Oh, heck, it was just sitting here waiting to be taken.

Wow, five days, no posts? Yikes! Howdy, how is everyone? The San Juan Islands are beautiful, drop dead gorgeous. Umm, umm. How about the next West Coast F2F there?

On the subject of travel, and thinking ahead, various Buffistas have expressed the desire to get away during the holidays. Some might mean Christmas, some might mean Thanksgiving. I know it's only June, but, some places require lots of advance planning. Anyway, there's a little place I know on the Big Island of Hawaii that's right on the ocean and only $61/night. (Across the road is a time share condo complex where rooms are $160-250/night and they are land-locked.) I ran some figures through Travelocity, and their best package rate at a decent hotel in the same area + air + car minus the cost of 8 nights at this hotel left $950, if you follow. You can definitely get a flight and a car for less than $950. It's a great price.

So if you are interested in going to the Big Island over Thanksgiving, please drop me a line asap at profile addy. They have 3 rooms available from the 22nd to 30th (and anywhere in between) and 1 more from the 23rd to the 30th. All the rooms are doubles (queen/twin configuration) except one, IIRC. I’m probably going (my res. not included in the 4 rooms). I’ll be scuba diving probably most mornings/early afternoons, but will be kayaking, hiking, snorkeling, & traveling around at other times. If you’re a independent type who’d like to team up to share some activity expenses (like kayaking on Kealakakua Bay) and go out for some meals & drinks, we’d get along fine. They have unusual reservation policies, which is how they keep the cost down. Drop me an e to discuss.

AIEEE! You broke it! For the longest time, we had three threads all sitting on even thousands (this thread on 6000, UnAmerican on 7000 and Better Board on 8000).

t sulks in overly number-obsessive corner

er, sorry? I was away?

Hey, billytea, I saw Dall Porpoises, and sea lions, and some bird that was described as being a lower-48 penguin-y thing. Dang memory. It nests in little caves down near the water line on rocky coasts, has pink or red legs, kind of runs along the water while flapping furiously, gains flight but flies only a few feet off the water (the better to get lift from the downstroke of the wing)... hmm. I'm trying to remember if they had red beaks or not. Also a kind of oystercatcher with a red curved bill.

bt, I waved in your general direction twice today. Once as I passed through Philly, and once again as I passed through going the other direction.

What? It's travel related.

er, sorry? I was away?

t blows raspberry I shall not be appeased.

Hey, billytea, I saw Dall Porpoises, and sea lions, and some bird that was described as being a lower-48 penguin-y thing. Dang memory. It nests in little caves down near the water line on rocky coasts, has pink or red legs, kind of runs along the water while flapping furiously, gains flight but flies only a few feet off the water (the better to get lift from the downstroke of the wing)... hmm. I'm trying to remember if they had red beaks or not. Also a kind of oystercatcher with a red curved bill.

...Ok, maybe I will. The latter bird would be an avocet I think. Not sure about the penguiny thing. I'm thinking auks, skimmers, guillemots, that sort of thing. Was its lower bill longer than the upper? that's be a skimmer. (I like them, they're delightfully ungainly, and occasionally very optimistic about how big a fish their chicks can manage.)

Oh oh oh! Also, some rich taxidermist dudes imported African exotic ungulates to an island, went broke, and left the animals there. The good citizens of a neighboring island tried to round them up, many escaped, one animal flung itself into the water, they realized the animals were probably fine, and left them there. It's now 30 years later. So, I saw fallow deer, some other kind of deer, and the kind of ungulate where the males have the curved striped long horns.

Then, a native black-tailed deer flung itself into the water and swam from that island to one that seemed not very far away if you're in a boat, but looking at it as if I were swimming, seemed really far away. The entire crew of the boat had never seen anything like it. We stopped and watched until it landed and got out. WHEW! I was really worried. The water's, like 50 degrees, and deer do not paddle-effective feet. It was swimming pretty fast, though.

bt, I waved in your general direction twice today. Once as I passed through Philly, and once again as I passed through going the other direction.

Twice through in one day? Was it work-related, or a dare of some sort?

guillemots

That's it! Pigeon guillemots.

Also bald eagles all over the place. Being dive-bombed by smaller birds on several occasions.

a dare of some sort?

Sadly, no. Just a picking up of Realtive A from Relative B's home in ... er, Landenberg? and returning to Del.

Being dive-bombed by smaller birds on several occasions.

Gutsy little birds.