A Mane of Aloha and a Kayak

I have had 2 weeks now since quitting my job at the marina. They have been 2 splendid weeks for sure. An abundance of errands and chores to get done, not to mention trying to get myself into the sub system and additionally into the Hawai'i Department of Ed. On those fronts, I have everything all set to be a substitute for the Windward District. That is, I have been cleared of TB (phew!), was finger printed, dropped off copies of transcripts, basically gave them a record of my everything and am all set to go.

That being said. I would have a job as a full-time teacher (at least for the rest of the year) if I could get an intake interview done for the Hawai'i Department of Education. That is in the works (i.e. Principal of the school is looking for a principal who can do an intake interview, etc). Worst case scenario, I have to wait until March to complete the interview.

Anyway, for anyone who cares, that's been going on.

Got a new old car. One week into owning said car, ran over a nail and needed a new tire. PRETTY MUCH PAR FOR THE COURSE. Every.Damn.Time.

I've had some time to work on my surfing (still sucks) and my tan (getting nice) and even have had time to clean up around the apartment and straighten up some of the outside mess we had going for a bit.

So, basically, that's a boring synopsis of some things I did.

 There is something to be said for living in a place where it can rain all day and be super gloomy (Saturday morning for instance) and it can end up looking like this in the evening. This past Saturday, Deanna had a parade for the Chinese New Year in Chinatown (in Honolulu). She was half expecting to be told the parade was to be cancelled. To say we had a blustery morning and previous night puts it mildly. Then there was a deluge of rain, which Deanna got caught in walking home from her karate class (she got soaked through, basically, in case you are wondering). However, it cleared up. They marched the parade. Later that evening we

decided to take a nice little walk on the beach (because we can). So, yes, I know, I'm kind of rubbing it in. No, I'm not really sorry. It just is what it is. Trying to enjoy it for everybody else (especially those of you who are getting smashed with foot after foot of snowfall. YIKES!

So, as you may have figured out, that Saturday that Deanna had to march the parade was Valentine's Day. Now, we haven't really ever been much for doing things on V-Day, but she mentioned that she would like to at least go out to dinner maybe somewhere. Or at least celebrate it a little. Well, we didn't really celebrate it that day, but we each bought each other a card, and I bought her a few chocolates from a local chocolate boutique in Kailua (they have some delish chocolates!). It was a Valentine's Day success. Still, we decided to plan something a little more exciting and went with a kayak rental to paddle ourselves out to Na Mokulua aka the "Twin Islands" or "The Mokes." I had heard there were lots of turtles and potentially some decent snorkeling. More on that in a second.

First, however, there was Sunday.

Deanna was lucky enough to catch the fact that the Director of Bands at the University of North Texas (Eugene Corporon) was going to be in town to rehearse and conduct the OBDA (O'ahu Band Directors Association) High School Select Honor Band. She got super excited at the opportunity to see her former conductor and we planned to take a trip into town to watch the dress rehearsal and then the concert in the evening. Mr. Corporon was excited to see Deanna and they talked for a bit before the dress rehearsal. Then he of course, rehearsed the group. He let us know that they had some food planned for him, so we went off and had some sushi later to return for the concert. Sadly, it turned out, they did not have food, or anything for him. He expressed his regret that he hadn't been able to grab a bite out with us. Oh well. It happens, I guess.

Anyway, after the concert, Deanna waited for the throngs of high school students to finish giving Mr. Corporon copious amounts of Leis and pictures and hugs, etc.

Deanna and Mr. Corporon with a mane of aloha.

Monday, (President's Day!) we rented a kayak from the Marine Base strapped it on our car and headed off for Kailua Beach Park. Loaded up with gear and ready to go, our kayak weighed quite a lot more than it had intially, but we muscled up and set off from the beach to the Mokes.

Setting off, with the Mokes in sight

We made it!

Gotta get that snack of trail mix! 

 It was about a half hour of medium to light paddling to get out to the islands. We saw two fairly large turtles on our way! Sadly, I had secured my camera away and was not able to take a picture of either honu =( So that was kind of sad, however, the sun was out in its full glory and water was beautiful.

Pretty amazing!

Admittedly, the surf was a little bigger than I think Deanna (or myself) was expecting. We definitely had a few "uh-oh, is this wave going to capsize us?" moments. Ultimately, we were able to navigate the bumpy waters and reach the shore of the island without too much difficulty.

Deanna about to get hit by a wave (not as bad as it looks)

We explored around the island a little bit (there are a few trails, one of the trails, I believe leads to a cliff that you may be able to jump off. However, with no foot wear, our feet had no chance of surviving the jagged rocks to get all the way over there) and decided we would try our hand at some snorkeling.

Some guys SUP/Surfing the waves

A view of the mountain/crater on the Marine Corps base. Ulupau
Crater on the Mokapu Peninsula with Mokomanu Island to the right

Just some fishies

So, at first there were pretty much no fish. Additionally, the currents and waves were more than we bargained for. Actually, for the entirety of the time we were in the water, it was pretty rough. We headed to the other island, only to find out that there is a reason no one was over there. The other island has no beach and is extremely rocky leading up to its shore. So... we turned around and headed back for the island we had departed. We decided to take a path that avoided most of the bigger surf that was happening between the islands and luckily, saw a couple of cool sights!

This eel was menacing looking. I'm pretty convinced
that he was extremely not happy to see us. 

This is a second eel we saw, he was hiding in some rocks very close
to the previous eel. So, basically, double eel!

Humuhumu trying to hide and run away from me
before I eat him!

And we saw a turtle while in the water as well! Yasssszz!

Above is a short video I took while swimming with the turtle. It's always a super treat to get to see honu and every time I get excited! 

We came back to the beach and ate the snack packs we had bought from Starbucks. We were super beat from the swimming/kayaking(mostly the swimming). We then took some selfies on the beach and went for a small hike in the opposite direction we had traveled last.

Kissy selfie

Fantastic. With a little tidal pool to boot.

Posing on some rocks

Waves crashing into the rocks

If you look closely, great derp face going on.

We then launched the kayak to head back to Kailua Beach Park and end our adventure. However, I did not feel fulfilled with the snorkeling I had done thus far and insisted on jumping off (ok, sliding off carefully as to not tip the kayak) the kayak into the water as soon as we reach some reef. Didn't see much but saw a cool shell!

Big shell. About the size of my fist, very much alive.

Shakas forever, right?

View of houses on the mountain in Lanikai

That's all for this set of adventures. Got lots of things coming up in the next few weeks! Looking forward to sharing it with everyone!

Adventures again!

Aloha from the first weekend where Stephen didn't have to work! -- at the marina!  Yep, he ended up with drill today, but yesterday was so much fun that I could accept the lonely day.

As you may remember, Stephen's last day at the marina was a week ago today.  During that time, we also purchased a co-worker's old Nissan Maxima, so now we have a retro-luxury car with which to haul around Stephen's surf board.

He ended up doing a lot of surfing because this last week turned out to be frustrating.  On one hand, he had to do the regional high school band auditions on Monday as part of drill, and while he was there, he met the director at Leilehua High School.  It sounds like they really hit it off, so the director talked to the principal about seeing if Stephen was hire-able.

Turns out he was not.  He has to complete an interview with an approved administrator (in other words, they've received training on how to interview someone) in order to be on the Hawai'i DoE's hiring list.  The next interview day isn't until March.  When he asked if he was eligible to sub, it turns out he was not because the DoE hadn't even looked at his application yet, and when they did, it turns out he needed a tuberculosis test first.

So when he was done making those phone calls, he went surfing.

On Tuesday, he was talking to a retired principal, and he found out that if the principal at Leilehua is trained, he can just do the interview whenever, or he can seek out a principal within the cluster.  The school is in Wahiawa, which is probably one of the most difficult towns to get to from Kailua, and I don't know what cluster it's in, but they do.

So then on Wednesday, he went to the school to observe a class and talk with the director.  He came home with a score to work on, and was told that they would try to get him on as a part-time teacher (less loopholes), or they would look around for a principal to do the interview, or they would just wait until March.  As of now, we have no news on which path they're actually going to take, but I think they don't just give you a score to learn to conduct the kids if the director doesn't mean to work with you.  We'll see.

And as for the results of the tb test?  Yep, he's clear.  He didn't get the results back until Friday afternoon, so he wasn't able to turn in the paperwork.  That's why there is no real news since Wednesday.

As for me, I work in the band's supply room, and these next two weeks are going to be our annual inventory.  Well, quasi-annual inventory.  I guess they did inventory last year for the first time in ten years.  We're still trying to clean up the mess, and as I organize hard cards (you know, binders so we can physically sign with a signature via pen and paper), I'm amazed at the laziness.  It's not incompetency.  It's not hard.  You put things in numerical order.  The sheer lack of that astounds me.  As of this weekend, those binders look very pretty and organized, though, and I lay claim to at least half of it.

I worked late on Friday to get those stupid binders in order, but I knew it was okay because Saturday was an awesome day!  Stephen got to play racquetball for the first time in months, and I went out to lunch on the North Shore with a bunch of girls from work to celebrate a friend's upcoming wedding.  Since almost all of us don't have family on the island, the girls have tried to build a community of their own.  We ate at Opal Thai, which is on the list of places we will take everybody when they visit because it is food on a completely different level.

We all carpooled, so when we were done, the girls left and I guess hit up the Dole Plantation for ice cream on the way home.  I stayed in Hale'iwa and checked out the small shops.  I was really excited to find a place that sold a whole selection of swimsuits that are meant for actually sporting around, not just laying on the beach!  My bright pink one that I bought when we just got here is already faded and nasty from the sun!

Stephen says fortunately, since I found another one, I won't need a new swimsuit for at LEAST 3 months.

Hey, a girl has to be prepared for all the beach fun!

Stephen took the car for an oil change after racquetball, and then he drove out to meet me in Hale'iwa.  The waves weren't nearly as epic there as they were predicting, so we just checked out the shops and bought a cute beachy sign for just outside our front door.  Then we stopped at a food truck and got fish tacos.  They were super-tasty!  There are some shrimp farms along the North Shore, so all the shrimp is fresh, and ahi tuna is easy to come by.  I don't remember what tacos Stephen got, but I got just one little ahi tuna taco, since I was so full from lunch.  The salsas were all fresh, and one of them was made with pineapple.  I would eat there again.

We decided to drive to Waimea Beach Park since it's on the way of the scenic drive home (there are two drives -- the long scenic one, and the highway).  We ended up staying through sunset because the waves were enormous!  The lifeguards made an announcement about a "double-black diamond undertow" and we were like, oooooooh!  We didn't know they used skiing terms for undertow!

They don't.  A quick Google search indicated to me that it was a joke.  The undertow, however, was not.  I got knocked over more than once by the waves and the undertow -- it was more intense than the day we posted pictures from Sunset Beach.  So, let's share the pictures!

Just a pretty view of the waves.  You can't tell how big they are in this picture.

Just a few pictures of beach prettiness

Stephen diving under a wave

Maybe this gives a better perspective of how huge they were

Stephen took the camera out into the fray

Too bad it's blurry, because this guy is getting totally thrashed

The amazing power of nature!

I only barely went out, and I still got knocked over and drenched

 Yep, nature is pretty freaking awesome!

On Second Thought

So, I said "Employed husbands are happier husbands"... and while this statement seems true on the surface, I was reminded that a "happy wife equals a happy life" thus, if the husband's employment makes for less (almost ZERO) free days for that wife to spend with said husband, it makes for an unhappy wife, which transitively equals an unhappy husband.

Or at least, it makes for feeling like there is no time to do the things that make marriage, and Hawai'i in particular, fun!

So, while employment helps to make me feel like a contributing member of society, when it comes with having MANDATORY WEEKEND work, every single week, it kind of gets in the way with priorities. Let's be honest, priorities are important, because, you know, they are things that are important to me and I try to prioritize. They pretty much go in this order. 1. Racquetball 2. Wife 3. Whatever else it is that I would rather be doing than work 4. Work. So, basically, since this job was infringing on priorities 1 through 3, the marina job had to go. Just, had, to , go. Having said that, the job was cool for a few reasons. I did get to learn about boats and I can tie at least 2 knots now. Also, I have a great tan going. Lastly, I made friends with some fish named Barry, Bobbers, and Rocky.

There was the eel that we saw once. Just once

This is "Bobbers" he is a Porcupine fish who, along with "Rocky"
(named for a gash he/she had on his/her forehead) like to troll around
hunting for crabs to gobble up

By "made friends" I mean, sometimes when I was bored I would talk to the fish and sometimes play act scenes from imaginary situations and places I would rather be in. *SIGH*.. Also, saw some puffer fish the other day! It's a really cruddy picture but whatevs dude. Anyway, I have included a picture montage to remember my favorite times from the Marina job as a Recreation Assistant at the Marine Corps Base Hawai'i as a part of the Marine Corps Community Service! Phew! Say that 4,000 times fast!

Sometimes I would eat lunch on a kayak

The views from work were/are amazing

Barry. Barry the Barracuda. 

Hard to see, 3 puffer fish. Bad picture, sorry!

Sometimes, when she had time off, Deanna
would come and kayak with me on my lunch break

So, without getting into the details too much, I am going to try my hand at substitute teaching again. The pay is certainly worth it here in Hawai'i (I can work 3 days a week and make more than I made at the Marina).. just gotta get on some sub lists, etc. Also, there is a prospective position, which I won't go into the details of because I am superstitious enough that I do not want to jinx it... so.. cross dem fingers! KTHANX

Now, just because Deanna and I haven't had many days off together, does not mean we haven't done things. Or that I haven't done things. I have gone surfing a few times.. and by "surfing a few times" I mean, I took my board into the water and tried really really hard to surf, but mostly got thrashed around a lot, but at least once each trip was able to stand up a little longer than I had last time! So, basically, making progress, excruciatingly slow. Like, baby giraffe meets baby elephant meets Texas armadillo roadkill. Progress. Yes.

Also, we went out to a Japanese restaurant with a name. I will google that name right now. It's called Noboru Japanese Restaurant. It was quite tasty. I got some kind of Udon (soup) or something, but forget mostly. Either way, it was tasty (I'm clearly horrible and both remembering things and knowing things) and Deanna got a sashimi platter, which looked like this.

This is what it would look like if Audra got a sashimi platter

This is what it looks like when Deanna gets
a sashimi platter

Proof positive that these two are clearly kindred spirits. 

My case = rested

Wait, wut?

Sidetracked.

Hokay. Japanese food was great. The restaurant definitely disappointed a bit on decor and overall feel (it was kind of shabby looking and not as great a "date night" spot as I had hoped), but it nailed the tasty and super fresh Japanese food part and then knocked the whole "have a lot of different types of Sake you have never heard of to try" part out of the park.

Fast forward a week or something and we hiked the Lanikai Pillobx trail. You have already heard about this and seen pictures. However, what was not mentioned is when we were atop the trail I said to Deanna "I think I want to try snorkeling that more eastern section of Lanikai where it looks like there might be decent reefs to swim around and it's likely less populated with sun bathers, tourists and the like. So, the next day, I hopped on my bike and did just that (before and after running some errands and other stuff I won't bore you with). The snorkeling there was solid. Not the worst. Far from the best. Just solid. I'd rather take a boat on Kaneohe bay and snorkel, and certainly Hanauma Bay is better, but for, "just hop on your bike and go snorkel" it more than works. I ended up locking my bike up at "Beach Access #10" (pretty far down into the Lanikai area) and walked down. I realized there was pretty much zero beach here and it basically is just an access to the water. Away I went. Snapped these pictures.

The little purple and yellow guys are Hawai'ian Cleaner Wrasse
and are only found in Hawai'i waters. They set up little cleaning
stations where all the other fishes come by to get all cleaned up.
We have seen some before, but this was the first time I saw TWO!

I super like the way that it looks like this little guy is dancing in
this picture =)

Milletseed or Speckled Butterflyfish, not sure which.

Oh, thems not fishes, but thems is cute. =)


Bye bye for now!!

Oh Juno!

I guess while you all are hunkering down for a cold spell, we should blog a little bit and share our warm thoughts with you!

This last week has been mostly uneventful.  It flew by and nothing happened.  They say time flies when you're having fun, but I guess in this case time flies when you're not looking.

I worked.

Stephen worked.

And then it was today.

Thrilling, right?  There was a huge swell that led to enormous waves on the North Shore on Wednesday, but we were both working and traffic to get up there was ridiculous.  One guy said he went to see the huge swells last year and spent three hours in traffic.  I think on a good day you could circle the whole island of O'ahu in three hours.

Stephen did put in his two-weeks notice, although the subbing thing is still confusing and isn't picking up as quickly as we'd like.  I kinda hope that with him not working, there will be more time to actively pursue school interviews and get into the system.  Please keep your fingers crossed!

The band owed us a three-day weekend because we weren't able to take one for MLK day (like everyone else in the military), so today we decided to check out the Lanikai Pillbox trail.  It's on the potential list of things to do when the family visits because it's supposed to be an easy, scenic hike.

On the scale of Hawai'i hikes, Pillbox really is pretty easy, but it's not the flat thing I was expecting.  It kinda goes up and down a lot, but it is super-scenic.  It might be my overall favorite hike so far because it combines great views (not spectacular views, though --- those go to Diamond Head and Koko Head) with a noticeable lack of tourists.  Since it's really, truly all I have to talk about, let me stop talking and start sharing pictures.

In case my hair isn't a giveaway, it was windy today

Selfie at a lookout point

Looking back over the trail.  That area jutting off to the right is K-Bay.

More views

The perfect strip of sand is Bellows.  This is 180 degrees behind the previous view.

Na Mokulua, otherwise known as the Mokes.

Lanikai and the Mokes -- Moku Nui and Moku Iki, respectively

On one side, ocean, and on the other, beautiful mountain views

Double shakas.  For extra awesome.

I feel so tiny.

Cuz this is huuuuuuuuge!

And there you have it.  A little taste of Lanikai Pillbox trail.  When we have a little more time, we'll do the whole thing.

So, enjoy shoveling yourselves out!  Aloha!