Davids vs. Goliath

This cruise ship's horn woke me up today. I went out on the lanai to see why all the commotion? The ship was coming into Kailua Bay just as participants in a fishing tournamend were heading out. At least 50 fishing boats were charging toward the giant cruise ship. It was more entertaining than this morning's newspaper.

Hey Tommy, that doesn't smell like mud!

For Father's Day my dad didn't want a present, he just wanted a Jeep ride. So we went up to Mana Road in Waimea. The road stretches 44 miles from Waimea around Mauna Kea and empties out on the Summit Road a few miles below Onizuka Center. We started in Waimea and only went half way, then turned around. And that's disappointing, because the upper half of the road is the bumpy part, the ride was just getting fun!

I turned on the air conditioning Monday and PEEE-YUUU! The smell of the poop wafted in through the vents. After a 1 1/2 hour wash job I'm still finding remnants of cow pies in the nooks and crannies of the undercarriage.

Let's Go Racin'

Denise knew I'd want to participate in the adult pinewood derby at her church. I'm still bitter about my girl scouting days. The boys built race cars and went camping, the girls stitched sit-upons- ridiculous square things you hang around your waist so if you have to sit down in the great outdoors your okole doesn't get dirty. But we never went outdoors so what the heck was the point?

Back to the topic at hand, the pinewood derby was a blast. This Cub Scout tradition is simple enough, build a car made of pine within certain measurement and weight guidelines, then see who's is fastest. They race down a grooved aluminum track. There's even software designed for pinewood derby, complete with electronic timing devices.

My car was a simple wedge design. I shaped the wood with a belt sander, spray painted red and blue stripes and named her Liberty. I dripped melted fishing weights into holes drilled in the back to increase weight.

Here's Liberty next to the General Lee and others. She placed 14th overall with 61 cars competing, and averaged 187 miles per hour (that's to scale with the size of the cars and track)

Trucks are for Girls



Danielle and Sarah show off their matching trucks. A few of us in the marketing industry (that's for you Dianne) invaded the Brew Pub Friday. Danielle and I work for West Hawaii Today, Kathy is a rep for Big Island Weekly, and Sarah sells advertising for Oceanic Time Warner.

Wet Okole Product Review

I put Wet Okole seat covers on my Jeep about a year ago, see the old blog post here:

http://alhauber.blogspot.com/2006/05/wet-okoles-are-installed-i-can-see-why.html

These really expensive neoprene seat covers are custom made to fit your car' seats. Okole means butt in Hawaiian and purpose of the covers is to protect the seats from salty, wet butts. They look great and fit perfectly but they don't do much to protect the seats. I removed the covers and discovered salt stained seats. Salty water has been seeping through the seams of the covers and sitting on my car seats for a whole year.

Salt stains on my driver's side seat:

Carharts & Cabella's

For a minute, I forgot I was in Hawaii. We went down to Manuka State Park to shoot guns and two guys showed up with a truckload of guns & ammo. They even had their own custom made steel targets. Everything about them said "midwestern America," where there's a Cabella's catalog in every mail box and the state uniform is made by Carharts.

They let us shoot several of their guns. The .45 semi-automatic pistol was my favorite. Bullets made music when they hit different sized steel targets. We also shot up some diet Cokes with a deer rifle and then we did some trap shooting. I used to be a lot better at it than I am now. I've been out of Indiana too long.

Chris aims at the close target with his .22 pistol. We also shot up some Diet Cokes that were by the farther, circled target with his deer rifle. I took out a can on my first attempt.

Shooting up the metal targets...pretty, pretty music.

What school you wen grad, brah?

It was graduation weekend here in Kona, and that's quite the event. You've never attended a graduation until you've been to a Hawaiian high school ceremony. The whole town turns out to support the graduates, and the lei are piled on so high it's a miracle the students can even see through the flowers.

We had our own graduation ceremony in church today for our Theology 301 class. Pastor even made everyone hum Pomp & Circumstance, it's just like him to try to embarrass us. We even got lei- all 12 of the lei they handed out were Kirstina's leftovers from her high school graduation the night before! I'm pretty bummed the class is over- but it was an awesome 9 months. I learned so much! I considered bombing the final so I could take the class again next year. Instead I worked hard and got a 98%! I ended up with the highest grade in the class, and that's not a familiar position for me to be in.

Now that the class is over I need a new project. I'm going to make an attempt at reading the Bible in its entirety within the next year. Maybe I'll even post updates to let folks know how that's going. Don't count on success. Last time I tried to read the Bible in a year I did finish- but it took me a bit over two years to do it.

An official document:

Down the Tube

Jim and I spent Memorial Day exploring a lava tube. It's a few miles past the entrance to Volcanoes Nat'l Park, makai of the 23 mile marker.

We were a bit nervous about being in the cave and considered turning back more than once. I was afraid our adventure would become a little more then we bargained for as we climbed over several piles of rubble inside the cave. (and I mentally recalled the 4.7 earthquake they had in Volcano the previous week.) But we continued onward as curiosity got the best of us. I'd say we went a good mile into the cave. The book says the cave goes 1.5 miles, but we turned around when crawling became necessary. We didn't dress properly. If you go I recommend jeans and gloves. And don't forget extra flashlight batteries!

There were some pretty amazing features in the cave like a long "horse trough" filled with pahoehoe lava, and stalactite-like, curly-Q lava hanging from the top of the cave.

This is where we finally turned around

My favorite section of the cave:


Weird curly-Q stalactites:

The horse trough:

Ethanol Update

I went through my whole tank of ethanol driving entirely on the highway. I got 15 miles to the gallon, no better than I get on gas with 10% ethanol added. I'm sure I'll try it again, as it's hard to asess from one tank of gas- there are a lot of factors that determine gas mileage.

I have to agree with Baron. We need an alternative fuel source- one that's not as environmentally harmful and will decrease our dependence on foreign oil. But I'm not sure ethanol is the answer.

I'm E-Free

My gas mileage has been junk. On the last two tanks of gas I got 14.6 mpg and 16 mpg, and that's mostly highway miles. I usually do mostly in town driving so my normal mileage is worse yet. Today I filled up on ethanol free gas to see if that will make a difference. It's available at the bargain price of $3.71 per gallon at the harbor. The ethanol was destroying boat engines and their fiberglass gas tanks, thus the E-free gas. The way I see it, my body wasn't designed to run on salads so why fuel my Jeep with corn? That may be an odd analogy, but it doesn't make sense to force the American people to put fuel in their cars they weren't designed to burn. And if our cars don't get as good of mileage with the 10% added ethanol, aren't we burning up more fossil fuels anyway?

, BParadise

(Waimanu Part II)

Saturday went something like this: Watch the sun rise over the ocean. Look at waterfalls and eat breakfast. Body surf. Eat a snack. Hike to waterfalls. Body surf. Eat lunch. Lay on the beach. Look at birds and plants.

We had a view of dozens of waterfalls from our campsite, which were reflected in a pond full of prawns, herons and ducks. The fine black sand beach was all ours, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I didn't want it to end!

Where the river meets the sea:

Best seat in the house:

Over the River and Through the Woods...

to Waimanu

I've been wanting to make the 9-mile trek into Waimanu Valley for ages, especially after we flew over the area in a helicopter more than year ago. The lush vegetation and the steep gulches and cliffs made the land look completely impassible- which made me want to go even more. This weekend I got my chance.

We parked at an art gallery about a mile from Waipio Valley and hiked down the ridiculously steep road in the pouring rain. By the time we reached the bottom the rain quit and never started up again for the rest of the trip. We set up camp on the far side or the river, sat around a campfire and slept to the sound of crashing waves.

Friday morning we headed up the other side of Waipio on the Z trail, which was more difficult than I anticipated. It's steeper and longer than it looks from the beach, especially when you're carrying a 30lb. backpack. The Muliwai trail then weaves around 9-11 gulches (the number of gulches was up for debate by our group) and through forests of ironwoods, eucalyptus and Norfolk pines before dropping down into Waimanu Valley. The descent took about an hour, it's steep and long and the trail is covered with kukui nut shells. Imagine walking down a mountain face covered with marbles when your legs are tired. When we got to camp and I looked up at the pali (cliff) I was amazed hiking down was even possible.

Saturday was a layover day to enjoy the valley and Sunday we packed up and headed home. The hike back took about 6 hours. That's not counting getting back out of Waipio Valley. In my great wisdom, I decided to hike out of Waipio with two other people in the blazing afternoon sun to get the Jeep and drive down to pick everyone else up. At least I had enough sense to leave my backpack in the valley. We made it about a 1/4 of the way up the hill with a local couple offered us a life saving ride.

A view of Waipio Valley from the top of the Z trail. You can see Mauna Kea in the background, and the road we hiked in on cutting across the pali.

Well worth the effort: after a good day of hiking we were rewarded with this view of Waimanu.

If you want to stand under Hiilawe, wear a helmet!


We hiked to Hiilawe falls in the back of Waipio Valley a few weeks ago. The 1,800 foot waterfall is the tallest on the island, but it was less than impressive because it was just a trickle down the cliff. "Who turned off the water?," I asked. I assumed God had done it. But Lisa told me farmers have been using the water that feeds the falls ever since the Hamakua ditch was damaged in October's earthquake.

It was pretty neat to stand directly under the falls- normally there's too much force from the water to get underneath. We speculated what it would have been like in the bottom of the narrow valley during the earthquake. We saw a fresh landslide that we figured happened in the quake. About a minute after Chris got out of the waterfall we heard a loud crack, it sounded just like a gun shot. Several rocks were falling from the the top of the falls! We didn't get a good look at the size of the boulders- instead, we high-tailed it outta there!

I'll be back in Waipio tomorrow. We're camping there tomorrow night, then hiking nine miles to Waimanu for two nights. Don't worry, I won't be pitching my tent under any waterfalls.

Hiilawe trickling down the rocks:

Looking up:

Pepeiao

I did a one-night backpack to Pepeiao in Volcanoes Nat'l Park last weekend with Sierra Club. We went down a 9 mile windy, one-lane road off of Chain of Craters Road, then hiked for 5 miles. I love getting away from civilization. Pepeiao means ear in Hawaiian, I have no idea how the area got that name, but I'll say my ears were happy to be away from TV, cars, phones and barking dogs.

The coolest thing we found was a black widow spider. I didn't even know we had them on the island. It was dark brown instead of black, which I'm told is normal for Hawaii black widows.

It was nice to meet new people and chat about their outdoor adventures. I'm looking forward to future Sierra Club treks like the one we have planned for next weekend- we're hiking to Waimanu Valley. It's a secluded valley on the Hamakua Coast with lush vegetation and towering waterfalls.


A view of Mauna Loa Sunday morning:


Diane in the tall grass:

Extravagance

A bunch of us who play in the worship band at church went over to Oahu this past weekend for a worship conference lead by Bob Fitts. We learned about focusing on God and bringing glory to Him, instead of focusing on exterior factors like whether we had enough practice time, whether the sound is mixed properly, whether that guy in the third row likes our music, etc.

Part of the teaching that really stood out in my mind was on extravagance. God didn't just make a paper box for us to live in- he crafted the amazing detail of every flower and placed every rock on the mountain just so, just for our pleasure. He loves extravagantly- enough to give His Son for us. Therefore, we shouldn't be afraid to express our love to Him in worship, and we should be looking to Him instead of looking at others, wondering what they think of us. I was thinking about this as I left the church and this tree commanded my attention. It shone in all its golden glory with a backdrop of bright blue sky and poofy, white clouds. When I looked at it I saw a picture of God's extravagance towards us.

Would you steal this toaster?

Jim's landlord is out of control. He's a skilled woodworker who just completed a mango wood cedar chest that he donated to Daughters of Hawaii to display at Hulihee Palace. His specialty is gutting antique radios and turning them into beautiful jewelry boxes. He seemed pretty normal until he showed me his latest project- the toaster. This circa 1970 toaster oven looks like a real pile from the front, but the back is a koa wood jewelry box. The concept? Keep the toaster of jewels in the kitchen. No one will ever steal it.

Where's W-2?

Remember Where's Waldo? Let's play the game, where's Andi's W-2? It's somewhere in my bedroom and taxes are due Tuesday, can you see why that presents a problem? I believe it's in the region just south of the closet.

Happy Easter!

Yeah, so I'm a little late with that greeting. I've been busy, OK?

Above is a picture of the sun rising over Hualalai during the Easter sunrise service at Old A's. I love that all the local churches get together. It's like a big family reunion each spring to celebrate Christ's resurrection.

I have to agree with Brian about Passion of the Christ. Violence in movies doesn't bother me, I saw Saving Private Ryan three times on the big screen. But the Passion is particularly difficult for me to watch. Part of that lies in the fact that I know Jesus; it's not just a depiction of a stranger hanging on that cross.

It's important to remember the sacrifice Christ made for us. But Brian's right. The movie should have touched on Jesus' teachings and made the Gospel message clear. In His life and death Jesus teaches us how to obey the most important commandments: Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus demonstrated that message through a life of perfect obedience to the Father, and he gave up His life willingly on the cross because of His great love for us.

The Bible teaches that all people are sinners. We have all rebelled against God and deserve to be eternally separated from Him. Christ loves us so much, He took God's wrath upon Himself. He took the punishment we deserve so that anyone who believes in Him and turns from their sin will be seen as righteous in God's sight. That's the message I wish Mel Gibson would have presented more clearly.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

I've posted a few silly videos on You Tube.

Swimming through a sea arch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GSaFSCy4_Q

Back dive off a boat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwuKJNj2Ic4

Driving over my camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6qRsyOd-ro

When my shocks were broken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KBbluqE3Dc

Sarah's Birthday Boat Take II


It's now a tradition. We chartered a boat today to celebrate Sarah's Birthday. We took it to our favorite spot, Makalawena, where some of our group spearfished. We also snorkeled near Pine Trees- I think we were at the popular dive site, Golden Arches. I was impressed! It was a gorgeous, sunny day, plenty of fun people, it was sweet! Wildlife included a manta ray, several Humpback whales, including a mother and calf that breached near our boat, and the usual underwater critters. It's gonna be hard going back to work tomorrow!

A 40-ton whale seems all that more impressive when she breaches near our tiny Zodiak inflatable boat.

Sarah's geared up and ready to shoot some fish.

The Rocky Road to ...

It wasn't the rocky road to Dublin. I'm sworn to secrecy- I cannot tell you where Saturday's adventure road took us. Since they paved Kua Bay, Makalawena has been crowded (there were 18 cars down there two Sundays ago!) so we were forced to look elsewhere. I'm not saying we found anything. But the road we were on was really cool. It's invisible from the air, the only indications that you're on a road are the spray painted arrows and the scrape marks on the lava from other trucks.

Holoholo

I went over to Oahu for the weekend to visit a life-long friend, Jen and her husband, Erik, who are there visiting from Phoenix. Before I arrived I tried to hit as many tourist destinations as I could...first on the list was Best Buy. It was nice being back in civilization with expressways, shopping centers, chain stores. It was nice for about an hour, then I decided Oahu residents can keep it. I'm glad I live on a neighbor island!

We had a pretty fun time. Ate the best shrimp in the world at Romy's Shrimp Shack in Kahuku, hung out on Sunset Beach, hiked to the top of Diamond Head, hiked to Manoa Falls, ate at the other Kona Brew Pub, and got pounded in the shorebreak at Sandy's. A successful trip!

Kona Brew Pub at Koko Marina: I felt right at home, we had a great time! I sure wish the original Kona Brew Pub would add the seafood chowder to their menu.

Manoa Falls wasn't that impressive, but it was a beautiful hike and the pouring rain added to the amibance.


The view from the top of Diamnond Head

Abundance

Who says it's a bad thing to have a fridge full of left overs?

Party On!

I don't have much experience hosting parties, but I think last night's St. Paddy's Bash was a success. It may even become an annual event.

Even Frederick dressed up for the occasion. Folks gathered around him for a photo- Ilona fell out of the picture.

Travis made his famous Castaway IPA marinated beef and bacon rolls.

Sean got a little crazy on the electric fiddle.

This Year's Picks




Here's my bracket, for what it's worth. I must not have been in sound mind when I filled this out...I have Texas Tech (Bobby Knight) and Indiana both losing after the first round, yet the Hokies are going to the Sweet 16. Does anyone know what a Hoosier or a Hokie is anyway?

How to Catch a Leprechaun

Ken's son, Korban, designed this fantastic leprechaun trap for St. Patrick's Day. Some leprechauns will think they're pretty darn lucky when they stumble across the End of the Rainbow Pub. That's before they pull tap labeled "free beer," which is actually the lever that will close the trap door, capturing the leprechauns.

bainne na mo is an gamma...

And the juice of the barley for me!

If you're reading this you're invited to a St. Paddy's Day party at my place. Friday night 3/16 after work... about 5:30ish. There will be food and beer...bring more food and beer if you want. The grill will be ready for meat cookin'.

All are welcome!!!!

On the Road Again

I almost tackled the mail man when he delivered my new shocks today. I've been riding my bike and bumming rides for two weeks because both of my rear shocks were broken. They were supposed to send higher grade gas-filled shocks but the ones they sent don't look as heavy duty as the ones I keep breaking. They seem to be designed differently, however, and I think this will prevent the oil from leaking out. And they sent the right size spacers for the bushings, so the top of the shock actually fits where it mounts into the Jeep's frame. The old ones had a 1/4 inch gap that had to be filled with washers from the hardware store. The hillbillies at Skyjacker wouldn't send me the right size spacers before because they said they don't even make them. Obviously they do. This Jeep with its disappointing ground clearance and now the problematic lift kit has introduced me to the 4X4 world. It would have been a whole lot easier and cheaper to just continue hiking to the beach...but that's not nearly as fun.



Here are the three shocks I've broken recently:

In the Garden

Here's my mom showing off the flowers on our Jade vine. One strand of flowers is about seven feet long, the longest we've had on the vine yet. Our "Corona" tree is producing so we'll have plenty of limes soon, and we have five pineapples and a hand of bananas to look forward to, also.

Back to School

I wasn't going to brag, but I changed my mind. I am taking a theology class at church, Pastor Bruce calls it Theology 301. We just had our midterm exam and I scored a 95%. Not only was it the highest grade in the class, I am told it's the highest score anyone has ever had on a Theology 301 midterm. It's probably stupid idea to trash talk about my high score. (this is God's word, not a volleyball game) But I'm not used to being the smart kid in the class so I'm gonna enjoy this victory by hanging the test on the fridge and posting a photo online for those of you who don't spend much time looking at my refrigerator.

Shocked!

I'm shocked that my Jeep is broken again. I have broken three rear shocks in three months. Trust me, it's not my driving, it's these crappy Skyjacker shock absorbers. I'm no mechanic, but I know the problem lies in that little hole you see down at the bottom of the shock. The nut that sticks out of that hole likes to break off, then the oil drains out of the shock and it's worthless. You can push down on my back bumper and practically dribble the back end of my Jeep like a basketball. Looks like I'll be riding my bike to work tomorrow.

Pretty Music

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog, I've just been too dang busy to mess with it. This photo is from last weekend. Sonicflood played the YWAM Kona campus, it was a great time of worship, and it felt like half the town was down there. I have to admit, I don't have the whole Christian concert thing figured out yet. Is it a concert or a church service? I'm all about expressive behavior and loud music at church. But in a concert setting, I am more apt to focus on the music and the guys on stage, at church it's all about Jesus. So I guess the atmosphere confused me. Maybe I've just been to too many Metallica concerts and I am more used to the crowd yelling "Die! Die! Die!" than "Praise Jesus!" There were definite benefits to the Christian venue: I could rest assured that guy face down on the floor next to me was not passed out or puking on my slippers, he was simply worshiping the Lord.

Johnny Lang

Another good time was had at the Johnny Lang concert the next night at the brew pub. Every musician on that stage was phenomenal. These incredible performers would take off on a song and jam. They really took it to the next level, way beyond the realm of the simple organized sound and silence that makes up most music. The show was top notch!

Kalua Pua`a

My timing was perfect. On a lunchtime stroll, I happened upon two men unloading the pigs for the Island Breeze luau. One of them was a 160 pounder, I didn't check the tags on the rest of them. It's kalua pig tonight!

A Super Day (that's just for you, Brian)

I watched Superbowl XLI with Joe, a tried and true Bears fan and an authentic Midwestern American. It's too bad Da Bears lost, but watching the game still made me feel like a patriot. From the opening of the Star Spangled Banner to the Bears returning the kickoff for a touchdown, to the outrageous commercials, I was thrilled to take part in this uniquely American tradition. I drank fresh American Kona Brew, wore an old Walter Payton jersey that was made in USA, and when I watched a commercial featuring several Chevy vehicles being driven across this great nation my heart welled up with pride that I also drive an American car. There's something special about the Super Bowl, it's so much more than a football game.

A Beautiful Day at Kailua Bay




The moon rises over Hualalai Tuesday afternoon. A storm brought wind that blew the clouds away from the mountain. We've had funky weather all week. Rain, wind, clouds, unusually clear skies, weird rainbows, big surf and beautiful sunsets.

Today's sunset:

What a Glorious Day

I had a little time between church and a BBQ last Sunday. I intended to wash some clothes and make it possible to safely walk through my bedroom. But the beautiful weather forced me to make different plans. The sky was blue and the mountains and horizon were crisp and clear. I hung out by the ocean at Honokohau, then I drove up to Kaloko to get a view from the 5,000 foot level of Hualalai. Hualalai means obstruction in Hawaiian. The mountain can be obstructed by clouds for months at a time, sometimes I forget it's even there.

Sunday was also special because I became of member of Grace Community Church. I've been going there for the past year or more and I love it so much! There are tons of really awesome people who have accepted me into their family, and they have found ways for me to participate and serve at the church. It's pretty exciting!