A musical appreciation

As I’ve been driving with Kevin recently, I’ve been having fun going through the channels on the satellite radio, 60’s on 6, 70’s on 7, all the way up to today.  Kevin looks at these musical diversions as painful, but, we’ve had some good discussions about the ‘sound’ of each decade.  My decision to go back to the 60’s started after hearing too much overproduced Gaga-Timbaland-Jay-Z on the pop channel and pointing out the clean difference between an Otis Redding song and Justin Timberlake.

Today’s drive home was fun; rocked into some good songs.  Had Blue Moon on the 60’s; Kevin got into singing the do-wop parts.  Switched over, later, to More Than A Feeling in the 70’s, which Kevin knew from somewhere (Guitar Hero I guess) and we cranked that sucker up plenty loud in the choruses.  Last, but certainly not least, and almost as we pulled onto Graystone, was True Colors in the 80’s.  Kevin likes the song (mostly because it showed up on ‘Glee’) and I told him to listen close because Cyndi goes Elmer Fudd at times, and he left the car laughing and singing at the same time.

Don’t be afwaid. 

Last of the waterproof camera pics

In the end, I think that the money spent on the waterproof camera was well worth it. Got some great photos of the boys from angles I never would have gotten before, and the snorkeling photos and video are great.  Will have to make a big effort to get more utility out of that camera in the future.

Uploaded the whole kit and kaboodle to shutterfly (along with all of the surf photos from the professional photodude) , so, that photo album is below. 

 

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Went through the last of the photos as well; these are the best of the shots from the pool.

 

The compilation of the video from the pool hijinks is also uploaded as well. 

A Kevin Update, in three parts

All State –
The rehearsals and concert were this last week and weekend; Dad travelled out to Grand Rapids with Kevin on Thursday and Mom and the boys came out Friday night and we did a big switch.  Mom enjoyed the concert on Saturday; the Devos Performance Hall is very nice.  We ordered the DVD, so, the music and video will have to wait until that arrives.

Kevin found out he was sharing a music stand with the viola player he shared it with last year; kind of funny, they both dropped about the same amount of chairs from last year to this year. Kevin’s school was well represented at the concert; I think there were 8 students there, so Kevin had no shortage of kids to hang out with. 

An evening with Kevin in the hotel room borders from nice to downright annoying.  The boy is absolutely fascinated by professional tennis; he wants to watch live coverage of the early rounds of the Australian open.  I let him do this as much as I can stand, but, about 10 pm, that’s it. 

Most amusing part of the weekend; I had told Kevin to make sure he could guide Mom from the hotel to downtown.  Geography-boy completely blows it; misses the exit.  Mom not happy.

Algebra 2 – A grade-adjustment (we’re not sure why) shows that Kevin got a 90 on his final instead of the 86 that we previously thought he had.  This 90, 15% of his grade, we think has helped him pull his semester grade up to a B+.  We’ll wait for the final grade on that score though.  Calculating out Kevin’s grade for the 2nd quarter was revealing; a high B on his quizzes, a high B on his tests, a very low B on his homework (which should be the easiest of the three). 

Skiing – Kevin is participating in the Winter Walden Saturday skiing program again this year; Mom was nice enough to also take him down to the slopes on MLK day.  He’s improving; he moved up a level in the lessons as he’s gotten the hang of skiing on the edges.  Next year he can join the ski team at the high school so more frequent skiing should mean more improvement. 

The Many Faces of Christopher

“Borrowed” my Iphone during Matthew’s basketball game (more on the games later).  Returned it to me with pictures and video; got upset about the video and was successful in deleting one of the files (much to Mom and Dad’s disappointment); you’ll have to take it from us…it was awesome.

   

We do have one video; he snuck off to a quiet part of the building to record this (as opposed to the other video; he recorded that song in the GYM!).  We’re going to ask him to redo the song that he’s made up…it won’t be the same, but, who knows.

There is always this, though.

Kevin behind the shutter

When we were out in Grand Rapids for All-State I had Kevin go through some (but not all) of his photos from Hawaii and try and organize the photos he wanted to keep. He tells me there are more

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We created a separate album for his snorkeling pictures; they could better be titled 'Stalking the Turtle' pictures. You're not technically supposed to get as close to the turtle as Kevin got at times, but, he attributes that to the turtle's choice when to come up for air (if the turtle didn't want Kevin to be around, he certainly could have taken off at any time).

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30 seconds

(having Internet ‘issues’ around here…lots of posts, no bandwidth to post them.  Oh well)

We’ll go Jeopardy style for this one:

Q:  What is 30 seconds, give or take?

A:  The amount of time, after the start of the basketball game, that it takes Matthew to score his first basket.

His team lost the tip….well, you can watch the video and see their possession and his first basket.  He missed a bunch of chances in the middle of the game (almost all fall into the same category as his first shot, a dribble across the court and a shot from the right as he is fading away…) and hit his last shot from pretty far out near the end of the game.  The video has the two baskets; it’s pretty short. 

The referees, for 1st and 2nd grade, don’t call anything but the most flagrant of flagrant offenses and fouls.  The game looked a lot like wrestling at times….

Past and Future

Past:

• Still need to edit some more video, primarily of the PCC, but, also of some pool fun that ought to be pretty good.  Need a burst of enthusiasm to get to that.
• Also need to have Kevin go through the photos he took with his camera and the underwater rental and decide what we’ll keep and what we won’t.  Maybe we’ll do that in the hotel on Thursday night….
• The boys had their first soccer game of the 2nd session; Matthew missed it due to a birthday party and the team lost 2-1.  Christopher played ok; still need to work on playing mid- and forward again after so much defense.  His natural indication is to move back to play defense, when, at those positions, he should be moving forward.
• School:  Boys are slowly adjusting….Kevin has, happily, not fallen completely behind in Algebra 2.

Future:

• A busy Kevin week:  he has his Algebra 2 semester final on Wednesday and then he is off to Grand Rapids for All-State.
• Christopher and Matthew have their first basketball games; they missed the first game on the Saturday we came back and then didn’t have one this weekend due to the MLK holiday.  So, they finally hit the court on Saturday.

Oahu – Day 12 (again!) – PCC

Some video links not dealing with the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC).

• A random video showing the family walking down the hall to the hotel/villa room; turtle at the beach, and the big waves at Waimea (we swam there on Saturday…that was forbidden today)
• The videos I took of surfing boys from the ocean.
• I did take some HD surfing video at the end; Matthew was the only one I was able to catch

Wednesday we travelled out to the PCC for the afternoon; the main thrust of this was to attend a luau but the PCC has many exhibits and a night show at the end.

We had a great time; arrived to watch the canoe parade (you can see a two-minute edited video here); basically, the different Polynesian island peoples float in and do a dance/song routine. 

After that, we went and explored some of the ‘villages’. Each village represents a nation or people, and each has events and shows that you can attend.   We only attended one show, at Samoa, and the highlight of the show is uploaded for your pleasure  The ‘guy’ shows you, in his comedy routine, how to open a coconut….once you open the coconut, the liquid inside is coconut juice (you have to use the white solid part inside to make the milk).  He invited Matthew up to share it…..comedy ensues.

Oahu – Day 13 – Barbers Point

Wednesday was the day of the surfing lesson.  Matthew and Kevin participated; Christopher wasn’t so interested and we didn’t push it.

Both boys had a blast!

The lesson is in a group format; there were about 8 people there in our session.  They spend about 45 minutes on the beach talking over ‘things’ and practicing technique and then about 75 minutes out in the water.  Kevin is part of the group out on the water; Matthew, because he’s only 7, has to have a private instructor.

The instructor is in the water to help take the hard part of the surfing out of the equation; they line up the waves and give you a ‘push’ to help you get moving into the wave.  Kevin has some success doing this and then decides to try and ‘catch a wave’ by himself…..he has less success here but had a great time overall.

When we first pulled up at the beach the first session of lessons was just ending for the day; we could see a kid about Matthew’s size with his instructor out on the water.  The instructor was riding the board in with the kid….we’re not sure why, but, could only assume the instructor was on the board with the kid because the kid was having problems catching on.  Hoped this didn’t happen with Matthew……

Of course, we never should have worried about it…first wave Matthew’s on it and rides it all the way into the beach.  Matthew, on the ride out after the lesson, was very insistent….”Can we do it again???”

Pictures below.   I have some video, will get that uploaded at some point.  A note on the photos….the ones taken from the water are from me; the ‘other’ ones (later in the album) are from the professional photographer that works with the surfing company.

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Oahu – Day 12

I have a ton of video from the Polynesian Cultural Center.  None of it is processed, so, Day 12’s post is a placeholder for me…..more later.

Wanted to add two more songs to the soundtrack listing

• Evacuate the Dancefloor – Cascada.   Nothing like Christopher and Matthew singing this at the top of their lungs
• Replay – Iyaz(?)  A Matthew favorite.

Hawaii – Soundtrack

Wonder what songs we’ll think of for this trip?  The ones that have been played over and over and over.

1. You Belong To Me – Taylor Swift.  I could spend paragraphs describing the infatuation that Christopher has with Ms. Swift.  All boys know this song by heart.  “Fifteen” is also on the list. 
2. Party in the USA – Miley Cyrus.  On the radio over and over and over
3. Meet me Halfway – Black Eyed Peas.  A Kevin favorite. 
4. Toes – Zac Brown Band.  Boys love this song; parents don’t like many of the lyrics, which the boys don’t understand the meaning of
5. Tic-Toc – Kesha.  Same comment, lyric problems times 10. 

The one radio station here on Oahu plays only the 10 most popular songs over and over and over and over.  The boys love this….parents are getting burned out on it.

Oahu – Day 11.5

Debated about whether to blog about this, but, I look at the blog as something I’ll look at years from now, and well, this will definitely be on the “Highlights of Hawaii trip” top ten list.

1 am Tuesday morning.  Dead asleep.  Hotel phone rings…now, having the phone ring in the middle of the night isn’t exactly unusual right now; I’ve gotten a few calls from people back east who don’t realize I’m here at 4-5 am, but, 1 am, on the hotel phone, that’s not good.

“Mr. Hutsell?  This is security….can you meet us at the front door of the villa?”

Stumble out of bed, get some clothes on, go to the front door.  Wonder what the hell is going on; wonder if something is wrong with the car.  Notice two important things on the way to the door.

1)  The sofa bed, which the last time I saw it, had Kevin in it….is empty.

2)  The front door to the villa is cracked open; the security bolt (which we had latched) is now used as a wedge to prop the door open.

Get to the door, open it, find the two security guards who ask “Is this your son?”.  They report they found Kevin wandering the grounds, and his answers to them weren’t consistent, and they brought him back to us.

I had initially pinned Kevin as “sleepwalking”…I guess I’m more gullible than my beautiful wife, who went directly to “snuck out”.  And, after some interrogation, Kevin admitted to sneaking out, because he couldn’t sleep and wanted to check things out.  Still not sure why he decided that lying to security was the way to go, and his lies weren’t very good.  Security reports that Kevin wasn’t doing anything ‘wrong’…and they only stepped in because minors shouldn’t be wandering the grounds at 1 am. 

The last few days have been full of references by Mom and Dad to the ‘incident’….”now Kevin…make sure to STAY IN THE ROOM tonight”….

Oahu – Day 11 – Pearl Harbor

A few more links to videos from the last couple of days

• About a minute of boys and hijinks in the pool at the hotel. 
• Some video from Waimea Beach on the North Shore of Oahu….just shows the waves as they came in and some footage of Kevin and Matthew.
• There’s ten minutes of video of the cruise we took around the island of Lanai when we were back on Maui.
• Also got some shots of Hop-a-long Christopher and Deputy Matthew riding along on the ranch.
• And, lastly, there’s this compilation of the last whales we saw….on the last part of the Lanai Cruise and on the cruise out to Molokini Crater.  Got some good footage of one of the calfs slapping their tail against the water multiple times….

Started Monday with the trip to Pearl Harbor; got there at about 9 am and had to wait until 10 am to start the program….a 10-minute video and then the ride over to the Arizona Memorial.  Spent that hour looking over the plaques commemorating the submarines lost in World War II and then went with Christopher and Matthew and toured the USS Bowfin, a submarine that’s tied up right near the visitor center.  For the curious, the USS Missouri is in drydock for repairs, so, missed the opportunity to do that.

Not really much to say here….not sure how much of an impact the trip had on the kids (I know Christopher was sad/didn’t like it, but, he doesn’t like anything that involves people dying and is pretty vocal about it). 

Spent some time at the hotel that afternoon; went down to Waikiki in the evening. 

 

Sunset…panorama isn’t great, but, does have the boys in it.

Walking the streets with Mom

Oahu – Day 10 – North Shore

First, have had some time recently to try and get caught up on video editing

• The first of the Road to Hana videos – this one has views of Kipakeone State Park.
• I didn’t get any pictures of the black sand beach…I did get video.
• Also took some video at the red sand beach.  I’m very happy that the new camcorder got such great footage of the fish on the rocks.
• And…..also taped the boys on the hike to Waimoku Falls at Haleakala National Park. 
• Last, three stops on the Road to Hana.

Second, wanted to spend a quick moment talking about food.  Suzanne and I have found that trying to eat at any kind of nice restaurant is wasted on the boys, so, have opted for a cheaper approach….this has been good on the pocketbook but left Suzanne and I without a lot of food experiences to talk about.  That being said, here are the four most memorable food things of the trip so far.

1. Pineapple – it’s everywhere; it’s awesome.  The one pineapple memory I’ll savor more than any other was after the hike to Waimoku.  We didn’t have a lot of water on the 4-mile round-trip hike, so, when we got back to the car, it was a priority.  We also had a chunk of pineapple the boys had asked for at one of the roadside stands but hadn’t eaten; instead of going for the water I went for that first.  Had pineapple juice running down my chin…was simply delicious.
2. El Pollo Diablo – one of the few times we went out to eat we had Mexican…and I ordered the spicy chicken.  Suzanne’s palate is more…spicy..than mine, and she was thinking of ordering this, so, when it came, I cut her a piece and before I started she gulped and said “that’s really hot!”.  Which certainly meant bad news for me, because it was going to be way hotter than I was expecting.  Tasty, but hot.
3. Macky’s shrimp truck – On the North Shore of Oahu, we stopped here for lunch.  Christopher, gourmand that he is, had the butter garlic shrimp plate and I had the spicy shrimp plate.  They both were simply awesome.  These roadside trucks are common in Haleiwa.

Must point out here that I’m pretty sure I’ve lost some serious pounds here because I’ve been way more active and am snacking less than a home…will be curious to get to the scale at home.

Today started with Suzanne and I going snorkeling in the lagoon near the hotel….saw some fish, it was ok, but not great.  Will try again here later this week.  Left the hotel after football and headed out to the Dole Plantation.  Boys had fun at the World’s Largest Maze; Dad enjoyed the world-famous Pineapple Whip (soft-serve pineapple ice-cream with chopped pineapple topping). 

After the plantation, we headed out to the North Shore….boys went to the beach while Mom went shopping.

 

stopped first at Laniakea Beach…where the sea turtles like to come and beach themselves.  Happily, a turtle had done this as we arrived, and we saw two swimming in the ocean as we watched this guy (who had a name, Brutus, because he had been tagged before)

Ended up swimming at Waimea Beach…..surf forecast was 5 to 7 foot waves and they were big and they came often.  Finally reached a level of comfort by assigning Kevin to follow Matthew everywhere; that kid is a daredevil and at one point was the furthest human being from shore, even past the other adults!  After having a discussion with him about that (“I just want to have fun!”) the rest of the afternoon went better.

I did walk out into the waves and held down the button on the camera as a wave came in, and also have some video that helps to show how rough it was

  

I’m taking this photo looking straight ahead…I think the water was up to my knees where I was standing….

Oahu – Day 9 – Hanuama Bay

Not much to report from Day 8; had to pack up in Maui and had to unpack in Oahu.  Boys had pool time early in Maui…not much went on once we got here though.

Day 9 began with a trip out to Hanuama Bay; President Obama and his family were there on Tuesday (the day the state park is closed to the public…).  You have to be there early; if you get there too late and the parking lot is full, you don’t get in.  We made it in time.

The obligatory Iphone panorama.  Light green near the beach is sand; brown is coral reef….the snorkeling attraction of this bay.

The crappy part about the snorkeling is that we completely mistimed it; came at low tide.  Really couldn’t get out over much of the reef, and, pretty frustrating overall.  The good part was, well, the water was crystal clear and the fish here were bigger than any we’ve seen on the trip so far.

After snorkeling, we drove across (instead of around the perimeter) to get back to our hotel on the west side.  Stopped at Pali Lookout; Suzanne recalls coming up here with her family and barely being able to stand for the wind; today it was dead calm.

The panorama from the Pali Lookout

After this, we went down and drove through the Punchbowl Crater cemetery, better known as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.  Had planned on just driving through, but, Matthew and Christopher had a lot of questions so, we stopped and looked at a few headstones and talked about it (there were two with ‘unknown’ and one with ‘unknown..USS West Virginia’).  We’ll be at Pearl Harbor later this week…

Maui – Day 7 Part 2 – Haleakala

As our time in Maui wound down, there were a few Suzanne-things that we had failed to accomplish.  The morning cruise had taken care of two of them; we saw the turtles, and, on the way back to the harbor we had an escort of dolphins, so, Suzanne had another check mark on her list.  The last item was driving up to the summit of Haleakala.  Suzanne would have preferred a sunrise visit, but, that just never fit into our schedule.  Instead, we drove up for sunset after the cruise.

The drive, much like the Road to Hana, was full of switchbacks and sharp curves.  Quite a trip. 

Our first stop was at the Leleiwi Overlook, 8840 feet above sea level. 

 

    

The first of the Iphone panoramas; this one was on the trail to the Leleiwi Overlook, I’m looking North.

Headed further up the mountain to the Kalahuku overlook next.  The summit is at 9324 ft above sea level

     

You can see Mauna Koa and Mauna Loa on the big island from way up here.

The second of the Iphone Panoramas from the Kalahuku Overlook.

This is the third Iphone Panorama; from the summit, elevation 10,003 ft. I’ll note that I probably dove 8 feet down at times while snorkeling, so, my delta in elevation for Thursday is about 10,011 feet.

 

The cloud cover really picked up today; between the weather and the ‘vog’, the volcanic hot air blowing over from the Big Island.  While it would have sucked down below, it looked incredible from up here. I took a lot of video at sunset, and we’ll see how that came out later.

The sun set directly between two of the observatory buildings at the summit….I had to zoom way in for this photo

And a few pictures of the sunset over the clouds as we drove back down the mountain.