All Hallow's Eve

Believe it or not, Halloween is kinda a big deal in Maui.  You wouldn't really suspect that, what with all the other awesome stuff happening on the island.  However, Hawaiians love to dress up!

I managed to convince a friend to go out with me that night, and we met up with a bunch of people from my ward.  We drove around the Lahaina side, and they had a big huge Halloween party on Front Street.  It was awesome - and just a little bit crazy.  Front street is part of this really touristy area in a very touristy town.  It runs along the coast, and is lined with restaurants and all those little souvenir shops you just love to spend your money in.  They call it Halloween on Front Street, and they shut down the entire block, and people just roam up and down in their costumes.

I couldn't believe how many creative costumes I saw, and just how all-out people went on them!  We did see some rather scandalous outfits, but keep in mind I am in Maui where nude beaches are, if not accepted, they are at least "ignored" by law enforcement.

We spent a couple hours walking up and down the street, and staring at other costumes.

Just an example of what was going on that night.  It was a wild party!

If you look closely at the guy standing on the sidewalk right under the sign, he is dressed like Bane.  And he actually looked like him!  It was kinda creepy.

Me and all of my friends.  I'm the pirate on the end.

I found the 3 Amigos!!

I just had to have a picture with these two.  They were my heros, because their entire group was dressed up as characters from Batman.  Seriously, I'm not obsessed...

Eventually we headed home since I did, in fact, have to work the next morning.  It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to go.  However, I will be glad when I return to the mainland, and I can celebrate Halloween with some colored leaves, and cooler weather!

Halloween at work!

Remember how Halloween is my very favorite holiday?  This year wasn't quite so exciting considering I didn't really have the means to make a fun new costume this year.  I ended up recycling a costume from a couple years ago since no one here had ever seen it.  However, I was super excited because I was finally allowed to dress up for work!  I tried to keep it a little low key since I still am a doctor, and I was still pulling teeth out of people's mouths all day.  I did get to have some fun, though!

Me and the staff at our clinic.  We are very festive.

Our pedodontist, Dr. Michelle dressed up as a lion! 

Check out my awesome Bat belt!

I love fancy makeup, and I love it even more when I get to wear fake lashes and Batman earrings!

We had a total blast dressing up at the clinic, although I was a little surprised that we had several people decide to go with Batman.  Probably because Batman is awesome!



It was a pretty good day.  I just hope I didn't scare any of the kids (or the adults, for that matter).

Visitors continued

Since the tsunami kinda upset our plans, we took it fairly easy on Sunday.  We ended up driving upcountry to visit the Ali'i Kula lavender farm.  I think probably one of the more exciting things was discovering a pair of chameleons hanging out on a tree.

After wandering about, we ate some delicious lavender scones with lavender Liliko'i jelly (that's passion fruit).  Also, I was pleased to discover that there was a pumpkin patch here on Maui!  Since I freakin' love October, and Halloween we just had to stop for a minute.

That's right, a pumpkin patch.  In Hawaii!

Check it out, pumpkins and the ocean in the same photo.

We then headed off to Lahaina to go shopping and get some dinner.  We also spent some time hanging around the banya tree.  This was neat since it is a single tree that has all these little off-shoots taking over an entire park.  

We didn't stay out too late since we were planning on going up to Haleakela the next morning for the sunrise.  We drug ourselves out of bed at about 3 am, and made the 2 hour drive up the mountain in the dark.  It was much colder than it was the last time I went up, but I was determined that this time I was going to get the best spot while waiting for the sunrise.  (Last time I went the look-out was completely overrun by tourists.)  I ended up sitting out on the ledge for about an hour bundled up in my blanket.  It was actually very cleansing, and somewhat relaxing to sit and read a book on my phone while waiting in the frigid pre-dawn morning.  I was not disappointed when the sun finally came up, and I got some excellent pictures of the sun.

There is a little building up on the summit.  My friends kinda hid out there since it was so stinking cold.

Haleakala means "house of the sun."  I think you can see why.

I always love going up for the sunrise.  Also, this is supposed to be one of the best places in the world for stargazing, but both times I've gone up, it has also been a full moon, so we haven't seen many stars. I'm already planning a trip up during a New Moon so I can stargaze!

The rest of the day was pretty busy, especially considering we were only running on a few hours of sleep.  We stopped at the Surfing Goat farm to try out some goat cheese, then we spent a few hours at the beach.  We finished off the night by going to a fancy luau at the Grand Wailea.

Here are some very nice young Polynesian men opening up the emu, or the Hawaiian oven where they bury a pig underground and cook it.  This is how you make kalua pork.  Yum!

The food was delicious, they had an unlimited supply of virgin pina coladas, and they even convinced me to get up on stage and learn the hula.  I had a blast!  Not to mention the whole performance complete with hula dancers, and fire dancers.
It was great fun to have some visitors.  We packed a ton of activities into just a couple of days, and I'm pretty sure I drove over 300 miles while they were here.  It was crazy!  This was just a brief glimpse, since I took about 150 pictures of the whole weekend.  Thanks for visiting!!

Visitors and a Tsunami

The weekend after I came back from the mainland, I had a couple of friends come to visit me.  My friend Kate was room-mates with me back during freshman year in college.  She got married later that year, but we've kept in contact ever since then.  She lives in California now, meaning we haven't seen each other for a couple of years.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited when she told me she was buying tickets to Maui!

She flew into Maui on Thursday night, and a friend of hers flew in with her.  Unfortunately I still had work on Friday, so they managed to entertain themselves for the day.

That weekend I got to play tour guide, and I'm pretty sure we packed about a month's worth of activities into about four days!  Here's a brief glimpse into our reunion weekend.
Saturday we spent the morning at the swap meet, then we took the trip around the island to Hana.  This will be my third trip around, and we stopped at a lot of the same places I'd been to before.

If you look closely, this sign warns us to stay back on account of the blowhole.  Clearly we had no qualms getting close to this sign!

Here is the aforementioned blowhole.  Oh yeah, and some kids that were perhaps a tad too close!

I saw this little graveyard.  I thought it looked kinda peaceful with the sunlight streaming through and hitting the surfboard...

Here's Kate looking rather pensive while enjoying the black sand beach,

I've been to these little lava tube freshwater pools before, and it proved just as difficult to get a picture as before.  What you can't see is that there is a cave filled with water, and this cave branches off to both the left and the right.  On my last visit here I had explored the extent of the cave, even though it is quite literally pitch black.  I was attempting to play tour guide, and coax my rather reluctant friends to swim to the back of the left lava tube.  However, as I started swimming I got a whiff of some rather potent smoke which was hovering over the top of the water.  Yes, my friends, someone was hiding in the back of the lava tube smoking pot.  The best part of the story was that despite us complaining and yelling, they didn't make a sound, (as if their smoke, and the abandoned pair of slippers at the top didn't give them away).  Well we decided to leave them to their own devices, and we got a good laugh out of it.

We made it around to Hana, then we headed back the way we came.  Too bad it got dark before we actually made it back.  That road is incredibly twisty so one of my passengers started getting carsick; it's a narrow, pitch black road through the jungle.  The drive back was a bit eerie.  It was even more eerie when about an hour after getting home I started getting all these text messages about a tsunami warning.
So... I'm from the mainland.  I don't know anything about tsunamis.  I kinda freaked out because the Kahului harbor, which is basically across the street from my apartment, historically gets hit the worst.  They were evacuating everyone in the "danger zone," and we were smack in the middle of that zone!  After making some calls, a good friend of mine offered her place for me and my two friends.  We ended up huddling around the TV watching everyone being evacuated on the news.  Apparently there was a rather large earthquake in Vancouver that sent waves toward the Hawaiian islands.  According to the experts, it's usually the 3rd or 4th wave that is the most destructive, and they come at 20 minute intervals.  That meant is was quite late into the night before they decided it wasn't as bad as initially predicted, and it was early the next morning when we were given the all clear.

After being evacuated for one, I started noticing evidence of past tsunami's all around the island.  These signs were posted all over the Big Island, but more on that later!

Anyway, after getting a nice little scare, and making my two guests sleep at a stranger's house, we were able to go back to my apartment.  Apparently we had gotten the worst of it in Maui, and despite reports of a 4 foot wave, there was no damage.

It was quite the adventure, and we were amused to find this being sold in the stores by the next day.  Yeah... I didn't buy one.

Utah "layover"

On my way back from Nebraska I had a multi-day "layover" in Vegas before flying back to Maui, meaning I got to visit my family for a few days.  Luckily my brothers happened to have a few days off of of school, so my mom planned all kinds of activities for us.  We spent a night up at my parent's cabin at Panguitch lake.  My mom made us some delicious dinner, I whipped up some guacamole, and we finished things up with warm razzleberry pie and ice cream.  It was delicious, and somehow we got sucked into this super boring Kevin Costner movie about cowboys because none of us had thought to bring a good movie to watch.

The next morning we drove over to Bryce Canyon to enjoy some four-wheeling.

After driving around on the 4-wheelers for a while we came across this amazing vista!  You can't tell, but those are pretty much sheer cliffs next to Mitchell.  Funny story.  Apparently I'm afraid of heights.  It totally freaked me out to get too close to the edge.  Maybe it's because I kept imagining that if I fell I'd end up clear at the bottom.  Fail.

They did manage to get me close enough to the edge to get a picture.  They did have to protect me in the middle, though.  Also, I would like to call attention to the fact that almost all of my "little" brothers are now taller than me.  I have a family of freaky giants!

My parents bought this crazy four-wheeler that honestly looked like a golf cart to me.  My brothers kinda freak me out with their driving so I was pretty grateful for the shoulder harness seat-belt.  They finally convinced me to ride in it, and then I didn't want to get out (mostly because I somehow managed to find the harness too complicated).  We drove back out to the main road, and we were totally covered in dust.  We then got some yummy dinner at this rustic little place where my turkey sandwich with "cranberry sauce" was actually turkey with super thick slices of cranberry straight from the can!  It was delicious once I managed to tone down the cranberry preserves.

That night we attempted to make it to the hot tub at the hotel, but somehow we missed the fact that the pool closed at 10, not 11.  We got kicked out by this obnoxious hotel worker literally 5 minutes after we got in.. so we stole a bunch of towels.



The next morning we actually went into the park and wandered around a bit.  My parents and Carson went up and down the trail, and Mitch, Calvin, and I totally watched them from above!  Mitch busted out some music on his phone (which echoed halfway down the canyon) and we had fun taking random pictures.  Honestly I was slightly concerned I might pass out trying to climb back up any switchbacks since I had been living at sea level for a couple of months.  Hence the fun perched on the rim!

I may live in Hawaii, but I have to say that Bryce Canyon is one of my very favorite places to be!

That evening I got to spend some time with a couple of old friends from High School.  My friend Lindsay recently moved back into the area, and her, my friend Reece, my brother Blake, and my other friend Blake drove down to St. George for a haunted corn maze.  I had a really good time, and it was nice to be able to catch up with those people!

Next morning we drove up to meet with my mom's side of the family, who had gathered for the deer hunt.  There were several cousins there whom I hadn't seen for years, not to mention all their kids I didn't recognize!  Extended family is such a blast.  We had even more yummy food, and got a chance to catch up.  All-in-all the entire trip was a nice break.  It's a bit strange when having a vacation actually means leaving Hawaii, but I couldn't believe how nice it was to experience the fall weather and see the family!

October in Nebraska

Last post I was in Nebraska for a wedding.  I ended up sticking around Omaha for a couple of days to spend time with some friends, and to soak in all the Halloween festivities I could possibly get myself involved in!

The wedding was on Saturday, and Monday we took a trip out to Vala's pumpkin patch for the day.  Funny story, Zach and Laura totally came with us.  It was just like old times, and it was amazing!!

I just love Halloween, and everything associated with it!!

"Hold the pumpkin for a picture."
"I don't want to pick it up."
"Okay, well touch it then!"

Laura and her super cute green pumpkin.  She doesn't discriminate.

Our awesome hayrack ride.

We went on a train ride, just like all the kids!

They had these ridiculous peddle carts you could race around on. 

They had these giant trampoline bubbles, and luckily there was one for the adults to jump on.

Me, Zach, Gabbi, Will, and Laura.
After jumping on the bubbles, we sat around and watched all the ridiculous people with their children.  Also, judging by some of the jokers we saw, holding hands and getting all cuddly while jumping on a trampoline is much harder than you would think.

Later that day we went and saw Hotel Transylvania, then hit up Amsterdam for dinner.  Yum!  What a fun blast from the past.

Wedding weekend

One of my very best friends got married last weekend, and he asked me to be part of the wedding party.  The wedding was in Omaha, and even though it took two layovers and nearly a day to travel out there, it was totally worth it!  I flew out Thursday night and, after a six hour flight attempting to sleep next to a stranger, made it to Vegas.  Long story short, by the time I made it into Omaha I was totally beat.  Good thing we had a rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and bachelor/bachelorette party that night!  

Zach, Will, and I reunited at the rehearsal for the wedding.

 I was soooo excited for this trip because I got to see Zach and Laura get married.  Plus, it was like having a big reunion in Omaha.  We even had several former Elders come back to visit (and be in the wedding party).  Plus, I love fall, and I have really been missing fall living in Hawaii.  (Believe it or not, you actually can get sick of year-round 80 degree weather!)  Well I got my wish because it was freezing the night of the rehearsal, but after that we had beautiful weather.

After we figured out how to walk down the isle properly, we had dinner, and then a combined bachelor bachelorette party at the bowling alley.  I brought back a little bit of paradise with me in the form of flower leis for the wedding party.  (The boys got some fancy yarn leis.)  I actually ended up getting one of my highest scores our first game, but things rapidly deteriorated so I let Will or Chase bowl for several of my turns.

All the bridesmaids slept in a suite together, and the next day was filled with wedding events.  All the ladies went to get their hair and makeup done at the salon.  It was so much fun because we totally went in our pajamas (or at least I did) and had juice and bagels while they made us look beautiful!

Here I am with my hair and makeup all fancy!

After the ladies spent 4 hours getting ready (and the boys spent like 15 minutes) we met up for a whole bunch of pictures in this gorgeous park in Omaha.

The groomsmen in their berry and navy.  They also had really cool socks, but you can't really tell.

The bridesmaids.  We were worried it might be cold or raining, which is why we had all that stuff.  However, it was beautiful weather for the wedding.  In fact, it was almost a bit too warm!

Because Zach is a fellow Diet Coke addict, of course we had Cokes at the wedding party table for the toast!

Cutting the cake.  These two were incredibly nice.  It was kinda sweet!

This was such a fun night, and it was awesome to see Zach and Laura so happy.  I also got to see all kinds of people from Omaha that I haven't seen since I moved.  I loved it!

Snorkeling adventures

Living on an island, we have some excellent places for snorkeling, and scuba diving.  I haven't found a dive certified friend, so I haven't done any dives yet.  However, I've gone out snorkeling several times.  Maui is unique since we have several islands just off shore, including the crater of Molikini.  This is a small, half-moon shaped island about an hour off-shore that offers some excellent diving!  I managed to convince a couple of my friends from work to book a tour on a boat two weeks ago, and we had a total blast out snorkeling.

The boat pulled out of the dock around 7:30 am on Saturday, which made for a rather early start to my weekend.  It was about an hour boat ride, and we spent several hours in the water.  They fed us a delicious breakfast, and a rather early kalua pork sandwich for lunch.  I think I had just as much fun with the boat ride as I did with the actual snorkeling!

Me and my friend Sophia on the boat.

We rented an underwater camera, and we went crazy taking all kinds of awesome pictures!

We went for a little drive around the crater

On the way back to the harbor, we stopped to spot some sea turtles.
We saw several, but it was hard to get a good picture.

 I've been out snorkeling a couple of other times just off the beach.  I've ran into these huge turtles on different occasions, and they are actually really fun to swim with.  They are probably as big as I am, and despite the fact that they are very docile, their size sometimes makes me a bit nervous.  I followed one of the turtles around for about ten minutes before I finally got bored.

The next day was Sunday, and it also happened to be General Conference.  This was an interesting experience for me, since I usually have a big breakfast and watch conference with a bunch of friends.  Since I have moved, I didn't get to do that this year.  Also, due to the time difference, Conference started at 6 am for us here in the islands!  Unfortunately I was mostly unconscious for the morning session, but once I woke up I spent the day baking delicious cinnamon rolls, and listening to Conference on the internet.  It was wonderful!