Last time I left off with our trip to Haleakala. The next day we took another snorkel trip up to Honolua and Kapalua Bays. The beach pick up and drop off is always fun. The sail up the coast revealed some flying fish and as we came into Honolua Bay we were escorted by a pod of spinner dolphins. The bay was full of every type of fish imaginable, a turtle cleaning station, huge schools of runners, and so much love Coral… It’s hard to imagine that in the winter they have surf championships at the point.

We took a visit to Kealia Pond Wildlife Refuge where we saw Hawaiian Coots and their res headed babies, egrets, and black crowned night herons. It’s too bad the pond has a bunch of tilapia in it because they outcompete any native fish that might want a home.

The next day was a trip out to Molokini Crater and then to Turtle Town. We took a lap around the Crater which was pretty cool because we got a good look at the cliffs and all the frigate birds and shearwaters that use the island as nesting grounds. I saw my first octopus in the wild, along with a lot of other cool animals. At Turtle town I saw a really cool starfish (linkia I think) and a huge sea cucumber as well as a juvenile turtle.

In the afternoon we headed to I’ao Valley to see all the native plants and the needle which is a cinder cone of greater density than the surrounding rock. Everything else has eroded away leaving this large monolith in the valley.

The next day the students have presentations on issues of interest for the Hawaiian islands like renewable energy, invasive species, habitat loss, and solid waste disposal. Very informative. The afternoon found us sailing away towards a little hidden snorkeling spot called Stonewall because there’s a little stone wall halfway up the cliffs. The lava fingers provided some cool topography.

As we head toward the last few day of the trip, I am tired but thankful for getting to be a part of this educational experience. There is hope for the world and it lies in the next generation!

The first five days of the trip were absolutely amazing and the second five days of the trip definitely didn’t disappoint. We went on 4 more snorkeling adventures, sailing to unique spots each time. The ocean animals amazed us at Honoloa Bay, Slaughterhouse Bay, Molikini, Turtle Town, and at a random lava finger reef near Turtle Town. We even got a boat captain to take us over to Lanai to snorkel. We were the only boat along the whole coast and it was the best coral cover I have ever seen.

I can’t figure out which spot was my favorite, as they all had some kind of unique quality. Honoloa Bay had too many fish to count, a turtle and manta ray cleaning station, and a school of something that made the reef look like a highway. Slaughterhouse Bay had more turtles and cornetfish changing colors. Molikini had a crown of thorns starfish and an eel that explored half the reef while we watched. Turtle town didn’t disappoint with the turtles. The random lava finger showed us a white-tipped reef shark in a cave and after we rolled off the side of our kayaks. Lanai was a coral covered paradise full of colors, more sharks, more fish, and no other snorkelers to bump into.

I wish that I had brought an underwater camera, but there’s no way a photo could capture the beauty of that underwater realm so I’ll just leave it to your imagination!

Other activities took us to Waihe’e ridge for a service project pulling invasive species and then planting native species. It was nice to give back to such a wonderful island and culture.

We investigated a midwater reef via an actual submarine. It was super cool exploring the shipwreck at 120 ft. More white-tipped reef sharks, rays, lots of fish, and coral with evidence of growth could be seen out the port windows.

One of the last adventures was to explore La Perouse Bay. This area is the most recent lava flow on the island and is rocky and desolate and absolutely beautiful. It has ruins from an old Hawaiian village right along the water line.

This trip was something special. It was eye-opening to be able to share it with the next generation, experiencing that awe and wonder all over again through their eyes. It’s also comforting to know that the next generation has an appreciation of our natural world. I hope they will help to save it!

I have the opportunity this year to help teach a marine biology class at school. Along with my coastal ecology JanTerm, this is the closest I’ve come to teaching something I’ve been trained for.

The class is a fairly unique chance for students to directly experience a subject. There are two weeks of on-campus learning that includes topics on oceanography, biology, marine biology, and Hawaiian Island geology and natural history. This is followed by a two week trip to Hawaii.

Yes I said a two week trip to Hawaii! I love my job!

While in Hawaii the students get to experience the natural world in truly hands-on fashion. We will be hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, going on boat rides, learning about the new biodiesel industry, exploring volcanoes, tidepooling, and wave analysis activities (i.e., surfing).

Day 1 included a short hike exploring the dry coastal hillside habitats. Students learned to make observations and identify plants. They practiced their journaling skills and shared information they learned previously about the plants they found. We picked up snorkeling gear in anticipation of our five snorkeling adventures. We also took a trip to the Maui Ocean Center. They have a fantastic aquarium set up with all local species and frequently rehabilitate organisms and return them to the ocean. They have a great collection of local sharks in their big tank.

It’s really great constantly hearing students brag about all the cool stuff they have learned.

Here’s to a good two weeks!

When we bought our house, one of the huge draws was the amazing sunroom connected to the living room and opening out onto the back patio. The sellers had it decorated with a nice comfy couch, rug, coffee table and a high top table to eat at. It looked like the perfect little nook and hang out area.

When we moved in we quickly realized that this “sunroom” did in fact have a lot of sun and in Georgia during the summer, that means it gets really hot. Correspondingly, in the winter it gets really cold. This really isn’t a result of the amount of sun the room gets, but rather that it isn’t connected to the house’s central air and isn’t sealed (i.e., we can literally see the sky at the corners where the brick meets the sunroom walls). The sunroom was in fact sealed up at some point, but the caulk has long since become brittle and broken away from the little nooks it was shoved into.

For us, the room turned into a spider and cockroach heaven and a place to keep some plants. Maybe if we were feeling industrious and the weather was nice we would clean up and play some games at the free table and chairs we had there. It wasn’t a horrible place when it was clean, but it just wasn’t being used.

We started tossing ideas around for remodeling when we realized that we had an extra full-sized couch coming our way that wouldn’t fit in the house proper. Those ideas spiraled into ideas of putting in new flooring, french doors, tearing out the walls, putting in skylights, etc… We were giddy with ideas.

Coming back to reality, we decided that we would start small and wanted to make sure that we actually use the space before we go all the way with remodeling. Picking up our couch and having a UHAUL rental for a couple of days, we took the brave step and made a bee-line for IKEA (love that place).

We put our free table and chairs and the old, but not horrible, couch we have had for years on craigslist and put them out at the curb for free. The table and chairs were gone in an hour. The couch is still there. Can’t really blame them. It’s not that fantastic.

Our newly picked up couch joined a new coffee table, rug, some lamps, curtains, a lot of caulk, and a couple of kitchen islands repurposed into a bar and we have a “new” sunroom!

Before

After – curtains and caulking still need to be done

After at Night

Now that we have gotten settled from all the holiday and school traveling, we have started focusing on the house. Well that’s kind of a lie… We actually got an energy audit done on the house before Thanksgiving and we’re just now dealing with the results.

Anyway… What is an energy audit? Well, it’s a comprehensive review of your house and it’s ability to maintain internal conditions (temperature and humidity). The goal is to identify aspects of your house’s construction or appliances that are deficient, defective, or costing you a lot to use and make repairs/replacements to lower your cost on energy and make your home more efficient. The best part about this process is that the power company encourages it and will give rebates (up to about $3000 for GeorgiaPower) if you can reduce your energy usage by certain amounts.

Our house is basically a leaky sieve with a 25 year old HVAC system and lots of awesome windows, so we knew there were plenty of things that needed some work. We decided to work with a local company that came with a glowing recommendation, Energy Conservation Solutions (ECS).

We worked with them through a 3-step process:

1. Initial energy audit – The crew comes to your house and assesses everything including weather stripping, appliances, large systems like HVAC and water heater, window sealing, fans, etc… They assess how well your house is sealed from the outside using a vacuum apparatus where they pump air out of your house and look at where air comes back in using a nifty little instrument that detects differences in temperature. They head back to their office and write up a detailed report, including pictures, and prioritize issues based on the easiest to fix vs. most energy gains if it is fixed. This includes an estimated cost of the work if they were to do it (you can also contract everything out if you want).
2. Do the work – We decided to have ECS do all the work for us because it was easy and we trusted the quality of work they would do. We had some extensive work done, including the installation of copious amounts of insulation in the attic space and a complete sealing off of our crawl space. The work took 3 days. The crew was great.
3. Re-assess – After all the work is completed ECS comes back to the house to re-test the house for energy improvements and sealing. They must notify Georgia Power in case it wants to send people to oversee. We were told they rarely show up, but we must be really lucky because not one, but two people showed up from Georgia Power. Under normal circumstances this process should only take about an hour, and then ECS will fill out all the paperwork and submit it to Georgia Power and a rebate comes in the mail. Easy peasy!

Unfortunately our special house failed the re-assessment. Now that the house is all nice and sealed up, part of the re-assessment is to make sure that our big systems (HVAC and water heater) can run properly and control their wastes (like carbon monoxide). To do this, they test them at maximal levels and then at normal use levels. Our water heater failed at both levels and our HVAC failed at the maximal level. So, before they were just old and now they’re a safety hazard. It wasn’t a surprise because they are 25 years old and this is why we were so adamant about extending our home warranty for three years. So now we have 60 days to get new major systems and submit paperwork to Georgia Power to get our rebate. Ouch! On the other hand, when we’re done with everything our house is going to be super duper energy efficient!

We have always been a relatively untraditional family, but our holidays still involve eating copious amounts of food and consuming too much liquor. Everything else we do is generally done so that we can “eat more later” or to “make up for what we’ve already eaten”.

We usually make an effort to get outside and do active things. This Christmas day we had a walkabout through the neighborhood. It just happens to be a block from the beach and it just happened to be a gorgeous day.

We set out with no plans, but came home three hours later with new nooks explored and a renewed appreciation for the sleepy little beach town of Morro Bay, California.

Some highlights included:

The duck pond at a housing tract right along the beach called the Cloisters. We learned that black coots have coot babies with fuzzy yellow heads (not pictured).

Gorgeous views of Morro Rock from the newly completed bike/walking path.

Surfers trying to catch little waves at the breakwater. Its hard to imagine that when the swells come through that the surf is huge!

A secret canopy of trees lining the path behind Morro Bay High School.

Other highlights not pictured include the derelict miniature golf course in front of the high school and random trees along the bike path that were decorated with ornaments.

What new treasures have you discovered on your walkabouts?