Homespun Honolulu

Kung Hei Fat Choi! 

Every year I wait for the sounds of those drums!  Whenever I hear them I follow the sound, grab my camera, and grab my wallet for dollar bills, or $5 bills if I am in a good mood and feeling the need for whatever prosperity the Chinese New Year will bring.

We are closing the year of the Rabbit and welcoming in the year of the Dragon.  I love dragons.  I’m more prone to the Old World dragons that guard castles and nest on piles of gold and jewels but, like I said to someone last week, a dragon is a dragon and I’ll take whatever I can get!

No, I am not superstitious and, no, I do not follow the teachings of the zodiac.  However, I have to admit that there is often some truth and accuracy to the things they say about our character traits.  Besides, it’s fun.  You can take it with a grain of salt but it is a heck of a lot of fun to see how things fit the people you know!

There is just something about the sound of those drums, when they are done right, that just triggers something.  Of all Asian art and culture, Chinese lion and dragon dances surpass it all for me.

The best part of Downtown Honolulu at this time of year is that it is so very close to China Town.  Businesses frequently enlist this rite to chase away evil spirits from their doorways.  Hopefully I will run into more of them this year than I did last.  I do not want to wait another year to hear those drums and watch this cultural marvel unfold.  Firecrackers included!

Welcome to the first 2012 edition of the Carnival of Aloha!  I was surprised to hear that more than 70% of Americans were very happy to put 2011 behind them.  Really?  You mean I’m not alone?  It was a rough year for many of us, and in many ways.

Yaro Starak, the blogger’s favorite entrepreneur, had a hell of a 2011!  He calls it, My Most Challenging Year Part I: When Family Tragedy Strikes that he posted over at the Entrepreneurs-Journey.  I can certainly relate although I am not as open to talking about these things brought to us in 2011 like Yaro is.  No, Yaro did not send this to me for the Carnival and no, it has nothing to do with Hawai’i.  It was in my Inbox because I am subscribed to one of his lists.  This could not have been more timely.  His post certainly helps me make my case for wishing a speedy aloha to 2011.  Thank you, Yaro, for helping me with that.

I know I’m ready to move on into this new year with hopes of a much gentler outcome.  Chinese New Year at the end of this month will be welcoming in the Year of the Dragon and I am looking forward to having that Dragon come roaring onto the scene!

Great news!  We are already starting out on a much more positive note!  Hmmm… I guess we’re eating seafood for this Carnival.

Karen happily shares Squid, Fish and I, Oh My Or Fishing in Waikiki posted at kareninhonolulu, saying, “my latest blog from my trip to Waikiki this New Years Morning. It’s a fun blog to start off the year.”  I don’t know if any of those squid made it to the hot coals that morning but we’ll go with it.  Karen was relaxing but I have to tell you guys that she is the hostess with the mostest over at Bishop Museum — we’ll talk about that later!

I know the calamari lovers are starting to salivate out there so I’m really glad we have a remedy for what these much-loved delicacies leave behind.

Sheila helps us freshen our breath!  Aloha Friday Photo: SPAM Breath Mints? posted at Hawaii Vacation Blog - GoVisitHawaii.com, saying, “Well, since you suggested it, here’s the SPAM mints post. These crack me up!”  I confess, I did suggest this would be fun to share.  Besides, what is more Hawaii than SPAM?  Thank you, Sheila, for sharing this crazy breath freshener!  I can see how a Pez could look like a slice of SPAM.  Works for me!

You may think our next post is not too timely but I beg to differ.  The old-calendar Orthodox just celebrated Christmas last weekend so this is perfect timing!  Santa Claus even stopped by on his way back to the North Pole!

Gigi wishes everyone Merry Christmas from Hawaii posted at gigi-hawaii, saying, “Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year!!!”  We can’t argue with that!  Gigi also shares some truly wonderful photos with us from earlier in the year when she visited the Big Island of Hawaii.  They are beautiful photos indeed.

Our “Happy New Year!” continues with what is culturally traditional.

Kay starts the New Year off by buying Kadomatsu for Mom that she tells us about over at Musings.   This was another case of perfect timing — I had just been thinking about these items because they have, once again, started appearing in all the stores.  They are very pretty and they are a cultural tradition!  It’s great to be educated like this.  Thanks, Kay!

Now that we’re full and festive, you know I have to share a little bit of Mr. TenBruggencate’s intellect and continue to educate all of us.

Jan TenBruggencate has shared yet another bit of scientific knowledge over at Raising Islands–Hawai’i science and environment.  Our bees have been a concern for quite some time and Jan sends yet another warning when he says, “A solution to honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder? Doubt it.”  I have been wanting to talk about our bees for quite some time and I am so grateful for these insights.  This way, I can sound intelligent when I approach our local bee keepers.  We just won’t tell them how I got so smart.  Shhh!  Let’s just hope the New Year brings good news to our bee colonies!

Just to add to my weirdness, I’ve started a new endeavor to add to the Honolulu mix.  My friend Karen who fed us fish and squid at the beginning of the Carnival sounded almost excited when I told her about this one so it made me just brave enough to share it with all of you.

Evelyn (my strange self) wants to share a new development.  Well, it is not really all that new.  It has been brewing for several years actually.  I just finally found something to do with my strange fixation.  It’s a… well… it’s a… a graveyard blog!  It’s what I do during my times of Resting Reveries.  I just provided the link to the blog because there isn’t much to it, yet.  It is amazing just how much history is contained in those stones!  You can click on the circle with the rabbit and you will find that there are a lot of people out there who are fascinated by the graveyards, the history, and the genealogy!  So I get to talk about some Hawaiian history from time to time — sounds like a good idea to me!  Don’t you think?

Happy New Year, everyone!  This concludes this chapter of our ongoing Hawai’i blog Carnival. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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You know those pictures that you take and there’s more there than meets the eye?  You know, the ones where you don’t see anything unusual until you get it home and look at it more carefully.  Just before Christmas, I was getting some exercise and was on my way to the nearby 7-11 Store for some water.

Well, I thought this cannon was fascinating so I tucked my wallet under my arm and took several snap shots before I decided I would continue on my way to 7-11.  I was really thirsty!  I’m glad I stopped to take these pictures because one of them worked as a great prop for announcing the upcoming Carnival of Aloha.

While I was trimming the photos and selecting the one I liked the best, I saw that one very important item that the camera saw but I missed at the time these photos were taken.  It reminded me that I had not shared this with you guys yet.

See, I went to 7-11 and took a bottle of water out of the fridge.  I took it to the cashier and suddenly, “Nooooooo!  Where’s my wallet?!?”  I knew that I had dropped it somewhere between that cannon and the store.  I ran back, looking at the ground the whole way.  “It’s gone, it’s gone!  Don’t let this happen now, not right before Christmas!”

I got back to the cannon and, thank goodness, there it was!  It was broad daylight but nobody saw it!  My little flowered wallet with its little Chinese bell was sitting right there where I had dropped it while trying to take a descent photo.

Go ahead, scroll back up.  You know you want to!  You’ll see it right there.  I missed it completely when I snapped the pictures — I had to be sure I got the whole cannon in the shot.  Focusing on the ground was not part of the plan for these photos.

Talk about lucky!  My advice?  If it does not have a handle, leave it in your bag until you get where you’re going!  The cashier will wait for you to dig it back out again, trust me.  When I got back to the store they got a good laugh out of it all but I was nicely freaked for the rest of the afternoon!

Calling all Bloggers!  Don’t forget to send in your posts about Hawai’i to the Carnival of Aloha!  Let’s blast into the New Year!

Feel free to share your articles about any island, any topic, any reason — if it’s Hawai’i specific, you’re in!  We will post it the week after New Year’s  so you can send in your posts about your New Year’s celebration too, if you would like!

The deadline is January 7, 2012 so be sure to send one in now or tickle your calendar so you don’t forget!  Submit a link to your post of choice using this Blog Carnival form and help us all kiss a another not-always-so-wonderful year good-bye!

Welcome to the December edition of the Carnival of Aloha!  This will be the last chapter of our Carnival for 2011.  Suffice it to say, 2011 has been a strange year in many ways and it will stick around for quite some time in many of our memories.  We need to take the edge off so let’s have a drink together as we move closer to the end of this interesting and sometimes troubling year!

Sheila shares 4 Favorite Places for a Sunset Drink in Waikiki posted at Hawaii Vacation Blog - GoVisitHawaii.com, saying, “What happened to 2011? The year went by so fast! Well, let’s all toast to the close of 2011 and the welcome of 2012 with a Waikiki sunset drink. :-)”   Thanks, Sheila, you have always been a great person to share with and a great help to my nerves!

Now we need something to eat so we don’t get too tipsy!  It gives me great pleasure to introduce a local blogger who has been around for quite some time but we have never connected until now.  Since that panda at the top of this post is not going to share his saimin, Kay is going t0 feed us a Hawai’i favorite!

Kay actually shows us How to Cook Opihi!  Some time back someone let me try opihi, directly off the rocks, and I thought it tasted a little like sunflower seeds — it must have been the salt from the ocean.  Kay’s recipes posted over at Musings sure look a lot tastier than sunflower seeds.  I like the comment she shared about them tasting like the escargot someone had while on a cruise ship.  It does sound much more appetizing to eat opihi made that way rather than snails!

Now we need a little bit of intellectual stimulation.  I found something I thought you would all find interesting.

Jan TenBruggencate over at Raising Islands–Hawai’i science and environment was talking about Hawaiian volcano science: why Kilauea sits on Mauna Loa, but is a sister of Mauna Kea.  This is interesting information that I thought it would be great to share.  It is always fascinating to learn the secrets about what goes on underneath the surface and creates the beautiful scenery and great photo ops we all enjoy!  Thanks, Jan!

Are your fingers itching to write about Hawai’i?  Pua is going to help us out with that!

Pua sends out an invitation to bloggers as she presents 8 Best Maui Vacation Tips posted at Best Hawaii Vacation with Hawaii Vacation Blog, saying, “We invite people in love with Hawaii and Hawaii vacation to write a guest post on our blog. A short bio will be included. So, if you have something nice to say -NO advertising though - please, share with us like the writer of this ‘Maui vacation tips’ article did.”  Another place to share your island discoveries!

Need a ride?

Evelyn, that’s me, shares the Street Bikers United annual gift giving event — the 2011 Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run posted right here on this blog.   This is a great way to start the month of December every year.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could ride into 2012!

We may not have snow but we have all of your bloggers and readers with whom we share the holiday season!  Have a wonderful holiday season and please, please stay safe!

Aloha to 2011!  The next Carnival of Aloha will have us welcoming in 2012.   Come on and submit your blog articles to the next chapter of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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What do you do on a peaceful Sunday morning?  Do you go to Ala Moana Park and paddle board?  Do you go sailing?

Some people do.  Is that why I was venturing over to Magic Island?  Uh, no.  If it’s the first or second Sunday in December, I’m there for one reason and one reason only — the annual Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run!

The weather has been overcast all weekend so one can only guess that stuffed animals were not the toys of choice this year.  While there were a few soft critters, not all of them were toys for the kids.  Some of them were mascots.

The GEICO gecko made sure to show up for the occasion.  In case you’ve missed the commercials, they insure motorcycles.  Actually, I wonder if this one was a going to be gifted.  If that’s the case, I need one for my car!  I seriously wouldn’t mind having him as a passenger.  This was actually the first bike photo I took as I thought, “They must be here.”

Indeed they were, with bells on!  They were even ladies walking around taking monetary donations for Street Bikers United to help with the cost of the Toy Run, to keep it running!  It is a great cause and quite the community event!

I liked this animated reindeer.  He was just sitting there looking from side to side to see what was interesting, just like me!

The bikes are always a fascination but the people are too!  There were people who dressed for the Christmas event that this is intended to be.

Then there were people who dressed, well, like bikers!

Of course Santa was there!  He even found himself a biker chick!

There were the ones who attracted every camera lens.  A pirate!  Why a pirate?

This rider is a diver.  The toy gave that away.

Of course the co-pilot shark kind of helped with that, too.  So, a pirate is the proper attire — anything ocean!  This is Hawai’i, how can you argue with outfitting yourself with anything ocean?

This one on the left was my favorite and I let her know that I thought it was too cool.  And you guys thought I was kidding when I mentioned biker chick.  Oh yeah, they were there too.  Awesome!

The beauty of this event is that nobody knows what these people do for a living.  Tank’s Lady may be a pediatrician for all we know!  (If she sees this, I hope she tells us.)  One of the other rugged-looking dudes might be an architect.  It happens!  That is the beauty of events like this and that is why I take every opportunity to squelch the negative opinions the seem to pop up whenever people hear the word “biker.”

Like anything else, riding is a passion that runs through a biker’s veins.  It’s like hunting, fishing, running, or any of the other events to which people devote their time.

Bikers are not the ogres people try to make them out to be.  Yes, there are bad a**es but there are those in every group of people.  This is just one example of good people trying to do something good for their community and enjoy themselves in the process.  Trust me, I was there!  I was at KCC with a four-wheeled vehicle (who wants to see a car at a biker event?) and still I was allowed to sneak in.  I witnessed the camaraderie among bikers, and I enjoyed the acceptance of this crazy blogger who was there with camera in hand simply because they were all there being who they are!

Patience, understanding and a lot of ALOHA makes this event what it is every year.  I witnessed it and I enjoyed the benefit of it — of course the “I Brake for Bikers” bumper sticker on my boring automobile may have helped with that part.

I so love it when people prove me right!  <sarcasm>Gasp!  Those horrible people!</sarcasm>  There is an annual bike blessing, by the way, in case you have friends or family that need to have their bikes blessed — which is not a bad idea on our Hawai’i roadways!

Every year I come away with something in my hand.  This year I did not come away with a GEICO bandana or a Marine Corp flyer.  This little treasure brought tears to my eyes as I picked it up and found that it was the New Testament in its entirety along with stories that I will share with everyone later.

As I thumbed through it to see what was included in the text, I decided that I would have to share the stories with everyone later.  This is the best season to do so as most of them are recovery stories about overcoming some of the different challenges that life throws our way.

I always look for fun and fascinating things to share.  Santa’s sleigh is always an important thing to share!

In the process of seeking these fun things, I always seem to find at least one bike that makes me catch my breath.  This one was stunning!  If the owner catches this post, please share your story for this picture I have labeled, “My Star Performer.”

Everyone loves Pooh Bear and the Veterans are no exception.  I’m assuming these were the bikes of Veterans.  Anyone is welcome to correct me if I’m wrong!  Please do!

With every turn the lot was filling up quickly.

One biker from this large group noticed the camera.

They just seemed to be coming from all directions

There must have been more this year than in the past.  It was getting crazy at the starting point but it was unbelievable at the end and police officers had to direct the traffic for the stream of bikers filing in to drop off their toys!

So many bikers, so many toys.

I asked the Marine officer who was taking in the toys if these toys were for the children of military, disadvantaged children, or whose children.  His response was that the toys are for all children.  My assumption is that they are for all any and all children in need at this time of year.

I leave everyone with this little mascot.  A biker dog!  What a cutie!

Someone asked me, “Do you ride?”

“No, I’m a coward and have too much road rage — it would be a suicide mission for me to become a biker.”  That small bit of intelligence on my part does not change my desire and my admiration for those who do!

My one regret this year is that those ladies collecting donations were doing so to support the event itself and I missed an opportunity to show my support.  But, all is not lost!  If you want to make a donation to help keep this event running, please do by making your check payable to “The Toy Parade Inc” and mail it to: SBUHI, P.O. Box 5003, Kaneohe, HI  96744.  I am!

Heartfelt appreciation goes out to Street Bikers United, the Marine Corp., and all of the bikers who participate in this event every year.  Thank you for sharing your excitement and passion with us, and mahalo nui for letting me live vicariously through all of your passion and events!

December Carnival of Aloha!

How did that happen?  I think it should still be March or April!  We need to talk.  Come on, share your stories from 2011 with us.  Be it good news or bad, I’m open to it all this month.  It has been an extreme roller coaster ride of events this past year, both for our State and for many of us as individuals.  Please share your triumphs and/or your drama.

Let’s do a review of 2011 — if it happened in Hawai’i, you are welcome to share!  If this has started your fingers itching and you want to write about it now, go for it and then submit the address of your post so we can link back to you.  If you have a favorite post for the year, share that too!  Join in the camaraderie and connect to the Carnival of Aloha! Submit one of your Hawai’i posts to the Carnival by using this form.

I am reaching out to all Hawai’i bloggers (or bloggers visiting Hawai’i) to participate in our Carnival of Aloha!  I will even accept links to publications as long as you tell me who you are and why you’re sharing it.  There is room on the form to share all of that!

All you need to do is submit one of your posts (or a link) that talks about a local city, town, event or anything else that’s typically Hawai’i.  Or, if you’re a resident, something that’s typically you!

Bloggers from other states, or other countries even, are welcome to submit posts to the Carnival of Aloha. If you’ve been to Hawai’i, on vacation or otherwise, and have a story to tell, please share it with us!

Since it is the holiday season, I will extend the deadline to next Friday, December 9, 2011.  Let us “hear” you!  Start submitting, or writing and then submitting at BlogCarnival.com using our form for the Carnival of Aloha!  As always, the Carnival will be as exciting and informative as you help me make it!  Join us?  Please?  I’ve missed a lot this past year and I need you guys to educate me!

There seems to be a lot of historic items this month, both old and some a little more recent, that have touched all of us is many ways.  We are going to touch them back by sharing them with others!

Things that have touched the past are always a good thing to revisit.

Karen talks about Touching the Past Kealiiokamalu Church where we can see the beauty of a country church.  Thank you for sharing this, Karen, we don’t hear about these country churches often enough.

Everyone knows how we always need someone to feed us at the Carnival! We have a great menu this month! It’s always touching to revisit old recipes (another touch from the past)!

heartland frugalista presents A Touch of the Islands: Recipe for Kalua Pig posted at Heartland Living on a Budget, saying, “A native of Honolulu, I moved to Wisconsin 11 years ago. I miss many things, especially the food. But I have learned how to make my beloved kalua pig!”  Makes my stomach growl just thinking about it.

Are you full? Not yet? Malia is going to share some other yummies!

Malia Yoshioka presents Comparing Shrimp Trucks on Oahu’s North Shore posted at WhyGo Hawaii, saying, “One of the most popular things to do on Oahu’s North Shore is to visit the shrimp trucks. We compared four in one day - Giovanni’s, Romy’s, Fumi’s, and Macky’s - in order to give a fair comparison.”

Giggles!  It’s always great to compare lunch wagons, and shrimp trucks should certainly be no exception!

Marquita (Marty) Herald tells us about Discovering a Sense of Place posted at IGG - tips, tools and tantalizing ideas.  Marty says, “The ‘Staycation’ trend may have been born as a result of economic issues, but we’ve since realized there are many other benefits of getting reacquainted with our neighborhoods … such as reconnecting with a sense of belonging to a community. In Hawaii, this feeling is known as ’sense of place.’”

Thank you for joining us, Marty!  Mahalo for pointing out just how wonderful our own home towns are for all of us.  This post touched me!  It is amazing how many things you can discover while checking out your own backyard!

Jennifer Miner expresses some concern about a favorite backyard destination for locals and for our visitors, asking, What Will Happen to the Ihilani Resort and Spa?  This is being discussed over at The Vacation Gals - Family travel, girlfriend getaways, romantic getaways, destinations, things to do, travel tips.  I agree, Jennifer, that this might be a concern but Ihilani has already established a fine reputation and Aulani does not offer kama’aina rates (slightly reduced rates for locals) and that will be their biggest issue during the “off” season.

Disney did their research and has done all that is necessary to stay true to the culture of Hawai’i but they missed that very, very, fine detail! Ihilani Resort & Spa does offer kama’aina rates, by the way.  I called to be sure — most of the locals I know wouldn’t stay there if they didn’t!  Don’t worry, the novelty will wear off eventually and the real business battle will begin.  I’m just saying.

There is a lot more than famous mice and strange, lovable canines from Disney coming to our shores — fortunately or unfortunately.  Japan’s recent tsunami made history to be sure but this horrific event is about to touch us again.

Jan TenBruggencate brings us an intellectual fix when he tells us all about how a Russian ship finds UHawai`i-projected tsunami debris field.  Jan doesn’t know how I count on his wisdom over at Raising Islands — Hawai’i science and environment for some of my intellectual stimulus.  Hey, I can’t help it if I’m part nerd!  Alright, maybe more than part nerd.  I also can’t help it if I just love it when the University of Hawaii makes cool discoveries like this.  The bad part is, that this debris is apparently going to touch our shores a bit sooner than originally thought.  I wonder what that will do for the search for sea glass?

Since we really do need our cars for staycations and to travel a bit further to get to Ko ‘Olina (it’s really not that far!) and see Mickey, it would be a good thing to pay less for car insurance.

Tyler presents Hawaii Car Insurance | HI Car Insurance Quote Comparison posted at Car Insurance Comparison. Tyler said, “Even Hawaiians need car insurance!” I certainly cannot argue with that!

That concludes this chapter.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Aloha using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Sometimes you just need to do something mindless.  My girlfriend, Coco, suggested, well, actually coerced me into going to look for beach-worn fragments of glass.  She said, “it would be bloggable.”  I told her that was hitting below the belt!

This whole thing started when she posted a note on Facebook that said,

“Good and bad news: There has been a major decrease in littering off the shores of Hawaii. No more glass being thrown off shore or from boats. As a result, no matter how hard you look, there’s no more sea glass.” 

What is WRONG with her?!?

Coco was on the hunt for sea glass and another friend of hers told her about Sand Island. Sand Island?  Where the auto junkyards are?  No, where the ships have gone by and dropped their garbage and glass along with it.  Huh?  You can imagine where my mind went.  Ick!

Not too long after we spoke of broken glass and this blog-worthy adventure, when reality got a little bit too hard for me to handle, it was time to search for the simplicity of a unique and relatively-mindless distraction.  Few things provide that kind of distraction as well as the shores of O’ahu.

Of course the “icky” idea of things being discarded made me wonder if I needed to wear rubber boots but, on the contrary, the water was beautiful and very clean.  So don’t worry, no rubber boots required.

As we drove around trying to find this mystical repository of glittering sea glass, we stumbled on to this interesting looking place.

I am sure I will investigate that one a bit more and talk about it later.  My blogger friend, Karen, has already discovered La Mariana and she has already shared it with her blog readers!

We were looking for glass.  We found the shore and we found some boats but we were still not quite where we needed to be.

I had to get a photo of this U.S. Coast Guard ship for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was my past inability to get a decent photo of these ships from Aloha Tower.

Still searching for this glass, we asked some people if they knew the spot we were looking for to see if they could help us with our search.  We did get one rather strange reply.  One gentleman said something like, “You mean where the haoles go looking for glass?”

Uh, excuse you?!?  This guy looked more like a tourist than anything else!  Coco and I must have both been wondering, “what the heck?”  At least he pointed us in the general direction.

Were we getting warmer?  This is not exactly the kind of glass we had in mind.  It just happened to be the first glass we found.

We found it!  Our devoted search for pieces of sea glass is finally able to begin!  Now we will see what we can find along this interesting stretch of rocky beach.

What we actually found was even more interesting, even a bit freaky.

Items were molded into the rock.  Stuck!  Somehow these things had become part of the shoreline.  I guess this peculiar process of fusing things together resembles the man-made reef idea, except it was not man-made.  We provided the materials and it seems that nature did the rest.

Some pieces of glass we attempted to collect were not to be removed. It looks like you can pick them up but they have become part of the rocks — you might be able to get a piece of them if you took a hammer and chisel to them but that would just not be right.  Besides, the edges would just be sharp again rather than worn by the sand and surf.

Hmmm, remember that quote posted above about the lack of glass being tossed into the ocean?  Apparently I failed to notice this additional comment from Coco’s friend, Lisa, who said, “Oh yes! And due to the heat of decomposition, the glass is sometimes melted together! Have fun!“

Man!  It seems that the “heat of decomposition” along with the heat of the sun have done a stellar job of melting everything together!

It is really amazing to see how the whole area has adapted to all of this and actually absorbed these things right into its little ecosystem.  In a fascinating way, this little area has taken in a strange culture of chemicals and embraced it as part of its own.  Sound familiar?  Are the islands not famous for doing the same thing with the cultures of people?  We absorb them and make them fit!  I could go “out there” with this idea!  I’m just saying.

There was more to discover here besides these pieces of glass, and other things we could not pick up.

So many people were enjoying this quiet little area.  There was even some fishing going on.  I would never have expected there to be people fishing here.  Well, why not?  Where there’s water, there’s fish!

I liked the look of this quiet little corner, except for the storm drain and that great big pipe.  These were certainly another unexpected curiosity.

I will not wager any guesses or make any assumptions about why this is here or what it is for.  There is still no need for rubber boots so we can relax!

Oh no, not more of this kind of glass!  This bottle will probably get broken and become sea glass someday, but not anytime soon.  For now it is, shall we say, less than collectible, even without being stuck to the rocks!

Below is our collection!  There were a couple of shells that were interesting but the bulk of the collection was pieces of worn glass, no longer sharp and dangerous to touch. Some of these are, of course, molded together.

The pieces that could be removed from the rocks and/or sand were interesting, although not as colorful as I kept hoping for — I wanted more blue.  But, we did help to de-litter the beach just a bit!

My supposition is that the glass aficionados who use these interesting pieces of ocean art to create little table tops, etc., have already discovered this place so the pickings were slim for us.  Then again, there will be even less for them the next time they go!  It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

It was a beautiful day and I could not help but snap more shots.  I never get quite this vantage point from other venues.

I did manage to get some otherwise impossible photos!  I do love my island.  Can you tell?  The island and its variety of ecosystems can often be as fragile as glass, but it can also be as tough as nails when it needs to be.