waterfalls...

Today was great. My cousin and I climbed a mountain and dove into a few waterfalls in the middle of nowhere (AKA La'ie Falls). Both of us like to take pictures, so we stopped dozens of times to take flattering pictures of each other. Ironically, only one of these was posed. Can you guess which one?

You can see La'ie in the background of this picture. This is about halfway up and already it is a long way down. Yes, we did walk back to the coastline. Oh, and this was posed.

Hawaii Sun

My pilot cousin came out to visit this weekend and since then I've been having a blast. Everyday has been filled with lots of sun, water, beaches... basically what one imagines a Hawaiian vacation being. I planned on going back home sometime this week, whenever I can get a standby ticket. However... I just checked the weather report and supposedly it will snow there tomorrow with a High of 36F. You know when you're in the sun all day, and your skin almost burns but instead just darkens, and later that night your skin is still warm to the touch from the sun? That's what I feel like right now. It's great. Tomorrow we're going to hike up the mountain behind my sister's house and try to find a waterfall to swim in. I kind of don't want to go home.

jump.

We went SCUBA diving today by two shipwrecks. It was awesome. We swam in and out of the hull of the ships, with tons of fish, an eel, lots of sea turtles, and a few sharks. During the second dive, a submarine filled with tourists went by and we waved to little kids inside.

After, me and my cousin went to the beach and had a few drinks while the sun set and some surfers caught the last waves before dark.

Surfing

Well, things have a funny way of turning around. I went surfing today! ... More or less. I got up, but Ikaika (my brother-in-law) called my longboard a "moving sidewalk." That's pretty much what it was. Getting up on a longboard isn't hard. Paddling to get past the surf is, if you're not used to it. Maybe if I was remotely in shape it would have been easier, but I'm not at all right now. I've decided I'm going to start working out again. Here's a picture:


Also, as I was getting this picture off my sister's camera I found these other ones. I thought they should be shared with the world.

Look at this girl! She wasn't posing. She was just excited to see the show.

This is a picture of my nephew from Rachel's camera. Notice the green grass. That means this picture was taken almost a year ago and it's still on her camera. Oh well. I thought this was a nice one of the boy. There's so few pictures where he actually looks presentable.

Wake-Up Call

Location: Hau'ula, Hawaii

This morning I ignored the "tranquil" call of the rooster outside my window and decided to wake up a bit later, perhaps after 6AM.

I ended up waking to this:
"Oh Gross! Pepe* made dukilau** in your room! That's why it smells!"
*my sister's dog
** hawaiian slang for "poop"

I can tell today is going to be a beautiful day.