Aloha, Hawaii

Well Great Big World, we made it.

Four months are up and we are DONE

Co-managing the Kona Tiki Hotel,

As of about 4:00 PM HST yesterday.

Right now I still mostly feel "numb".

We met a lot of people who thought

That this job must be a really great gig.

I can say I'm not sorry I did this,

I can say what an accomplishment,

What a unique, amazing thing to do...

But I will never say how "great" it was,

Or how "fun" or any other cheerful, 

Breezy adjective...

And I will never, ever say

That I'm coming back to do it again!!

Honestly, you'd have to experience it

To understand what it's all about.

(Ok, I deleted more whining...)

I feel like I've been deeply conditioned

To deal with this type of lifestyle;

I had to place all of my normal "things"

from my regular life on hold, 

In a mental holding tank...

And right now they're still there

Cause I am still here...

Getting back to "normal"

Will take some time...

How long, I have no idea.

But I do know, I won't start the

Deprogramming

Until I'm back on our

Precious mainland!

We fly out tomorrow evening...

Our final two days.....

This is part of the view from our current room on the top, third floor as we chill out for a couple days...we finally have a lanai and a better view of the wide open ocean after 4 months in the ground floor office/food prep area/bedroom/living quarters that doesn't have a lanai... since that space was used to expand the indoor living space...

Up here we can see the yellow tang fish, and the black fish I forget the name of....which we saw up close and personal the few times we went snorkeling...

...And we can see that there are java sparrows up in the eaves of the roof, making nests somewhere out of sight...we can see them come and go with pieces of grass...and ok we shouldn't but we put some chips out on the railing for a little snack for their hard work.

And always, the roaring sea crashes into the sea wall nearby.....



Will I miss Hawaii?  No, but I can say I'll miss pieces...like feeding the java sparrows and the one family of saffron finches and No. cardinals every morning.  They'll miss me too cause I can see that the current mgr. is barely putting any seeds in the coconut shell feeders....

I will miss a couple people, too...Mike H. the maintenance dude w/ his one-liner tees, great laugh, and good heart...and Meriam, the gentle Micronesian woman who was a housekeeper for a few weeks, and who shared her family with us one night over a bbq that they prepared for us, to thank us for hiring Meriam...her daughters played the ukelele and sang and danced for us, it was magical....thanks to "Bloody Meriam" we got to see someone chewing beetle nut for the first time, too! Yowza!

And, I can say that it's cool that we were able to see Kilauea Volcano, the world's most active volcano...countless beautiful, tropical flowers...sea turtles! ... and I snorkeled for the first time and subsequently saw many tropical fish for the first time...and even a red pencil urchin...and eels!
They really do exist!

And we did meet some pretty awesome, creative people (musicians, artists, writers)...Michael and Barbara, Tom and Rebecca, Tom and Catherine, all great inspirations for me to get re-acquainted with my creative side, so long over-due...this is what I believe was the true purpose for experiencing this crazy adventure...that, and the chance for Ruben and I to strengthen our bond as a couple...not that we thought we needed it but BOY did we get it!


So, aloha, Hawaii.  And aloha great Pele, Volcano Goddess and fierce ruler of the island.  You are a force to be feared and revered.  May you find peace some day from all that fury over a love that was not to be.

And finally...aloha, Kona Tiki. 

So quaint and serene on the outside,

A haven to so many who seek escape.
(But that just wasn't my own perspective.)

I will remember you well.

It is time to climb back into "the box".
And I am so ready.

(Edited: 10-2-12)

Well we are just about at the 2 week mark...

Two weeks (as of Sat.) until our last full day as managers...

We switch the new/returning managers over Sept. 30.

We'll have Oct. 1st free and clear,

And most of Oct. 2 until we fly out that evening,

Landing in Phoenix, AZ on my 52nd birthday.

What a gift!  Yay!  I can almost smell the freedom!

Ru and I go separate ways from Phoenix...

He goes on to Orlando and home,

I'm going to San Francisco, 

And then on to my hometown,

For a six-day visit.

I haven't seen my folks

In 1 1/2 years.  It's time!

Anyway, back to the here and now...

I don't think we'll be going out to any distance

At this point due to an issue w/ the hotel vehicle,

So I doubt I'll see any new sights, 

No new birds...

Oh well...to be honest, I am beyond anxious

To get back to the mainland, see my folks,

And then get home to Florida

Where a new-to-me house awaits

Paint, furniture, and homey touches...

We were only in our new house

For 4 weeks 

Before we came to Hawaii

For what turned out to be 4 months

(Instead of 3 as 1st planned)....

So, to put the focus

Back on feathers, new or not....

Besides seeing No. cardinals here in Hawaii,

(I was surprised too!)

There are also plenty of house finches

And house sparrows, as on the mainland...

Case in point, this male house sparrow, looking quite sinister

With his dark mask and goatee....

As he eyeballs me from straight above my spot in the shade at a beach...

The sparrows get fairly close, looking for crumbs...

The lone ruddy turnstone appeared again a couple days ago,

Strolling down the seawall past the back of our hotel room...

Getting decent shots of the java sparrows

Is no easy task for some strange reason...

Probably due to the poor light below the tree canopy,

And the fact that the birds and feeders are always in motion....

I did get a better shot of the Pacific golden-plover recently, 

The same day as the leering house sparrow incident at the same beach...

This plover was fairly close compared to the last one I tried to photograph.

The Hotel is Becoming a Zoo

It's beginning to look as though the local critters

Are trying to move in on us here...

This mongoose was sighted slinking around the front garden a couple days ago...

(Ruben's photo)

We've had a No. cardinal pair at the front feeders,

I think this is their offspring...either that or a rebellious, mohawked female...

Ok so maybe she's molting...

The java sparrows are always dining at the coconut shell feeders all morning,

I feed them around 6:30 AM daily...they get pretty restless by then...

We do have occasional, brief visits from a ruddy turnstone...

(Besides the wandering tattler)...

And the black crabs appear fairly often, 

patrolling the sea wall...

Then there's Smokey...

The neighborhood cat...

We feed him ea. morning and evening...

It was a part of our training,

Feeding the birds and Smokey that is...

We only see him those 2 times a day...

The geckos continue to scout bugs in the front office area...

This one is filling in my position for me,

Looking to check a new guest in....

And now we have a duck.  Yep, a duck!  This fella (or gal) appeared a couple days ago,
And is currently residing at Room 101's lanai...
When it isn't waddling around the back lawn or along the seawall.

Island Birds

Aloha! I wanted to post sooner but I couldn't figure out how to upload photos from iPhotos with my new Mac notebook...anyway we've been in Hawaii almost a month now and it's impossible to go into all the details about our intense 6-day training on how to run a 16-room hotel, and the following 3 weeks...Ruben's doing a ton of the physical work, I'm mostly doing the mental work and we are up at 5AM, the office hours are 7 AM to 7 PM, so we have 14 hr days and only get a whopping 10 hrs a week off!  We haven't seen a lot of Hawaii yet (big island) but we went snorkeling nearby recently at Kahalu'u Beach, my first time snorkeling, and it was so awesome!  I am no swimmer but the desire to see the tropical fish was so great that I learned real fast, which is typical for many people. We saw over a dozen different fish and will be going back again one of these weeks.  We also went kayaking from Kealakekua Bay to the Captain Cook monument, got dumped out twice at the sea wall where we were trying to set off from, that was so NOT fun, esp w/ my fear of drowning and we were being slammed by ocean waves coming in....we got out of there on the 3rd try, and on the way back in we saw a small pod of spinner dolphins about 30 yards away passing us, way cool!

I need to go to bed soon but will share what few bird species I've seen so far and have pics of, all are common....there's one pretty bird I see a couple of some days, very scarce but I'll share it once I do get a photo...I know what it is but will leave it for a surprise....

The java sparrow is really common...we have 8 coconut shell feeders hanging in the trees in front of the hotel and we get dozens of the javas every morning chowing down...I put the seed out every AM around 6:30 and they're up high in the branches waiting....

There's a few saffron finches that come to feed each day...it used to be one pair (males have orange on the head) but now I see either a couple extra females or immatures...I see them around town too...

The myna birds are a Hawaiian version of a crow really...

We also have a lot of zebra doves on the ground eating fallen seeds, I still need to get a decent photo of one...they bop around, don't stay still so I can get a good shot.

I have a lot of flower photos to share, the flowers here are beyond amazing!  There's one that is a flaming orange color in a tree, need to get a shot of that yet and ID it but it's gorgeous.  The plumerias used in leis are everywhere, white, pale yellow, and hot pink....

We've made good friends w/ one couple that was staying at the hotel recently, from Portland, OR, and were able to go out to lunch w/ them one day at the local marina....we have guests from all over the world, right now we have a couple from Italy and one from Australia...

As hard and tiring as the job is, we're making memories to last a lifetime.....

More to come..... Mahalo for visiting....