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.

January?

Oh hey, it's been a while since I last did anything.  Honestly, it's because I haven't been up to anything terribly exciting.  Well, when I say nothing terribly exciting I mean I've been having an 80 degree winter with NO SNOW!  Yeah, it's been awesome.

February

March

The awesome (and sometimes kinda crappy) thing about Maui is there really isn't that much to do, especially when the weather is wet.  Hiking is dangerous due to flash floods, and beaches become a bit too cold for swimming.  Anyway, awesome because I really just tend to kick around and relax.  I've discovered that even an overcast day is kinda nice to just go sit and read a book on the beach.
Don't get too jealous because honestly I've just been working a lot lately.  However, we do get Federal - and a couple random Hawaiian state - holidays off.  Martin Luther King day (January 21) we decided to go out whale watching.

My whaling buddies, Jarom and Sheila, who also had the day off thanks to Martin!

During the winter, hundreds of humpback whales migrate to Maui to give birth to calves and allow them time to grow.  This means that at any given time when you're out on the water you are likely to see whale breeches.  We had a good time spotting whales, but I didn't really get any good pictures.

January I also discovered The Big Bang Theory (the TV show, not the actual theory - with a degree in Biology one would hope that I had already been introduced to that).  Hilarious!

That was pretty much it for January.  It was over before I hardly even realized it!

Oh what fun!

The best part of Christmas this year was I got to go home and see my family!  I couldn't believe how much I missed my brothers.  Also, I can't get over how much they have grown up.  I know I sound like a proud mamma when I say this, but I seriously remember when they were tiny!  It was so much fun to hang around with my teenage little bros during the break.  We had a great time watching movies, eating junk food, playing cards, driving around Cedar, and pretty much wasting time together.

This is Calvin.  He's 14.  Are you enjoying his super sweet hair-do, because I totally am!  Does it remind you of anything?  Here's a clue:

Hahahaha.  By the by, I chose this picture because I think he looks particularly floofy, and also kinda ugly.  Anyway, we were teasing poor Calvin about his "Edward hair," even though I actually liked Calvin's sense of style.  He's a pretty awesome little dude!

The Brown side of our family traditionally has a bingo night and white elephant gift exchange every Christmas.  Most of the fun for us happens beforehand since we've historically been rather creative with our white elephants.  Besides, what with most of the cousins being a bit too young to really understand most of the humor, we usually just laugh at the weird crap we manage to dump on our poor aunt Teri!  (It really freaks her out to get stuck with random crap.)  I don't honestly remember what most of the stuff was, but this one was a winner!  Please note the super creepy, moderately stained, hot pink princess chair right behind Mitchell.  That thing was disgusting.

I guess this is the most hard-core apron out there.  Actually, it was some kind of fluid-protection suit.  However, we couldn't get over the back-side of this beauty -

- Mostly because it didn't have one!!  Yeah, that does you a lot of good.  Hopefully you don't sit on anything while you're "fluid protecting" yourself.  Also, my brother's a total creeper and he has a gas mask and an old man mask on.  I guess he puts that mask in his car, and will randomly slap it on to scare his fellow motorists...  Call me crazy, but I totally get it!

Also, it wouldn't be a Christmas blog without me posting a picture that gets someone into trouble.  Namely the dog who sheds like mad, and isn't allowed inside because of that nasty habit of hers.  She is a snuggly little buddy, though!
While we're on the subject of dogs, this is Blake's roommate's dog Wrigley.

He's a boxer puppy, and I couldn't get over how cute he was!  Blake couldn't get over how stupid he looked in this sweater (that was a gift from the roommate's girlfriend).  I have to say that I'm on a dog kick because I really, really want to buy one.

And those are all the pictures I took!  Christmas Eve my brothers were still out shopping for each other, then we enjoyed our usual CE fondu.  I drew my brother Mitchell for the secret santa gift exchange, so he received a beautiful ukulele.  After that we had fun attempting to mimic Tiny Tim on our ukes.



Yeah... that dude is a freak.  The brothers like this song because it's on Sponge Bob.  Go figure.