Tsunami? What Tsunami?

Thursday night we were up all night watching the news of Japan's earthquake and listening to the local tsunami sirens go off every hour. It was quite exciting listening to the news reporters talk about the wave that was heading directly to our little island. When the sirens started, we noticed a lot of our neighbors getting into their cars to go who-knows-where, even though we are in a safe zone. I think they were heading for the grocery store since the news reporters kept stressing the need to have at least a week's worth of food on hand.

Joey was a little afraid and wanted to spend the night in our room. We all watched TV until the wee hours. The tsunami was expected to hit Kauai around 3:00 a.m.

I fell asleep before anything happened other than the sirens.

About 4:00 a.m. our phone started ringing, a couple of people from the mainland (where it was later) asking if we were okay.

We were fine.

I thought maybe things would be interesting at work on Friday. I wondered if I'd do ER-type work. I wondered if I'd even be able to get to work since the road there goes right along the beach.

Well, the drive was totally normal. The road was totally normal. Then work was totally normal. The strangest thing about the tsunami was that it didn't seem to hit Kauai at all, at least from my point of view.

So it turned out to be kind of fun, because we had all the excitement with none of the bad stuff. Kauai is still heaven on earth!

Flat James

We love having visitors from the mainland, and we've had quite a few lately. One of our very special visitors was Flat James. He is my nephew, who is related to my other nephews James, Aaron, and Alex. Flat James arrived via the US Mail and we're enjoying his visit very much.

Here is Flat James at the Kileauea wildlife sanctuary, looking at pictures of whales. He did get to see real whales, too.

Our condo has a pool, where Flat James loved to sun-bathe.

Here is Flat James enjoying the water. He didn't have a swimming suit, so he had to swim in his clothes, but he didn't mind.

One day, I took Flat James to work with me. He helped me care for my patients, including this cute little girl.

Back at the Kilauea Lighthouse.

Sorry the pictures are out of order, but while Flat James was at work with me, he felt a little sick so we put him on the monitors, but he was fine, just a little Island Fever.

Flat James went with us to a luau. The hula dancers thought he was so cute!

These boys did the Imu Ceremony and Flat James helped them.

Flat James loved the playground at Lydgate Park. He played all day.

We have been to the beach several times since Flat James arrived, but, for some reason, he never goes with us. I think he's afraid of the water. Once we can talk him into going to the beach, he will be ready to return to the mainland to tell his school class all about his Hawaiian adventures!