Hauʻoli makahiki hou

My apology to any Hawaiians, if my title is not correct. I relied on Google translate, which is not always accurate.

Lotsa lava locally

On an afternoon's drive, we came across Lava Trees Monument State Park in Pahoa, just south of Hilo.

This plaque at the park entrance best describes how the area looked many years ago.

Variety is the spice of life

The photos you'll see in this post were taken on a walk we did in the neighbourhood. These plants are not in people's gardens, but rather are mostly growing wild. Things thrive here in the rainforest!

Raindrops on roses ...

... These are a few of my favourite things. [Lyrics from My Favourite Things, The Sound of Music]

Our first Christmas Eve at a volcano

Greg and I went to one of the parks at the waterfront recently. 

Settling in with our new housemates

We're now in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. We'll be here for two weeks, sharing a home with two dogs: Topo, an 8-yr-old Yorkshire terrier, and Yogi, an 11-yr-old Basenji/Lab/Ridgeback mix.

We took the homeowners to the airport, and then returned home. The main living area of the home is on the upper level. The dogs were happy to see us, but then looked down the stairs to see if the homeowners were with us. Not the best view of the dogs, that's for sure!

Our visit to Pearl Harbor, Honolulu

On our final full day in Honolulu, we visited Pearl Harbor. Although the trip to Hawaii was a belated promised anniversary trip, a visit to Pearl Harbor was also on Greg's bucket list.

Tree of Life statue to his left

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - Kauai - Day 2

For our second day in Kauai, before we left home we'd scheduled a helicopter tour. By booking directly with the company, the cost was $210 each, including transfers. The cruise excursion for the same flight and transfers was $349 each – that’s quite a markup!

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - Kauai - Day 1

Kauai was also a two-day stop on our cruise itinerary. Although we had the second day planned, the first was unscheduled. However, the previous day in Kona we met a man at the pier selling tours for Kauai for the following day. We made reservations and were told we weren’t expected to pay until the end of the tour, which was reassuring. 

I'm wearing a lei, & two flowers in my hair

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - The Big Island - Kona

After leaving the east coast of the Big Island, the next morning we arrived at Kailua Bay, Kona. As this bay doesn't have a dock big enough for our ship, passengers needed to be tendered in.

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - The Big Island - Hilo

We spent a day in each of two ports on the Big Island of Hawaii – Hilo on the east coast, and Kona on the west.

Our cruise was set to always travel between ports during the night. The evening we left for Hilo, our captain took the ship closer to land when we were passing the active Kilauea volcano, so that we could see the molten lava from "Madame Pele". It was still difficult to see from our distance, and didn't photograph well as it's lost some of its intensity over the past months, and also because we had to stay far away. However, it was probably still a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us that we won't forget. I encourage you to view the video of this volcanic action, taken in September when it was more active, and taken very close to where the lava entered the ocean. Go to https://youtu.be/xPVyO-5E03A.

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - Maui

Hawaiian Islands Cruise - December 10 to 17

Part 1 - Honolulu & Maui
Part 2 - The Big Island - Hilo
Part 3 - The Big Island - Kona
Part 4 - Kauai - Day 1 
Part 5 - Kauai - Day 2

Aloha! We’ve just returned to Honolulu, Hawaii after a 7-day cruise of the Hawaiian Islands, with stops in Maui, The Big Island (Hawaii), and Kauai.

On our cruise, the largest group of travellers was from Australia, followed by Americans, and then Canadians (almost all from British Columbia). Most of the crew were American, although they also employed International workers. Although this is only our third cruise, it was by far the friendliest group of travellers we’ve experienced on a cruise, and our favourite cruise so far.

Aloha from Hawaii

After our flight from Toronto, Canada to San Francisco, USA, we had a short layover waiting for our flight to Honolulu. Not surprisingly, the airport was a great place to people-watch, and, as it turned out, pet-watch.

There's a monkey in the middle of the flock

By the time you read this post, Greg and I will hopefully have started the first day of our Canadian winter snow birding. We have two back-to-back flights of more than 5 hours each - with a short layover in San Francisco - before we arrive in Honolulu.

A negative of our travels is that we leave behind family and friends. However, Greg's younger daughter brought us to Toronto tonight, and we enjoyed a meal with her.

The day before our travels, his older daughter and one grandson stopped by our house, eager to bring us the gift they'd been telling us was for our travels.

Where to now, snowbirds?

I've had a few emails, tweets, and conversations over the past few weeks, with people asking when we're leaving for the winter, and where we're headed. I'm pleased that people take an interest in our travels, so I thought I'd do an update now.

On December 8th, in the words of John Denver and others, we're leaving on a

The more things change, the more they stay the same

I have lived in Niagara Falls, Canada since 1973. Needless to say, I've seen many changes, but the raw beauty of the falls themselves remains unchanged. Last weekend I decided to take a walk near the falls. Locals often avoid the tourist areas, and it had been too long since I'd been there. I wanted to see, up close, what had changed.

Wanna buy a floating home?

Earlier this week we had another "tourist" day and went to Fisherman's Wharf at the Inner Harbour in Victoria.

It was a hive of activity, with shops, restaurants, boats, and water taxis. An interesting feature is its floating houses.

Just a walk in the parks

As I've mentioned before, Greater Victoria is made up of a number of areas and cities of varying sizes. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out where one ends and the next begins. At times, I get help with this from my phone's camera, but today it wasn't so obvious. From what I can gather, today we walked in Esquimalt, Colwood, and Saanich. I'll just leave it at that.

Yesterday, Greg mentioned that Fanci had four walks that day. Today he was aiming to top that, but I think we stopped at four. It continues to be lovely weather for walking - lots of sunshine and temperatures that allow for t-shirts, which is great.

Gotta love these pets!

On my laptop, the desktop is set to cycle through my thousands of photos at one-minute intervals. It's just a quick glimpse, and often brings back so many memories of our travels. It makes me feel so fortunate.

This morning I was awake too early, in my eyes, as it wasn't yet daylight. This is the photo I first saw, which just made me smile. I love this photo!

Reflect and recycle

Photos of flowers in this post were taken over the past week, but don't directly relate to this story. My mother enjoyed flowers though, so I'll link it that way.

Unofficial survey - Coke or Pepsi?

Before I tell my story, I'll just start with some colourful flowers seen on today's walk.

Curb-side "tote collection" (garbage & recycling) is every two weeks here. To complicate things, each month your collection date moves to the next day of the week. For example, in August it was Thursday, and September it became Friday. For those of us who often wonder what day it even is, it really complicates things to change the collection day. I guess we'd get used to it though.

Our most recent collection day was September 16th. The following day we had a slip of paper in the mailbox, asking that we save cans and bottles for a charitable collection that would be done today, the 24th. I commented then that if only they'd given more notice, it would likely have increased the volume they'd collect. It seems I may have been wrong.

Today I went for a walk in the neighbourhood. Here's our collection, and - keeping in mind the title of this post - there's no hint of whether there's Coca Cola or Pepsi inside. We're choosing to remain anonymous, at least at this point.

Looking closely through the bag, locals may recognize one type of can showing through. By the way, they're in a COBS bag - our favourite bakery; we have lots of those bags!

At the next sighting, it was easy to tell their preference; looks like they have a love of Coca Cola. I just hope that's not one week's worth!

This home also had lots to donate, but who knows what was in there.

Ah, another Coca Cola lover, for sure.

On a neighbouring street, I saw this stack of boxes. It made me wonder whether this collection is an annual event. Otherwise, how could someone have so much to donate in such a short time? I had to take a closer look.

Let's just say many of the bottles looked like liquor bottles. As I was taking this photo, I heard someone coming out of the house, so I moved away quickly. Can you imagine ... "Why are you taking photos of my empties?"

Nearing our home, I noticed a bag outside our neighbour's house, with the instructions attached. After looking inside, I just shook my head. The instructions seemed clear to me. Maybe they thought someone had switched collection day ... yet again!

As I neared our home, I could see that Greg had added two cans to our stash. Our secret was out; at least some of the cans were Kokanee, a BC beer. OK, there's also evidence inside of Greg being a Pepsi drinker, but he may be in the minority around here!

For those who read my previous post, about the injured deer, I'm sorry to say things don't look promising. It managed to move to a sheltered area across the street, but has been resting quietly there all day, laying on its injured side.  I saw four large deer near it early this morning, but they then moved on. If it doesn't have the ability to move on, things don't look too hopeful. It's so sad.

Another quiet day in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, just a few miles away from the hustle and bustle of today's historic Royal visit. In some respects, I wish I'd made the effort to be a part of the welcoming crowd. Maybe I'll plan to be there to waive them goodbye next week instead.

Oh dear, deer - Part 2

A while ago I wrote about the deer seen regularly in this neighbourhood. In the local newspaper, opinion letters regularly address options for control of the local deer population. Today we witnessed an incident just a few houses away from us.

Just how rainy is it in beautiful BC anyway?

As this is our first visit to British Columbia, we've been comparing it with Ontario, wondering if perhaps - even with its high real estate prices - it's somewhere we'd consider for our "golden" years.

Having asked many residents what they like about Victoria, the most common answers are the number of days of sunshine and the overall temperate climate. A few cautioned about the amount of rain in winter, but we're snowbirds, so we don't give that as much attention, for now at least.

I thought I'd see if there's data to support these opinions (ignore the highlighting below).

Scents of romance

This is the fourth time we've house sat for our current homeowners. Having taken on some gardening work, with their permission, we've needed to take garden waste to the local recycling centre a few times. It's become a joke between us and the homeowners that Greg's idea of a romantic date is to take me there. Today he offered to romance me, but it didn't involve a trip "to the dump", as I call it.

Seen at the park today

Sights at the Inner Harbour, Victoria, BC

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, and the parliament buildings are in the inner harbour area, where we were yesterday. This is a photo from Google images, not one I took.

Chalk it up to being a tourist

The local newspaper is useful for knowing what's happening in Victoria. Today I particularly wanted to go to the Chalk Art Festival, which was being held outdoors at the Inner Harbour. This is the most touristy area of the city, so today - for the first time since we arrived - I guess we were tourists!

The theme of this year's festival was "Adventures in the Forest World; a Celebration of Nature's Spirits".

Navigating our way across Victoria

We're currently house sitting in the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Given its temperate climate, the city prides itself in being attractive to those who enjoy outdoor activities, including walking and cycling. There certainly are lots of pedestrians and cyclists here. In an effort to accommodate these activities, the city has reduced speeds in many areas from the usual 50 km (31 miles) an hour to 40 km (25 miles) an hour, and in many cases 30 km (19 miles) an hour.

Here's the sign that's at the bottom of our street.

A blooming lovely walk

First some updates on earlier posts.

I wrote about the bankruptcy of the Hanjin Shipping company, and that one of its cargo ships was 'parked' outside our home. Well, now there are two! The one has been there about a week. I wonder about the staff on board ... Do they have enough food? Will they get paid? What about their family in South Korea; are they worried? The repercussions are endless. 

Do you have a Little Free Library?

While driving around Victoria I noticed a Little Free Library on a quiet side street. It's not the first I've ever seen, but I wanted to take a closer look. The following day I tried to retrace our steps, to get a photo, but I couldn't find it. As is my norm, I then went to Google for help.

An example only, but not one from the website

Tall oaks from little acorns grow

"An optimist is a man who plants two acorns and buys a hammock."

Author: Jean De Lattre De Tassigny

We're currently living in the picturesque district of Oak Bay, one of the communities in the Greater Victoria Region. The Greater Victoria Region has a population of about 350,000, whereas Oak Bay has about 20,000 residents. It has a lovely small-town feel to it.

After our trip to the market yesterday, we went to the main shopping street of Oak Bay. No big box stores here, in fact I haven't seen a Walmart or Canadian Tire since we arrived in Victoria. 

The main shopping district is nicely landscaped and maintained

Why stores may be low on stock this holiday season

House sitting in a city that's new to us often has us adopting new habits. On this house sit, I routinely read the Victoria newspaper, The Times Colonist, and I mean real paper. Most of my reading these days is online, so this is a pleasant change for me. Another pastime of mine here is to look out at the waters of the Juan de Fuca strait, which we can clearly see from our home. Let me explain how the two are particularly relevant today.

At the market today,
having a Pacific salmon burger for lunch

Today's dog and pony show

I've mentioned before that one thing we enjoy with the house sitting is that it can often be more like our usual home life, rather than being on vacation. Such has been the case over the past few days. If you're hoping to learn about some big adventure we've been on, you'll be disappointed. The past few days we've lived a fairly low-key lifestyle.

Reuniting with vacation friends

We often meet people in our travels, especially on vacation, and exchange the genuine comment that we hope we meet up again sometime. Unfortunately, that rarely happens. That wasn't the case today.

Donna, Wally, and their dog, Buddy

The high cost of electricity for Niagara Falls residents

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sorry, none of my photos today, but many more words than usual. You can just skip today if you're the type who prefers photos ... I'll never know!

When we house sit, we try to be respectful of the cost of utilities. We do it at our home, so we feel it's even more important to do it when someone else is paying the bill.

In Niagara Falls, we have a "time of day" system, where there are three price tiers. You can see the details in the image below. Bottom line is the lowest-cost electricity is from 7 pm to 7 am on weekdays and all day on weekends.

When we're at home we routinely do our laundry on the weekends, and run the dishwasher in the evenings. It gives us significant savings.

We hadn't asked the homeowners here in British Columbia about it, so I went online to check. The system in British Columbia has a different price structure, where you pay a lower price up to a certain level of monthly usage, and after that pay a higher cost. A different approach, but still one attempting to give an incentive to those who conserve.

Here's where the story takes a turn: the cost comparison between Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Victoria, BC.

Niagara Falls:

We're not tourists - we live here!

Owning a home in Niagara Falls, we are accustomed to avoiding the popular tourist areas during the summer season. We've quickly learned that discovering Victoria is similar. Our homeowners suggested we wait until September before taking in the sights of Olde Town and the inner harbour of Victoria. It's home to majestic old buildings, whale-watching tours, and apparently great fish and chips. For now, we'll focus on other areas, saving our inner harbour walking tours until the crowds lessen.

The black blob in front of Greg is Fanci :)

Oh dear, deer

A common question from those curious about housesitting is whether we get to know the homeowners. Before we started, I'd made the assumption we'd know very little about each other. I thought we'd be like ships passing in the night, with little more than a handshake, and (hopefully) a lot of relief that our gut instinct - along with emails and video chats perhaps - would not have steered us wrong. I'm pleased to say we usually develop good relationships with the homeowners that continue on past the sit.

Fanci, sitting at the front door after her owners left for the airport

It's true, Victoria BC is beautiful

Our flight from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Victoria, British Columbia was smooth and uneventful. On a short stopover in Calgary, Alberta, we were amused by two merry-go-round type towers, powered by a big key that kids were happy to turn and were totally entertained by it. Greg and I were quite entertained by them too!

You never forget your first ...

The saying connected to the post title is that you supposedly never forget your first love. However, I'm not about to share those details with you - although I do remember - but I will reflect back on our first house sit, and from that, our first love.