Rainy days

Shellee captured a shot of our computer set-up:)

Pizza Bob's

Pizza Bob's

For the past week or so, we've seen a lot of rain on and off. About five days ago we woke up to a huge storm with thunder and lightening and lots of rain! Although it has been a bummer, it is amazingly beautiful with the rain! I was woken up by the rain and just had to capture the moment so I snuck outside to take a video and took in the beauty of it all. It rained pretty hard for a few hours so we did Zumba and watched Gilmore Girls, then decided to go into Hale'iwa to get out of the house. Shellee and I had been craving pizza so we ended up eating at Pizza Bob's which turned out to be delicious! Shell and I got white pizza and Jen got a hamburger and we ate so much we could hardly walk! Not much to report for that day except that the rain was beautiful and I'm so glad I was able to experience a good downpour while I was here.

Pearl Harbor and Aloha Stadium

One of the anchors recovered from the U.S.S. Arizona

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Submarine

Jelisa and Jen in front of U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Entrance to U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Naval ship in the harbor

A part of the U.S.S. Arizona that is above water

Stairway on the U.S.S. Arizona that is still above water

Shellee, Jen, and Jelisa on the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Names of those who were killed on the U.S.S. Arizona on December 7, 1941

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

A rainbow appeared over Pearl Harbor

Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to fulfill one of my dreams. We woke up at 5:45 am to catch the bus to Pearl Harbor which took us about an hour and 45 minutes. Yesterday was the first day we had to pay to get on the bus as our passes expired at the end of May. We also had to make a bus transfer which we haven't had to do yet so that was interesting, but turned out to be a complete success! We arrived at Pearl Harbor around 8:00 am and got ready for our day there. Before entering, they make you pay to check all baggage in; however, they allow you to keep cameras and camcorders. We checked our bags in and headed inside the gates to find museums, gift shops, and a small food court. We got our tickets for the show and memorial first thing as it's about a two hour wait once you actually pick up the ticket. Our showing was scheduled for 10:15 am so we began to wander around which was a highlight for me. I love the military and Pearl Harbor has always been something I've wanted to see so I dragged Shellee and Jen around, taking in the splendor of this event.

I first sighted the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial across the way which is what Pearl Harbor is known for. As I looked around, I also saw what looked like a diesel submarine from a Bushnell family favorite movie called Down Periscope. I'm not sure if that's what it was, but it sure looked like it! Jen and Shellee have already been to Pearl Harbor so they followed me around and were good sports about letting me do everything I wanted there. What an amazing experience that was for me to take part in! I thought I knew a lot about Pearl Harbor, but was surprised at how much education I got from actually going there. We were walking around and got on the topic of the oil bubbles that are still coming up from the U.S.S. Arizona. I said something like, "That's so cool how the boat is still letting off oil like that!" and Jen and Shellee were like, what boat? I was shocked! I thought they were joking with me until I realized by their expressions that they were being serious. Both of them have been to Pearl Harbor and neither one of them knew the very thing that everyone comes to see there! They've both been boated out to the memorial and never even knew that the memorial sat right on top of the boat. We got laughing about that as we continued looking at all of the plaques and decor.

We walked through a couple of the museums and read things here and there, then went into the gift shop to look around. In one of the photos above, you can see an anchor which is one of three from the U.S.S. Arizona, weighing 10 tons! From the size of that anchor, I can imagine how large the boat would've been which just blows my mind! We had about 45 minutes left until our show, so we decided to go eat as we hadn't had breakfast yet. Jen and Shellee got sandwiches and I got a hot dog and then we walked over to get in line for the movie and boat ride to the memorial. The movie was touching and it explained the reasoning for the attack and then showed actual footage from it. There were seven main ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet that were docked at Pearl Harbor and of those, all were either sunk or damaged during the attack. About 170 aircraft were destroyed during the attack as well and about 2,400 casualties took place on that day. The U.S.S. Arizona is the ship that the memorial is over today. It had the greatest devastation as it was bombed and killed 1,177 people on board. Many of those people were never recovered from that as they were trapped inside the boat and that is where they remain today. The movie helped us understand more fully, the impact and importance of this event and how it plunged the U.S. into World War II.

After viewing the movie, we boarded a boat that took us out to the memorial. It was a very moving experience and almost a little eerie being so close to the U.S.S. Arizona that sunk 70 years ago. The boat is still letting off oil bubbles that can be see very frequently in the water. It amazes me that this still takes place after all these years. There are still parts of the ship that are sitting above water which you can see in a couple of the photos above.  It was a very touching and sacred experience thinking of what that ship would've been like at it's prime in full operation. That day was such a tragedy for so many people and a complete devastation to our country. I'm very grateful that I was able to go to Pearl Harbor to see where this experience took place and to understand the enormity of this event. On the memorial, there is a huge wall full of the names of service men and women whose lives were taken that day. It was so sad to see how many people were killed, giving their lives for our country. It's a wonderful thing to live in the United States and to be so blessed by people who sacrifice their lives to keep us free. It was an experience I'll never forget.

After visiting the memorial, we came back, got our bags, and walked to the Aloha Stadium to go to the swap meet. Up until that point, it had rained on and off and had been fairly overcast, but then the sun came out right as we started shopping. After roaming around, we got so hot and about an hour or two later, we headed back to the bus stop to go home. We arrived home in about two hours and were so tired so we watched Gilmore Girls, ate dinner, then went to bed early. We were thrilled with how well the day went as we had anticipated it to be much more difficult. I'm so happy that we went to Pearl Harbor and were able to be a part of such a significant event in U.S. history.

Shark's Cove, rain, and sticky buns!

Breakfast at the Huki Lau

Jen eating her blueberry pancakes

Huki Lau

Breakfast at the Huki Lau

View from Shark's Cove

View from Shark's Cove

Jelisa and Jen swimming with the fishies

Jen getting pelted by the rain:)

 

 

Sticky buns

Eating sticky buns

Yesterday, we got up early enough to eat breakfast at the Huki Lau. We did a short Zumba session, got ready for the beach, then headed out to the bus stop. The 55 came and we boarded as usual, showing our bus pass to the driver as we walked on.  We're getting better at the bus and actually requested our stop at the perfect time which was amazing! We walked down the road to the Huki Lau and ordered a ginormous breakfast (Jelisa-macadamia nut pancakes, Shellee-coconut pancakes, and Jen-blueberry pancakes with two sides of fried rice to share). Once our food came out we were shocked at how much food we had ordered (which is shown in the photos above); however, breakfast was delicious!

After eating breakfast, we got back on the bus where the driver stopped us and asked Jen how old she was so Jen told her 24. The lady told us that we weren't allowed to use our passes because they were for high school students only. Our passes say "Youth" on them; however, we paid the cost for an adult pass and we've been using them for an entire month without any problems! The lady was semi rude, but ended up letting us ride which was a relief. We decided to stop back at home and wait for a new bus driver to come around so we waited for about 25 minutes, then walked back out to the bus stop. A bus pulled up with a new bus driver which we were relieved about, but once we walked onto the bus, we encountered the same problem and Jen had to reexplain everything all over again. We got lucky and were able to ride again! It was all quite embarrassing, but we had paid for our passes free and clear. We got off at Shark's Cove as we've wanted to see it since we've been here. We didn't get any snorkeling gear as we wanted to scout it out and then go to the beach.

We started walking down to Shark's Cove and all of a sudden, we heard this guy screaming profanity at the top of his lungs! He was screaming at a girl and used the F word more times than we could count. After about 10 minutes of that, the girl started trying to walk away from him and he started hitting her and basically holding her hostage. At that point, they had attracted a lot of attention and a few people were calling the cops on them. We walked over to some rocks down the way and saw some fish so Jen and I decided to get in and explore a little. Shellee wasn't a big fan of getting in with the fishies so she took pictures and watched us. After a while, we saw police men walking around looking for the couple who we saw fighting earlier because they had apparently left after seeing everyone on cell phones calling them in.

We walked over to a nearby beach and set up camp and after about ten minutes, it started to lightly rain. We thought that it wouldn't last long because the rain is so random in Hawaii as it rains for less than a minute, then stops for a while and so on. Jen and Shellee had gotten out their books and I was just laying there when the rain stopped as predicted and we thought we were good to go. Oh were we wrong! All of a sudden, the rain picked up, forcing Jen and Shellee to put their books away and oh it got worse! We were laughing our heads off as we scrambled to get our stuff put away and get to the bus stop. We waited for the bus in the rain for about twenty minutes and finally, a couple across the street asked us if we wanted a ride which we gladly accepted. They took us all the way to our front door which we thought was excellent service!

We ate dinner, watched Gilmore Girls, and then decided to watch Pearl Harbor since we were going there today. We made sticky buns again which were completely divine! We had called Susan earlier to ask her which bus route we should take to get to Pearl Harbor, but she hadn't answered so we started the movie and about fifteen minutes later, she called us back with the info and we figured out the details. We then decided to go to bed since we were having to wake up at about 5:30 in the morning which is quite difficult for us under our current sleep routine.

Memorial day crowd and dancing with the frogs

Jelisa, Shellee, and Jen at Turtle Bay beach

Line at Matsumoto's Shave Ice

Yesterday we got up in hopes that we could go to the beach. We did our regular Zumba session for an hour and then got ready to head out to the beach. We thought it would be packed everywhere because of Memorial Day which we soon found out was an accurate assumption. We walked to the beach at Turtle Bay and were shocked at how crowded it was! We found an empty spot and laid our stuff out. It was finally a beautiful day for the beach and we were so excited! We laid out for about two and a half hours, then we left the beach to go into Hale'iwa to get a shave ice. After getting on the bus and passing a few stops, we found that we had made the wrong decision as the traffic slowly came to a stop and our normally 15 minute ride ended up taking us 45 minutes! There were people everywhere! We finally arrived in Hale'iwa where we got off by the Volcom store and went inside to look at a purse Shellee really wanted. We then walked up the street to get a shave ice heading to Aoki's since that has become our favorite shave ice place. Every shave ice place was packed and Matsumoto's line is always the fastest so we got in line at Matsumoto's which was so long as is shown in the photo above. There was this crazy guy outside with a long icky beard and his shirt off (he looked like one of those hippie guys who lives off the land) who was walking around with his hands held high flipping off every car that drove by. Just in case someone missed one of his hands, he held up both and wouldn't put them down for like 10 minutes! He then started doing obscene gestures and shouting profanity to the cars passing by. Thankfully he finally got on his bike and pedaled away and continued to be the talk of the crowd.

We got our shave ice, then went to the North Shore Surf Shop to pick up a shirt that Shellee had bought. After all of the running around, we headed back to Turtle Bay where the ride turned out to be much shorter on the return thank heavens! We ate dinner, watch Gilmore Girls, then decided to head out to the pool for a swim. We checked the pool closest to our apartment which had too many people, so we walked through the pathways to another pool and found a frog blocking our way to the entrance. There are huge frogs everywhere at night that bounce around in abundance and croak and scare the heck out of us! After Jen and Shellee tried to scare it away, Shellee thought she'd do a quick run and jump over the fence to let us in (since we forgot out pool key). Well, that didn't turn out so well as Shellee ran and basically slammed right into the gate, not quite making it up and over. She noticed that there were people inside (that we hadn't seen before) who could see us and we all started laughing. Shellee danced around on the fence for a bit, then got so embarrassed that she hopped down and started running away. Jen and I followed and we all ran away giggling our heads off. We have a little walk back to our apartment from that pool so we started heading back and soon started thinking that there were bugs getting us and frogs waiting to pounce so we started running and dancing around like a bunch of jumping beans. I'm sure we looked like a bunch of dorks having our freakers all the way back to our apartment. We were laughing out of control and all of a sudden we were all hyper! We decided against swimming and came inside where we turned on the theme song of Gilmore Girls and started making up a Zumba dance to it. After a while, we heard the people below us banging the ceiling with a broom (which meant be quiet, mind you it was only 8:20 pm and quiet hour isn't until 10:00 pm). We were annoyed, but still decided to be quiet so we made brownies and watched Gilmore Girls, then went to bed.

Sunday--the day of cleanliness (we wish!)

On Sunday, we got up and headed to the bus stop at 8:20 am. We have to hit the bus stop about 40 minutes early as we're never sure exactly when it will show up. We decided to go back to the ward we went to our first Sunday in Hawaii which is the BYU student ward. Jen's friend Matt is in that ward so we decided to visit him in case we weren't able to again. The wards here are so different to me as the people are always so loud and they start their meetings about 15-20 minutes late. After church, Matt asked us if we wanted to come by his house so we decided to drop by for a bit and woah were we in for a surprise! His apartment is tucked back behind some houses lining the road and as the apartment came into view, we saw what looked like a house surrounded by a junk yard. Stuff everywhere! Then, we walked up the stairs and into the apartment where again, we were overwhelmed by this place he lived in. I felt like I had left civilization! There's just no way of describing it's filthiness. Matt seemed completely comfortable in his "home" and told us that there are often cockroaches and geckos everywhere. Oh man was I thrilled to leave! Oh, by the way, Matt is a really great guy and we like him!

We finally decided to leave and caught the bus back home. We were starving by the time we got home so we used leftover steak to make fajitas, watched Gilmore Girls, and hung out. Jen and I played Phase 10 while Shellee browsed Facebook and then we got tired and went to bed. Sunday's are somewhat uneventful for us except for church so not much else to report.

Beauty and chaos

Sunset Beach

Guy with a crazy talking parrot!

Yesterday, we got up and got ready to do some Zumba! We pinky promised each other that we'd do Zumba every day except Sunday from now until we go home so Shellee, Jen and I have been waking up for the past few mornings and doing Zumba together which I must say is quite fun! We did our Zumba for about an hour, then decided to get ready to go to the beach. Sunset beach has become one of our favorite beaches around the area because it's clean and beautiful and not too far from where we are. We've been having overcast skies and rain on and off for the past five or six day which has significantly decreased our time at the beach lately.

We thought it was sunny enough to venture out so we got on the bus and headed to Sunset. Once we arrived there, we started setting up camp and found that it was quite windy. I was really looking forward to playing in the ocean that day because it had been a while since we were able to. I walked down to the water and found that it was fairly cold and that there was a big "under toe" as everyone calls it. We decided not to get in and instead just laid out, soaking in the sun rays. Well, that would've been lovely if the wind wouldn't have been blowing so hard. It pelted the backs of my ears and body which didn't feel very grand and it was blowing our stuff everywhere! We soon had sand stuck everywhere--like literally! We had it in our ears, stuck to our heads and necks, back...just everywhere! It was chaos! We endured that for about an hour or so and then decided to head back and lay out at the pool instead. We wanted to stay at the beach because it is truly beautiful! I try to capture it on camera, but a photo doesn't do it justice. The beach is so peaceful and it's amazing to watch the waves come crashing in and see all of the palm trees and bright sand creating a perfect portrait behind it. Hawaii's beaches are out of this world!

Once we got back to our condo, we put some baked potatoes in the oven and headed out to the pool. After being there for about an hour, the pool had become crowded with people and our potatoes were supposed to be done soon so we headed back inside. We felt so dirty and sandy so we got in the shower which was a nightmare because with the wind blowing so hard, we all had sand that was stuck to our scalps. We are still finding sand in our hair today! We cooked a delicious meal with marinated steak, baked potatoes, corn, and finally sticky buns that Jen made. Oh the sticky buns were heavenly! We ate the entire pan and have concluded that Jen is our woman! We ended the evening with our Gilmore Girls as always, then headed to bed since we had church in the morning.

The Bus of bizare happenings...

Lady on the bus--story to follow:)

I don't think I'll ever really be able to convey the hilariousness of The Bus. We've had the most interesting and comical experiences riding the bus here--many that we'll never forget I'm sure. Just for our documentation, the road that goes around the island is Kamehameha whether you take the 55 or the 52 and we hear it through the speakers on the bus each day. A couple of days ago, we were riding the bus to get a shave ice at Aoki's. A few minutes after getting on the bus, a lady walks on (which is the one in the photo above--Shellee was awesome and snapped a shot on her phone) who seemed a little off, but normal I thought. Woah! Not normal! She had been chatting with a guy who also boarded the bus so we thought that they knew each other and were just having a casual conversation. A minute later, I noticed that the guy smiled, almost as if he were laughing at her. We soon discovered that he didn't know the lady at all and she was just rambling on to anyone who would listen to her. I thought I'd be nice and smile at her, but soon started darting my eyes away trying to avoid eye contact with her. She talked about everything under the sun from tsunami's to all kinds of things that we couldn't pick up. Oh, in the whole 20 minute ride, she didn't stop talking even once and it was quite hilarious to listen to her because she'd talk normal and then go into fits of mumbling and slurring words. We got giggling and soon we just couldn't even get it under control as she leans over to a little old lady next to her and starts chatting and laughing at herself. Now that wouldn't be so weird except that the little old lady was asleep--like dead asleep! She wasn't acknowledging that the lady was talking in any way, shape or form!

You'd think that the story couldn't get any more colorful than that, but oh it does! We made another stop where two younger guys (like maybe 17 or 18?) got on and started putting their money through the machine. All of a sudden there was quite a nasty smell, almost like the smell of a cigarette, but not quite, that traveled throughout the bus. The bus driver immediately said, "WHEW! You smokin' weed? Holy ****(S word), I'm allergic to that stuff!" Everyone on the bus erupted into fits of laughter everywhere! I thought I was going to fall off my chair from laughing so hard! Once the guys had sat down, the bus driver came on the speaker and said, "If you guys have weed, you better stash it or I'll call the HPD and they can take care of it for you." Oh we laughed our heads off and soon after arrived at our stop where we exited the bus and laughed hysterically at the incident we were so privileged to have. Hahaha, oh it was a riot!

We got our shave ice (I got my usual flavor; half mango, half lilikoi with ice cream), then got back on the bus and headed home. We decided to go swimming that night, then made dinner and watched Gilmore Girls. We love this life of relaxation and no schedules!