Honu!

In yet more animal news, I saw honu today on spontaneous drive around around the northern side of the island. Basically, I took Jeff's car in for maintenance and decided I should test it to make sure they did a good job, so I took a lovely little drive from Waipahu up the H2 until it ended, then to the North shore and on 83 all the way until I hit Kaneohe, where I came back down the H3, hit the H1 for a little way, and got back home on the H2. So basically a big circle around the island, only missing the southern leeward side where we looked at condos for my parents and the very eastern parts like Waimanalo, Honolulu and Waikiki. I didn't really feel like dealing with the traffic around Honolulu, and the drive back on the H3 from Kaneohe is interesting because the mountains almost enclose Kaneohe like a fort - you drive on this crazy high bridge (just don't look down) through a tunnel through the mountains to get out. It's pretty gorgeous.

Along the way, I stopped at another place we hadn't been on the North Shore, a little farther up (I forget what it was called), which is where I saw the honu. Also along the way I saw lots of neat things - fresh shrimp shacks, flower stores, little surf shops, streetside fruit vendors, Brigham Young University, the Polynesian Cultural Center (which really looks interesting for when people visit...), and lots of neat little beaches. I am not sure what the name of it was because the signs weren't great - maybe Kahana Bay? - but it was similar to Waimanalo with the white wide beaches and turquoise water, only you can see several islands off the coast instead of just one. I definitely got a few ideas of things for Jeff and me to do for fourth of July weekend!

I need to start taking the camera along with me on these spontaneous walks and road trips, jeez. But it's a good excuse to do it all again when Jeff is here. We had a pretty great weekend before he got underway Monday (he'll be back tomorrow); he took me Cirque Hawaii! I love watching Cirque du Soleil shows on Bravo sometimes, so I was very excited about seeing it in person. Neither of us were disappointed; there were so many incredible performers - magicians, ribbon dancers, jump ropers, etc. We went to a very delicious Caribbean/Mexican place before that, too, but we were in a bit of a hurry because the show started early. Afterward, Jeff took me to what he claims is the best-smelling store ever, and I tend to agree. They sold macademia nuts, coffee, chocolates, and cookies...
Our wedding photos came in today, if you couldn't tell by the random senseless placement throughout this post. I had a good chuckle because after all the debate over the Captain Morgan picture of Jeff - after I finally gave in and sent it back to the company - they returned ALL of the pictures and digital copies to us, which was very, very nice of them. As you can see, I am one snarky woman because I posted it rather large at the beginning of this entry (Jeff's gonna kill me, but I just did it because it was funny...). Actually, that would be more because I still think it's a pretty awesome picture of him and I think the people who read this will also enjoy it. There will be more to come, especially if Jeff or I have your address and we know you want a CD (I will probably work on copying and mailing those out next week, actually). I am also working on an online album and will link to it from here, but the images will be less than 1MB, so they'd print out okay for smaller shots, but enlargements would be fuzzy. I hope you enjoyed the previews!

--jess