Travel Tip Thursday: Happy Veterans Day

First of all I'd like to say thank-you to all the veterans out there; those who have served and those who are serving.

My dad, my uncles, the men I grew up with all served in WWII.

May we never forget their service to our country.

* * * * *

Today I was planning on staying home. Grading quizzes, reading drafts of student papers.

Catching up on laundry and chores....

Then my 18 year old son woke up at 6am - not a usual thing.

Next he asked me If I wanted to go to the North Shore with him and practice with my new camera by taking surf shots of him.

WTF, yes? Everything else can wait (we know it will be there when we get back).

Here's some photos with my new camera taken today on the North Shore.

That's my boy.
Remember, you can click on any of the photos to see them enlarged.

This was my view between surf shots. Nice, yes?


















Today's tip is twofold.

One. If you visit Oahu and stay in Waikiki, get a car and head to the North Shore. Bring your camera. Sit back and watch the surfers.

Two. Once in awhile, set the tasks aside and spend the day with a loved one. Especially if the loved one is a teenager.

Link on up with your own post and take us to your favorite place! Even if it is your own backyard.

The Reef is Always Brighter, in Somebody Else's Pond

Travel tip today is Waimea Bay on the North Shore.

During the winter and when the giant waves are up, if you get up early and can get parking on the highway up and above the waves, you might witness something like this...


That kind of surf only comes up once or twice a year, if at all. In the 28 years I have lived here, I have only witnessed it twice.

Howver, during the summer, Waimea is a huge salt water pool with the clearest water you can imagine. A great beach for snorkeling.

We like to walk to the far left side of the bay, past the rock the crazy kids jump off of (and yes, you might find my crazy son jumping off it from time to time).

On a lower ledge, you might even find my dog hanging with the boys.


The ocean is unbelievably clear.


The rocks provide an underwater playground.


Or a moment of zen.

Got a place you'd recommend for a day trip? A long trip? A lifetime? Link on up...

A Moment in Time with Friends....

This is the post I promised a week ago...

Even now, I don't have time to write the words these photos are deserving of; I need to get ready for work.

I have written about Laborless Labor Day before. An event that began in 2006, when my friends decided to rent a beach house on the North Shore. Women only. No husbands or children. That was the year I was fighting breast cancer and that September I was in the middle of radiation treatments. Chemo was over and Labor Day weekend I was sporting some peach fuzz on my head. I stayed on the deck except for early morning, sunset, and swims.

Labor Day 2008 I wrote this post that weekend on the deck. I had just started blogging.

Labor Day 2009 I didn't make it up to the beach house. Unbloggable events had begun the Tuesday before.

Labor Day this year, 2010, was magnificent. I do not have time to narrate the photos, but I encourage you to click on them and see them enlarged. Ke Iki Beach is a magical place.

I will attempt, in my early morning rush, to give give you one set of imagery with words. An event with no photos.

Saturday night is always a celebration. After a dinner of clam pasta and salad on the deck, the living room is cleared by pushing the furniture to the sides. A master play list has been prepared by two of my friends and the dancing begins. This year we danced through the decades. All of us worked our way through the '80's in clubs and/or restaurants (that is how we all met) and the music of those times brings back the girls we used to be, the young women still at the center of the women we have become.

We may have met in the 80's, but we were teens in the 70's and children in the 60's.

We danced with abandon for two hours straight. We danced in a circle and through the circle, in lines and in pairs; we danced to Build Me Up Buttercup, and we danced to The Cure. Electric Slide as well as Prince. Funky Cold Medina and Donna Summer.

Then we made a dessert bar and piled our plates with cookies, Faith Hill's Coca Cola cake, and lemon meringue pie.

We piled onto the bed in the living room like a teenage slumber party and talked until the sugar high began to wear off and just before we got sleepy for good, we rallied for a last number.





























Today's tip? Pretty obvious. Make time for the good times when you can. It makes everything else worth the effort.

Link on up if you will...

Oahu Coffee Beat: Traveling Thursday

The Coffee Gallery in Haliewa on Oahu's North Shore is hands down my favorite coffee house on the island. Great coffee, one of a kind setting. Free wifi if you actually tote your laptop on vacation.

Indoor and outdoor seating. Inside, the panels of the ceiling are each painted by a different local North Shore artist. Once, at the tables outside, a little old lady was doing palm readings.

Occasionally there will be a random musician playing outside as well.

What a coffee house is meant to be. Before the Mickey D's of coffee (yes - I mean Starfucks) took over the world.

Link on up with your own favorite local haunt or traveling of any variety.

Oahu's Waimea Bay

I know there are those of you out there who write your posts ahead of time and set them to go up at midnight. I know because midnight your time is early evening here if I'm comparing time to the East Coast.

I like to think that there are also those like me - who fly by the seat of their pants and post when and if they get time on the family computer. Which I did not get last night for Traveling Thursdays' post. "Luckily" for me, I often have insomnia. Figured since I cannot sleep at 3 AM, might as well get to it.

We love to go to Waimea Bay in the summer (Spring/Fall). A favorite snorkling beach. It is a stunning beach and the Bay feels like the biggest salt water pool on Earth. Often, dolphins frolic on the outskirts of the bay and once my son and his friend swam out to the dolphins (to the fear and amazement of my daughter who drove that day and felt repsonsible).

However, during the winter, when the waves come up monster size on the North Shore, Waimea Bay looks like this.

Greg Long

This shot is from the Quicksilver site, on this tab, you can view more photos from Tuesday's Eddie Aikau Memorial surf contest. I wish I could say I took off from work, spent the day on the North shore taking photos and videos for you folks. But you will have to settle for the professionals for your visuals.

Can you imagine being able to take a wipe out like that?

Travel Tip for today? Don't disregard Oahu when planning a vacation and think about a winter vacation. Heard about the rest of the country's weather on the news last night. It's gorgeous and in the 80's over here. Plus, if you come in the winter, you might get to see the big waves on Oahu's North Shore and maybe even a surf contest.

Link up you own post for some virtual traveling today with Mr. Linky. And feel free to grab the badge in the sidebar.

Tell Me a Story...

The Spin Cycle this week is "photo essay."

I've created a wordless photo essay. Your mission, should you choose to embark on said mission, is to leave a story in the comment section to go along with the photos....

Wanna play?

BC cannot wait to hear what you have to say about his antics. I may leave the real deal in the comment thread, but it will probably be anticlimatic after the fun....

For more photo essays, head on over to Jen at Sprite's Keeper.

Travel Tip Thursday: Take time for Your (Girl) Friends

My girlfriends and I have a tradition that started on Labor Day Weekend 2006. We rent a beach house on the North Shore and spend the whole weekend together. We call it Laborless Labor day weekend.

To explain how it got started, I’m borrowing an excerpt from a keynote talk I gave for a cancer event called “Courage Night.”

On Labor Day weekend (2006) I was about halfway through my radiation treatments when my friends planned a ladies only weekend retreat at a beach house on the North Shore. “D” told me we had been talking about doing this for too many years and my bout with breast cancer was a wake-up call that we needed to start doing those things that we talk about doing but don’t get around to. Our husbands and kids would just have to get by without us for three days. Those three days of hanging out on the lanai, relaxing and yakking, of swimming in the ocean, long walks on the beach collecting shells, and yes, especially the evening when “J” put on the pump it up playlist on her I-pod and all the women danced their hearts out in the living room, those three days were amazing. And if I helped inspire through my illness a spark amongst my friends to live life this fully, than I am grateful and fortunate and can see the silver lining.

Due to unbloggable events, I did not make it up to the North Shore this year. But I do look forward to next year.

And for those of you thinking about starting a three day weekend vacation/getaway with your friends, I highly recommend it.

Come along for a glimpse of Laborless Labor Day 2008...

Announcement: The Roy's Cookbook from this travel post was randomly drawn by none other than Darsden! Congrats Dar!

Add a link to your own travel or just plain good living at home post.... join the fun of Thrusday virtual travels...