Christmas Day 2009

This Christmas, I had the idea to rent Chuck's Cove to save myself cooking all day and to have a place where we could all be together and have fun.

Reed and Megan and family came down for the day and the rest of us spent Christmas night there and play our banana game well into the night.

Can anyone guess who this is?

whale watching at Depoe Bay~we saw several way out into the ocean
It was a beautiful day at the beach

The whole gang

Frozen Falls

In mid-December our plans to camp at Cape Lookout with the Gales were thwarted because of the frozed passes to the coast~so we took a day and drove to Multmonah Falls to see how they had frozen. We had more than a week when the temps did not get out of the 20's.

We took the hike up to the falls. This pix is the falls from the top looking donw at the parking lot!

Just beyond this point, the trail was thick with ice where the spray had frozen to the path. We had to hang on to the handrail for dear life and crawl past the ice for about 20 yards.
Only a tiniy stream could flow~the rest was frozen

Nutcracker!!

On December 22, all of the Bell girls who were here in Portland went to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Keller Auditorium.

It was actually Jim's idea that I kind of scoffed at because of money concerns but as I gave it some thought, it seemed like a good idea afterall.

The little girls did so very well. They both agreed that their favorite part was when the snow princesses danced~all on pointe with snow falling on the stage

Correction

Hi,
in the crab post, I need to add the word Joseph inforn of Nicholas Bell~so Joseph Lloyd Bell's father is Jospeh Nicholas Bell

Crab Bob~No Pants!

This lovely ceramic piece has been in the family for years and evidentally is destined to stay with us-for now anyway. It was made by Vernie who was the second wife to Nicholas Bell who is Joseph L. Bell's dad.

I can't remember when mom and dad gave it to us but it sat in our garage storage room for years until it was time to move and then a bunch of things happened that caused Tim and Susie Wright to borrow it for a ward function where they were serving seafood of some kind and needed to use it for a decoration.

We didn't see it until the next Christmas when we almost won it back in our yearly white elephant gift game for our Empty Nesters Evening with the Wrights, Hansens, Golds and Wrzesinskis. Due to Lloyd's clever strategy in the white elephant game, the Wright's wound up taking it home with them again.

For the next couple of years, it laid in hidiing in the Wright's barn until we all forgot about it and then, due to some clever strategy and secret alliances on Susie Wright's part that were not really needed in the end, I received it again in our white elephant game!

I am sure that the look on my face was priceless

and crab Bob is back gracing our home.

When I opened it, Lloyd noticed that the lid to the crab was gone so Susie did some quick sleuthing and it was on our porch the very next day!

It is always amazing how good motivation can make geezers do things in a very expedient way!

Barn Update

Laynie on the barn steps~she loves to explore

Above~you can see some of the windows in this pix. This was taken at the culmination of a Thanksgiving Day treasure hunt that ended in the barn with a box full of gold coins (chocolate) From Lto R: Jocy Bell. Mikeyla Bell, Nate Bell and Aaron Bell

Below~ Although this pix does not show it, the windows and doors are now in and siding will be in stalled on January 16

This is the day that the trench was dug for the electrical . The whole electrical system was approved after only one failed inspection. Lloyd was so happy to have that over and done!

It has been awhile since I have posted and a lot has happened on the barn so I will try to update

Saturday~Our Last Day

We said good-bye to our lovely house (the square one) and headed down the middle of the island in search of the Atlantis submarine at Waikiki Beach
We found the sub pier without too much trouble . It is directly in front of the Hilton Hotel. You take a ship shuttle out into the ocean about a mile

As you approach, the sub surfaces. The Atlantis poeple are a private organization that is trying to restore the reefs all over the world. They 'install' artificial reefs like sunken ships so the coral can grow on them and invite all the critters to live and feed there

Here we are inside. It was very awesome and one of the great highlights of our trip. Each person has a porthole to view outside.

The underwater pix aren't great but here is a pretty good one of one of the sea turtles swimming around the 'reef'.

There was a family with 3 small children on the sub with us. The children were darling and so excited. The oldest one-a boy-attached himself to Dad and was so excited to show him all of the things underwater. You could fill out a checklist of everything that you saw. we even saw a shark (rare) and the little guy was so.o.o. excited!

I guess that he could tell a good grandpa anywhere!

Diamond Head from the sea shuttle. We did drive up to the other side and look out over the valley.

Pink Flamingos on the grounds of the Hilton. They are very beautiful in real life and seem much more pink.

Finishing off one of Ted's bakery chocolate pies in the parking lot of the USS Arizona Memorial

We tried several times to get on the USS Missouri~where the war ending treaty was signed. Between the Parks service and the military, we kept getting bad information. We tried to get on too late on our Wednesday trip so we stated we would come back in a few days. They forgot to mention that it wold be in dry dock in a few days.

So here it is in the background as we drove away in the bus from the Air Museum.

We were very disappointed.

This is the Punchbowl Memorial Cemetary for those who have died in military service. This is a national cemetary and we did not realize how many there are around the world. It is a huge place~

They told the story of the war in the Pacific Theater by these mosaic displays. Everything is done in little tiny colored stones

Here is part of the panel of the display. It extends to the right quite a distance

Lloyd and I at the top of the memorial.

The whole trip was so very enjoyable. After we left here, we found some excellent food in Chinatown in Honolulu and then off to the airport.

It was a wonderufull week.

Thanx to Lloyd and Peggy for planning it all!

Friday in Paradise

If you turn east at Laie and head down the east side of the island on the Kam highway you come to the Valley of the Temples Memorial. It is basically a cemetary for Asian peoples~mostly non-Christian. You cross over this bridge to enter into the main grounds. The plantings and trees are absolutely gorgeous and it is so peaceful there. The architecture is very fascinating
This is a big bell standing by a big bell that is hit with the pole on the ropes in the left of the pix. You can hear it ringing all through the grounds when you strike it.

The Budda is inside the main entrance

We curved around on the Kam Highway and arrived at Kaneohe and came to Kailua Beach. It is the most gorgeous beach that I have ever seen. The water is the most brilliant aquamarine color that I have ever seen with white, fine sand beaches curving around in a graceful half oval.

I obviously did not get a very good picture of the actual beach but this catamarand sailed in on cue as if it were on a postcard

Hawaii techincally has no private beaches but the locals, many times, make it very difficult to find them. The access is hidden behind homes or is so obscure that only the clued in can find it. This beach was worth the find and they do have a nice park there but it took a lot of winding aorund and peering through every alley to get there.

Once you buy a pass to PCC, you can get it for several days after for free to see the general stuff. We revisited on Friday afternoon and saw the Tahatian Village and went to the IMAX movie about coral reefs with was very interesting.

We also took the shuttle over to the Temple and had a guided tour by one of the sister missionaries there.

There are sister missionaries at PCC much like there are on Temple Square. They conduct tours of the Temple grounds and talk to some of the any thousands of visitors each day

We are looking toward the Temple and our sister missionary photographer is looking down the Temple grounds through Laie and toward the beach. They have the most lovely hibiscus hedges called hula girl hibiscus. They have brilliant and huge yellow blossoms

She told us that when the Temple was built in 1911 that many of the island people started to leave their homelands to settle near the Temple and kind of abandon their culture.

Matthew Cowley-who had served a misison to the islands-conceived an idea to have a center where culture could be preserved.

It took quite a few years to some to fruition but it is a great place where these young people can have opportunities to have educaiton

Thursday in Hawaii Polynesian Cultural Center

This is our host for the Polynesian Cultural Center~DG. He is actually from Mongolia. The young people who work and entertain here are on scholarships at BYU-H. Their work at the center is how they pay back for the education they receive. We bought the package where you get a guide/host to take you around to all of the events. This was a good thing because they is lots going on and your guide can get you to all of the good stuff in a timely manner.
Since I Had never been to PCC, I had no idea of the immensity of the place. There is a man made river that winds through recreated villages of Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Taihiti , New Zealand and Hawaii. In each village they have a presentation of some of their culture complete with native costumes and ,sometimes, native food.

In the mid-afternoon, each culture represents itself on a barge as they parade by. This is Hawaii and represents the royalty. Most of them were dancing as they went by and-although you can't see it in this pix, there is a young man guiding the barge with a pole as he stands on the back of the barge.

The Samoan group had quite a lively dance going and they pitched their 'driver' off the barge right in front of us!

When we asked if it were accidental or staged DG shook his head and said 'you never know with those Samoans~they love to play jokes!'

This is the 'show' for Tonga. There was a huge and elaborate drum show where they invited several people to come up and help. The guy with the yellow lei is from Japan and the 2 guys in the back are from Canada and Ohio respectively.

The T0ngon is the red was very fun with his demos of the drums and his working hte crowd in general. I have come to believe that all of the Polynesians are 'hams' after visiting PCC. These guys really knew how to work the room.

Peggy and I go a photo op with the Samoan presenter. He is not dirty on his legs or his abdomen. Those are tatoos made up of very fine points. Towards the end of the presentation, he had cracked a coconut with his forehead. There was an older gentleman in the background just before our pix who was questioning the demo. He said that he could detect 'scoring' on the coconut which cause it to break open easily. We were all shaking our heads because another Samoan had just climbed the coconut tree in the village and brought it down before our eyes before the guy husked it and cracked it.

This is the New Zealand Village. Do you all remember when Sister Riley taught Becca and Allison to do these dances?

This is the entertainment at the luau. There were many hundreds of people sitting behind us there all seated at tables with real dishes and table cloths and decorations .

The evening show was spectacular. So many dances and wonderful costumes. THe shoe told the story of a Polynesian couple and their journey through life. Dances and costumes from all of the cultures were used. The costumes were incredible and the dancing was wonderful. These young people really do a great job with all that they are asked to do.

Hawaii Day 3 - Pearl Harbor

Our agenda for day 3 was to visit Pearl Harbor.

Having watched several movies and read many books and articles on the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 I thought it might be a little anti-climactic to visit the location. It wasn't. Many others who were there that day have written about it and only partially succeeded in describing the feelings of the place. I don't expect to have much success in describing it either. It is a very somber place. I guess you just have to go there to understand the feeling. There are many exhibits at Pearl Harbor. Here are some pictures of some of the more significant ones.

The most significant loss of life occurred on the battleship USS Arizona. She sank in less than 10 minutes and carried over 1,000 sailors down with her.

The Arizona memorial is built above the bridge of the sunken ship. A white buoy marks the bow and stern. Oil still leaks from the hull. There is an odor of diesel fuel at the memorial because of this. The majority of those killed were never recovered so the memorial is their only recognition.

Inside the memorial a wall lists the names of all those who went down with the ship. Only about 1/3 of the names are visible in the photo.

The buoy marking the bow of the Arizona is barely visible in this photo. The war in the Pacific began with the sinking of the USS Arizona. The war ended on the decks of the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor on Sept. 2, 1945 after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battleship berthed next to the Arizona and shown in this photo is the USS Missouri.

Besides the USS Arizona there were dozens of other ships, large and small sunk on Dec. 7. This memorial is to the sailors aboard the USS Oklahoma. It is somewhat difficult to see but the white columns each represent an individual. There are hundreds of them.

In addition to memorials honoring those killed on Dec. 7 there are also memorials honoring others who died in WW II. This memorial is to those who perished in the submarine service. The highest mortality rate of all services during WW II was among submariners. Each marble monument in this circle represents a submarine lost in the Pacific. There are about 90 of them. In most cases they were lost with the entire crew aboard.

One of the exhibits is a WW II submarine that survived the war. It is the USS Bowfin.

A self guided audio tour is provided which takes you through the ship and describes much of what life was like in the submarine service.
There were 2 aspects of the submarine that were startling. The first was how complicated a machine it is. This is just one of probably a dozen different areas of the boat that were 'control centers' for various things. The submarine is a mechanical marvel. It is amazing that they worked!

The second startling fact was how cramped it was. About 15 men slept in this space. You can see almost half the space in the photo. There were fewer bunks than men. Since the boat ran 24-7 never more than half the men were sleeping at any one time so there were only bunks for about half the number of the crew. Everywhere in the boat you could easily see how men would literally be crawling over one another all the time. It was difficult duty to say the least.

I was surprised at how much of the submarines fighting occurred on the surface. About half the ships sunk by this submarine were sunk by surface gunning without use of torpedoes. Somehow I forgot to take a picture in the torpedo room!

When all was done, it was a very interesting and sobering day. Unfortunately WW II didn't end fighting. It seems like freedom is something that requires a constant vigil to maintain and a willingness to make enormous sacrifices to enjoy.