Memories of Hawaii

When we first arrived at the home in which we would be staying during our Hawaiian vacation, I noticed we had a perfect view of the ocean to the east.  I knew it would be a perfect vantage point for some amazing sunrises over the ocean.  

But our first night there, I was exhausted and crashed into bed at 10:00 p.m. (1:00 a.m. Utah time).  Then, you assume I would be able to rise early.  After all, 7:00 a.m. in Hawaii is 10:00 a.m. in Utah.  Well, I had a few mornings that I woke and glanced out the window at the sunrise, but I didn't get up.  I didn't go outside and get pictures.

It wasn't until Wednesday morning that I got up, got dressed, and headed down to the beach to get some pictures.  Photos still don't do the sight justice, but at least I tried.

Wednesday morning, Britt had made arrangements to take surfing lessons down in Hanalei Bay at 9:00 a.m.  That meant we needed to get ready for the day a little earlier than we had been.  Typically, we did not leave the house until around noon, and that was okay.  After all, we were on vacation.

I took advantage of the moment to get a picture of one of the beautiful views of the island:

Britt and Jeff before their lessons started (my camera has been having focus issues) 

listening to their instructor 

a panoramic shot of Hanalei Bay 

 practicing their stance

 Britt's got the "warrior" pose down

 the pier

 Britt was a natural

Sorry, Jeff.  I couldn't resist posting these pictures

 oops!

I joked with Britt that while he and Jeff took their lessons, Alisa and I were going to take off on our own with the jeep.  But then I decided to play paparazzi, taking a ton of pictures of them while they played (they said it was exhausting).  I think Alisa was just happy to soak up the sun.  It was a beautiful morning, with temperatures in the low 80's.  The surf instructor recommended the little taco stand for lunch, so Britt ordered a veggie burrito and I got the chicken quesadilla with cream cheese and jalapeno.  It was a bit spicy for my taste, so I ended up trading with him halfway through.

The rest of the day was open for plenty of options.  We could go snorkeling again.  We could go find another beach.  Take a hike.  We decided to find Secret Beach, a supposedly hidden oasis, not accessible from the road.  A beach and a hike.  It was worth it, too.  Those pictures later. . .

7 Days and 7 Nights in Hawaii

Sometimes I still can't believe it.

Even when I was there I couldn't believe it.  Hawaii is one of those places you dream of going someday --like Alaska, Becky ;)  And I was there, and I saw one of the youngest ecosystems on the planet, compared to the really old one I came from here in Utah.  It was all so much to take in.  Hawaii.

Several people told me Kauai was the island to see for scenery, and that was definitely true.  It was really beautiful there, with so many amazing beaches, as well as fun little communities, gorgeous waterfalls, and trees and plants that were so interesting.  I don't believe I really got a decent picture of the trees out there, and that makes me kind of sad.  Truthfully, I have a few regrets about things I didn't manage to see or do while we were there.  I guess that will just be my motivation to get out there again.  And I certainly did manage to take several pictures--almost 600, although several are action shots of Britt surfing; so, after I delete half of those, the number is probably around 400.

Just a few of those pictures:

 

These guys were hilarious.  They were playing in some pretty big waves.  Actually, they had the lifeguard pretty nervous, especially since Britt wasn't wearing his swimsuit, so he didn't know whether or not Britt could swim.  The lifeguard said swimmers have broken their spines when hit by a pretty massive wave.  Apparently, one year when Jeff and Alisa were in Hawaii, they spent a bit of time in the emergency room, because he broke his collarbone playing in the waves.  So, we definitely believe in the power of strong waves.

It was a little bit ironic that after telling us the story of Jeff visiting the emergency room on a previous trip to Hawaii, we ended up taking him to the dentist on Martin Luther King Day for an emergency root canal.  That guy doesn't seem to have the best luck when traveling.

But it gave us an opportunity to view this lighthouse--such a gorgeous sight (yes, this is the same lighthouse I posted earlier, just a different picture of it)

An interesting cave

The real flowers look just like the fake ones you can buy as souvenirs 

At A'ni'ni Beach, Britt took me snorkeling

 Aren't we a cute couple?

I didn't know if I would enjoy snorkeling.  It seemed like it would be awkward.  I hate swallowing sea water, and all that.  But it was actually really enjoyable.  I had a few moments when I took my mask off and ended up with a ton of salt water in my eyes, but if I hadn't messed around with the mask, I probably would have been fine.  Britt is a stronger swimmer, so I held onto his ankle and he pulled me along.

For a long time, we were just looking at sand and a little bit of coral, with a few tiny fish.  And then suddenly, we were swimming right over a sea turtle.  It didn't seem at all bothered that we were following it.  We swam directly over it for quite a while.  Then, we decided to head back, and we came across another sea turtle, just hanging out below us.  That was a pretty awesome experience, I thought.

One of the nice things about our trip to Hawaii is that we had no set agenda, no list of things we had to do.  We had a few things we were interested in doing and seeing, but there was no pressure or rush to do any of it.  We just mostly went with the flow, and that was really nice.

And every other moment, Britt and I would say to each other, "Our kids would really love this."  Some day. . .

A few pictures from our Hawaii trip

I will compose a real post (or a few) about Hawaii some time this week.

I guess I am still recovering from my vacation.

:)

One of the waterfalls we visited; we wanted to hike down to the pool, but we were told we could get fined for trying

Tree tunnel road.  This picture was taken as I stood up in a moving jeep (with the soft top removed). 

Isn't he cute?  He was a big guy.  I swam with a couple of these guys later in the week.

See the monk seal just leaving the beach.  Apparently, they have lots of very sharp teeth.  You should not try to pet a monk seal.  You can get in a lot of trouble. 

The roosters ruled the island 

 Kilauea Lighthouse was really pretty

One of many, many gorgeous beaches (we didn't even visit all of them there).

Soooo tired, in a good way.

Hawaii is, in a word, spectacular.

I have so many more pictures to share with you. You may have heard the scenery here is amazing? Yes. Oh, yes. So amazing, beautiful, phenomenal. My photos do not even come close to doing it justice. I will share a few with you later, though. I promise.

What have we done so far? Snorkeling. Driving. Some hiking. Waterfalls. Hanging at the beach. Taking lots of pictures. Reading. Watching movies. Laughing. It's a fun bunch we are here with. I don't know everyone's full names. We just met most of them. We were invited by Jeff and Alisa Nielson. The rest of our party are friends and hunting buddies of Jeff: Mike and Kellie Roring, Doyle and Carin, Torry and Kathy Brock, Court King and Gina, and Olin and Jacki.

We attended church on Sunday. The first of the two talks given was excellent. She likened going on a vacation without using smart phones or other guides to plan ahead and make informed choices about where to eat and what to do; to going through our lives without seeking and following revelation. You just end up going to whatever you see, kind of aimlessly, and often your experience will be hit or miss. Why take the risk, when those tools (revelation) are available to us, she said. It made a lot of sense. So nice how the church is true everywhere. It was a lovely way to start our week here.

Yesterday, we saw some waterfalls, looked for a couple lighthouses, drove to a couple different beaches, through a tree tunnel, and saw a sea turtle on the shore. Today, we saw a monk seal on the beach outside our back yard. I got pictures before it swam back into the ocean. Part of our party (no, it wasn't Britt) got a little too close to the seal and were soon informed by a wildlife protection volunteer that there is a $25,000 fine if you are caught in close proximity to a monk seal. You must be at least 25 yards away from a monk seal and even more than that away from a sea turtle. Good to know. We don't need any more fines, do we, Britt?

We spent some time sitting in the sun. Then we took Jeff to the only dentist we could find open during the Martin Luther King holiday. He needed a root canal. He has been miserable since we got here. While he was getting drilled, Britt, Alisa and I enjoyed a yummy lunch at a tasty bistro in Kilauea. We also got to check out a lovely lighthouse down there, and do a bit more whale watching.

We headed on over to Princeville, where we checked into the zip line tour there. On then to Hanalei, looking into surf lessons. Down. To Tunnels Beach. We investigated a few other beaches along the way. Just so you know, the North Shore of Kauai is freaking gorgeous. Really, really gorgeous. The scenery, the towns, the homes. We are definitely looking forward to spending more time up there.

Life here is good. Yes, I am tired. It is a good kind of tired. So good.

Aloha from Hawaii

We are having a lovely time here in beautiful Hawaii. Last night I fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing in this ocean. Last night I was so tired if the only sound I heard was the roosters crowing (they are everywhere here), I still would have fallen asleep quickly and slept soundly. But it really is wonderful to be here. It is such a unique experience. Let me see if I can explain.

Friday, our plane arrived in Lahue, Kauai around 3:00 p.m. We were on that plane nearly seven hours! And you know what? It was actually one of the most pleasant flights I have ever been on. I didn't try to sleep; I usually feel worse after sleeping on a plane, and I really didn't need to, anyway. The first picture here was taken when our plane was flying over the North Shore of the island of Oahu. I am looking forward to spending one day on that island before we leave Hawaii. I would like to see Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Culture Center and maybe even the temple there.

When we arrived here, we were three hours ahead of the rest of our party, so we went ahead and picked up the rental car and went to dinner. The rental car company refused to honor the online reservation Jeff Nielson had made for us, so we ended up being charged $140 extra. It was kind of crazy the way they refused to budge.

But dinner was divine! Duke's was definitely a restaurant worth visiting. The view was fabulous and food was seriously tasty. I mean perfectly prepared fresh fish and a tasty salad bar, how could we go wrong?

Second dinner that night was good as well. We had fish tacos and curry chicken at a little stand called the Mermaid's Tail. We ate around 9:00 here, which you may know is midnight Utah time. The portions were huge, and the fish tacos were plenty spicy. Needless to say, we did not eat much. But it was delicious.

We arrived at the beach home where we are staying (Britt only got a little bit lost) a little before 10:00. Then, everyone hung out a while and visited. Everyone except me. I crashed big time. I didn't feel bad; just amazingly exhausted. But also, so happy to be here.

Today, Britt cooked us an excellent breakfast. He and some others in our crew left early this morning to buy groceries. Then, we headed back into town (Lihue--there are other towns around here, but Lihue is the big one). We spent a decent amount of time there, bought way more food than we will need for the week, and then made our way back here.

We stopped at a little flea market here and Jeff bought some barbeque chicken. Moist and flavorful. But the guy he bought it from was kind of a character, going on and on about how Hawaii is in a revolution, and they are fighting to get their land back, the kingdom of Hawaii, he called it. He was offended when Jeff asked if he could have the chicken for $5 instead of $6. Apparently, Hawaii is not like Mexico. I think they are offended there if you don't try to wheel and deal on the price.

Just now, we watched a crazy entertaining football game, and now some of us are napping, some are snorkeling in the cove right outside our back door, and I have been watching the whales jumping in the distance.

It is amazing here.

What do you do when your flight to Hawaii is over booked and you don't have a guaranteed seat?

And it's Friday the thirteenth. Could be pretty unlucky. If you are me, you wait while everyone boards, hoping someone will upgrade to First Class, leaving a seat for you, or that someone will surrender their ticket, take the $500 flight voucher and fly out the following day.

Almost the whole flight had boarded when the airline gave me the last ticket available on the flight. I flew first class (at no extra charge).

What do you do when you take your seat and the pilot comes out and invites any first class passengers who wish, to check out the 747 cockpit and bring your camera phones?

Well, if you're me, you are still feeling out of your element, in first class about to be on the way to Hawaii, so you panic and you can't decide if you should stand up, and you miss the opportunity.

Ugh.

But, Aaaaah! I am in Hawaii!

(Flying first class was awesome, by the way)

Rachel's Christmas Party

I thought it would be fun to post pictures from the Christmas party Rachel threw on December 16th.  She had 8 friends over, plus Tyler and Olivia. We had a lot of fun, playing games, singing songs and making cornflake Christmas wreaths. I took more pictures, but I don't know if all those girls' parents would like to have pictures of their kids posted on the Internet.

Here is the recipe for the cornflake Christmas wreaths:

1/2 cup butter
30 large marshmallows
1 1/2 tsp green food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups cornflakes cereal
2 Tbsp cinnamon red hot candies

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the food coloring, vanilla and cornflakes.

Quickly drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper and form into a wreath shape with lightly greased fingers. Immediately decorate with red hot candies. Allow to cool to room temperature before removing from waxed paper and storing in an airtight container.


I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. I would share a link, but I don't know how to do that with my iPad. We doubled the recipe for this occasion, and we greased the girls' hands by spraying them with Pam non-stick spray. We also added some silver sprinkles. I think it would also be fun to tie a piece of licorice rope to make a bow.

It was a fun party, but it went way too late for my taste. Rachel is a social butterfly, but she doesn't really like staying up late, either. By 10:00 p.m. some of the girls were rowdy and silly and others (namely my youngest two) were tired and grumpy.

I am just practicing posting on my iPad, because if I post at all in the next several days it will be this way. I am on my way to Hawaii in two days. As I said, there are no guarantees that I will post, but we will have to see.


POST EDIT:  I got the date wrong the first time I posted this.  It was the 16th, not the 23rd.  It didn't seem right to me that we had so much going on that night.  Well, we didn't.  The party was actually a week before Christmas Adam.  And it went until 10:00, not 9:00.  No wonder we were so tired!  Especially after I drove everyone home afterward.

Oh, and speaking of my easily tired darling Rachel.  She was invited to a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house.  They had all kinds of fun activities going on there, but she fell asleep.  It took a lot of effort, but they were able to rouse her just before midnight to celebrate the New Year!  Sweet, sleepy girl!