Meeting Zonas!

The whole purpose of going to Hawaaii was to visit our best man Jonas and his lovely girlfriend Zoe (we have given them the name Zonas for short). They live in the beautiful town of Kailua where the Obama's stay when they visit HI.  We are blessed to have been able to stay in their beautiful place right by the beach for seven days! It was refreshing for Sol and I both to be reunited with such a good college friend and finally get to meet Zoe. Here is a not so quick look at our seven days in Oahu:

Day 1: Jonas surprised us by picking us up at the airport and took us back to his place in Kailua. Here is a shot of the view across the street from where they live. In the distance you can see the Mokulua Islands off Lanikai beach. Can you say paradise?   

 Solomon and Jonas were so excited they were like giddy little school boys. We all sat on the beach and caught up on each others lives until the morning hours!

Me and Zoe - one day Zoe, you and I will do Yoga, I promise. I have been working on my flexibility so I won't hate it as much. Maybe we'll even do Yoga on this beach if I could be so lucky!

Day 2: Lazy day. I woke up early (noon our time, 7am local time) and trekked all the way across the street to this wonderland while the husband slept. 

Later I returned with the husband in tow and sat on the bench below reveling in the beauty of God's creation. I then sunned myself until the husband was good and crispy. :)

Later in the evening we attempted snorkeling at Lanikai beach. Sol was a natural and I was a mess. The waves were too big and the water was cloudy so we opted to hang up our fins and wait for the real snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.  

Day 3: Jonas and Zoe took us on an adventure around the island up scenic Hwy 83 to the north shore. We stopped at this roadside stand and I got the stereotypical tourist aqua shell bracelet. I'm so original!

The boys each got one of these coconuts to drink. (how cute their swimsuits match!)

 Then the not so feminine lady took out her machete and cracked it open like a pro and cut out the coconut for them to eat. I wouldn't want to make her angry while she had a machete... 

Further along the drive we stopped for the famous north shore garlic parmesan shrimp. I did not partake but everyone else loved them. Then we were off to Waimea Bay. The beach park there is beautiful and can have some intense waves but luckily while we were there the waves were calm and the weather was perfect.

 We stayed from late afternoon til evening. While the guys went cliff jumping off the rocks behind us Zoe, Erika (our new HI friend), and I all laid on the beach.

 Later we got to witness this amazing sunset over Wiamea Bay.

Day 4: We lost a day somewhere?! hahaha!

Day 5: Sol & I conquer Pearl Harbor solo! Zoe and Jonas both had to work so we headed to Pearl Harbor to soak in some history and pay our respects to those who died for our freedom.

First we took an audio tour of the USS Bowfin Submarine. Sol took a turn trying things out in the engine room.

 After watching a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor we headed by boat out to the Arizona Memorial.

 Later than evening we headed to the Kailua farmers market and picked up some local fresh produce like avocados and sea asparagus! We ate some amazing food and brought home some of the best chocolate I have ever tasted. It was locally produced and the cocoa was grown on the north shore.

Here is a picture of our lovely hosts at the farmers market and one of us with our chosen dinners.

Day 6: Hanauma Bay Snorkeling Survival 101 - the class we never took.

So our wonderful host Jonas was kind enough to sign our names in the Hanauma Bay log on a previous visit so that we did not have to watch the 15 minute video prior to hitting the beach when we came. The video consists of information about the reef, what not to touch, where not to go, and how to be safe. Well, apparently we needed to see the video. :) When we arrived at Hanauma there were red flags up to let us know about the strong rip current on the outer areas of the reef. We noted the sign and headed into the reef with our gear. As it turns out, I am not a natural snorkeler, in fact I really stink at it. I feel like I can't get enough air which then leads to a panic attack, which does not help my ability to enjoy the amazing fish and sea life swimming around me. Due to these reasons I lasted about 10, maybe 15 minutes in the water before I removed my fins and headed back to the beach to sun myself. Once I was on the beach the lifeguards made additional announcements over the speakers about the dangerous conditions near the edge of the reef. Sol and Jonas were face down enjoying every minute on snorkeling and never heard the announcement. After about 30 minutes they spotted a sea turtle and began swimming with it. Sol and Jonas swam with it for awhile and then Jonas went off after another school of fish. If we'd watched the video Sol would have known not to touch the sea turtle. But he didn't see the video and instead he pet it, rode on it, held it's fin, and followed it beyond the outer wall of the reef directly into the strong rip current. Once outside the reef there are only a few entrances back inside and the water is very deep and the reef is extremely sharp. Sol was being thrown into the reef by the strong waves and lost a fin. Long story short he had to be rescued by a lifeguard while I was face down in beach bliss until he returned from the ocean a bloody cut up mess. Anyways, here are a few pictures from our trip along the southeastern area of Oahu and Hanauma Bay. I am thankful he lives to tell the story about riding a sea turtle.

Day 7: Goodbye

On our final day in Oahu Jonas took us to breakfast at the famous Mac Daddy Pancakes in Honolulu which was featured on the Man vs. Food TV show. The pancakes are pizza size and 3 levels high! We couldn't even eat 1/4 of them!

 After breakfast Jonas took us onto his army base to show us the black hawks he gets to fly for a living. He gave us an inside look at how everything works and let us climb around on them too.

This made saying goodbye even harder and made it all too real that he's headed to Afghanistan in January. We are so thankful for his willingness to serve to our country, for the opportunity to visit him in HI and for he and Zoe's kindness and friendship! We love you guys!

The Rest of Maui... Resting in Maui :)

After our long and winding drive to and from Hana we were ready to relax! That was pretty much the theme of the rest of our time in Wailea. We made it back to our resort shortly after noon and hit the beach. The rest of Maui went a little like this:

Beach

 Book

 Day 2 Sunset

 More Sunset

Last one I promise...

 Day 3 in Maui went something like this: 

Breakfast with this view

 

Then a little bit more of this with the hubby by my side...

 And I couldn't put down this... 

Then a some more of this view before we left...

 and this view...

 Then we headed to the airport and said goodbye to Maui and headed to Oahu...

All about Oahu and our time with our hosts Jonas and Zoe in the next post!

Once upon a time in Maui...

Sol & I were lucky enough to have our best man Jonas get stationed on Oahu last fall. Previously Jonas was living in Enterprise, Alabama for flight school. During his time in AL he made frequent visits to Little Rock but we failed to make a trip to Enterprise. (Darn) Being the good friends we are, we thought to ourselves, "Gosh he must be lonely in Hawaii, we had better go visit him!" So we decided we would!
So How did we make it to Maui? Well after we booked our tickets Jonas found out he was going to be gone for training during the first few days we were supposed to be in Oahu so we decided to head to Maui on our own adventure as a couple. It was definitely an adventure...

After almost four years of marriage you'd think I'd know that my husband hates long days of travel and that I'd plan trips accordingly. Well I forgot and I didn't plan accordingly, so after 12 long hours of flights and 4 hours of layovers I thought Sol was going to hurt someone. His frustration was first directed at the aggressive sales lady at the rental car place while she continually harassed us in an attempt to make us buy more insurance since the Road to Hana was dangerous and "you never know what could happen". We managed to leave without hurting anyone. We then hopped into our shiny black Mustang convertible and I informed Sol our hotel was 30 minutes away and I knew he was going to hurt me instead :) But luckily he didn't. :)
During our time in Maui we stayed in Wailea Beach at the Marriott Resort. When we checked in we were lucky and they upgraded us to an ocean view deluxe room. The room/view looked a little something like this:

And on the first night the sunset looked a little something like this:

Day two in Maui -
Goal: Conquer the Road to Hana
Task: 52 miles each way of winding roads consisting of 620 sharp curves, 59 bridges, 46 of which are one lane bridges. The road carries you along the sea coast, through lush tropical rainforest, and past multiple waterfalls.
The day started at 6am since that was really 11am our time. We had the convertible top down, sunglasses and sunscreen on, and were on our way to Hana by 7am. At first we kept thinking how easy the road seemed and how this cannot be the road that we had heard so much about. Little did we know we just hadn't made it far enough yet.
Here are a few shots from the drive to and from Hana:

 If you look closely below you can see where the road is cut into the curved cliffs

 We had to pull over and take a few breaks from the winding roads and unavoidable nausea they caused :)

We stopped at a hippie roadside stand and found these enormous avocados

We ended up buying a pineapple and two Jamaican passion fruit at the hippie stand. The combination turned out to be pure evil for Sol's stomach later that day but luckily we were already back to the hotel by then!
Anyways we made it to Hana in 3 hours and here's our proof:

The drive back took only 2 hours since we were not stopping to look at waterfalls or the scenic overlooks. More to come about the rest of our time in Maui and our week in Oahu!

India Parts 2-3-4-5... Sorry for the delay!

I'm embarrassed this has taken me so long to post but believe it or not I have written this post twice before and lost it thanks to blogger! But here goes....
The rest of the trip in India was filled with lots of travel from place to place, lots of obligations and little time for communication and little internet access.  After leaving the "small city" of Nadiad, we were driven back to Ahmedabad where we stayed the night.  Traffic is steady in the city 24hrs a day and honking went on all night long and could be heard CLEARLY from our hotel room. Here is a quick shot of what traffic in Ahmedabad looks like. "Lanes" do not exist in many places in India it's every man, woman, and child for themselves as you can see below.

The next morning we headed to the airport and we flew to Mumbai where we caught our connecting flight to Trivandrum. Here is a quick shot of a typical flight board; you better know your flight number!

Trivandrum is in the state of Kerala on the south west side of India on the beautiful Arabian Sea.

Kerala is called "God's Own Country" and after staying there I know why. This part of India is much different from the north. The literacy rate is much higher and while poverty seems to be everywhere compared to what we are used to in the US, it appears to be less in Kerala than in northern India.

Here are a few of my favorites from our stay at a resort near Trivandrum in a small town called Kovalam:

After our time in Trivandrum/Kovalam we drove to Kumarakom. This trip according to our driver would take "three hours" however, due to the terrible washed out condition of what they call "roads" it was actually closer to SIX hours!
Along the drive we stopped to meet this guy. He was working hard moving giant logs.

While in Kumarakom we stayed on the famous Kerala backwaters. The Kerala backwaters are a network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes and inlets that form more than 900 km of waterways, and is sometimes compared to the American Bayou. During our stay we had the opportunity to go on a short ride on a kettuvallam, or an Indian houseboat. The kettuvallams were traditionally used as grain barges, to transport rice which is harvested in the fields that line the backwaters but have now become a tourist attraction and people travel from all over to relax and even spend the night touring the backwaters on a houseboat.
Here are a few of my favorite pics from Kumarakom:

^ Our room

^ The backwaters

^ Our ride





Here is a final shot from Kumarakom of us gathered around a traditional lantern in the lobby of our hotel. They were kind enough to light it for us and come to find out they only light this lantern for large celebrations about once or twice a year! 

^From left to right: My co-worker Dawn, Dr. Anila Abraham (our amazing friend who showed us around India), my boss Denise, me, Dr. Walker and his wife Gail. 

Our final stop before heading home was Calicut. It was a short drive and flight away from Kumarakom but this is where a good portion of our business meetings took place. Here is a picture of Anila's family who opened their home to us while we were in town.

Here are a few other shots from our time in Calicut:

^ Everywhere we went we were stared at. Anila informed us few American's visit Calicut and that's why we were so interesting to the locals.

Lastly I have to give a HUGE thanks to Dr. Walker & Gail for letting me experience international business up close and personal. They are a huge inspiration to me and I am so thankful for them and the whole experience!!