It has been awhile for a post. Things have been going pretty smooth to round out the end of the summer. Quentin has started soccer and his first game is the 30th of August, pictures will follow. We bought him his first Hawaiian hand sling (hand spear). He got to go out in the shallow reef and got the hang of it really quick. He got several small fish and I took them out and used them as chum so they didn't go to waste. Now he is just like dad, can't wait for the weekend to go fishing.

Bob and Claudia (Jennifer's folks) came and visited. We got to go on a helicopter tour and pretty much explored every last region of Kauai. We had a good time as always.

Jennifer has been busy getting Q ready for school and keeping on him about his homework (full time job let me tell you). She hasn't had a lot of chances to get to the beach during the week, but hopefully that will change. We are coming up on our year in Hawaii (instate resident) quickly and she is going to go back to school at the University of Hawaii satellite campus here on Kauai starting in January.
I have been busy at work flying back and forth between Oahu and Kauai, almost weekly. We finished our big milestone on the project, we got the girders set. This was stressful leading up to it but it went very smoothly, without a hitch. The girders weigh 100,000lbs each and are 112 feet long. We had to do a tandem pick which makes setting them extremely dangerous. You are 5 times more likely to have an accident doing a tandem pick over a one crane pick. I worked close to 36 hours straight without any sleep, but caught up the following Sunday, let me tell you. The job is still on track and will be complete in November. We are hoping to stay of Kauai but you never know.

Pictures Top to Bottom:

Quentin at his new school, Island School. It is the best private school on the island.

The Spouting Horn in Po'ipu

The Waimea Canyon (also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific). The red arrow is the helicopter tour we took, the exact copter and route.

Kalalau Valley from the top. This is the Na Pali Coast. We stayed at the bottom of this valley on the beach.

Waimea Canyon from the Helicopter

Jurassic Falls - this is the water fall in the beginning of Jurassic Park, hence the name

This is the sleeping giant in Kapaa. The red arrow is where we live.

Kalalau Beach - Na Pali Coast. Here is the beach we were at after 11 mile hike. The rock in the ocean at the bottom of the picture is in front of the sea cave we slept in.

Quentin showing his catch. The fish about to get his ear is one I got and we ate that night, it was good eating.

This is the barge we used to get our precast bridge girders from Oahu to Kauai. The cranes are inside the house (the white part that says Young Brothers on it).

The cranes set up picking girder 2 of 6. It took all day to get all 6 set.

Girder 6 waiting to go into place.

We made it out to the Na Pali Coast this last week. To see pictures and trip report, Click on the Na Pali Coast Trip to the right. Other than this trip, not much else has been going on. We have been spending as many weekends as we can at the beach. Jennifer and Quentin hang out at the beach and in the shallow waters, and I have been going spearfishing as much as possible. The following pictures were dinner Sunday night, a little taco (raw octopus) and a good size reef fish. It was a good day in the water, even though the white tip reef sharks were out and about feeding.

Another month has passed, and not a lot of excitement with that. Quentin is out of school, Jennifer is still busy taking care of our lives, and I am at work even more than ever.
Quentin had a graduation ceremony for their 6th grade and with Jennifer’s help, made a killer tea leaf hula skirt. He is now itching to get to the beach as much as possible. Jennifer has been staying busy with all the end of year activities for Quentin, getting him ready/enrolled in school next year. She is starting to look at continuing her schooling next year also.
As far as me, my job has been keeping me busy. In my free time, the family goes to the beach. I have gotten into spear fishing and try to do it as much as possible.
Other than that, not much exciting has happened in the last month. We will try to update in the next couple of weeks.
Oh by the way….BOSTON CELTICS WON!!!!

Finally I had a day off from work on a weekend. We wanted to do something adventurous so I did some research on the internet and found the “secret tunnels of Kauai”, also known as “Kaapoko Tunnels”. What I found out about them was they were old irrigation tunnels that were used to divert 28 million gallons of water a day which was used to water the sugar cane in the valleys below. The main tunnel is 1 mile long with 2 more tunnels that are ¼ mile, and 1/8 of a mile (these are considered tunnel 1). Supposedly there is a 2nd tunnel but we ran out of time to find it. We left the trail head at 10:30am and began down the muddy trail. We were prepared and brought the proper footwear for the hike (I had a pair of Merrell water shoes and the rest of the fam had tabis). We made it to the first tunnel after some extreme route finding, bamboo bushwacking and several stream crossings.
The first tunnel was tall enough that I could stand and wide enough to walk side by side. It did have shin deep water the whole way and the last ¼ of the tunnel had old rail track in the bottom. When you start you can see a faint pin hole at the other end which grows larger every step.
Approaching the other end of the tunnel there was a split, we headed up the 2nd tunnel and ran into the truss system. The trusses were placed at what looks like a collapse years ago. This tunnel winds around and eventually leads you to the irrigation canal. From here you get to the 3rd tunnel. This tunnel is a little more difficult, It has a low ceiling that you have to bend over the entire way and to make things worse, you are walking through shin deep mud. When you get to the end of the tunnel, you have to crawl through a small opening to get out. Once out, we were awarded by a river and waterfall all to ourselves.
This adventure was 4 miles one way and took 7 ½ hours from beginning to end. I am planning to go back some day to get to the last tunnel, one of these days.

Not much going on since the last post. We went to the ocean again on Sunday and did a little snorkeling. The surf was pretty rough so Quentin and Jennifer stayed on shore. We went with a couple friends who took me out to check out the sharks again. They were not there but a baby turtle was. We also took spear guns but were unsuccessful catching anything, maybe next time.

Where has the time gone? Not much has happened in the last month besides Quentin and I turning 1 year older.
Quentin is doing very well at school. He is still at Kula Elementary which is a private school close to my work. The class size is 10 students and he has excelled academically since enrolling in this school. Q is a water bug and every waking minute he is not at school, he is itching to go to the beach. During spring break, Jennifer and Q spent almost every day hanging out at the beach.
Jennifer is doing very well here. She is spending time at the beach and researching recipes on the Internet. She has made some incredible meals lately (not that any of her meals were ever bad to begin with). She has been working part time for our land lord at her dog boutique in Kapaa. She likes it and it keeps here satisfied with dogs until our arrives. That is the other big news, we finally found a Akita breeder on Oahu whose dog just got pregnant. Their dog is a show dog which means we should get an outstanding bloodline. The down side is the $$$$ it will take to procure one of the dogs, OUCH!.
Work has been going very well despite long hours. I got a promotion this last month which took effect on April 1st. I am now a Job Superintendent with the Kiewit, which in a nutshell means I can run jobs that are up to 50 million in value. Not too shabby. You cannot beat the location of my office and the views I have while driving home every night.
We did secure permits for the Na Pali Coast this July. The Na Pali coast is ranked as the number 1 beach camping in the world. After the trip, I will post the trip report like usual.
Take care, and remember, the door is always open.













Pictures top to bottom:




Q at Costco enjoying Pizza



After pizza, he got to go to Fun Factory (island version of Chuck E Cheese, just a little more ghetto)



What Q won (check out not only the boxes of boogers, but the pimp hat is the best).

On my Bday my Engineer took us fishing on his boat, this is Q just as we are taking off.



My foreman was washing off and made the mistake asking Q to hose him down. Q has a little too much Calvin and Hobbs in him.



And finally, this is my office. Do let the lush tropical setting fool you, walk on the deck and you will have 5 mosquito bites in 30 seconds

Surprise, surprise, we spent another day in the water. This time we wanted to try a different spot. Perry and the family headed to a reef where white tip reef sharks have been seen before. We headed out to the reef, and within minutes we were swimming with the sharks. We were all a little in awe with our first sighting, but when we realized they would go after us, we warmed up a little. After seeing the sharks, we continued around the reef and viewed many cool fish. I am sure we will be out next weekend for another adventure.

The house is about put together. Jennifer has done a great job getting the house looking good. Jennifer has a couple friends, Perry and Becca, that live on the Island and are from Apsen Valley, CO. She grew up with them years ago and had no clue they were on Island. Perry is an avid snorkeller and tries to get out as much as possible. He suggested we go Sunday afternoon. This would be the perfect test for my new waterproof case for my digital camera I just bought. With gear in hand, we hiked to a little cove along the coast. The cove, pictured here, is where some of the movie Six Days, Seven Nights with Harrison Ford was filmed. We dove in and explored the reefs in the area for about an hour and half. It was amazing and saw all kinds of marine life. As we were getting out of the water, we saw a baby Monk Seal sleeping. We kept our distance and observed for awhile. We grabbed our gear and headed home. We are looking forward to doing this again next weekend. WE LOVE HAWAII!