More Pics From Waimanalo

I managed to pull the pics off of my cell phone so this post is dedicated to the 3 pics that I took. They actually turned out pretty nice so I have to say I'm proud of my little phone, it did well :)

Waimanalo Bay And Great Shave Ice!

On Sunday 6 of us went to Waimanalo Bay on the East shore of Oahu to check out the beach. We had been planning on going the previous Wednesday but ended up just hanging around looking at pics on the internet. Ben was searching online while Juanita and I were practicing Salsa dancing on the balcony (she rocks, I suck) when he made us take a look at some fantastic photos. There before us was what looked like an unspoiled beach, 2 miles long, where hardly any tourists (the plague of the earth) ever visited because they always get off the bus too soon at Hanauma and Sea Life Park.
We plotted and planned to make it on Saturday for a full day of beach going. Life doesn't ever work out how you want it though, and after a rather wild impromptu dance party at Jasmine's apartment on Friday night where there was lap dancing (much to James's joy) and cheese crackers falling from the heavens onto our lanai, no one was in any kind of condition to wake up early. Particularly not Ben, Rob, Jennifer and I because we'd gone swimming at 3am in our undies in Waikiki. We didn't think it was necessary to take the time to run to our separate apartments to change into our swimsuits. Can you blame us?
Saturday was spent with Rob and Ben running around between Sam's Club (great cheap pizza!!), Ritz Camera, and some other random stores in search of a camera for Ben. He had to have one before we went to Waimanalo so finally we found a really nice Fuji, he bought it, and we went swimming at Ala Moana Beach Park right across the street from the mall. Ok, bad idea. The water was warm but it was really dirty with a ton of algae and mossy gunk floating around. This is because there is a man-made wall of rock and sand that breaks the waves so nothing crashes on shore to wash the gunk away. We soon tired of it and took the bus back home.
Later that night a large group of us decided to have movie night as an alternative to going to the Hano Hano room at the Sheraton Waikiki. The club is called Skyline and incredibly worth the $15 cover you pay to get in, but most of us were broke and didn't feel like partying after the previous night so we rented the Lake House, bought Haagen Daazs, french fries, and Oreo cookie shakes and settled down for a nice relaxing night.
On Sunday morning we got up bright and early (10am) and sallied forth to the beach. The bus ride wasn't that long, about 45min, and when we got there it was warm with clear skies and a beautiful white beach with turquoise water awaited us. I took pictures with my camera but I've had some trouble pulling them off. Hopefully I can manage to do it and post them here because the pics I do have are all from later in the day.
All six of us made a rush for the water and floated around, dunking each other, splashing, and doing handstands until we got tired. I went to sit down and read and ended up waking up about 30min later and everyone had wandered down the beach without me! They came back pretty quickly though and we decided that plate lunch was in order. There was a tiny hole in the wall about 20min away so we walked over there and ordered pure fat for lunch. But oh! What good tasting fat it was! Then, being the pigs we are, we ordered shave ice. I had lilikoi, coconut, and pineapple with vanilla macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. Jen had kona koffee ice cream only, Rob had exactly what I had (copy cat), and Ben had some nasty lime and lilikoi concoction that was waaaay too sweet for me.
After stuffing ourselves to the gills, the four of us went back, but this time to Waimanalo Beach Park. It's closer than Waimanalo Bay and we were too full to waddle back to the bay. We'd ended up losing Ping (Jennifer's roommate) and Chen-yu (Rob and Ben's roommate) after food which was too bad because Waimanalo is beautiful in the evening. The water was still warm at 5pm and we played king of the sandbar. There was a little sandbar under the water and each side sloped off into deeper water (we were still about chest deep even on the sandbar) so we (Rob and I) decided to fight it out. I ended up calling a truce and promising him half the bar but he tried to trick me in to shaking his hand so he could judo throw me off the sand. I wasn't stupid enough to fall for it :)
The last bus went home at 6.40pm so we had to cut our visit short. We showered off in the cold, clean water that feels so good after the ocean, changed, and hopped on the bus. It was such a fantastic day and the beach was so great that I know we're going to head back.
Living in Hawai'i has been one of the best decisions of my life! I've met so many incredible people, made great friends, and I've seen so so much of the island in just under 2 months. I can't believe that I've already been here for that amount of time, it just doesn't seem real yet that I live in Hawai'i. Hawai'i!!! I live here! Jennifer, Cristie and I always say that, almost on a daily basis. None of us can believe that we're living in paradise and we feel like we're the luckiest people on the planet :)

Stupid Camera

My camera has been acting up so I went today to Best Buy to have them fix it. It is now on its way via the mail somewhere out to the wild blue yonder where hopefully it will be retrieved, fixed, and sent back to my loving arms. Apparently I've over-loved it and it needed a well-deserved spa vacation.
Basically this means that I must rely on other people's cameras to take pictures and hope that they let me rip them off their computers to post here on the blog. I do apologize for the brief pause of pictures since it's going to take a minimum of 2 weeks to either fix or replace my camera.
Tomorrow I'm going to Waimanalo Bay to swim and run around on the beach. I'll keep everyone updated on how things are going. Hope you're all doing well!

Kapena Falls

Last Saturday (I always seem to do things on Saturdays) a very large group, about 12 of us, went to Kapena Falls. We left in the afternoon and hopped on the bus. As usual our trip to get where we were going was not that short. We got to downtown Honolulu and waited for our bus connection for about 30min until we realized that the #4 bus didn't pick up at our bus stop. We called TheBus and they told us to walk down 2 blocks and then up 1. We did and then had to wait for another 50min because we'd just missed our bus by about 10min. Whoops.
When we finally got on our bus, the bus driver asked one of the guys where we were headed. So he told him a waterfall and the bus driver said that there are no waterfalls where we were headed. There really is but we decided that he was just keeping the "tourists" from finding a really good spot. This waterfall, you just wouldn't know it was there because it's in such an odd place. We went up Nuuanu Ave. past a rather large cemetery, until we saw the Honolulu Community Church. That was our stop. Everyone piled off the bus and followed Ben and Rob down the driveway of the church until they abruptly stepped off of it into a wood compost heap, then continued on through a ton of underbrush. I can tell you that everyone was thinking "where the hell are you taking us??"
Then we arrived at a chain link fence with a hole just big enough in it for us to squeeze through. I threw down my backpack and climbed through only to be confronted with a rather steep embankment with lots of sneaky vines and roots that grabbed at my feet while I tried to go down. I finally made it and we tromped through a lot more brush until we saw it up ahead.
The waterfall itself isn't very big, just a grouping of rocks with water that flows down the sides. There is also a huge pool right underneath it and it's really really hard to touch bottom. If you're facing the waterfall there is a 40ft wall of rock that is right above the pool that you can throw yourself off of into the water.
Immediately everyone stripped off their clothes down to their swimsuits and ran up the steep side of the hill to get to the top of the jumping rock. Well, everyone except for me and 2 other girls. We decided to wait it out and see how we felt about jumping because it was really high. I'm rather terrified of heights if I know I have to jump them so I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it off the rock. The feeling of dropping in my stomach is not pleasant and neither is the rush of adrenaline because it makes me feel rather icky. Adrenaline in an exciting situation, good! Adrenaline in a scary jumpingoffrockstomydeath situation, bad.
I ended up taking pictures of everyone and their mother jumping off and pretty soon I decided to climb up and see what all the hype was about. This was my first mistake. I got to the top and I realized just how high it was. You see it didn't look that bad from the bottom so I figured maybe I really could get up, not look over, run, and make a speactacular flying leap out into the abyss before gracefully landing in the water below. HAHAHA! Yea right. I crept to the edge and looked over. That was my second mistake. While I was standing there looking over, one of the guys launched himself off and I had to watch him all the way down. The fall was so long that he had time to flail his arms around like a frightened bug before he splashed down. I backed off very quickly and spent about 10min wrestling with my better judgement about jumping until it won out and I climbed back down the side of the hill to jump off of a tamer rock about 8ft high.
The rest of the day was spent swimming in the pool, watching people jump off the rock, watching people use the rope swing and swing super high then drop doing flips and dives, and sitting in the waterfall. Like I said earlier, it was pretty small but powerful. Some of the guys were sitting in it letting it run down over them and they invited me to give it a try. They helped me down and told me where to sit, insisted that I lie back into the water, and in the process I almost lost my bikini top and bottoms! The water was really strong flowing over the rocks and when it hit my body it was with a lot of downward force. Downward force + bikini = potential disaster. I was holding on for dear life and after a while I decided that a show would be inappropriate so I got out ;)
One of the girls, Jennifer, showed up a little later. She decided that she would give the giant rock a chance and climbed up to the top. By the time Jasmine, Colby, Ben and I left about 30min later, she was still up there debating the wisdom of her idea.
After we left, we decided that the four of us were dying of starvation so it was time to go get some grub. Plate lunch sounded good so we went to Rainbow, a little hole-in-the-wall that serves the best plate lunch you'll ever have. For those of you that have never heard of/eaten plate lunch it's the most fattening thing you'll eat in a while. It's 2 scoops of white rice, a ton of macaroni salad swimming in mayo, and whatever fried/bbq'd/cooked meat you wanna eat with it. I had the mahi mahi and by the time I was done I could hardly move. However, Ben decided that all we needed now was a malasada to top things off. He then proceeded to drag us about 25min more down the street to Leonard's bakery.
Malasadas are kind of hard to explain if you've never eaten one but I'll try. They're like little round puffs of donut dough with custard filling, fried, and then rolled in granulated sugar. They have different fillings or they can just be that dough fried alone, but they're good. Oh So GOOD. And they're cheap, about 80 cents each! Needless to say I could only eat one after that huge fried meal. It was a good thing that we had a niiice long walk ahead of us before we made it home or I would've felt like even more of a pig than I did :)

Bubba Gump's

I just thought I'd post these pics because I think they're really cute and we had a really good time at Bubba Gump's last week. The 5 of us went and it was my first time eating there. Yes, I know there's one right in Monterey but you see, I'd never really had the inclination to visit it. So after getting a lot of crap from the guys about "Oh my gosh, you've never been to Bubba Gump's?!" we went. It was pretty good actually, I had a fried fish sandwich with a pile of french fries while Jennifer and Ben ate a whole 1 1/2 lbs. of peel and eat shrimp. Chen-yu couldn't eat shrimp because he's allergic but Rob had a plateful. Jennifer also had this drink, I think it was a mango lava flow or something like that and it was really really yummy looking. It's great living in paradise where the fish is fresh and the drinks are tropical. Everyone should come visit me!!!

Sandy's Beach

I got a random message in the middle of the day yesterday from Ben asking me if I wanted to go to Hanauma Bay for a little snorkeling. Even though I don't have any equipment to snorkel with I was easily convinced. Come to think of it, I'm always easily convinced when it comes to going out and having a good time :) I threw my towel and a bunch of stuff in a bag, headed down to their room, collected them, and we were on our way.
The bus ride wasn't that long but all of a sudden we heard "Sandy's Beach" announced over the loudspeaker. We got off the bus and I was told that we had missed our connection, sort of, and we could either walk back and grab a bus to Hanauma Bay, or we could hang out at Sandy's and ride the waves for a little while. I was all for riding the waves so we switched our trip to Hanauma to Sunday and walked to the beach.
As we were on our way, Ben and Rob took the opportunity to scare the you-know-what out of me by giving me all these tips about getting smashed around by waves, what to do if I got washing-machined (rolled under a huge wave near shore around and around, over and over, etc), and how to avoid breaking my neck, back, or other essential body parts. Apparently the beach we were going to has the highest rate of back and neck injuries on the whole island when the waves are high. Thankfully enough, the waves were incredibly tame in comparison to what they usually are.
To get out in the water I had to wrestle a few breaking waves but it wasn't as hard as it could've been. Once I was out there I just waited for the waves to come and roll under me. One minute I was touching the sand, the next a huge swell would pick me off my feet and I'd be floating like I was on air. The water was so clean and you could see the sand and bits of dead coral and small stones underneath you very clearly. I wish my digital camera had a waterproof casing because those would've been some amazing shots.
After floating around for a little bit, I looked towards shore and noticed I'd drifted pretty far to the left towards those rocks pictured above. However I was nowhere near them so I was still safe. But then, then all of a sudden I realized that I was really close to shore and that the water was getting shallow. So I stood up intending to make it back out to the deeper part of the ocean but I was looking straight out at a rather large breaking wave that was about to smash me to pieces. This wave was too large to stand against and it was way too shallow for me to go under it face first, so my only option was to lie down flat and get ready to rumble. I had about a fraction of a second for these thoughts to go through my mind so I threw myself down, held my breath and was totally enveloped in said wave. If you look at the picture with the rocks again and notice that rolling crashing mass of water and sand, that's what I got caught up in except it was a little higher and more violent. I got totally washing-machined, my arms were flung out to make sure I didn't smack my face on the sand or break my neck, and I basically got a skin resurfacing from being rolled across the beach underwater. Nice. When it ended, I tried to stand up and make a run for the shore but the current was pulling me backwards too fast. I managed to crawl to my knees only in time to see yet another wave coming straight at me. So I figured I'd play dead again and pray that this ride ended soon. This time I got really smooshed against the sand and the washing machine cycle took a little longer. When I finally was done getting all close and personal with the underwater beach I stood up, glanced behind me, saw another wave coming, and ran like hell! I managed to make it to shore this time without getting sucked back but my neck hurt, my hair was a rat's nest, and I was covered from head to foot in sand. I had sand where sand had no right to be!
If you take a close look at this photo, maybe open it in another window, read the signs and get a good laugh.
When the boys were done riding the waves we hit the showers to rinse off. That cold water had never felt soooo good as it did when I rinsed off the little grains that were stuck to me all over. I didn't get everything but I'd managed to make myself presentable for dinner. By this time we were all starving so we decided that a run to the Kona Brew Pub in Hawai'i Kai was a fantastic idea, which it ended up being.
Kona Brew Pub is right on the bay of water with a small boat harbour out in front, tiki torches lining the outdoor deck, and the mountains with a great sunset in the background. We ordered,pigged out on their food which was incredibly good, and then proceeded to demolish a dessert! If anyone comes out this way, I highly recommend the restaurant.
We must've killed a good 2 hours at the place talking, laughing, stuffing our faces. I got up in the middle to go use the restroom (yes this has a point) and when I pulled down my bikini bottoms I heard a splat. This was confusing in itself so when I looked down to see the problem, a pile of sand had dropped out. I'm talking at least 2 cups worth of sand had been stored in my bottoms all the way from when I got munched in the water to a couple of hours later at the restaurant. How did I not know it was there?!
Here I am with Rob enjoying my food, drink, and the warm, tropical breeze blowing...Jealous yet? Haha! You can kind of see the boats in the background and the tiki torches lining the deck. Close to when we were getting ready to leave they started up some live music inside and left the doors to the deck open so we could hear it.
It was a great ending to a great day once again, and the headache I have now still can't spoil it :)

Dancing at the W

Last weekend on Saturday a large group of us decided that all we wanted in the world was a night of dancing. So we spent the week before getting stuff like dresses, makeup, shoes, purses, and jewelry all so we could be the hottest bunch there. I must say we didn't look too shabby!
From left to right: Jennifer, Elisabeth, her boyfriend (forgot his name), Anders, and James. We stole a reserved table and used it to relax inbetween shaking our butts on the dance floor because all that dancing got a little tiring!



Then we have Cristie, Chad, James (again, sneaky), Emma, myself, and Ray. We ended up with another guy by the end of the evening but I can't remember his name either because I only met him once the entire night.
The W Hotel is quite a ways from the main area of Waikiki where we live so we had to take the bus. At first I voted for walking because according to Yahoo! Maps it was only a 1/2 mile walk. Well that was a lie. It was really really far, definitely not walking distance and especially not in shoes. Then it started to downpour so we called for a cab which took too long to get there, so we ended up just getting on the bus to save time. We also managed to get into the club for $10 even though it was after 10pm and the cover was supposed to go up to $15.
Here is a picture of Cristie, myself, and above mentioned random Finnish guy. I was convinced by her to rock the red lipstick but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. When Jennifer and I went downstairs to Ben and Rob's room for a male opinion of our outfits, Ben asked us if we were looking to get hired for the evening. Nice guy :) Personally I don't think anyone looked that trashy, we just wanted to get cute and have a good time (which we did)!
The first hour or so we were at the club it was pretty quiet and they were playing low-key house music. Then around 11.30pm the whole place just filled up and the dance floor was so crowded we could hardly move! You can kind of get an idea of the way things were from this photo.
We all ended up staying there till last call and closing time at 2am. Then the hike home began, and wow what a hike! As I mentioned we took the bus there, but at 2am there were no busses running from that direction back to Waikiki. I walked back with Emma and Elisabeth and about 1/4 of the way there I'd had enough with my heels. I took them off and walked barefoot all the way back. This was problematic because it had rained earlier in the evening so there were puddles and small rocks strewn everywhere. My feet hurt soooo bad during the walk, after the walk, and even the next morning!!! Next time I'm gonna make sure I have a date that will carry me when I start to hurt.

Waimea Bay

Last weekend on Sunday, the day after I almost drowned in the torrential downpour of rain on the hike, the same group plus one, Juanita, went to Shark's Cove and Waimea Bay on the North Shore. It was my very first trip out that way and it was very beautiful!
We started out at Shark's cove for a little swimming and snorkeling but since I didn't have any gear I tried to get Juanita in the water past her knees :)
To the right is a picture of Shark's cove, apparently named for its shape. I don't see it but who am I to say? As you can tell it is very very rocky and shallow. Not an ideal swimming or snorkeling area so we got a ride with some friends that met us there with a car and drove over to Waimea Bay. The weather was really warm, as usual, and the water was perfect, not too cold, not too hot. It was also very deep and the waves were pretty big. They were fun to ride into shore because they gave you enough of a push to set you up on your feet before dragging backwards over the sand almost sucking you back in through the process.
There was also a nice large rock that stuck out into the ocean and everyone was jumping off of it into the water. It was really high but there was a lower ledge that the kids were jumping off of so I decided I'd give it a try. Now I hate heights, and when I say hate, I mean that I get a queasy feeling in my stomach like I'm about to fall over and no one will be able to stop me from plunging to my death. Not pretty. So the higher ledge was very much out of the question, although when I go back I'll jump it, I just didn't want to lose my top when I hit the water because it really is high. At least to me.
This is the rock that everyone was jumping off. You can't really see the ledge I braved but it's right below where the sun is, just set back a little. Getting up on the back side was a little complicated because the rocks were really slippery and the waves swelled really high and detached your pathetic grip in an instant. I definitely got banged around a little but I made it up and jumped a few times.
On the other side of that huge rock the waves were really crashing so we decided to have some fun and swim up over them to another bunch of rocks and climb up. Bad idea. The tide sucks you back and forth like you're driftwood and you have to time your strokes right or you don't get anywhere fast. When we got to the rocks I tried to climb up but I stuck my hand right where a herd of sea urchins had made their homes and got a fist full of spikes. When the next wave hit I got ripped away from my perch, pulled away from the rock, and then squashed right up next to it. I got away with a bleeding elbow and knee, but nothing major. I gave up since I didn't want to fight the urchins for their territory.
Here I am with Jennifer being very dorky, but don't we look so cool?! We thought so! Everyone was just hanging around, relaxing and the sand was so soft and warm that we just wanted to hang out for a while.







Rob and Ben were slave drivers and we decided to hit the road and get some food at Brew Moon, a local brewery at Ward Center in Waikiki. I highly recommend it, the food was great! Speaking of slave drivers, here they are! Rob is on the left and Ben is on the right (by default, duh). They're both really great guys and everyone had a fantastic day with all the sun, surf, and sand.


















Here is a picture of the river leading out to the bay. I have this thing for sunsets as some of you already know and I take millions of pictures of the same sunset. However, this makes it possible for me to torture people with 300 pictures of the same thing :) You can kind of see the lighthouse in the background, we didn't make it over there to check it out but maybe next time. The water is so peaceful here in the river compared to the huge waves crashing on the shore in the bay.














Here is the group on the way to the bus stop. We took the bus to Pearl Islands and then transfered to get to Ward Center and food. We got there around 9.30pm so they weren't serving the full menu but they had some appetizers and all of their pizzas. I got the Mediterranean pizza and it was really really good! At 10pm the place turned into a sort of club with some music, artists, and live poetry readings. It was the perfect ending to a fantastic day! Everyone was satisfied with the way the day had turned out, even though Shark's Cove was kind of a flop, Waimea Bay more than made up for it! Next time, we're gonna go out for Pipeline :)

Drowning In A Forest

Last weekend I went to hiking in the Kahana rainforest. I must say that when the guidebook said it would be wet and muddy, I didn't realize how wet and muddy it would be! I went with a new group of people that I'd met the day before and we had a blast! First of all though, I have to say that this wasn't really an ordinary hike and I didn't have ordinary shoes. I wore sandals. I was assured by Ben that the hike was used by families and wasn't supposed to be that hard and that I should be ok in my trusy Reef sandals. Yea. Sure. So on Saturday morning at 8am (we were supposed to leave at 7!!) the five of us, Jennifer, Theresa, Ben, Rob, and myself, set out on our adventure. But wait! We had a pit-stop first. We had to go to the Ala Moana Shopping Center to change busses so meanwhile, we went to St. Germain's bakery to get some breakfast. We then waited for our bus for almost an hour because it only comes once every hour. Then we had a nice long ride out to Kahana which wasn't so bad because the company was good :)
We started out on a nice paved road that led to the trailhead. We were planning to do the loop which would take us past the Kahana river and to some very nice pools that you can swim in. Well even before we hit the trail the rain started drizzling down. No one had the foresight to bring an umbrella (which would've been useless on the trail anyways) or a poncho so we resigned ourselves to getting a little damp. Well, I must say that a little damp was a complete understatement! As soon as we got in to the forest, the heavens opened up and dumped gallons of rain down on our unsuspecting heads! We walked past trees that had little waterfalls coming down their trunks, branches hanging down that poured water like they were showerheads, and let's not even get started on the trail. It was a mass of mud and fallen palm fronds. "Oh, how nice!" you might be thinking of the palm fronds. Oh no. These were palm fronds from the devil! They had spikes running along the edges, and if you recall from my previous comments, I (stupid stupid me) was wearing sandals because I didn't have any shoes! I'm sure you can picture sufficiently how my feet must've looked after the adventure.
Well we continued on, palm fronds, rain and all and pretty soon we looked like a bunch of drowned rats. Here are some pics to prove that I can rough it and I don't need to have makeup and dry hair 24/7 :) In the front is Ben, then Rob, me, and Theresa. Jennifer took this pic and when Rob uploaded it to the internet, I stole it. I actually got most of these pics from them because my camera got fogged up and I couldn't take any more pics without everyone looking all blurry. This is right where we were crossing a small stream, of which there were many. By this time we were all completely soaked and dripping wet. We'd put on sunscreen and but spray and so when the rain started, we were all slimy as it all washed off. Attractive, haha!

Here we are again, this time with Jennifer in the picture, and you can better tell how soaked we got. We were on our way to the river that we had to cross to get to the pools. On the way there we met up with a guy and his little boy and he told us that the river was impassable and that we should just turn back. Well that was definitely a challenge for us and we decided to give it a go! He told us that three of his buddies were over there trying to get across but he didn't think they'd have much success. So we continued on, sure that we younger, more intelligent college students would have the brains to figure out a way to cross this "impassable" river. Then about 10 minutes later we came upon his friends. They told us they couldn't do it and wished us luck. Even better! Now this was really going to happen! We were determined that the river should not deter us from swimming in our pools of water, and really, who can resist a challenge like that? Plus we didn't really think the river would be that large and fast.
Here is a picture of that rushing river we were determined to cross. That small shore on the opposite side is where we were supposed to end up at if it hadn't been for the torrent of water. So Ben grabbed a stick and pushed it into the river to check depth. A no go. The bottom was way down there and we couldn't even feel it. Obviously we couldn't cross at this point so we moved to the left, through trees and a lot of undergrowth until we got to a spot where there was a young falled tree that went about half way across the river, and on the other side another tree had its branches out over it so you could grab on and haul yourself the rest of the way over. Now this tree was kind of thin and bendy and didn't support weight all that well. First Ben got in the river and made it about 3/4 of the way across. Rob started to follow, made it 1/2 way, and came back. So I gave it a go (mom, don't yell). I took off my sandals so I wouldn't lose them and stepped in to it about waist deep. The river was fast, really really fast, and the footing wasn't all that great either. I held on to the tree and got to the 1/2 way point without major incident. Then things got tricky. It got deeper, slipperier, and faster as you kept going and I knew that I had to turn back. Meanwhile Ben was still clutching the tree and the branches waiting to come back to our side. I made it after slipping a little at the end and now it was Ben's turn. The point of the tree he was hanging on to was the very end and it was really bendy to the point where it didn't offer a lot of support for a human body. Rob and I grabbed our part of the tree and leaned back as far as we could to make sure that it didn't keep bending down river, drowning Ben in the process. Rob's branch quickly broke so he had to hang on with me and we were both leaning back as far as we could against the current. Finally Ben made it back to our side and we decided that yes, the river is impassable.
We began our long trek back through the mud, evil palm fronds, and low-lying branches and about an hour and a half later we made it to relatively drier land. Everyone got out the food, passed it around, and ate before we headed to the bus stop. The beach was pretty, even though it was still raining, and if I hadn't been so dead I would've wanted to go for a swim!

BBQ At Kapiolani Park

Today at 3pm we had a huge barbecue at Kapiolani
park with all three properties: The Ohia, Kalo
Terrace, and The Hana. There were about 200 students that showed up to stuff their faces and play fun games!
When we first arrived we waited in line for food while a traditional Hawaiian blessing was given over the feast. After they were done, we all chowed down on rice, macaroni salad, fried breaded shrimp, and many many different kinds of chicken, beef, and pork. I swear I ate my calorie quota for the week!
To the right is a group of us (James, Crystal, myself, Jontue, and Cristie) hanging out on our towels after eating a ton. We got to listen to traditional Hawaiian music for a couple of hours before the games began and we had to get up and participate. Most of us had to waddle because we'd eaten so much food :)
Here is the game of tug-o-war we joined in. I played the second round against the RA's. We lost but I still hold that they cheated...
After tug-o-war there was a potato sack race, but instead of potato sacks (apparently they were too expensive) we had trash bags. I ran in one heat and half way through I ripped 2 holes in the bottom of my garbage bag and definitely lost the race!
We also had a game of limbo going on which I did NOT participate in due to the fact that I don't bend backwards very far. It was hilarious watching everyone else though and I was amazed at how low some people really can go!
This is the soccer field where other groups not with us were playing a few games. In the background is Diamond Head with deceiving fluffy white clouds floating overhead. In reality we got rained on, blown around by wind that wasn't so tropical, and the temps got so cool that I started resembling a plucked chicken with all my goosebumps!
After we had our fill of food, fun, and company we headed back to The Ohia for a bit of rest. Cristie, Jontue and I were still tired from going out last night and although we had planned on going out tonight as well, I suggested a movie night indoors and it was unanimously accepted. So we wandered around Waikiki and I saw this beautiful photo op and took it. I know, I take a lot of beach pics, but they're just so great! I've got about a million on my comp, but when I'm old and gray, I'll have these memories to gum over with my cronies :)
The three of us decided on some retail therapy so we went to Pineapple County and tried on scandalous club dresses (no mom, I didn't buy one), Local Fever to buy a tank top, and then to Macy's to experiment with lipstick. I tried on a fabulous red color that I fell in love with, so we'll see, we'll see. I might just need to get it to wear out on the town with my little black dress :)
After all the excitement and retail therapy we went back to the apartment, put in Closer, ate our dinners, and vegged out. We were joined later by James and Crystal and after the movie, he very kindly fixed our jammed sliding glass door. It had been completely stuck and you couldn't shut it or open it, which was kind of a pain in the butt since with it open at night it gets too hot and too noisy with all the clubs underneath us.
Well now it's after 1am and I'm just a little tired. I hope this post finds everyone well! Don't hesitate to write/call me, I miss everyone!

Last night, September 8th at Tiki's.

Last night Jontue, Cristie and I went out and about on the town in search of a good time. At first we tried Deep Blue but there was absolutely NO ONE at the club, it was totally empty. So I said, hey! let's try Tiki's! I'd heard good things about it as a restaurant and I knew they had live music so we headed down the beach to check things out.
This is the three of us getting ready to hit the town. It's in the lobby of our building and we got Jarrod the RA to take a photo (what a nice guy!).











Here we are again out at Tiki's. I should've taken some photos of the restaurant because it was really a great place on the open second floor with umbrellas, live music, and a TON of people! Some guys we talked to told us that it wasn't usually this crowded so we got there on a good night for a good time.


Here we are with some random local guys that Jontue rustled up in her wanderings around the bar. I don't know their names, I didn't really care to, but they were nice guys and supplied us with good conversation about the area and offers to teach me how to surf.
I'm very sad that this pic turned out blurry, it would've been really cute if it hadn't, but I still like it so I've decided to post it. This is one of our first roommate photos so we're going to print it and any others that we take in the future and tape them to our door. We're still lacking a white board/ cork board and neither of us is inclined to brave the crowds of Wal-Mart to get one so tape is the answer of the day!



After Tiki's we went down to the beach because we wanted to dip our toes in the ocean. Cristie got down and dirty with the sand and so we decided to join her, however the photos are not flattering so I am declining to post them :) We have this nasty habit of going out to the ocean at all hours of the morning and coming home covered in sand, but it's so fun!

And last but not least, this is me with the black ocean in the background and the not-so-well lighted sand in front. This is at the very end of the evening and soon afterwards we all went back our apartments to get ready for bed. BUT Jontue and I wandered down to Jack In the Box and I pigged out on a HUGE Oreo Cookie Shake and onion rings, fried, greasy, wonderful onion rings.
This morning I once again woke up with a small beach in my bed but this time I made sure to sweep it out!

Some random, fun photos I feel like posting.

I decided that I would like to post some photos I took recently that won't fit into any other blog. Really, I'm rather bored because my roommate hasn't come home from class yet so we can go to a small bar/restaurant called Mai Tai's with some of her friends. This is just my way of killing time :)
This fun photo is of me and Cristie at a club called Deep Blue. It was taken a couple of weeks ago when we first met and decided to go out and explore the night life of Waikiki. Later in the evening (mother, stop reading here or you'll kill me :) she and I had the brilliant idea of going for a swim. This was partly due to the fact that we'd been in Hawai'i for almost 2 weeks and neither of us had actually gone in the water. So at oh...let's say 1am we decided that a nice romp in the waves would be a fantastic idea! We rushed back to our apartments, threw on our swimsuits (after chatting with the RA on duty for about 30min) and ran down to the beach. I got her over her fear of sharks by lying through my teeth and saying that at this hour of the night/morning, all the good little sharkies were all tucked in bed sleeping so we had no reason to fear losing an arm or a leg to a shark. Unless of course said shark decided to wake up for a midnight snack and lo and behold, 2 dingbats were swimming in his vicinity. We didn't actually go very far out, just enough to get completely soaked, and then we ran down the beach towards the Sheraton Waikiki. Their pool looked so nice and inviting (the one with the little honu in tile on the bottom) that we couldn't resist so we just jumped right in! Thankfully we didn't get busted by hotel security because the pool was closed :) After this, we ran back down Waikiki and Cristie suggested that we make sand angels. Now I'm not sure if anyone has ever done this, but I ended up with more sand in my bikini bottoms than should be allowed. However, it was very entertaining to flop around in the sand while random couples stared at us like we were mental. Maybe we were. So we ended up back at our apartments, covered in sand, at about 4am. I immediately hopped in the shower, rinsed off, and tucked myself into my nice clean sheets.
On a side note, my bed is slowly becoming filled with sand due to my late night and mid day excursions to the beach. I'm too lazy to empty it out so I just figure I'm getting easy exfoliation while I sleep :)
This is a picture of my roommate taken just moments ago! Her name is Jontue and she's from Maui. She's promised to teach me how to surf but she has yet to make good on that. I'm hoping next week or the week after that because I'm dying to learn!!! Well anyways, she makes me laugh all the time and she blames everything bad that happens to her on the fact that she's brown :) My favorite text from her goes like this "This guy didn't want to get into the elevator with me, he waited for the next one, although mine was empty...because I'm brown!!!" I've decided that I like that excuse so I'll be blaming everything on the fact that I'm pasty white ;)
I'm super glad she's my roommate though, we get along really well, we don't steal each other's food (mainly because she refuses to cook so my food won't help her at all), and she likes to go out and have a good time! Although we were SUPPOSED to go to Mai Tai's tonight we didn't. She just got home and looked at me all gussied up and ready to go and told me "You're gonna hate me." So I realized that my dreams of live music and a mai tai were going to be dashed to pieces. *Sigh* I guess you can't have everything you want in life.
Here is Waikiki in black and white. I took this photo at about 5am when the sun was just coming up over the buildings. I haven't decided for sure, but I'm thinking that this would be a nice photo to replace the monstrosity hanging over my bed. It's simple, pretty, and best of all, I took it! Any opinions? I must say it does beat the water lilies with the pink frame though. It's also nice because the ignorant, annoying sunburned tourists that swarm over paradise hadn't been awake to ruin the photo like they do to so many others that have been taken. No offense to anyone who is an ignorant, annoying, sunburned tourist.
Here is another picture of the view from the Sheraton Waikiki. That bright cone shaped thingie is called The Top of Waikiki and is an expensive restaurant that I will probably never go visit. Unless of course someone wants to come visit me and treat me...hint hint :) I hear the panorama is spectacular, however, and really any view from high up of Waikiki is spectacular and not to be missed.

My Apartment

This post is solely dedicated to showing photos of my apartment where I now call home :) I have, however, left out pictures of my roommate's side of the room as well as those of the kitchen and bathroom since all three areas are in an unfortunate state of affairs. I wouldn't want anyone thinking that I can't keep my place clean, it's just that it's inbetween scrubbings at the moment...
The first photo is taken from my roommate's side of the room facing out onto the lanai (balcony). That's my tv (need it for my addiction to Grey's Anatomy and CSI), my desk, my bed, and way over in the corner, my bookshelf.
This next photo is just a close up of everything. The set of 3 photos just above the tv is missing its mate because the wall is rock hard and won't yield to nails, therefore I must get something sticky to put them up. And yes, my desk does have 3 orchids. I swear, now that I live in the tropics I won't be able to kill them! At home any poor orchid that is unfortunate to have been brought home with me has reached an untimely demise. I water them, I love them, I even read to them! But it was all to no avail. This time though, this time it will be different...
This is just a close up of my bed complete with Stitch and Dumbo to make it feel like home! Ignore the rather ugly photo above my bed. The apartment building was actually a hotel before they shut down and opened to the public. Then along came Hawai'ian Island Student Suites and bought the place from the rental comppany and turned it into student housing. It really is a very nice building. I promise to post photos of the outside very soon. But back to the ugly photo, it came with the apartment and I plan to rip it down, repaint the frame, blow up a photo of Waikiki I took in black and white, and insert it into the frame.
The next few photos are of the view I get every time I step out onto my lanai. I live in Waikiki so the beach is only a few minutes away. I actually just took all of these photos, it's about 6:45pm right now so the sun is starting to go down. I've seen some spectacular sunsets from my room where everything gets all pink and golden like cotton candy. I'll never get tired of the sunsets and I'm really glad that I'm on this side of the building. The other side gets the sunrises and since I'm usually asleep at that forsaken time of the morning, I'd miss the view!
In this photo you can see the Ala Wai Canal in between the building to the very right and the one next to it. They're doing construction in the area so I hear lots of noise during the day if I'm around. I do try not to be around though because it's so nice to be outside. I get attacks of lazyness though so sometimes I'll just sit on the lanai for a while, reading a book with a cup of coffee or some POG juice. Now POG juice is only available on the islands and it's the greatest invention since soy milk, haha! It's passion, orange, and guava juice all mixed together with a cute little character that graces the front of the juice box. I try to cut down on the POG drinking, but it's so addicting...
Here is the view if you look directly straight ahead out of the sliding glass doors. I believe it's a hotel and if I look hard enough (yes, I am slightly blind and I do have to look hard to see details at that kind of distance :) , sometimes I can see people hanging out on their balconies enjoying the weather just like me!
Here is my lanai, well, most of it. I'm standing on the other end which has no plant and definitely no cool towel covering the chair so I decided this was a better angle. In the distance past the building you can see the pink hotel, the first hotel here in Waikiki. And just beyond that is the ocean so I really DO have a short walk down there! I bought a nice little hibiscus plant to grace the table and I'm hoping that I can manage to keep that plant alive as well.
Well this was my apartment and I hope everyone enjoyed the tour :) I'll post more photos of the building soon and more pics of the activities I'm keeping myself busy with. But now I must get ready to head out to the movies, so until my next posting, adios!