Aloha -- The Storm!

Carol, Me, Karan and Billy

We had a wonderful trip to Hawaii with Larry's brother and his wife. We fully experienced two islands in ten days (at least as fully as we wanted); had several "historic" moments happen there, and realized we travel very well together. It was very much a "day" trip in that we were up by 6:30am and in bed by 9:30pm most nights. We were exhausted from filling every day with lots of walking, driving and seeing the sights. I miss the beautiful flowers most. This Hybiscus is the most different variety I've ever seen.

After the storm.

The most historic event of our trip was the huge storm that hit Kailua on Oahu the hardest. This is the town where our Bed & Breakfast was located: Manu Mele, owned and operated by Carol. The island of Kauai had been inundated with rain for weeks and was mostly flooded out. The storm we experienced that produced half-dollar-sized hail, had not been experienced for at least fifty years! The airport shuttle driver that took us back to Honolulu on our way to The Big Island had never seen hail, so I showed him pictures. He was awe-struck and reported the pictures to his dispatcher while we sat there listening to him and laughing. The hail shredded Carol's plants, and she was very upset. She has a lovely garden. It also flooded the streets at our crossroads so much so that the fire department sent a truck to pump us out.

This is the NOAA report. The rain and hail started about 5:00am, and the the sound was deafening. This is a picture of the rain coming into the windows before we had to close them. Water poured in on the wall under our air conditioner because of the driving rain. It was amazing. Schools closed and the weather people were VERY excited.

Stay tuned for more on our amazing vacation. Mahalo.