It all started when I woke up at 7:30 Friday morning. I woke up to the birds chirping, a cool breeze and just before my alarm clock was to go off, and remembered my classes were cancelled for the day… those things combined to form the perfect receipt for the perfect day. I woke with the energy of a toddler and threw on my shoes to go for a jog. I ran up to Laie point, it’s a point that overlooks the ocean. There are a couple cement boulders up there that work perfect to do some additional creative stabilizing workouts. The clouds started gathering on the southern mountains so my asics returned to the gravel road to run back home in hopes to beat the downpour.
Back at my place I got ready to head to campus to continue my studying for my Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology exams. I studied for a couple hours and with a sharpened pencil (I didn’t want to repeat another fatal lacking pencil fiasco) in hand entered the testing center. Long story short, the exams went great! I got a 90 and a 92… I felt like a 7 yr old who just got a new shiny pink bike, I was a happy girl!
The next 7 hours were slow. It was rainy outside so it was full of channel flipping and watching Sister Sister (I swear, it was the only thing decent on!) Finally, I got on my computer and googled old “Wipeout” episodes… within 5 minutes of watching, it had me rolling on my bed laughing uncontrollably (I'm sure the people next door were wondering what was up) For those who have never watched it… you’re missing out. And don’t let the idea of being lazy keep you from watching it, I laughed so hard that I count it as my very own creative ab work out :) A couple more of consistent “wipeout” watching and I’ll have a 6-pack in no time. Alright alright, I WISH!
Friday night after watching some wipeout and fixing up my talk (I know, there were probably some more beneficial ways to mentally prepare myself for writing a talk… but I succumbed to the show. Hey, don’t worry… I listened to spiritual music while writing, and BONUS, I prayed before too!) I went to Whitney’s place with some friends to play some games and possibly watch a movie. Well, those were our intended plans! After an hour of sitting around and doing nothing, I decided I wanted to go night swimming!! BRILLIANT! So we jumped at the idea and threw on our suits and hit Hukilau beach. It was soo much fun! Besides it just being really fun, one of the cool parts about it was that the boys that were there couldn't see the girls' eye make-up running everywhere making us look like stray animals! We just jumped at the waves and did some body surfing (ok, well everyone else did! I’m still learning!). Well it was all fun and games until I felt something grab my foot, literally, IT GRABBED! I freaked out and screamed like a lil’ sissy and ran out of the water. Yeah. It turned out to be my friend Jason. REEEEAL FUNNY JASON, GOOD ONE! (I’m still in the process of forgiving him.)
After that we headed back to Whit’s where we found out there was a church dance being held at the stake center for some of the locals. Of course we couldn’t turn down the free refreshments so up and out the door we went. It was pretty fun… the food was definitely my favorite part (then again, when isn’t it!). They had regular cream puffs (good), cookies (great), apples (nasty crap. Juuust kidding, I just wanted to throw in some Jim Gaffigan. But they really did have apples; talk about out of place, right?) But then, here’s the real kicker… They had these giant 
cream puffs with frosting on top. Some people call them jelly-filled donuts… but keep in mind it was pudding-filled and so I call them a little piece of heaven!! Now remember this was a dance, so I didn’t JUST eat. I made sure to dance to one or two of the songs… I just happened to be within arm length of the food table. Ooook I was two arm lengths away. Alright but serious now, I did dance to more than two songs and I was farther away from the table… it was a pretty fun dance! It was my first time dancing to Reggae music; I didn’t even know you could dance to it! It was great :)
cream puffs with frosting on top. Some people call them jelly-filled donuts… but keep in mind it was pudding-filled and so I call them a little piece of heaven!! Now remember this was a dance, so I didn’t JUST eat. I made sure to dance to one or two of the songs… I just happened to be within arm length of the food table. Ooook I was two arm lengths away. Alright but serious now, I did dance to more than two songs and I was farther away from the table… it was a pretty fun dance! It was my first time dancing to Reggae music; I didn’t even know you could dance to it! It was great :)While we were at the dance we mad
e a bold decision to climb Stairway to Heaven. It’s a hike that consists of 3,000 steps. Sounds intimidating right? Well not only is the height frightening, but this hike was also made illegal a couple of years ago because it’s “dangerous”… which confirms the first initial intimidation feelin
g. In order to be able to do it, you have to leave no later by 3:00am so that you'll get back down in time before the guard gets there. See? We were smart about it, we did some research and talked with people that had done it since they did some maintenance and everything see
med fine. So we rounded up some friends and took off! So we skipped the whole “going to bed” part of Friday night and started the hike! It was INTENSE! Never in my entire life have I seen so many stairs, nor have I ever put my life in the hands of two metal bars and 3,000 steps before! I’m not sure what the elevation was… but I’m pretty sure it’s a high number
! Instead of it being “stairway to heaven”, Robin thought a better fitting name would be “stairway of hell” because of all the steps. I thought I would die. (I mean don’t forget, cough cough… I’ve done sports throughout all of my life, I’ve won trophies and have put my time in at the gym… but nothing can train you for this kind of "torture" and to think, we did it by choice!!) My Rectus Femorus’ were screaming, my Vastus medialis and intermedius I knew were wanting to howl profanities… and don’t even get me started on my G
uteus Medius and Maximus (can you tell I took anatomy??) I know my muscles… and during this hike I could certainly feel each and every one of them! When we reached the top my insides wanted to be on my outsides. I decided, I was going to die… this is it, the end is here and God is reaching down to relieve me of this pain (or so I hoped). SIKE, I lived. Mom and Dad, you taught me well… my lil’ girls camp training paid off! I reached the top and ate trail mix and drank water to replenish my body. And boy was it NICE!
e a bold decision to climb Stairway to Heaven. It’s a hike that consists of 3,000 steps. Sounds intimidating right? Well not only is the height frightening, but this hike was also made illegal a couple of years ago because it’s “dangerous”… which confirms the first initial intimidation feelin
g. In order to be able to do it, you have to leave no later by 3:00am so that you'll get back down in time before the guard gets there. See? We were smart about it, we did some research and talked with people that had done it since they did some maintenance and everything see
med fine. So we rounded up some friends and took off! So we skipped the whole “going to bed” part of Friday night and started the hike! It was INTENSE! Never in my entire life have I seen so many stairs, nor have I ever put my life in the hands of two metal bars and 3,000 steps before! I’m not sure what the elevation was… but I’m pretty sure it’s a high number
! Instead of it being “stairway to heaven”, Robin thought a better fitting name would be “stairway of hell” because of all the steps. I thought I would die. (I mean don’t forget, cough cough… I’ve done sports throughout all of my life, I’ve won trophies and have put my time in at the gym… but nothing can train you for this kind of "torture" and to think, we did it by choice!!) My Rectus Femorus’ were screaming, my Vastus medialis and intermedius I knew were wanting to howl profanities… and don’t even get me started on my G
uteus Medius and Maximus (can you tell I took anatomy??) I know my muscles… and during this hike I could certainly feel each and every one of them! When we reached the top my insides wanted to be on my outsides. I decided, I was going to die… this is it, the end is here and God is reaching down to relieve me of this pain (or so I hoped). SIKE, I lived. Mom and Dad, you taught me well… my lil’ girls camp training paid off! I reached the top and ate trail mix and drank water to replenish my body. And boy was it NICE! BUT the whole thing was WORTH IT!
The view was amazing, and although it felt like 30degrees below zero at the top and had 50mph winds, it was a fun hike! Actually it was more than a hike; it was a trek! Anyways, finally 
when we got back 
down to the bottom we decided we would continue our “day of fun” and head to Hanauma Bay. Within minutes of being there we were sprawled out on the beach snoozing. It was AMAZING!! But then, apparently the big man upstairs thought he’d pull a fast one and woke us up with rain!! It started coming down faster, and FASTER! Everyone on the beach picked up their stuff and right as we had most of our stuff picked up, the rain died. It stopped. So of course we laid out our stuff again and went 
back to sleep! We woke up having gotten a whopping hour of sleep. Jason thought it would be funny to put granola bar crumbs on my legs. 2 seconds later birds started swarming my legs!! I kicked and screamed 
like I was being attacked by bears! After a few laughs from that traumatic experience, we got dressed for snorkeling and headed out. We saw soo many fish and even a sea turtle! It was so great!
The view was amazing, and although it felt like 30degrees below zero at the top and had 50mph winds, it was a fun hike! Actually it was more than a hike; it was a trek! Anyways, finally 
when we got back 
down to the bottom we decided we would continue our “day of fun” and head to Hanauma Bay. Within minutes of being there we were sprawled out on the beach snoozing. It was AMAZING!! But then, apparently the big man upstairs thought he’d pull a fast one and woke us up with rain!! It started coming down faster, and FASTER! Everyone on the beach picked up their stuff and right as we had most of our stuff picked up, the rain died. It stopped. So of course we laid out our stuff again and went 
back to sleep! We woke up having gotten a whopping hour of sleep. Jason thought it would be funny to put granola bar crumbs on my legs. 2 seconds later birds started swarming my legs!! I kicked and screamed 
like I was being attacked by bears! After a few laughs from that traumatic experience, we got dressed for snorkeling and headed out. We saw soo many fish and even a sea turtle! It was so great! We got hungry and decided it was time for lunch. Because the $11.00 grilled chicken salad from the concession stand didn’t look too promising, we packed up camp (for real this time) and headed towards town. We found a lovely L&L and ate there!
While we were there we made the not-so-sm
art-idea-for-our-body decision and headed off in the direction of Manalili Falls (sp?). We had heard that it was a nice & easy 1.5 mile hike where you can jump off the falls. It was described as the “introductory hike” to Oahu's other hikes. I’m not sure who the jokester was with that one. It seemed to go on FOREVER! Now it probably didn’t help that the previous week of rain made it so we were hiking in mud the ENTIRE WAY! I gave up on my sandals and went barefoot for the majority of the way. I felt like a 3 yr. 
old playing in puddles! We were slipping every which way, up, down, left and right. After MORE steps (I wanted to turn around at the sight of them), we made it to the final destination. There were a couple of other people there jumping off a 35 ft. cliff that was relatively easy to get to, and a 25 ft. cliff that was super hard to get to. After lots of thinking a
nd reasoning… I climbed up to a 10ft cliff and had my fun jumping from there!! The water was pretty cool, it reminded me a lot of the Columbia.. only this watering h
ole had a radius of about 6 ft.! We had some fun around there and headed back to the car.
art-idea-for-our-body decision and headed off in the direction of Manalili Falls (sp?). We had heard that it was a nice & easy 1.5 mile hike where you can jump off the falls. It was described as the “introductory hike” to Oahu's other hikes. I’m not sure who the jokester was with that one. It seemed to go on FOREVER! Now it probably didn’t help that the previous week of rain made it so we were hiking in mud the ENTIRE WAY! I gave up on my sandals and went barefoot for the majority of the way. I felt like a 3 yr. 
old playing in puddles! We were slipping every which way, up, down, left and right. After MORE steps (I wanted to turn around at the sight of them), we made it to the final destination. There were a couple of other people there jumping off a 35 ft. cliff that was relatively easy to get to, and a 25 ft. cliff that was super hard to get to. After lots of thinking a
nd reasoning… I climbed up to a 10ft cliff and had my fun jumping from there!! The water was pretty cool, it reminded me a lot of the Columbia.. only this watering h
ole had a radius of about 6 ft.! We had some fun around there and headed back to the car. By the time we got back it was almost sun set so we quickly drove to Waikiki where we watched it on the beach. It was BEAUTIFUL! After that we walked over to a hotel that had their private hot tub on the beach with no fence or gate or anything!! So we hopped in and enjoyed the relaxation! Of course it was cut short because the hotel security people came and told us it was closing in a few minutes. By this point we were all pretty exhausted and we walked back to the car. Which was suppose to be 1.5 miles… but somewhere along the line we took a 5 mile detour!
The ride home was nice. I slept. They dropped me off at my place at about 9 where I walked in and put my stuff down and collapsed on my bed for the night.
I woke up Sunday bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Oh and SORE! I started getting ready for church and doing finishing touches to my talk. I headed off to church a little early so that I could print my talk there (I’m not used to not having access to a printer at home, I forgot to go to the library before it closed.) Remember how I mentioned I had the same dream two nights in a row about coming to church without my talk?? Or maybe I didn’t tell you about it… well I had the same dream two nights in a row about going to church without my talk and having to turn around and get it but then having all sorts of issues and not being able to get back to church. WELL IT HAPPENED! Just a little different version. The internet in the church building wasn’t working!!! So I called my roommates to bring my laptop to church so that I could print from my computer. Great idea, right? NOPE! 10 minutes into church and I’m still sitting in the entry without my laptop. Finally they got there and the stupid thing still wasn’t compatible with the old printer. Sooo I ended up having to stand at the pulpit with my laptop!! Ahh what a nightmare! I felt like such an idiot! Besides not having my talk on paper, everyone else that was speaking were totally winging it! They had their scriptures in hand and were simply bearing their testimony. I sat there completely PUZZLED… is this what he was wanting!?! Did I prepare way too much?? I had no idea and no way to find out. I was the only youth speaker on the stand, all the others were mixed in the congregation. WHAT WAS GOING ON!?! I still don’t know. I just stood up and did my thing, it went well. It came together very nicely, thank you. I spoke on “Following the Prophet”.
Today I don't have school (SWEET) so we are all heading out to Electrical Bay to do some more snorkeling and laying out... aww the perks of being in Hawaii. God really does love me :)
Anyways, that’s my exciting weekend. Sheesh, not only am I tired from all the excitement, but just going back over everything is wearing me out all over again! Haha. I hope you enjoyed reading about my busyness! Wow this is the longest entry I’ll ever do, promise!
HOLY COW KIM!! That sounds amazing!!! Your pictures are so beautiful! I looks like you had a blast!! I'm glad that you are loving there in Hawaii!! I wish I was there to have fun with you!!
ReplyDeleteLoved your stories, as always! You are such a fabulous blogger! Yet another wonderful talent of yours ;)! I can't believe you felt refreshed after one night's sleep! And two hikes in ONE DAY?! You deserve some sort of medal! I'm so glad you are having such a blast and doing so many cool things!!
ReplyDeleteHi dear,
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm way exhausted trying to hurry and keep up with you and your travels. What great fun though! And not "thrill seeking," I would almost beg to differ, course that's mom speaking, just most of those things I would have found something shorter, not so windy, not so high etc. to do - like I'm just so glad you picked the 10' cliff and not the 35' one to play on. Need I say more, just be safe (r)!:) Loved the pics too.
Love ya, Mom