What to do in Hawaii:Part II: Food

There are so many cute little places that have a more local feel on the North Shore. I would like to dedicate this post to one: TED'S BAKERY. Whether you're here for a couple days or making your stay permanant you have to head over there, like now. It's awesome, I will let the pictures describe. Ted's is located between Turtle Bay and Sunset Beach, if you are bussing, you'll be on the 55 or the 53 and make sure you pull that cord when you see a little blue building pop up out of nowhere. ---End Transmission---

Willl Rotate this one someday...

Scared.

In December I wrote an article for University Relations that got published in the Church News!Check it out at http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/61847/BYU-Hawaii-Ground-broken-for-campus-expansion-project.html

Right now I am the Editor-in-Chief of multimedia at the Kealakai ( our school newspaper) and I have lots of hopes and dreams for the upcoming semester. I have ideas for two new news shows and I would LOVE to get them broadcast on our university channel.

In this new position I am kinda having a hard time finding my footing, I always worry that people think I am mean or lazy or not thinking things through all the way. Part of it , I think, is that there are lots of little details to attend to and it's hard to take care of all of them when I have tons of homework and classwork... I think I am just going to have to accept that I am not going to be able to treat this like a full-time job, because it's not!

After we get these new shows off the ground and settle in a little I am hoping to start writing more stories. The nice thing is that I get to pick and choose what I write so I am really hoping I will have the time to focus on a few important stories for my portfolio. Yikes! Real life really is creeping up on me I think, soon I will be out in the world trying to get my foot in the door as a journalist and,I'll admit it, I'm scared!!!

What to do in Hawaii : Part I :Adventure

I plan on making this into a series and hopefully the process will cause me to explore more than I have done already but I've decided to highlight a few of my favorite North and East(ish) Shore (Oahu) adventure activities first. If you are planning a trip to Oahu, it might be worth considering splitting your time between Waikiki and another part of the island, with this in mind I've chosen to dedicate part one to the area from Chinaman's Hat north to the Dillingham arifield. There are a lot of exciting things to do when you remove yourself from the city and to me they make traveling so far worth while. Let's start with an adventurous activity from our two "book-end" sites.

Chinaman's Hat--

On my first trip to Hawaii my Mom bought a children' book that told of the story of Chinaman' Hat. It went something like this...
                      
                      There once was a young Chinese boy who was very small. From early on he forged a deep friendship with a young girl in the village who loved to weave [Chinaman-style] hats, she even wove a very special one for him. As they grew older, the boy wanted to impress the girl but felt he couldn't because he was too small to do handstands or reach out and pick flowers from the trees like the other boys. Resolving that making himself bigger was the only option, he found himself asking a wise man in the village for help. The wise man offered to give him the leaves of a certain tree which grew and grew over thousands of years. He told the boy that if he made a tiny bit of those leaves into tea, he would grow just the right amount. He cautioned the boy not to use more than a tiny bit. The boy made his tea, but then he decided to add a little more leaf because, after all, he was very small. He added a bit more and more until he had used all the leaves. Then he drank the tea and immediately he started to grow. The problem was he didn't stop! He grew and grew until he was taller than all the tree's surrounding the village. like the ancient trees he grew older too, he even grew a long beard, sadly, frightened and unsure he ran. As he ran he looked down and saw the tiny hat his friend had woven for him, he tied it safely to his beard. He ran and ran until he reached the ocean and then somehow he reached the faraway shores of Hawaii. There he met a village-full of new people including a great chief. The people helped him and in return he gave him the little hat his friend had woven. Soon afterward the chief and the people wove him a hat just like the little one, but much much bigger to fit! Soon afterward, the Chinaman grew sleepy ( just like those ancient old trees) and drifted down to the bottom of the ocean, where he will remain until Father time comes to wake up all the ancient things once more.

I love impressing my friends with this little story whenever we drive past Chinaman's Hat...I'm pretty sure it annoys them. Anyway, more about the adventure part... Despite having been to Chinaman's Hat several times before, our last trip was as fun as ever. The little island is about 3/4 mile ( I am totally guessing here) off-shore and how you get there depends on the tide. If the tide is low, you can totally walk right out there as it won't be more than knee-deep at the deepest points. Just be sure to wear water shoes ( I use a pair of old tennies) because there is coral all the way out and it is SHARP! If the tide is medium-high you can paddle out on surfboards ( probably not advisable to use surfboards in low tide as their bottoms will get scraped up on the coral). Either way you can use a kayak ( so long as you aren't super anal about the possibility of a small scratch or two) and I have to say that kayaking is my favorite, the paddling is an ab workout for people like me who tend to focus more on aerobic excercise, and the water is usually clear so you can see little fishes swimmin' while you paddle. I would not suggest paddling around the island , it gets pretty wavy and sharp-rocky, just paddle into the little stretch of beach sand that faces the shore.

Here is some video footage of our trip ( please excuse our goofiness...actually don't--that's who we are!)

As we headed back to where we shored our kayak I just couldn't help but snap a picture, look how gorgeous it all was!

Rock Climbing at Mokuleia--

On the other end of the North Shore you can indulge in another adventurous part of Hawaii, the Mokuleia rock climbing routes. There are a bunch of routes at varying skill levels, and it is a blast! I am no rock climber but I must say I thouroughly enjoyed letting our friend Zach (acting as my belayer) pull me up the mountain. Justin brought his r.c. plane up there and hit some "sweet thermals" ( translation sea breeze+hot air = shutting off the motor riding the wind with your plane) To get to Mokuleia from Laie we drove up the North Shore , past Haleiwa , took a right turn somewhere and ended up near Camp Erdman where we took the steep hike up from Farrington highway. Here's us having an awesom time climbing!

clipped all of our rings to zach's awesome backpack clip! (BTWs All the Rockclimbing photos are by Zach AKA Zachary Zimmerman Photographer Extraordinaire)

 mmmmmm...check out the tone in those legs, I love me some power !!!!!! Can't you just see him owning everyone in a steeplechase or a 10 k...yes you can...because he does.

 We saw whales!!!! Check it out you can just make out the spout and the curve of its back!

Matt (one of my BFF Lacee's hubby)  learned to belay that day...notice that he and I both fit into the same harness...the pink,girl one.

I found a blog called Aloha from 808 that describes a Mokuleia adventure, as well as plenty of other outdoor adventures on Oahu:http://www.alohafrom808.com/2011/08/mokuleia-crag-rock-climbing-august-7-2011/

Christmas in Hawaii

It turns out that Christmas in Hawaii was actually awesome. We had my sister's car for the break and we made sure to do lots of fun things. Most of all, though, it was a tender and wonderful time to jus be with each other. Above is a picture on the way to the mall the the weekend after finals...we had a little bit of Christmas shopping to catch up on.

At the mall there was a beautiful Christmas tree that did wonders for my Christmas spirit, as did the look on that little boy's face when it started SNOW--ing!

Perhaps you have noticed a change in the quality of my photos? I borrowed one of the Kealakai's ( the student newspaper at which I am an editor///brag time I was recently promoted to editor-in-cheif over multimedia -also I was in charge over Christmas break) sweet Nikons and started clicking away. I don't think I quite have the photographer's touch yet but maybe someday...

We had a Christmas party on Christmas eve and it went really well. Justin and I teamed up to put together homemade stocking stuffers for our guests to take home. We filled them with carmel popcorn balls ( Lacee and I made them a few days before), hard candy from Costco, hand-folded pochibukuro with pennies inside ( we made them with wrapping paper using this tutorial ( learn how to fold your own courtesy of a little girl speaking a different language http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTaCCYsoKLE(portuguese??),a secret homemade present (soon to be revealed) and cuties ( the cheap way of giving people oaranges for their stockings). They were a hit I think. I printed the cute little to-from tags from brooklynlimestone.com. , they are the same ones I used on the invites (see my earlier post for a pic. ) I will post pictures of all my Christmas crafts in a separate post so stay tuned!

We acted out the nativity underneath a tarp Justin and I spent forever hanging. This is baby Jesus, also known as Kaito. His mom Madoka is from Japan ( which is why we included the pochibukuro in the stocking bags) and his dad, Risky, is from Indonesia. This picture definitely does not do his eyelashes justice, they are so adorably long it makes your heart skip a beat. CHALLENGE:We videoed our play, I will post it if I get five comments telling me to.

Matt  ( Lacee's husband) being pensive as he watches Charly Brown Christmas

We drew our parts out of a hat ( besides Madoka and Risky and Kaito who were Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus) p.s. Matt totally wanted to be baby Jesus. Justin and I were Shepherds /film crew.

We grinched our tree! Our friends Brandon and Lacey went on a cruise this Christmas and they let us borrow their tree. We used a red ribbon I originally bought for the door for the top, and added 2 dollars worth of our own ornaments to those the Krouts had already put up along with the lights. Then we used batting and smooshed it onto the branches here and there to make it look snowy. I bought some little mini nativity art seens and hole punched them, then tied them to the tree with black ribbon for the final touch.It was such a beautiful tree, I was so worried our Christmas would be cheesy, that I wasn't mature enough to do Christmas right, but man that tree just told me something about myself. Guess what? I can put together beautiful decor, and awesome parties. It's something I am very pleasantly surprised to find out!

Matt and Lacee hosted Christmas dinner, I made bell pepper soup with a recipe I found on pinterest...I was looking forward to the leftovers but I accidently left the soup there! Dang it!

Our wrapping paper pile, we were so lucky to have presents sent to us from so many family members! Thanks everyone!!!! Especially Mom! (She sent A LOT of presents)

(Below) On the way to Kaneohe...It is so beautiful here I have made a New Year's resolution to share Hawaii more fully with my blog readers, you guys deserve it !!! In honor of this decision I will soon present an awesome post that does just that...stay tuned!