Aloha. We have had a busy weekend, full of lots of little adventures. On Saturday, our league frisbee game was moved from the normal Diamondhead grass-covered lava rock park to Waimanalo Beach, perhaps our favorite sand beach so far. Up until about two weeks ago, the beach had been shut down due to sewage spills and runoff problems caused by the March rains. Only a few people braved the the bacteria, not to mention the 3ft. boogie boarding waves that ended up getting the better of both Kyle and I (the waves, not the bacteria).
On the way back, we descended the cliffs, or Pali (scale bar for Andrew, one cliff = 500-700ft):
The Pali Highway was apparently built by one Mr. John Wilson, which makes me giggle because that was my grandfather's name:
We also saw an awesome waterfall on the way back down:
What we didn't know about the Pali was that you are not supposed to have pork or pork products in your car when you go through there. Apparently, local custom says that the area used to be home of Kamapua'a, a demigod who was half man and half pig. So, if you are carrying some pig, he takes offense to it and curses you with bad luck. Ryan read this in a book when we got back from the Pali, followed by a prompt, "Didn't we have bacon on our sandwiches from lunch?" Neither Kyle nor I finished our lunch sandwiches, so we knew that bad luck was about to come our way.
So, today, what happens? We go to Chinatown (pictures later) and have awesome dim sum, only to find our our bill was a whopping $21! Okay, so no bad luck there. On our way back from Chinatown, we decided to take Ryan through Waikiki. Kyle suddenly turns left onto one of the side streets. I promptly snip, "What are you doing!"
Kyle, panickly, "Trying to get this cop of my a**. Uhoh, too late." We hadn't registered the car yet in Hawaii. Oops. Kamapua'a strikes.
We shake it off, knowing that it was bound to happen sooner or later. We go home, have a nap, and decide to go have a picnic on top of St. Louis Heights, or Waahila Ridge. Ryan and Kyle picked a lovely assortment of fish, sausages (chicken flavored, as to not further upset our demi-god) and asparagus, only to find, lo and behold, Kamapua'a had stolen all of the grills at the park! We had to make do with what we had: the sausages are on the remains of the grate, the salmon held precariously between two with a chop stick!
And, leftover from yesterday's beach excursion, our very own handmade, trays and covers, from Miller Lite cans:
The rest of the evening was beautiful, among the tall trees that I haven't bothered to find the name of yet... and we had a beautiful sunset overlooking the ocean. We're hoping we've heard the last of Kamapua'a. Maybe he's forgotten us and moved on to the next poor bacon-carrying tourists that went over the Pali today.
Look familiar to anyone?
Thanks to Anne-Marie for the panda image. If anyone wants to see more photo-shopped animals, let me know and I'll send you the forward. 
And here are happy Anna and Kyle eating it:
It was easily some of the tastiest ice cream I have ever had, although next time I think I would use half and half and milk instead of heavy cream, because it was a bit, well, heavy. If you have access to LN, I highly recommend doing this before the summer is over. Ai ā hewa ka waha (eat until the mouth can have no more)!
Sadness. My sister leaves today. We have had a really great time partying all around Oahu, but today she leaves me to go back to DC.
That's all for now. I am going to Waimanalo to play frisbee beach league after dropping Katy off at the airport. Back to da grind, bruddah.
One of the things I miss about Tucson is the sound of the train whistle at night and in the early morning. Oahu used to have a working railroad, the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) shown above, built in 1889. The train was primarily used for the transporation of pineapple and sugar cane from the inland to the port. During WWII, the train was used to transport troops across the island, but was used little after 1947. In 1972, it closed down all remaining operations.
We also got to go snorkeling with the turtles at Shark's Cove, where we also took Ryan when he visited. It was more beautiful this time, and we saw 5 turtles, and touched the backs of 2. Sam's plane finally was fixed on Friday, so we had our final goodbyes after breakfast at Wailana Coffee House, our new favorite place to eat pancakes covered with coconut syrup! Yesterday was the Spring League Ultimate championships, where I am proud to announce, Team Brazil won the Beer (Loser's) Bracket! We were last place in the regular season, so this was quite a feat!
Inside that little glass jar (the cod end) are thousands upon thousands of tiny invertebrates: shrimp larva, crab larva, copepods, baby squid, arrow worms, jellyfish, you name it, we found it! We did a total of 6 tows and I ended up getting soaking wet, since our 4th and 5th tows were done at the entrance of the bay with the ocean. The waves there were a bit bigger than the boat, and I was sitting on the front edge, so they came over right onto me! I made Kyle switch places with me on the way back but quickly found out that the waves are only bad when you're going into them. Curses....
Next, we went across the road to see the results of the erosion from ancient waves, when the world was warmer and the sea was high enough to reach the high cliffs formed from the original Oahu lava flows. Here, a cave was formed, and when the Hawaiians discovered it, they called it Kaneana which is named after "Kane", the god of creation, and "ana", which means cave. The cave is a symbol for the earth goddess's womb, and this is where Hawaiians believe all mankind came from. In ancient times, the cave was kapu (forbidden), and was home to the shark man, Nanaue. The Hawaiians are big on their animal gods in case you haven't picked up on that yet. Here are Kyle, Gaffney, and I entering into the womb:
We explored a bit (the cave wasn't more than 50-100 yards deep, unless you wanted to crawl into the abyss). Then we decided to go to the beach and try our hand in some boogy boarding and relaxing. The sand storms finally made us retreat, but not before Ryan and Kyle caught some waves (they are the little white dots in the middle of the water on the left side). 
Just across the road from the ruins lies Shark's Cove. In the summer, this little cove is a haven for snorkeling. Crystal clear Shark's Cove was full of people, but it didn't keep the turtles from coming in and swimming with us (photo by Ryan on the underwater Kodak camera). Here is Ryan plunging into the depths:
The twin viaducts run for miles, and then enter the tunnels, which go almost a mile through the mountain. The road hits the land only after about 3 more miles on the other side. The road was apparently built to link the Kaneohe military base to Pearl Harbor, and the tunnels are big enough to run tanks through. It truly is an amazing road.
Yesterday we took Ryan to Hanauma Bay, the fish and marine sanctuary here on Oahu. The bay was formed when one side of Kokohead Crater got eaten away by the waves, leaving a perfect little cove for reef fish and turtles . Sadly, we saw no turtles yesterday, but we did see a lot of awesome reef fish, including the state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, or Hawaiian trigger fish if you're a haole and don't want to bother saying that. (I hope the June Big Island Campers are practicing how to say it for the prize!) There was a nice sculpture of it at the Vistor's center. Here's Ryan and the fish:
Always chasing tail, Kyle?
