Long Time...

It sure has been awhile since an update! Not much is going on though. Michael goes to work in the morning, I go for a run and then do whatever I want! It's quite nice not having a job. I get to sew and cook and do all the things I like to do (that Michael doesn't).

Sorry I never finished our Hawaii saga, but in a nutshell it was wonderful if you forget about the part when our rental car got stolen. Yes, our rental car was stolen. We buried the keys in our bag, put the bag under a towel and it was all in a mini rock cave. We went snorkeling for a few minutes, came back...

Michael--I thought you put a towel over the bag? (Towel was missing)

Me--I did. Did you take the camera out? (It was lying on the other towel next to a fatty footprint)

Michael--Oooh, the bag is open! THE KEYS ARE GONE....AND MY WALLET!

Michael rushed up to where our car was parked. It was gone, but they left his wallet (cash gone, but at least he had an ID) and the towel. After making a police report, we call the rental car company (I won't name any names, but I wouldn't rent from coughDOLLARcough ever again). They wouldn't let us rent another car because the key was stolen. They claimed it would be considered negligence on our part because the keys were out of our possession. Oh, and in that case we would be liable for the complete amount of the car (roughly $30,000). This vacation kept getting more and more expensive. All I have to say about that is that it is not very smart to only have keys that are attached to a computerized remote (that if it gets wet the car will not start) on an island where everyone goes there to go to the beach.

So, our car being stolen, we were stuck on the north shore (complete opposite end of the island as our hotel and the rental car place). I got a little frustrated with the rental care lady on the phone while Michael was canceling all his credit cards--we didn't know if they would've copied the numbers down. She wanted us to come fill out a report with Dollar and then they "would be happy to assist you from their airport location to your hotel". WHAT GOOD DOES THAT DO WHEN WE ARE 50 MILES AWAY FROM YOUR AIRPORT LOCATION WITH NO CASH OR MONEY! "I am very sorry ma'am for the inconvenience." Inconvenience? An inconvenience would be losing your car in the parking lot, not having someone else take it! Ugh.

Michael had to talk it over with them--he has better people skills in tense situations such as this. We finally got them to pick us up. I am getting depressed by this story--but all in all I found the car sitting on the side of the road! Yay! On the sad side, right next to our ditched car, another couple was stranded because their car had just been stolen!

We didn't get a car for the remaining 2 days although it was all prepaid, but we rode some buses and went to Pearl Harbor again! There was just too much to do there that we had to go back.

Ah! That's a lot to read! I will post some pictures of our last 2 days soon!

Possibly Switching to Target

Well, my computer is acting up and deciding to not turn on properly (I am using Michael's right now), so the rest of the Hawaii trip will have to wait ( I have no idea where Michael saved the pictures on his computer).

But I did want to tell you about my wonderful trip I had today to Walmart. I go in for just a few items--onions, mushrooms (but they didn't even have any), strawberries, and milk. I get what I can find and head to the registers. As usual, not many are open for how many people needed to check out. The lines were hugely long, so I try to get behind someone with a few things and not many produce items.

WOO! I find a register with one person with a handful of non-produce items. I walk to the conveyor belt and look for a divider doohicky thing. Of course, there wasn't one. I leave a good foot and a half gap and lay my items down. Then, the oh-so-polite lady in front of me stops checking out her items (self check-out), turns around, stares me in the face and says, "Did I invite you?"

Me-- Uhhh, excuse me?

Crazy Old Woman--You want me to pay for your stuff? Is that why you put your stuff up here? I'm not paying for your stuff!

Me--What?! No...I am paying for my own things... (I was so confused at what she was talking about)

COW--My things are here, I didn't invite you here. (She continues to stare me in the face like I tried to steal her purse until I removed my items from the conveyor belt)

Ouch. I didn't know it was a crime to put your check-out items next to someone else's. So, I awkwardly pick up and hold my gallon of milk, 4lbs. of frozen strawberries, and bag of onions and wait until I get my "invitation" to be able to set my things down. She takes her time finishing paying, and I slam my things down in the exact spot I had put them before.

COW after she's gotten her bags, turns back to me--When someone's using a table, you don't just go and sit down do you? No one invited you.

Me--What are you talking about!? This is a grocery store conveyor belt, more than one person uses it at a time! When was the last time you've been to a grocery store! Ugh, you are so rude!

I wouldn't let her get a word in, so she walked away very offended.

The COW is about 5'6", long gray hair, probably owns many cats, Provo-Orem area. Ye be warned of the COW. She's out there, and she'll give you the eye if you use her conveyor belt.

Hawaii Part 2

fri DAY 3 [Pearl Harbor]

We planned more for this day than just going to Pearl Harbor, but there was so much to do that we ended up spending a whole day there! It reminded me of what sacrifices people made for our country and why they should be remembered.

I also really wanted to read my grandpa's book (which is still in progress) of his experience in WWII. (My parents have a copy of one of his drafts--I am going to read it when I go visit.) He was living on Oahu when Pearl Harbor was attacked and served with the 442 infantry/regimental combat team made up of all Japanese-Americans; it became the most highly decorated infantries in all American history (I had to read this in a textbook before I realized how important it was).

aviation museum Michael was so excited to see that they had an aviation museum, so we had to go. It was really interesting to learn not just the plain basic histories, but personal stories from the war.

Now I am regreting not taking a pictures of the signs that had info on them, but this is a little tractor thing that was used on an island that only a few families lived on. They were to dig trenches all over because it was predicted that the Japanese would attack and use it for landing. Trenches, logically, would make it difficult to land. They got this tractor to speed up the process--in total 5000 miles of trenches were dug.

One Japanese plane ran out of fuel and was told the island with all the trenches was uninhabited. He found that it wasn't and that it wasn't fit for landing, but had no choice since he had no fuel. This is what was left of his plane. And supposedly, a Japanese-American was helping out the Japanese (including the man who died in this plane crash). He ended up commiting suicide.

They had planes on display that both Americans and Japanese used. They also had an outline of the waves of Japanese planes and how they planned the attack. Really interesting stuff.

Outside the museum was this tower that is always in the movies about Pearl Harbor, suchas Pearl Harbor =). However, it wasn't even built until a year after! Imagine that. The white building was there though.

uss arizona memorial The USS Arizona sank in the Harbor with about 2000 men aboard the morning of the attack. It sounds like a lot of people, but when you get to the memorial it seems like a whole lot more. Seeing the individual names carved into the wall really personalizes what happened--they were real people with families, not just a number that sank and disappeared into the ocean.

The memorial was built over the sunken ship, and you could see parts of it sticking out of the water. Over 60 years later, oil was still bubbling up. You could watch it surface and then float on down the harbor. I was wondering if it was coming from somewhere else, but Michael said it smelled really old...and it really did.

uss bowfin The Bowfin was a submarine that we got to take an audio tour of. Again, really interesting stuff. First hand account said that as they were approaching Japan (in the Bowfin) they could hear metal scraping against metal--not a good sign. They were dragging a mine! Lucky for them it never went off.

This is the last picture I got before our camera died! Michael sure was a good navigator!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of where they slept! Oh, man...talk about itty bitty living space. Plus, not everyone had a bed! So all spaces were always occupied. They called the beds (that looked more like hanging cots) "hot beds", because once one guy got off duty he would go wake someone up to use their bed and they would then go on duty. (I hope that makes sense.) I think I would pass.

We finished this day by eating in Chinatown. We figured they would have some good grub without making us sleep in the poor house, and indeed it was GOOD! Seriously, the best beef and broccoli I have ever eaten. Orange chicken tasted like it was made with real oranges. Mmmm. If you ever happen to find yourself in Chinatown in Hawaii--Mini Garden is the place to go.

satur DAY 4 [jam packed fun]

punchbowl crater cemetary If I could choose to be buried here, I would, but alas I am not a veteran. Michael and I were joking that Hawaii would be a nice place to be resurrected. Plus, from the crater there's a great view! (Below is a picture of Diamond Head, which we hiked after this stop).

This is a volcanic crater with burial plots and a monument that outlines all the attacks/battles in chronological order with the purposes and everything. We didn't have much time to read all the maps so I took pictures of them. How the maps were constructed were pretty amazing. I thought they were printed (looking at them from far away), but they were really made out of crushed glass and rock. Here's just one example.

This was the monument (the maps were up the stairs and circled behind the lady at the top). All those little white walls looked like decoration at first, but as we got closer names were inscribed top to bottom, back and front. It's quite humbling to find how many people have served our country and passed on. Below is a close up of the trees that lined the stairs. All the trees were cut to form circles if you looked up. We didn't notice these either until we were leaving.

diamond head hike When the sign says that this 0.8 mile hike is no shaded walk in the park--they mean it! I consider myself in okay shape (I'm not a couch potato, but I am not prepared to climb everest either), and this about pooped me out. With how humid it was, I was sweating a waterfall; but of course, Michael has no fat, works out as much as I do, but hardly ever breaks a sweat. I felt like a cow next to him. But nonetheless we made it to the top, which used to be an old look out. Here's a few pictures of what we had to go through to get to the top (99 stairs + the round staircase, tunnels, etc.) and what we found at the top.

As a little more oomf for my statement that this was no easy hike...some guy passed out at the top while we were there (at the top). We beat him down to the parking lot that is in the crater of Diamond Head, but he rode a helicopter down...
hanauma bay This was by far the best snorkeling we found. We didn't see any nemo clown fish or squid like we did in Pupukea, but we saw FOUR turtles! They were so dang cute. You could swim near them and they would just chill and eat.

The first one Michael found I didn't even know what he was looking at! I was feeling a little sea sick and wanted to go back, but he just floated there in the water. He pointed at some fish and I thought he was just enamored with being able to swim with them or something. I didn't know he was pointed at a turtle! So I go under once I know what's down there and I turn around into another sea turtle! We almost bumped like 2 people walking towards each other looking opposite ways. So neat. I wish we had a waterproof case for our camera. The ones we saw were similar to this guy...

Here's just some pictures of the beach...

It was quite a hike down to the beach...you can see my nice battle wound from our camping trip on my right calf. We went up Logan Canyon with the Humpherys side of the family the Saturday before we left (so a week prior to this picture). Going up to a plane crash site was on the agenda so Michael and I planned to take Brandon's dirtbike (sorry I still can't get myself to say "motorbike"). I don't really know what happened, but I was sitting on the back when it started tipping over...on top of me. The peg went right into my calf and immediately swelled up like a goose egg (I knew it wasn't broken but it sure looked like it). The bruising has gone down, but the middle is still numb and feels like it's going to give birth to a rock. Anyway...

smorgy's This was a buffet down the street from our hotel and where we finished our night. The food was good...I was surprised to find that the even had kimchee! I don't like kimchee, I just thought it was odd. Michael loved the fruit...and the coconut jello stuff (we even took some home, shh! Then, Michael ate it for breakfast the next morning while I was still sleeping and craved it the rest of the week.)
After writing about all we did this day, no wonder we were so tired! Just writing all of it is exhausting. Still more to come...4 more days worth. Hope you don't get sick of this. =)

ps Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!

Hawaii Part 1

Our trip has left us with mixed feelings...the good times were amazing, but the not so good times were...not so good. I might have to post the trip in more than one post (it might take some time...and plus not seem so overwhelming to read).

wednes DAY 1 [no more planes!]

We were full of excitement getting on the plane for Hawaii.

But after the flight all we wanted to do was sleep. Fortunately we had to wait to get our rental car, a nightmare to come. It was all prepaid, or so we thought...we had to pay airport fees, taxes, etc. plus it was going to cost $18 a night to park it at our hotel, which was out of parking spaces. We found somewhere cheaper about a 7 minute walk down the road.

thurs DAY 2 [things are looking up]

dole plantation This is a must do if you ever go to Hawaii! I had so much fun here! I got to open a fresh water clam and get a pearl! It was a trick to get you to buy the jewelry to mount the pearl in...but we wouldn't give in to buying a $120 necklace to put our $8 pearl in. The sales lady was a little bitter.

The best part though was seeing how the pineapples grow and all the different kinds of pineapple.

pupukea beach & snorkeling Our first snorkeling stop turned out to be awesome. The sand was pretty much the best sand I have ever sat in. Usually you want to avoid the sand and try your hardest to keep it out of your bathing suit, but the sand at Pupukea was like sesame seed sized crushed up sea shells--no dirt! It was comfortable to lay out in and then you could just brush it off, no problem!

We saw tons of butterfly fish, parrot fish, and other fish that I have no idea what they are called. None were the least bit scared of people! I was surprised with that considering it was a pretty small beach.

We lost our keys at Pupukea, and we had left our wallets and cell phones in the car. Crap. We searched for the keys all over, dumping our stuff out of our bags over and over again and retracing our steps. No luck.

Our car was still there--with a note on the dashboard to call Michael's cell phone for the key location. -Is someone holding our keys ransom? They found our keys stole our wallets and cell phones and want us to call for our "key location"?- We flag down a cop, he calls Michael's phone -no answer- and the car place, and the rental company sends out a key from Waikiki to the North Shore (opposite end of the island). As we wait for the taxi with our key,we are freaking out...we have to cancel credit cards, how do we get back on the plane without ID?, we have nothing! After 45-60 minutes of a racing heartbeat and waiting to know what the real damage we had incured (our wallets and such were in the trunk...) a man walks up to us that had found our key! He had left a message on Michael's cell phone (why didn't he say so!) where he had left the key (on top of the rear right wheel--the only one Michael didn't check). He found the number on our rental agreement papers.

It was proof to me that there are still some good people out there. Our wallets and cell phones were safe and sound in our trunk. We tried to cancel the taxi that was coming to us, but we had to pay for that. $115 and 45 minutes later we had a second pair of keys and were on our way.

birth stone We didn't have time for much after the tiny escapade of losing our keys, so we just made a little stop off the side of the road on our way back to Waikiki. People would leave bananas and things...I have no idea why...

whew. That's a lot for one post...more to come of our 8 day vacation!