The Great Rear House Reconstruction of 2012

Tina and I knew we were going to redo the back side of the house sooner or later, and sooner finally came before later.  It took quite a while for us to figure out exactly what we wanted to do, but finally a couple of months ago we had it all figured out and set out to select the contractors.  That got delayed a bit by the family reunion, but after we returned we quickly got around to selecting the 3 major contractors ... Septic Tank, Swimming Pool, and House Modifications.  And so on the second week of August we signed the contracts and started the permitting process.

On the day after we signed the contract for the new septic tank, this was delivered in our front yard.

  

Yes indeed!  No permit ... no schedule of when it would be moved, but the lovely contractor placed our new septic tank smack in the middle of our front yard.  One of my employees at work suggested I put a sign on it saying "Mother-in-Law Suite", but I love Linda too much to do that!  :)

 Meanwhile, Tina and I started some of the demolition work ourselves.  We had already torn down and recycled the old screened in structure around the pool.  Then Tina got ambitious and climbed up on the rear patio roof to undo all the screws on the metal roof planks.  I think after an hour of being up there she was reconsidering her ambition.  We also needed to empty out the old shed out back since that's where our new workshop is going.  It's easy to forget how much junk you end up storing in a small shed.

Tina the Handy Woman

Nearly Empty Shed

And then on the 3rd week of August, the real fun began.  With Tina having started nagging at the septic contractor to move the tank from our front yard or else, they finally took the hint (and got the permit) to start the work.  And on the first day, our back yard was a total mess and the reconstruction of the Drago house started in earnest.

Digging the Drain Field

Fun Construction Toys

Anybody for a Swim?

By the end of the first week, the rear patio roof had been removed, the majority of the pool deck was gone, the Mother-in-Law Suite (sorry Linda) was in the ground, and the massive hole for the drain field was dug and partially filled with sand.

So the work has begun.  The septic tank and drain field are done and hopefully the pool work will start this next week.  Unfortunately, we probably have a lot more of a mess to go through before our back yard starts looking like a back yard again.  It was amazing in watching the hole they dug for the drain field just why they call this Rockledge Drive.  We had them save all the coquina rock so we can use it for landscaping.  I'm hoping we have enough landscaping to handle all of this.

Our Future Landscaping Rocks

But at least we do have the start of a back yard again.  It's not a great looking pool yet, but we're just being patient on that.

Septic Tank and Drain Field Complete - One Small Step ... ... ...

Post Hawaii Vacation Follow-up

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

When we took the helicopter ride around Mauai, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters films your trip via 5 camera's spread around the helicopter.  Then for a small price you can buy the DVD of your flight ... which, of course, Tina insisted we do.  A lot of the video doesn't end up being very good due to rain getting on the camera lenses, sun reflections, and other sorts of distortions.  As such, I edited it down quite a bit and managed to reduce a 1 hour video down to 24 minutes of mostly good footage.  Ofcourse to upload it onto the blog, I also had to cut the resolution down a bit so it would upload in less than 3 days.

 

When you're in the helicopter, you're wearing headphones so you can hear the pilot.  At the same time, they're actually playing music into them appropriate for where you are in the journey.  The sound you hear on this video is the actual sounds we were hearing through our headsets during the trip.

Click here for the helicopter ride video

Mahalo again for following this blog.

Catch-up Part II - April thru August 2012

In April we had one of those rare moments in life where we not only had an awesome double rainbow over the river, but it was truly rare in that it was a full end to end double rainbow.  Neither Tina or I had ever seen one before.  Not only was I out taking pictures of it, but people were stopping all along Rockledge Drive to take pictures of it.

Not only were we lucky enough to witness this and catch it on film, but as you can see from the following picture, the pot of gold was just on the other side of the river.  Tina wanted to take the boat over and pick it up, but I thought we ought to leave it for our friends over on Merritt Island.  :)

Our daughter Jessica got married at the end of April to our (now) wonderful son-in-law Adam.  The ceremony was down on the river front in Melbourne and the weather cooperated nicely for the outdoor ceremony.

Towards the end of May I continued on in the battle our son-in-law Chris has helped me start which was the 2012 Drago Ranch Wars Versus Evil Armadillo's.  Chris had gotten 2 when he was visiting before and I tied that number with my newly acquire weapon of mass destruction against armadillo's.

Finally, in July we had our big Drago family reunion up in Buchanan, Tennessee.  Tina and I officially took zero pictures the whole time we were up there.  I kept busy dragging around grand-kids, nieces, nephews and other relatives on the boat doing rafting, knee-boarding, and wake-boarding.  Tina kept busy beating her son-in-laws at tennis, although there's varying reports as to the actual results of those matches.  :)  Regardless, we had a fantastic reunion and I at least borrowed a picture from our daughter Jennifer of most of the people who attended the reunion.

 And so that's all the catching up I will do.  As I'm posting this, our backyard is officially a total mess with the pool mostly dug up and the new septic system being laid.  The next post will start covering the reconstruction effort.

Catch-up - December 2011 to March 2012

So we decided to expand this blog beyond our Hawaiian vacation to include our ongoing travels through life.  Therefore I changed the name of the blog and was intent on posting more pics on an ongoing basis.  Unfortunately, intents and reality sometimes don't meet.   As such, I'm posting a couple of catch-up entries to cover the period from last years end of the anniversary vacation to this summer.  Not only is that rather lame, but also I'm only posting pics from a handful of events because either a) I/Tina were too lazy to interrupt our fun to take pictures of our fun, or b) the pictures we took were not good enough quality to be worthwhile posting.  Regardless, here's what we were left with.

The kids cousin John came for his usual visit after Christmas and helped Shyanne fish off our dock. For the record, John didn't even come close to beating out Shyanne for total fish count.  (I think it was 1 to nothing ... 'nuf said.) 

In January, Mom, Dad, Tina and myself made our yearly brutal "why do live in Florida" trip to NYC.  It wasn't the 12 inch blizzard we'd had the year before, but it was rainy, wet and cold nonetheless.  Down near Wall Street we came across "Drago Shoe Repair" which didn't seem to be offering any discounts to potential family members.  Tina and I also took the opportunity to go down to Cony Island which is pretty much one of the silliest places you can visit in January.  The winter ocean breezes are cold as all get out and every place is closed other than Nathans.  Nathans is not only open but still serves hotdogs, even at 10 AM, just for those silly Florida tourist who happen to want to visit the NY ocean front in January.  :) 

Towards the end of March we did a week long vacation just outside of Asheville, NC with Tina's sister Arrietta, her bf Tommy, and our friends Pat and Debbie.  It was a great time of year for the highlands of NC.  While there we visited the Biltmore Estates and reacquainted ourselves with the fantastic gardens on the premises. 

At the end of the week, Tina and I did a day of hiking around Pisgah Forest and the numerous waterfalls there.  Within a 20 mile radius you can drive to 6 different waterfalls each of which is less than a mile from the roadway.  It was a super fun day, and certainly not nearly as exhausting as the last waterfall we visited over in Kauai. :)

The only downside of the day was when the tree fell down on me an nearly broke my leg, but I persevered and made it down the remaining 50 miles of the trail to safely return Tina back to our cabin.  :)

So, I'll try to do the rest of our catch up posting soon and then it's onto our latest saga ... the reconstruction of the back portion of the Drago River Resort.  :)

Kauai Part II - The Fantastic Finale

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

So here's our big opportunity.  The B&B we stayed at had snorkeling equipment we could use, we set aside the day to do this, we asked all the locals where the best place was, and everybody said it was at Tunnels, a local beach just 5 miles down from where we were staying.  So we got to the closest park to the "Tunnels", grabbed all our stuff, and went down to the life guard stand to find out where this "Tunnels" snorkeling was.  This picture shows the perspective from where he told us it was about 100 yards short of that far point of land.  No big deal ... we could knock that off in no time.

 WRONG!!!  North Island Kauai sand isn't like Florida sand.  Your feet sink about 2-3 inches into the sand for every step you take, regardless of where you walk in the sand.  It's utterly exhausting.  We made it there and had to catch our breath for a while before we started snorkeling.  It was about that time that I realized that I had left our newly purchased water proof camera back in the car.  Took me about 1 millisecond to decide that underwater pictures were far less important than walking back down and up that beach again.

 So what you get instead is some lovely beach shots I took with our regular phone camera.

 

OK ... so I'll admit ... any picture with Tina in it is better than any underwater shot I might have gotten, but I was still not overly happy with myself for leaving the underwater camera behind.  The other thing we learned was that we got into the ocean at the place the lifeguard said was the start of the snorkeling point.  We entered the water their and swam "up stream" for probably 300 yards.  We got out exhausted.  And then a local pointed out that it was much easier to start out at the high end of the current and let it take you down the beach.  OK ... so stupid us!  BUT we got a lot of good exercise ... AND NO PICTURES!!!

After lunch we drove up to the light house on the northern end of the island.  It's also a wildlife refuge mainly with a ton of birds around.

Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed down for repairs, so we couldn't actually go up in it.  But the local birds still like the area, regardless of whether people can visit the lighthouse or not.

 As always, the beach landscape around the light house was beautiful.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

So this was the big and final hike we'd been building up to for the entire vacation.  I knew an 8 mile hike was going to be a big challenge, but I somewhat underestimated how challenging it might be.  Kara and Chris did this hike when Kara was 4 1/2 months pregnant, so I figured it should be easy for non-pregnant people.  I was glad I didn't reread her blog entry on this hike before we set out on it ... and I was REALLY glad Tina didn't reread it. 

http://myjourneyofpregnancy.blogspot.com/2011/01/day-22-na-pali-coast-hike.html

 We set out on the hike and the first mile is a killer.  All uphill ... all over rocky terrain ... but after getting up 1/2 mile you get a view back to the beach you left at the start of the hike.

You get to the 1 mile mark and start to question your sanity for choosing to do this.  But the 2nd mile is relatively easy, downhill, and leads to a beautiful beach that you can start to see from a 1/2 mile out.

  PS - for truly insane people in life, the whole trail on the coast line continues for another 9 miles up and down the coast line, leading to what is purported to be a beautiful and very secluded beach.  Tina and I both agree that it should remain as secluded as possible ... because we have no intention of ever seeing it.

Tina and I took a well deserved break at the half way to the falls point and enjoyed the beach that was there.

Also at the half way point was an appreciated toilet, but one without any toilet paper.  Further more, the sign on the side of it said "Helicopter Landing Site - Do Not Linger At All Times".  I'm not sure Tina appreciated me taking this picture, but I thought it was funny.  (Ends up the sign was placed there from its "true" site about 200 yards up the trail where there is a real helicopter landing site for med-emergency purposes ... but I found it pretty humorous that it was here on the outhouse site.  Stay tuned as to whether Tina thought it was humorous.)

 

The next mile of the trail was relatively easy, but the last mile was truly brutal.  Back and forth across several streams ... up and down rocks and boulders.  Tina kept saying "I can't believe Kara did this when she was 5 months pregnant" with a lecturing tone of voice ... and then when we'd run into other people hiking the path she'd brag that "My daughter did this when she was 5 months pregnant."  Hmmmmmm ... the role of motherhood is so conflicting at times.  

But then we finally made it to the top ... and what an AWESOME set of falls to view.

We took a break and had lunch, and then walked the last few hundred yards on up to the final pool (past the sign that says "End of Trail ... Falling Rocks Ahead") and then headed back down.  

 As fate would have it, I had left my hiking boots and tennis shoes in the car along with a pair of socks before we ever started this hike.  So when we left that morning I didn't worry about grabbing any footwear.  Ended up the socks in the car were ankle high socks ... which definitely wouldn't work with hiking boots.  Rather than driving back to the B&B, I elected to just wear T-shoes for the hike.  After trying to keep them dry for the first 3 miles of the hike, I finally decided it wasn't worth it.  I ended up just getting my shoes wet and walking through the creeks, which let me give Tina a balancing hand while she walked across the rocks.  It got me bonus points from people along the trail saying "What a nice guy to give his wife a hand across the river like that", while I got to keep my feet nice and cool along the way.  Then on the way back I just enjoyed the best of the situation and every stream we passed I took off my shirt and soaked it in the water, then soaked my head in the cool river water.   Tell me that this is not a man who knows how to enjoy the back half of a long LONG hike while also getting bonus points for being a true gentleman to his wife of 25 years. 

We made it back, totally exhausted, but equally happy that we'd pulled it off.  We switched into our swimming suits left in the car when we left and took a much deserved cool down swim on the beach.  Tina normally hates to get in cool ocean water.  She hopped in and enjoyed the cool ocean water on this beach without a moments hesitation.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

So Thursday morning was not an easy morning to wake up and face.  The B&B we were staying at had FANTASTIC breakfasts every morning, but both Tina and I were a bit slow moving this morning.  We woke up in time for breakfast and then figured we'd just go hang out at the beach and maybe do some snorkeling if we felt up for it.  We went back to the "Tunnels" beach we'd been to before but were a bit hesitant to jump in ocean quite so quick as we had the previous afternoon.  Looking back at the mountain we'd climbed, we appreciated the beauty of what we'd tackled the day before, but also appreciated the fact that we were beaching it this day rather than climbing again.

 HOWEVER, I remembered to bring the underwater camera this time, so after 30 minutes of prep time, Tina and I were ready to snorkel again.  On the positive side, the cool water and easy motion in the ocean helped soothe our aching muscles a LOT!

 

 It wasn't as great snorkeling as back on Maui, but it was good snorkeling, and gave us the opportunity to capture some really unique pictures.

 This was a pic looking straight down into the rock formations.  It only shows a bit, but the name "Tunnels" was obvious once you swam out a bit and saw the tunnels and deep drifts that form that area of the beach.

After catching some lunch we went to visit Queens Bath, a place Kara and Chris had told us about that I also found on tripadviser.  There's a ton of signs everywhere warning you about waves crashing against the rocks and carrying people out to sea, and Kara had been adamant about being careful if we went out there.  When we were there, the surf wasn't an issue at all.

But Tina's walking ... now that was an issue.  She was having a rough time going downhill at all.  It reminded me of Kara's post about her "tard walk" (her words not mine).  I kept trying to get a good picture of Tina doing the "tard walk", but didn't really capture it to its full beauty.

I'm not sure which saying I like best for this revelation.  "Tards of a feather flock together" ... or "2 tards in a pod" ... or "Like Mom Tard Like Baby Tard".  Anyway, it was a couple hundred yards down a path next to a stream, and then a couple hundred yards across lava rocks, but then we finally reached Queens Bath.  A bunch of people were enjoying the swim in it, but we'd already showered and switched into dry clothes after snorkeling.  It was still a pretty place to watch the surf and a family of maybe a dozen sea turtles, as well as some very colorful crabs..

For the short amount of afternoon left, we explored some roads that led into a wildlife preserve, others that just led partway into the mountains, and took a short walk down to a place called "Secret Beach" ... another beautiful and pretty secluded Hawaiian beach.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Our time on the islands was quickly reaching an unfortunate end ... but we were also about ready to get home and catch up with family and friends again.  We did a couple more loads of laundry (always nice to return home with clean clothes in the suitcase) and then set out to the airport late morning.  We stopped along the way back to the airport to visit a few more places we hadn't seen and try to capture a few more pictures of a beautiful place.

I found it rather humorous that throughout the islands, with the notable exception of Oahu, you run into one way bridges all over the place.  I'd be willing to say on Maui and Kauai the number of one way bridges to two way bridges is about 20 to 1.  So when we drove up one of the roads in Kauai and found this at the end, it struck me as rather humorous.  When you decide that building a two way bridge is too expensive, and even building a one way bridge is also too expensive, just don't build any bridge at all and let people drive straight across the stream.

By late afternoon we were back on Oahu for our official last night on the islands.  As I sit here now, we're in the Outrigger Reef Hotel on the Ocean.  I took these pics just a couple of hours ago shortly after sunset.

It's seems like most people we've talked to here on the islands and told about our 25th anniversary celebration as well as those we've corresponded with throughout this period always ask us what our favorite island was ... and truly we don't have any clear answer.  The history of Oahu and some of the best restaurants around ... the wilderness of Maui and what has to be some of the best snorkeling anywhere ... the awesome nature of the volcanoes on the big island as well as the enjoyment of a fun as heck beach town with a laid back attitude ... and then the mountains of Kauai, with the difference of the Grand Canyon of the Pacific to the tropical rain forest nature of the Na Pali Coast.  Each of the Hawaiian islands is totally unique and different from any of the other islands.  Furthermore, even on the same island, one side of the island is totally different from the other.  We have been ever so fortunate that we were able to spend this amount of time acquainting ourselves with this treasured place, spending time on both the "windward and leeward" sides of all 4 of the major islands here.  It was an amazing trip that this blog can only serve to show a hint of what we experienced while enjoying our time here.

 

So with Tina now sound asleep breathing easily behind me ... and with my own eyes starting to get a bit heavy, and our airplane scheduled to bring us home leaving shortly after noon tomorrow, I bid each of you Aloha and Mahalo for sharing this part of our anniversary with us.

Mahalo - Tom and Tina/Mom and Dad/Grandma and Grandpa/Waipa and Waigong