Black Sand Beach and a Natural Hot Tub

This Puna area road is known as "the red road." It's no longer red, but it is lovely.

This one lane road leads to a park popular with surfers...and it also contains this little geothermal hot pool:
It's a natural hot tub!

Part of the same park. It's Isaac Hale Beach Park.

Later we stopped at Mackenzie State Park. This is such a lovely place...we rested and sunned ourselves in a lovely pine grove at the top of these steep cliffs, and listened to the surf pounding the rocks.

You can camp here, but if you are a sleepwalker, I'd advise against it...it's a long way down!

Later we walked over a new lava field to a beautiful black sand beach.

Life is good.

Puna on Dwellable

Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii

Down at the end of the street is the ocean...and such a beautiful place. And breezy too, as you can see!

The colors of the water amaze me. I could sit here for hours...I think if I lived here, I'd find it hard to get anything done. Of course I could draw or write as I sit here. That's getting something done, right?


Walking on the lava rock to get to the spot to view the current flow entering the sea.


Here it is by day.

And here is a video of it at night. Click and watch...it's really spectacular!

Volcano on Dwellable

We're on the island of Hawaii...

housesitting for Ted..which of course means he was sweet to let us use his house as our own. This morning we ate fresh fruit that he left for us for breakfast. I had never had the spiky fruit before..rambutan. Peel the skin off and they look like big grapes, and taste even better!

The view out the front door. They have a tiny little frog here that makes a lot of noise, but I rather like it!

After a relaxing morning laying around eating fruit and deciding what to do today, we headed into Hilo. To me it felt like were were getting a late start, but actually it was still pretty early! The five hour time difference was working with us at this point!

Hilo is a charming little town, and has just about everything you could need...even a nice art store.

Joe getting ready to check out a store that has snorkeling supplies.

Then we headed north and took a very scenic drive...it seems there was a waterfall at every curve in the road.

Alakahi Trail led us to this beautiful spot. Onomea Bay.

Here we are trying to take a photo of ourselves as we walk to Akaka Falls. We aren't as good at the arm length photo thing as the kids are....might have something to do with the fact that you look a lot better at arm's length when you are still in your teens!


Akaka Falls...so beautiful!
While in Hilo we bought these prints by Eide Hansamut. I love them. Joe seems to be fondest of the middle one with the beautiful lady. As always, you can click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Now it's raining like you wouldn't believe! Hope this post makes sense....it's only 9:40 here, but my body still thinks it's 2:40am!

Ninole on Dwellable

Unexpected Vacation and More Socks!

Well, I finished Kylie's socks awhile back, and while she was home on spring break she picked them up.

I guess she likes them...goofy girl!

And this makes me so happy and excited I can hardly see straight!

Check out the Etsy shop of Ted Schrey

The strangest things happen on the world wide web. Many moons ago, in college, I dated a very nice young man. Now we are friends again through the amazing web that is facebook. After many years in the corporate world, Ted is living on the Big Island of Hawaii and is making beautiful stained glass pieces. He has a new Etsy shop that he (unlike me!) is keeping stocked with wonderful artwork.


I love the use of copper in the stands and frames.



I think he has something at every price point too...so you can own a small Ted Schrey piece or very large complex pieces.

Here are a few hanging in a gallery in Hawaii.

I've never seen one of these pieces in person, but Ted is pretty particular, so I'm sure the craftsmanship is beautiful. The coral and watery glass in this one...perfect.

Ted is also a painter, writer, and furniture builder. Hopefully we will see some paintings on his site soon. If we are lucky he might even start a blog one day.

If you need something special, he does custom work as well. Click here to check out his latest work...

...undoubtedly inspired by the beauty he encounters every day.

The White House

Last weekend we wanted to get away...Joe asked me to line up some help at the shop and we took off. I didn't know where we were going until we stopped in the little town of Rensselaer, IN. This is one of the towns we are going to bike through this fall on our trip across Indiana. Did I mention that we are planning to bicycle from Pontiac to Fort Wayne? Well we are!


Joe thought we could check out The White House on Park Avenue. We are definitely going to stay there in the fall. It's a beautiful old home....well kept with very nice guest rooms.

We stayed in a room called the cottage retreat. I want this room for our trip too, because I think my muscles will be screaming for a whirlpool bath after biking all day.

This home has only had three families own it since it was built. The current owners, Fred and Sally, are innkeepers as well as professors at St. Joseph's College. They are wonderful hosts and great cooks too!

We went down the road to Lafayette for dinner. Joe thought I'd like that....kinda nostalgic since I lived there while I was going to Purdue. Lafayette has one of those great old Indiana limestone courthouses and a vibrant downtown. There's been a lot of restoration going on the last 25 years and it looks great.


I love these sculptures on a corner in Lafayette. They are by Linda Vanderkolk and Roy Patrick.

The backside makes me laugh....look at the derriere on her....it's perfect!

Nashville on Dwellable

Small Town Girl in Chicago: Main Street Conference

I spent the last four days in Chicago attending the National Main Street conference...it was fun, tiring and I learned a lot about downtown revitalization. I always like going into the city....plenty of great architecture to check out. We stayed at the Palmer House Hilton. The last time I was in this hotel, it was elegant, but in need of attention. Since then, it has undergone a beautiful restoration...it's a lovely old hotel.

Here's folks filtering in to the opening session. There were about 1600 in attendance.



The lobby has such a beautiful ceiling and a great atmosphere.


Here's my friend Lori walking past the bean...er, Cloud Gate.

This is one of my favorite Chicago buildings...the old library, now the Chicago Cultural Center. This dome is by Healy and Millet.

Preston Bradly Hall in the Cultural Center is completely covered in the most beautiful mosaics, all lit by a huge (the world's largest) Tiffany dome and Tiffany light fixtures (not in the photo, but trust me, they are fabulous!). They don't build them like this anymore.


Lots of great public art in Chicago....taking a walk is a pleasure even on one of those cold Chicago days. As soon as it warms up a little I want to go back up to do some drawing in the city...I have to go alone or with another sketcher when I do that because no one else wants to sit still long enough to draw.

And when I came home I found the orchid on my kitchen window sill is blooming again...it must like it there. Brightens my day to see this in the morning!

Chicago on Dwellable