Thursday, June 25, 2015

River Concert June 19th, 2015

I am once again the official photographer for the River Concert Series at the St. Mary's College of Maryland.  We enjoyed the concert last Friday night very much.  

        Jeffrey Silberschlag, Music Director 

We attended the Arts Alliance reception before the concert and ate lots of good munchies.
       Arts Alliance

 Yevgeny Kutik's performance  in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in  E Minor, Op. 64 was absolutely brilliant.  The violin part is a very expressive, full of emotion and quite difficult.

       Yevgeny Kutik

The orchestra shell was lit from inside by magenta filters, which I couldn't resist photographing.




It was great to see the Chesapeake Orchestra once again and we enjoyed talking with some of them and their supporters after the concert.

     Hillary Howard, Pres. Chesapeake  Orchestra Board of Directors

We are looking forward to hearing Nathaniel Silberschlag in Mozart's Concerto number 4 on Friday night, June 26th.

That's Nathaniel on horn, 2nd from the left, next to his brother, Zach, from last week's concert.


Thursday, June 18, 2015

May 18-19: Lahaina Maui

I watched the sunrise at the Makai Inn.
        Sunrise view from Makai Inn    
         includes The island of Lanai

       Sunrise at Makai Inn, Moloka'i island
        In the background



We drove north and stopped at 3 beaches.  The 1st beach had big turtles.
      Pohaku Park

 The 2nd was D T Fleming beach: good   
   for swimming.  The coarse sand 
    was not too pretty. 

We ate lunch on a bluff by a restaurant at Kapalua beach- very pretty snorkel and kayak beach. 

      Kapalua beach

       Kapalua beach closeup

We took the Atlantis submarine at 2pm, lots of blue ocean, the sunken Carthaginian ship and fish, moray eels,  and sharks.

      Sub rising


       Watching a fish

       The Carthaginian.  An artificial reef.  We have old photos of it in the Lahaina harbor.
      The Atlantis sub

      Pink plumeria in Lahaina

At 6 pm we went to the OId Lahaina Luau.  Good food, service and entertainment.  The show told the story of hawaiian myths and ended with Prince Kuhio, Princess Liliokulani and statehood.





5/19 tues;  Going home
Ukumehame beach on the way to the airport, east of Lahaina


Wednesday, June 17, 2015

May 17th Moloka'i to Lahaina , Maui

In the morning, we drove to Halawa and Puko'o beaches again to look for Jim's missing cane and found nothing.

         Halawa beach

      Halawa valley

      Puko'o beach with Outrigger canoe

  On the way back we stopped at Sandy and Murphy beaches.

      Sandy beach.  Yes, that is really its'
       name.

       Murphy beach

We drove the entire length of Moloka'i, our original planned destination to see the West end beaches.  At Kepuhi beach, we watched surfers in the wind with huge waves, while we ate a picnic lunch.

       Kepuhi beach

      Kepuhi beach surfer

We took the ferry at 4pm from the Kauankakai wharf.


The water was rough, but a ferry worker said it was very boring ride.
The taxi ride to the Makai Inn was hindered by a Vietnamese driver who didnt know where it was located.  I showed him a map!   
The Inn has some lovely Hawaiian art, a pretty garden lit by colored lights, a seawall, limited hot water, no  tv or phone and is quite worn.
We had a lovely sunset from the Makai Inn before going out.
      Makai Inn sunset

We had dinner at Bubba Gumps after buying a cane for Jim.  Jim loves the shrimp dishes there.  Lots of 60's and 70's loud music.  The food was good.


Tuesday, June 16, 2015

May 16 Kalaupapa Molokai

After talking to a local resident, we learned that it was still possible to fly into Kalaupapa without paying $500 each.  The peninsula haunted me as a rare place of sadness and great beauty, especially in Kalawao.  Our last trip there was in 2000 on a gray, rainy day.  There was a single seat left on a plane before we left for Maui.  Since Jim wasn't feeling well, I reserved it for myself.  In fact, they asked if I could sit in the co-pilot's seat.

Kalaupapa is very isolated and located on the northern shore, accessible only by air, mule or boat.  It is surrounded by the 1600 ft highest sea cliffs in the world and is the location of a leper colony from 1866-1949. 


       In 2010, we viewed the peninsula 
       "topside" from above the cliffs.

From: printable-maps.blogspot.com/2011/11/molokai-map.html?m=1

 Now called Hansen's disease, leprosy is curable, and 9 patients still live there, with another 7 currently living in Honolulu.  80 people live on the peninsula, mostly National Park service workers, since the area is a National Historical Park site.
King Kamehameha exiled the first leprosy residents.  They were dropped overboard near Kalawao, and left to die without medical care or assistance.  In December 1873, a young Catholic Belgian priest, Father Damien DeVeuster was sent to help.  He improved the conditions greatly until his death in 1889 from leprosy.  Mother Mariane Cope took up his work also in 1883 till her death in 1918 at age 80 from natural causes.  Both were sainted since we last visited in 2000.

Around 8000 burial sites are found there, only 10% of them are identified after major fires and a tsunami.  The hospital burned in 1980. 


 After picking up the mule riders and hikers near a dark sand beach, we boarded a bus and drove to St. Francis Catholic church.



      Sea cliffs

     'Awahua Beach near mule exit

       St. Francis Catholic church

I read that Richard Marks, our previous tour guide in 2000 died in December 2008.  He was such an interesting character, we remembered his name! 



 Ian was the tour guide this time, driving an old school bus, which often stopped every block, till driving to Kalawao, the location of the first unprotected settlement.

Kalawao's sea cliffs and the tiny island close to the cliffs (Okala) are breathtakingly beautiful.  Ian jokingly referred to the view there as "his office".  It was noon when we stopped there for lunch, not the ideal time for photography, but I tried my best.  At least it wasn't raining!


      The other island further from the cliffs       
       is Mokapu Island and the black sand     
       beach is Keawaiku beach.  
       (Panorama)
       
Our last major stop was at Philomena church, built before Father Damien came to Kalawao.  Legend had it that Father Damien spent his first night under a Pandana tree when he arrived there.  Ian stopped to feed the local cat and we toured the church and Father DeVeuster's memorial site, the location of  his right hand (He is buried in Tremolo, Belgium).  

      Stray cat Ian fed

       Philomena church

       Philomena churchyard in Kalawao

We got back on the plane to return to the main airport.

       9 seat plane

      Moloka'i Light Station

      'Iliopi'i Beach on Kalaupapa ?


Here is the end of an interesting day from the plane.

       Norfolk Island Pines on the 
       accessible part of Moloka'i

      Sunset near Kauanakakai