July 21 Big plans today....must make it to the top of Mt. Olympus. It's the hike that I did way back, maybe my 2nd week here? But I only went about an hour in before turning around and heading back out. Terry mentioned that she'd also be interested in doing the hike, so we decided on today to attempt it. It's a long hike, roughly six hours which is long for only being 5.5-6 miles long. But, it's a ridge trail that follows the ridge line all the way from the top of St. Louis Heights in city limits all the [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone- Few weeks late as usual, but here are all the spectacular pics from Kim and Erin's visit to the island. We had so much fun. I realize some our dupes from Facebook, but guess you'll just have to deal with it... hehe Also, I think it should be noted what was going on behind the scenes of all these pictures. While Kim was planning her and Erin's exciting daily adventures in Hawaii.... someone back at home was planning some extremely exciting future plans. A week after Kim got back from Hawaii... Jamie proposed :) Congrats again girlie! So happy [View Full Entry]

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July 20 *I included a video of my newfound love: turtles, on today's blog..check it out. Caught a 7:50am bus to the North Shore trying to get the most hours as I possibly could out of this day. I'm becoming more bus savvy, and today I was equipped with my book: Harry Potter #1, ipod, and sweater. Time flies with something to read and pretty soon I had come to the first stop on the North Shore: Dole Plantation. I didn't really have this one on my list as something that was important, but what the heck? I'd passed by it [View Full Entry]

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July 17-19 Yes! I've been wanting to go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel since the first week I got here and today was the day. Eagerly, I hopped out of bed at 7am and quickly packed my bags for the day. By 7:30, I still hadn't heard Bill stirring in his room upstairs, so I texted him. Nothing. Knocked on his door...nothing. Called...and apparently, woke him up. Not good since we had to catch an 8:15 bus about a mile away. Bill was hungover. No, he was actually still drunk. And moving quite slowly. We ended up running to catch the [View Full Entry]

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July 14-16 The time had finally come to say goodbye to the last of my Carlson friends. After the late night dinner and a previously long day, I slept in to 10:00. Up with no sun time to waste, I changed into my swim suit and hurried down to the beach to meet Sabina and Alex for our last hurrah. We laid out in the spot that I now claim as my favorite, the beach in front of the Moana Surfrider and we didn't move until after 4pm. Motivated by hunger, Sabina and I set out on a mission to find [View Full Entry]

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July 13 Finally...a full day with a rental car to tour the entire north shore of the island. I'm stoked. Alex, Gloria, and Sabina picked me up around 10am and our first destination was just down the street: Leonard's Bakery. It's just across the street from Safeway, and I've been tempted to stop, but have yet to do it. Apparently, malasadas are quite popular there, and you've got to try them at least once while you're here, so we did. We grabbed 1/2 dozen, 3 chocolate filled, 2 custard, and 1 haupia. They're really just sugar donuts filled with cream, and [View Full Entry]

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[That’s funny because Hawaii is a string of volcanic islands (therefore hot) which are continually erupting and making new land. Alright fine it’s that not funny, but it is better than the last blog’s title.] The day we left Australia to fly to Hawai’i was without question the longest day of my life. No, Dave wasn’t being especially annoying (during these past 8 months I’ve learnt to combat this little trait of his with a technique I like to call ‘not really listening most of the time’). Neither was the alarm set particularly early or the flig [View Full Entry]

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July 12 I don't like that word as it carries a negative connotation here, but today I was definitely a haole (pronounced kinda like ha-ow-lee). Somehow it was after midnight when I finally got to sleep which didn't help me to get up at 5am. Exhausted, I hopped out of bed, got dressed, packed all my stuff for the day, then ran out to the busstop. Unfortunately, it never occured to me that it was Sunday and the bus schedule is less frequent. I had only 20 minutes to get down to the meeting place and I began to get concerned [View Full Entry]

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July 10-11 Time for a beach day. As I was packing up for my jaunt down to Waikiki Beach, I got a phone call from Sabina, one of the Carlson crew still here vacationing. A few of them ended up post extending their time here in Hawaii for a little r'n r. Lucky for me, that meant I had people to hang out with down at the beach. So, instead of heading down to my end at Queens Beach, I met them out on the beach at the Hilton Village. The Hilton Hawaiian Village is literally a small village to itself. [View Full Entry]

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July 8-9 A rare occasion that I sleep in till 10:30, but I must've needed it. My roommate Tiffany and I made plans to walk down to Bogarts for breakfast. They have the most delicious food! We shared the Michael's Scramble which was scrambled eggs with asparagus, sun dried tomato and feta cheese with potatoes and a bagel with tomato, sprouts, capers & cream cheese. Yummy! And we sat at the table talking and sipping coffee for over an hour. I really enjoy hanging out with her. I think if I were to stay longer, we'd become good friends. Although we [View Full Entry]

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