"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

The very western tip of the island of Oahu is known as Kaena Point (officially spelled Ka'ena Point). The hike to the point is about seven miles round trip.

Back in 1950 the Dole Plantation was a friut stand. Today it is a tourist stop. People come from around the world to eat pineapple ice cream, shop, ride the train and hear about how pineapples are grown, and to work their way around the maze. We went this year for the ice cream.

Waialua cacao is harvested throughout the year with major harvesting March through June. Each tree produces about 15-40 pods that each produce 30-40 beans. The pods are about the size of a football. Next step is fermenting. The goal here is to stop the beans' maturation process while preserving the natural acidity and flavor. The drying stage us next. Beans are left out to dry in the Hawaiian sun for 3-4 weeks. Now the beans are ready for roasting, the first step for making refined chocolate. The winnowing process is next. That is where splitting off of the outer shell takes place leaving the nibs, the dark brown beans. Grinders are used to turn the roasted beans into liquid unsweetened chocolate. Vanilla beans, Caine sugar and cocoa butter are added. Cinching continues until a velvety smooth texture is produced. Now the chocolate is ready to be made into bars. The temperature is raised and lowered with the results being a shiny chocolate that will snap upon breaking. The chocolate

We are once again at Ko'Olina Beach Resort on Oahu, Hawaii for a week. Our timeshare exchange has worked out four years in a row so that we can visit this beautiful spot. Two years we exchanged and had a small studio room on the ground floor with bushes hiding the view both into and out of the room. Last year we had a spacious two bedroom suite with large kitchen and sitting area and with views of the harbor and a peek view of the ocean. This year we again gave a small studio room. But we are up on the 11th floor and have grand views of both harbor and ocean. Wish you were here.

Located on Oahu's North Shore is a rich and lush land. There is evidence of early human existence. You can walk through the archaeological sites where the ancients lived hundreds of years ago. There is also the world class Botanical Gardens with 5000 different types of plants from around the world. Signs of different colors show standard, rare or endangered, and enthroned botanical species The distance from the ticket booth to the waterfalls is about 3/4 of a mile. The way we walked it was almost 2 miles. Many visitors come only to see or swim in the falls. We came fo see the flora. Pictures to come when we get back to the mainland

This is the Causeway Bridge over to South Padre Island. Route100 goes from one end of the island to the other.  North and South Padre Islands are not connected.  You can see the sand has drifted pretty well over the road.  They use bulldozers to push it back and even carry it back off the roads building their own dunes. The road on the north side ends here at a barrier.  Today there were some kiters getting ready to fly.  We watched that jeep go around the barrier; he was going to have some fine times out in the more deserted parts of the beach. We stopped and walked out to the water; it was so warm. See we are at the beach!  You can drive the length of the beach here if you are brave enough to try it.  We are not we park out on 100 and walk across the dunes. And we are right at the water. A storm came up and  there was a rainbow!! We are so lucky. After a short sprinkle the beach flowers opened. A few gulls came to check us out. As did a great blue heron! Life is good. Check out these

Leaving the Hill Country of Texas and our Rest Area home and  headed down to the flats of South Texas. We followed south US 281and crossed the Guadalupe River. Around Austin we ran into some traffic that turned out to be a few trucks had collided with out much damage, but they sure did cause a jam of several miles. Love the spaghetti ramps leading traffic in all directions. Our first sign for the Rio Grande Valley....we are headed in the right direction. There are few things you see along the way that become farmiliar landmarks as you travel south; this airplane is one of them.  Back in the black van days we parked under it and too a picture that looked like it had landed on top of us! There is plenty of water along the roads after the rains we have had the last few weeks.  This is actually the old boundary between the USA and Mexico: the Nuecus River. This rest area is a classic.... The bathrooms are tiled with scenes of Texas. And the live oaks spread out in the picnic area.  There a