The turtle pictures as promised

As promised we got these developed. So now we can really say that we were swimming nose to nose with this guy. He was so docile that he barely even noticed that we were there.

This was seriously one of the most amazing experiences that we've ever had. Most surreal too.

Back to life...back to reality.

We got home yesterday morning. We took an overnight flight (which meant we missed a night sleeping) and then went straight back to the madness of our life.

We picked up the kids and had our big joyous reunion. As nice as it was to be child free for a week, I missed them like crazy. Every time we would see kids playing on the beach with us I would think about how much my own kids would have had if we brought them. It was sort of bitter sweet.

But we spent the better part of the day yesterday in a sleep deprived fog.

But one of the things I did do was take the underwater cameras in to be developed. The pictures turned out really cool. Of course the pictures don't quite do justice to just how cool snorkeling really is, but it captures the moment sufficiently.

So because there were just so dang many of these, I did a slide show of the greatest hits of Hawaii snorkeling.

Enjoy!

Home again , home again jiggety jig.

One last thing before I go....

We had a lot of time to kill before our flight left and I had this plan to do something extreme to commerate our 10th wedding anniversary. I know it seems silly to some, but a lot of my friends that got married around the same time as we did didn't make it see this milestone. It is just a fact that many marriages don't make it this far. Not that we are any better than anyone else, but I wanted to really mark the moment.

What better way than to do it by permanatly scarring yourself with synthetic ink?

I have had the itch to get another tatoo for quite some time, but I just couldn't settle on what exactly I wanted to do. I knew I wanted it around my ankle though. Then a couple months ago I got this idea to do a band of 10 plumeria flowers around my ankle. I wanted to do it while I was in Hawaii, but only on the last day because I didn't want to limit myself from going in the water.

I found a parlor that looked legit and we were off and running.

What I didn't take into consideration is how much it would hurt. I mean, I have a tatoo on my back that I got when I was 18. (another story for another time) I remember it hurting, but maybe the arrogance of youth clouded my memory. Well let me tell you now....it hurts .....Really....really ...bad. Needles poking into shin and ankle bones are unpleasant just thinking about.

But the whole thing took about an hour and a half and it was over. I found lamaze breathing comes in handy in the funniest places :)

Last day in Paradise

Sigh ....all great things must come to an end. This is our last day in Hawaii. We checked out of our hotel at 11 in the morning , but didn't fly out until 11 at night. So in short we had a lot of time to kill. We spent a couple hours body surfing here at Sunset beach on North shore. It was really hard to get out of the water knowing it was the last time for a long time that we would be able to do this. But we had been in the water for a couple hours and were beginning to feel a little over exposed to the sun. So we had to get out.

But before we said our good byes to North shore we had to snap just a few more pictures for prosperity. Please excuse my brillo-esq hair. It turns out my hair didn't do well with a combination of salt water and high humidity. I grew a little too comfortable to the rubber band method of hair care. I am not really ready to go home and face the cruel nature of blow dryers and flat irons again.

Found

What a beautiful day.

What a beautiful beach.

Why does it seem so familiar, jaqui?

I swear I've seen this before somewhere.


Why is there orange tape over there in those trees?

Could it be related to this sense of deja vu?

Oh wow.
I know what this is now.


This is the Survivor Camp from "Lost."

We found it!!!


It's all taped up with seran wrap, fenced off, and has a security guard... but this is the place.

Hey, there's something just a little ways down the beach... what could that be?

Why, it's "Echo's" church that he built!!!


So for all you lost fans out there, you can start your geek-envy engines right about now.

We've been to the beach, and you haven't.


It wasn't easy to get here, but we made it.


And as a special bonus, here's a photo from yesterday.

It's not as fantastic as the Survivor beach, but it's still cool.

It's where Hurley built his golf course.

And drove the VW Van down the hill.

It's also a place from Jurassic park.


We couldn't get too close because we'd have to pay for a tour...

But still, we were there.


Your Lost tour is now officially complete.

We are ready to come home now.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for shaved ice?

What is that line for?


It's a half hour wait!

What could it possibly be for?

Oh yeah, Matsumoto Shaved Ice.

Now, is there anyone reading this that has had shaved ice before?

Ok, now listen closely... you've never had shaved ice before.

I know that sounds all pretentious and cliche like: "This is the best pizza in the world!" when it's just a pizza that's really good.

But seriously, Matsumoto's is the ORIGINAL shaved ice stand.

It's the one that the movie stars come to when they come to Hawaii.

No, seriously, they have pictures of Tom Hanks, Presidents, and other celebrities up on the walls eating the shaved ice.

Matsumoto's is the shaved ice stand that other people emulate and take back to their cheesy stands at state fairs.

When you see a sign that says: "Hawaiian Shaved Ice" what you are getting is a snowcone.

It's not the same at all.

Ever ordered a pizza outside America? It's like that.

2 totally different food substances.

So, if you've had: "Authentic Shaved Ice Straight From The Islands Made By Previous Residents of Hawaii" then you need to stop pretending that you know what we are talking about.

What you've had is a glorified Snoopy Snow Cone Machine (tm) treat.

Now, for those of you who've never had anything close to shaved ice (except for a pathetic imitation via a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine (tm), let me tell you what you've got.

First, you start with an ice cream cone shaped paper 'cup.'

This cup is filled with vanilla ice cream.

No chocolate, no strawberry, no Neapolitan.

Vanilla.

Then you have a machine that shaves ice. Literally.

You take a block of ice, stick it in a vice-grip looking thing that presses it against a giant razor that shaves it into snowflakes.

These snowflakes are gathered up into a large ball.

This ball of shaved ice (which we think might be laced with heroin) is then placed on top of the ice cream 'cone.'

Then you take syrups with magical fairy dust and pour them over top of the shaved ice.

Jaqui got a "Hawaiian" which had Bananna, Coconut, and Pineapple.

I got a "Matsumto" (because I believe in always getting the 'original' when going to a place that is famous for something), which had Coconut, Pineapple, and Lemon.

Then you stick a straw in the top (i'll explain later) and a little wooden spoon like you get with sherbert cups.

If you aren't familiar with sherbert cups and how you consume, then you aren't my friend and I want you to stop reading my blog and my wife's blog.

Anyway...

You take all this and put it in a big plastic serving container that looks like a flower.

This helps to contain the icy nectar of the gods and keeps it off the concrete. Which is a good thing because you'll look pretty silly licking up the shaved ice off the ground.

And believe me, if you took one bite of this and dropped even a single snow flake, you'd be down on your hands and knees licking it up too.... and then seeing if anyone else dropped some of theirs.

I'm not kidding. You really start to fiend out.

So, what you do is take your wooden spoon and eat the shaved ice with the liquid nectar straight from rainbow-fairyland.

Then as you get to the bottom and feel that you couldn't possibly consume a single grain of sugar more... you hit the ice cream.

Oh, but I know what you're thinking.

"Hey, it's just vanilla ice cream. Big whoop.."

Oh my friend, you are so wrong.

This isn't just vanilla ice cream anymore.

No no..

All that delicious tropical 'stick it in my vein via a syringe' syrup that has found its way through the snowflake ball has started to mix with the ice cream.

Now you've got tropically laced ice cream.

And you consume.

You consume it like a starved southerner at a $5 all you can eat buffet.

Then, when you hit that part of the 'cone' where your wooden spoon is too wide to get that last little bite out of there, you bring in the big guns.

You use the aforementioned straw to suck the nourishing juices straight into your mouth without ever having to have their flavors spoiled by the air.

And then... and only then.. will you stop to revel in the carnage you have just been a part of.

You will stop and say: "Whoah... where did it go? Did I eat it already? Why did I only get a small? Is it worth another 30 minutes to wait in line? I'd wait 30 minutes in line to ride a ride at disneyland.... maybe I will wait in line...."

But like all good drug users know, it takes a few minutes for it to hit your system.

And once that sugar hits your system you think: "WHOAH! This is amazing!!!! And I remember now why I only do this once every 5 years..."

Here's me giving the: "Don't even think about it face" to some tourists who looked at my shaved ice funny.

I was worried they might try to bypass the 1/2 hour wait by accosting me.


Here's jaqui on the verge of having a stroke from having shaved ice applied directly to her sinuses via a straw.


Bottom line, go to Matsumotos.

There's 2 types of turtles in hawaii...

So, there's 2 types of turtles in hawaii.

There's the Galapagos turtles you see in the zoo.

They are behind a wall and look like this:


And then there's the kind you see on the beach where you are swimming and snorkeling.



Now, mind you, we don't have a zoom lens on our camera.

That picture isn't taken ala National Geographic at 200 yards with a telephoto lens.

This is taken just a few feet away.


Don't believe me?

Here's Jaqui looking at the turtle.



Something to keep in mind is that Jaqui isn't wild about being too close to the turtles.

She's fascinated, but a little creeped out.

So while she looks like she's really close, let's show you just how close you can be.


Yeah. That close.

But that's not all.

I was out snorkeling with them and I had an underwater camera.

It's not digital so I don't have the pictures yet, so you're going to have to come over to our house to see my photos.

But here's a teaser of what you can expect.


I was snorkeling and was literally (LITERALLY) less then a foot away, nose to nose, with a giant sea turtle and I took a picture of him.

This was a glorious day.


And to further tease you into coming over, I have taken a ton of photos with the underwater camera of tropical fish while snorkeling.

Best. Vacation. Ever.

10 Years.

(Jason is writing this post)

**This post should have come out yesterday (Friday June 27th) but we didn't have internet. So we typed it up and are just posting it today.**

So, today is officially our 10 year anniversary.

We were talking about it and we realized it isn't a huge accomplishment that we had to fight and work for.

Basically, neither of us has died yet, so we're still married.

If you know us, and our dark humor, you'll see how that's actually a romantic sentiment for us.


Now with your expectations of a heart-felt and romantically charged blog out of the way, let's talk about what we did today.

We woke up on Waikiki and went out boogie boarding. The waves were the biggest then been all week (around 4 feet or s0).

I'm so happy that Jaqui bought a boogie board on the first day. She fell in love with it right away.

If you have gone boogie boarding, essentially it's Swimming.... with benefits.

You float around and bob as a bunch of little waves go by.

Every 10 minutes or so, you get some big waves to form. When they do, you turn towards shore and kick with your feet (in flippers) and let the wave pick you up.

Then your ride all the way in and enjoy life.

Then you turn around and go back out (duck diving under the set of waves crashing in your face) and get in position to do it all again.

Like I said. Swimming with benefits.


So that's what we did all morning until about lunch time.

Then we came in, packed up, loaded up the convertible, and drove up to North Shore.


My plan when planning this trip was to spend part of the time on the south shore to do the standard 'tourist' things, but then spend the last 1/2 in North Shore where we are the most happy.

There's less people, it's very 'local' feeling, and you've got the best beaches in the world.

Although it has to be wintertime to do this, North Shore is where they have the biggest and best surf in the world. (10, 20, 30 foot waves).

You know Pipleline? That's about 1/4 of a mile from where I'm sitting now.

You know Waimea Bay? That's about 1/8 of a mile from where I'm sitting now.

Which leads into my next point.

Last night I swam in Waimea Bay for the first time, and it was awesome.

It's so beautiful and clean and clear.

You can be in 10' of water and see the bottom clearly.


And what's even more fun is who is swimming with you.


As we were bobbing around, just enjoying the sunset, less then 10 feet from us something popped its head out of the water.

A Sea Turtle.


Yeah. For real. A turtle.


So that was pretty darn cool.


After that we showed up at our 'hotel', but it's not a hotel. It's more like a rental home.


It was a bit jarring at first because it was unexpected.

We walked into this house and were greeted by John. He lives up the beach in his own home.

But he used to live/work here with his family.

He's really nice and really welcomed us in.

We quickly realized we were in another world. This was a rental house bordering on hippie commune.

And you know what? We're totally Ok with that.

We have a washer and dryer, a full kitchen, and a shared bathroom.

Here's the courtyard where everyone kind of hangs out in between activities:



This is the kitchen. It's nice to be able to have food without having to go out and shell out too much money for a meal.


And here is our bed.

It's not fancy, but you know what?

We couldn't be happier.

Today we snorkel.

So today we went about 30 minutes west of Honolulu to do some serious snorkeling off a giant reef. It usually takes about a half an hour or so until we are completely comfortable with the whole breathing under water thing, but once we got over that, it was awesome.

We saw all kinds of tropical fish and even an eel. It is really one of the most relaxing things I have ever done. I really love it. You are just bobbing in the water completely weightless listening to the vibrations of the waves through the water and the rhythmic sounds of your own breathing. All the while being submersed in your own private aquarium. It it very soothing. For a couple hours I even forgot how much I missed the kids :)

We took a bunch of pictures with an underwater camera, but stone age technology that it is, I have to take them and get developed. So I don't have any pictures to show you what we saw under water. But I do have a couple to show of what we saw above ground.

Tomorrow we go up to North shore for 4 days so I'll write as I can locate a little slice of wi-fi.

...oh, by the way...

Did I mention that we rented a convertible for the week?

It's a V6-GT hardtop convertible, where the roof folds into the trunk at the touch of a button.

Leather interior.

You can start hating us now.

I wouldn't blame you.

Lost in Hawaii.

Today we went up to Manoa Falls.

It was a .8 mile hike, but it ascended like, 800 feet.

We walked over roots and mud and rocks. Treacherous, but worth it once we got there.

It was amazing to hear the sounds of birds and animals and realize that they weren't being piped in through speakers. I know it sounds silly, but normally when you hear the bird calls we were hearing it's at a zoo or something and they have them playing in random places as ambiance.















































































































But wait, that's not all.

Do we have any "Lost" fans out there in internet land?

If so, check this out:

Parts of the show are filmed up here.

First we have the field where the infamous "The Door" is brought in when they need to film it.

Also, in this field they film various "running through a field" scenes. It's got great lighting, and they just shoot from different angles to make it look like a new place each time.
















But wait, there's more.

Anyone catch the season finale? Where they went to the Orchid Station?

The Station that had the hidden elevator amongst a bunch of potted plants and green houses?

Yeah, it was filmed up here too.













































They also have the building where the 'water' station was filmed, but you couldn't see that part.

Just as we were leaving after seeing the Orchid Station, it started to rain crazy heavy rain.

I'm not sure if Jaqui is more excited about finding the Orchid station or the rain in this photo.

Either way, it's very Shawshank Redemption.

















But don't think we're done just yet.

Oh no. Wait until this next weekend when we are up in North Shore.

We have a LOT more Lost to show you all.

With some really special surprises...

Stay Tuned.

Namaste.