Pineapples & the Pipeline!

Dole Plantation, Killer Tacos, Turtles at Laniakea Beach, Shaved Ice at Matsumoto, Banzai Pipeline Surfing, Laie...needless to say, today was packed from start to finish. We hit the road headed for the Dole Plantation but not without getting lost a couples times along the way.

We finally got there and it was awesome! It's got the train tour, how to cut pineapple demo's, delicious fruit and ice cream, pineapples from tons of different countries, and the world's largest maze.

This is the trunk of a Painted Eucalyptus Tree. That's really the trunk but it looks like someone painted pinks, oranges, and green's on it. It's pretty cool.

While we were there we took the time to get to the bottom of some common myths about Pineapple that you've probably been wondering about...you're welcome.

(be sure to pause the music at the bottom of the blog before starting these videos)

Then we were off. Oahu is a relatively small island but the roads are also small causing it to take a little while to get places so lots of time is spent in the car. Which is fine cause we love jamming to the same 10 songs they play on the radio here. That's one funny thing, I swear we really hear the same songs everyday over and over and over with a random local hawaiian song every once in awhile. We hear Leona Lewis’ Bleeding love & Alicia Key’s, No One, at least 3 times a day...but don’t take my comments as complaints, those are two of my favorite artists and favorite songs....to me that’s just one more thing to add to the PRO’s of living in Hawaii list I’ve been working on.

Today was especially fun to jam since we'd just purchased our Ukulele's and thumb piano and could rock out with them on our way up to the North Shore. Before hitting up the main attractions we swung by Matsumoto to get their world famous shaved ice. The best thing about that is that they put a nice scoop of icecream at the bottom then put the shaved ice and flavored syrup on top. The worst part is the container is not sturdy enough for a slow sipper like myself.

Continuing on our North Shore Adventure we stopped at Laniakea beach where Brooklyn volunteers protecting the sea turtles that come bask in the sun on the beach. We happened to catch 5 at the time we stopped which is pretty great since usually there are just a couple. We also caught one heading back out into the water which is another rarity; to really see them up and about moving.

Anyone who knows Oahu knows you can’t drive the north shore without stopping at the famous Banzai pipeline to checkout the local crazy surfers riding some of the biggest waves in the world. The waves there don’t even compare to those in Kailua. The water was raging. I was too scared to even go into my knees. Just looking out you could see their power and I wasn’t trying to test the ocean.

As we looked out on the open ocean and those huge waves we had a scary thought. There aren’t any Islands to the North of Oahu so looking out off the North shore you're looking at all there is pretty much until the North pole...or atleast Alaska! Is that not a scary thought.

Watch these crazies...don't they know this is where all the sharks are?? Maybe they need a friendly reminder.

After the pipeline we drove through Laie which might just be my favorite part of the Island. It's so rural and untouched in many places. As I get older and think about the types of places I’d want to live I’ve been quite surprised to find I gravitate towards the more rural/country/farmy areas. Funny since I grew up always in cities or suburbia central type places. I’ve never lived in rural areas but I love all that land, space, sky, and the slow friendly pace that comes with it. That’s what I love about Laie.

Then we drove through BYU Hawaii, the other BYU that rejected my application : ) and headed back down to Kailua via the Kamehameha Highway which drives the entire 23 miles back to Kailua along the beautiful coast! AAAAAHHHHH another day in Paradise!

Good Morning Kayak!!

How does an early morning kayaking excursion sound? Sounds good to me...and it's even better when the ocean is your backyard as is the case with Brooklyn. That's right, her backyard is the Ocean! It doesn't get much better than that. So we had a sleepover, woke up, had breakfast and hit the water.

We met 2 locals who were surfing and paddle boarding off Kailua Beach where we kayaked to. Kyle and Courtney. They gave us some good tips of things to see while we're here.

One not so much of a highlight was when we hit a huge wave and flipped the kayak....I'll let Brooklyn add to this post on that topic. I'm still too traumatized to go into any details other than that I cried to the point of laughing then laughed to the point of peeing, then peed to the point of laughing then laughed to the point of crying.

Hey Guys, this is Brooklyn. So heres my perspective. I knew Ceri was apprehensive of the water because of her shark phobia. I was confident that the kayak wouldn't tip. All we had to do was make sure the braking wave didn't crash on the kayak at an angle causing us to lose balance . As long as we went straight into the wave I knew we'd be good.

So were doing just that and it's going smoothly. We're talking with Courtney, our surfing friend, and I see that she's getting ready to catch a wave. I see that we're in front of her so I move the kayak to get out of her way. BAD decision. Next thing you know the wave broke on us and Ceri screams "OH GOL". We're in the water, kayak is flipped, with oars, water bottles and my flip-flips everywhere. I'm laughing but know that I have to be somewhat serious because I know Ceri must be freaking out. She really doesn't like the unknown ocean. I look over and she's parallyzed, curled in a ball hugging the kayak for dear life, laughing/whimpering uncontrollably. After we get our laughter somewhat under control we attempt to get back in the kayak. It was important that we get in quickly cause the waves could continue to brake on us making the situation worse. Ceri is reluctant to release from her ball position because of her fear of sharks mistaking her legs for a sea turtle. Shes not budging, so I try pushing her bottom into the kayak as she's still in the fetal postion. My efforts are of course useless and we're laughing even harder now. We finally make it in safely. No sharks attacked us, but IT was a close call.

We saw lots of sea turtles in the water right there. They sometimes go up onto the rocks to soak up the sun and we were hoping to catch some on video doing just that but today they were swimming it up. We did however catch one on tape in the water for you. A HUGE one!

Here are some highlights:

Today's Frontpage

Today we spent some time planning what we're going to want to do and see when we Island hop next month to Maui and the Big Island. A MUST SEE thing for the big Island is it's active volcano where we're sure we'll see some lava. We're sitting there talking about it and the front page of the Honolulu Advertiser is brought to our attention.

Apparently it's been rather active lately and the lava is seaping over onto the roads in some nearby areas! We've got to see this.

This picture wont be too clear but this was the photo.

It's a U.S. Geological Survey photo and the Caption reads, "Lava crawls across the Kalapana access road, creating a Halloween portrait of orange flames and black smoke from burning asphalt. The lava lobe late last week was about 200 yards west of the county's lava-viewing trailhead, which remains open. To reach the road, the lava burned through a kipuka, or a long surviving island of vegetation.

I can't wait to see it up close!

The Muddy hike

So we headed out early today for a hike up to Maunawili Falls, one of the few waterfalls on Oahu. In the beginning it was great. The paths were beautiful and the greenery was breathtaking.

Brooklyn finds a pretty flower!

A little bit later it proved to be a bigger challenge than we were up for. We hadn't taken into consideration the fact that it rained last night. We got about 20 minutes up the path before we realized it was gonna be more muddy than usual but decided to keep going and cross the streams and what not even though the rocks were VERY slippery. I was a little apprehensive at first but Brooklyn's background with a Recreation Leadership major helped. Knowing I was with a pro put me at ease.

Look at her balance...so impressive.

CLICK PLAY BUTTON BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO:

About 40 minutes into it the mud was getting bad and we saw the warning signs that we might not make it out alive...

Brooklyn had done the hike before and knew some steep parts were still ahead that we'd never be able to get up with this amount of mud so we headed back. Tragic.

I only fell once but still ended up covered in mud, sweat...

& mosquito bites.

We spent the rest of the day beach bummin it...

i just died in your arms tonight

so we were headed out for a hike and you'll never guess what came on the radio?? It was so ironic and fitting. We laughed, reminisced, and realized a few things. Missions are stressful and hawaii is NOT.

How many lizards do you see?

There are little lizards or Gecko's or whatever they are EVERYWHERE!!! Everytime I'm walking up to the house on the rocks they all scurry to get out of my way. Here's a picture I took of a wagon in the front yard. Can you see all the Lizards? How many can you find? Not the biggest picture but I'm sure you can spot a couple.

ANSWER: squared on the picture below.

Answer = 8!

"Weekly Planning Session"

For old times sake we decided to have a weekly planning session, where you figure out everything you want to get done in the next week. Ours was more of a monthly planning session. We went to Maui tacos, chowed down on Mango BBQ pork burritos and made a list of everything we definitely want to do before we have to go then put it on the calendar.

Big Ticket Items Include:

1. Shark Cage 8. See Black sand Beach

2. Luau 9. Bike the Island for Autism

3. Sky diving 10. Bike down Maui

4. Pearl Harbor Volcano

5. Maui & Big Island 11. Ride a Whale

6. Polynesian Cultural 12. See Lava from Volcano

Center 13. Egg Oprah's House!!!

7. See largest Banyon 14. Go Wallaby hunting

Tree

Fillers:

1. Learn to Hula 12. Face off a wild Boar

2. Go to the swap meet 13. Hike to Lighthouse &

3. Honolulu Aquarium whale watch

4. Eat fresh Coconuts 14. Hike Mauniwili Falls

5. Dole Plantation 15. Save someone from

6. Camp on the Beach shark

7. Snorkel in Hanauma Bay 16. Watch surf comp. on

8. Surf Lessons? sharks?? North Shore & Pipeline

9. Catch Gecko's 17. Go to Temple

10. Lead to Paddleboard 18. Annihilate entire shark

11. Kayak on Ocean species

I can already tell this trip isn't gonna be long enough.

Today... I woke up in Hawaii!!

I woke up in hawaii today! This is Crazy!! Totally surreal.

We've talked about it, joked about it, planned things for it but it still seems like it's not happening. I've been so busy lately I almost haven't had time to really get excited. I had Joanna's wedding last weekend in California and that was occupying all my time and energy so it's almost as if it never soaked in that this was going to happen.

I couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably as the plane began it's descent and the captain came on saying "We've got a great view of Maui for those passenger's sitting on the left side of the aircraft." I think that was the first time It really hit me that we actually did it. We're in hawaii. Then it became increasingly funny as I wondered...what am I gonna do here? Of all my ridiculous, impulsive, money wasting, escapades to date, this is by far the mother of them all.

But who cares..I WOKE UP IN HAWAII TODAY!

LUGGAGE UPDATE:

For those of you who along with me were so proud of my ability to pack all my things in only one bag...here's an update. So I got it all in one bag thinking, Yay I wont have to pay $25 for an extra checked bag!! I'm the best! WRONG. Instead I had to pay $125 extra to get my ONE oversized bag on the plane. I guess it's a different ballgame when your bag weighs 83 pounds. DANG IT!

I spot Brooklyn! This is the first time we've seen each other since we served in Rochester together 18 months ago!!!!

She greets me with a Lei.

We begin bummin it on the beach