Fishing tomorrow:

Hi All,
I'm finally going out fishing tomorrow, so will hopefully have some fun on the high seas. The weather is still not optimal, but hopefully it won't be too bad out there. The swell is down, so that won't be an issue, but the wind can cause some problems.

Also, Heidi and I went to an ALS TDI meeting tonight in Honolulu at the Queens Medical Center. It was encouraging. That group is spending a lot of money on cure research for ALS and seems to have their program together in a great way. They are looking to raise funds and are hitting up the Federal Govt. and especially the DOD because veterans seem to have a much higher incidence of ALS than any other group. So far, their funding has been limited, but they are pressing hard for more. If you have any contacts in the Govt, or the DOD that might be able to help, please reach out to me via phone or email and I will make the necessary connections to the group. Heidi and I both met the President and the Chief Research Scientist tonight. The way that they presented it, there is light at the end of the tunnel and hope for a cure that has not been there before, so that was very nice to hear. You can find out more about this group at www.als.net if you are interested.

Hopefully some good photos tomorrow!
Best,
Bill

The Latest

Hi folks, Just posted a few pics here. One over there ---> and a few of the girls down below the posts. We miss everyone. Who's going to be the first to come and visit? We have an extra room and there's a tent in the storage closet. For that matter...there's a storage closet.
You can check out the "adults" blog for your entertainment purposes at:
http://billshiblog.blogspot.com for an important (not) update from me.
Peace.
B. (aka Dad.)

Comments from Shelby:

Hi everyone, It's me Shelby. how is everyone? I'm fine. Guess what we went to pipeline beach ( a world famous beach ) and watched the surfers dudes. It was NARLEY !!!! Thay were really good. The waves were a huge 20 feet. The water was so deadley you could not even swim in it any time. You could die any second if you swam in that water. It's only for surfers. People (surfers) come all over the world just to surf there, that's why it's world famous.Surfing is such a cool sport i'm going to start soon!! When your a really good surfer you go really really fast against the waves then you fall over.It looks so fun. Well I better get going bye,Shelby

Jillian here...

Hi it's me. I found a hermit crab at Sharks Cove. He was colorful. It was awesome and we found a sea cucumber and it was squishy and it squirted water. We got to hold two sea urchins. They were different kinds. We will post pictures of them. Is it snowing there?
Sincerely, Jillian.

Comments from Shelby:

Hi Everyone, It's me Shelby guess what my daddy's friend Marcus ate a alive ghost crab. And do you know how we knew he stuk his tounge out and we saw it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Soon we might go to sea life park and swim with the dolphins!!!!!
Bye, Shelby

Comments from Rachel:

Hi Everybody, It's me Rachel.
We are here in Hawaii and there is a calipiter tree that has a ton of calipiters on it but you really can't touch the tree very much because the tree is poisonous. Yesterday we went to Sharks Cove and went swimming a little bit, explored the tide pools and held sea urchins. I'll post a picture. A few days ago we found 8 ghost crabs but the gross thing is that Daddy's friend Marcus ate one alive. We know he ate it because he showed it to us on his tongue after he crunched it up. YUCK! I was gonna try a baby but I didn't want to. He said it tasted like normal Crab. And we alsowent snorkling ,there are rocks that have stuff on them that make them look like marshmallos that got colored very brightley I think im done for today. Comment me!!!
BYE

Quick update for Friday

Hi All,
Yesterday we finally kicked back on the beach caught a few rays (me just a few too many.) I took all the girls snorkeling one at a time (Heidi included) and except for Rachel raking her nail across my back when I pulled her off and told her to stop riding me like a "water horse", things went very well. I caught a good size hermit crab which was worth a solid 20 minutes of entertainment and found a few more lead weights on the reef to stock my surf casting endeavors (which have been fishless to date.)

As for today, here on the tame blog, i'll just say that we had a pretty uneventful day.
We got our school work done early. I think Sheby figured out the whole 1/2 = 2/4 and 5/6 =10/12 thing, which is sweet. Conquering things that vex you is a triumphant feeling, I know.
Things vex me all the time and occassionally I conquer one...but now i'm starting to sound like the spoiled emporer in Gladiator and he was such a twerp.

One of my buddies from the old days, Marcus stopped in to say Hi after he got stood up for an appointment in Wahiawa, so it was good to see him. If you ever meet Marcus, he will NOT have any interesting stories to tell you about me when I was young(er) and we lived in an apartment in Waikiki. I promise, so don't ask.

We took off for town out of sheer stir-crazyness this afternoon and ambled around the Aloha Tower Marketplace and had dinner at the classic old Hawaiian stalwart Gordon Biersch. Let's just say it probably was not worth the 90 or so minutes in the car. You can read my Dennis Leeryesque musings here:
http://billshiblog.blogspot.com.

Tomorrow it is off to the Farmer's market and an official whale counting party at Sunset beach. I'm sure the girls will have plenty to talk about after that.

Thanks again for those of you who have commented.

Peace out.
B.

Comments from Shelby:

Comments from Shelby:

Hey all, thanks for commenting me. That really really means a lot. I hope you are all having fun back there. Today were just going to play all day on the beautiful beach.Bye,Shelby

new blog here

Hey all,
Here's a link to my more, shall we say, descriptive blog.
http://billshiblog.blogspot.com/

That stands for "Bills Hawaii blog" by the way.
Enjoy (hopefully)
B.

Dad's post Day 3

Hi folks.
I have created a different blog for parents vs. the kids. I think my posts are a little longer and more PG-13 than we want for the mixed audience that is accessing this one.
I'll post the link to it here in a bit.

Scroll down and check out the new posted photos of the stuff discussed in the girls' blogs.
B.

Comments from Jillian:

Hi I am Jillian (w/ Daddy on typing duty)
We are in Hawaii, it is so fun. I pretty much go on the beach three times each day, I catch ghost crabs, you know. Why they're called ghost crabs? Because they are white and blend in with the sand. There are these centipedes and they are so poisionous that if you step on one you will pretty much have to go to the hospital. And then there are the coconuts, if you leave them out side all the bugs get on them. There are also gekos. You know what geckos are? They are little Hawaiian lizards and if you have them in your house in Hawaii, it is good luck. It is a Hawaiian thing. We only have one bathroom and three bedrooms, but our house is really great. It is right on the beach. Love Jillian.

Comments from Shelby:

Hi it's me Shelby Guess what we already saw six turtles !!! We also saw four rainbows. I think were going to have a RADICAL time here. Soon were going to go to waikiki. I cant wait to learn how to surf it's going to be awsome. It's so beautiful here with all the waves and everything. Were also going to see a friend his name is Marcus. On Saterday we are going whale watching and we have to count how many times thay jump. OMG there are so many bugs here there was this one centapide that if you stepped on it , it would hurt more than a bee sting ouccch. I've been takeing lots of pics with my own camera.
Thanks for reading my blog, From Shelby

Rachel's first post:

Hi it's me Rachel, were in hawaii we have already seen 1 whale 8 turtles and five rainbows!!!!!!! But I wish I have eaten some cocanut. Our house is right on the shore it usally meidum waves. We have eaten a lot of star fruit,and mangoes. WRITE ME SOME LETTERS SINCERLY, RACHEL

Day one...stingers, flappers and a cockadoodle doo.

Hi Everybody,

Mahalo for your comments, we like to hear from you too!

Weather: High 81 today, sunny and breezy; occasional rainbow.
Surf: Big. probably 15 Ft. breaking on the reef outside our place.

Well, we made it. It was a long day yesterday, but we finally arrived at our beach house at about 2am Denver time and didn't have much in the way of an eventful trip which is a good thing. The only thing that the airlines lost was Jilli's booster chair, and we are living without it for the time being. I was thankful that the luggage fit into our Crysler Minivan, which is new and nice enough, but certainly not good for my beach dude image, which I have so carefully cultivated over these last 20 years. LOL.

Our house is very cozy and comfortable here on the beach. It is about what I imagined. We actually have an extra bedroom because the girls are all sleeping in the same room on a twin and a double. It is amazing how after living in our house in Highlands Ranch with all the "square footage" that you can be comfortable in something about 1/3 the size, and even have an extra bedroom.

After hitting the sack, I, your resident light sleeper was so pleased to find that very nearby our friends are raising cock-fighting roosters. While cock-fighting may be considered inhumane by some, what I find inhumane is that the ridiculous creatures start talking to each other via very loud cock-a-doodle-doos at about 4am. I was so flabbergasted by it that I had to laugh, but it was one of those "not really funnly" types of laughs. Fortunately for them, the all the girls slept right through it. I was thinking that maybe Michael Vick would like to re-locate to the N. shore of Hawaii when he gets out of the clink, because apparently these cock-fighting rings up here seem to operate with relative impunity, from what I hear. Either I will have to get over it and begin to sleep better, I will have to lock all the windows and suffer the stuffy hot room, or I will have to buy a high-powered pellet gun and do a stealth mission rooster hunt. Channelling Bill Murry's character in Caddy Shack now..."Oh Mr Rooster, Its just your friend of the harmless mongoose...,etc."

Now, the stingers are as follows...I found a gigantic centipede on the lawn this am and took a photo of it next to my flipflop. I will post it tomorrow once we get our batteries for the camera replaced. Fortunately no one got stung by it. The other stingers are the dadblasted mosquitoes, which ate both of my ankles raw tonight sitting outside for dinner.

The flappers are two things...the turtles, which live right outside our backyard in the ocean (the girls probably saw about 6 or 7 of them this am) and the Monarch butterflies which are coming out this time of year here. There are many caterpillars on the crownflower plant in the back yard and some of the are cocooning and many are flying around. Pictures to follow.

Other random notes from the day...We had lunch at my favorite place to eat a burger on the planet...Kua Aina burger in Haleiwa. It's not quite as cool as it used to be in it's old location with the grill out back, but its still a good burger. We then drove around getting some supplies...and um... just FYI, Hawaii residents love Costco. I think they were all there today. Either that or MLK day is aka Costco day on Oahu. We went for a swim in the ocean, the girls dug a hole in the sand, I met the neighbors who were fishing for O'io (bonefish) which are apparently in season, (though they were baitfishing and I wonder if they eat them here)...

The girls crashed about 20 minutes ago and it's only 7:40 here. Of course it's 10:40 there and I don't think I've ever seen Shelby so tired. Hopefully I can get some comments from them tomorrow.

As they say here in the islands, Pau (done) for now. Laters.

T-Minus one week

This blog is meant to keep those that are interested up to date on what is happening with us as the Sedgwick Family heads to Hawaii for our two month adventure. As you might know, the main reason for the trip is to get to an environment that is more conducive to healing for Heidi, but I don't plan to cover that path in detail on this blog. I will cover that in a different blog that I'll post a link to here later. This one is more for updates on what we are up to on a day-to-day basis.

Overall, our plan while in Hawaii is to eat healthy, fresh food, have lots of fun with the girls, enjoy the ocean and soak up some sun. I, of course, will try to figure out a way to go fishing and bring fresh fish home for dinners, so am looking into boats etc. We might buy a beater car rather than rent a car to save some money, and our plan is do do a lot of provisioning when we get there vs. trying to take a bunch of stuff with us.

The Place: The house we have rented is on the North Shore of Oahu in a town call Waialua. It is a small three bedroom bungalow that is one level, has no stairs (which is important for Heidi) and is directly on the beach. We have stayed near this place before, a few miles down the beach, so are familiar with the area. There is a barrier reef about 150 feet offshore, so the water is calm on the beach. i'll publish a photo of the house here. We hope you enjoy the blog!

Right now, we are in preparation mode...talking about how we'll keep the girls up to date on their education, discussing the plan with my clients and our friends, etc. This coming week will be doing more of that and packing etc.

If you would like to send a letter to the girls, look up the location or something while we are there, the address is:
Here is the mailing address:
The Sedgwicks
c/o Jayne Higa
68-221 Au St.
Waialua, HI 96791