My Summer Vacation: OSA Winding Down

Sort of. I helped Tani take the Hawai'i Wildlife Center (HWC) van to Young Brothers today; it is returning to the Big Island. Tani leaves tomorrow night, signaling the close of the O'ahu Seabird Aid Program for this year. In the meanwhile, Nikki is renting a car to run them around for today & tomorrow; she'll be with us until about December 20th, continuing to work with the Manu-o-Ku. There are several Wedge-tailed Shearwaters at Feather & Fur that came in today that Tani still needs to assess; she & Nikki will release the ones in good condition tomorrow morning. Others will be sent to HWC. Getting in to Young Brothers was a little tricky this morning. There was a long line of semis with cargo containers in line to get in; I had to sneak around the end of the last trailer to get in to the non-semi truck line.

I was again a little late getting to my morning walk so I didn't see any regulars; but I did meet Paul. He usually walks up from Kapahulu to the top of Wilhelmina Rise where it intersects with Sierra Drive; today he decided to see what was beyond that. He was walking on Maunalani Circle when I met him; along the way he picks up recyclables. He also carries a 35-pound weight in his backpack. He is training for the GORUCK Tough Challenge Pearl Harbor event on December 7th.

First thing in the morning.

On Sierra Drive, about mid-walk.

I left for Young Brothers shortly after I did my cool down stretches; Google Maps said it would take me 30 minutes with the traffic so I would arrive there 15 minutes early. I decided I wanted the extra time just in case traffic got worse on the way there. As I was going down Waiakamilo it was clear I would still be at least 10 minutes early, so I stopped at Hawaiian Pie Company because, why not? I tried a sample of their Blue Pineapple, which I liked but it had coconut and one of The Roommates does not like coconut. So I got a Caramel Apple pie instead.

The pies on display.

A 3-lb. pie ready to go!

I dropped Tani off at the house, she needed to do the sheets from the bunkhouse. I left for Maunalani just in time to do my mid-morning walk. On the way back from Young Brothers we had been discussing the weather forecast which said a storm was coming in from the northwest, so far it had looked like a good day. By the time I got up to Maunalani, the sky had changed, it was getting cloudy.

I think it is a Spotted Dove (Spilopelia chinensis).

Lunch today was Chicken long rice, Steamed rice, Vegetable of the day, Garden salad, Angel cake with strawberries, and Egg drop soup. Dad got up and sat out on the lanai with me during lunch; one of the Gold Dust Day Geckos came to check out our lunches again. It tried to drink one of Dad's supplements; Dad had plenty to share, he only drank half of one of his supplements.

Dad enjoying the view of Honolulu.

The sky was cloudy on & off since my mid-morning walk but it never rained or even drizzled. Not even during my afternoon walk.

I picked Kai up as soon as I was done; he wanted to go to Hawaiian Graphics to pick up some art supplies. I decided to recreate my field watercolor set that I can leave in my backpack for sketches when the mood hits me. I am pretty sure once I am done with all the training for the Great Aloha Run I will only do 2 walks a day; I could use the time for the 3rd walk for watercolor sketches. We also made a quick stop at the Book Off in Don Quijote so Kai could pick up the other books in a series he is interested in. He passed them up the first time since volumes 11 through 16 were missing; but decided he could fill those in later.

My limited palette of colors.

Even with a hearty dinner last night and some Almond Dream frozen dessert plus less walking this week, my weigh-in this morning showed that I managed to lose 2.6 pounds over the last week. I am now 110.9 pounds and 18.8% body fat; this is where I was at on August 31st. Which was before I took 2 off-island trips and Thanksgiving; I'll have to see if I can at least maintain this weight through December 29th which will be my 1 year anniversary of using the Fitbit. I am 10.9 pounds away from my initial goal.

Tani took Nikki & me out to dinner tonight as a thank you for the help we have given her. We went to Roy's Waikiki since they have a great vegan prix fixe menu. Tani had the 4-course Special with prawns. Obviously Nikki had the vegan prix fixe. And I had the Roy's Classic Tasting Menu with Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahimahi and Roy's Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle. None of us had the wine pairings with our meal. (My phone was dying so the photos are a little dark.)