Aloha!

Much has happened since last I wrote and I could make several blogs out of what I have to tell, so here we go.

We have a home! And stuff to put in it! The movers showed up 10 days ago and delivered all of our goods. It all got here in one piece save for our microwave, which they busted in. They're supposed to refund us for it. It feels so nice to have our stuff; it makes this place more like home.

 

Once our stuff arrived we were a little overwhelmed at the amount of furniture we had to buy. We didn't have a desk, bookshelf, table, sofa, chairs, coffee table, patio furntiture, or dresser. We either didn't have those things when we were living in Oregon or we tossed most of it because it was cheap. Well, we got home from church a week ago and our neighbors were PCSing out, so they gave us their new grill, patio furniture (with a beautiful stone table!), a weedeater and a desk. A day later a friend in the ward gave us their couch and love seat. We didn't have to pay a dime for any of it. What a blessing.

Those pillows actually belong on our bed. The original brown pillows are back on it now. I was trying to see what would look good- trying to brighten up the color.  Any thoughts?

The chairs are beat up, so I'm reupholstering the chair seat and sanding/spray painting the metal. I think it's gonna look great.

This is Sam's project. He spray painted the doors and is polishing off the rusted top.

This is my favorite spot in the house.

People leave tons of garbage on the side of the road, and I found this and took it. I spray painted it for a pop of color- it was free, so if didn't turn out then no harm to me!

I'm going to paint this wall a light green.

Last week Sam had a retreat (bivouac- hard word to spell, let me tell you) at Bellows. It's a camp site right on the beach for military members. He spent a few days practicing mock deployment work and then I came up and joined him for the last day. It made me really excited to go camping later. There are more pines on the island than I first realized. Seeing them made me think of camping in Oregon.

Another hard day in the Air Force.

We finally made it out to the Dole Plantation. There isn't much to do there besides eating and shopping. They have a train tour and a maze, but I heard the train is really boring, and it was raining so we didn't feel like getting lost in a maze (although, their maze is famous for being really elaborate- might be fun to do with younger kids). That being said, I would happily drive out to Dole just eat their pineapple soft serve. It's the same soft serve you can find at Dole stands in Disneyland, except without the crazy long wait in the hot sun like you have at Disneyland.

We bought some Dole t-shirts and then walked through some of the pineapple fields. I didn't realize there were so many varieties of pineapple! The one we eat is a Somoan Cayenne pineapple. There's a bright red pineapple called a "Ruby" that I would love to try someday. It takes pineapple between 18-24 months to grow, so from one pineapple bush you can get 2 pineapples every 4 years or 3 every 5 years. No wonder pineapples are so expensive- they take forever to grow! That being said, pineapples are supposed to be really easy to grow. We saw a demo on planting a pineapple and it's pretty cool.

Spam update!

This isn't the demo we saw, but one I found on youtube (surprisingly hard to find a good pineapple planting video. Must be a dole conspiracy).

And for my doctor friends out there, I found this amusing. This little pineapple is about the size of my fist.

Sam wanted to feed the fish.

We'd love to get a Hawaiian quilt to put up on our wall, but they are expensive. A full size quilt was $800 and this one was $100 with military discount. This is the prettiest one I've seen. Maybe I'll get lucky and Sam will get it for me *cough*.

 I'm going to have to divide this post up into two. I'll tell you about memorial day and fruit hunting later!

Hanauma Bay Hike and St. Andrew's Cathedral

Aloha!

I've made a friend in Kat Wondolowski, even though her last name is impossible to spell (she really can't help it ;) She convinced me to wake up at 4 am so we could hike along Hanauma Bay and see the sunrise. Although it was an early morning, it was well worth the lack of sleep. The hike wasn't strenuous and we made it to the top within 30 minutes. How beautiful and how warm, even at 5 am! The experience reminded me of going on walks/hikes in Oregon. The air carried an early-morning-earthy smell I associate with Medford. It was just what I needed.

Views like these remind me why people hate my guts. 

The longer I'm here the more I want to get a really good camera. An iphone just doesn't capture the beauty and the lighting. Of course, if I bought a camera, then I'd probably have to take some photography classes. All in all, photography isn't cheap, but I think it's well worth it. 

I've learned that it's not even worth it to buy things off the base because A) No tax on base B) prices are cheaper on base and C) parking sucks everywhere else. I need to tattoo this on my arm so that if I ever think it's worth it to shop off base I'll remember these tried and tested truths. Case in point: I bought some dishes from Ross in Pearl City. I took the dishes home and realized they don't ]match for what I had in mind. Because the drive to Pearl City took forever, I found a closer Ross in Downtown Honolulu. It was closer, but then I had to pay for parking. My dishes cost $20 and parking cost....$10. You do the math. Then I was stuck with the dilemma of whether I should waste more time and gas money driving clear across to that other Ross. Convenience won out and I swallowed the parking fee (I might add that all parking meters were taken- I checked). I returned the dishes, a process that took about 10 minutes- oh, I might add that the price was $10 for only ONE HOUR. 

Wanting to make the most of my hour I walked around the town until I found this wonderful Catholic Cathedral. It was just what I needed for my irritated spirit. I'm not Catholic but I found the grounds spiritually refreshing. I didn't see a single soul on the grounds, so I had it all to my self. I know the Catholic church has its own polluted history (indulgences anyone?) but I liked to think that the people who built the cathedral, carved out the pillars and constructed the stained glass did it out of humble piety to honor their maker. That's something I can appreciate. 

Ending more on a contemplative note this time- promise next time will be more spunky!

Honolulu Zoo, our mangy cat and other things

Aloha!

We've had the pleasure of making several friends since we've been in Hawaii. I'm excited to share pictures of them as time goes on. This last Saturday we went with the Miller family to Honolulu Zoo. As far as Sam can remember, he's never been to a zoo- although he's been to many aquariums. We saw lions and tigers and-actually there weren't any bears, and the tiger wasn't out, so just lions. And peacocks. Lots of peacocks. We went during the heat of the day so most of the animals were passed out for a midday siesta, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

 The Millers, Jared and Meredith

And yes, Jared is 6'6".

They are also standing next to a plantain/banana tree. 

A flamingo where it should be: in a zoo and not in someone's front yard. 

       

 Weird crocodile-like thing, that isn't a crocodile. Sorry, can't remember its name. 

A white handed Gibbon

A Lemur

A Hippo

A Peacock (Did you know that only males have colorful plumage?)

A Rhino. 

They have a prominent upper lip that functions as a tool, 

called a "prehensile lip". Look it up, it's kinda cool. 

A Giraffe. They have really large purple tongues. 

A Bleeding Heart Pigeon.

Okay, these birds are REALLY cool. Scientists don't know why but they have a bullet shaped splotch of red color in their chests that looks like a bleeding heart. One of those cool things about nature. 

On a completely different note, Sam and I are proud parents of a scrawny feral cat that has adopted our car port as its home.

Sam took pity on the poor thing and gave it some meat. Bad idea. The cat learned we are suckers and will feed its ratty hide, so it sticks around. Honestly, I don't mind. We feed it enough to keep him around, and he keeps us safe from things like pigeons. He left this on our side walk.

Bless him.
I just hope he has a taste for mice and rats because I've heard from several people that they can be a problem.
We haven't thought of a name yet. Any ideas?

We've started our landscape-make over on the front yard. I had great intentions of helping Sam, but Sam is just so capable he gets everything done in a jiffy, so I've become the official picture taker. That and there are a lot of bugs. I don't like bugs, although I am getting desensitized to them. Just last night Sam saved me from a large cockroach with foot long antennae while I was bare foot in the bathroom (okay the antennae were only an inch long, but hey, I was bare foot). I didn't scream, which I think shows how far I've come.

I'll post pictures on the finished product once we're done. We want to lay down rock, but it's going to get $$, so we are weighing our options. I guess we'll see!

And last but not least, my food pic.

Sunshine in a bowl. The trick to a good pineapple isn't in the picking but in the waiting. You have to wait for your pineapple to get nice and fragrant. You'll know it's ready when you walk by and you are inundated with pineapple smell. It'll also have a nice golden yellow color. I also read that you should flip the pineapple over the day you want to eat it because all of the sugar that has pooled towards the bottom of the pineapple will be more evenly distributed- it'll be sweet throughout. We tried that method and the pineapple tasted really good, but I really think the trick is to just wait.

Bon Appetite!