2013 Hawaii Vacation- The Royal Sea Cliff

We used our time share points and stayed in the Royal Sea Cliff in Kona. I was very impressed with every aspect of this place. Modern, clean, beautiful grounds and on the waterfront.

This is the view from our lanai.

 

I took several sunset pictures. This is one of the pools. I love the colors in this picture. 

 As nice as the condo was, it didn't have a beach. It was built on top of a lava flow that spilled right into the ocean. It formed a nice tide pool and cave that we couldn't resist. The palm trees are the ones in the pool picture.

 My beautiful bride and I in the tide pool by the cave.

 Meg stepping out.

 The condo offered several free activities during our stay. One night, a hula school was at pool side and provided a show and gave history on hula.

 

 

 

 

 



2013 Hawaii Vacation- Getting There

While in Afghanistan, Cathy and I decided to take the kids to Hawaii for my post-deployment leave. This is that trip.

 

Anyone who travels with kids knows you have to keep them busy during down time. We like to find a quiet place in the airport and play Uno. Works pretty good.

I ran several 5k charity races in Afghanistan. This is one of the shirts you got. I got seven for this trip. It makes it easier to keep up with your group.

 

One of these Kahuna's isn't quite as big as the other one. His shirt is almost a dress.



New Pup

This is Sky. We had to put Loxi down early this year. We took her food to the shelter to donate it and decided to look at what they had. She was the only one not barking. We kept the food and brought her home.

 



We took a family walk to Thunderbird Falls on one of our last days of our trip.

 Cathy's mom Judy, sister Angie and sister in law Jennie. I took two of this pose, but Jake wasn't in the other one. He reminds me of those pictures of bigfoot walking in the woods, or Will Ferrell in Elf.

 Colt turned 10 while we were visiting.

 I've taken this picture before. Chase was in it though. And, we were leaving Alaska on different terms.

2012 Sheep Hunt

I took my great friend Rob to my sheep hunting area. We had to walk through this creek bed that cuts through the mountains to get to it. This picture shows the terrain we had to manage for a few miles. You really have to watch your step if you don't want go home early. Ankles and knees take a beating.

 We woke up on opening day to dense fog and visibility that was less than 100 yards. I love the ptarmigan silhouettes. Or are those rocks. Is that why some of them are called rock ptarmigan?

 It can be quite challenging when you're hunting in this kind of visibility.

 This is where we camped. We hunted the mountains behind us. We saw many sheep, 20-30 of which were rams. Of those, only 2 were close enough to full curl that we even studied them for more than a minute. Sadly, we too no pictures of them. We got so lost in watching and studying them without getting busted that we never even got our cameras out.

 So, after we quit sheep hunting, we decided to go bear hunting. We had seen one the night before we hiked in. Any one who knows me knows I have a bit of clownery engrained in me. Rob does too. There was record snow fall last winter. Two years ago, there wasn't any snow remaining in the creek bed. I couldn't resist a photo.

 This is Gunsight mountain. Of the last six years I spent in Alaska, I rarely saw this mountain top when it wasn't enshrouded by clouds. When I did see it, I didn't take a picture. Now it is mine forever!

More Homer and Kenai Peninsula

Our awesome friends the Reeves contributed generously to our trip. Not only did they loan their pop up to us to camp in on the spit, Jen gave us a bag of cookies that we turned into s'more saniches and lovingly called them Jen Reeves Chocolate Chip Cookie S'mores. (JRC3s)

 No matter how many times I go to Homer, I want to take this picture.

 The spit in the background. The flowers are Fireweed.

 I'm pinching her. Usually am.

 Colt was the only one to catch a fish here. We're on the Kenai in Soldotna. 17 inch dolly varden. I only know that because F&G measured it for me. I was one inch away from a ticket.

Homer Salmon and Halibut Fishing

After floating the Kenai, we headed to the end of the peninsula for more fishing. The kids tried there hand at salmon fishing in the fishing hole on the Homer Spit. Justice caught a pink salmon that we kept.

This picture sums up the weather we had for the 4 days we camped on the spit. It didn't hurt the beauty of this awesome little town.

 Meg had to get some fresh air on the way out to fish for halibut. Rather flat water too. She doesn't tolerate the open seas very well.

 We still had fun, for a while we hijacked the vessel.

 Then Colt took a turn. He needed fresh air too.

That's a lot of halibut. And not a one of them over 25 lbs.

 Ours have the blue tags. They may not be big, but ten halibut adds up at $18 a pound local.

 Relaxing on the way back in. Wore out to say the least.