Manoa Falls Hike

Aloha!

This past Saturday we joined up with our friends, the Millers + Meredith's mother, and hiked Manoa Falls. It's a pretty hike, not very long (1.5 miles round trip) and the 160 foot water fall is nice too. Apparently there are three other falls you can see if you hike farther. We didn't, but we may at a later time. I've been itching for another hike or something outdoorsy, so it was great.

There's a restaurant at the parking lot that served Hawaiian Shaved ice. We indulged and got "small" size treats (small as in 8 inch piles of sugar and ice). We were both really pooped after the hike (Sam biked 40something miles that morning), so we had a lazy "It's take out for dinner" sort of night.

And finally, our cat Scruffy. He's been sleeping on our porch since it's been raining more. He's just so darn cute. I tried to get a closer picture, but he wakes up every time I try.

Anniversary and cooking

Aloha!

Sam and I celebrated our third Anniversary on August 22nd. Sam took the day off and we treated ourselves to a fun day. Sam was in charge of activities from morning until 2 pm and I was in charge of the evening. I woke up to a nice french toast breakfast and my own copy of the Fablehaven series (He knows me too well!).

Later we went to the Arts and Crafts center on base, only to discover that the ceramics and pottery section was closed under construction (they couldn't have told Sam that two days previous when he went in to make sure they'd be open??). Undeterred we found another ceramics shop on Ward Ave called "Clay Cafe". It was a great place, a little expensive but just what we wanted. We spent several hours there, but didn't finish. We had to come back another day (me two more days) before we finished painting.

For lunch we found a sushi place (yummy spicy Ahi tuna Tempura!). We were pretty tired, so like the old fuddy duddies that we are took a nap at our place instead of heading up to Haleiwa. My plan was to drive to Waimea and go cliff jumping, then walk around Haleiwa and go shopping, but that ended up not happening. Instead we got nice and purdy and went out to eat at PF Chang's for dinner. We ended the night eating my friend's famous chocolate cake. It's positively decadent and she made it for our anniversary. I set up candles, flowers, and the cake. I also had my own gift for Sam (which was really a gift for me :-) the new Hunger Games DVD. 

As far as life goes, things move along here. I'm leading the Roadshow in our ward and we perform in three weeks. It has its good and tense moments, but it's exciting to be doing some musical theater/acting again, even if it's as director. I've found a little job picking up kids from school and tutoring two days a week. It's a great chance to get out of the house and interact with some fund kids. I really enjoy teaching, and look forward to being a mom helping my kids with their homework...if they'll let me.

There have been more culinary adventures in the Groover home. I borrowed my friends dutch oven and made some awesome artisan bread. It was GREAT and I want to buy my own dutch oven now. I also made pretzels for the first time. It was an auntie Anne's copy cat recipe and they turned out a little sweeter than I liked, the crust not as tough as I enjoy. My pretzel twirling skills certainly leave much to be desired ;)

The weather is starting to turn here. The sun doesn't shine as much and it rains more often. Here's a taste of what we experienced today...

Until later!!

It's been a while...

Aloha!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last wrote. Life falls into a schedule and before you know it weeks have past. Here's my sorry attempt to make it up to you :)

These next few pictures speak for themselves. I begged Sam to hike Tantalus with me. And so it happened. What started out as a 4 mile hike turned into a 9 mile hike when we discovered that the trail we were on wouldn't take us to the summit. Sam used his amazing orienting/navigating skills to redirect us up and around the mountain. The trail was really muddy and the weather was humid, although it was cooler being up in the mountains. It was fun, but I don't think I'd do this hike again.

The pre-hiking picture (pre-grossness)

The vinage hung like a sheet between the walls of this ravine. The hike took us right through and underneath it. Kinda cool. 

Reaching the top

This is looking out at Diamond Head and Waikiki. 

 The "please stop taking pictures of me" face

Not sure what these structures are. Any guesses?

Feeling really sweaty.

But he'll kiss me anyway :)

Get that stick out of my face. 

We found this bamboo forest along the path. It's made me real inspired to make bamboo...anything: trellis, bench, chair. I haven't made anything yet, but the ideas are percolating. 

Next I have some random pictures of more day to day life. You might call these next few pictures the "things I love about Hawaii" pictures.

Fresh fruit. Pineapple is about $2.70-3.00 here. 

The clearance aisle at the Commissary (that's $1.50 for cereal people!)

People leave their junk on the side of the streets here. Trash pickup is Tuesday morning, so every Monday night we drive/walk around the neighbor and look at the week's picking. We're hobos like that. It's not uncommon to see plates, lamps, tvs, desks, chairs, tables, just about anything and everything. 

Having a husband who'll mow the yard for you :)

A nice kayak from the parents (oh, keith, kathy, fyi, the Kayak had a manufacturer's defect. There's a hole in  the side and it's been leaking water. We have some apoxy to fix it, so no worries).

 

Veggies from the garden! This is about all we've had so far. 

Tthe Airman's Attic. It's like a goodwill, but everything is free. I found two of these chair and decided to give them a new look. I've also found fishing poles, badminton rackets (as you'll see in a moment), clothes, a lawn chair, and fabric for pillows. 

It's the wrought iron that drew my attention.

I borrowed a friend's sander and got to work...

...and learned a valuable lesson about sanding. I've never stained before and I guess I thought the stain would mask imperfections in my sanding, but unlike paint stain accentuates the wood. 

I'm going to get my hands on a detailed sander, if I can, to redo my bad areas. Lesson learned, but hopefully you'll be able to learn from my mistakes in case you take on a project like this for yourself.

And last but not least, our flea bitten alley cats. Remember Tiger and Scruffy? I've been very close to having cat for dinner because tiger digs his claws into my flowers and scruffy sleeps on my carrots and zucchini. They've since stopped (perhaps because I've stricken the fear of god in them). Their one redeeming quality and really the only reason we keep them around is because they eat the birds. Birds in Hawaii are not scared. They aren't afraid of cars and it's very easy to drive over birds. It's one of Sam's favorite past times.  While watering the garden this week I found this lovely site behind the cucumber plant. At least their doing their job. 

In honor of the Olympics we took out our badmintons and swung them extra vim and vigor at one of the courts on base.

It was actually really hard to play because of the wind. We gave up and went to the gym, where we reserved the racquetball court for our next Olympic game (good news, the racquet and ball are free!). 

Well that concludes this rather sorry post from the beach bums. I'll try to do better.

Mahalo!