Miss Karen visited from California and we decided to show her a good time! By forcing her to do the Koko head crater hike (steep railroad tracks, 1048 feet up), even though she doesn't exercise. And forcing her on a paddleboard for the very first time, even though she doesn't swim! Hey, that's our Aloha spirit...if you visit us, you play by our rules :o)
OH yes, and we saw a double rainbow along the way. It was our lucky day.

Just Maui'ed

My loyal reader has requested that I update this blog. Why, thank you, faithful follower, I didn’t know you were there :o) Hmm, where should I start? I had an amazing 4 day trip to Maui a few weeks ago with the entire Capacio clan. It was chock-full of waterfalls, endless windy roads (See: Highway to Hana), gorgeous cliff views, and shopping! For some reason, everyone was on a spending spree…I think it was the fresh Maui air that did it. Some highlights include: the Olivine pools (with weird acid-like rock formations and a blowhole), 7 Sacred pools, Haleakala Crater (as my niece put it, “there are clouds up my boogers!”), black sand beach (black “rock” beach, if you want to be technical about it) and Lahaina (with the very impressive banyan tree). A popular bumper sticker kept telling us to: “Relax! This ain’t the Mainland!” Very true, indeed.

Visitors galore!!!

I love having visitors to our new place (no I'm not just saying that, just in case one of them is reading this right now..you know who you are)! Because I get to be a tourist and show off all the hotspots of Oahu...over and over and over again. It's like Groundhog day..Hawaii style. Haha.. j/k.. i I do love it. I got to spend time with my bestest friends, enjoying the North Shore, shave ice, all da turtles, Duke's...as if for the first time :o) Oh and a first: I tried surfing. Well, I don't know if it qualifies as surfing, but I can say that I 'rented a board' for the first time. Right Tara? hehe

Kumbaya

Memorial Day weekend: My first time camping...ever! I mean the real deal.. tents, no showers, cooking on a tiny pot, digging out our 'master bathroom'. We hiked about 8 hours up a mountain, past the Aiea loop trail, with 35 lbs of gear on my back (can't complain, cuz the guys had at least 70 lbs on them) and collapsed in a tiny clearing, then set up shop. A surreal moment for me was laying on top of a ridge's plateau, with the white clouds rolling up and over the mountains like dry ice...it was so freakishly beautiful that it almost made me forget how thirsty I was (cuz we almost ran out of water by the end.. yikes). Our first stop after we finally got off the trail: 7-11 for 3 doughuts, 2 jumbo sized Slurpees, 2 Starbucks fraps, 2 Gatorades..for 4 people. $17 well spent.

Coupon Alert!

Free Hawaiian sunrise with this coupon..so hurry up and visit me because as you can see it expires on 7/31/2009! Personally, I wish the coupon was for sunsets, b/c who wants to get up so freaking early anyway? But beggars can't be choosers :oP

Likeke Hike and Tantalus Drive and MOPEDS!!

Oops, I must combine the last two weekends into one post. Last, last Saturday we tried to do Likeke Hike..'tried' b/c we walked and climbed and got mosquito-bitten, but never found the darn waterfall at the end. The hiking book said "turn left at the coconut tree or right at the mango tree".. problem is, there aren't any coconuts or mangoes yet..ahh!! So we got lost multiple times. Very pretty though, of course. Leter that day, we took our rented Jeep Wranger through a "4WD" road (when I read the guidebook, I thought that was the number of the highway. It stands for FOUR WHEEL DRIVE road. Oh.) 20 minutes of rocks and bumps to go 1.5 miles to Hidden Beach. On the way out, we hit a ditch and the jeep was almost laying on its side. Luckily, Kevin has mad monster truck driving skills and was able to maneuver his way out.
Last weekend, decided to be adventurous and rent mopeds for the whole day. Went up a gently curving "Round Top Road", with very interesting trees along the way. That I could manage. Then, we thought we may drive up to Kailua, a lil town, by way of a coastal highway with narrow lanes. Umm yeah.. in Kevin's words "I am never doing this with you again". I guess I made him a little nervous when a car almost sideswiped me :oP But, but, that's what helmets are for!!

Sculptorades

Aren't my friends talented? Right before I left home, they created these clay sculptures for me to remember them by. I only had two requests: should be an animal or thing that represent themselves and must be tiny!!! I could only take 100 lbs with me to Hawaii, so luckily the dolphin, snail, cupcake, robot, pawprint, turtle, piggy, and dice could all fit in my luggage!