Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 219

I've been hounded for not updating the past couple days. Truth be told, there hasn't been enough exciting activity to merit blocking up your e-mail lately; we went to Macy's the other day... it's not nearly as big as the ones we're used to, but they had a decent sized one. Every store common to the Carolina's has somewhat of a Hawaiian flavor to it here... everything in Wal-mart has some type of floral print on it, or some sort of Hawaiian greeting.. no winter clothes, no boots.. I've heard things are outrageously expensive here, but so far the majority seems pretty comparable to back home. Of course, Macy's was having an awesome presidents' day sale. Yesterday evening was service meeting. A sister brought a huge box of apple bananas and baking bananas to give away. ... read more

First day in Honolulu, and I've already realized a couple mistakes: I forgot a wide-brimmed hat, and a minor error on my poster (I neglected to cite a map source correctly). I also didn't bring by digital camera, since I left my battery charger and spare battery in Toronto during my last visit and haven't had a chance to get it back yet. According to Tracey, I'm the biggest geek she knows ;-) Fortunately, most of the conference I'm here for is inside (the conference centre). Unfortunately, the conference is a lot less interesting than Honolulu and environs. In my very first Travel Blog, I mentioned some friends who were supposed to meet me at a particular island in B.C., but never showed up! Anyway, they are now both here with me in Honolulu, and are ... read more

This has to be quick because it's been suuuuch a long day and i need to study for an early watchtower in the morning... but today was fabulous -- i probably said it a billion times; i was sooo excited to go whale watching today. So we pack some lunch and go down to Kona. Again, overcast. Not even a typical condition in Kona. But Kona heard Fran was coming ;) Anyhoo the clouds broke for a little while and we ended up having a very pleasant day. We boated out to Captain Cooke Memorial (i know nothing about this guy, but apparently he was extremely important ;) Buuuut we found a good stopping place where we could have lunch anddd we saw tons of fish, so we went snorkeling. It was sooo cool! It was ... read more

Today was very eventful. Some long-time friends of the Scotts from Oahu and California came to the big island to visit. We all decided to go down to Waipi'o Valley, most known for its breathtaking waterfalls and black-sand beaches. I think some of the pictures turned out nicely... but still no justice for a live view. They was bright blue and the water, clear to the bottom. We saw another whale from a distance - i attempted to take a picture but if i put it up, you'd think i was lying... it's so tiny. The route to the bottom of the valley is very steep and curvy. Me, Kathy, and Naomi (from California) walked down part of the way and Dave took the Honda down - we hopped in later. The bottom of the valley ... read more

Ok Jeff, i have pictures for ya. The tricky part is putting them on here - hope it works :) If anybody wants the rejects (the ones that didnt make it on the journal) just let me know. I have like 867879784543 pictures of trees and like, turtles. haha.. but it was sooo beautiful!! I hope to get good pictures of volcanoes and Mauna Kea (the mountain with snow, how crazy?) and gaaah everything is so gorgeous! So today was fun. We went to a local place to get an orchid lei - nobody was there but the sign said to leave the money in the box and take the lei. Never seen such a thing, lol. Then we toured the beaches for a few minutes on the way to Walmart and Costco - we saw ... read more