Just got back from another campout with my family and my wife's best friend and her family. Our kids are close friends too, so they had a blast. We just spent two nights and three days out. My little one was soooo tired, she knocked out within a minute of lying down. My older one is still up. I think she is excited about opening presents tomorrow and that is probably keeping her awake.

What did we do...

We ate a lot, hiked a little, fished a little, relaxed under the stars, ate, looked at wildlife, ate, watched the kids ranging from 2 to 5 run around and have a great time not watching TV!

My wife had camera duty as her camera ran out of batteries and she comandeered mine. So no pictures of food or fire or guy toys.

Here are some pictures:


Some nice scenery.


My oldest, the fisherman, er girl.


My baby girl, pondering life, or at least what will be the next thing she gets to eat. Growing kids are voracious!

My highlights besides just being out with the family were (and you might find these strange):

I followed a pig down a game trail and stopped about 15 feet from it. It didn't notice me, but I back away and left when I noticed a little piglet with the mama. They weren't very big. The mama was maybe 75 - 100 pounds, but it had a baby. I backed out and found my friend's husband and we snuck back and saw that they were still there. Then we left. Sorry, no pictures. But I did recognize the mama pig as the same one that ran past our camp several times the night before. My wife best friend and I were enjoying the evening playing her favorite game after all the kids and spouses were asleep, when the pig trotted by behind her. It was a good 10-15 feet behind her and it wasn't agressive, just passing through. Man, she jumped. She jumped pretty high. I just laughed. After maybe about the third time that happened, it trotted by again and snorted. She almost jump on me. She ended up kind of hiding behind me. I couldn't get her out of her tent the next night. My wife and I had a good chuckle about that.

The second highlight for me was how cold it seemed to have gotten last night. I didn't feel very cold, but I noticed that my nose felt cold when I touched it and the amount of breath fog was more than I have ever seen in Hawaii, including the summit of Haleakala. There was just so much, it was pretty cool. I was showing my wife that my wet hand would steam up too. All in all, pretty cool to me (warm weather guy).

Merry Christmas everyone! Aloha!

Big MAHALOs NightHiker! Most things are fun for the girls and I have a great time with them as well.

Aloha IzzyJG99,

Look me up if you make it out this way.

You are a horrible tease! All those beautiful green hues and warm weather....

Let me know if you're ever interested in seeing some cold browns and greys. We aren't even getting any clean white snow to cover it up! <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Aloha Christina,

I am a married man, you can't call me a tease anymore...

oh, the weather <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> er, hehe ooops

Here's some sunshine for you...
From my daughter getting her Super Achiever Award at school

Last February, our family spent our vacation on Kauai, up at the Princeville Resort. What a spectacular area. We hiked around the northern part of the island, past Hanalei Bay, I think it was a trail that started around Kee Beach and headed along the Napali Coast, wet... slippery, amazing waterfalls, and we thought we were going to die coming down. Still, great memories, and some awesome photos. Great time with my family. Later in the week, we took a helicopter ride, and when we went around the north coast of the island, we could see the ridge trails we hiked along, it was pretty cool.

Aloha Ron,

Did you guys go all the way on the Kalalau Trail? That is one of the must hike trails in the world, IMHO.

You are so right, that's a great hike, but, it's not for a family day hike, at least not all the way. We never made it to the beach. I would have loved to do that, and overnight there, but, we already had enough fun going through the airport with what we had, I can't imagine going with overnight gear too. We had emergency bivvy's with us in our daypacks, but, I know that's not my wife's style, especially since we had a suite at the Princeville waiting for us at the end of the day. I think you need a permit in advance to overnight on the trail anyway.

If I recall, it's a dozen miles one way hiking to the Kalalau Beach. We saw it later in the week from a chopper, but, it wouldn't have been a good idea to take my wife much farther than we did that day. We made it to about the 5 mile mark, saw some amazing waterfalls, and fantastic coastline. Prudence told me it was time to go back, that was a ROUGH 10 miles round trip. If you are reading this and haven't been there, I know 10 miles doesn't sound like much, but, trust me. There had been a LOT of rain last February, and the trails were in really poor condition. As you know that trail is constant up and down, climb a few hundred feet, back down a couple hundred, back up a few hundred, and so on... With wet muddy conditions, it was tough keeping your footing. I didn't want to be tending to a leg or ankle injury on myself, or my son or wife. The trail map made it look like it was going to get worse before it got better. My wife was psyched to go back at that point. (Translation: begging for an hour already) My son was not happy about turning back, until we promised a stop at Bubba Burgers in Hanalei. They are big Red Sox fans at that place, the owner has a nice selection of BoSox memorobilia, and plenty of Yankees $#*& stuff too... made us New Englanders feel right at home! We'll be back someday. I would like to hike inside the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" on a future visit too. I noticed a Boy Scout camp on the island, so maybe someday I'll take the boys in my troop to summer camp "out of council" by a few thousand miles! Better start fundraising now <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Goog luck on your fundraising. Look me up when you come out this way.

Good luck!