Well today is our last day on this amazing Island. We are listening to the reports of snow, blizzards and whiteouts in many places in the world so don't know if we will get home when we planned to....another adventure perhaps?
Aloha!

HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY ON THE 49TH JACQUI! WE ALL ADORE YOU !
these pics are of a flower that looks vaguely familiar to me but I have no idea what it is. We were at the Macadamia Nut farm when i spotted it.
Later we went to the longest beach on Molokai, which is not for swimming at this time of year at least. Amazing golden sand and truly awesome waves.
We got a pizza for dinner and are sitting here watching the hawaii advertising channel and I now want to do all the things they advertise so SEND MONEY FAST.
ALOHA

Ourli ttle Christmas dinner, two lovely cornish game hens, fresh spinach corn and dressing. I basted the game hens with passion fruit butter and they were absolutely wonderful.
The next photo is up on 'nob' hill where we saw some more modern houses and a breathtaking view of the whole ocean. I liked the view but would never live that far away from the ocean (1/4 mile but we are only feet away)
The flower is the plumeria which grows on trees and is amazingly scented. I think it might be a national flower as it is seen everywhere on all the photos and post cards that tourists can buy. We first smelled it in Honolulu and here you don't smell it as often but I think that is because the wind whips it away before it actually gets to your olfactory glands! The wind blows constantly here which I love but I don't think Pa likes as well. Even inland it blows but more gently.
It is late afternoon now and pa has gone to the store to buy more rum and pineapple and I chose to stay at home. As is his usual, Pa fixed the leaky faucets here in the condo....Toby will be so happy as it is apparently extremely expensive and also takes a lot of time to get anyone to do such things. Pa is soooooo talented.
aloha for now.

here are some random shots of trees,flowers and the like. the hibiscus are gorgeous and come in so many different colours. Pa is posing under an elephant ear tree which was huge. The bird of paradise is at the end of our building and the gecko actually fell onto my leg while we were driving! If it had of landed on pa we would haves had some screaming occurring cuz he doesn't like the reptiles much. But he safely climbed off of my leg and onto the window and then when we stopped he got off . Perhaps he was a runaway or simply a hitchhiker but it was pretty funny.
We snorkeled for about 3 hours today and I love love love it. I couldn't hear the humpback though perhaps because the surf was so loud. It is like we were flying over the coral as the surf swept us along very quickly. I only had one choking and gasping experience and finally was able to quiet my breathing to a more normal level. What an incredible Christmas this has been. I LOVE MOLAKAI!
aloha

these photos may show how steep the cliffs were. I loved the rainbow which seemed near enough to touch. The marble statue was just something that I thought was lovely and was a monument to one of the nuns who gave her time to the colony. It seemed so odd to have such a statue here where everything else is for lack of a better term, primitive. I took some pictures of Brother Joseph Dutton's grave for you and Jason, Vashti as that was Grandpa's name. His full name was Bernard Joseph Dutton I think so may be some family connection. I will check it out with Auntie Bev.
we are somewhat saddle sore this morning and Pa has gone down for his first (of many) naps in the day so I think I will clean up our lil pig sty!
Aloha

Have a look at the sweet sweet faces of the mules in the first photos. They are placid, gentle and just want to please......and now look at the ears of the mule named BALUGA that I rode. Baluga is not a nice placid mule. I mounted him and discovered that my mule was very very big. He stood at least 6 inches taller than the rest of the mules, and was very very round. My little fat legs stuck out straight! Baluga has an attitude for sure. As we began our journey, Baluga made several attempts to knock me off by walking very close to rocks, trees or fences then rubbing against them. But I hung on valiantly and tried to reason with my mule. Our guide came up behind and one point and tried to reason with Baluga also, and Baluga tried to kick his mule, then turned his giant head and tried to bite my foot...now all of this may appear funny to someone who is not perched upon a giant rebellious animal who is about to take you down very very narrow steps whilst not falling over the sheer cliffs. My confidence was at a very low point! However there is no turning back (largely because you couldn't turn around) We continued down the mountain and I was thrilled and terrified. The moment we came around a switchback and saw the water will remain with me the rest of my life.
I actually lost my breath it is that stunning. The water is about 1600 ft below at that point in the trail and it is straight down so when my trusty mule nearly fell down I may have peed my pants! By this point I was just letting the big guy have his way with me, as my attempts at friendship were clearly being scorned by Baluga. He walked carefully on the OUTSIDE of the very narrow trail, I think to show me who was boss. There were so many thrilling moments that I can't put it all here but if you ever come to Molokai please make this one of the things you do.
On the way up, Baluga and I bonded and I think he loved me at the end. (especially when I got off him). When I asked about him the guide said "oh he is not our mule, and if you think he is bad now...you should have seen him before" I had thought the guides were just being friendly when they consistently stayed beside me but apparently Baluga needs an experienced rider.
My butt is so sore that I can't really sit down but without a doubt this day was even better than we could have imagined. Aloha

Here are the photos of the leper colony and the sign at the entrance of the lookout. The last pics are of the road (and I use that term loosely) that we took to drive down to the spot that I spoke of in the post before this. We are having such an amazing time. We do not even have a clock set here and just do whatever, whenever. Pa is so relaxed and get this.......actually said that if he thought he could make a living here he might like to live here. I think we owe an awful lot to Toby the owner of this condo as she has made it possible to feel completely at home.......there are books on Hawaii, probable 40 movies (none of which we have watched) and everything a house needs down to safety pins......what a thoughtful owner.
well it is now 4 am and I have to be up at 5 so really should try to sleep
ALOHA

Makenna here is a sign that is almost the same as your name! We sure miss you, and all the rest of you girls (and one lil boy kid_)
I am posting these pics because I love them, the village of the leper colony is as close as we could get as you can only go in there by air or sea or BY MULE which we will be doing later today it is 3 am right now. Can't sleep and neither can pa which means we will be a laugh riot when we ride the mules. The water pics I have no idea where we were, as we went off roading with our poor lil rental car. We followed a rutted, unpaved untravelled road all the way to the ocean. Many wrong turns and back ups but we found this strange place where there were cement tracks leading nowhere and what looked like it must have been lava flow and then the most amazing cove that we did not get down to but would have loved to beach comb as there was all sorts of debris washed up on the rocks. I think ya had to be there..........aloha

The first pic is of the sun coming up on our lanai, the second is a lovely fat horse we met at the sugar plantation, she proves that even animals think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, as she had lots of lovely grass on her side but chose to put her head through the fence nearly choking herself to eat some rather unappetizing looking weeds. Does anyone know how pineapple grow.......we sure didn't. Such tiny plants and each one only has one pineapple.... I now know why they are expensive the strange rock is an ancient birthing bed which we found quite fascinating.
and then there is me, posing at Phallic Rock. I was a tiny bit disappointed as there is much fanfare and really......it was just the tip....aw well
I hope all of you are well.
ttfn

I may have discovered the secret of blogging in Molokai! U have to get up in the middle of the night to do it! About these photos, these were taken yesterday at the western end of the Island. It is much different terrain as if it were a different country, very hilly and lots of fields that have grass growing but nothing else. The dirt is actually bright red, although for some reason it doesn't show that colour in the pics. I think there is one of me photographing something and catching my image in the car mirror.
I am going to try to post today's adventure also.......and tomorrow THE GREAT MULE RIDE if I don't fall off the cliff I will post again when we get back. Aloha

the first two pictures were taken yesterday, i love the pic of the sunset. Today we drove as far east on the island as the road goes. It was quite amazing as the road is ocean on one side and mountain on the other. The views were absolutely breathtaking.
This morning I sat on our lanai, with tiny beads of sweat on my tanned forehead, drank my macadamia coffee and wondered how my dear friend Kathy was doing. Get those stats ready my girl!!
Pa swam naked on a deserted (well after he stripped down it was anyway)beach and I waded fully clothed in amazing surf and found some shells for my Siobhan. I miss you all and wish you were here. Danica and Jacqui you will appreciate the photo of the wave crashing on the rocks I think.....I waited and waited as the delay on my camera is huge but I am delighted with the end result. We called on you Michael, to give a good frowning to a driver that felt we were going too fast on the treacherous road up the island. Perhaps we could get some lessons?
.....food is incredibly expensive here, for dinner tonight, Robin had the local fish and I had stuffed shrimp which sounded good but wasn't. The local fish was 26$ and I think the shrimp was 23$. Methinks we will be cooking at home more.
love you all
ma and pa