hummingbirds

When I was growing up, we had an ornate outdoor wrought iron light fixture on a post, where our front steps had a landing.  One year a hummingbird made a nest in a little round opening, right at eye level.  The nest was the size of a half walnut shell.  We had the most perfect view of everything.  The mama bird was very tame, and we could quietly watch her sitting on her single egg, and she didn't seem to mind.  We watched the tiny baby after it hatched.  These little birds never seemed to be bothered by having people so close by (unlike the birds who build nests in the flower pots by our front door and dive bomb us every time we go in or out).

I've always wanted to have a hummingbird feeder, with an easy view of it from inside the house.  Everyone has them, don't they?  I have no good reason why we never had one before now, other than I would over-research everything.  I wanted a beautiful blown glass globe, but the more I researched, the more I realized that wasn't the best choice for the birds.  We even bought a pretty glass one, but never hung it up.  We talked to our friends who had them and got so many conflicting opinions.

One bird loving friend (who has two feeders) told us the best one they had was the cheapest model you can buy at Lowes.  The birds avoided their "pretty" feeder, but loved the cheap version.  Off to Lowes we went and got their cheapest feeder and a shepherd's hook to hang it on.  We made some sugar water, filled it, and hung it up.  Instantly, hummingbirds came out of nowhere and began feeding out of it.  Instantly!  From before sunrise till after sunset, they literally swarmed around it.  We loved it!  Friends who came over even commented on how many hummingbirds we had, pretty much nonstop.

But they weren't very colorful.  We figured they were all females or juveniles.  And so territorial!  There would be a few who would fight off any other hummingbirds who came to drink.  It was constant activity.  There were a few who would sit on Keith's tomato cages inbetween drinks.  Sometimes standing guard.  Since the shepherd's hook had two hooks, about a week later I added another feeder.  Even more activity!





This was before we added the second feeder (and those spots are rain drops).  This bird definitely looks greenish, but not the iridescent kind of feathers.







When we went on vacation, we had some friends water our garden, and also left out a jar of sugar water I had made for them to fill up the hummingbird feeders when they got empty.  After all, they had feeders of their own.  They use the red liquid hummingbird food you can buy at Walmart, etc, and kept trying to get us to use it too.  We had so much success with our sugar water mix and our birds loved it so much, I didn't want to jinx a good thing.  I've read that they can be very temperamental and if you put in some food they don't like, they'll never return.  Or even if you wash out the feeder with soapy water, it will drive them away.

We came home from our trip only to find that our jar of sugar water was still sitting full on the patio, and both feeders were filled to the top with the red liquid (like we had insisted they not use).  I just felt sick.  Not one single hummingbird came near it.  It was like that red liquid was repelling them.  After a while I was so upset, I took down the feeders, and washed them in the hottest water I could stand, and refilled them with my regular sugar water mix.  It took a few hours, but the birds finally returned.  Not in such great numbers as we originally had though.

As the weeks have gone by since we got home, more birds started to come again.  And then, the BEES!!!  Our feeders are supposed to be designed to not allow bees in, but they will sit there and drink out of the holes just like the birds do.  The yellow jackets are the worst.  They're aggressive and will chase the birds away.  I think the birds sit and watch for the bees to move away.  Then there are the bumblebees, who are gentle, but really hog the ports.  The hummingbirds and bumblebees seem to coexist , but those darn bees just sit there.  Look at the picture below, they're hogs!  What about my flowers?  They're supposed to be buzzing around the flowers instead.



I got a wasp/yellow jacket trap to hopefully lure the yellow jackets away.  I don't think I can get the bumblebees away from there.  I'll just have to wait till winter to see less of them.  We're also considering regular bird feeders too.  Our only drawback is that our next door neighbor had a bear on her back porch feasting on her bird feeder, and another neighbor behind us also had a bear with its paws on her sliding glass door (bird feeder drew it there too).  Sheesh, are we turning into crazy bird people?  Anyway, we really do get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing them up close and personal.

outtake

Abby will be turning eight in September and is excited for her upcoming baptism.  When Summer was turning eight and would be baptized, she and I sat down and looked online, and I let her choose a beautiful white dress for her special day.  I want to do this for each grandchild, and maybe when these girls grow up, their own daughters might want to wear that dress too.  (I'll have to figure out what to do with boys).  Abby and I recently sat down and compared dresses and I let her choose the one she fell in love with.

This summer is turning out to be busy, so I wanted to do Abby's baptism pictures now, before everyone got busy with plans and vacations and before school started.  I went over on Tuesday morning with a couple of locations in mind.

There's this suspension bridge at a park by Calley's house, that goes over the Snoqualmie River.  Just for foot traffic.  This bridge sort of freaks me out to walk on because you can make it sway and bounce.  It freaks Abby out too, but I assured her we were safe.  Maybe I was just trying to comfort myself!

I wanted to take a picture of Abby alone in the middle of the bridge, but as it turned out, there were tons of people crossing it.  This is a picture I took to check my exposure, but I kind of love it because it shows a bit of how busy it was.  People who were camping on the other side of the river were crossing back with carts full of their camping gear.  There were bicyclists, walkers, dogs.  Then that guy in the bright orange shirt walked across with his kids---even commented to Abby how beautiful her dress was--but then just parked himself and his family mid-bridge.  He was in our view, or rather, the viewfinder.  And they stayed and stayed.



Well, we couldn't wait all day for him to leave, so I positioned Abby so she was blocking him from view.  Here's a sneak peek. (the other pictures aren't all serious and somber, I promise!)  I'm not going to share the rest of the photos until her baptism week.  But when you see her on the bridge, just know there was a bit of an illusion going on, with it looking like we were all alone.  Not the case!



And might I add, that Summer, being as bored as could be, started doing some gymnastics behind me and got that bridge moving a few times.  We all survived, I'm happy to say.

maui 2016 part three

Friday

Wrapping it all up . . .

A few years ago, we invited our dear friends Charley and Rebecca to join us on Maui, and the rest is history.  They fell in love with it, got a timeshare at our place for the same time we'd always be there and its been a match made in heaven.

This visit, Rebecca's sister and her family were staying in their condo when they arrived, so they spent their first night at the Marriott, until her sister's family flew out.  Keith invited himself over for a swim in their pool.  I give you: the adult serenity pool.  Keith says this was his favorite part of the whole trip.  Well, he's said that about a lot of the things we did, but he's already planning on how he can sneak back over there on our next visit.











Months in advance, I made dinner reservations for our most favorite restaurant in the world, Mama's Fish House.  Just me and Keith, and Charley and Rebecca.  No Luke.  Tyler and Kelsey were so kind to take Luke for the evening.  Do you have any idea how long its been since we've been able to go out with friends without Luke???  I can't even remember, its been so long.  Thank you Tyler and Kelsey!  Luke had a great time with them, too.

Just to remind you, Mama's is probably my favorite photo op.  I never run out of details to take pictures of there.





Those clamshells hide the computer screens.























Keith and I both got the uku, baked in a macadamia nut crust, stuffed with crab and lobster, with pineapple chutney on top, and that sauce around it . . . oh my goodness!



Keith got the Kuau chocolate pie, which is amazing.



But I had the banana macadamia nut crisp, with tahitian vanilla bean ice cream.  Warm out of the oven. And incredible!  One of these times, I'm actually going to decipher out the recipe.

Rebecca and I both had a hard time choosing which dessert to order.  Every single one was a good choice!  So, right then and there, we decided to create a new tradition for the two of us.  The next day, we had already planned as a girls day, with shopping and lunch.  Why not come back here for lunch and get the other dessert that we wanted to try?  Why not?  Oh, we are so brilliant.



Let me just say something about the bill:  I remember our very first visit here, back in 1994, the food was just as amazing, but the prices were much, much different.  I believe the most expensive item on the menu was $26, and our entrees were about $15 each.  Now the appetizers are in the 20's and the entrees, well . . . they're more.  Since its our one luxury a year, not to mention our favorite restaurant ever, we'll pay the big bucks.







We usually come here so we can enjoy the sunset, but not this night.  There was a wonderful, tropical downpour while we were eating.   Which was surprisingly perfect and we loved seeing and hearing the rain pouring while we were inside and enjoying a great evening with great friends.  They were well stocked with big umbrellas both at the parking lot and at the restaurant.



This was the extent of the sunset.







Saturday

As I said before, this was my day with Rebecca (and Luke, but he's like one of the girls when it comes to shopping and going out to lunch).  We browsed around the local craft fair, and then we stopped by Yee's so she could pick up some mangoes and mango bread.  The peacocks were out!  This pea hen was rather sad looking.  But she at least didn't mind getting her picture taken.



Mr. Peacock on the other hand, was his usual self, hiding in the bushes and trying to get away from us.



Another tail shot.





Back to Mama's.  We didn't have a reservation so we had some time to wander around outside before we ate.  Yes, there are a lot of pictures of the same things from the night before, but with better lighting this time.  The girl who seated us said to me, "weren't you just here last night?"  Yes, yes we were.  And, we had a few passing rain showers again, nothing like the night before, but a few sprinkles.













Aloe.





Their original gecko tessellation pavers.













Luke and I both got the world's most incredible macadamia nut crab cakes.  It was an appetizer, but who cares.  We were saving room for dessert.



Rebecca ordered the ceviche, and I had to take a picture because it was so pretty.  I think those are paper thin slices of watermelon radishes in there.  Microgreens as a garnish.



Rebecca and Luke both got the coconut chiffon cake (I took a bite from Luke's and it was divine).



But I think I got the better choice with the guava cheesecake with Hana breadfruit.  Oh my.  My only complaint was that I was expecting a slice of it.  Something bigger.





And because you know I have a serious problem with taking too many pictures of tropical flowers . . . here are a few more beauties:











If there is one thing I covet, it is this beautiful glass screen.  I first saw it in 2005 and I try to take a picture of it every time we visit.  If I can't have it, then at least let me take pictures of it.  They moved it from its previous location, so now I had a better view.  Those iridescent bubbles and round cut-outs with glass globes inside, and the molded glass fish.  Pictures do not do it justice.





















Aloha Mama's, till next time.



Dragonfruit.  I kind of wish I would have gotten one.





Sunday

Tyler and Kelsey left on Sunday, so it was kind of bittersweet.  We were still enjoying our time there, but they were gone.  Our day was church, visiting with Charley, Rebecca, and family at their condo.  I made Keith promise me that we'd take a drive to Hookipa in the afternoon.  The day before it was super windy (like a wind advisory kind of wind) and Rebecca and I saw tons of windsurfers at Hookipa while we had lunch.  We decided to all go for our Sunday drive together.  On the way, we spotted this rainbow.



We got to a point in the road where we had this perfect full view.  We pulled over for pictures, along with lots of other people.





The big winds from the day before had died down, so we watched the surfers instead of the windsurfers.  From the overlook above the beach.









I'm glad I got this shot, with the sugar cane fields in the background.  Most of Maui is green with sugar cane, but this is the last year they'll be growing it on the island.  I can't even imagine what its going to look like in the future.  Its supposed to be local farmers growing different crops.





Rochelle and her friend Audrey.  It was raining at this point.



Then a guy was telling us that there were a lot of sea turtles on the beach down below us.  I couldn't see them, but then I realized what I thought were lava rocks were really the turtles.



We drove over to the beach area for a better look.  This is from the picnic area above.











They rope off the turtles and have guards there to keep people away from them.  We were a bit annoyed that these kids (3 kids) were playing in the water, just inches away from where the turtles were swimming in and out.



Our last sunset.





Monday

4th of July.  Our day to go home.  It was sooooooo hard to leave!!  This is my souvenir from this trip.  Its a print of surfing lessons in Lahaina.  It reminds me of when our kids had surfing lessons growing up right in that same spot.  I framed it since I got home, now where to put it?



We tried a new car rental company in Kihei (Ohana), and we had to check out of our condo before it was time to return the car.  Isn't it always the case that you find something wonderful right as you're about to leave?  We stopped at this acai bowl place (a door away from Coconuts).  We're still craving more!!  Keith and Luke got this kind, I don't even remember what theirs was.



But mine had haupia on top and coconut macaroons as a garnish, and it was the best thing I've had in a long time.  And no guilt because it was so healthy.  Not the macaroons, but you know, a perfect addition.





I'll leave you with a shot of Keith enjoying his acai bowl.



Things we remember:

*Keith was sad to have lost his very favorite baseball cap at Makena.  It was perfectly faded and aged, and he said immediately everybody with him was diving in the surf to look for it with no luck.  He was really sad.

*Having all of our kids there was the very best.  I can't even put it into words.  When we're there without them, we do and see things we wish they were there to see.  Seeing Hawaii through our grandchildren's eyes is so happy.  I promised Abby we'd fly the kite, but we never got around to it.  Sorry Abby!  Next time.  Come back with us!  Luke got to fly it with Tyler and Kelsey when we went out to dinner.

*We flew home on July 4, and were positive we would miss any fireworks.  But, as we flew in around 11:00 pm, from Olympia to SeaTac, it was the most amazing sight.  Literally hundreds and hundreds of BIG fireworks being shot off, for miles and miles.  Seeing it all from the air was unlike anything I could ever imagine.  I had no idea there were so many fireworks shows going on all at once.  I was sitting on the center aisle, but I could see through the windows.  If I had been by the window, I would have filmed it.

Aloha nui loa.