July 12, 2008

after the hike and before dinner in ala moana shopping center at a japanese steakhouse, we were enjoying a mai tai when this fly/bee landed in jerry's drink. he promptly removed the fly with a pair of chopsticks. we thought he had drowned but he staggered around the left over calamari plate and hopefully flew off when we left.

July 12, 2008

we hiked up to Manoa Falls through a tropical forest. you can see jerry through the archway of the trees.

Kristin is in the same archway 2003

July 12, 2008

Kristin at manoa falls 2003

July 12, 2008

jerry at manoa falls 2008. Oahu has been in a draught. there is only a trickle of water going over the falls presently.

July 12, 2008

jerry on trail to manoa falls. The roots form a great step system.

July 12, 2008

a close up of one of the giant clams. this one was only 8" long. They get to be huge...we saw some in the coral sea that were 5 ft. long. you are looking at it from an overhead angle.

July 12, 2008

wa ki ki aquarium catered to reef fishes. They had wonderful corals and were cultivating giant clams.

July 12, 2008

Here's one of the eels at the aquarium.

July 3, 2008

we walked a half mile to the aloha tower center to see the 14 minute fireworks display. they were spectacular. glad we were able to walk instead of driving a car.

July 3, 2008

after the zoo, we stayed on thewaikiki beach awhile to watch the surfers.

july 3, 2008

dont know if you can enlarge this to read or not. its the info at the base of the star's bronze figure.

July 3, 2008

a bronze statue on waikiki beach honoring the The famous olympic/surfing/actor Duke star, paoa kahanamoku. try pronouncing that one!

July 3, 2008

looking northwest from waikiki beach.

July 3, 2008

We visited the Honolulu Zoo today where we were most impressed with the hippos and the rhinocerous.

June 29, 2008

after our mai tai on the waikiki beach we found a korean bbq at the waikiki resort hotel that allowed you to cook your own food at the table. we had sirloin and brisket. we plan to go back again.

June 29,2008

Here is a top view of the mai tai we were served at the surfrider beach bar hotel. our favorite place with the best mai tais is the pink royal caribbean hotel, but it is under restoration and will not reopen until dec of this year.

June 15, 2008

evening brought another wonderful sunset.

June 15, 2008

after spending the morning eating brunch of dim sum in china town, and sitting on the beach of waikiki, we ate at a japanese bbq where we cooked our own food.

June 15, 2008

Can you believe we ate lunch here at a bus food mobile downtown waikiki? still really pricey even if on paper plates.

June 7, 2008

here i am on the north shore. it is calm enough to snorkel and swim in the summer but during the winter swells, it is the world tourist capital surfing

area. bring your field glasses, cause the surfers are a long ways out in the water.

June 7. 2008

after the parade, jerry and i went to waimea nature center. here we were photographed in front of the falls. luckily it had rained heavily in the mountains the evening before, because the falls did not begin flowing until 11 am that day. normally people can swim in the pool, but not today.

June 7 2008

images of the king kameamea parade that marched from honolulu to waikiki.

images of parade

cars in the parade celebrating king kameamea's birthday were decorated with fantastic tropical floral displays.

a statue of king kameamea has been covered with leis tocelebrate his birthday on government grounds. here a native is seen in prayer.

June, 2008

i often take my 2 mile daily walks through china town. the market is always interesting. today the butcher had squid on his meat hooks.

June, 2008

Looking through our condo windows to the eastern mountains, about 4 pm rainbows often appear. doubles are plentiful, triples are rarer.

june, 2008

here is a single rainbow. they are very frequent even when honolulu gets none of the rain. you can walk outside in the sunshine, and have to take off your glasses because they are getting too wet, and arrive home dry. no humidity, mid 80's . weve never been anywhere with better weather than in hawaii.

June, 2008

From a zoomed in image on our room on the 38th floor, you can see tripler medical center on the top right. it was painted pink to match the local soil in the mountains that you just quite cant see from this angle. what should only take 15 minutes to get to or from work, sometimes takes an hour. honolulu was rated the worst for traffic driving in the u.s.

June, 2008

jerry is standing on hotel street, honolulu (china town). we are returning from our daily sunday dim sum brunch to our hotel pictured as the high rise in the background.

June, 2008

we were on the 39th floor for one week and had a glorious view of the harbor. they moved us to the 38th floor, facing the northern mountain range over which the west sun sets. here you can see china town and tall buildings of honolulu. my painting area is up and productive,

This is our view from the 38th floor of the executive suites downtown honolulu. Jerry is working at Tripler Medical Center, and i am painting. The surgery in feb. has set me back, so i am struggling through my dark period.

June 1, 2008

Legends has about 5 or 6 carts. this one contains large items such as bbq ribs and small items as desserts. it also carries taro shrimp and springrolls. other carts carry steamed food in bamboo baskets, pan fried food, boiled and prepared at your table items.

June 1, 2008

We barely got moved into our condo and then sprinted quickly to our favorite dim sum restaurant, legends, in china town. here you see jerry finishing up our gormet pupu's.

May 31, 2008

a view from of the s. eastern coast of oahu from a kodak picture viewing area. we are just north of Makapu'u pt. and lighthouse.

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May 31, 2008

from honolulu, we drove through the pali pass stopping to take some pictures there, and on to kailua on the SE coast. here many people rent kayaks and paddle them out to small islands nearby.

May, 31, 2008

vista view at the pali pass looking north east to Kailua.

May 31, 2008

Jerry at the trailhead to pali pass on oahu. it is 9 miles to the falls, so we didnt hike it this day. we are still on jet lag time 6 hours earlier than EDT

April, 2008

This is a group of friends we have been family to since moving to cape coral, fl in 2000. we all get together at least twice a month depending who is in town and whether or not it is girls, boys, or couples day out. Must have been our yearly family photograph.

April 2008

Toni (a fellow teacher in michigan) and Mike spent a day with us on the boat near pine island.

April, 2008

our great canadian friends, catherine and colin alias sailorgirl and the pirate, arrived mid april on their 27' c and c headed to the bahamas. we took a walk at the ecological cove on the calhoosahatchee river

april, 2008

nominees for angels of the art by the alliance included myself, gail jones as teacher of the year, clare candelori as new artist of the year, and dena shepherd as artist volunteer of the year. none of us won the award, but we were all thrilled to be nominated!!!

March, 2008

A great friend of my daughter kristin, is mandy with her third child, anna. they came to visit their parents and we got to spend the day with them.

March, 2008

Harborside, downtown ft. myers hosted the SWCouncil art exhibition. Among the artists at the reception were, dena shepherd, and dannica walker with her husband, pete. These 2 ladies are among my best friends and competitors!

March, 2008

Jerry' brother, Richard, and his wife, Karen, sweated all day over this grill in north ft. myers, preparing us a gormet meal at their rv. site.

march 2008,

carolyn and mike from college were with us for 3 days. musta been feeling really bad at the time, because now, i dont have any pictures of any of our outings.

february , 2008

libby, the mom who adopted me in hs. went with me to a naples beach and a nice luncheon at the end of the month, about 3 weeks after my surgery.

february 4 , 2008

Dr. Fuchs from ft. myers, replaced 3 discs and fused 4 cervical vertebrae together with a titanium and some huge screws. this particular xray of my neck was taken in june, just before we left for hawaii.

february 2+ 3, 2008

I decided to postpone my cervical disc surgery until we had completed the ft. myers, fla. ARTFEST exhibition. here jerry and i are in my tent display.

January, 2008 from Michigan

Heres my brother, David with QT.

Jan. 2008

My sister-in-law, Becky, married to David has a new westie puppy, QT.

Dec. 2007

Newest "Santa"! My grandson, Brandon at 5.5 months. Scott and Jalayne the proud parents.

Dec. 2007

Frost was definately in the area during our stay in Germany. We wished there would have been more sunshine. But there was a sprinkling of snow for Christmas!

Dec. 2007

Becca, Sabrina, Great Uncle Richard, Sarah, Rachael and Robin in the back of the BMW we rented for the week.

Great Uncle Richard and Sarah

Dirk, Sarah, Rachael, Marina +Brett.

Sabrina sat at the opposite end of the table listening to the adults around her.

Brett at a dinner get together, Boxer Day, in Fraankenthal.

Streets of Bobenheim-Roxheim headed for a real German home cooked meal by Marianna + Klaus.

Rhine River. Notice the castle in the sky. Unfortunely most of them were closed for the winter.

Jerry in a Greek restaurant in Erlitz.

Janet in much pain eating sushi as we took a drive up the Rhine River.

Dec. 2007

Romanesque Church in Worms.

Dec. 2007

Speyers Christmas fest with the Romanesque church in the background. I lost my hat to the wind in front of the church. Trying to keep it on my head, i ruptured 3 cervical discs. Kept me in alot of pain those 2 weeks in Germany.

Dec. 2007

The girls created this Christmas room waiting for Santa to arrive. Late that night they placed milk and cookies for Santa too.

Dec. 2007

Dirk helping Sarah, Rachel, and Becca put together a gingerbread house.

Dec. 2007

All Sarah wanted for Christmas was her two front teeth and all her belongings from the States that had not yet arrived.

Dec. 2007

Dirk, Sarah, Becca, Rachel, Great Uncle Richard, Great Aunt Karen, Robin, Great Uncle Jerry are all seated in a German restaurant in Heidleburg.

November 11, 2007

I drove up to Orlando to see my daughter, Kristin and her friend, Sandy, compete in a 10K marathon through Celebration. Because they pace their run/walk. I happened to catch them about halfway through their race. They are preparing to run their first full marathon in disney in January.

Oct. 30,2007

happy birthday Janet, from Iguana Mia's

We love to eat, especially when you get your birthday meal free!

Oct. 14, 2007

happy birthday Jerry, from Iguana Mia's.

we got back to cape coral in time to collect our free birthday meals.

Oct 1, 2007

This is me, Janet, and Annie from Daniel Smith at the Florida Watercolor Conventionin Daytona Beach, Florida.

I demoed daniel smith quinacridone watercolor paints at the Florida Watercolor annual exhbition in sept. with their rep, Annie, from Seattle.

We all had a good time, and i was awarded my FWS signature membership! Hooray! My solo show at the cape coral arts studio was wonderful. I just won a first place at the visual arts center in punta gorda, fl. and all is well! photos to come.

September 16, 2007

the weather was overcast. crater lake was not as blue as it was the first time we visited it because the sky was not blue. this was the first time we were able to drive around the entire crater rim. the last time we were here, snow had not yet been removed.

September 16, 2007

Hi.....this is me at one of the waterfall hiking stops on the way up to and surrounding crater lake where all the waterfalls are visible. in the spring, the waterfalls are phenomenal, overflowing with the melting snow from the mountains. in september they are only a trickle fed by springs in oregon. it is cold here now. the nights have been in the 40's. day temps in the high 60's. all of this area is in the umqua river valley.

September 16, 2007

this is at another waterfall area on our way up to crater lake. notice the small redwood tree stump to the left of jerry. many of them were felled.

September 8, 2007

On our way back to Roseburg, Ore. from the pacific coast, we stopped at a botanical garden. not quite what we expected to see but instead found a natural area in the forest where a boardwalk to the swampy area led us to view these insect eating plants that were quite numerous. they are darlingtonia californica.

September 8, 2007

During our weekend trip to the coast, we ate good chowder, visited the oregon coast aquarium in newport, stopped to see this historical bridge, near the Heceta head lighthouse (just n of florence), a glass blowing studio near newport, and the botanical gardens, all before buying fresh fish in reedsport and returning to roseburg.

September 2, 2007

Pictured are Dawn, myself(janet), and Monique. They are former students, friends, and now worldly contemporaries who graciously gave us a welcoming basket of washington goodies and treated us to dinner on the river front in tacoma.

Monique relocated to tacoma recently and although she is really enjoying her new adventure, misses being away from her michigan family. HI MOM (Claudia) from all of us.

September 2, 2007

We walked over the chihully bridge. one part of it had a ceiling of about 30 panels holding thousands of glass sculptures.

September 2, 2007

another part of the bridge had a wall of individual boxes each housing a sculpture sush as the one above.

September 2, 2007

In the house of glass in tacoma, washington, we watched visiting artists blow, paddle, form and create art works out of glass.

September 1, 2007

Magnificent sunset from the back of the whale watching boat. the water was 48 degrees, and it was cold outdoors!

September 1, 2007

Here is a picture of a mother orca from J pod that we photographed just south of victoria island, Washington. the adult whales are about 30 foot in length, making this baby to be about 6 foot and newly born. the mother pushed it to the surface often to breathe. here it looks like the baby may even be riding on mom's back.

September 1, 2007

At the Boeing assembly plant in Washington, two of their dream lifters were parked outdoors. they are used to bring in all the plane parts that will be assembled there.

August 26, 2007

I'm not quite sure what type of noctural animal this guy is, but he sure was cute.

August 26, 2007

We dont even see flamingos in Florida, they must all be in Oregon.

August 26, 2007

Even though the lion is out of focus, i loved this photo taken through the dried thistles.

August 26,2007

Just south of Roseburg, they have a large animal safari attraction. They warned us if the rhinos were on the road, not to stop, unless we wanted our car overturned or our tires impaled.

August 25, 2007

We found this old train station depot converted into a restaurant in old town, Roseberg. They serve great fried halibut and rare ahi tuna salads.

August 25, 2007

There are huge blackberries EVERYWHERE in our area. We stopped to view an old wooden covered bridge and indulged in the blackberries. They came at the cost of thorn scraped arms.

August 25, 2007

Here is Janet and Jerry, strapped into our dune buggy ready to take on the sand dunes north of Coos Bay on the central coastline of Oregon. We drove down to the Pacific Ocean, and though we had on coats, it was so cold, we drove back inland quickly and played on the dunes. I didnt get any dune shots for fear sand would ruin my camera.

August 21, 2007

It's tuesday 7pm. we attended the last tuesday night concert on a lawn in roseburg, oregon. it's a lot like revisiting the hippie culture of the 60/70's. if you look hard people are seated a long ways away. many people spread their blanket on their spot as early as 6am in the morning of the evening concert.