So. Hawaii.
My trip to Hawaii was pretty damn awesome. Unfortunately my camera cable is busted, so photos will have to wait. Highlights:
- Polynesian Cultural Center. We did a luau there...They make this pork that's SO GOOD. It's called kalua pork, and they roast it in a pit until it's really tender and add sea salt and MAN. It's great. Also they have purple buns, because they're made from taro root (which is like a purple sweet potato). Pretty cool. Also my family got a private boat ride around the park, since we were the only ones in line, and we got to see little musical performances from representatives from all the Polynesian islands.
- Kilauea volcanic park. Some of the volcanoes here are dormant, some are active. Unfortunately, there's no above-ground flow right now, the only active one is going through a natural lava tube. That means the only real lava I saw was spilling out of a hole in a cliffside into the ocean (which is still pretty cool). Nonetheless, the park was great. You think you've seen lava rock with that stuff used in landscaping, but you're wrong. Natural, unbroken lava flows are the most striking natural beauty I think I've ever seen.
- Snorkeling. The marine life in Hawaii is ridiculously cool-looking and varied. I like the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, but then who doesn't? Anyway, one of the times we snorkeled, we found a little cove with three green sea turtles just hanging out. Contrary to what you might expect, they aren't skittish or anything, and they let us come into the little cove, and swim with them, and get close enough to touch (but we weren't supposed to touch, since they're protected or something). They're really majestic creatures.
- Ukelele. I bought a crappy little ukelele with a passably decent sound for $25 on the 2nd day we were in Hawaii, and I tried to figure out some chords and all that. Then, on the last night we were there, I was in a musical instrument store and I got invited by the owner to a ukelele jam session that night. I showed up (my family came to watch) and learned a ton about how to play it, and I got to play alongside maybe 6 ukelele experts. I actually like the instrument quite a bit...maybe someday I'll buy a nicer one.
- Red dirt. A big souvenir thing in Hawaii is the Red Dirt T-Shirts. Some of Hawaii's islands have this really distinctive powdery reddish-orange dirt all over the place, and one company decided to use the dirt to dye t-shirts, and the color is really cool. Buuut then they put a bunch of lame, garish designs on the shirts, so I didn't want to buy one. My solution? I filled a grocery bag with red dirt that I found myself, went to Wal-Mart and bought some white t-shirts, went back to the hotel, filled my room's trash can with water, mixed in the dirt, and proceeded to dye my own red dirt t-shirts. I took 'em home and washed them in the washing machine, and I was delighted to find that they actually stayed dyed, instead of washing clean like I was afraid they would! Hooray! It was a good project.
That's pretty much the big cool stuff we did, but the whole vacation was enjoyable. Any exciting news from you guys that I might have missed while I was gone?
- Polynesian Cultural Center. We did a luau there...They make this pork that's SO GOOD. It's called kalua pork, and they roast it in a pit until it's really tender and add sea salt and MAN. It's great. Also they have purple buns, because they're made from taro root (which is like a purple sweet potato). Pretty cool. Also my family got a private boat ride around the park, since we were the only ones in line, and we got to see little musical performances from representatives from all the Polynesian islands.
- Kilauea volcanic park. Some of the volcanoes here are dormant, some are active. Unfortunately, there's no above-ground flow right now, the only active one is going through a natural lava tube. That means the only real lava I saw was spilling out of a hole in a cliffside into the ocean (which is still pretty cool). Nonetheless, the park was great. You think you've seen lava rock with that stuff used in landscaping, but you're wrong. Natural, unbroken lava flows are the most striking natural beauty I think I've ever seen.
- Snorkeling. The marine life in Hawaii is ridiculously cool-looking and varied. I like the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, but then who doesn't? Anyway, one of the times we snorkeled, we found a little cove with three green sea turtles just hanging out. Contrary to what you might expect, they aren't skittish or anything, and they let us come into the little cove, and swim with them, and get close enough to touch (but we weren't supposed to touch, since they're protected or something). They're really majestic creatures.
- Ukelele. I bought a crappy little ukelele with a passably decent sound for $25 on the 2nd day we were in Hawaii, and I tried to figure out some chords and all that. Then, on the last night we were there, I was in a musical instrument store and I got invited by the owner to a ukelele jam session that night. I showed up (my family came to watch) and learned a ton about how to play it, and I got to play alongside maybe 6 ukelele experts. I actually like the instrument quite a bit...maybe someday I'll buy a nicer one.
- Red dirt. A big souvenir thing in Hawaii is the Red Dirt T-Shirts. Some of Hawaii's islands have this really distinctive powdery reddish-orange dirt all over the place, and one company decided to use the dirt to dye t-shirts, and the color is really cool. Buuut then they put a bunch of lame, garish designs on the shirts, so I didn't want to buy one. My solution? I filled a grocery bag with red dirt that I found myself, went to Wal-Mart and bought some white t-shirts, went back to the hotel, filled my room's trash can with water, mixed in the dirt, and proceeded to dye my own red dirt t-shirts. I took 'em home and washed them in the washing machine, and I was delighted to find that they actually stayed dyed, instead of washing clean like I was afraid they would! Hooray! It was a good project.
That's pretty much the big cool stuff we did, but the whole vacation was enjoyable. Any exciting news from you guys that I might have missed while I was gone?