Mahalo

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Amelia M.

I realize it’s been weeks since my last post, but I thought I should make good on part two of my Hawaii adventure.

We spent a lot of time in the water, but we did fit in some land adventures too. One such adventure was Kualoa Ranch. Kualoa Ranch is a beautiful, massive ranch with many, many options. We did their movie sites tour.

They load everyone up on a school bus and take you to a bunker filled with movie and tv memorabilia from all the things filmed there. From there they take you around the Ranch, spotting out specific scenes from movies. You can have your picture taken at Jurassic Park or see a giant footstep from the 90s Godzilla. Other movies and tv shows filmed there included Jurassic World, 50 First Dates, Hawaii Five O, Pearl Harbor, Mighty Joe Young, and Lost [one of my personal favorites].

Super classy enlargement of season 1 promo shot for us to pose by. Um, and yes, I did pose by it.

True proof.

The ranch itself is also beautiful. It was interesting hear the guide explain everything that goes on there and the history behind it. In addition to hosting movies and tours, they have some livestock and grow quite a few things. Our guide also mentioned that sometimes the staff gets to take part in the movie making. He had been an extra in Hawaii Five-O a few times. And he once meet Hurley from Lost and had dinner with him, which is arguably one of the best Lost cast members to have dinner with. Basically this means I had to respect him, despite his constant attempts at encouraging audience participation.

We also spent a day at Pearl Harbor. Here are some practical things we learned about making this visit:

Book in advance! (around 2 months)
Book directly through the park.
Set aside plenty of time. This will take you all day.

The USS Missouri comes with free guided tours and this ended up being one of my favorite parts. We had a great tour guide, Fallon, and she seemed to know everything there was to know about the ship. We explored a bit on our own too.

I thought the visit to the USS Arizona was one of the most powerful sites we got to visit. They show a film about everything that happened there before you board the shuttle to the memorial. After the film everyone is pretty quiet and tries to stay that way when they get to the memorial. We saw one family bring a flag to raise.

Here you can see the Arizona and the Missouri are kept bow to bow [Forgive me if my nautical terms are off].

We also spent some time in the Pacific Aviation Museum.

I was, of course, very interested in the artistic and design elements of the planes.

They had an interesting exhibit on women pilots [which included this pilot/ possible gremlin illustration].

Mom, Gabby, and I were too tired to check out the submarine, but Dad and Derek assure us it was great.

One of the best things we did on the trip was a dolphin cruise with Dolphins and You. We got on a boat with a few other groups [thankfully not a big group] and they took us out to where they’d heard some dolphin pods were swimming. On the way there they lead us in a Hawaiian song/chant for good luck in seeing dolphins. We did see dolphins but I’m pretty sure our chant performance had nothing to do with it. It was not a pretty sounding song by the time we were done with it, haha.

Mom and I getting our snorkel gear on.

What dolphin excursion is complete without a temporary tattoo?? haha

Once we found the dolphins we hopped in the water with our snorkeling gear and followed them around for a while. We could see them swimming in circles below us. Our guide told us this was most likely because the dolphins were resting or sleeping. Apparently dolphins only sleep with half of their brain at a time so they can always be swimming. Two dolphins left the group and swam up towards us, really close to my parents.

After the dolphins left we hopped back on the boat and headed to a reef area. They cut the engine and we hung out over here for awhile. There was good snorkeling and they had a bunch of water toys we could mess around with. Gabby and my Dad both tried the paddle board and it was harder than it looks! My Dad was probably the best at it and managed to get up a few times. There was also an inflatable slide and a water kayak. After we were done we munched on burgers while our crew performed a Hawaiian dance for us. The girl on our crew was especially good and we loved seeing her performance. The photographer on the boat was a free diver and it was amazing to see how long she could hold her breath and how deep she could get. The captain had some Hollywood experience and was an extra in Jurassic World [he was one of the security crew members sent out after the dinosaurs]. The whole crew was friendly and nice the entire time. They sent us off with macedemia nut hershey kisses as we left the boat.

We also attended church during our visit and on our last day there the members sang a beautiful Hawaiian send off to a missionary leaving their ward. There was also a member with an amazing voice who gave the prayer! We were all around impressed.

Flowers outside the chapel.

More flowers near the chapel :)

It seems wrong to talk about this trip and not talk about the food! There were so many options to try. Everyone you talked to had a shrimp stand recommendation. We ended up at Romys and loved it.

Our apartment was walking distance from Ted’s bakery [Which I swore I took a picture of, but oh well] and loved going down there for breakfast. We also spent a lot of time at Kahuku Grill.

They gave out these character traits [or whatever you want to call them] instead of order numbers.

This little cat hung around while we were there.

We also tried a few desserts. We picked up some Ono Yo frozen yogurt.

Normally I’m a chocolate girl, but this pineapple – macadamia nut yogurt stole my heart.

And of course we couldn’t pass up some shaved ice. Somehow it was just better there.

On our last day there my Mom, Dad, and I went on a short hike [more like a long stroll, which is my favorite kind of hike] to Waimea Falls. This “hike” was basically walking through a botanical garden of sorts. There were different trees and plants everywhere. At the end you enjoy the waterfall [lifejackets required] and head back.

It was an amazing trip, so of course, it went by too fast. I’m grateful that I got to spend time with my family in such a beautiful place. Who knows, maybe we’ll be back someday!

Obviously we are all natural actors.

I call this one “Gabby gets spotted by Coca-Cola modeling agency and gets rich and famous.” How we do not have a selfie together from this trip boggles me!!!

I look a little, wear? or something but I don’t care. We have to document our adventures! Especially our waterfall adventures!

Gabby on Sunset Beach

I’m especially grateful for my parents who made this trip happen and take care of me all the time. Even when they are miles and miles away.

Currently: Loving my new bedspread [It’s full of blues and pinks]. Except for the fact that I’m now feeling inspired to redo my whole room, haha! I’ll have to take it one step at a time.

Aloha

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Amelia M.

Usually a beach trip with my family means dragging the boogie boards down from the attic, filling my Dad’s truck to max capacity for the short drive to Surfside, sneaking the dog cheeseburgers during said trip, bathroom breaks at Bucees, scraping aside seaweed for the perfect beach spot, and toying with the idea of eating at the Purple Cow. It’s a proven formula for success. However, this year we decided to try something a little more adventurous: Hawaii.

Gabby, Me, and Derek. My parents got in a day before us and surprised us with leis at the airport. The leis were beautiful and had a gorgeous [ and very strong] aroma.

For some reason we didn’t take a photo of all of us together, but thanks to the selfie stick Derek got Gabby we didn’t have to settle for that for very long.

We got there just in time for Father’s Day. It was great to spend the day actually with my Dad instead of via Skype. And even more lovely to spend it with our family in such a beautiful place.

Dad – Exploring Laie Point

Home base was an apartment we found on airbnb. We stayed on the north shore, just a few minutes from Sunset Beach. It gave us ample space for post-swim netflix, beach reads, and one cat/western themed puzzle. My mom loved exploring the yard and all the fruit trees around the house. My dad found a documentary on Eddie Aikau and educated us all on Hawaiian surfing [The owner of our house loved Eddie and has a collection of posters featuring him]. I spent most of my time there on the deck hammock reading.

Jackfruit

Mango

One of our first stops was also one of the best: Hanauma Bay. Practically everyone recommended this state park and we were not disappointed. The bay is features a gigantic reef and you can see fish almost everywhere. The perfect snorkeling spot to kick things off.

We soon discovered the necessity for prescription snorkel lenses since everyone in our family is pretty vision impaired [luckily they had these there].

My friend gave me this pouch that lets you take your phone underwater so I could play with underwater photography. I had a lot of fun with it.

Most of the colorful fish eluded my camera for some reason, but I did grab a shot of this little guy.

On the way home from Hanauma Bay we stopped at the Dole Plantation where we learned three very important things: 1. A pineapple does not ripen after you pick it. So just eat it already. 2. Anything that can be dipped, decorated like, stuffed with, or paired with Pineapple is available for purchase in the gift shop. 3. Leaving without a Dole Whip is an absolute crime. Mmmmmm.

The Dole Whip. The pineapple chunks on top are probably the best pineapple I’ve ever had.

I helped this little guy pose for the picture.

Our trip also included a visit to the LDS Laie Hawaii Temple. Gorgeous, isn’t it?

A trip to the North Shore also wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We made fish out of leaves, visited a few of the “villages,” played “Heads Up” while hiding from a brief, tiny fluster of rain, and saw the big show at the end of the night. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Teaching us how to make the fish.

A little fire! The show at the end of the night had a lot of cool fire dancing as well as amazing dancing.

He climbed up a palm tree as part of the village show.

It was also nice just walking around the PCC.

My mom decided to opt out of one of our activities: swimming with sharks. This was not as scary as it sounds. The sharks swimming by us were not aggressive and basically not interested at all. Fishing boats often come out to that area and drop bait, so the sharks come around when the boat comes over. We go from the boat to a little cage. You don’t even need to scuba dive, you snorkel.

As Tracy Jordan would say, “Live every week like it’s shark week.”

These pictures don’t do it justice, but Derek got some great photos on his GoPro.

The wonderful thing about Hawaii is everywhere you go there is beauty. Mom and I spent a lot of time just sitting at Waimea Bay.

We did not let a cloudy day stop us. We just sat there until it got sunny again, haha We noticed that even though it would rain from time to time during our trip, it never came down to hard and it didn’t seem to last too long.

Sitting by the calm water it was hard to imagine the giant waves surfers compete on during the winter. Dad and I also discovered some good snorkeling over there.

This makes the beach seem so gloomy, but really the weather was wonderful most of the time. Here’s some pictures from our Sunday walk our first full day there.

Sunset Beach – a blissful 5 minute walk from where we were staying.

Ok, FINE. I’ll live here forever.

Derek and Gabby: Pro photographers

Gabs enjoying the beach.

There is much more to cover, but I think this is a good stopping point.

To Be Continued

Currently: Recently returned from a Utah adventure: Bryce Canyon. Completely different, but also amazing. I’ll be posting some pictures from that little trip soon.

La mer me manque

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Amelia M.

When I lived in France my host mother would try to get me to practice new phrases. One day she asked me if I was missing anything from home. I tried to tell her that I missed the ocean [Our apartment was in the middle of the city, far from the coast], but I kept mixing the words around. I couldn’t find where to place the pronouns. Finally she told me I couldn’t think of it as me missing the ocean, but that the ocean was missing me. Later French studies would tell me she was trying to say “the ocean is being missed by me,” but the original translation stuck.