Kauai Trip

Since Blake is on Spring Break this week, we decided to take a vacation to Kauai. It was a short three day trip, but we ended up doing a lot....We relaxed at the hotel, swam in the pool and at the beach, did some sight seeing, and ate some great food.
We stayed in Poipu, which is on the south shore of Kauai. On our first day there, we were lucky enough to see a Monk Seal on the beach. Apparently, seals come onto shore to bask in the sun, on a regular basis on the south beaches.



The next day, we drove out to the north side of the island to check out some scenic spots and to hike a bit of the Na Pali coast. The trail was nicely maintained and within the first mile, provided some really nice views of the coast. We didn't get a chance to go very far because Michelle wasn't very comfortable with the height that we were at. So we went back down and walked along the beach instead. The one thing that is really noticeable between the beaches on Oahu and the beaches on Kauai is that the Kauai beaches are all crystal clear and perfect for snorkeling. It was pretty windy while we were there so it was also good for some shoreline body surfing.



Kilauea Lighthouse



Wailua Falls. One of the larger waterfalls in Hawaii. At least that I have seen. If you look closely, you can see someone on the edge. A very short walk past some "Danger, Keep Out" signs, will take you from the lookout to the edge of the waterfall. You could very easily fall off the edge...and believe me, it's a long long way down.




Kauai was a perfect way to get some much needed rest and relaxation. Blake has been working really hard at school and we've all been busy with baseball, work, and life. So this was a great way to spend some quality time together and recharge ourselves.

Medieval Fair

The "Big Thing" for Iolani 6th graders is the Medieval Fair. They spend an entire quarter studying the Medieval period. All subjects material for all classes is centered around it and the culminating event is the
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All 6th graders pick or are assigned a Medieval occupation. Everything from Kings and Queens to Knights, Merchants, or Peasants. There are also Artisans, Masons, Herbalist, and Jesters. Each group needed to create some sort of skit or demonstration of their occupation. They also had to make all of their costumes and any other items that they would need to best represent what they were.

Blake ended up with Archer. He really wanted to be a Jester and was already pretty good at juggling, but he settled for Archer. I, on the other hand was rooting for Archer. First of all, archery is cool. Secondly, I was looking forward to making a bow....how awesome would that be? And yes, this is a school project, so Blake needs to so most of the work...I just need to help him with the tools and what not. :D

Making the bow turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. Mainly because we got lucky and found a set of youtube videos showing how to make a bow out of stone age tools. Yeah, that's right, this guy used rocks. Here's the first video if you are interested (thx Tom Mills)
So I figured, all we needed to do was follow his instructions and just replace with modern tools...chisel, wood shaver, saw, hammer. And it all went exactly like the video. We made some mistakes with not choosing the right shape before we started and taking off a bit too much wood in certain areas, but for the most part, it came out pretty nicely.
We used a guava branch for our wood. (Thanks mom for getting us the branches) Guava wood turned out to be incredibly strong and flexible. I was really impressed with the bend that we got in the bow.


This is the shaving process. Took a long time, but lots of wood comes off with the shaver.


Here's Blake doing a floor tillering to test the bend.


We also had to create a costume for Blake the Archer. Blake did a lot of research on the clothing that they wore and designed a couple of outfits. My mom, then did a lot of great work helping Blake put all the pieces together.

The fair was pretty cool. All the students did a great job with their booths and costumes.



"Cruel Connor of Constantinople is charged for stealing 5 pigs, and the King's jewels. Reward: 1 pig and a fourth of the King's jewels"


The hilarious physicians booth. Loved that one.


Blake the Archer. He got a bunch of bulls eyes and some of his arrows actually went through the target. YEAH!!!