New pictures

From the last month or so:
I did a day where I drove around a significant portion of the island, stopped at one of the roadside shrimp trucks for lunch (and thus smelled of garlic for a week), and then went to Pu'u O Mahuka, which is the largest heiau on O'ahu.  A heiau is basically an old Hawaiian temple.  This one is the best preserved of the few I've seen.  It also looks over Waimea Bay, which is pretty stunning.

View of the Koolau Mountains from Laie.  Some vog and drizzle that morning.

People leave gifts and such at the altar.  Lots of lei, but also fruit and...bottled water.  No idea why.

Also went to Koko Head Botanical Garden.  It's in the middle of Koko Head Crater, which is on East Oahu, probably about ten minutes from my house.  A nice walk in the winter, but not a lot of sun protection, so it's likely wicked hot in the summer.  It's dry there, so the plants are not so much rainforesty, but cactusy.

Nothing else to report.  It's been a lovely winter here this year.  I'm not looking forward to the heat of summer.  Hope you're all doing well. Aloha!

Aloha!

Very very long time no see...

Thought I would start updating again (I bought myself a new camera for Christmas this year, with the intent of taking more pictures in general, and carrying it with me to try to catch some of the more random things you can see here on any given day).

While I'm really not shamelessly begging for readers, it would be nice to know if anyone other than Rob (hi, Rob!) is checking this anymore.  If so, I think I can make myself update more frequently.  If not, my life isn't nearly so exciting to catalog online for only me and Rob (hi, Rob!) to read.  So if you're out there... let me know.

Very quick updates:  Same job, new apartment this summer (really love it, and it's in the middle of a valley that was brown and blah when I moved, but is now lush and green in the winter), new second job starting in two weeks (will talk more about that later), saw the family over the holidays, hoping to travel more in 2010.

More soon!  Hope you're well.

Happy holidays!

Hello! It's been a long time. In fact, I just discovered that I had two posts that I had started and never finished, but I deleted them because they were stories about local politics here, which are hilarious, but I suspect most of you are burned out on anything election-related.

Not a lot to report from the last few months. Becky and Scott came to visit. They were nice enough to invite me when they spent time in Maui, then they let me show them around Oahu for a few days. I had a great time, they were wonderful houseguests, and I was pleased by how interested in the local culture and language they were (though the language thing might be related to the fact that we were learning many new words via the bottle caps of Kona Brewing Company beer). I'll add some pictures once they forward them to me. In the meantime, there's Becky enjoying some corn on the cob at my local farmer's market.

For the first time in years, I'm actually planning to spend Christmas day with my family, so I'm very excited for that. I get to meet my nephew, see my niece that I haven't seen in over a year, and hopefully play some cards and eat some Christmas cookies. I've been feeling surprisingly in the Christmas spirit despite the delightful 78 degree weather. I've been shopping, listening to Christmas music, and am even sending a few Christmas cards. The best part of Christmas in Hawaii is that they rarely play that god awful, cloying, insufferable "Christmas Shoes" song that mainland radio stations love. Good lord, I hate that song with every fiber of my being. Also, surprisingly, we don't hear the "Mele Kalikimaka" song that often either. Who knew? With that, merry Christmas. Hope to post more in the new year.

Sea Life Park

So a few weeks ago I went to Sea Life Park, which is like a smaller, local version of Sea World. I didn't have terribly high expectations, but I had never been, I drive by it a lot, and let's face it: I'm rapidly running out of options on my 'things that I haven't done yet on Oahu' list.

It was...fine. I can totally see taking a small child with a limited attention span there, but I kind of felt like I had seen everything I needed to see in about 25 minutes. That includes the 10 minutes I watched the dolphins and the 9 minutes I watched the monk seals. It was also wicked hot that day.

Several honu in this pool. You're allowed to feed them (if you buy preapproved honu food).

One of the monk seals. I will say this - as you can see (I hope) from the picture, you're practically on the beach, this place is so close to the water. It was breezy and pretty.

He's not dead, I swear; it just looks that way. He had just moved prior to the picture.

Actually, one of the things I liked most was that there were tons of hang gliders out over the cliffs that day. I spent an inordinate time watching them. Maybe that will be the next thing to check off from my 'things to do on Oahu' list.

Australia

Many of you know I just returned from vacation where I spent 2.5 weeks in Australia. I had a lovely time, Lano was a fantastic host, and I returned relaxed and content. Details to follow.

That being said, I am a self-admitted horrible picture-taker. I have some, but mostly just of the city as I explored a lot during the day, but very few of our evenings (you know, that night at the bar, the next night at the bar, that time we went to the bar...). So if you wanted pictures with me actually in them and smiling, you're likely out of luck. If you want pictures of the pretty landscaping of the public gardens, you're in luck.

To hold you over, here's a picture of a wild koala bear I found in a tree. He's so freaking cute.

Nice views, no humpbacks

Note: I started this post on 2/18/08. Yeah, I'm not behind or anything.

So, much like my fruitless honu searches for my first several months of residence here, January and February are supposedly prime whale watching months here. Of course, I saw none. In an effort to see them, I climbed the path along Makapu'u Point (the easternmost point on the island) which is reportedly a prime whale watching destination. It was a nice walk, hot as hell for the first half because you're on the other side of the cliff from the ocean and the breeze is completely blocked, but after that, it was lovely. Did I see a single freaking whale? Knowing my luck, I think we all know the answer to that.

Incidentally, the following weekend I was at a picnic and a friend was telling me that, the previous day, he had done the Makapu'u trail as well. Then, he proceeds to tell me about all of the whales that they saw. Seriously? So I asked if he was there early in the morning (reportedly the best time to see). Answer: "No, around 3:00." Exactly the time I was there the week before. Boo.

I don't know these people, but I was a bit afraid to climb out on that cliff, so I just took a picture of them enjoying the view. Also? They're from Ohio. Look at that.

Democracy in Action

I started a post a few weeks ago, but my pictures from Makapu'u Point kept failing to upload. I got frustrated and quit. I'll try that later, but for now I'll just tell you a bit about the caucuses.

It's no secret that I'm all about civic duty and voting and the political process, but I was particularly intrigued this year because of the close race in the democratic candidate race as well as the concept of a caucus, as I had only voted in primary states in the past. (Incidentally, I believe this is now the fifth state in which I've been registered to vote). From what I had read about Iowa caucuses, I had developed this fantasy about people debating in community center rooms of folding chairs and fluorescent lights with a quick deterioration to profanity and violence. They don't have that in the boring primaries where you touch the computer screen and go on your merry way. I couldn't have been more excited.

In order to vote in the democratic caucus, you had to be a member of the Hawaii Democratic Party, something of which I'm not a big fan, but I decided to suck and up and do so. Of course, I was immediately frustrated as, when you go on the website to do so, it was full of inflammatory statements and hyperbole, pretty much saying 'let's expose McCain for the fraud that he is' and other crap. Seriously? Dude, I may not agree with his politics, but relax with the personal and petty attacks.

Anyway, I suspected a significant turnout because of A) the aforementioned close race B) the general enthusiasm for politics and this race that had already been seen in other states C) the fact that Barack Obama was born and raised here, and still has family and many supporters in the islands and D) nothing happens here and it's something to do. Apparently, though, the organizers were not smart enough to predict the attendance.

I waited in line with hundreds of other people. While I had already been registered to vote since I arrived here and registered (painfully) as a democrat for a week or so, there was no prerequisite to do so, so many people had to do one or both of those things upon arrival. Were there separate lines for those actions? Of course not. After about two hours in line, I got to the school cafeteria to find absolute mass chaos. I waited in another line to be told my district number (which, if I would have know that's what the line was for, I could have skipped, as I already knew that). Then I was directed to a picnic table with that designated number. She asked for my name and address (but not for identification). I told her both, she saw that I wasn't on the list, she asked if I was registered, I confirmed that I was, then she decided she would just use the honor system and give me the post-it note that I was to present at yet another table to actually cast a ballot. Nice. Finally, I get there to find a dozen or so people crowded around a young man throwing small pieces of paper at him. Apparently they had now run out of official ballots and we were asked to write our candidate's name on a provided scrap of legal paper and give it to the kid who was stuffing them in a manila folder. Seriously. That was it. No confirmation of who I was, that I had registered, that I was indeed a resident of that district, and, most importantly, that I was only giving him one ballot. Seriously, it was so crowded and chaotic that I feel strongly that I could have sat down and written someone's name on 50 different sheets of paper and gotten every one of them submitted as valid votes.

While I'm more inclined to categorize this as 'quaint Hawaii' rather than corrupt, I'm old school in that I feel pretty strongly that in 2008 we should have a system that carefully allows only registered voters whose ID's are checked to cast one official ballot for their candidate of choice. Not so much. My cynical self was about ten times more cynical at the conclusion of the evening. Point is? My enthusiasm for the caucus quickly deteriorated to the feeling that there were 2.5 hours of my life that I was never getting back. And there wasn't even a single fistfight as I had hoped. Can't wait to see what the November elections are like here. I'm picturing a show of hands, and then we all go out for mai tais.