Sunday, May 1

Today in Eugene, we spent pretty much at home. After a super breakfast of french toast, courtesy of Chef Gil, we proceeded to finish the projects that we had started yesterday. Deb and Neal tackled cleaning the basement, which was a disaster of cement dust after Neal's use of the cement saw yesterday. We spent about 4 hours with rags and vacuum cleaner, cleaning her, fortunately, small basement area, and getting it back to functional level. Too bad none of us thought about the cement dust issue before he set to work. We had not done anything to protect the washing machine, dryer, small food pantry, old school projects, storage down there. Sigh. Live and learn.
Meanwhile,R and G made 3 trips to a local organic composting joint to get rid of all of the pland/yard debris from our yard work/ planting that we did yesterday.
Then we had a good afternoon--hanging-- well R. really was working- grading an exam for her students  -

Neal read learnedly, with a little help from Tellulah-

Deb read and slept, but no one else thought to take a picture....
Nitro sat around looking beatuiful

And, then we went out to a great Italian Dinner, followed by an  even better strawberry/ rhubarb pie that Gil had made this afternoon. Very yummy- may have to have some for breakfast as well:

 That about sums up our day- very relaxing. It was, also, very beautiful today- blue sky, and in the high 50s- almost warm. We are relaxed and feeling about as ready as we will ever be to return to DC and leap back into things. We fly home tomorrow, so this will be the end for now- tune in about May 17, when we travel again for about 10 days to see Sarah in Arizona and then Neal's sibs in Idaho, for more fun and adventure.
Love to you all. Deb and Neal

Saturday, April 30

A day at home: Started out with a late excellent breakfast courtesy of Chef Gil:

Then it was off to work on home improvements: Neal and Gil rented a cement grinder so that Neal could make a groove in the cement basement to direct unwanted water to the drain and Rebecca, Gil, Deb set of to the nursery to purchase plants/ flowers for the garden. 
We came home to a cloud of dust in the enitre house, a very cement dusty Neal ( sorry that I failed to get that photo). He had suceeded and later showed the groove off to Rebecca ( after a shower)

So the rest of us got going on the garden. First a before look of the front of the house:

 Work in progress

Then the final results ( for today anyway)-

The sun was setting as we finished, so time for dinner soon. Gil made us great Fish Tacos

And then we had strawberries with home made whipped cream, and Neal had to finish off the whipped cream:

The whipped cream must have given Neal special prowress, as he then beat us in a game of Trivial Pursuits.
More tomorrow, our last day before flying home to D.C.
Love, Deb/ Neal

Friday, April 29

Today we set out early for Portland, as Rebecaa had a field trip w/ her class to see a law firm whose space a graduate from their scchool had designed, and then she had a midterm evaluation of her major studio project in the afternoon. While she was on her filed trip, Neal and I visited the Chinese Garden in downtown Portland that was very interesting and quite beutiful. It was quie amazing to learn how thought out everything is- how much symolism, etc.
See this patio flooring, for instance. with the Yin/Yang both in the form, the color, and the direction of the stones.Pretty amazing.

And here you can note that looking through the moon door, you can see the gardne that sets up a  yin/yang shpae as well

And then, it was just plain a real island of beauty and tranquility in the city -

 It was, however, quite cool, so we then walked some and warmed ourselves up in a Pendelton Store,and then had a great lunch with Rebecca and friends- then off to her presentation, where her studio project was reviewed by 3 different architecture professionals - each had 45 minutes with her.  We were impressed. All went well: It was a busy room with this going on for 12 students simultaneously for 3 hours! Her she/ it is. The project is redesigning a bulitding called Rosemount in DC into a Residential Treatment Facility and School for Adolescent Girls with Drug & Alcohol Problems:

We observed her for 2 sessions, then took a long walk in Portland, which was nice, especially as it was a bit warmer and there was a little sun.
We then had a great evening with some of her Portland friends, and I totally forgot to get a picture of it. Sorry. Now we are back in Eugene and ready for bed.
The weekend is supposed to be nicer and there is a rumor that we are going to be gardeners here tomorrow.
We are actually coming home on Monday night, so we just have 2 more days left of this fabulous vacation.
Love, Deb, Neal

Thursday, April 28

We are not sure who is happier to be in Eugene- Neal or the U of O Duck who was at the airport to greet him!

 Fortunately, Rebecca and Gil were there too, as it was just after midnight.  We immediately noted that it is significantly cooler here- sigh.  We all went home and to bed. Then, after a relaxing morning doing much needed laundry, we met R. for lunch, and then let her go back to studio/school to work and Gil, Neal and Deb set off ( in a light drizzle, of course) on a hike up Spencer Butte - about 5 mi round trip and 1000 feet..  Cool- about in the 50's.  During the afternoon we actually only had some light rain and drizzle, and then even some occasinal sun, so reeally we were pretty luck. Rebecca later reported to us that there was hail in Eugene this afternoon.
Our hike started off through an orchard -

The forest was wet and cool.  Note the moss on the trees:

We determined that we could not use moss as a direction finder, as it seems to grow on all sides of the trees here. Fortunately, the trail was very well cared for and clearly marked. Saw a lot of these Trilliums in bloom, which was a special treat:

As we reached the summit, it got quite steep and rocky and Deb let Neal and Gil enjoy the last few hundred feet of the climb without her, letting her take some photos:

Neal and Gil descending:

So then we hiked back on down, had a break ( rest) and then had to go get some dinner, with Rebecca as well at Yumm

 and 2 hearty eaters-

Then Rebecca has had to go back to studio to finish a project that she is presenting tomorrow in Portland, and we have gone home, after stopping at an excellent dessert cafe- cream filled eclair for Gil, raspberry buttercrumb bar for Neal, and almond baklavva for Deb. All gone.
We admired the cats- Tellulah and Nitro---

And now, after truning on some heat in the bedroom -  off to bed- as we are going to Portland with R. tomorrow as well.
Love, Deb and Neal

Tuesday, April 26

We started today with a bicycle tour of the volocano: - There were about 12 people and a leader, who was very knowledgeable about the geology and Hawaiian biology and culutre. He was really terrific. Our first stop was a really great view of the Halema'uma'u Crater with it's plume in the air, which is mostly sulfur dioxide, which is why we are not alllowed to go closer to it. We were able to go back to this same spot tonight and could see not only the plume, but a very red glow from the lava below, but the camera did not capture this for us. So our daytime photo is :

 Here we are on the old Volcano Road, that was so close to the rim, that it was closed after the 1983 earthquake and they realized that rebulding so close to the rim was too dangerous:

We biked around the rim of the crater, but you saw a lot of this yesterday, so we will not do repeat photos. Was fun to be biking and seeing things so much closer. We stopped at the lava tube, where we had been before, and this time our photo turned out quite well.  A lava tube is where there used to be flowing lava underground, and then, as it cooled from the top down and the flow drained out, it left this tube underground,:

Here we are inside of a small lava cave:

 We then coasted down the Chain of Craters Road quite a ways, but, again, you saw this yesterday, and then had lunch ( in the rain-- this still be rain forest area  ).  We had had a good morning, and no rain to speak of while biking, so we felt lucky.

After a short break , we set out for the beach. It was raining at Volcano, but we were counting on no rain at the beach in Hilo, and D. wanted to go swimming in the Pacific one last time. Our hotel  staff directed us to a really lovely small public beach just outside of Hilo, with black sand , and the swimming was really, really nice-great snorkeling and you could really swim as well. D.especially had a great time- and it only took us 45 minutes to get from Volcano at 3000 feet down to the beach at Hilo!

So, we came back to our great hotel, have had a wonderful dinner, and then went back to the park to check out the plume and lava glow- so now will be off to bed, after getting most of our packing done. We have to say good by to Hawaii tomorrow, as we depart for Eugene, Oregon (where I hear it also rains), where we will be visiting Rebecca and Gil for a few days. Tomorrow is really a travel day, so there may not be a blog for 4/27, we get to Eugene very late. More on 4/28 for sure though. Love to you all.Deb/Neal

Monday, April 25

Volcano Day! We spent today exploring Volcano National Park. In the morning, we started  by doing a 4+ mile hike down into ( and out of) the Kilauea Iki Crater - the down part was about 400 feet. Let's see how we started:

This is the main vent for the lava flow into the crater ( the reddish orange area):

 Further on down we got a good view of the plume from the Halema'uma'u Crater, inside the main Kilauea Caldera:

Now we are on the floor of the crater - and this is what it looks like:

In 1959 the floor of this crater was molten lava. Pretty solid now though - but distinctly warmer to the touch - especially when near steam vents.
The following is  close up of the main vent for the lava flow into the crater - which we saw from above earlier. The flow from this vent was sometimes liquid lava and sometimes a jet of lava and hot gas that went as high as 1,900 feet into the air:

Getting close to this vent meant that  Neal had us off the main trail by quite a bit- jumping over fissures in the crater floor and other such fun things:

 The plants were really trying to take hold in the most amazing little places-

 Another view from the crater floor which does a pretty good job of demonstrating the variety of lava flow,aggregation, and how some of the crystals ( white area- silica I think) ) can show up on the surface.

and a sense of the expanse of the base of the crater:

Then we were back on the trail to get back up to the top of the crater, and back in forest. This is a fern with the fiddle head area that has this very, very soft downy like fur- called pua. Very lovely, but does not last off of the plant, so we can't make you a pillow out of it.

 And our final photo of this walk and crater shows you the crater,the path across it, and the plume in the distance:

We then started out on the Chain of Craters Drive- which took us down to the ocean, by many craters, through the lava from the 1977 Lava Flow. Below is one of the first other craters that we saw, very old and inactive:

Down the road, looking across lava fields and downwards-

The lava can really make interesting forms and shapes-

At the end of the road, we are at the sea but, at a sea cliff. Check out this arch:

and then look the other way-

Pretty beautiful-- Frigate Birds were flying around, it was very windy, and also noticebly warmer than it had been up top.
We walked down the road, past where they would let you drive, to the true end of the road, for obvious reason:

One last lava shot, then we drove on home-

Home, where we have a really nice room -

Hot tub -

And lovely garden -

We hiked  long way today- between one walk and another-- so now it is bedtime for us- and you all are already asleep.  More tomorrow, when we join a bike tour of the volcano for a different view/experience.
Love, Deb/Neal