3 Day Weekend!

3 days Richard doesn't have to work+ great weather+an entire island to explore= 1 adventure packed weekend!

Friday:

Richard works Friday nights. BUT my friend Mariana's husband had to work too so we decided to go see what was exciting in Waikiki. We tried to get into a CD release for a local reggae artist but the line was out the door and not moving. We heard about a Latin dance night (she is Latino) with free live music at another place so we wandered our way down there. Waikiki is a great place to go with friends, because there are so many things going on that all you have to do is park once and wander around til you find something everyone likes. We got there early and while we were waiting, we ended up talking to the band that just had finished playing. They are the The Hot Club of Hulaville http://www.hotclubofhulaville.com Their violin player gave us CD's for his other band http://www.duanepadilla.com. It was pretty cool. Turns out that the Latin Night was neither live nor free so we didn't end up staying. But we might go back so we can see the other guys play during the dinner hour. We got some food later on down one of the many streets and got to check out the 'Iolani Palace and a bunch of the other cool old buildings in down town. It was a lot of fun. We'll have to go back when they are open. Its nice to have someone to explore with :)

Saturday:

We sold our all our snowboard gear before we left Utah, and saved the money to get new toys here. We had enough to buy both of us full high quality snorkel sets: Glass lenses, monoform rubber flippers, and snorkels that try not to drown you lol.

PLUS we still had enough left over to get me a pair of Vibram 5 fingers! There is a great shop here called Almost Barefoot. They only sell Vibram FiveFingers and wheat grass! The super helpful staff helped guide me to the perfect pair:

They are TrekSports. They were originally designed with trail runners in mind and work perfectly on Hawaii's muddy root bound trails! I wore them on the mile walk back to the car.(We've found in Honolulu its best to just park wherever it is free and walk to everything.) They feel wonderful! Richard has a Jamba Juice gift card so we got us some to keep us hydrated on our walk. It tastes even better here!

We had just enough time to drive over to the west side and get a quick dive in. We need a fish book soo bad! Here was view as we were leaving:

Sunday:

We had a coupon to the WORLD's LARGEST MAZE at the Dole Planation. The drive up there was soo beautiful! The maze was closed for the day :( So instead we went and toured their amazing gardens! They were mind blowing! It was kinda funny, too. Some of the plants, such as the Plumerias, were dormant because it is technically winter here! I took soooo many pictures here are some of my favorites but I'll probably make a link to the whole bunch.

Love the green under bark!

Sadly my this picture doesn't show the beautiful purple color of those waterlilies

Can you find the lizard?

This is a younger one about 3 plants over.

The fist leaves of spring for the plumeria!

We also took a train tour of the fields and watched a demonstration on how to pick the perfect pineapple, how to grow your own plant from the stem, and how to cut/serve it!

To finish it off we had a cone of the the MOST AMAZING PINEAPPLE ICE CREAM EVER! I'm salivating just thinking about it!

We found the Hale'iwa Art Gallery. They have such a great collection with some very affordable prints! I'm going to go back and get Richard a great turtle painting by Bailey Leung. (couldn't find it anywhere online so you'll just have to wait 'til I can take a picture). They had a truly amazing set of silk embroidery art work. I originally thought they were amazing paintings until one of the employee's showed us the ever so tiny threads! Couldn't find one good picture to show you but here is something kind of close:

For dinner we stopped at Maui Mikes Fire-Roasted Chicken. Remember that post last June about the great 'Hawaiian Chicken' apparently that was a knock off Maui Mikes. The real thing is even more out of this world! YUM YUM YUM! We split their half chicken meal and even with a drink it was still only $8.30! That and the place had a wonderful laid back atmosphere. Instead of giving you a number they give you a playing card, so they call out things like 9 of diamonds! 3 of Spades! It was so good we took one home to eat later :)

Monday:

We were going to go tour Clint's side of the island but his wife ended up in the ER early that morning (she's was released and feeling a little better last thing I heard). So we said we'd come over some other time. We decided to go down to the South End of the island to Hanauma Bay. It's protected so all of the fish their are really friendly! We saw some extremely colorful and exotic ones, and so many were over the top BIG! The bay is really shallow so I did the entire trip floaty free! I'm a pretty lousy swimmer so this is a big deal lol!

Locals get in free so once we get our licences here we'll be regulars. I love the south side of the island the water is the most spectacular color! The road reminded me of the Lassen Park Hwy in curvyness and horrifying drop-offs! But the views were truly awe inspiring!

Also:

I applied for a job at Solar City!

Our storage cube arrived and is waiting for us!

We picked up Richard's Car today!