On the Go, to 3/9/25

 

Maui is a wonderful island to visit and explore.  Two years ago Jimmy and I were here for two weeks with Diane and Tom, and we did many of the touristy things people do.  So, this year we've done a bit more relaxing, enjoying time on the lanai and at the infinity pool (Love the pool).  That being said, we've been Out and About checking new and different areas, such as the Sugar Mill Museum.

The irresistible view where we're staying!

Sugar was king on Maui from the late 1800's and it's reign in Hawaii lasted until the 1960's, when tourism outpaced it as the state’s number one industry.  The museum was small, but we found it very interesting (as most museums are).  Above, Tom, Diane, and Jimmy peruse various exhibits depicting 168 years of “King Sugar.”

Couldn't resist posting this!

Two adorable Java Sparrows (aka Java Finch) on our roof!

Jordan picked up a flight of Malasadas on a day trip to Kauai!  Notice one is missing -- Diane grabbed the guava donut as soon as she saw it -- she loves anything guava.  These donuts were very sweet and each was stuffed to overflowing with different flavor fillings.  Messy but good! 😁

Another day we drove to Honolua Bay, a gorgeous spot north of Lahaina about an hour from Kihei.  Someday I hope to snorkel this bay, but not this year.  It's been too windy (roils the water).  Above, bottom right, you can see three swimmers in the surf, but we haven't seen many swimmers in the water anywhere.  It may be March, and this is the tropics, but it's still winter.

Jimmy unintentionally photo-bombing Diane and Tom!

We hoped to see something of Lahaina, maybe spot progress from their horrible wildfire, but the roads to Front Street were blocked to keep looky-loos away.  Rightly so.  On the Lahaina bypass road, above, we could see a long line of tiny houses, I'm sure they're temporary housing for those who lost their homes.

And, on the fly from the bypass road, out of the corner of my eye, I caught the famous Banyan tree, alive and looking green and large.  What a sight!

We've eaten lunches and dinners around town.  Wednesday lunch at the General Store, like two years ago, Thursday we had a midday meal at Fred's Mexican Café, another repeat, and Friday we tried Brigit and Bernard's Garden Café for dinner.  Located in central Maui, the café features European food and everything we ate was delicious.  It's one of Guy Fieri's Triple D restaurants, and you see his poster at left.  Tom and Jimmy enjoyed their food, though their faces don't show it!  Tom, Diane, Jordan and Jimmy.

We've seen clouds and rain showers over the mountains (and a rainbow!), but none at the house and we've not been caught in rain.

Early Sunday morning, Jimmy and Tom and I walked the Kealia Pond NWR boardwalk, almost a mile out and back.  The NWR is a coastal salt marsh habitat on both sides of North Kihei Rd. This is seasonal water -- during a rainy winter, the pond can grow to 400 acres, but water levels drop during spring and it shrinks to half it's size in summer.  Well, they must be having a dry winter, because the water level looked low and the vegetation appeared dry.

These empty round holes look like fish redds (nests).

We saw an abundance of Hawaiian stilts (left) and Black-crowned night herons (bottom right), and on the way home we spotted a Kōlea, or Pacific golden-plover.  On the other side of the highway we saw a lot of ducks in the pond, but they were too far in the distance to identify. 

Sugar Beach is next to the boardwalk side of the NWR, and I couldn't wait to shed my shoes and stick my toes in the water!  Not the warmest water in the world, but quite pleasant.  Without water shoes, it's impossible to walk on the lava rock to explore tide pools, but I got out as far as I could in sand and not get soaked.

Great fun for me!

The spouting/breaching whales we see every day from our lanai and the pool are Humpbacks, an endangered species.  They spend winters in Hawaiian waters to give birth, and it's a National Marine Sanctuary.  That red dot is also near where we're staying.  Thanks for the exhibit signs.

Ocean to the left.  Pond to the right.

Guys in the middle.

Lotus blossoms are so danged pretty!

One final pic -- these two Zebra Doves are part of the floor clean-up crew at Fred's Mexican Café in Kihei.  I know the pic is not clear, but they wouldn't hold still, always looking for crumbs.  Oops, a broken chip piece hit the floor 😉.

Moving on, to Wed - 4/28/21

Our wanderings took us from Gainesville back to Tallahassee, a place we used to know quite well, having lived in the city between 2002 and 2009.  We have fond and everlasting memories of our time there, although the hot, humid summers were something to escape from!  As outdoor-minded people, Jimmy and I found many activities we could enjoy, biking and walking and running, but most especially kayaking the clear waterways and fishing just offshore in the Gulf in our little Carolina Skiff boat.  On this trip we'd remember these wonderful, fun adventures as we visited around the area.

We made endearing, lifelong friends in Tallahassee, people we still care about and want to see.  And spending time with friends is more precious than gold.  We feel like we're rich!

The scenery on the back roads from Gainesville was quite pretty, with pink and yellow and white wildflowers lining roadsides and medians.  70-foot tall straight trees, covered with and choked by vines, created a green wall on either side of several major roads, giving a person the weird feeling of driving in a long green tunnel.

The master-planned community of Southwood was one of our favorite walking/biking spots.  Grand old Live Oak trees draped with Spanish moss grace the grounds surrounding two interconnecting lakes.  We never could remember how many miles we put on our feet walking around the two lakes.  Still don't know!  We think it's somewhere around two miles.  Beautiful place to walk.  And so we did.

Beautiful place to sit and dream.

Love these trees!

Our campsite at Tallahassee East RV Park was next to the above tree, which had a noisy Red-bellied Woodpecker poking its head out of the hole, calling for MORE FOOD from a parent who showed up regularly.  Sort of entertaining.

On Sunday, we moved our Tergel to the front of our friends, Diane and Tom's, house.  Both had to work on Monday, so Jimmy and I returned to another favorite haunt:  St Marks NWR.  We've spent many happy hours here, either hiking, biking, or boating.  And we always, always saw wildlife.  It's on the migration route for birds, and during spring and fall seasons we'd see hundreds of birds.  Usually we spot alligators, but today we only saw one.  This thing scared the life out of me when it lunged forward into an underwater den of sorts.  I guess I got too close.

You won't see this in Nevada City, California!  Is this a great country, or what?  We have it all in the USA.  We need to preserve/protect every inch.

We've kayaked these waters.

T'was a gorgeous day to be Out and About.

A Lighthouse selfie!

Windblown hair!

The usual suspects on the pilings -- pelicans, cormorants, gulls.

And a red fishing kayak.

Does this little rat count as wildlife?  It was so unafraid that it came right up to Jimmy's shoes.  Jimmy could've dropkicked it into the Gulf, but he simply moved away.  We don't recall seeing rats at this location before.

Toward Headquarters Pond, we spotted this nice-sized turtle in the road.  Normally we would've left it alone, but even with a 35-mph speed limit, trucks towing boats speed, so we stopped.  Jimmy picked it up and kindly moved it to the side of the road toward which it was heading.  

A double Double-crested cormorant!  We've always seen them at St Marks NWR.  Today, we also saw a Bald Eagle (in a new nest/new location), Anhingas, Herons, and various shorebirds.  The refuge is loved by many for its outstanding wildlife.

Here we are on Tuesday to greet you from Ted's Montana Grill, clearly a tradition for the four of us -- Tom and Diane, me and Jimmy.  Ted's served up delicious meals one more time.  And back at the house, our ongoing card game continued.  Guys won the first night, gals won this night.  With loads of laughter and love.  Special friends.  Thanks for a great visit.

Wednesday morning we pulled out, westward-bound, for a surprise stop in Alabama.

To Sheldon NWR, Sunday, 6/28/20

A real change occurred in the nighttime, 'cause dawn broke cloudy and cool and windy, with rain in the forecast.  Long-sleeve weather.  Since a) the weekend was over, b) we weren't going to camp at Page Springs near Frenchglen,  and c) we discovered Hwy 205 was paved all the way south, we decided to continue to Virgin Valley campground in Sheldon NWR (top west corner of Nevada) -- see map below.

For Our Getaway, we started at Hart Mountain, drove north to Malheur, and now south to Sheldon.  All National Wildlife Refuges.  Was this our plan?  I don't know ... I think it just evolved.  But it was a good choice.

The drive was great, no traffic AT ALL, a brisk north (tail) wind, and plenty of fine scenery; I enjoyed being behind the wheel.  Plus, the weather improved as we made our way south.  We knew nothing about Sheldon, though I remember my friend, Lyn, talking many years ago about nearby Denio and an opal mine.  I'd forgotten about it, but when I saw we'd drive through Denio to get to our campground (no fee, first-come/first-served, no hookups), I recalled she'd suggested we go there.  Hmmm ....

Awww, at the vacant entrance kiosk, these li'l cuties had taken up residence.  They were waiting for Mom/Dad to bring home some bacon.  Or skeeeters!  Eat more skeeters!

Our campground is fairly exposed (above), but we chose a decently level site, with no other campers around us.  By the time we arrived, the wind had turned into a gale.  Birds were having trouble flying!  We watched a blackbird aiming for a cottonwood, overshoot the mark, try to flyback (like backtrack) into the wind, fly sideways, and finally reach a branch.  It was kinda funny, but probably not to the bird.  A Nighthawk sitting on the ground was nearly upended by the wind. I'm sure it didn't enjoy being jostled about like that.  We were happy to be camped and off the road.  We decided to take a walk into the desert, enjoy the moment Out and About ... but had to hang onto our hats!  The best news is the wind kept the skeeters at bay!

Does time stand still?

Littering is not a new trend.

People have been dumping stuff 'n junk since forever.

Appears as though the weather might be catching up to us here at Sheldon.  Notice the clouds?  We were on an explore and could've walked for hours, but ... the time.  Dinner and all that.  We did spot a newly headless small game bird (??) and several bleached old bones, but no gold or opals.  Darn!

Sure enough, we watched a big ol' thunderstorm close in while we were cozily installed inside Tergel, and drops fell, but we had no rainstorm.  A draw for this campground was the warm springs pool, which we used!!  Had our bathing suits with us in Tergel and, by gum, in we went -- water maybe 90 degrees?  Very nice.  You don't often see a photo of me in a bathing suit!  After our swim, we hurried to get our towels in the lee of the rustic bathhouse, then a shower, and warm duds for the walk to Tergel.  By this time, the temp was plunging, and we felt cold (wind chill).  I know my sister, broiling in the deep south, won't believe it, but we climbed back into our sweats!

Tomorrow we'll probably move on ....

Malheur Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, Sat 6/27/20

When I made the reservation at The Narrows RV Park, I was looking at a map, which showed a narrow strip of land between two lakes.  Yet, when we approached The Narrows, we saw no water, no lakes.  Odd, we thought, although, of course, water levels fluctuate year-to-year, season-to-season.  I was sort of disappointed, in that I thought we'd be camped close to a lake.  Little did I know we were actually surrounded by water -- lakes, streams, wetlands, and swamps (and correspondingly, mosquitoes -- oh well).

Hah!  I put on jeans this morning, thwarting skeeters from biting my legs!  We decided to head south on Hwy 205 through the refuge, toward Buena Vista Overlook, and further on, to Frenchglen.  The geology of this place is really interesting, with basalt outcrops, columns and rims, much of it overlaid with sage.  Above and below pics we're atop the overlook, gazing down on Diamond Swamp ... and beyond.  You can see forever out here when you're high on a ridge.  A Mule Deer we spotted near that meandering river appeared ant-like from our height.

Jimmy examined the jumble of rocks at the overlook.

I liked the looks of the solo tree below.

A lone California Quail surveys his domain from on high.

The basalt columns topped by square/ish rim rocks are so cool.  Malheur, especially, has many miles of these "fortresses."

"Malheur Nat'l Wildlife Refuge is an oasis in the high desert of southeastern Oregon for the multitude of birds and other wildlife who make it their home. Situated in the wide open spaces of the Harney Basin on the northern edge of the Great Basin, the refuge encompasses a mere 292 square miles of the 5,300 square miles covered by the basin. The refuge includes vast cattail and tule wetlands, lakes, dry alkali playas, ponds, greasewood covered flats, lush native grass meadows, long corridors of riparian vegetation, and sagebrush covered hills bordered by impressive basalt rims."  Above you see a basalt rim traversing the top of the slope.  These things really do look like man-made fortresses!

At tiny Frenchglen, we checked out Page Springs for camping (thumbs up, after skeeter season) and then decided to tackle the trail above.  Of course we didn't actually "read" the sign and were surprised to see a spring, but we would've had to dip down into mosquito territory to test the water, so we passed it by.  I believe it was a warm spring.  Certainly was a nice walk. 

See Jimmy?  He halted to the right of the photo near the spring (above) to see if we could get down to it and come out alive, but no go.  We forged ahead to the old homestead.

An old sod house!  Thoughtfully protected from the elements.  

With the house settled right next to a stream (from the spring), with wonderful shade from Cottonwoods and others, it's a little bit of paradise right here.  You can just barely see the Steens Mountain peaks, with splotches of snow far in the distance on the right. 

Sections of wattle fencing are still in place, along with barbed wire.

Heading back to the car.  Nice 2.5 mile walk.

Ah, Jimmy and I are doing our part!