Tuesday November 11, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

We made this a lazy day, we had nothing planned.  We lingered over our coffee and a food bar each.

Later we had lunch of left overs.  Gerri and Neva had their left over fajitas from El Torito and I had the pizza.

The sun was out for the most of the day but there was a heavy marine layer.



Just before sunset we drove to Carlsbad Village. On the way we stopped at a small park at the corner of Cannon and Carlsbad Blvd. to look for a geocache.  I had found two in this park over the years that have been archived.  I didn't find the new one, maybe later.









We parked in an area overlooking the beach near the Carlsbad Inn. We got some pretty good pictures.  We never saw the sun set into the ocean because of the marine layer.  The reddest clouds were to the east.

 For dinner we decided on the nearby Harbor Fish Company.  They have excellent fish tacos and fish and chips.  http://www.yelp.com/biz/harbor-fish-cafe-carlsbad










Gerri and I both had a cup of clam chowder.  We ate early but we all ordered the two piece plate of fish and chips.  Of course we had a piece of fish each and plenty of fries left over for another meal.

Back at the resort we played a game of dominoes, Mexican Train.  JoNell will be glad to hear that I squeaked out a victory.  It isn't often that I can beat two Barnharts at any table games.

I didn't make it much past 9:30.  I suppose that was because of my late night reading yesterday. I have no idea when the ladies called it a night.

Monday November 10, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

Even though I napped on the drive from Las Vegas yesterday, I slept until nearly 9:30am.  Neva slept in later than I did and Gerri had been up for awhile waiting for us to stir around.

Brother-in-law John called at about 10.  He got to the house earlier than planned.  He had checked out the problem with the garage door that trapped Judy yesterday.  The problem was where I had parked Neva's van.  I had pulled it into the garage and walked around to make sure it was far enough in for the door to close.  What I didn't do was look up.  The Toyota van is taller than Gerri's Lincoln and the emergency release drags on the roof.  It is no problem when the door closed.  When Judy opened the door the handle of the release caught on the rear spoiler at the back of the van and released the door causing it to slam shut.  Fortunately Judy wasn't in the way when the door closed as it comes down with considerable force.  I watched it several times on the recordings on the security camera.  I e-mailed Judy a picture of her looking perplexed on how to get out of the garage.

John shortened the cord so it would clear the spoiler by putting a knot in the cord. Nothing was broken so there should not be any further problems.

The sun was out most of the day but we pretty much stayed in during the afternoon.

Emma, Todd and Wyatt

We left the resort at 5 to drive to Dana Point to meet Todd and family at the El Torrito Mexican Restaurant.  Traffic was heavy in both directions.  We got to the restaurant before Todd and were already seated when they arrived.  Jeannette wasn't feeling well and didn't come  So it was just Todd, Emma and Wyatt,  We hadn't seen the kids since January. They seemed to have grown a lot.  Before hugging me Wyatt gave me a folded note.  It was a 3x5 card and he had written "I love You Grandpa" on it.

Emma, Wyatt, Todd and me

Emma is 9 and Wyatt is seven, they are both very articulate and even Emma has become quite conversant.  We had antimated conversations before during and after the meal. We enjoyed their company, I'm not sure what our fellow dinners thought. But, I don't think we disturbed them very much.

When we left the restaurant I checked the geocaching app on my iPhone, there was a cache 475' away.  The kids were enthusiastic about the hunt.  Gerri and Neva followed us in the car.  I never have done well finding caches at night, but with four of us looking I was confident of success.  Emma spotted the container but couldn't reach it.  Todd retrieved the container and I signed the log.

Night caching

Wyatt and Emma

We said our goodbyes and headed back to Carlsbad.  Todd and family went the other direction to their home in Long Beach.  We were back at the resort by 9.

Me, Wyatt, Emma, Gerri and Todd

Wyatt Todd, Emma and Neva

Emma and the Ruby slippers

We rounded out the evening with reading and computer activities.  I was reading and true to form stayed up to finish my book at 2 AM. Gerri and Neva were smarter and were asleep much earlier.

Sunday November 9, 2014 Carlsbad, CA

It has been three and a half weeks since our last blog.  In that time I have visited doctors, had tests and had the cataract removed from my left eye.

The saga of the wood floor in the kitchen continues.  Between the installers, the flooring company rep and Chad from Copper Creek Construction (who did the remodeling) the responsibility for repair has fallen on Copper Creek.  As soon as the wood is available they will replace the damaged area.  That may take awhile, the wood comes from a factory somewhere in eastern or northern Europe.

But, I regress. This trip is a short one to Carlsbad in southern California.  Since we are driving Gerri's Lincoln we don't have to pack the same as if we were flying.  We didn't plan to leave until 10:30, since check in at the resort didn't start until 4 PM.  We did some preparation on Saturday night and Gerri finished the packing this morning.  Gerri's mother, Neva will be with us for the week.  She arrived as planned at 10.  We put every thing in the car and pulled out at 10:30.

The first part of our route was south on I-15.  Every thing was fine until we started up the hill just past state line.  From there on the trip was mostly stop and go and very slow moving.  We normally stop at the Costco in Victorville for fuel.  Since traffic had been so slow we decided to have hot dogs at Costco and make a pit stop there.  I don't know if you have ever been to this Costco on a Sunday afternoon, but I can tell you it is busy.  If this isn't the busiest Costco in the chain, I would not like to see the busiest. Between our hot dogs and the line for fuel we must have been there for more than an hour.  We also got a pizza for dinner at the resort.  While I was in line for the food, Gerri found a Christmas decoration she had to have, and does now have.

Back on the road it was on into the construction zone going down from Cajon Pass and the construction again at the intersection with the 91 Freeway.  Occasionally we reached highway speed until we turned on CA-241.  The toll booths are no longer manned and you have to go online and pay by credit card.  There was little traffic on the toll roads, CA-241 or CA-133.  The traffic slowed once we were o I-5.

Before we left I had made arrangements with Dana's mother to pick up some documents that I left in the garage for her.  I had given her the garage door code.  Our son Curtis called me from Texas and told me that after Judy went into the garage the door slammed shut.  She had been on the phone with Curtis at the time.  Curtis guided her through escaping from the garage by opening the other door with the control from the Jeep.  She took the control with her and shut the door from the outside.

Our brother-in-law, John, will be at the house tomorrow.  I called him and explained the situation. He will check it out and call me.

We arrived at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort at 5:35.  We were checked in and were in our room in time to tune into the webcast from Oakey blvd Church of Christ at 6 PM.

After worship service we finished bringing things from the car.  We ate our Pizza at about 7:30.

When we got unpacked, Gerri's computer wouldn't come on.  It wouldn't work plugged in or on the battery.  Gerri tried several outlets to no avail. I tried it with the battery out, no luck.  Before I went to bed I took the battery out and left the computer unplugged.  She has her iPad and we watched the Church Webcast on Neva's computer.

This will be a busy week.  We plan to meet Todd and his family at El Torito in Dana Point tonight. On Wednesday evening we will have dinner at Sonny's in San Clemente with cousins Arlene and Bill.  We will meet a high school classmate of Gerri's on Thursday for lunch at Norte in Carlsbad. Friday we plan to go to Coronado and visit with a couple we met on our Mediterranean cruise last October and have dinner with them, and Tyne and John at the Coronado Cays Yacht Club.

Reading and computer time brought us to bedtime.

I have no pictures for the blog.  Gerri took one of the traffic jam going up to Mountain Springs, but it was poor quality.

Tuesday October 14, 2014 Las Vegas, NV

Last day in Hawaii.  Well, yesterday was our last day in Hawaii.  Today is leaving Hawaii and going home to Las Vegas day.  We got up early at, 6:30, and drank coffee while finishing our packing and getting ready to travel.

We left for the airport at 9.  Our flight wasn't until 1:20.  We had to stop at Costco and top off the tank in the rental car.  We thought it might take longer for the rental car turn in because of some damage to the vehicle but we sailed through that.  We were soon on the shuttle to the airport.

Ready to travel

We had to go through an agricultural check before checking in with the airline.  The really long wait was for a porter with wheelchairs for Neva and me.  We sailed through the TSA checkpoint and waited at the gate for our flight.

The first part of the flight was a short hop to Honolulu to catch the flight to the mainland. The wheel chairs came quickly in Honolulu.  It was a long way from the interisland terminal to the International and mainland terminal and we got to the gate just in time to board.

Just a side note here on geocaching.  On this trip I completed my quest to find a cache on each of the publically accessible Hawaiian islands.  We had travel to both Lanai and Molokai on this trip and I found caches.  I had found caches on the other islands, Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai and Maui on previous trips.  The cache finds qualified me for a challenge cache named "Hawaii Island Hopper Challenge."  The problem was that in order to find the end cache I had to return to Oahu to sign the log.  Even though the cache was located near the airport, I just didn't have time to get to the cache and back to the airport for our connecting flight.  I posted a note to that effect on the cache page.  A very kind offer was made by a local cacher to pick me up at the airport and take me  to the cache and back.  Too bad, I didn't have the time.  Gerri is looking at an inter island cruise next year.  So I may be able to complete the challenge then.

The flight to the mainland was long and bumpy in places.  On the way Neva and Gerri took pictures of the video presentation on our seat back monitors.  They were afraid there would be no pictures for this blog.

We arrived at McCarran at 11:35. A little early.  Hollis picked us up after we schlepped our luggage for what seemed like a half mile through the nearly empty terminal.  We had tried to time the pickup by sending e-mails, but Hollis had to circle the terminal twice.  McCarran doesn't have a cell phone waiting lot like every other airport in the world.  I guess that is part of Randy Walker's legacy of bilking every penny possible from the traveling public.

Our next rip is planned for November 9  to Carlsbad, CA and I will resume the blog then.  In the meantime I have doctor's appointments, vehicle repairs and minor surgical procedures to take care of.

Monday October 13, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

Our last full day on Maui dawned, if you can call it that, with grey skies.  Of course our alarm clock was the construction activities that started promptly at 8 AM.  We had our coffee and said good morning to our computers.  Neva's plan was to get some sun today, curses foiled again.  The rain came at about 9 and continued off and on all day.

Saphira's Teeth

Some time during our stay I had realized I was close to 4600 cache finds and had set that as my goal

Near my last cache

Rain at the Papakea Resort

for the trip.  I needed two more today and decided to try the ones along a trail in a closed golf course in Kapalua.  I drove around looking for the right place to access the trail.  I had to park during a hard down pour, it was raining too hard for the wipers to keep the windshield clear enough to drive.  I finally went to another group of caches along a coastal trail.  The first was a tough walk mostly over uneven rocks. It was an earthcache and I got the required picture and later the required information off the internet.  On the way back to the car I had to walk hurriedly in a minor cloud burst.  The second cache was only a short walk on a beach access trail, it was harder to find the beach access parking than it was to find the cache. That one made my goal for the trip.  As insurance I walked another 3rd of a mile to another cache along the trail, and of course a 3rd of a mile back.

I got back to the Papakea at about 2:30, I was still wet from my walk in the rain.  Our plan was to have dinner at the Hula Grill at beachside in Kaanapali at the Whaler's Village Shopping center.  The outing was looking doubtful with the heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning.

There was a lull in the rain before 5 and we headed out.

We got a good table at the Hula Grill near the bandstand in sight of the ocean.  even with the afternoon's rain most of the sand under our table was dry.

We had an excellent meal.  Neva and Gerri had fish tacos and I had Firecracker Island Fish.  It was Ono and served with rice and a mango and black bean salsa.

Our last sunset on Maui was pretty but not spectacular.

An ice cream sandwich for three

About 8 we returned to the Papakea Resort and Gerri got the large bags packed.  Our flight isn't until 1, but we plan to get up at 7 and leave for the airport at about 9.  That will give us time for the 20 mile drive and to top off the tank at Costco before turning the car in.  We should have plenty of time to checking in by 11.

We finished the evening with reading and computer time.

Another good day, too bad it is our last day here.  Gerri has already looked at an inter island cruise for January.  Our Cabo plans may have to be changed depending on the progress of repairs from the damage caused by Odile at both resorts we stay at in Los Cabos.

Sunday October 12, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

I was up early at 6:30 and made the coffee.  The reason we got up was so we could worship with the Oakey Blvd. Church of Christ via their netcast.  This mornings sermon was preached by Ken Butterworth.  This was the second sermon of a Gospel meeting that goes until Wednesday evening. Brother Butterworth sermon came from 1st Corinthians 6, he also preached the physical aspects of Christs crucifixion.

After worship services we got ready to go for a drive to the 'Ioa Valley State Park.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iao_Valley.  The main feature of the park is the 'Ioa Needle.  It is an uneroded ridge of basalt.  It is covered with greenery and is an impressive sight.  We walked across the stream to a point where there were 135 stairs steps up to a viewpoint.  We walked around a demonstration garden area that showed how the natives had grown Taro and other food staple plants.  I gathered the information needed to claim the find of an earthcache.  I found another cache just outside the park entrance.
We had never been there on other trips to Maui.

'Ioa Needle

Taro patch

'Ioa Needle

Cultural demonstration area

Gerri and Frank

Another shot of the 'Ioa needle

Neva

On the way back to Lahaina we stopped and I got the information to claim a virtual cache and find a traditional cache.  We did stop for one cache that I didn't find.  This cache was an interesting location.  It was on a hill, a cemetery.  All the markers were in Chinese style writing, may have been Korean or Japanese.  All the markers seemed old and the area looked uncare for.  Some of the markers had writing carved into marble gravestones many others were writing carved into local rocks both basalt and other forms of lava.

We stopped and I found another cache in the parking lot of a bike/walking trail.  I picked up a travel bug there.  I have set a goal to reach 4600 caches before leaving Hawaii.  I have two to go.  I have found 46 caches while we have been on Maui.

Oktoberfest burgers

We headed to Lahaina Town for an early dinner.  We found a parking spot near the Banyan Tree Park and walked to the Cool Cat Cafe.  We all had the hamburger of the month, a cheeseburger with onion crisps, tomato, onion and a spicy dressing.  We shared an order of onion rings. Though very messy the burgers were great and the onion rings crisp and the Maui onions were soft.  All in all another excellent meal.

One of the construction areas (seawall repair) at Papakea

Back at the Papakea we played a game of dominoes.  We had an intermission at the double four round.  We had to go out and watch the sunset.  We returned to our domino game and I won.  The standing now is; Frank 3, Gerri 2 and Neva 2.

Reading, TV and computer time finished the evening.

Saturday October 11, 2014 Lahaina, Maui, HI

We rested up from our road trip yesterday.  We spent most of the morning having coffee while we caught up on e-mail and Facebook.  We also read.  It seems I read a lot more when we are out of Las Vegas.

From the old Lahaina road looking north

Gerri went out in the sun for awhile.  Neva stayed in because of the wind.  Around noon I went geocaching.  I found four.  The last one was a short hike, 1/2 mile round trip.  It was a easy walk on the old road to Lahaina.  It was mostly paved.  There were spots of broken pavement and spots where vegetation had taken over most of the road.  Many sections of the old road are linked into a walking trail that also connect to trails into the mountains of west Maui.  The footing was good but there was no shade.  The wind that nearly blew me over at a geocache at a nearby scenic viewpoint, was not blowing here.

180 degrees from the old Lahaina road cache site

Looking uphill, we are on the dry side of the island

I went back to the resort at 3.  I had to clean up for dinner.



For dinner we went to the pacific O, which had been recommended by friends as their favorite on Maui.  The restaurant is next door to the Feast at Lele where we went to the Luau on Thursday evening.  It has a great atmosphere, a view of the harbor and sunset over Lanai.  We found that the service was impeccable and the food excellent.
http://pacificomaui.com/























There was a large navy ship moored in the harbor but no cruise ships.  Generally the cruise ships leave before sunset.

Neva

We started with a wonton shrimp appetizer.  For dinner I had lobster, Neva  had a crusty Mahi Mahi and Gerri had Ahi.  All were excellent.
The meal was followed by dessert of Banana Lumpia and French press coffee.

Happy diners, Gerri and Frank

Neva's meal

Lobster

Dessert time

Coffee service

After having a long leisurely dinner we went back to the Papakea.  We read, watched TV, I couldn't resist an episode of the original Star Trek, and finished computer activities.