Snapshots

 My mom hates getting wet, so we told her to put on a mask. 

 Koko

 Rudy loves going places he shouldn't-- and looking good.

Wild chicken eggs!

Two Days and the Trials of Technology

Oh, the trials of technology today-- specifically the world wide web. I've always had bad internet at my house, but this has done it. Because my dad is the resident I.T. support at my casa (Spanish for "house"), when he leaves, we are thrown into an uproar. The morning he left for a two day trip to the other side of the island to conduct some dive tours (Wednesday), our internet blinked off. As the next in line computer-guru (not) I desperately attempted to restore ANY signal so that Kerri and I could blog about our day's adventures. But, alas, it was not to be. Hence the reason we have both been silent for two days. We have finally gotten around to hitting up Starbucks for a bagel and some WiFi, and it feels great!

So, to start with Wednesday. I took Kerri to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It was an overcast, rainy day, so we really got to enjoy the rain as we walked through the lava tube (referred to as "tava lube" by Kerri) and hiked along a short trail. We visited the Visitors' Center and all kinds of places, but I did not have my camera with me. Well, I had my camera, but I had left the SD card in my computer from my last blog. *sigh*

Yesterday, after dropping my mom off from work, we headed up to Waipio Valley. It's an hour and half-ish drive from town, and lucky for us, it was sunny and bright! As we were travelling through the last 6 or 7 miles, we realized we were racing the clouds. By the time we got to the Waipio Valley lookout, sure enough, it was overcast. Bummer. We took some pictures and then headed down the steep 250 meter (which according to Google is is about 820 feet) walk to the bottom. It took us about 45 minutes, and it was gorgeous!

The ridiculously steep road! Known as the steepest road of it's length in the world.

Beautiful Waipio Valley

At the bottom, we took some pictures, picked up a friend who we named Buddy, and then proceeded to take some photos of the wild horses. While we were enjoying them from afar, some lady brought out a bag of Sun Chips, walked right up to them, and started feeding them! Soon, we were all surrounded by three sets of moms and their foals, all wanting attention and food. Great. A guy offered to give us a ride back up the mountain if he saw us, and so we said our goodbyes and backed out of there asap. We looked back a couple of times only to see some other people giving the horses beer... we left in a hurry.

"Buddy" our tag-a-long while we walked the beach. 

This rock has definitely been there a while, it had algae as long as hair!

After our deadly hike up, (our friends from the bottom failed to show up), we collapsed in the car, blasted the A/C, and enjoyed a lunch of cold pizza and burritos. So good! After eating, we drove into Honoka'a and bought basically the best fudge in the world. It was delicious! Our drive home was uneventful and my back, legs, thighs, calves, ankles, and even feet are thanking me for the wonderful journey. Yay.

The Water is Great

There is so much going on that is is difficult to find the time or energy to type it all out! Over the past few days we have been diving and swimming and kayaking like crazy. Driving back and forth between the house and town, zooming between appointments that are double scheduled or back to back, and eating when we get enough time to shove food in our mouths is what life has been like. Let me start with last week, last Thursday to be exact.

Our first goal of the day was to swim with dolphins.We had awoken at 5:00am for a two hour drive to beautiful Kealakekua Bay. Upon arriving at the Bay at around 7:30 to see not a dolphin in sight, Kerri and I were convinced by a local kayak rental man, Peter, to rent his kayak for $50 so we could kayak across the bay to the dolphins. Seeing as this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Kerri, and an awesome opportunity for me, we split the price and headed out, my dad's fancy underwater camera carefully clipped to the kayak. (If I lost that, he would basically kill me.) To make a long story short (only half an hour or so of paddling) we made it to the other end of the bay, slipped out of our bright yellow kayak and snorkeled with about two dozen spinner dolphins!

We are halfway across the bay at this point, looking back 

towards where we came from.

 Look at how beautiful they are!

Proof that I was there . . .

 When we got to the other side, it was shallow and as clear as you can imagine. 

These cute fish made for a nice picture.

After another confined water diver for Kerri after our snorkel trip of a lifetime, we camped out for the night, and rose to a gorgeous Friday. The other Open Water students who would be completing their course with Kerri soon arrived, excited and ready to jump in. I taught them all of the optional Skin Diver course and then we geared up to get diving! (Don't worry, I'm credentialed, both an SSI and PADI Divemaster.) The day went well, three dives total, with lots of learning piled on. I was quite impressed to watch the students become divers in those last three dives. It was fantastic!

Camping breakfast-- cereal in the bag.

After an uneventful weekend, fast forward to today, when Kerri took her first dive as a certified diver. We saw a cute Day Octopus (sorry, no picture), loads of turtles, and fish galore!

Just hangin' out with our friend the turtle, no big deal.

My dive buddy and I, just cruisin'.

Here are some more pictures, kind of a photo blog of the last couple of weeks. Photos tell stories much faster than anything I can type out. Today we are headed to Volcanoes National Park, can't wait to see what happens there!

Rainbow falls

Hilo <----- The Breakwall -----> Open Ocean

Liliuokalani Park 

Last night's activity, cake balls! They are SO good.

Life is a One-Time Thing

As I was growing up, I was more excited about the freedom of exploring than I was about going to college to learn skills, get a "good job" and then make money. Sometimes exploring take some real drive and determination, which I realize I often lack. Fact is, I am a lazy person, but I love to do active things. I just need to get myself out the door-- then I'm all set and ready to go. One of my goals now that I'm in college is just to DO stuff, whether I want to or not, because it really is worth it. This leads me to the point of this little blurb about life: next summer.

Next summer, my friends Kerri, Tyler, and I really, really, really want to bike from Nebraska to Oregon. We would have 19 days to do it, because there is a deadline we must meet. What an amazing adventure it would be! Completely on our own, getting some extreme exercise, and doing something we all enjoy-- bicycling! It is going to take a lot of hard work, physical training (beginning now), and some extreme convincing to bring our parents around to the idea, but I think we can do it. I know we can do it, we just have to. It would be one of those life milestone-memories. I'm ready.

Get Started!

Every trip has to begin somewhere. The trip of life begins when you're born, a trip to the beach begins with grabbing your swimsuit and stuffing everyone in the car, and the trip of having fun begins with getting out into the world. So, here I go. I've been all over the place already, but with so much more in store, I think it's time to keep track of all my adventures in one spot for me to enjoy. Here, on the Veggie Loco Moco. The Loco Moco is a local mainstay of Hawaii; a delicious dish that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It consists simply of white rice, a hamburger patty, a fried egg and brown gravy. I have never fully tasted a loco moco however, instead substituting a griller patty because I am vegetarian.

I thought it fitting to name my blog after this dish because well, yes, of course because I've grown up in Hawaii. But at the same time, I'm also not quite a local, hence the "veggie". You don't have to be 100% a native to enjoy the beauty (and good taste) of whatever place you are visiting. So, here's to adventure in places where you are from and where I am not, places with no hope when I have some, and places I'll visit once, and places you'd never visit again. Just go!

Enjoy my blog, and whether you laugh or not, I hope you smile while you read it.

Photo from: http://tamarindandthyme.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/loco-moco/