It’s gonna be a Hot Hot Summer~ (Hawaii post)
Overdue post: are you leady?!
July 19th - Tuesday
* I was much too excited to sleep the night before so I was running on about three hours of sleep, a lot of sugar and a thing of coffee snagged at the airport starbucks :3 I left the house with my dad to take the light rail to the airport for my 10:15 flight. I got there without too much hassle, minus a random moment of sheer and utter panic when the light rail conductors were trolling with route identifications .____.
* My flight was pretty nice. I was really hyper during liftoff because I’m mentally five years old and easily amused. The guy sitting next to me was nice enough, if not a bit too nice and chatty. He was a bit too eager to tell me about fun places to visit in Hawaii. About a half an hour through the flight I actually realized I was really tired so I kind of fell asleep on the guy ;;
* When I landed at the Honolulu airport I was confused on how to locate tsukipon and tsukipon it took a few embarrassing moments but we were able to locate each other in the end ;; I heard they were yelled at by a TSA officer for lingering too long in the pick-up area when waiting for me ;;
* We grabbed shoyu pork and shave ice for lunch.The food was so delicious and better yet cheap. BEST FAVORITE COMBINATION Y/Y? The restaurant wasn’t very large (mom and pop type), and the inside was even warmer than the breezy 90+ degrees outside so we sat outside on the sidewalk/steps and ate our lunch. It was actually a really amusing experience for me.
* I’m going to be repeating myself several times in this entry but the shave ice in Hawaii = incomparable to any I’ve ever had. sfllsdf it’s so delicious.
* Our next stop was the malls for Sees Candies. There we were shown the “best” (harr harr) customer service by a woman named Joanie.
Customer service protip: if this one group are the only people in your store and are lightly browsing, you betta werk to make that sale. Do not squint at us and tell us off for obstructing you from wiping your already clean tabletop counter. Post chocolate purchase, we loitered at Whole Foods and sampled their exepensive yuppie teas.
* We decided to chill at Cafe Fresh afterwards. It’s a fairly hidden building but it was definitely one of the most hipster cafes I have ever been in. There was comissioned graffiti on the walls! Actual artwork! Not just words scribbled all over! My mind was continuously boggled as I sipped on my lychee tea. Our discussion were mostly peppered with shade (towards fandom, rl friends, people on tumblr) and figuring out what to do for the rest of my stay.
* I ended the day meeting tsukipon’s mom and watching k-dramas. She is so cute and sweet, I crey
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July 20th - Wednesday
*tsukipon (I’m gonna refer to her as Sica since I’m lazy to copypasta) had class to attend so I decided to tag along and check out UH Manoa’s campus. I spent about half of the two hours wandering around aimlessly like a lost high schooler and drawing in the student center/cafeteria area.
* Our plan today was to check out Pearl Harbor. Along the way we got lost (:D) and of course there were 9284929 tourists roaming around. The tour that we wanted to go on was scheduled about two hours later than expected so we gave up our tickets and just selca-ed our life away in the bright bright sun. A man made fun of us for taking awesome photos, thinking that we didn’t understand English. Sir, please take that stick out of your ass, I hear it's unsanitary to hide things up there.
* I really wanted a souvenir from Pearl Harbor but didn’t want to pay $15 for a small keychain. So I asked the gift shop lady for a plastic bag to hold my things (which she gave me!!). It had the Pearl Harbor logo on it. Mission Accomplished. Nancy is incredibly tacky and cheap. (◕o◕)
* After, Sica led me to Yummy Ice Palace which was arguably favorite shave ice place of them all. Strawberry shave ice with ice cream, mochi and azuki beans. You are heaven sent. Sica’s pudding shave ice was charming as well.
* We met up again with ruethereal at a Tea Cafe (after making a stop at Sica’s other house. Her corgi was so precious, he wanted to rip my leg off) to write fic.
* Things turned interesting when I met one of their “children” at Glazers Coffee shop. I can’t explain it.
* We were supposed to go sunset viewing but was sidetracked by Korean dramas. lol
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July 21st Thursday
* We were set to visit the Dole Pineapple Plantation and Turtle Bay on this day.. Along the way we got lost (:D!) but eventually meandered back to the right road.
* The pineapple ice cream at the Plantation was delicious. We didn’t stay long at the plantation because idk the idea of a pineapple maze didn’t appeal to either of us. The screaming children didn’t tickle our fancy either.
* A bit further up was Kahuku (I totally had to google this) and we stopped to browse shops and for Giovanni’s Famous Shrimp (yummmmmm)
* We weren’t able to find Turtle Bay, but I got a nice scenic view of the far side of Oahu. The rest of the drive was filled with a family of hitchhikers, a mini storm, and natives jumping off the bridges that said to not jump. Somehow I think I caught Sica's cold or smth, I had a sore throat by the end of the day :(
July 22nd Friday
* I didn’t bring my camera on this day, so Sica took most of these pictures. While visiting Hawaii I watched a lot of the Food Network. From the recommendation from what’s his face on Man vs. Food Nation, we visited Helena’s Hawaiian Food.
* The Hawaiian food was ridiculously good. We tried poi, fried ahi, laulau, Pipikaula style short ribs, opihi and coconut pudding. You can probably tell that I adore food lol.
* After I met up with Sica’s bubbly friend, J for bubble tea/shave ice. I, of course, grabbed my third shave ice of the visit. J also bought the most delicious mochi I have ever had. While at this cafe, some whiny guy got in their face for “cutting in front of him” in line. It was a good thing his muscular companion was huge or else I think J would have ripped his face off.
* The rest of the day was spent shopping (I got a leopard print fobby shirt yesss) and then viewing the sunset at Christmas Tree park
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July 23rd - Saturday
* Also known as the day with Hawaiian style Korean bbq at the park. Because literally this was what we did the entire day. I met the rest of her family (her brother and his family, her mom’s friends) and we had an epic feast. Kalbi :9
* The park was of course, right next to the beach, full of people. I really wanted to go swimming in the ocean because the Oregon Coast is wayyy too cold to swim in and I haven’t swam in an ocean before! My dreams were dashed because my monthly decided to ruin my life a few nights before. Instead Sica and I wandered around the beach and took pictures.
* We were joined by tsukipon a little later in the afternoon and went out for mochi ice cream at Bubbles. Originally we were supposed to watch Captain America with Sica's brother and his family but I think he forgot about us lol. I did get a chance to met the rest of their “children” at Glazer’s, their family is so qt.
July 24th - Sunday
* Went hiking up the Manoa Falls Trail with Sica and her friend C. It apparently rained that morning so the trail was muddy and gross. But On top of that it was really muggy. So it was like climbing over muddy rocks and slippery logs while in a sauna. But besides that it wasn’t actually that hard of a hike.
* Of course when we got to the end of the falls, the tourists were climbing around and in the waterfall, which they weren’t supposed to do since idk, rocks can fall from the mountaintops. A+ SMART PEOPLE THIS IS HOW FREAK ACCIDENTS OCCUR
* After the hike we were starving and gross and wanted to die. We roamed around aimlessly scavenging for food for a few moments. Eventually, we decided on Gina’s BBQ (almost spelled it as g.na) where I tried meat jun for the first time. I did feel bad trekking into the place all gross and muddy but oops.
* We washed up and went back out to see a music recital. Sica’s friend is an amazeball violinist and I wanted one night where I felt classy as fuq. Except I wore my leopard shirt, so I was fierce instead.
* Before the recital, we stopped for shave ice (SURPRISE SURPRISE) at Jungs. It was not a fancy place like the others, but a little mom and pop store. I was a bit pressed when the 'mochi' that came with my shave ice wasn't actually mochi but dango. Sica wanted to customize her’s, (っ´ω`)っ "I want mochi balls and condensed milk!" only to be told that it was “Too late” ( ´ - `). Those emoticons exactly. It was actually pretty delicious but fsdfjs I want my goddamned mochi.
* The recital was actually pretty nice, though I admit the tenor vocalist annoyed me because he had an “but I am a famous artiste!!! expression on his face. I like classical music enough to the point where I enjoyed it. They had food after the recital and um, I was a bit too happy to see the KFC fried chicken (EVERYBODY CHICKEN AYOOOO). C stuffed herself happily with sushi rolls.
* We decided that we needed a girls night out and went drinking c: I of course have a shitty alcohol tolerance and became hyper and giddy off of one drink. kekeke A good thing is I didn’t have heart palpitations after consuming alcohol \O////
July 25th - Monday
* Since Sica had classes again in the morning, I chilled with C in the apartment until she finished. We bonded over BBC Sherlock and Wallace and Grommit.
* Sica’s mom had connections so we were able to go canoeing for free. Not legit canoeing (because srsly arm muscles, what is that), but touristy canoeing. I still had loads of fun because I have never gone before. At first I wanted to bring my camera aboard but the crew looked at me and told me to put it away or drop it in the ocean ;~~~;
* The canoe was an atypical Hawaiian canoe. The hotel staff sat in the very end and we were joined by three/two other tourists. Sica sat in front of the boat, while I was second and C, third. Basically the guys in the back did all the work while we fake paddled/flailed our oars.. At one point the guy at the end, steering the boat, was all “you girls need to paddle faster!” which we really couldn’t due to skinny girl arms.
* The canoe ride left us soaked so we shopped around Waikiki for a change of clothes. Sica also led us to a few fobby stores (I found the cutest pattern on a shirt, except the shirt puffed out strangely). I did pick up qt earrings. And also almost left my phone at a store (>ミ - ミ )>
* Had dinner at Sica’s house, and an episode of Dr. Who, Sica’s dad drove us up to see the city lights. Went back to Sica’s apt to take low-light selcas
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July 26th - Tuesday
* There really wan’t a plan for today. We made things up as we went. The only thing on the agenda was visiting J (as it was her birthday) and going for Guava pancakes. She lived near a group of houses called Haiku Village, how cool is that? /ot
* Originally we wanted to go to another pancake place, but that one was too full D: We ate at Cinnemons instead. They chatted about school related things while I stuffed my face. I am very ladylike and classy ofc.
* J had plans for the rest of the day (cleaning her room and then family things) so we were joined by C again. Went to Nordstrom and harassed the sales people. I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. :3
* Went out for shave ice (lol srsly the number of times i mention shave ice in this entry is ridic.) again. This time at Tropicana Freeze. Which is tied at my favorite along with Yummy Ice Garden.
* Went to Walmart to purchase cheap souvenirs for the people back home.
Customer Service Protip: When I ask you a question about a product, don’t blankly stare at me, tell me you don’t know and wander away. Either find someone that would know or try to give a shit about your job.
* There I was almost flattened by a menacing Hawaiian woman at Walmart on that night.
July 27th - Wednesday
* While Sica was in class, I packed my things and watched another episode of BBC Sherlock to wait for her. I don’t have a lot of photos of this day because I had already packed my camera away (hurr hurr). But after watching so much Man vs. Food Nation, I was really craving a burger. So we got burgers. And then...shave ice. Shimazu store was quite possibly the best bang for buck. For $4 something, we were able to get a blob of ice that was approximately the size of my face. They seem to have management issues though :F
* Sica got me to the airport with a decent amount of time left before my flight. While at the loading zone, an airport worker decided that hitting on the pretty girl (Sica) was a higher priority than assisting the frumpy girl wrestling with her luggage (moi). I wanted to read him to filth but I didn’t have the time to since I had about a half hour to clear through airport security (and that can take forever since other people don’t research how to pack their shit.)
Customer Service Protip: when working, you better be doing your job and not thinking with your dick. kthx. xoxoxo
* Surprisingly the people leaving Hawaii actually knew how to pack their things. I got through security and agriculture check-in in a record time of five minutes. Spent the rest of the time chatting with this adorable old lady at the gate and bitching to tlist/Sica about the mr. airport worker.
* On the plane, I finished reading Goodbye Tsugumi and took an obnoxious amount of hipster sunset photos. I was surprised to find that I really missed Portland/West Coast after my stay in Hawaii. Perhaps I love the cool air and rainy weather.
* My aunt picked me up at the airport and we had a few minor communication mishaps (srsly I was flying Hawaiian air, what are you doing at the Alaska Airlines pickup zone. Those workers didn’t appreciate the small asian girl sprinting with luggage luggage). The car ride home was awkward because I was really sleepy and she wanted to chat. ;; I think I fell asleep on her.
All in all I had a lot of fun in Hawaii. It was great to see Sica again, meet her family and friends over there. It was a wonderful vacation, and everyone was so kind and generous to me. I can’t thank them enough for being such great and wonderful hosts.
Title brought to you by the betteroriginal version of Hot Summer (◕ ◡ ◕)
edit: it took me a good hour to format and reformat and reformat and reformat this entry because livejournal decided to not let me edit in pure html and refert to making the entire entry a gigantic blob. hmph rude. i need to learn how to edit in this platform...