Big Island Adventures!

So a recent Hawaii Bucket List item: Going to the Big Island! Devin and I spent Easter weekend on the Big Island, and it was great!

Aside from the weather. It was pretty rainy the whole time... Womp. But it was still pretty! You can drive around a lot on the Big Island (it's so big!) and there's hardly any traffic (unlike Oahu...), so it was nice just to enjoy the drive!

We got there Thursday night and just checked into our cottage at Volcano National Park. Friday morning, we got up early to start the day! In the morning, we went to Volcano Winery, which was just a 10 minute drive from where we stayed. I love wine, so it was a great little stop. We did the wine tasting and bought a few bottles... They have a really delicious tea-infused wine, a guava wine, and a macadamia nut honey wine. All of them were so unique and yummy, mmm. 

That afternoon, we went on a "Star Tour" through the place we stayed.... Let me just tell you all that it's NOT worth your time or money to do that! At least the tour we did wasn't. It started at 2 PM (that should have been our sign...) and they took us to a planetarium in Hilo. It was okay... We saw a movie there and spent some time in their museum, but you don't miss out on anything amazing if you don't go there, in my opinion. Then we drove up to the Visitor's Center at 9000 feet on Mauna Kea. We were served a very bad plate lunch, and left to wander around in the cloudy twilight. It was cold, but I expected that. A while later, it finally got dark, but stayed cloudy. We bought a few things at the gift shop. Eventually, it cleared up enough to see about three stars, and then it was time for us to go because the tour ended at 8 PM. Just when it was clearing up and the visitor's center people dragged out their telescopes. So, if you want to see Mauna Kea, just drive up there yourself. It's not worth the price of the tour, and then you can stay however long you want. If you want to drive all the way to the summit, you are allowed, but you need to have a four-wheel-drive vehicle and check with your rental company. So that's my advice about that.**
 

Our breakfast view. Not bad, right?

We were supposed to go on a volcano tour Saturday, but after Friday's failure we cancelled it to do things on our own. We had breakfast with a great view of the Kilauea Crater, and then drove to the Kona side of the island. It's a pretty drive and the weather was actually nice!

When we got to the other side of the island, we took a tour of the Kona brewery. Now in my opinion, if you've toured one brewery you've kind of seen the basics and there's that much else to see... But Kona was actually really cool! They do a lot to make their beer brewing practices super sustainable, like using recycled materials, reusing things, and even using special beer bottles that are 11% lighter to reduce fuel loads. Just hearing about that stuff made the tour worth it. After, we stayed for lunch at their brewery restaurant and the food was so yummy! 

 After the brewery we went to a coffee plantation called Mountain Thunder, which grows organic coffee. We took a tour, and that was pretty cool too. I learned a lot about coffee! They also had some tasty teas (I'm more of a tea girl, personally.) Oh, and they had cats. So I loved that, because obviously my mission in life is to find cats everywhere I go.

We stopped for a late lunch at a place called the Coffee Shack, which had a really beautiful view. By then, however, it was pouring down rain, so the view was a bit hazy. After that, we drove down to South Point, which is the southernmost point in the United States! (Yes, it's farther south than Key West!) There, we took a long and beautiful drive through cow country until we reached a parking lot where we paid some Hawaiians with four wheel drive to take us in the back of their pickup to the famous Green Sand Beach. I'm not joking. It was a very Hawaii experience. The drive out to the beach was gorgeous, although honestly the sand is NOT that green.

After the beach, we stopped at the southernmost bar in the U.S. for dinner with some friends who were also visiting the Big Island before driving back to Volcano National Park. Before heading to bed for the night, we drove up to the Jaggar Museum lookout to see the glow from the volcano. It was raining, but we still got to see a pretty good glow!

The lava is actually pretty far down, but it sure looked like it was about to erupt, didn't it?

The next day was our flight home, but we had the morning free. We went for a hike called Kilauea Iki, which is in an old crater. It honestly felt like we were hiking on the moon or something. The lava landscape is so cool.

After the hike, we got to see one of the lava tubes (no lava runs through it anymore, thankfully!). It's a basically a big tunnel. It was nice and cool after getting all sweaty hiking!
 

After that, we just drove up to the airport and came home. It was a short trip, but it was fun! It was so nice to just spend some time together and to have a break from "real life" -- neither one of us wanted to come back!

**If you have been keeping an eye on the news here in Hawaii (and maybe outside of Hawaii?) you might have seen something about Mauna Kea recently. They are building a big telescope, the "Thirty Meter Telescope" (TMT), and a lot of people are upset about it because they feel that it's a threat to sacred Hawaiian land. It's an interesting debate, and certainly not something I'm qualified to speak about, but if you want to know more you should look it up! Apparently it has attracted some celebrity attention, even!

Camping, WHALES, Thai food, more WHALES.

School life has been a bit busy lately, but not too busy to have some Hawaii fun! 

A few weeks ago, Devin and I went camping. We went to Bellows, and stayed on the military side of the campgrounds. The military side has some awesome amenities like actual showers (although not truly hot water), picnic tables, a mini golf course (I would like to put out there that I beat Devin!), and even a little bar that we went to one night for live music. And they even have quiet hours after 10 PM that they actually enforce! We have stayed on the civilian side at Bellows several times and been kept up by huge groups of people being rowdy until 4 AM (no joke), so that was what made us try the military side. And... we are never going back. 

Anyway, Bellows (both sides) are on the eastern shore of the island, by Waimanalo. That side of the island, in my opinion, has the best beaches. Soft sand, perfect blue water... what more could you want? So while everyone back home was complaining about a giant snow storm, we were here:

What snow?

Not too shabby, right? We had a great weekend there, and then on Sunday was went on a whale watch cruise before heading home! We had a Groupon for it, and it was such a cool experience! We got to see lots of whales, and I learned a lot about them, too! Whale watching was on my Hawaii bucket list, and I'm so glad we got to do it! My phone was dead, but the tour included a CD of the photos they took, so here are some of the coolest shots, courtesy of Island Divers: 

Breaching! So, so cool. They look smaller in the photos than they were in real life.

We kept seeing them just swimming along at the surface. We saw a couple pairs, usually a mother and calf.

Look, there are two of them!

I feel like whales have so much fun. Doesn't that look fun?

At the very end, two of them swam RIGHT BY our boat. I felt like I could have reached out and touched them.

They were so close!

When they do this with their tails, it means they're about to dive deep and you probably won't see them for a while.

It's like they're waving goodbye!

Seriously, HOW COOL ARE WHALES? If you don't think whales are cool, you are wrong. So, if you are in Hawaii over the "winter," go on a whale watch!! The peak season is December to March, and then they head back up north to Alaska. (One day, I want to go kayaking with whales in Alaska. That's my other whale-related bucket list item. Well, that and having a pet whale.)

After that adventure-filled weekend, Devin went into the field for two weeks. That gave me more time to watch Netflix focus on my homework, so I got a lot done! And since the whole brigade (I think?) was in the field, my friends were all in the same boat, so to speak, so we hung out without our men, which led to some really nice girls nights! 

On one of the girls nights, my friend Kait and I went up to Haleiwa and ate dinner at Opal Thai, which was amazing. I'd never been there before, but I do like Thai food. (I'm no connoisseur, but I enjoy it!) The restaurant used to just be a food truck, and it was on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network, and for good reason! They have their own space now, and the guy who owns it, Opel, will give you a menu and then takes it away and asks you what you like. He listed a whole bunch of ingredients and then he asked if I like all of them. I said yes, so he walked off and I was (very quickly!) brought this totally unique dish made just for me! Talk about royal treatment! It was delicious (so spicy!) and I am definitely going back there again!

Now, it's spring break, which has been relaxing! I haven't had any real plans at all and it has been great! We went for a short hike on Sunday on the North Shore and had dinner at the food trucks there before heading over to meet our friends' brand new baby. And I've finally had time to clean our house! And this weekend I'm seeing Cinderella with a friend, and then we're having a St. Patrick's Day party and a beach day!


Hard to believe there are only 8 more weeks of school, isn't it? On that note, I'd better go do some homework...

Fall 2014 Recap Part 4: Some pretty Hawaii views :)

One of my favorite things about Hawaii is the VIEWS. So here are some of my favorite views from this fall. Please note that, once again, my little smartphone camera doesn't do anything justice.

This is actually the view from our back balcony one Monday morning around 6 AM. I hate Mondays as much as the next person, but this made getting up a little easier.

This is the view from Tantalus Lookout. You have to drive up a VERY winding road to get there (I thought we were going to die a few times), but the view from the top is amazing.

 Sea cliffs out by Koko Head, on the way to Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a GREAT view too, and SO MUCH FUN, but I didn't get any pictures of it. If you like to snorkel, GO TO HANAUMA BAY. If you've never snorkeled, GO TO HANAUMA BAY. I've never seen so many fish in my life. My favorite was this HUGE parrot fish. So beautiful.

The view from Nu'uanu Pali lookout. You can't tell from the photo, but it was just about the windiest place I've ever been! I thought I was going to blow off the cliff! Nu'uanu Pali is the site of a very bloody battle in which Kamehameha I conquered Oahu. The pass used to be the only connection between windward Oahu and Honolulu and it was really dangerous and tough! There are ghost stories about the old highway today, and according to Hawaiian folklore you can't carry pork over the Nu'uanu Pali, especially at night. Allegedly, if you have pork in your car when you drive over it, your car will stop. This is because the goddess Pele didn't want Kamapua'a, a half-human, half-hog god with whom she didn't get along, crossing into her territory. For better photos, Google Nu'uana Pali!

This is the view of downtown Honolulu from the Aloha Tower, which is actually right down the road from HPU! We visited on a day with strange weather, and were lucky enough to catch a double rainbow. The second one if faintly visible at the top, see?





Well, I hope you've enjoyed my snaps of just a very few of the great Hawaiian views I got to see during the Fall 2014 semester! What's your favorite view in Hawaii?

Fall 2014 Recap Part 3: Camping & Hiking

If you like to hike or camp, Hawaii is a great place to do it! Also if you like to hike and camp, you should date my boyfriend. (Just kidding, he's mine!) 

This fall, Devin dragged brought me on the longest backpacking trip I've ever done - 20 miles round trip. To say that I was sore and blistered afterwards is an understatement. (Remember when I said I would never run a marathon? Yeah.) But it was worth it! We camped for a night in the middle of nowhere and had silence, incredible views of the ocean, the mountains and valleys of Oahu's North Shore, and the STARS. My photos don't do it justice, but wow.

Waialua and Haleiwa.

The view from our little campsite.

SO BLUE.

I never get tired of looking at the Pacific Ocean from the top of a mountain, honestly.

Our little campsite in the morning.

You can't tell in this photo, but I was sore, sweaty, and covered in blisters.

Like I said, if you like to hike, Hawaii is a great place to do it. There are SO many hikes, even just on Oahu!

Fall 2014 Recap Part 2: Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri

When I told people I live in Hawaii and I hadn't been to Pearl Harbor, they were always flabbergasted. Finally, after over a year of living here, I got to see it. And just... Wow. Words can't really do the experience justice, honestly. 

We went to Pearl Harbor on my birthday, November 3. 

The first thing you do when you get to Pearl Harbor is watch a video about the attacks. The video is made up of real footage from the day of the attacks. And it's incredible. I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that this beautiful place, with sun and sky and blue water, had been transformed into a kind of hell like that so easily, so quickly. I couldn't comprehend the number of lives lost, the magnitude of the event and what it meant for our country. I can't imagine life on Oahu that day. It must have been terrifying.

After the video, you take a boat out to the Arizona memorial. The Arizona sunk very quickly, and there are 1,102 sailors still down there today. It's eerie, honestly, to stand on the memorial and know that they are down there. You're standing on a tomb. The names of the fallen are carved into a wall, and there are so many it hurts to look at.

The names of those who died on the USS Arizona.

There is still oil leaking up from the ship. They call it the "tears of the Arizona." It's surreal. The whole thing is surreal.

Tears of the Arizona.

Many of the survivors of the Arizona chose to be interred with their shipmates when they died, and there is a memorial for them as well. I can't imagine how it feels to survive an event like that. It's nice to think of the men who survived being reunited with their brothers, I think.

Survivors who have been interred on the USS Arizona.

The Arizona sits facing the USS Missouri, where Japan signed their unconditional surrender and ended World War II. They say that it's the start and the end of the war for the United States in one place.

The USS Missouri from the Arizona Memorial.

Visiting the Arizona is emotional and difficult, but definitely a must-see while you're in Hawaii. Some tourist spots are overrated, but this isn't one of them.

Flag flying over the Arizona memorial.

After the Arizona, we went to the USS Missouri, the battleship where the Japanese surrendered and ended WWII on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay. The "Mighty MO" was the last battleship of her kind. And she is HUGE.

HUGE, I'm telling you.

The very spot history was made!

Mighty MO has a very interesting and rich history, which we heard all about thanks to our fantastic tour guide, my good friend Chloe. I won't make this a lengthy historical post, but I will say that you should check out the USS Missouri as part of your Hawaii bucket list. Doing it on the same day as the Arizona memorial was especially meaningful, I think.

The USS Arizona Memorial from the Mighty MO.

So it only took me a year and 3 months, but I made it to one of Hawaii's biggest tourist attractions. What's on your Hawaiian bucket list?