Waterfall adventure with Eric

Eric is my new friend! He is in the Navy and works on base as a cop. I met him Wednesday at the Galley. The Galley is a great place to meet people! Anyways, Friday Eric was off of work so I took the day off to go exploring. He has been here for like 2 years and knows where all of the cool places to go are. So he took me to a few awesome waterfalls! These are waterfalls that you are supposed to look at from the lookout point up on the road, however Eric and I climbed down the falls to the bottom so we could swim. It was quite dangerously exciting!! Woohoo!!

First stop was Wailua Falls. I liked Wailua Falls, but it had been raining a lot in the mountains so the water was kind of dirty. We didn't swim because of this... I still liked it a lot though. It was a very muddy hike to get down to the bottom.

Second stop was Opaeka'a Falls, this was by far my favorite waterfall. It was so quiet and NO one else was around. It was quite a hike down to get to it, but totally worth it. The water was perfect! It was beyond beautiful!

Third stop was Kipu Falls. Kipu Falls is more of a recreational waterfall. It was very easy to get to. No intense hiking, which was a nice break! It was low enough where you could jump off of the cliff down into the bottom. They also had a rope that you could swing off of into the water. I did both! It was quite thrilling!!! I did fall down and kind of hurt myself though... I was walking on the rocks at the top of the falls and slipped. I fell in between some rocks and hit my knee pretty hard. In the process my sunglasses went flying and are now at the bottom of Kipu... Bummer! However, I did score some awesome Aviators out of it. Eric gave me his Aviators and I look totally boss in them!

Last Eric showed me The Grand Hyatt. It was the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen!!!

This is a weird freaky looking goose at the Hyatt...

Yay!

I made new friends!! Woohoo!!

Work Update

Someone, Mr. Michael, asked to know how work was going. I realized that I hadn't made an update about work in a while, just adventures.

Work is really good. It is so laid back. I really don't have too much that I have to do. I go in at 12:30pm three days a week and work till 9pm. The other two days I work 9-5. It's nice going in at 12:30 because I get to go work out in the mornings. However, it is a bummer not having my evenings. Anyways, back to the subject of work. In the mornings I work over at the CDC, Child Development Center, I usually just do whatever Sandra needs me to do. She also tries to teach me things that a MWR Director has to do. She taught me how to do finance receipt stuff the other day. It is very helpful considering I like the MWR and think I would like to keep working with it after graduation. In the afternoons I go over to the YC, Youth Center. There I just hang out with the kids. I also do stuff for Genevieve, the YC lead. I have several little projects I am working on right now. I also eat a lot while at the YC. We have snack everyday and of course I have to eat it, I don't want the children to feel like I don't like them because I don't eat snack with them... :) I also get to drink a lot of milk too! I drink like 3 glasses everyday at the YC because it's free. Milk is very expensive to buy here. About 6.50 a gallon. Bummer... Anyways, in the evenings I work with the Keystone Club. That is our program for teenagers here on base. We don't have very many teenagers so it's very slow. I usually get a lot of my work done during that time. Only like two or three teens come every evening. We did play guitar hero the other day, that was fun! The teens that do come are also helping me plan the Halloween Thriller I am putting on for my special project. It's nice to have the extra minds to help come up with creative ideas. It's for them so the input they give is important, I want the party to be what they want so they enjoy it more. Anywho, Keystone is kind of boring but like I said, it is a good chance to get a lot of work done for school and MWR.

Well, that's about all I have to report on work.

Today I went to Poi'pu. It was quite relaxing! I just laid on the beach listening to my iPod. The water was wonderful. Ah, the beaches here are fantastic. Poi'pu is about 30 minutes away from the base and it is a very touristy beach, lots of people there. It was funny because we walked onto the beach and picked a spot to put our stuff and there was some stuff that belonged to other people close by. We were sitting there and the people that owned that stuff by us showed up. Ha, it was people from the base. One of the kids that goes to the YC and the mom who attends the abs class with us. It was pretty cool and random.

I am crazy sore from yesterday...

Oh random bit of Hawaiian lingo. Flip flops are not called flip flops here. I told some of the kids to go put their flip flops on and they just looked at me like what the heck are you talking about. Then one of the other staff was like, oh we call them slippers. It was very random. And with the accent it sounds more like slippas. haha, slippas. :)

Aloha.

Waimea Canyon

We drove up to Kokee and hiked Waimea Canyon today. It was a beating!! About 5 hours of hiking and we covered about 13 miles. Down hill, up hill, flat land, trails so small that if your foot were to slip you would fall off of the mountain (those were the worst!!). It was fun for the first 2 1/2 hours, then it just got hard. I was SO tired, we both were. Pushing through was very very tough. My whole body aches with pain right now. My feet are covered with blisters. Chacos are not good hiking shoes. I need to buy some good closed toe shoes for hiking. Ones with great traction so I don't fall down the mountain. It was a big challenge, but it was good.


Here is a link to all of my pictures, I only put a very small sample on this blog...
http://picasaweb.google.com/allen.becca

Tomorrow I will relax, I don't think my body could handle much of an adventure tomorrow...


























MOUNTAIN GOATS!! Awesome!!!

random...

When you pull out of the base there is a giant field, it goes for miles and miles. In this field sit people. They sit there in chairs with umbrellas. Literally all day long in the heat. Saturday Brenda and I left at like 8 in the morning and they were already sitting out there, when we drove back by around 7 that night they were still sitting there. The question came to mind, what the heck are they doing there?? I asked my supervisor who has lived on the island for many years. They are human scarecrows... They sit in the fields all day long to scare any birds that come to disturb the seed and crop. How crazy!!! Why not put fake ones?!?! That just seems like abuse. They are all elderly people too. That is totally abuse! I mean, maybe they need the money and it is a job, but still... I don't know. I found it very random. I had never heard of human scarecrows before...

That's all!

.....

I miss home... :(

I love Hawaii!

But, I miss my home....

Hawaiian Adventure!

Today I went on an adventure! We travelled all the way to the North Shore and hung out, then made our way all the way to the end of the West Shore, then finally back to Base. It was quite a day!! Look and see for yourself!!

First we stopped at the Kilauea Lighthouse in Kilauea.









Then we went to Ha'ena Beach in Ha'ena.










Then we headed down to Queen's Bath in Princeville.























Finally we made it all the way back West to Polihale Beach. This is Waimea Canyan at Polihale Beach.











This is one of the frogs that hangs out outside of my room. They are huge! Literally the size of a small baby!!



Great first Island adventure!!!

Aloha!

ah, hawaii

Today at work I fed the most beautiful baby girl I've ever seen. She is so little and she just lay in my arms and drank her milk while I rocked her. It was the sweetest thing ever. I was happier in that moment than any other time on this trip so far. It made me so happy and joyful that I actually almost cried, yeah I'm a pansy. I don't know. It just was a weird feeling, a good one.

Work has been good. Not too much going on. I'm in the process of creating the October activity calendar. Pretty low key stuff. I need to start planning the Halloween Thriller for the kiddo's. It's going to be an awesome party! Mainly because I'm planning it, just kidding. I've got great co-workers who will be helping out. The people I work with are all very nice. I got really lucky with the amazingly nice people who live here. It really helps with adjusting from being away from all the people I love and care about, all of the people I miss.

A cool thing about being here is that I am building a good healthy appetite. I eat breakfast lunch and dinner. Breakfast is usually HoneyNut Cherrios. Lunch is a great meal from the Galley. I eat alot of salad. Dinner is usually from the Galley too, or Shenanigans. Either way, it's good food. They don't really have Dr. Pepper here on the base, or island really. At the Galley I drink juice and water. If I go out to eat I only drink water. I'm lucky if I get a can soda once a day, even then I never finish it. I'm glad. I need to get over soda. I'm going to try and start running too, hopefully I can get my lazy butt back into shape while I'm here. It's about 2 miles from my place to the main part of the base. I may start running home after work instead of riding in the van. We shall see... I've really got to talk myself into... I'm kind of lazy!

Brenda and I went to Major's Bay the other day. It was really pretty and relaxing. Here are some pics from our adventure!







Well, this is about all I have to report for now. Things here are going great, I'm really glad I came. I miss home, but I've got a good thing going here. I'll leave you with a picture of Tom. He is the base pet Turkey. I'm going to try and pet him tomorrow!! Ah, Hawaii. It's great!



Aloha!

First day of work

Well, I had my first day of work. It was different. Very chill and laid back. I went in at 9 and Sarah, the OAC (Outdoor Activity Center) supervisor, took us around the base. We got our temp military ID's and toured the facilities we would be working at. She dropped me off at the CDC (Child Development Center) with my supervisor Sandra. Sandra is really nice, she is originally from Chile so she sounds totally awesome. I love to listen to her talk. I hung out at the CDC for a little while and she told me all about what I would be doing. I played with a few kiddos, little bitty kiddos. The CDC only has about 20 kids total. I also will spend alot of time at the Youth Center, they also only have about 20 kids total. It will be pretty easy compared to the 100 kids everyday that I'm used to from Southlake... I had lunch at the Galley today too, it was decent food. Better than I had expected. At 2 they decided to let us go. Pretty short day, 9-2.

After work Brenda and I then went to WalMart. It was a much needed trip. Everything on the base is closed on the weekends so it will be nice to have food stocked up in my room so I can eat when I get hungry... I don't want to go without food again like I did this past weekend, that sucked! It took about 4 hours to drive from the Base 20 miles to Lihu'e to WalMart and back. It was crazy! There is pretty much only one road that goes through the Island. The speed limit never goes over 50. However when driving it looks alot like this, 50 then 35 then 40 then 35 again then 25 back to 50 down to 35. Over and over again! The speed limit literally changes about every 2 miles!! It was very annoying. A trip that should have easily been made in about an hour to an hour and a half took 4 hours because of the one road. I could never imagine how horrible it would be if there were an accident... Man, I would just get out and walk. It was funny at WalMart though, I just can't get over the chickens. They were just walking around all over the parking lot. Brenda got some good pictures, I'll post them when I get them from her.

Well, I don't know yet how much I'm going to enjoy my job. I think it will be alright, just very different from what I am used to. It will take some getting used to. I have to plan a special event. I think I will be doing a Halloween party for the children. Maybe a haunted house?? I don't know. I should get to work planning that though since it is coming up...

I'm so tired. I haven't gotten used to the time change yet. I have to force myself to stay awake until at least 10pm HST, 2am CST. Even though I force myself to stay away I always wake up about 4am HST, 9am CST... It's tough. I usually can force myself back to sleep but I can never sleep past 7am HST, 12pm CST. I'm ready to be adjusted to the time difference...

Bedtime. Byebye.

Wow!

Here are some pictures of the sunset I watched last night, my first Hawaiian sunset! It was fantastic!

I'm really here. It hasn't sunk in yet.... This morning I took a walk on the beach with Brenda, my suite mate. It was so pretty and quiet. There was NO ONE on the beach. It was peaceful. It was fun walking and the there would be a random coconut. The waves are so big, they would hit the beach and just spray up. From the beach you can see the Island of Niihau, the forbidden isle. I've never seen land so pretty before Hawaii. This is for sure going to be quite an experience!

While walking or driving around, really just anywhere you go you see chickens. They are kind of like black birds in Texas. The annoying birds that are in the parking lots walking around looking for food. Yeah, well here chickens do that. It is so funny!

My room is quite small. It is far from the Youth Center too. They gave Brenda and I a van to drive to the main part of the base with so we wouldn't have to walk. That was very nice! Here is my room...

View from my window.

Well I'm pretty tired. I think I may take a nap or something... I don't know.

Aloha!