We hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day weekend. Things are finally starting to bud out and bloom up here. All things considered, this is a fairly nice, even close to normal, spring around here. It's just hard to get adjusted back from the Hawaiian standards: so much greens plus flowers of every color from a painter's palette. Yesterday (Sunday) I finally got to go fishing on Apple Creek. No fish, but plenty of mosquitoes and ticks. Still, we were happy to be on our favorite stream. Bright cheerful marsh marigolds were in bloom along the banks, too.
This morning (Monday) we went out on a quick fishing trip to the other spot in the rain. To our surprise the water was a lot higher and faster than expected. So we just ended up getting wet without much chance of fishing. At least it satisfied my mild fishing fever. 
Our grape vines are budding, and apple trees blooming in the back yard. Slowly, but steadily. 
Fruity drinks with umbrellas at La Mariana Sailing Club, a classic tiki bar. 
One of our favorite things was to take out a plate lunch from Rainbow Drive-In and have a picnic by the beach at sunset. 
The biggest treat to our selves was the luau (traditional Hawaiian party) with Mai Tai, music, fire dance, and hula girls, of course. Touristy, but we were definitely glad we did this.
We were very fortunate to have our own local tour guides: we feel we got to do a good mix of tourist stuff and local favorites. The small island was actually full of surprises. Within an hour drive you cover the ocean to mountains, and tropical flowers to cactus. Most of all, it's still hard to believe it's a part of USA. 
Hawaii was indeed a lot more than the picture perfect beaches of blue and turquois. Yet, at the same time it was just like a mixture of "Lilo & Stitch" and "Dragon Ball Z" without the super power and aliens. Simply put, we both had lots of fun. 
We are now counting down days before taking off on our Hawaii trip on Friday. It's still hard to believe.....
