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Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Promised Land

Jacob calls the Big Island of Hawaii, "The Promised Land", so it is only appropriate to title this entry accordingly.

Our 6 day escape to the promised land was nothing short of AMAZING! It was the break that all four of us definitely needed.  As much as we love our little Laie town, getting out of it (especially after an insane Winter semester) is very much needed from time to time.

Now, 6 days worth of adventure is too much to blog about.  So instead, im going to do a photo summarization, its more exciting this way.  I take a lot of pictures so pretty much everywhere we went had a picture so basically, it is the best way for me to summarize the trip.  I will be uploading more photos on my facebook account so if you want to see more action, head over to facebook.  

ENJOY!

  We got our boarding passes and we are soooo ready to go.
  Arrived in Kona at nighttime so we just had a nice first night in.
First stop, beautiful Hapuna Beach, where we all got slightly burnt.
 Talented Auna family's jam session...so FUN!
   
Lava flows all around while driving on Saddle Rd. Miles and miles of these can be seen on a lot of different places around the island.  Pretty crazy that the whole island is basically a whole bunch of volcanoes that are still continuously letting lava out.
    
This is the Kaumana Caves which is basically a huge lava tube. It was pitch black inside and we had a pathetic little flashlight so Janice and I didnt want to go far into the cave.  Maverick went to this cave before with another friend and apparently, they went about a mile in, and only decided to turn back because they were crawling already.  CRAZY BOYS!
 The cave had some cool name carvings from like 1880's and 1930's.
  I'm barfing up Akaka Falls...hehehe
  
This little pond is located on top of Akaka Falls. After a little hike up, this beautiful place with FREEZING water was nice and relaxing for me and Janice while Maverick and Jacob go on the rope swing
  
This is Boiling Pots at Wailuku River.  We went exploring to the falls at the very far end where Mav is pointing and it was so much fun.  We got some really good footage too.
 Maverick jumping off a hidden water fall near Kahuna Falls...He actually landed on a rock in this jump and its still giving him back pains...tsk tsk tsk
  Love jump shots...this was at Coconut Island Park
   
Setting up camp at Jacob's aunty's backyard...hehehe...We really wanted to camp because we wanted to test out the tent that we just bought off the Duncombe's...pretty good tent too
  This is us inside the tent in the morning
  Beautiful Waipio Valley
  Maverick, Jacob and Jacob's brother Jarom after a bodyboard session
     
Picnic stop on our way to the volcanoes
   
This is the entrance to the Kilauea Volcano visitors center. On the right is Kilauea Volcano letting out a lot of vog.  This volcano is actually constantly flowing lava out.
   
This is another lava tube.  But it was easier to walk through it coz it was lighted up and the ground was level
    This is the southern most point of the USA, and of coarse we had to jump off it...hehehe...sorry mum! Not gonna lie though, I was pretty nervous before I jumped off, it took me a while to actually do it.  Im glad I did! The water is so clear and blue, it was AMAZING! The picture on the right is Maverick and the one on the left is me on a different jumping off spot, they are right next to each other though...to get back up we had to climb the flimsy ladder...I coudntve done it if Maverick didnt help me up it, hes the one in the water holding the rope down.  Good thing we didnt see any sharks coz that wouldnt have been a good thing when it takes so long to get out of the water...
  
Also at the South Point is this puka (hole) and it was really pretty too...Maverick wanted to jump in it but I didnt let him because the tide was coming in strong and it looked a little dangerous...Good thing he listened...
 Posing for pictures at the South Point puka
   
So we were on our way home and we see these animals just hanging out on the side of the road.  Yah there was a fence, but they were just there.  So we made a U-turn and stopped to say hi.  The boys were pretty excited coz it was their first time to see a zebra...they are so deprived...hehehe...there was also a donkey and a longhorn cow there too. 
   
Mav and I with the amazing Pres. and Sis. Auna.  Jacob's parents who were soooo nice to let us stay in their house and eat their food.  We are really grateful for their hospitality.  On the right is loving Grandma who was sooo great! She made me wish that I had more conversations with my grandmas.
   
Right before leaving the Big Island, we did a session and initiatory at the Kona temple.  It was a great way to end a GREAT vacation.  Last time we went to the temple was on our Honeymoon which was back in December, so we were really grateful to have had another opportunity to go to the temple, especially that the Laie one is closed right now.  
   
That's our plane back to Oahu. Back to school and back to work...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

One sour memory...

Dont you just love it when you have moments where it brings you back to other WONDERFUL 'back in the days' memories.  

I am at the Big Island right now and we have just been having such an awesome vacation! I'm not going to blog about the Big Island experience just yet because we have two more days here. Although, I will share about ONE particular experience that I shared with Janice and Jacob, and I only need one word to describe it...MANGOES...wait to make it even better i'll give you three words...MANGOES and BAGOONG!  green mangoes with bagoong has got to be one of my favorite food in the Philippines.  The mango HAS to be really sour to get the real effect, and luckily these mangoes were SUPER sour. It just brings back so much memories from way back Philippines days.

Here are the proofs

This is the product, green mangoes and bagoong...owww...IT WAS SOOO GOOD!!!


Here are us three enjoying this wonderful moment

Notice that Maverick isnt anywhere near us.  This is because he HATES the smell of Bagoong.  Bagoong is sauteed shrimp paste sort off thing that is a Filipino delicacy. It does have a very distinct smell that is kinda different if it isnt appreciated.  But for the three of us, it was AMAZING!  We were all very VERY satisfied and just in heaven!

The face says it all...bwahahah

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Da Biggest Island of Hawaii

And we are in it till Tuesday next week!

This is my first time to be in this island so I am sooo excited.  Maverick has been here one other time so he tells me all the things that we are going to go to and I am excited!!!

We are here with Janice and Jacob as well and staying at Jacob's parents house which is great.  They are really nice people and very hospitable.  So I will update more about this trip as wel go along.  We just arrived last night so we havent really done anything yet but rest.

On a different note, Maverick and I went on a date on Tuesday at Sharks Cove to go snorkeling.  It was sooo cool! I havent been in the ocean for such a loooong time!  I couldnt last in it though coz it got pretty cold.  The photos below are of the big turtle that we met and the video is of the little baby turtle that came out to play after we were with the big one for a while. ENJOY!

I didnt want to get in at first coz it was cold!
Here are some of the fishies that we saw

Me with the fishies
Maverick posing
The mommy and baby turtle

Mav playing with the baby turtle

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

First Easter Together

Easter is a time that we remember Jesus Christ' sacrifice for us.  He is the ultimate example of humility, charity and love.  Go to this link for a great Easter message http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

Maverick and I were asked to talk in sacrament on Easter Sunday.  Weve prepared our talk and everything and just before sacrament meeting started, the second councilor asked us if we could could talk next week instead because the new bishop is going to get called instead.  We were pretty happy to do so.

Last Easter, when Maverick and I were still dating, he made me lunch with different colored items.  We decided to make this our Easter tradition. Here's what we came up with

Pink rice
Blue noodles
Green eggs and ham
Spam with blue dots
Red flavored water 

Later on that night, we dyed some eggs
  
    
Hope you guys had a great Easter!!!