Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
This is going to be a long one
Well Well. Now that I've been here once today, I might as well bombard you with an extraordinarily long entry. Especially since the layout of this blog doesn't give it much horizontal space to work with.
As I type this I have a plastic fishing hook sticking out from under my leg to distract the kitty from the printer stuff because I'm also installing out brand new Canon Pixima 560 Printer! I'm sooo excited. I picked this one out of a few others because of various customer reviews on Amazon. It was also the cheapest, oddly. I've always had luck with Canon so I'm not too worried. I'm definitely the multi-tasker though.
I suppose I should backtrack and get you caught up on life. First off I'm still at Victoria's Secret and hating it more every day. It's rather unfortunate, but it's an income. I have lots of reasons, but I won't go into it. I think it's part the corporation and part the store. I do miss my old store though. John is also still doing what he does, which is very much expected. He has a board this Friday so his late days have been later. That is, when he's actually in port. Dixie is doing well. She's a little pain in the butt, but she's also become much more cuddly. It balances itself it.
My parents visited from January 6-15th and I was very very busy with them. They wore me out! It was really nice though. John was underway during that time until the 19th so as soon as they left it was extraordinarily quiet. Their time here was a lot of fun and we saw and did many things. Let's see, I think I'll attempt at a list of the many things we did, though I'm sure mother will have a more extensive list.
-Ala Moana: Checked out the largest VS store in the world and the place where John and I will most likely buy our wedding rings. I pointed out which ones they are. They're very lovely.
-Hanauma Bay: Of course! This was actually one of the last adventures, but it was pleasant as always.
-North Shore
--The Giovanni Shrimp Truck: One dozen jumbo delectable shrimp with two scoops of rice. It's a delicious place. Mother found it in her guidebook. Most of the places that I'll mention were found by here.
--Waimea Valley: This is a large botanical walk that ends at a 40 foot waterfall with a pool that one can swim in. Since I grew up near Rickett's Glen the waterfall itself wasn't exciting, but I was disappointed that I wasn't prepared to swim in the pool it created. http://www.waimeavalley.org/
--Turtle Bay: We spent about 30 minutes here since that was the longest one could park/drive around without paying and without validation at a restaurant. We checked out the beach a little and now I know where it is!
--Random little drives around NS. It was rather rainy but it was nice to see someZA3w
well Dixie says hi... Anyway. It was nice to see a different place.
-Dole Plantation
-Sandy Beach (ok so we drove past it and took note of it's existance)
-Blow Hole
-Random hike on a paved road on the windward side. I saw some whale tales and their little blow spouts!
-Pacific Beach Hotel and the Oceanarium restaurant. This place had a rather pricey buffet. It was roughly $35 per person. However we got there within the first hour of it being open and got a 25% discount. Either way, it is worth every penny. That was the most delicious food I've had in years. Maybe even in my lifetime. There were these snow crab legs that were absolutely delectable. You didn't need butter or anything. They were just amazing. I'm taking John there once we get the chance. I highly doubt they have President's day off, but if they do we're going. They didn't have Veteran's Day off so why would they have this one? *insert intense sarcasm* It's not like the military have any affiliation with either of those days...
-Valley of the Temples: Now this place was hidden and it's beautiful! I had no clue anything like that was around here. It's a large Japanese temple hidden in Kaneohe in the back of a cemetary and it houses an 18 ft buddah and black swans. It's gorgeous and very serene!
-drive up the Leeward coast as far as they allow. It's much less exciting over there. It's hard to word without sounding snotty but it's definitely more slummy on that side. There are homeless people everywhere along with trash along side of the road and really nothing to exciting. However the beaches seemed nice and we stopped at one at the very end of the road that was very lovely and not crowded.
-JW Marriott Ihilani Resort: This is a part of a resort on the south leeward side of the island. It's the biggest resort on that side of the island and the future home of the Disney Resort. It's a very lovely place and has a bunch of little swimming lagoons that were absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the Marriot for lunch, but the best part of the lunch were the smoothies that came in pineapples! They were tasty. The food itself wasn't anything special. The more fancy of the restaurants in the hotel may have better food. We walked around the hotel a little and they had a few salt water pools filled with creatures just swimming about. It was neat. I liked that it wasn't just another of the many koi ponds that you'll see around here.
Alright.
I'm certain I'm missing many things but I told Cayley I'd come over when she came home from work so I'm off for the night.
I love you all!
Mother, feel free to comment about the other explorations if you'd like. I know I still need to upload all the pictures. Oops.
And I never mentioned the day trip to the Big Island!
By the way, we took a day trip to the Big Island! haha. More on the later. But FYI, black sand is really cool
-Meredith
As I type this I have a plastic fishing hook sticking out from under my leg to distract the kitty from the printer stuff because I'm also installing out brand new Canon Pixima 560 Printer! I'm sooo excited. I picked this one out of a few others because of various customer reviews on Amazon. It was also the cheapest, oddly. I've always had luck with Canon so I'm not too worried. I'm definitely the multi-tasker though.
I suppose I should backtrack and get you caught up on life. First off I'm still at Victoria's Secret and hating it more every day. It's rather unfortunate, but it's an income. I have lots of reasons, but I won't go into it. I think it's part the corporation and part the store. I do miss my old store though. John is also still doing what he does, which is very much expected. He has a board this Friday so his late days have been later. That is, when he's actually in port. Dixie is doing well. She's a little pain in the butt, but she's also become much more cuddly. It balances itself it.
My parents visited from January 6-15th and I was very very busy with them. They wore me out! It was really nice though. John was underway during that time until the 19th so as soon as they left it was extraordinarily quiet. Their time here was a lot of fun and we saw and did many things. Let's see, I think I'll attempt at a list of the many things we did, though I'm sure mother will have a more extensive list.
-Ala Moana: Checked out the largest VS store in the world and the place where John and I will most likely buy our wedding rings. I pointed out which ones they are. They're very lovely.
-Hanauma Bay: Of course! This was actually one of the last adventures, but it was pleasant as always.
-North Shore
--The Giovanni Shrimp Truck: One dozen jumbo delectable shrimp with two scoops of rice. It's a delicious place. Mother found it in her guidebook. Most of the places that I'll mention were found by here.
--Waimea Valley: This is a large botanical walk that ends at a 40 foot waterfall with a pool that one can swim in. Since I grew up near Rickett's Glen the waterfall itself wasn't exciting, but I was disappointed that I wasn't prepared to swim in the pool it created. http://www.waimeavalley.org/
--Turtle Bay: We spent about 30 minutes here since that was the longest one could park/drive around without paying and without validation at a restaurant. We checked out the beach a little and now I know where it is!
--Random little drives around NS. It was rather rainy but it was nice to see someZA3w
well Dixie says hi... Anyway. It was nice to see a different place.
-Dole Plantation
-Sandy Beach (ok so we drove past it and took note of it's existance)
-Blow Hole
-Random hike on a paved road on the windward side. I saw some whale tales and their little blow spouts!
-Pacific Beach Hotel and the Oceanarium restaurant. This place had a rather pricey buffet. It was roughly $35 per person. However we got there within the first hour of it being open and got a 25% discount. Either way, it is worth every penny. That was the most delicious food I've had in years. Maybe even in my lifetime. There were these snow crab legs that were absolutely delectable. You didn't need butter or anything. They were just amazing. I'm taking John there once we get the chance. I highly doubt they have President's day off, but if they do we're going. They didn't have Veteran's Day off so why would they have this one? *insert intense sarcasm* It's not like the military have any affiliation with either of those days...
-Valley of the Temples: Now this place was hidden and it's beautiful! I had no clue anything like that was around here. It's a large Japanese temple hidden in Kaneohe in the back of a cemetary and it houses an 18 ft buddah and black swans. It's gorgeous and very serene!
-drive up the Leeward coast as far as they allow. It's much less exciting over there. It's hard to word without sounding snotty but it's definitely more slummy on that side. There are homeless people everywhere along with trash along side of the road and really nothing to exciting. However the beaches seemed nice and we stopped at one at the very end of the road that was very lovely and not crowded.
-JW Marriott Ihilani Resort: This is a part of a resort on the south leeward side of the island. It's the biggest resort on that side of the island and the future home of the Disney Resort. It's a very lovely place and has a bunch of little swimming lagoons that were absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the Marriot for lunch, but the best part of the lunch were the smoothies that came in pineapples! They were tasty. The food itself wasn't anything special. The more fancy of the restaurants in the hotel may have better food. We walked around the hotel a little and they had a few salt water pools filled with creatures just swimming about. It was neat. I liked that it wasn't just another of the many koi ponds that you'll see around here.
Alright.
I'm certain I'm missing many things but I told Cayley I'd come over when she came home from work so I'm off for the night.
I love you all!
Mother, feel free to comment about the other explorations if you'd like. I know I still need to upload all the pictures. Oops.
And I never mentioned the day trip to the Big Island!
By the way, we took a day trip to the Big Island! haha. More on the later. But FYI, black sand is really cool
-Meredith
Wedding Website
I'm sorry! I'm really slacking on the blog. I expected as much... haha. However, I'm here to announce the wedding website. It's been up for a while but there wasn't much on it. I filled out a lot just now so if you'd like to take a look, go for it.
Wedding_Website
Wedding_Website
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Surprised Kitten
This is one of the cutest videos you may ever see.
Surprised Kitten
I can't stop watching! The kitten is so adorable
Surprised Kitten
I can't stop watching! The kitten is so adorable
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Scuba Scuba Scuba!
So I was writing a subject as if I was just writing about today's experience, until I realized that I haven't talked about anything at all since the first pool dive! I can't forget about yesterday, yesterday was a good day.
Well let's see. I listed the schedule of the classes in the last post so there's no need to go over it again. John and I both passed the final test and all the pool stuff as well. There's a lot to learn in order to be safe and know what's going on. It's not difficult though. Most people do pretty well.
This weekend we had our final test, the ocean dives. We did two yesterday and two today. I enjoyed yesterday much more. The surge was rough today and the wildlife was sparse. Yesterday was amazing. We went to "Electric beach" on the leeward side of the island and entered from the shore. We first got there and had to wait for others since it was a tricky place to find. We met on an area that had a small cliff and had to walk over to the sand in order to enter. John and I went over to the edge to look out at the water and saw sea turtles! I was so excited. We have been wanting to see them for months but haven't yet. Yay :-).
It was a little difficult, though worse on the exit, to get in while the waves are coming at you, but we managed. While in the water we did some of the exercises/training that we did in the pool to make sure we had it down in the salt water and to improve muscle memory. We also did a lot of swimming around, which was great. There was a large patch of coral full of fish and even schools of fish! At one point a school swam around me and I was nearly surrounded. It was awesome. The other very exciting thing was, while exiting after the second dive, one of the dive instructors (we were split into groups with different instructors) had found an octopus and had it wrapped around his arm. While swimming in he made sure whoever wanted to saw it and it was very neat. It was reddish brown, with a head the size of a softball and tentacles 9-12 inches long. John and I both pet it and it felt as soft as a rabbit, only with no fur texture of course. The waves pushed me into the instructor and the octopus so he got a little nervous and stuck to me as well, which of course surprised me since I had also just been pushed by a wave so I jumped a little. It was ok though, he stayed on the instructor's arm so we could continue looking. He was very neat.
Later I noticed that same instructor had a tattoo of an Octopus on his back and today he saw another one. John and I think he specifically looks for them and knows where to look. I may have to ask for advice if I ever see him again. Octopuses are neat creatures.
Today the surge (that's what they told me it was) was incredibly rough so we were tossed around a lot, mainly at the surface. There were very few creatures and my mask kept fogging so today wasn't my favorite day, that's for sure. However we got all the qualifications done and are now certified Scuba Divers! Hooray! We get our licenses in a few weeks maybe even up to 90 days. We're able to pick up a temporary one as well, so I'll need to do that soon. It's pretty exciting.
Now I need to save up for more classes so we can do even more exciting dives! We're only qualified Open Water so we can't do certain things until we have another class in it. Most classes are only a day long, but it's safe to make sure you do it. I'm also considering to do an AWARE class in fish identification. That might be fun. It's more of an environmental class than the others. There is also Wreck diving, Cave diving, Underwater photography, Enriched air (high O2 level), and so on. I'm very interested in the first three, but we shall see.
On a family note. John goes back to work tomorrow and underwater on Wednesdayish for the same amount of time and he's been going. My parents come in Wed and stay until the 15th so that's very exciting.
Hooray
Well let's see. I listed the schedule of the classes in the last post so there's no need to go over it again. John and I both passed the final test and all the pool stuff as well. There's a lot to learn in order to be safe and know what's going on. It's not difficult though. Most people do pretty well.
This weekend we had our final test, the ocean dives. We did two yesterday and two today. I enjoyed yesterday much more. The surge was rough today and the wildlife was sparse. Yesterday was amazing. We went to "Electric beach" on the leeward side of the island and entered from the shore. We first got there and had to wait for others since it was a tricky place to find. We met on an area that had a small cliff and had to walk over to the sand in order to enter. John and I went over to the edge to look out at the water and saw sea turtles! I was so excited. We have been wanting to see them for months but haven't yet. Yay :-).
It was a little difficult, though worse on the exit, to get in while the waves are coming at you, but we managed. While in the water we did some of the exercises/training that we did in the pool to make sure we had it down in the salt water and to improve muscle memory. We also did a lot of swimming around, which was great. There was a large patch of coral full of fish and even schools of fish! At one point a school swam around me and I was nearly surrounded. It was awesome. The other very exciting thing was, while exiting after the second dive, one of the dive instructors (we were split into groups with different instructors) had found an octopus and had it wrapped around his arm. While swimming in he made sure whoever wanted to saw it and it was very neat. It was reddish brown, with a head the size of a softball and tentacles 9-12 inches long. John and I both pet it and it felt as soft as a rabbit, only with no fur texture of course. The waves pushed me into the instructor and the octopus so he got a little nervous and stuck to me as well, which of course surprised me since I had also just been pushed by a wave so I jumped a little. It was ok though, he stayed on the instructor's arm so we could continue looking. He was very neat.
Later I noticed that same instructor had a tattoo of an Octopus on his back and today he saw another one. John and I think he specifically looks for them and knows where to look. I may have to ask for advice if I ever see him again. Octopuses are neat creatures.
Today the surge (that's what they told me it was) was incredibly rough so we were tossed around a lot, mainly at the surface. There were very few creatures and my mask kept fogging so today wasn't my favorite day, that's for sure. However we got all the qualifications done and are now certified Scuba Divers! Hooray! We get our licenses in a few weeks maybe even up to 90 days. We're able to pick up a temporary one as well, so I'll need to do that soon. It's pretty exciting.
Now I need to save up for more classes so we can do even more exciting dives! We're only qualified Open Water so we can't do certain things until we have another class in it. Most classes are only a day long, but it's safe to make sure you do it. I'm also considering to do an AWARE class in fish identification. That might be fun. It's more of an environmental class than the others. There is also Wreck diving, Cave diving, Underwater photography, Enriched air (high O2 level), and so on. I'm very interested in the first three, but we shall see.
On a family note. John goes back to work tomorrow and underwater on Wednesdayish for the same amount of time and he's been going. My parents come in Wed and stay until the 15th so that's very exciting.
Hooray
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)