Kane'ohe Bay At the Sand Bar

For nearly three years Hubby and I led the young married Bible study at our church. Each time we finished a topic or study we celebrated with a social event. This day's celebration was different. This was our final time ending a study with our group. We passed on the leadership in anticipation of our move to San Diego. Yeah, the move that we believe is going to happen. The one with no date in sight. That one.

We drove on the H3 to Kane'ohe Bay Marine Corps Base. We drove through the Ko'Olau mountain range, now the back side of an inactive volcano, half slumped into the ocean. The slopes of the Ko'Olaus are dense, lush, and fertile. Imagine a rolling green jungle. That's what they really look like. Since there are no exits on this part of the H3, or places to stop, I fumbled with my camera settings quickly, and took shots from the car. The Ko'Olaus tower high into the clouds, so most of my shots were upwards, and not the most ideal. This is my fourth point and shoot camera since April. No I didn't lose or break the others. It took awhile to choose the right camera. But this is the one. Sigh. I need to catch up on this camera manual!

Son1 has loved this tunnel for years. It's one of his favorite places on the island. You drive in the tunnel....

....and pop out to this view. Trust me, you will be even more impressed once I read my camera manual and take more pictures. Or lug my big camera, instead....

Once on base at K-Bay (that's what locals call Kane'ohe Bay) we pulled into the boat marina. Hubby jumped from the van to the boat check in, and I readied the kids. Now there is a whole trick to this boat rental thing. We learned this three years ago.

We usually rent a 10 passenger pontoon boat for half a day. It is the same amount for any pontoon boat. All pontoons are ten passengers, but some are in their Golden Boat Years. As in rickety. You get me? Only one or two are new with big plush leather seating all the way around. During summer months every pontoon boat reservation is taken, particularly on the weekends. We plan to arrive thirty minutes before our scheduled boat rental time. Most people arrive about then, too. Reservations are made either morning, midday, evening, or all day. People within the same time slot passively aggressively compete for the best boat. It is a mad dash down the boat ramp to plunk down on the best boat available while your sponsor is checking in. Every boat party is scrambling in the same way for the few best boats. I relax once this whole arrival and boat grabbing competition is over. If we are on one of the less sparkly boats, I get over it. My Competitive Spirit and I used to be better at the plunking-down-on-the-boat- shenanigan before two children. This day, I asked for help from two of our couples to secure two boats. Needless to say we didn't grab the most spectacular boats. We got beaten out by folks earlier than us.

We split the group between two boats. Each boat operator must take a boat captain course and obtain a license. They are the only ones allowed at the wheel. Our captain usually finds himself with a few deck hands, though. Hubby drove fast, fringing on speed boat speed. The boat rocked and rolled much less than if he drove it slower. Fast speed made for fast winds! On the way out to the sandbar, we passed Coconut Island. The opening credits of Giligan's Island were filmed here. If you watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, then you most likely have seen Coconut Island. It is now home to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, part of the University of Hawaii. Summertime is hammerhead breeding season. Hammerhead mama sharks come to K-Bay this time of year to lay their shark eggs. The shark pups grow up in K-Bay before they head back into the wild.

Wanna see some sharks we missed at the sand bar by just weeks, at the very same spot? Take a look at this video!

The two pontoons arrived at the sand bar. We anchored in two to three feet of water. The sand bar was underwater because of high tide. When the tide is low, the sand bar is completely exposed bare sand in the middle of Kane'ohe Bay. The kids play on this little sand island in the middle of the bay, completely surrounded by water on all sides. At higher tides, like on this trip, we pull out floaties in shallow water for adults and kids. The water was calm this day, and so warm! The temperature rivaled bath water. One of the couples had family visiting from Maryland. I explained how the water was just this warm at the peak of summer. Usually the water is about 75 degrees, which is perfect. But this day the water was several degrees warmer.

Do you see how the water changes color? The lighter the water the more shallow the depth. The mint colored water is less than ten feet. At the deeper blue water the depth drops to fifty feet, immediately. The sand bar, in the foreground, is huge! Several boats, private and military owned, dock at the sand bar for hours of fun. The homes along the waters edge dwarf in the shadows of the Ko'Olaus. The Ko'Olaus reach high into these clouds!
We have seen some crazy stuff at the sand bar. People get really creative. We have seen model shoots, dog swims, kayaking, snorkeling, tubing, volley ball games, and grilling. Can you see what our boats were doing?

The group brought a plethora of dinner. And Jesse brought an irresistable dessert, meaning the Farmers indulged on raspberry chocolate chip bars!



Son1 loves our Bible study Ohana (Hawaiian word for family). He calls them his "Big Friends." Their interest in his own little life has brought us great joy as parents. When we started this group he was just 15 months old, and the only baby in the group.

Soon enough we returned to the dock and said our goodbyes to the group, and to a chapter in our life in Hawaii. We still see them in church, and we are encouraged a new group has been birthed. Our three years with them have been a blessed investment. We learned from them as they learned from us.

Back home, we unpacked and put the kids to bed. Hubby was leaving the very next morning for a couple of weeks. My heart stirred at the thought of his absence when I closed Son1's bedroom door that night. I downed the stairs, and found him waiting for me.

Sometimes I don't say anything and he reads me. He pulled out the french press, brewed chocolate mint tea, and defrosted left over scones and DP's cranberry chocolate biscotti she sent from RI. A quiet after the beach, after the kids were in bed snack, and a long conversation hushed those stirrings before bedtime.

Replacements

A few years ago I sat at a scrap booking crop, looking down at my picture. Someone mentioned I could crop more of my picture. I told her that would defeat the purpose. I liked having my car in the background. I notice trends when I look at old photos, and I want my kids to see pictures of cars and anything else that was a trend of the time. I thought about that conversation when I looked at my new Costco purchases.

I heavily rely on my toaster oven. I use it most so I don't have to turn on my large oven and raise the temperature in my house on hot days in Hawaii. My Black and Decker toaster oven had been on it's last leg for awhile. It was a wedding present, so it was almost ten years old this summer. Some days it would toast, and some days I would coax it to work, firmly holding the door closed so it would start. All that ended the other day when I smelled something burning. Ding! I pulled out Son1's cheese toast, and glared at a flame coming from the heating rod. I blew out the flame, unplugged the toaster, and threw it in the trash. I called Hubby and told him we were going shopping for a new toaster oven. That was just the beginning.

Once we got to Costco, Hubby figured it was time to replace our smaller digital camera. After all, we purchased it new 3.5 years ago. Since then, it has withstood a lot of crash landings. Unfortunately, our camera became a senior citizen despite it's titanium body. The camera aged. We took several shots just to get a few clear pictures. What once was a clear shot now had unpredictable clarity. Plus, I dropped it when Hubby tossed it to me from the second story in December. Then there were the phones. There was a Costco coupon for cordless phones, so a set of new cordless phones was a planned purchase. I ruined one of our handsets when I spilled a glass of water, and the phone was in it's angry path. The ruined phone has a screen that no longer works, and hardly holds a battery charge for five minutes. But in case of an emergency it works! The coupon for phones meant it was definitely time to trade in our old phones. Our last large purchase of the day was a package of high thread count sheets. We previously bought a set and found they are the only set we like.

So what does this have to do with the scrap booking conversation? It struck me how all of these things have changed in a protracted amount of time. When we were first married Hubby and I used the toaster oven all of the time to bake smaller amounts of food. Now, ten years later, the toaster oven is the same price, but I get so much more for my money! It is stainless steel, toasts six slices instead of two, has a convection oven, defrosts food, and dehydrates, too. But my favorite feature is the pull out tray for crumbs. The new camera comes with some more mega pixels, and more internal memory. The cordless set we bought is about the same price as when we bought the last cordless set some years back. Then, we thought it was a deal that the set came with two bases, handsets, and an answering machine. The new set comes with five handsets. That is a bit much for us here, since I keep phones to a minimum with napping children. But they may come in handy if we ever move back to our Virginia house. Finally, when we bought high thread count sheets at Costco we thought we were in heaven with 400 thread count sheets. Now the sheets we bought are 540 thread count, for the same price.

So the trend seems that the cost of these items hasn't gone up in the last years, but the quality and quantity has improved for the money.