hawaii... part 1

we did loads of fun things....in the interest of not boring everyone... i think i'll post some pics and make comments about them instead of a very long narrative... i will explain that i went with my folks and their friend, pat. pat is a long time friend of my parents. when my parents moved to charlottesville, va so my dad could get his phd and my mom could finish up undergrad at uva (they were newleyweds), they bought their first place and it just so happened to be next door to a very nice family, pat and barry and their two kids, koren and matt. pat and barry are about 10 years older than my folks and their kids are also about 10 years older than me and my brother (who of course were not yet even thoughts). pat, barry, and my parents all had a lot in common - barry was a research scientist and my dad was on his way to being one. interesting side note, barry was one of the scientists who developed the drug, azt. he was brilliant. my parents would babysit their kids and they'd play games and hang out and watch snl together. apparently they had loads of fun. then, pat and barry moved to durham, nc a few years later and not long after, my parents moved to chapel hill (next door town) and then a little bit later, i was born. and 18 months after that, we moved to houston for my dad to take a job at university of texas in the medical center (he was a research scientist at this point). anyways, it all started 35 years ago. my parents and the sickles traveled and got together every so often and have remained good friends. unfortunately, barry got cancer a couple of years ago and passed away rather quickly. so, the 4th person in all of these photos in pat. she's wonderful. she just retired in that not really way as she is now consulting for the school district and doing some other stuff - but she was a math teacher and administrator for many years. ok, enough of the story telling... on to the pictures!

on our first day, we decided to go to weilea. on the way to weilea, we found a crafts fair. mom loves that stuff so we stopped. we found an awesome booth that all of us liked. a local guy created artwork from recycled ivory on piano keys. he wasn't there but his wife was. mom and dad liked them so much, they bought 4. 3 for them and one for me - i loved them to! it is scrimshaw which is a hawaiian art form and very cool. i'll take a pic of mine so you can see what i am talking about.


we then stopped in la haina to look around. not the best pic, but this is front street:


yes! another craft fair under the biggest freaking banyon tree ever. this artisan is talking about his 'flame' artwork. if you have q's i can explain... he was waaaaaay in to it and it was kinda cool, but not cool enough to buy:


then we drove on to weilea where the four seasons is. we didn't spot any celebs, but we did find a nice path to walk along! mom, dad, and me:


on this ocean front path, we found these condos right next to the four seasons and we all fell in love with them. so of course dad looked it up on the internet and found there were quite a few for sale - a crappy ocean view in the front of the complex will cost you 2 mill and an oceanfront building will cost between 4.5-7 million. since that seemed reasonable, we bought one on the spot. haha, i wish.


this was our favorite sign. please note the blow hole wording has been changed to blow 'ho'. and also, please note the potential for crime picture. it shows a person pushing another person off a cliff... haha, really?! in weilea?! uh, ok!


we then went for a late lunch in la haina at the aloha plate special. we had a great table looking right off the deck to the ocean. the pic is kinda of light so it's hard to see the water, but it was spectacular! and so was the food:


and then one morning we went snorkeling. my parents had this lady, susie, who owns her own dive shop take us - she has only up to 6 people at a time and she explains what we are seeing. she was really great. her husband is a professional photographer and has a whole book on fish photography. after taking the following shots, i can fully appreciate just how hard it is to capture those dang fish! don't we look fabulous in the those wet suits?!


a fantastic self portrait:






another self portrait of me and dad:


the state fish, the hualelakelakekei (completely mispelled, didn't even try, very long hard to pronounce hawaiian name)



the beautiful bay. the pic does not do the color of the water any justice!


me and pat above the honolua bay where we went snorkeling. interesting fact: all beaches in hawaii are public. all of em.



on another day, we drove the road to hana. we didn't go all the way to hana as that is a very very long road - it takes about 5 hours to do b/c it is so windy, curvy, and there are over 600+ one lane bridges. it has spectacular views though! we made several stops along the way. the first one we made was to the garden of eden. i think that's what it was called... maybe not... in any case, it was beautiful. i'm not much in to gardens, but this one was nice. this waterfall area was used in the movie, jurassic park.





my dad read in a guidebook about a pretty waterfall at this particular mile marker... so we had to check it out. but alas... there was a sign:


a sign we blatantly ignored, yet didn't disobey - the sign says no climbing over... we climbed through. my mom said if dad got shot or arrested he was on his own! nice mom!