Making good on promises...

Remember how I said I would post the picture of the Mini stuck in the sand once I figured out how to get the photo from my phone to the computer? Well, I figured it out!!!

(More update on Thanksgiving etc. after my test tomorrow)

--jess

The Days invade Oahu

John, Leslie and Scott arrived safely Friday afternoon and have been thoroughly exploring the island!

Saturday I had to work and get my phone taken care of - it was quite inconvenient having a phone that didn't work consistently when there were visitors on the island and I knew Jeff was coming back sometime Wednesday (today!). So the fam hung out at the Hale Koa in Waikiki, which has some fantastic swimming pools.

Sunday we took an awesome North Shore excursion. The picture at the left was taken at the Audubon Garden at the bridge near the waterfall. We took the Old Stream Trail to get there, which is a natural trail up the hill on the other side of the stream from the paved trail at the garden. Scott ran ahead, and John and Leslie enjoyed the scenery.
The Old Stream Trail comes out pretty close to the waterfall, which was bigger this time than it was the last go round. John and Scott took a good beating in the falls while Leslie and I chatted on the shore.

Scott claimed the banana trees aren't all that enormous, so I took the photo to the right at a worm's eye view.

After the Audubon, we enjoyed the shrimp trucks and shaved ice near Turtle Bay and shared our leavings with a family of chickens. I didn't take pictures - if you're that interested, you'll have to come out and experience it for yourself!!! Scott wants to live and work in the blue shrimp truck; he still has yet to call a family meeting with John and Leslie to discuss the idea.

Last we checked out the tide pools at Pupukea. It was a very full day!

Monday I had to be a square and take a chemistry test, so everybody else went to Kaneohe, and Scott found a skin board. And yesterday, I worked all day and got updates from the Punchbowl, the Dole Cannery, and the North Shore, so it sounded like they had another full day before we had dinner in Mililani. I'm picking up Jeff this afternoon, so the next entry will probably have more of everyone! I'll close with a picture of the moth John found at the Audubon garden.

--jess

Makahiki

Yesterday I volunteered at the North Shore Makahiki festival. It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be - a lot of it was very commercial, people seeing how much they could get away with charging for a surfing t-shirt. But I met some interesting people. Butch (pictured below right) is on the board for several nonprofits along the North Shore. He also is an incredible artist - the things on the table (it's not a very good shot, I know) are all things that he carved himself with, with the exception of a few ancient Hawaiian artifacts in the koa bowls at the end. He also hand carves the trophies for the OP Pro competition (which started today), and they are gorgeous.

I ended up helping out with a group called Hui Malama O Pupukea-Waimea, which is a group that watches a bit of protected shoreline between, you guessed it, Pupukea and Waimea, to make sure that people are using legal nets to fish, not hurting the turtles, etc. They do several snorkel outing per month to count fish. I met a nice couple in the group who were from, small world - North Carolina (Cary!) and Pennsylvania. They now live right on the North Shore with a view of the ocean.

The food was pretty good, local grinds. I had some lau lau (chicken wrapped in a ti leaf and steamed), various flavors of macademia nuts (there's a plantation on the North Shore where you can get mac nuts and kona coffee samples for free), and, of course, Hawaiian shave ice. We finished up just in time for a bit of live music and a sunset over Haleiwa Harbor.

--jess

Halloween, surfing, etc.

I can do Halloween, etc. because Halloween wasn't all that interesting out here - the kids trick-or-treat from their parents' cars, and I had a grand total of three! They were dressed as "terrorists" in black hoodies and sweatpants, faces covered. Nice to know that terrorists are so easy to recognize. It made me miss Columbia, because every year I had something to do that involved getting dressed up and seeing lots of *creative* costumes, like "Roy gets attacked by a tiger."

Jeff headed out again on Monday, so we didn't get a whole lot of time together, especially since two of the days he was back, he had duty. But the time we had was very good, and he'll be back again soon for Thanksgiving. His parents and brother, Scott, are also visiting around that time, as are Annie's parents, so Annie and I have been compiling a list of things for visitors to do while we're at work/school/everything else. Hopefully John, Leslie and Scott won't mind being the guinea pigs, but if the list works out, we'll use it for whoever decides to visit us on Oahu.

This go round, I've been spending more time in Haleiwa because it is *relaxing* and full of nice locals - a great break after commuting to Honolulu during the week. I haven't taken any pictures yet because the weather's been bad, but tomorrow should be a prime day for that, and since it is a state holiday, I have the day off! I am thinking I'll get up early and take a drive along the North Shore to walk around and take some pictures. Surf's supposed to be up 8-12 feet on the North Shore tomorrow.

Speaking of surf, I'm working at Makahiki Festival 2006. Makahiki is the Hawaiian new year, and the festival is going to have some surf films, local music, a keiki (kids) area, and lots of opportunities to learn about Hawaiian traditions. It's also the official start of the surf competition season, even though a competition is currently taking place at Sunset Beach, the 23rd annual Xcel Pro Competition. I don't know what kind of turnout the festival will have; it didn't seem like many people knew about it, but I'll be hanging out with people from the Audubon anyway.

--jess