, like this one!. But here goes anyway. Pamela wasn't out there more than 5 minutes before she caught her first wave.
Click here:

Pamela catches a wave video

Waiting for the next ride.

Standup Paddle Surfboarding is becoming very popular. This guy came surfing by as Pamela stared at another missed wave. He was very proficient, all over the place, catching waves and riding them in, then paddling back to grab the next one.

Coming in - happy surfer

On another day we took a drive out the Hana Highway into the jungle.....

First stop was a favorite little bay that is an easy drive to an overlook and a short walk to the edge. Being the extreme collector of "Jump Shot's" that she is, we had to get a couple. Especially special because of her proximity to the 800 foot cliff edge! (Click to enlarge)

Windy

Our destination down the Hana Hwy. was this grove of Rainbow Eucalyptus

Closeup (photo by Pamela)

A friend planted these very rare bananas in this area. The are bright red and fuzzy. One day in Haiku he told me how to find them. They were back in the jungle off the road in a swamp, this variety needs an abnormal amount of water. He asked me to photograph them for him. That was a few months ago, so, it was fun to return and see that the number of these have increased - a successful experiment, I'd say.

Do you think Pamela & Tracy ate some of those bananas?

There were more adventures as well as plenty of rest & relaxation, but time came for the goodbye dinner out. One of our favorite restaurants in Paia is Cafe Mambo. It has become tradition to take our guests there for..........you'd never guess.........Paella! Then one can say, "I had Paella in Paia" which is, well, fun to say and quite delicious - in fact the best we have ever had!
(BTW Paia is pronounced Pah-ee'-ah and Paella is pronounced Pah-ay'-ah)
(Photo by our server using Pamela's camera)

Pamela left us with many great photos. This panorama is of Baldwin Beach, our local hang-out 15 minutes (by auto) from where we live. That's Neil and a bit of Tracy there on the shore. You'll usually find us way down near the end to right under the shade trees. Come on by!
(Click to enlarge)

Robin & Jeanne in April

In April Robin arrived. She has family in Honolulu so she set up her trip to swing through Maui on her way home to Poulsbo, WA. A couple of days later Jeanne arrived from Northport, WA.

                                 Jeanne                                                     Robin

Hanging out in the morning.

Late afternoon at Ho'okipa Beach Lookout near where we live and great place in the winter for surfers, sail boarders and kite surfers all going off at the same time - and yes, it can get sort of cool here.

Robin stayed for 5 days. One thing she loved was snorkeling and we managed to get in two good trips. The first was right after we picked her up early in the morning at the airport. We proposed heading straight over to one of our fave. snorkel spots across the island and she was totally up for it and ready to go! Nothing like starting off the day with a good swim/snorkel and then breakfast at the Kihei Caffe. Robin left on the 15th.


 Jeanne stuck around:

The Inverted Massage Chair Position

Induces silly thoughts and nonsense!

Jeanne stayed busy and active, seeing friends on the island who have horses, swimming, making new friends and lot's of exploring.

She's a go-go adventurer and couldn't wait to get Tracy and head up the slopes of Haleakala for a Zip Line adventure. Here she is ready to ride!

Info here:  http://www.zipline.com/locations/haleakala

Here is a video of Jeanne jumping off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLI7cAFNbMs 

Marilyn & Sevag in March

Tracy's niece Marilyn and friend Sevag arrived around the last week of March.

They were here during Spring Break so there was lot's of running around on the sunny, white sand beach side of the island swimming, snorkeling and sun bathing.

Sev dug himself and easy chair...........

This little known beach is one of our favorites. Down at the other end it's called Turtle Town. Great snorkeling and, of course, many Hawaiian kine Green Turtles to behold.

Marilyn with little Auntie Tracy................

Big congratulations to Marilyn! Just graduated May 21, 2010 from San Diego State University. Here she is on "The Day" with big sister Natalie and Sev.  This is a major accomplishment for Marilyn and we are filled with pride and admiration. 

GOOD JOB MARILYN!
(We swiped this photo from Marilyn's Facebook page, Natalie, you're cute!)

ART of TRASH - until May 15th!!!

Tracy helped a little to set it up and we still haven't been to see the finished show!!!

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-9SsJ1D2t4 Aloha!

Maui Cruiser

A popular form of transportation here on the Island is called the "Maui Cruiser." It's a cheap, funky, older, small car that's got a lot of miles on it, but still passes the safety inspection that's required yearly for all vehicles here. Because of the strong trade winds in Hawai'i, an emissions test (which would probably disqualify many Maui cruisers) is NOT part of that inspection and is not required anywhere in the state.

So, as gasoline prices creep up,

and because of that big V-8 Engine and Auto Transmission in our still much loved Ford Van, "Morrison" we decided it was time to go shopping for a "Cruiser". Of course, the best way to do that is Craigslist. If you are curious you can go to Craigslist Hawaii, click on the Maui tab and then search "maui cruiser" and check out the marvelous inventory of crap on wheels. It's fun to read the descriptions and about half include photo's.

Didn't take long to come up with this deal. I should have taken these picture before we cleaned it up, it looks pretty darn good here, and it is, actualy.

It's a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 Hatchback with a 2.0 Liter Dual Overhead Cam 4 cylinder engine and a 5 speed transmission and only 93,000 miles! The price was right at $1,500.00 with a MPG of 25-35 (the van get's around 15 at best), we'll feel a little better about those snorkel trips to the other side of the island that we like to do once or twice a week.
Nobody would enjoy riding in the back seat for very long however, so the Van abides as our airporter and island hopper for any more than the two of us.