Hawaiian Adventure

I went to visit a my friend Tutu and her husband Jerome on the big island of Hawaii a few weeks ago.  I had never met Jerome before but he might just be the nicest person I've met.  From the very first day that I arrived in Hilo he was extremely accommodating and friendly, even telling me that I could use his boogie board whenever I would like.  

And then there was Tutu who met me at the tiny Hilo International Airport with a Hawaiian Lei.  I met Tutu while going to school at Utah Valley University and we became fast friends.  Tutu grew up on an island called Kiribati and was constantly getting asked where she was from. Even though she is married and lives in Hawaii, we try to keep in touch.

Alright, alright back to my trip.

I arrived at the Hilo International Airport on January 8 at 8:57 pm which is midnight in Utah. I was exhausted and ready to go to bed. Tutu and Jerome had picked up some Chinese food for me because they knew I had been traveling all day and would probably be hungry (thoughtful thing number 1, but whose counting?).  We got to their apartment which was not far from the airport, I ate some food, changed into pajamas and helped Tutu turn the futon into a bed.  I fell asleep to the sound of the ocean right outside.

I woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean, ate a banana on the balcony and went for a walk.

The view from Tutu and Jeromes' balcony

Jerome had told me how to get to the beach the night before so I thought I would go hang out there.  

After a while I started to get hungry so I headed back and out of nowhere came the rain.  By the time I got back my jacket was soaking wet and my shorts were stuck to my legs.

On Thursday January 10, Tutu and I were going to go to the zoo and the Mauna Loa chocolate factory.  We were all ready and in the car about to drive off when I decided we should go snorkeling instead. It was a really sunny day and with it being the rainy season I didn't know if there would be another good day for snorkeling.

Yellow Tang like the one I saw

 

I eventually got a little cold and decided to get out.  I had scratches all over my legs!  I had some pretty good ones that might even turn into a scar.

The next morning (Friday) I went to find some sea shells and came across several sea turtles. When I got back to the house we went to Akaka Falls and then the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. 

This waterfall is 448 ft.! Twice the height of Niagara Falls

Akaka Falls

Me, Jerome and Bella (in the blue jacket)

Saturday Tutu and I went on a helicopter tour.  It was amazing and I would definitely do it again.

The trees really do look like broccoli

Lava!

Where the Lava meets the Pacific Ocean

Tutu and I went to church on Sunday and then to a Farmer's market.  On Monday, we all got to go swimming with dolphins!  We woke up at 5AM to make the two hour drive to Kona on the other side of the island.  We checked in at the Marina and got on a boat in search of wild dolphins.  We also saw several humpback whales who were on a heat run (basically three males going after one female), a manta ray and a sea turtle.  Guess I get to check that off my list twice :)

Me and Tutu ready to see some dolphins

The next day I got to the beach early enough that I had it all to myself for awhile. I nearly walked straight into a sea turtle again, this time they were just hanging out in the water.

My last day, we toured around and got to see more of the island.  Tutu woke up early with me and we collected some sea shells, then spent the rest of the day touring around at different beach parks, ending with Rainbow Falls.  Tutu made some amazing salmon and pasta for dinner.  I finished packing my bag, got all of Tutu's pictures and headed to the airport for my red eye flight to Los Angeles.

Drinking a coconut

Right after this picture I got splashed with a wave

At Waipio Valley

Waipio Valley

Rainbow Falls

The tiny Hilo Airport-- I think it had a total of 8 gates

The plane that will take me to LA

Now onto planning for my next trip!

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

                     -St. Augustine

Cruising in the Bahamas

Amber and I woke up on the morning of January 16 (Monday) and took the shuttle from our hotel to the airport.  From there we waited to board a bus with Carnival to take us to Port Canaveral.

Amber and me excited to get to Port Canaveral

We got to the cruise ship around noon or so and were directed to the Lido deck for some lunch (our rooms were not yet ready so we had to keep our luggage with us).  We finally were able to get into our room where we had an ocean view and drop off our things.

Our stateroom --  notice the ocean view :)

We headed to dinner when it was time where I ate some escargot.  I figured it was free so I may as well give it a try and not feel guilty about it if I didn't like it.  I mostly just tasted olive oil and garlic.  I decided that I would eat the weird exotic thing every night for my starter.

Escargot

Alligator Fritters

Frog Legs

Tuesday was our fun day at sea so we pretty much hung out by the pool and explored the ship.

Wednesday was our day in Half Moon Cay, pronounced like "key",  Carnival's private island.  It was a beautiful beach.  White sandy beaches and beautiful blue water.  I hung out at the beach all day reading my book and playing in the water.  We didn't even have to pay for lunch!  Carnival had an island bbq thing that we were able to go to.

Our ship -- the Carnival Ecstasy

Beautiful Atlantic Ocean

  
Thursday we were in Nassau.  Amber went snorkeling and I went to the Atlantis Resort to swim with dolphins.  We planned on meeting up later in the afternoon to hang out.  A bus came to take everyone who was heading to the Atlantis.  

When we arrived there, a guy came and walked us to Dolphin Cay, again pronounced like "key",  which was on the other end of the resort from where the bus dropped us off.  I had to sign a waiver and wait for my assigned time.   

Waiting for my turn at Dolphin Cay

Finally it was my turn, we were given a mask and snorkel to use and keep, a wetsuit and a locker.  I changed and then went into the orientation room.  A trainer came in to give us some rules and break us up into groups of six.  The rules were not to stick your finger in the dolphins blow hole, not to touch his eyes or anything below the belly button.

We finally were able to get into the water.  Another trainer came to tell us about the dolphin that we would be working with, Makai.  Makai means calm waters in Hawaiian; he was the youngest of the adult males which put him at the bottom of the pecking order because in the dolphin world females rule followed by age.  Since Makai was both the youngest and a male he was at the bottom and everyone picked on him.  We were told that he was a stud and was going to do big things.  He is basically the Kobe Bryant of the dolphin world (those were the trainers words and not mine), not quite the best like Michael Jordan but pretty awesome.


Makai finally came over and the first thing we did was take some pictures.

After everyone had done that we put on our masks and snorkels and were given a propeller type thing.  We swam to the opposite side of the lagoon where we were able to dive down and swim with the dolphin.  


Then came the foot push.  We were each given a boogie board and told how to hold onto it.  My turn was last.  I swam out to where the dolphin would push me from and got ready.  The dolphin came and pushed me but stopped half way.  They told me to stay there and another dolphin would come and push me the rest of the way.  The second one was faster than the first one and I loved very minute of it!

I walked around the Atlantis for a while and just kinda explored.  I walked through an aquarium called The Dig and was also able to see the water park, which looked awesome.

The bridge in between the two towers is called the bridge suite and costs $2500 a night!

Clown Fish

Poseidon's chair

I decided that I should go explore Nassau a bit.  I was to late to meet up with Amber so I decided to explore on my own for a while.

Downtown Nassau

Downtown Nassau

 I had to ask about six people before I figured out where to get my passport stamped but I wasn't about to be in the Bahamas and not get my passport stamped :), and headed back to the ship.

The next day we were in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island.  There was not much to do there except for go to the Straw Market that was at the port.  We shopped a bit and tried some conch fritters.  

Mailbox

Conch Fritters

We woke up at 6:30 Eastern time on Saturday so we would be ready to leave the ship at 8 am.  We got to the airport four hours before our flight so we had plenty of time to get some lunch and wait.  We finally made it back to SLC at about 8 pm, it was snowing and cold.  It is not as much fun to leave the warmth and sunshine to come back to cold as it is to go from the cold to the sunshine and warmth.

Home after a long day of traveling

Good ole SLC

We had a few glitches in Orlando but I still had fun and the cruise was fantastic!  Time to plan my next adventure, where should I go?  Jordan, Hawaii, India, Mexico, Egypt?  Maybe I should just throw a dart at my map...

Misadventures in Orlando, Florida

When we arrived in Orlando the first thing we did was call our hotel for a shuttle to come pick us up.  This went pretty smoothly, we didn't have to wait for the shuttle for to long.  We got to the hotel, checked in and went to our room.  I opened the door and there was only one bed (not even a queen so there was no way that Amber and I could have both slept in it), we went back up to the front desk and changed rooms.

The following day we headed to Islands of Adventure.  We had to arrange for the shuttle at our hotel to take us, they ended up charging us forty dollars round trip.  We weren't happy about it but really didn't have any other options so we just paid the money.  

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Amber and me in front of the Hogwarts Express

Eating lunch at the Three Broomsticks

Me and Cyclops

At the end of the day, we were stranded because the shuttle never came to pick us up.  There were several taxis around so we decided that we better just take one back to the hotel--there went another thirty dollars.  The driver told us to just tell our hotel what happened and ask for our money back.  The hotel didn't seem to surprised when we told them no one had shown up.

The next night we decided to go to the Florida Mall to get some food.  The mall was about three miles away from our hotel so we decided that we would take the bus but the bus stop was not where it was supposed to be.  Justin, the guy at the front desk, offered to get the shuttle to take us and told us which bus to take to return.  After we ate and were ready to leave the mall we somehow got on the wrong bus and ended up at the bus station.  It was about eleven pm, no buses were running and we were once again stranded; but this time we were in the middle of Orlando and had no way to get back.  We called our hotel to get the number of a taxi service and had to call them to come pick us up.


By the time we got back to our hotel, Amber and I had had it with Florida.  So far we had been stranded twice and everything seemed to be going wrong.  We weren't sure that we wanted to take the chance the next day and go to Universal Studios even though we already bought tickets.


However when we woke up the next day, we wanted to go to Universal Studios.  We had Justin call a taxi for us.  We made arrangements with the woman who drove us to come pick us up later that day after the park closed and crossed our fingers that she would be there.  She was!  

"Roads?  Where we're going, we don't need roads."

Me and Curious George

We were both looking forward to getting to our cruise ship the next day and from there we knew everything would go smoothly.

Next Adventure

Time for my next adventure!!  I'm going with a friend to Orlando, Florida for four days where we will go to Universal Orlando and the Orlando temple.  I am super excited for Harry Potter in real life!  I hear that it is really cool, we get to eat lunch at the Three Broomsticks, visit Hogwarts and even let a wand "choose" us.

After a few days in Florida we will get onto a cruise ship and head to the Bahamas for five days.  What a great start to 2012.

Missing Uganda

I have been missing Uganda terribly the last few days.  I miss the people.  I miss the food.  I miss the culture.  Basically I miss it all.  I can't wait until I can go back.  Maybe I can even take my family.

I want some Ugandan food but can't seem to find a restaurant anywhere.  The closest is an African restaurant in Salt Lake City that serves Ethiopian food which is not the same but at least its African :)  I think I'm going to get my friend to take me there next week and at least get a little taste of Africa.  Its the closest I can get here in Utah. 

It is fun to answer with "I have been in Africa"  when people ask me about my summer. Its even better when they ask me questions and want to hear about it.  I love talking about Uganda.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that I could talk about it all day long.


My grandma asked my to come and speak to her empty nesters group a few weeks ago, it was fun to be able to share with them why I decided to go to Africa and what it is really like there.  I was slightly nervous about it because I'm not entirely comfortable speaking in front of a group of people - especially people that I don't know - but then I started talking and it was easy.  I even got a book for being the guest speaker.  I'm a guest speaker!  Who knew that I could do that?