Southern Utah Tour

To make my Mainland trip worthwhile, I stayed in Cedar for almost 10 days, and used up all my left over vacation time.  I also got two very fun visitors while in Cedar.

Two of my good Omaha buddies drove down from Salt Lake while they were both off from school/residency.  Dave was using up vacation time at the end of his dental residency, and Stephen was in Provo with his family enjoying a brief break before moving to Wisconsin for his medical residency.  They stayed at my parent's house, and I gave them a brief tour of Southern Utah.

My family has quite a bit of mountain property that used to belong to my grandfather.  Hence we have a nice collection of ATV equipment, including a ranger.  I strapped these guys into the Ranger, and we took off up the mountain!

Dave strapped into the Ranger driving through Cedar.

Calvin after arriving at the top.  He was driving a 4-wheeler up the very dusty trail.

Dave after tearing around behind one of the brothers.

Steve was very concerned about me wreaking.  Hence the helmet.

We enjoyed the ride, had a little weenie and mallow roast, drove around the property, then headed back down the mountain.  It was very dry and dusty, but I think the guys had a good time!  We finished off the night by playing some card games.  The next morning we were up moderately early to drive down to Kolob and Red Cliffs.

After getting only slightly lost, we made it into Red Cliffs.  Not bad considering I literally hadn't been there since High School nine years ago.  Red Cliffs is a series of slot canyons extending through the red rocks of Southern Utah, and it felt good to get back to my hometown backyard.  The guys seemed to really enjoy the beautiful red rock formations, and we had a good time posing for pictures!

Taking pictures on this log with a timer.

Dave climbing a tree.

A yucca plant.  The state plant of New Mexico!

Climbing along some footholds around a large "puddle" or whatever.  Those girls were swimming, but we'd neglected to bring our suits!

Dave.  Being Dave.

We though this old rotting stump looked a lot like an elephant.  Here we are demonstrating our trunks.

After the drive we ate some delicious Jimmy John sandwiches, then we wandered around the SUU campus and caught some rehearsals for the Shakespearean Festival.  All in all a great day!  So glad these guys came to visit, and even more glad to have had such great friends out in Omaha!

In the Adams Theater - modeled after Shakespeare's Globe theater.

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.