Monday, April 18, 2011

Home & Haleakala


Hello,

We're back in the lovely state of Maine. We had a long 20 hours of travel - we flew out of Honolulu at 11pm, arrived Phoenix at 7am, arrived Boston at 5pm then flew to Bar Harbor at 7:30pm and arrived home at 9pm. Ugh. All in all it was too bad. From Honolulu to Phoenix we were surrounded by a group of 75 middle school kids who were on their way to an archeological dig in Colorado. I thought to myself, "Oh, crap" and they were actually delightful. I sat by two of them and they were very nice. We got to see the Rockies from the plane and that was amazing.

Our last two weeks in Hawaii were great, I mean it's Hawaii, right?, but my favorite day was our Haleakala adventure. Haleakala is the highest point on Maui - topping out at just over 10,000 feet. We drove up late Sunday afternoon after lunch in Makawao and arrived at the top around 4pm. Sunset wasn't until 6:30ish so we had time to look around. Last time we'd gone up we arrived after the peak of the sunset and it was amazing to watch the stars but we couldn't see the crater....which I learned is not a crater but actually a valley. Bam. So we stopped and looked and even did a short hike and here are the photos to prove it....
First stop on the way....I can't remember the name of the overlook....anyone?

Andy & John - the models who went with us
The sun had this ring around it...I'm sure there's a name for the phenom


The Valley
The valley with cloud cover - the clouds were amazing - you can really watch the weather up on Haleakala
Our first view of the Sliding Sands trail
A Chukar - a flightless partridge - not much lives at 10,000 feet but these guys do. It can't fly at the altitude so it walks and hops. There were two of them and we crossed their path several times.
View from Sliding Sands
Another view about 2 minutes later
Andy on the edge of the world

After the short lung bursting hike, note to self: do not run at 10,000 feet, it was sunset time.
A lot of people thought it was over at this point so they left....or they were freezing...it was so cold up there that my fingers hurt....but then it got good again...

We had a double layer of clouds - below and above us - so while we could watch the sunset we couldn't stargaze. Weirdly it was clear enough to see the Big Island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

After we watched the sunset to the bitter end, we drove back down. It was a great day!

I have a few more Hawaii posts and will try to get those up soon. Now back to setting into our home!

~Jen

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Photo Update time....

Aloha!

We are in our last two weeks. Last week a large part of my family came to visit - my Dad, his Wife, her Daughter and her husband and their two girls. We had a great time and I got to try two things that I've never done before - parasailing and ziplining. The trip was marred by high seas which caused by stepsister, Michele, to be seasick for most of the trip. Bummer. I think everyone really loved Hawaii. Here are some photos....
Snorkeling at Black Rock on Maui - Jay, Sophie, Michele & Isabel
Volcano National Park - Jay, Michele, Larrance, Jim, Mary, Isabel, Sophie & Me

In the UFO Parasailing Boat - Isabel, Me & Dad
Preparing to Zip - Dad, Isabel, Sophie & Jay
Mid Zip

On Saturday, we said Aloha Oe to the fam and then on Sunday we went to Haleakala to watch the sunset.
10,000ft here we come!
Larrance on the edge of the world
Andy on Sliding Sands trail into the crater
The Crater
The sunset

We're ready to go home - we miss Maine and our house - but Hawaii is so lovely that it will be hard to go.

More later.....

Jen

Sunday, March 6, 2011

5 weeks and Counting



Hi Everyone,

I've been a bit remiss with my blogging but I'm back to update it.

My last update was the beginning of February, right? Yes. February was very busy - it is the month of my birth and so I insist that we celebrate all month. I. Am. A. Pill. So what did we do?

We went to the Volcano National Park with the whole cast and we drove the entire Chain of Destruction road. It was amazing. I wrote about this before - I bought a hoodie - remember?
Here are some photos:
The new coast line

Petrogylphs!
Chain of Destruction Road!
Holei Sea Arch and, as usual, a serious Larrance

Then our friend Matt Marcy and his wife, Tiffany, came to visit. Matt is a magician and he performs on the ship a few times a year. We got to know one another last year and have stayed in touch through out the year. He had a three week contract but his amazing partner - Tiffany - was only here for one week. So we had to adventure.....
They'd never been to the Nakele Blowhole and apparently I can't enough of blowholes (watch it!) so we went there. It was an amazingly stormy day complete with a high surf advisory so the blowhole was, uh, blowing.
We hung out with them all week - dinners and drinks and such. We hadn't really gotten to know Tiffany and she's 100% de-light-ful! Turns out that Matt is just okay.
We had a great time.
Matt & Tiff on the crew deck.
Na Pali Coast from the crew deck looking aft.

I suppose the big event of the month was my Birthday. I'm not sure everyone felt that way but I did. I started my "Birth Week" with a trip to the Honolulu Art Academy for art viewing and museum lunch. I have a real thing about eating in Museum restaurants. I love them. I think this stems from trips to the museum with my Mom and it was cemented with a trip to DC in the 8th grade. I love museum restaurants! I still remember eating at the Smithsonian Modern Wing Museum - the restaurant is on the 2nd floor and you get to look at the Calders while you eat. Awesome!

The Honolulu Art Academy is a lovely museum. It's small enough to do in one day without feeling visually or physically overwhelmed. They also have very interesting permanent and temporary exhibits. They have a whole wing of Hawai'i art which is very interesting. We tried taking some photos but got in trouble - BUSTED! So I just have a few images....
Kaneko piece in the courtyard - across from the restaurant!
Kaneko detail
Kaneko detail
The restaurant and the courtyard
Bluesteel in the main courtyard
This is Japanese print of Moon Rabbits stealing a Mochi Cake - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit

I want to go visit the Bishop Museum which has a larger collection of Hawaiian art and artifacts. Hopefully we'll get there before we leave in just five weeks....five weeks. I do feel ready to go home - I miss Maine in all of its snowy glory. I miss my house. It's funny to be in paradise and feel like you're ready to go home. Well luckily we have whales to watch!

Yay! Whales! We went on an amazing whale watch on Maui. We sailed from Ma'alea Harbor and we were very lucky. We saw a Mama and Baby Humpback whale right out of the harbor. The Mama was teaching the baby how to breach, Pectoral slap and tail slap. They did several double breaches. I got a few photos but honestly my camera wasn't good enough.


Larrance, John, Matt & Andy on the Whale Watch
Whale breach...the little splash the right is the tail end of the baby's breach.

After the Mama & Baby, we came upon no less than 5 groups of male whales fighting for females. They fight by performing Punduncle tail slaps and headbutting each other. As we watched, one group of males like 4 others showed up and it was a whale rumble. They were going nuts. One male performed like 50 tail slaps in a row and then he started peduncle slapping. Wow! Then as we watched we were surrounded by whales - they were everywhere. It was awe inspiring. So after that we went and had drinks...Matt got drunk on Mai Tai's....I can't take him anywhere. Then we all drunkly rode the bus back to Kahalui because after you see whales you have to get a little drunk - a great day!

We hiked Diamond Head and had Pukka dogs with Matt & Victoria! Fun! After we hiked and had lunch, we went over to Wakiki to look back at Diamond Head.
Matt, Larrance and Victoria - looking out over the crater of Diamond Head.
View of Wakiki from Diamond Head - see the pink bldg? That's where I took the next photo from...
The view of Diamond Head from Wakiki Beach near Duke's
Moody Big Beach - you can't see the big waves because of the dropoff right by where those people are standing.
We climbed up and over to Little Beach to get a good view of Big Beach...behind me. I don't have a pic of Little Beach because everyone is naked over there. Naked and playing sports or banging a drum and by that I mean playing a drum.

Then on my Birthday we ate BBQ in Kihei, swam at Big Beach and almost got killed by the waves (fun!) and then we had dinner at Flatbreads. Luckily for me, our friend and great comic Kermet Apio was onboard and he joined us for dinner! Yay!

I shared my Birthday with Sean (from Oh, What a Night! a Frankie Valley tribute show). So on our actual bday, we went to Tutti Frutti and then we had two shows and drinks afterward......it was a very successful and wonderful birthday.
Sean & I at Tutti Frutti on our bdays!

As I mentioned, we only have five weeks left. In just two weeks, my Dad, his wife Mary, her daughter Michele and Michele's family are all coming to visit. They will be on the ship for one week - exciting! - we have many adventures planned and I look forward to showing them Hawai'i.

I'm working on the schedule for our upcoming eighth season. So in between these big adventures, I'm at the computer tearing my hair out trying to make the schedule. Ugh. It's always a big challenge to get 30 people's schedule to form into a cohesive season.

Right now, I have to walk to Office Max to get giant pads of paper for our show....after that I think we're going to head over to the beach and check out the turtle sex party (not a euphemism) and have a picnic.

Aloha to you all!



Monday, February 28, 2011

Delinquent, As Usual....

Hi All,

I've been a bit tardy with my blog writing. I'll catch up later this week. I have more photos and more adventures to share!

Soon!

~Jen

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Late Photos


Hi All,

Here are the photos I wanted to post on Thursday but I couldn't....
The Monkey King faces off with an opponent during the parade.

Parade decorations
Protea Flower at Lavender Farm
Another Protea at Lavender Farm - oh, and Lavender!
Sun Yat-Sen Memorial w/ Agave Plant and John & Andy

Well, now the blog is freaking out so more photos later! Bleh.

Jen