A day in Haleiwa

We take frequent trips up to Haleiwa in our spare time...who wouldn't? There is good food, things to do, and so many unique places! One thing I love about Haleiwa are the colors of the town. Its very artistic.

[Photo credit: wyteone]

So of course we made our usual stops at Stortos and Matsumotos. MMmmmMMmmm... I'm drooling just thinking about how delicious it was!

And we walked around town to look at the beautiful scenery. Its these relaxed days with Seth that I treasure the most. Good food, scenery and company make up my idea of a perfect day. :)

Note: That tiny dot in the middle of the Haleiwa bridge is me! hehe. :)

Maunawili Falls

Last weekend Seth and I decided to go hike up to Maunawili Falls.

It was a PERFECT day for a forest hike---the weather was amazing. I love this hike because it takes you up into the Ko'olau mountains, and then to some gorgeous waterfalls!

There are 3 waterfalls at the end of this hike. To get to the 2nd one, you have to climb up the 1st waterfall, and swim through a pool on your right. The 3rd one is a bit more tricky to get up to, because you have to climb up a steep rock wall on your left.

At the 1st waterfall, there are a few places to jump from. All of the guys there were jumping off of the high spots. They're a bit hard to get to, so I just jumped from the little rock! Seth climbed up the rock like a monkey and jumped from one of the high rocks.

And of course I decided to impress everyone with my tiny jump! Only the cool people jump off of the little rock! :)

The water was SOOOOO cold. And the whole time I was in it my nerdy self kept thinking, "Giardia! Leptospirosis! Don't swallow the water!" I also felt the need to warn Seth as well. Geez.

This hike is pretty popular, so there were a lot of people on it that day. After I got over the ice cold freezing water, I decided that swimming in the water hole was pretty refreshing.

I love this hike!

Happy Earth Day!

What are you doing for Earth day today?

[Photo credit: Google]

Today I am recycling all of my plastic bags and aluminum cans...

...and remembering to turn lights/appliances off (and unplugging them) when I'm not using them!

[Photo credit: Google]

And I will be watching Ric O'Barry (Save Japan Dolphins Campaign) on Oprah's Earth Day episode. So excited!

What are you doing today?

Grandma's 84th.

This last Saturday was my Grandma's 84th birthday.

We celebrated by eating Chinese food at Hee Hing restaurant in town. I'm talking about REAL chinese food...none of that Panda Express stuff!! It always amazes me how different real chinese food is from the "americanized" version.

Here's the gang: Uncle Eddie, Uncle Francis, Uncle Calvin, Grandma, and smiley Seth!

The food we ate dinner was interesting...its all still pretty foreign to me. My uncles call me Steamed Rice because thats pretty much all that I eat while I nibble on all of the other stuff. Seth will try anything, and they think he's awesome, especially Uncle Calvin, right Seth? haha.

Here's some of the food that I made them order:

The uncles enjoy picking on me for my food choices, especially Uncle Eddie. He will hold the dish out in front of me until I take some while saying, "Ah, come on Steamed Rice, just TRRRYYYY." And then when I don't eat it he says, "Bah! I bet you just want your American pizza or something." Mom, I bet you can visualize this whole convo happening, right? haha.

It was a good dinner, and Grandma enjoyed herself. Seth and I took her to Ala Moana mall afterwards so she could shop for some shoes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!

Favorites!

Favorite person + favorite food...

AWESOME!

All that is missing to make a perfect day is my fat bulldog!

**BTW, I think they put crack in these sandwiches because I am seriously addicted!**

Peace

Finding peace and balance in the Ko'olau mountains of Hawaii...

*Photo credit: Seth Kressin*

Within hours of today...

...

-AT&T decided they wanted to screw up my life and give me ANOTHER new number (2nd time this month!).

*I can't stand contacting tons of people/companies to tell them I have a new number*

-I went from the glorious iPhone to a $20 Gophone.

-The guy at AT&T erased ALLLLLL of my contacts on my sim card.

*So I can't even tell people I have a new number.*

I hate cell phone companies. I wish I could just communicate telepathically instead.

Sadddddd day.

Lookie Lookie!

As I was mourning the passing of Cadbury mini egg season, I came across this on Saturday:

My first reaction was a HUGE GASP which caught strange looks from fellow shoppers nearby. My second reaction was "Rachel would die if she saw this!" and I snapped a picture for her. My third reaction was to grab the whole box and run.

And guess what. They were on SALE.

You better believe I bought a ton. And I'm taking the secret of this location to my grave. Or at least until I come up with the $$ to buy them all myself. hehe.

How to Order a Matsumoto Shave Ice

After many years of going to Haleiwa to eat some delicious shave ice from Matsumotos (even since I was a kid!), I have come up with some tips on how to get the best shave ice possible!

1. Order it in a bowl.

This is probably the most important step (and its free)! You just have to ask.

Look how much bigger the bowl is compared to the dinky cone that they give you:

Plus you don't have to pay and extra $0.25 for those plasticky holders!

2. Get ice cream!

MMMmmmmMMMMmm....shave ice is SO SO SO much better with ice cream in it. This rule reflects on #1 because you actually get more ice cream if you get it in a bowl! **We ordered one bowl and one cone...they put 4 scoops of ice cream in the bowl while putting two in the cone.** Ummm, to me thats a huge difference.

You can also get beans on your shave ice....I'm personally not a fan.

3. Try some new flavors!

A lot of people go pretty safe on their flavors...like getting strawberry, grape, or the "rainbow" combination....which are delicious... but I think their other flavors are so much better!

My personal favs are guava, mango, green apple, sour lemonade and creamsicle. Seth likes melona, strawberry cream, and rootbeer.

4. Eat.

My favorite part...

except for when you get it in a cone!! It drips and crumbles onto the floor! Boo.

To sum it all up:

Cone: bad.

Bowl: good.

Soooo yummy!

And thanks to the handsome hubs for being my shave ice model!

:)

Have a good Thursday!

Photoz

Meet my friend Kaui! We dance together at the PCC.

She asked me to take some pictures of her the other day. I swear I told her a million times that I don't really do photography other than for my own "artsy" purposes, and that my only model has been my DOG.....(haha!)....but she wanted me to take them anyway.

And so I did. And it was fun!

She is totally a natural model--so gorgeous! Here are some of my favs:

I didn't think they turned out so bad, eh? We had fun running around the PCC before work and making all of the tourists around us confused. hehe.

:)

Easter Weekend

I always love Easter weekend; full of candy, the beach, and LDS General Conference!

This time, I made (or tried to make) some easter egg cupcakes.

The cupcake book I have is so deceiving. The instructions make everything seem so simple and the pictures are so perfect---and then I go and make the cupcakes and they turn out nothing like the picture: crooked, frosting everywhere, things falling apart, etc. haha. See the hairy cupcakes? The green "hair" is supposed to be grass...but it ended up making the cupcakes look like they are hairy. I made two and stopped right there while yelling out loud that this cupcake book sucks.

Seth made me feel better by saying "OOOH I love hairy cupcakes!" in a crazy voice and ate them first. :)

Then we dyed easter eggs!

**note: the one that says "poop" is not mine.**

Here's Seth working hard on his "masterpiece:"

Later we ate lunch at my favorite place in the world (Stortos) and then found some colored chicks for sale on the side of the road (see last post)! I wanted one but what would I do with a dyed chick?

We also found a Maori carver who made some of the most unique pieces I have ever seen. My favorite was this giant owl made out of mammoth tusk...unfortunately it was like $350 or something like that. Seth was a sweetie and bought me the most awesome necklace with a small pendant carved out of bone. I've never seen a carving like this. Its supposed to represent everlasting friendship. I love it!

On Easter Sunday we opened our easter baskets full of candy and goodies...

...mine had a surprise in it...a Lego Star Wars Millenium Falcon kit! hahaha! So exciting!

See the little sign on the box that says ages 8-14? More like 8-22!

I got started right away...

And here is the finished product!

A proud nerd:

Afterwards we watched General Conference, which was amazing--as usual--and had a delicious dinner of BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. Yum.

What a fantastic weekend! :)

Happy Easter!

Enjoy the LDS General Conference and Easter Sunday!

These colored chicks were actually for sale on the side of the road today!

Can I have a blue one please?

Today I...

-Learned a hula to "Kauanoeanuhea," thanks to my friend Christy!

-Did laundry.

-Danced on the Maori canoe.

-Learned what to do if there is a bomb threat at the PCC?!

- Got my groove on with Luana at Zumba (twice!)

-Practiced the Ashtanga yoga primary series.

-Watched "The Hurt Locker."

-Ended the day by finishing off a bag of Reese's, and thus undoing all of today's exercise.

**I'm slightly embarrassed of the sky-high pile of Reese's wrappers sitting next to me,**

And that was my day. The end. :)