Workshops

Monday, February 28, 2011

Kauai: Finale


Our time in Hawaii has come to an end. One of our final adventures was a visit to an old cemetery that we drove past several times and I just had to have a closer look. A small portion of the cemetery had more recent graves, but I made a beeline for the old section. So many of the gravestones were in disrepair, some no longer had names, and as you can see, some had crosses made from PVC pipe. But, all of the sites had a great view of the Pacific!











As I was roaming around, I came upon two ladies who were clearing brush and cleaning out the overgrowth up on the hill where there were three statues and a crypt below. I told them I was a lover of cemeteries and I thought it was so cool that they were working hard to keep things looking so nice. They said their parents were buried in the cemetery and they had been maintaining the hillside for the past ten years. The two ladies were such a hoot and so cute, I asked if they would let me take their photo. One of the ladies gave me a big hug, apologized for how they looked, and struck a pose!


Later in the day, we spent a couple of hours at Kalapaki Beach, where Howard rented a paddle board and did some paddling.





One little blip over the weekend necessitated a trip to the emergency room; there aren't many options on a Saturday night for getting a script for antibiotics. But I must say, waiting the three hours in the ER was pretty entertaining in Hawaii because so many people come in with gashes and cuts from surfboards, coral, and even an eel bite to the finger!



We had a final meal at Rainbow Living Foods in Kapaa, a tiny raw food restaurant where we had an outstanding and tasty meal: Rainbow Burgers and a shared mint limeade.




We'll be winging our way home for most of Tuesday, in our own beds by midnight. From what I hear, we're leaving behind warm, sunny weather and heading into a monsoon.

Hawaii Watercolor Journal


For our two weeks in Hawaii, I brought along a little handmade journal that I had purchased last year at ArtFest. The journal is only 5x7, so very compact and easy for travel. I brought along an assortment of watercolors, a medium I haven't used very much.



At first I thought I would use the journal for visual journaling like I've done in other journals using acrylic paint. I did the first couple of pages this way . . .


. . . but then decided I wanted to experiment more extravagantly with the watercolors. So I abandoned plans for words and ephemera in my journal, and just had fun with a variety of watercolors and a spray bottle of water. Here's a sampling of what I created over the past couple of weeks.










Sunday, February 27, 2011

Lucky Lady


Yesterday we spent much of the day aboard a 60-foot Catamaran, the Lucky Lady, exploring the Na Pali coast. We booked our tour through Kauai Sea Tours and were quite impressed with the whole adventure. You can imagine how excited Howard was to be on a boat whipping along the Kauai coastline.







Captain Brian said that there are about 10-11,000 humpback whales in Hawaii right now and we saw dozens during our multi-hour cruise. These photos don't do justice to what we witnessed, partially because I just had my little point and shoot camera and partially because the whales were so quick to be out of the water and then back in. We were able to see a mother and her baby, we saw lots of water spouting through blow holes, we saw one whale on her back playing, and we even saw one breech the water. It was amazing. And if all of that weren't enough, we also saw about a dozen spinner dolphins, sea turtles, and flying fish.





We cruised the Na Pali coast, most of it completely inaccessible except by boat.




After seeing so many whales and dolphins, Captain Brian found a quiet cove for us to snorkel. The number of fish was amazing. I hadn't been snorkeling in such a long time, it felt great to jump in and peer under the water. Here's Howard waving his approval.


Howard and I had fun bonding with Julie, one of the four crew members. We chatted and talked about some pretty important stuff - she was a bright shining star of a woman and even before we left port, we knew we would connect. We did.