Stay off the summits for a while...

I am so envious it might be another sin against me if St Peter really exists.
Can you not get your wife to work in the UK?
Not because it would make me less envious (it would) but so we could have a GTG.

We've had a fair few Dwellars to our shores, but they have been on trips/ holidays and it's not fair to expect people to come visit strangers. But if'n you'd be at a loose end I'd love to hire a car and show you Buckinghamshire. Tis a pretty place and nowhere you would visit without a specific reason.

Well, we did spend 3 months last year in Wales, mostly around Pembroke but that's not exactly in your backyard. The usual prerequisite is that there be a refinery and they are a client for my wife's company so who knows!

Two days ago my wife got the afternoon off so we were able to do some things that we don't normally do on weekdays. We decided to go down to the beach about an hour before sunset and I went in swimming, she opted to just lie back on a beach lounge chair and watch the sun go down.

I had recently given her some tips for composition with her little camera and as I had brought mine down to the beach she decided to snap off a few shots. She got this one of me swimming in the foreground and the sunset just at about the ideal moment before it went below the horizon. Yes, i am the blob floating on the right.

Not bad for a beginner!

I had to reread that.
I was expecting to see you in water wings (armbands, here.) Being a beginner and all ;)
What a beautiful photo.

So, if I build a refinery in my backyard, and a BBQ pit of course, you will come?

From looking at your work for so long, she's developed a good eye. :thumb:

Today was my wife's first day off since the start of the project so I was a good husband and did whatever she wanted to do. We drove over to the Dole Plantation which is worse than most tourist spots I have visited like Fisherman's Warf in SF but she wanted to replace her silver pineapple earings (she lost one). It's all that touristy crap, most things from China or Thailand or India, very little from Hawaii and way overpriced and the big tour buses arriving every minute.

After that we drove up to the north coast and looked at the really big waves and the crazy surfers going out. I would have stayed and taken some pictures but you would need a 1000mm lens to get a shot as they are so far out.

Then we drove back to Haleiwa to eat at Kua 'Aina which make really good hamburgers and other delights. My wife had a HB with pineapple and I had the salad with grilled mahi mahi on it as I am in diet mode.

After that we drove to the Aloha stadium to the big swap meet or as they say in the UK and Oz, a Boot Sale. Mostly it's small businesses that have tents and tables and every 1/4 mile or so it starts to repeat itself. My wife likes to take the Hawaiian themed beach towels home as they are light and pack pretty well. 8 kids and 13 grand kids means a lot of towels! I actually purchased a magnetic hematite ankle bracelet for my sore Achilles tendon. Hope it works!

We finally made it back to our condo at the Marriott Ko Olina. We unpacked and changed to bathing attire and went to the beach and swam for an hour. They have 3 pools but I see no point in the pool when you have nice ocean to swim in. The ocean is about 75 dg F and was nice to just swim and float about in. We took our Boogie Boards and I took my fins so I could actually swim and get some exercise.

Simple dinner tonight of left over vegetarian enchiladas that we initially cooked on Thursday. Really trying to curb the meat an more processed carbs.

I am just so happy to be with my wife in this nice place! :lovers:

Eight kids?!
Mormon, Catholic or simply combined families?

I do love me a car boot sale. But I prefer a street market. London's Walthamstow Market, or The Cut, or Petticoat Lane (guess how it got its name?) or Portobello Road. Amsterdam's Albert Cuyp Market. Buy achocolate cock. I didn't and have regretted the lost photo op ever since.

Chris do you know a good source of info for avoiding tourist traps in Hawaii? Pete really wants to go someday, but I'm reluctant to fly all that way for a parody of island culture.

Religion played little part in having kids, just spontaneity! I had 5 kids and my wife had 3 and over time some of our kids have divorced and remarried so we have acquired some of our grand kids through mergers and acquisitions.

Not really, just do some advanced research and be prepared. We had the advantage of having visited 4 years ago for a project at the Tesoro refinery but they put us up 20 miles away from the refinery in Waikiki which we really did not enjoy as it is very touristy there. One of the big gigs on Oahu and I imagine other islands is the whole Polynesian themed luau show. They have a huge one on the east side of the islands run by the Mormons who have a college there and employ students to dress up and act like aboriginal Hawaiians. It costs a fortune and the feast after dark is more like a casino buffet minus any alcohol! They even allude to how missionaries really helped the natives come out of their backward ignorant ways and be successful! They kind of skip the parts about mass die offs from disease and having their culture forceably subdued. Not only that but it tends to rain a lot on that side of the island and you are advised to bring rain gear!

I think it comes down to the same for any trip or vacation, decide what it is you like to do and then learn about the options. I prefer beaches, things to photograph, hikes, museums, etc.