I thought this was some funny video. This is our new favorite dog beach. It's really small and secluded so we don't have to worry about cloye running around without a leash on. Enjoy.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
What you have all be waiting for.
Here it is, what everyone has been asking for, more video. This video is the second half of Becky's visit which was in the begining of August. If you would like a more detailed description of this video please refer to the post titled "Becky's Blog Part 2". Mahalo.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Costco or Sam's Club: The great debate.
I eat alot.....ALOT!! This adds up to quite the grocery bill especially here in Hawaii. So to help cut food costs Rachel has decided to plant an organic garden. If you haven't already seen her Garden Blog just click here. In the mean time we have been going to Chinatown for all our freshfood on the advice of some of the locals. It has been going pretty good there, I mean it's interesting to say the least. (lettuce, tomatoes, pig's head.....ya know, the usual) Finally, we had to make a decision between Costco and Sam's Club. Neither of us had ever been to Costco so we decided to take a chance and go there. WOW. There were tons of amazing deals and we weren't forced to buy everything in bulk. Bulk is nice when you want to buy toilet paper, but a 55 gallon drum of mayonaise doesn't do us much good. :) Anyways, it had everything and our favorite deal was the milk, $4.50 a gallon!! That's crazy. We haven't been able to find milk, even in bulk, for less than $6 a gallon.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
WE are no longer unemployed!!!
It took a month, but it was worth the wait. Rachel and I both now have jobs that we are very happy with. I am working at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory as a lab and field research assistant, and Rachel is working at Tripler Army Medical Center as a Registered Nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU). I got my job through the school student employment office and Rachel got her job through TRU Staff travel nursing agency. I started last week and I am learning so much. My lab group is working with invertebrate research. The invertebrates include sea slugs, starfish, jellyfish, crustaceans, squid, etc. One of my responsibilities is harvesting eggs from sea slugs called phestilla and rearing them until they reach adulthood. At different steps of their life cycle they are studied and used for expirements. So I have to make sure we have a healthy stock of each "age group". I also spend alot of time on the computer looking at pictures of panels that sit in the water at pearl harbor identifying the wildlife that "settle" on the panels. The panels have different non-toxic paints and solvents that are being tested on what kind of wildlife form on them or lack there of. Mostly for the bottoms of boats. As for Rachel's job, I wish I could tell you more, but she doesn't start until Sept. 6th. There will obviously be updates on how her new job is going soon after. So keep checking. Also in the updates section off to the left it says "Video tour of our new home coming soon"....still working on it, but it won't be much longer. Finally Rachel is puting together a page all about her new organic garden which will probably be up very soon and will definately have pictures. ALOHA!!!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Video Program is FIXED!!!
Well kind of. haha. It's not completely fixed, but its close enough. So this video is from the first half of Becky's visit, described in Becky's Blog Part 1. Subsequently, there will be a second video containing the footage from the most recent Blog Post by Becky. Hope you enjoy, and I hope all of our future visitors look forward to puting there own personal touch on the Blog.
Becky's Blog Part 2
Day Six: Today we decided our arms were tired from all the surfing and kayaking, so we would hike. We packed up the cooler and some water and headed to Diamond Head State Park. It is supposed to be one of the oldest and best know volcanic craters in the world. The trail/ stairs wound it's way up the side, with a few scenic outlooks along the way. We hiked up the trail and climbed up most of the 99 steps only to be stopped in an old war bunker. There were paramedics and an elderly Asian lady with an oxygen mask on. We could only assume she either collapsed because of the heat or dehydration. The paramedics temporarily stopped everyone from walking the rest of the way up or down while they were waiting on their rescue helicopter. They had to strap her down and slide her out the 12 inch opening and carry her to the helicopter. It was pretty cool to watch. Then we finished our walk up to the outlook at the top. Later we drove around the coast line to another scenic out look and climbed down the big rocks out towards the ocean.
Day Seven: Today was Sunday, and we decided to go to church. We all put on nice clothes and headed down to a little church Rachel had seen by the Highway. We could hear singing when we pulled up but didn't recognise the song. We slipped in the back down and sat down, only to realise the service was NOT in English. The girls sitting in the bench by us told Rachel it was in Samoan but if the pastor noticed us, he would switch to English. We quickly slipped back out the door. After a short drive we found another church with an English service. After church we headed home for lunch and decided to go to the beach for the day. We packed up for Waikiki and spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, and swimming in the sun. That night we went out to dinner down by the harbor and were able to see big cargo ships, a couple dinner cruises, and the docks.
Day Eight: Rachel and I had another day down at Waikiki today. We brought the "noodles" to float on and rented surfboards again. The boards we rented were smaller than the boards we had taken the lesson on. They were much harder to balance on. After surfing we set up on the beach in front of the "pools". They are beaches with break walls all the way around a small bit of the ocean to protect the water from the big waves. We floated around on our noodles and soaked up some sun. That night we made dinner and watched the Olympics.
Day Nine: Today was my big Shark Encounter. (Nate and Rachel decided to be fiscally responsible and not join me on this encounter). Since the boat didn't leave until 4:30 we headed out in the afternoon. We decided to set up for a few hours at a beach with tons of sea turtles. The beach had lots of rocks growing seaweed all along the shore and turtles were everywhere swimming, eating and even sitting out of the water on the rocks. We did a little snorkeling, soaked up a little sun and went for a walk down the beach. Then it was time to head off to the boat. Nate and Rachel dropped me off at 4:30 and then headed off to explore the little surf town and grab dinner while I headed out into the ocean. After cruising out for about 25 minutes, the boat pulled up to the shark cage (which was attached to a buoy) and tied off our boat. We put on snorkel masked and were given instructions on how to safely get in and out of the cage. I volunteered to be the first one in. The sharks were already there. Circling the boat and the cage. The crew threw some chum (cut up fish parts) into the water and we got to watch the sharks swim by and eye it before circling back and chomping down. There were Galapagos sharks, Sandbar sharks, and two Tiger Sharks (which swam by but didn't stick around). There were 10 or 12 sharks, some only a few feet long but most bigger than me. The sharks got within inches of the cage. Sometimes the fish would swim into the cage with us, so they could get away from the sharks. One time I was holding my breath down in the bottom of the cage when a big shark slammed into the cage while wrestling with another shark to get food. I lost my hand hold and both my feet went right through the cage bars!!! It was hard to hold on but amazing to watch I took lots of pictures with my underwater camera.
Day Ten: We decided to go to Hanauma Bay to do some more snorkeling. Nate and Rachel both got calls about work and needed to take care of important things so we got a late start for the Bay. When we showed up, the parking lot was full. We decided to drive down the road and find the little beach we had seen a few days earlier (when driving around after Diamond Head). We parked by the Halona Blow Hole and carefully walked down the rocks to the beach. It is apparently the beach where some beach scenes were filmed from the movie From Here to Eternity. It was a really neat little beach surrounded by cliffs and rocks and even a little cave. (Which we started to explore but was filled with broken bottles and garbage). We climbed over the the rocks and found the blowhole. It was not really impressive but I could see how it might be with bigger waves. Then we headed back down the road to Hanauma Bay. We watched a short video about the history of the underwater cater and how the nature preserve is working to protecting the sea life. We snorkled around the bay, it was a bit wavy so the visibilty was not ideal but we still saw tons of fish and sea life.
Day Eleven: Last day : ( Work up early, finished my packing, and headed off to the airport. It was an awesome trip.
Nate and Rachel were fantastic hosts and I had a lot of fun. I hope to come back and visit soon!!!
Day Seven: Today was Sunday, and we decided to go to church. We all put on nice clothes and headed down to a little church Rachel had seen by the Highway. We could hear singing when we pulled up but didn't recognise the song. We slipped in the back down and sat down, only to realise the service was NOT in English. The girls sitting in the bench by us told Rachel it was in Samoan but if the pastor noticed us, he would switch to English. We quickly slipped back out the door. After a short drive we found another church with an English service. After church we headed home for lunch and decided to go to the beach for the day. We packed up for Waikiki and spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, and swimming in the sun. That night we went out to dinner down by the harbor and were able to see big cargo ships, a couple dinner cruises, and the docks.
Day Eight: Rachel and I had another day down at Waikiki today. We brought the "noodles" to float on and rented surfboards again. The boards we rented were smaller than the boards we had taken the lesson on. They were much harder to balance on. After surfing we set up on the beach in front of the "pools". They are beaches with break walls all the way around a small bit of the ocean to protect the water from the big waves. We floated around on our noodles and soaked up some sun. That night we made dinner and watched the Olympics.
Day Nine: Today was my big Shark Encounter. (Nate and Rachel decided to be fiscally responsible and not join me on this encounter). Since the boat didn't leave until 4:30 we headed out in the afternoon. We decided to set up for a few hours at a beach with tons of sea turtles. The beach had lots of rocks growing seaweed all along the shore and turtles were everywhere swimming, eating and even sitting out of the water on the rocks. We did a little snorkeling, soaked up a little sun and went for a walk down the beach. Then it was time to head off to the boat. Nate and Rachel dropped me off at 4:30 and then headed off to explore the little surf town and grab dinner while I headed out into the ocean. After cruising out for about 25 minutes, the boat pulled up to the shark cage (which was attached to a buoy) and tied off our boat. We put on snorkel masked and were given instructions on how to safely get in and out of the cage. I volunteered to be the first one in. The sharks were already there. Circling the boat and the cage. The crew threw some chum (cut up fish parts) into the water and we got to watch the sharks swim by and eye it before circling back and chomping down. There were Galapagos sharks, Sandbar sharks, and two Tiger Sharks (which swam by but didn't stick around). There were 10 or 12 sharks, some only a few feet long but most bigger than me. The sharks got within inches of the cage. Sometimes the fish would swim into the cage with us, so they could get away from the sharks. One time I was holding my breath down in the bottom of the cage when a big shark slammed into the cage while wrestling with another shark to get food. I lost my hand hold and both my feet went right through the cage bars!!! It was hard to hold on but amazing to watch I took lots of pictures with my underwater camera.
Day Ten: We decided to go to Hanauma Bay to do some more snorkeling. Nate and Rachel both got calls about work and needed to take care of important things so we got a late start for the Bay. When we showed up, the parking lot was full. We decided to drive down the road and find the little beach we had seen a few days earlier (when driving around after Diamond Head). We parked by the Halona Blow Hole and carefully walked down the rocks to the beach. It is apparently the beach where some beach scenes were filmed from the movie From Here to Eternity. It was a really neat little beach surrounded by cliffs and rocks and even a little cave. (Which we started to explore but was filled with broken bottles and garbage). We climbed over the the rocks and found the blowhole. It was not really impressive but I could see how it might be with bigger waves. Then we headed back down the road to Hanauma Bay. We watched a short video about the history of the underwater cater and how the nature preserve is working to protecting the sea life. We snorkled around the bay, it was a bit wavy so the visibilty was not ideal but we still saw tons of fish and sea life.
Day Eleven: Last day : ( Work up early, finished my packing, and headed off to the airport. It was an awesome trip.
Nate and Rachel were fantastic hosts and I had a lot of fun. I hope to come back and visit soon!!!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Pictures from Becky's visit
I still haven't resolved the issues with the video editing program, but hopefully it will be fixed soon. In the meantime here are pictures from the past 10 days.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Becky's Blog Part One
Hey guys!
Becky here - I am very excited to be Nate and Rachel's first guest out here in Oahu. I arrived safely on August 4th after about 15 hours on a plane (due to a couple of weather delays and missing my original connection to Oahu). We stopped at WalMart so I could pick up a beach towel and some snorkel gear. The first night out here we grilled out and ate on the lanai. I was pretty tired from my long travels and went to sleep early.
Day Two: On the plane I read over a guide book called Oahu Revealed and marked all sorts of things I thought sounded interesting with post-it notes. One of those places was Shark's Cove. We packed up the cooler and our snorkel gear and headed out to Sharks Cove for my first snorkel trip. It was very crowded and not easy to actually get into the cove but the water was clear and the bottom was full or interesting rocks and sea life. We saw a couple schools of fish and snorkeled right out of the cove into the ocean. Then we went down the road and found a beach where set up for the rest of the day. We enjoyed our picnic and layed out in the sun.
Day Three: Today we got up early and drove to Chinatown. The market was really interesting. It was full of fruits, veggies, fish, live crabs, and huge chunks of random meat, and a pig head. There was excellent people watching in addition to fabulous deals. Two pineapple for a dollar!!! That night, we went down to Waikiki to experience the night life. We walked down the main promenade (which easily rivaled Michigan Ave.)
Day Four: Today was our big kayaking adventure. We woke up early and went to Go Bananas to pick up our kayaks. We could only put two kayaks on Rachel's Jeep so we got a single and a double. After putting all the gear in the car we headed off to the other side of the island. We drove through a rain storm (which got us all wet since the top was off) and finally found the little harbor that was our first destination. Our goal was to find Sandbar Island. There was a beautiful picture of a white sand beach surrounded by the blue ocean on a sunny day in the guide book. We were already off to a bad start with the storm clouds overhead. We got in the Kayaks, Rachel and Chloe in the single kayak and Nate and I in the double, and headed out into the ocean. The wind was blowing pretty hard and waves just got bigger the farther out we got. About 40 minutes into the paddle we decided to tie the boats together. We kept paddling until we got out to a much shallower sandbar. It still took us a while to realise the island was 2 feet under us!!! Oops!! We ate lunch in the kayaks and then decided to make the best of our situation. We snorkeled around until Nate started pointing the Portuguese Man O'War that were in the water. At that point, Rachel and I hopped right back into our kayaks and decided it was time to head home. Back at the kayak shop they explained that sandbar island is a sandbar but that it only comes out in a low tide, once or twice a day. It is also nicknamed Sunken Island for obvious reasons.
Day Five: Girls Day :)
Nate had job interviews today so Rachel and I packed up the beach stuff and a cooler and headed down to Waikiki beach. We parked by the zoo and walked over to the beach. We rented an umbrella for an hour (only 5 dollars!) and set up on a nice spot right by the water. When our hour was up, we reapplied sunscreen and headed down the beach for surf lessons. We signed up for the group lesson, but no one else signed up so we were the only two in the group. After about 10 minutes of instruction on the beach, we followed our surf instructor into the ocean. We all paddled out to the spot all the surfers were setting up at and got ready for our first waves. I went first, the instructor held onto the back of the board and told me when to paddle. I paddled as hard as I could and when the wave was right under me, she yelled to stand up. I actually stood up on my first wave! I was so excited. Rachel and I both did a really great job. We stood up/ rode most of our waves. Our arms were burning, they were so tired from paddling but we just kept going. According to the instructor, most people get pretty tired and quit after about 20 minutes but Rachel and I stayed out for over an hour. I think surfing has been the highlight of the trip so far.
*And Nate got a job today!! Yay!
Video coming soon.
Becky here - I am very excited to be Nate and Rachel's first guest out here in Oahu. I arrived safely on August 4th after about 15 hours on a plane (due to a couple of weather delays and missing my original connection to Oahu). We stopped at WalMart so I could pick up a beach towel and some snorkel gear. The first night out here we grilled out and ate on the lanai. I was pretty tired from my long travels and went to sleep early.
Day Two: On the plane I read over a guide book called Oahu Revealed and marked all sorts of things I thought sounded interesting with post-it notes. One of those places was Shark's Cove. We packed up the cooler and our snorkel gear and headed out to Sharks Cove for my first snorkel trip. It was very crowded and not easy to actually get into the cove but the water was clear and the bottom was full or interesting rocks and sea life. We saw a couple schools of fish and snorkeled right out of the cove into the ocean. Then we went down the road and found a beach where set up for the rest of the day. We enjoyed our picnic and layed out in the sun.
Day Three: Today we got up early and drove to Chinatown. The market was really interesting. It was full of fruits, veggies, fish, live crabs, and huge chunks of random meat, and a pig head. There was excellent people watching in addition to fabulous deals. Two pineapple for a dollar!!! That night, we went down to Waikiki to experience the night life. We walked down the main promenade (which easily rivaled Michigan Ave.)
Day Four: Today was our big kayaking adventure. We woke up early and went to Go Bananas to pick up our kayaks. We could only put two kayaks on Rachel's Jeep so we got a single and a double. After putting all the gear in the car we headed off to the other side of the island. We drove through a rain storm (which got us all wet since the top was off) and finally found the little harbor that was our first destination. Our goal was to find Sandbar Island. There was a beautiful picture of a white sand beach surrounded by the blue ocean on a sunny day in the guide book. We were already off to a bad start with the storm clouds overhead. We got in the Kayaks, Rachel and Chloe in the single kayak and Nate and I in the double, and headed out into the ocean. The wind was blowing pretty hard and waves just got bigger the farther out we got. About 40 minutes into the paddle we decided to tie the boats together. We kept paddling until we got out to a much shallower sandbar. It still took us a while to realise the island was 2 feet under us!!! Oops!! We ate lunch in the kayaks and then decided to make the best of our situation. We snorkeled around until Nate started pointing the Portuguese Man O'War that were in the water. At that point, Rachel and I hopped right back into our kayaks and decided it was time to head home. Back at the kayak shop they explained that sandbar island is a sandbar but that it only comes out in a low tide, once or twice a day. It is also nicknamed Sunken Island for obvious reasons.
Day Five: Girls Day :)
Nate had job interviews today so Rachel and I packed up the beach stuff and a cooler and headed down to Waikiki beach. We parked by the zoo and walked over to the beach. We rented an umbrella for an hour (only 5 dollars!) and set up on a nice spot right by the water. When our hour was up, we reapplied sunscreen and headed down the beach for surf lessons. We signed up for the group lesson, but no one else signed up so we were the only two in the group. After about 10 minutes of instruction on the beach, we followed our surf instructor into the ocean. We all paddled out to the spot all the surfers were setting up at and got ready for our first waves. I went first, the instructor held onto the back of the board and told me when to paddle. I paddled as hard as I could and when the wave was right under me, she yelled to stand up. I actually stood up on my first wave! I was so excited. Rachel and I both did a really great job. We stood up/ rode most of our waves. Our arms were burning, they were so tired from paddling but we just kept going. According to the instructor, most people get pretty tired and quit after about 20 minutes but Rachel and I stayed out for over an hour. I think surfing has been the highlight of the trip so far.
*And Nate got a job today!! Yay!
Video coming soon.
Rachel's Masterpiece
Hey guys!:) Well it has finaly happened, Nathan let me take the computer over so I can add my thoughts to this blog thing. This is going to be short and sweet because I am not a writer....well hope you like the videos and pics. :):)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Hanauma Bay
We have been here for almost 2 whole weeks. Although we have accomplished alot in those 2 weeks our next important hurdle is employment. I'm not saying this to worry anyone, it's just the next step. Rachel and I both spent the whole morning Saturday job hunting. Since that isn't very exciting, we don't have any video or pictures to show. I know your highly disappointed about that. Don't worry the whole day wasn't boring, we decided to reward our efforts by snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Nature Reserve. Unfortunately we are waiting on boxes being shipped from the mainland that contain most of our belongings. This includes our waterproof case for the video camera which allows us to record video in up to 17 feet of water. We did, however, get some video on our way in and out. As for the snorkeling, this is by far the best place to go so far on Oahu.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Video Gallore!!
We have lots and lots of video footage. We had been planning on being creative with the videos, adding music and transitions and what not, but that is too time consuming. So, as I mentioned before, the video clips you will see from now on will MOSTLY consist of raw footage along with an accompanying paragraph or two. So here is our first blog video. It begins with Rachel and I soon after landing in Honolulu and continues to show a little crime fighting on the street right outside the Hotel Pagoda, the hotel we stayed in our first night here. Then it shows what we did most of the first week here: DRIVE. We spent a solid 8 hours a day in the rental car and then Rachel's jeep looking at apartments. To help the situation, the first 3 or 4 apartments I set up appointments with didn't even allow pets. TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!! Needless to say we needed a little R&R. So the rest of the video is pretty much Rachel, Cloye and I spending literally a few minutes at the beach.
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