Bring-Your-Christina-To-Work Week and Other Musings

So, last week (12/11-12/17) was Bring-Your-Christina-To-Work Week.  The purpose is pretty clear, you bring your Christina with you to work and adventures ensue while you're working.

On Sunday, Matt brought me to work.  Yes, he had to work on a Sunday (Boooo).  He works at Pearl Harbor on various submarines and rides his little electric golfcart thing around the base to different subs:

Beep Beep!

While he worked, I explored the base a bit.  I started out reading in a park.  However, I didn't get too much reading done because I was too busy looking at...



One of the many plaques from the memorial above.  Some had really interesting/heartbreaking stories.





This is because I was here:



It was a really beautiful place, very peaceful.  After a while, I decided to explore a bit more and found this shady spot, where I read (successfully) for a while:



One of the subs Matt works on

 Then, I went on a small walking adventure and saw all of these things:


Crazy flowers




Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont!  (Singin' in the Rain anyone?)





I wish I had had a guide to tell me about things like this..





 

During the walk, I almost got hit by this:



It's a dead palm and it made a very loud noise when it fell, scaring the crap out of me.



After the walk, I read a little more and then it was time to go.  Before we left the base area, though, Matt and I signed up for Dive Certification Classes!!  We also picked up some basic gear (fins, boots, mask, snorkel) that we can use for snorkeling too.  The classes will be a week long with in-classroom instruction followed by in-pool practice with a weekend-long open-water test.  Woo!

On Wednesday, my Aunt Maryann brought me to work.  I walked the two miles to her place and saw this beautiful Buddhist Center on my way:

Once I got to my aunt's house, we drove about 30 minutes to Kailua, where she works as a physical therapist.  We arrived at her work:



You can see part of her building to the left



I met all the very nice people at the office, then I began my walking adventure.  It was 1.5 miles to Kailua Beach Park and it was a quiet walk through a small town and a residential area.  I arrived at the park and followed the path:



Ahhhh



I set up my towel and started reading, when it started sprinkling.  Small rains happen so I waited it out and it stopped.  Then it rained a little harder.  Again, rains come and go pretty quickly here so I gathered up my stuff and hung out under some trees until it passed.  I began reading attempt 3 and it started to rain...sideways.  I took my cue to leave when a man walked by and said "You're brave".  I'm not, so I called it quits.  I walked back into town and found my (now) favorite coffee place on Oahu (Morning Brew - soooo good), settled with my coffee and book, and watched the sun come out in all its glory.  Damn.

After lunch I decided to try to enjoy the beach again.  This time, I walked to a different beach and it was much more successful.  Here are some pictures from my walk/beach 2:



Katie, Anders, this one's for you...





Christmas decorations look very out of place in Hawaii





Hawaiian mob??  Not very subtle..





Again!





I arrive at the beach.
One of the kite surfers tried to take out a group of Japanese tourists with the kite..it was awesome.





Sandy feet :)







I knew it was time to leave when this was my view over the water.  Nice, sunny, etc





...and this was the view behind me.  Dark, foreboding, etc.


Note: I did NOT get rained on this time.  Success!



After the beach adventures, much coffee, and many fun shops visited, my Aunt and I went to her yoga class.  It was the best yoga experience I've ever had.  There were 8 people plus the instructor.  The instructor was a hilarious mix of New Yorker and Earthy Hawaiian.  The result was a work-out that left me sore for two days, but I didn't notice it happening because I was too busy laughing and having fun.  Definitely doing that again!

There are more posts to come, but I have to get something off my chest.  Everyone, there is some delicious beer in Hawaii.  Some of the beer comes in normal 6-packs and bottles.  Some of the beer comes in THESE:

Those are Christina-proof 6-packs.  I struggle with them for every single beer.  (Much to Matt's entertainment.)  The beer is so good but I am constantly thwarted by the stupid black plastic covers.  You'll see, future visitors...you'll see.

Was that griping just an elaborate set-up for this great joke?  I'll never tell..

 I decide what beer to drink on a case by case basis.

A GREAT Weekend

After my walking adventure on Thursday, I made this dry-erase board:

If you look closely, you'll see our hopeful plans for Saturday and Sunday.  Let's just say we crossed some stuff off of this list! 

On Friday, Matt and I had a date night.  We walked into Waikiki (about 15 min) and there was a beautiful sunset:

We went to the Hale Koa and had Mai Tais while watching the fireworks from the Hilton Hawaiian.



Delicious




For you Mom and Dad Rossi




We had the best seats in the house and enjoyed some live music.  Not bad..



Then, Matt and I went to Duke's Waikiki



Pictures from the website



Like this but way more crowded. 

The food was delicious.  However, after late fireworks, several mai tais, and a couple beers while waiting almost an hour for a table, I may be a bit fuzzy on that.

On Saturday, we planned to go to the surf competition at Sunset Beach on the North Shore, but after looking up the specifics, we found that John Florence had already won the Triple Crown.  So we are planning on going to the next round of competitions - the Billabong Pipe Masters at Ehukai Beach Park.  This beach is famous for its perfect pipeline waves, but is very dangerous because of a barely concealed shallow reef.  About one person dies a year. Yikes.

The competition starts on the 8th so we went to the North Shore and Ehukai Beach Park to check out the area and plan for this coming weekend.  Here are some pictures of Ehukai Beach and then some other points along the North Shore and our drive back to Honolulu:

While we were here we actually saw John Florence surfing



Driving home, I snapped this picture from our car. It came out way better than I expected!



Sunday, we woke up early and went to Hanauma Bay.  We parked and  explored a bit and took some pictures of the bay and then went snorkeling!  It. Was. Awesome.  Here are some pictures of the bay and some pictures of what we saw (via random websites, I didn't have an underwater camera):

Looking Hot

This picture doesn't do any justice to the bay and reef formations.  There are areas of dense reef and then areas of perfectly clear water with sandy bottom.



We were able to swim right over the reef.  It was amazing!



Some of our favorites:

Spotted puffer fish

Parrot Fish - STUNNING!  The colors under water were unbelievable.  This was a Matt find: he sought this fish OUT!

Of course we saw the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa

The unanimous favorite!  If you circle your arms in front of your body, its shell was at least that big.  We were about 2-3 feet away watching it suspended in the water chomping on some coral.  I could have watched this guy all day.  This was another Matt-inspired find.  Matt made the call to go to this part of the reef - but I spotted him first.

After some amazing snorkeling, Matt and I hung out at our pool, bought a cheap desk from someone on Craigslist, and watched some football.  A great day :)

I have some other pictures to share just because so here they are:

I was at the pool and thought there was a fire...




...it turned out to be a rainbow.

More Rainbows from our apartment

 Again

 Some views from our place on a sunny day

 On our way back from the North Shore - where did the funky pine trees come from??  I thought we were in Hawaii..

 Another view from the drive back to Honolulu

Asian Jalapeno Poppers (cream cheese, jalapenos, won ton wrappers, sweet chili dipping sauce)
They were really good

Pouring wine from our comically large bottle of White

And, finally:



Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.