Vacation for Graduation

Getting towards the end of April I realized I still had a plethora of vacation days saved up, and because of our residency's regulations, I had to use them all up before the end of May.  I had originally intended to go to Kauai with a friend, but we went to Big Island for the weekend instead.  Plus, flights to Kauai, even from Maui, were surprisingly expensive!  So I decided that since my younger brother was graduating from High School, and expecting his mission call, I would fly home for the duration of the vacation time!  (Yes, I know, seems strange to take a vacation away from Hawaii.)

Because I'm a proud sister, I provided a whole bundle of authentic Hawaiian leis for my brother, two of my cousins, and several of my brother's friends.  Mitchell even got a real tea leaf lei - the traditional male lei - along with a whole other pile of leis.  It seems to be a Hawaiian tradition to make a grad wear as many leis as possible, and who am I to argue with Hawaiian tradition?  Haha.

His graduation was May 23rd, and I got there in time to help my mother set up for a joint grad dinner with Mitchell, and my two cousins Whitney and Britney.  I helped make sweet pork, and my mom had some interesting cakes for the grads!

Whitney, Mitchell, and Britney.

Those cakes are supposed to be lockers... whatever.

Graduation was oddly nostalgic for me since my same choir director had the choir sing the same songs we had done for my graduation.  It was so fun to see Mitch graduate, especially since I had missed Blake's graduation four years prior.  So proud of him!

All the sibs minus one.  Blake, Carson, Mitchell, Calvin, and me.  Just missing Randall.

Mitchell and his friend Marshall.  He actually lived on the Big Island for a couple of months.

Part of the crowd cheering for our grad!

Mitch and his neck candy!  He didn't even wear all of the leis I brought for him.

Mitch and my parents left that night to go on a grad trip to Disneyland, CA.  I was a little bit jealous of the Disneyland thing, but I was not jealous that it was a marathon bus trip with no hotel to sleep in.  Instead I got to stay home and play with the puppies, and hang out with my other brothers!

No sleep tonight!

Because I love movies so much, I was excited to discover my coworker (and friend) Michelle also loves movies.  Not only that, she liked most of the ones I liked, and we had a great time seeing them together on Saturday nights.  She's also the one who got me into getting massages up in Makawau, but that's another story.

Sophia, Michelle, and I decided we wanted to make a sunrise trip up Haleakela, but I specifically wanted to go up early enough for stargazing.  Because of that, we specifically planned for a weekend as close to a new moon as possible.

We planned for May 10th, which also happened to be the release weekend for The Great Gatsby.  I was super excited because I love Leonardo DiCaprio, and I even read the book in preparation.  So we met up for the movie, which I actually really liked, but what a moody, depressing story!  After the movie we got all set up to head up the mountain.  By then it was around 1:30 am, and it took us about 2 hours to drive up the mountain.  By the time we reached the summit it was around 3:30am, and we were the only car in the parking lot.  The other two ladies were ready to take a little nap in the car, but I was only interested in climbing up to the lookout and gazing at the stars.  The summit of Haleakeala has been noted as one of the best places in the US for stargazing because of the utter isolation, and the altitude.  I found this to be true.  The view was absolutely astounding, with no city lights visible, I could see the vast expanse of the Milky Way.  Not to mention the absolute silence of being the only person at the top of my world.  Amazing!

Unfortunately my camera isn't exactly equipped to take pictures at night, so I can't take credit for this photo.  But this is pretty accurate!

After getting my fill I went back to the car for a very short cat nap.  I didn't sleep much - I mostly was attempting not to disturb Michelle and Sophia.  The parking lot gradually filled as sunrise got closer, and all three of us made our way to the lookout to watch the sun peek over the horizon.  Unfortunately it was fairly overcast, so the sunrise wasn't nearly as dramatic as on my previous trips.  It still was glorious, and the stargazing made the trip well worth it!

Very overcast.  We were actually driving in fog most of the way both up and down which made me just a little bit nervous, but it was also very exciting!

We were all perched like ants on a hillside bundled up in our various sweaters, coats, blankets, and even the occasional borrowed hotel towel.

Yes, it was pretty cold.  Good thing I had my trusty blanket!

A somewhat blurry Michelle.  Sophia was hiding from the camera!

Michelle looking out over the island.

This just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.  I love Maui!!

After several photo ops we eventually made our way back down the mountain.  After dropping the two ladies off I made it back to my bed around 6:30am having slept less than 30 minutes in my car the previous night.  Did I mention I was the driver too?  I have to say, it was totally worth it!  If you're ever in Maui and you get the chance, go up for stargazing!

Back to the Big

April 26-28th I had a crazy weekend.  A friend of mine invited me to go see the Big Island earlier that week, but after trying to figure out flights, it just wasn't working out.  It wasn't until I got to work and most of my afternoon patients cancelled that I decided I was going to go. I literally bought my tickets at work, left work early, went home and packed, and called a cab to take me to the airport within about three hours.  

I met up with my friend Kahaili at the airport, and our adventure began!  We had a total marathon adventure that weekend.  We started by driving up the coast to Waimea and meeting up with Kahaili's cousin Kaika.  We partied it up at a disco-themed single's dance in Waimea with glow sticks and plenty of delicious food.  We then went to Kaika's house where we spent the night catching up with Kahaili's aunty.  What a wonderful, sweet family!  Hawaiians are amazing like that - they will literally open their home, and their heart to you.  

Saturday we were up early to go out for breakfast at Hawaiian Style Cafe.  I tried some delicious loco moco, and was completely stuffed which wasn't exactly ideal since our next activity was hiking.  We drove up to the north end of the island to Poiolu valley where we hiked down in to the black rock beach, then puffed our way back up the top.

View from the top.  This valley was steep enough that you can't see into it very well.

If one were motivated enough, there is an entire series of valleys you can hike into.  Just hike up the opposite side, then back down into the next valley.

This is Kaika.  Apparently this is what you do when you find a crab at the beach!

At the beach.  This is one of those unusual Hawaiian black beaches.  Pretty rough for swimming, but still gorgeous!

Sadly we didn't plan very well for our hike.  We didn't bring any water, so our first stop was a gas station to get gatorades and a huge water bottle.  After that we made a beach trip and spent a couple of hours swimming.  We also visited the site of an ancient Hawaiian temple, and took the time to check out a visitors museum about King Kamehameha.

That evening Kaika had to work, so Kahaili and I drove to Kona to go bowling with a friend of hers that we had run into at the single's dance.  That was a treat for me because I love to bowl, and there wasn't a bowling alley on Maui.

One of my big regrets the last time we visited the Big Island was we never saw any lava.  So this trip that became one of my focus points.  After poking around the internet, and making several phone calls, we managed to line up a sunrise volcano tour!  It was a bit of an adventure, since it was a two or three hour drive to get down to the recent flow.  So Kahaili, Kaika, and I drove to Hilo to spend the night at his aunty's so we could be up Sunday before the crack of dawn to meet with our tour.  I really think we only got maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep that night, but it was totally worth it!

Funny story, at the launch site there was more than one boat tour meeting up in the dark.  We very nearly climbed on with the wrong tour because there was another Brown registered!  Luckily we got things straightened out, and I was pleased to discover that instead of being packed onto a boat with twenty other people, we got our own private tour with just the three of us and the crew.  It was a blast to cruise around on the ocean, and absolutely amazing to see the lava flows!

Sunrise from the boat.  We had to drive about 30 minutes to get to the actual flow.

 I took an inordinate amount of pictures.  I couldn't believe how close we were able to get.  It was like being in a sauna with all the steam put off by the lava hitting the ocean.  Not to mention that the ocean temperature was drastically warmer.  I loved it!  It was a little bit eerie to see how the entire coastline had been remodeled, and entire homes, and villages had been overrun by lava flows in the past.

The first major flow we saw.  Incredible!!

Poor Kaika wasn't exactly doing so hot.  He had trouble with getting sea sick, so he was dosed with dramamine.  He was only slightly tipsy!

The lava tour was definitely the highlight of my trip.  The rest of Sunday was a bit of a haze for me due to my general lack of sleep.  After getting some breakfast in Hilo, we decided we would make a road trip around the entire island!  This was so fun because while site seeing we played all kinds of road games, and told jokes, and sang along to the radio, and imitated all kinds of accents.  I was so glad I got to do this trip with these two!

We headed back to Maui that evening, and it was back to work the next day.  Hooray!

Springtime

With my time winding down in Maui, I pretty much just spent the spring enjoying the beach and doing all the last things remaining on my list!

This definitely included enjoying the delicious food.

Caterpillar roll.  Yum yum.  Yep, sushi is one of my favs, and the fish just doesn't get more fresh than on an island!

Sea glass hunting with Sandy!

Searching for sea glass on the north shore.

Pretty sure I spent nearly every Sunday afternoon, and most Saturdays out on the beach.  A lot of the times on Saturdays my friend Sandy and I would go out early to get in some good snorkeling before the wind picked up and brought in the surf.  It was great fun, and I got a lot of use out of my sweet GoPro.  Most of the time we would be out till late in the afternoon, then head to Monkey Pod for happy hour, or get pulled pork sandwiches at the 808.

This is definitely my happy place.

We also went to First Friday a couple of times.  Every Friday of the month, one of the cities on the island would host a street fair.  The first week of the month was always in Wailuku, so we decided to check it out.  Basically they shut down the main street, and there are all kinds of vendors, bands, and delicious local food stands lining the road.  So fun!

Between work and beach Sundays, I managed to go see all kinds of fun movies, and get somewhat addicted to spam.  All in all, a pretty exciting spring for me.

The Units

March was exciting because the parental units came out to visit me on Maui.  My parents have been to the island several times, and definitely knew all the fun tourist things they like to do.  I got to take a couple of days off work to hang out with them, and show them the local side of the island.

The first day I took them to my favorite beach, Keawakapu.  My dad, enjoying the view!

Unfortunately it was actually a bit cold when we were just sitting on the beach.  However, it felt good to them since there was no snow!

One of the major things we did while they were in Maui was go Scuba diving.  Although I'm dive certified I didn't dive much when I was in Maui simply because I didn't have a dive buddy, and it's kinda an expensive hobby.  We got up early in the morning and took a boat out to Molokini, a crater a couple of miles off the coast.  We did a wall dive on the back side of the crater where the ocean floor is a steep drop off to several hundred feet, and there's a strong current.  We stayed above 120 feet, but this dive was a bit of a spooky adventure.  We did another dive clear down around the tip of Maui through some fun lava formations and lava tubes.  The next morning we did another deep dive out at the crater, then we finished up the day at a wreck dive.  We saw lots of fun wildlife including sharks, turtles, eels, lobster, and tons of fish.  It was a total rush to be back diving after a nearly three year hiatus!

At the wreck dive checking out my turtle buddy!

 My dad bought a GoPro just to take diving.  It was fantastic!  However, he mostly took videos, and not very many pictures.  The best part was when they left, I inherited the GoPro and it became my early birthday, or something.

We got in plenty of beach time, and drove around to see the blowhole.  My dad is also particularly fond of Bubba Gump's shrimp shack.  So much so that we ate there twice while they were there!  I also took them to a couple of my favorite places, and we spent our last evening at Mama's Fish House, an incredibly fancy and delicious local favorite.

Looking down at the blowhole.  It wasn't really impressive when we came - it's pretty dependent on the tides and currents.

Some thoughtful person had decided to place signs all around warning off careless Mainlander's.  

It was nice to have my parents come visit.  It felt like an incredibly short visit - which it was - because of flight delays, and my dad needing to get back for church obligations on Sunday.  However, I was glad to see them, and glad they got to check out my Maui life!

Puppy Love

Let's do a quick re-cap.  The beginning of March my co-workers and I all started getting puppy crazy.  My friend Michelle flew over to O'ahu and picked up a papillon puppy, and started sharing all kinds of fun puppy stories.  My other coworker Melanie was also considering getting a Pomeranian puppy for her daughter.  So when Michelle told me there was a litter of Maltese puppies listed on Craig's List, I too got very excited about puppies!  Seriously, I've been wanting a dog for years, and just haven't been in a good situation to have one.  Plus, finding a particular breed of dog on Maui is actually pretty difficult, and I've definitely wanted a Maltese.  I figured that since I was finally done with school, and I was heading back to Cedar to work, I was ready to get a dog.

I drove over and met the puppy, and immediately fell in love!

What a cuddly little guy!  He just loved to snuggle with me.

I very seriously considered getting this little guy, and had already worked out how I could fly him back to the Mainland when I moved.  I named him Chewbacca, and he came to stay with me.  However, probably less than a week after I had decided to buy him (and a day or two after I picked him up), I found that I had to make some changes with my work plans, and suddenly my future was a lot more uncertain.  I finally decided that since I wasn't entirely sure where I was going to be six months down the line, getting a dog wasn't a very smart decision.  Chewy ended up staying with me until the new owner was able to come pick him up, which was a lot of fun, but it did make it harder to say goodbye!

Now that I've moved back to the Mainland I've decided I won't be staying in Cedar City long term, and I'm glad that I didn't end up keeping my little Maltese puppy.  Besides, I've really enjoyed playing with my parent's dogs in the meantime.  Believe me, I will be getting a dog for real when I figure out my life!

February

I decided that Facebook and Blogger are my go-tos when it comes to wanting to procrastinate something.  I submit that I haven't posted in a long time because I no longer am avoiding studying!

So here's a brief catch-up for February.  I got in a bunch of snorkeling, and a lot of beach time.  However, considering that February was actually the "cold" season over here, I didn't do too much of that.  Being the festive person that I am, I love holidays, even if I have a slight distaste for Valentine's.  I directed my holiday energies into baking this month, and I even got sucked into Pinterest for like 5 minutes.  That's how I managed to pull together this overly complex Valentine's recipe!

That's right, red velvet lava cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting.  I cheated and used a box mix, but I did make my own homemade ganache.  Yum.  Baking is one of my favorite past times, but I don't do it much unless I know I can pawn stuff off on the people at work!  They seemed the enjoy the cupcakes, and I got a little treat of my own that day.

Roses made from duct tape.  I also was treated to a very fancy, very nice dinner by the boat yard.  Cute!
Unfortunately Valentine's got a bit overshadowed by the news that one of my brothers had fallen from the roof and shattered his wrist.  He went to the ER, and was told he needed surgery.  Funny guy.

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little bit surprised this was the first time he has ended up in the hospital for self-inflicted injuries.  I was just glad he was okay, and I think he's glad he can get back to weight lifting.  Haha.