Pickle and I received our wedding photos this week! We were psyched to get them back and relive our memories of the day. John Hook (http://www.johnhookphoto.com) was our photographer and he was AWESOME! He was so easy to work with - super laid back, but totally dependable...and most importantly, he creates beautiful photos! Here are some of our faves...btw, these are 4 slideshows, not individual photos, but they take a bit to load...if you hover over them, you should see the controls :)
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Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important festivals in Chinese and Vietnamese cultures. It is traditionally a time to give thanks for thriving crops, livestock and children. Chinese myths tell a story of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality, who is also honored on this day. The festival is also commonly known as the Mooncake Festival because mooncakes are given and eaten in celebration with friends and family. Pickle was gifted a mooncake from one of his advisees, and we were excited to share it this evening in recognition of Mid-Autumn Festival. While there are endless modern styles, with varying designs, crusts and fillings, ours was a traditional mooncake, with a lotus seed paste filling and salted duck egg yolk in the middle. The yolk represents the full moon. We ate it with Chinese tea, and the saltiness of the yolk and sweetness of the lotus seed paste complimented one another perfectly. We were grateful for the gift and the opportunity to try something new. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! -JLToday (well yesterday in Sydney, but today in the U.S.) is my super awesome dad's birthday. He's been riding around the sun on this planet for 60 years now! Pickle and I busted out our axes to shoot a special happy b-day message for him on this momentous occasion. Since I don't really know how to play my uke very well yet (and because it sounds like I'm tone deaf when I sing), we shot a LOT of takes...unfortunately, the best one came after the camera shut itself off (yes, even my camera was over it), so I just used the best of what we had, which was still pretty pitiful. I don't think my dad will mind...while I likely have my mom to thank for my terrible singing voice, he's no Pavarotti himself (and I think he'd rather laugh at me than hear me sing well anyway). Hope you're having a funtastic, pecan pie-filled b-day, dad! Love you! -JS
We've also hopped on board the coloring book fad this week. It was actually Pickle's idea, and it's been fun. I've found that I enjoy it a lot, but am working to appreciate it more as a journey and not a destination...once I start coloring, I'm pretty eager to get to a finished product, so I work on it longer than I find relaxing (which is prooooobably a bit counterproductive to the whole therapeutic intent of the activity). Still, it's more zen than writing a dissertation (perhaps not though...I've really seemed to embrace the whole "don't rush to the destination" perspective with that endeavor!). Pickle has started two pages and is going to start a third, but hasn't completed any (he's embracing the process). We were at work yesterday when Pickle came over and gestured for me to follow him to the back entrance to our office (he was on a phone meeting at the time). I followed him through the kitchenette to find this guy peeking in the back window… In my excitement to grab my mobile and document our visitor, I locked myself out of our swipecard-entry building. I explained to the kind colleague who let me back in what I was doing and inquired about the blue-tongued lizard. She assured me they are harmless and usually pretty shy...turns out the squirrels at the uni where I worked in the U.S. are much more aggressive than the large lizards of my present campus.
We had BEAUTIFUL weather this Saturday, so we headed out and about to Darling Harbour. It was the first of the 2-day Sydney Taiwan Festival. There were cultural dance performances, art from local school children, Taiwanese puppets and crafts... Some of the highlights for us, of course, were the cultural culinary options...nothing too unique, but mostly tasty fare. We had cane juice, tofu and mushroom, sticky rice balls (with the sesame seeds on the outside and adzuki beans on the inside...always my favorite), taro pearl milk tea, Taiwanese pork sausage and takoyaki. My favorite part was seeing the takoyaki being made. I'd eaten it several times before, but never thought about how it was prepared...it's a pretty cool process to watch the skilled cooks deftly wielding their chopsticks as they seemingly magically whip a puddle of batter and squid into a golden ball of deliciousness. I should have shot a video (we used Pickle's phone again, as I left my camera in my office at the campus furthest from us), but it took quite awhile for the whole process to play out. I found a quick one on YouTube that explains the process... The sunshine turned to rain today, so I'm glad to have made it out for a beautiful Saturday afternoon, though I don't mind a good lazy, rainy Sunday either ;) -JLThis week, Pickle and I caught our first rugby match here in Sydney: the South Sydney Rabbitohs vs. the Brisbane Broncos. This is Rugby League... let me start by noting that normally, I like to try to educate myself a bit about new experiences or cultural differences between the U.S. and Australia, but I didn't really brush up on my rugby prior to the game (match?) or writing this post, so here's my version...just know that it's completely uninformed, America-centric and utter hogwash. American Football (or "Gridiron", as they call it here): Exists only in the U.S. You know the basic concept...run plays to get the ball down the field to score a touchdown and try to earn an extra point by kicking a field goal (and something about downs and blah, blah, blah). Lots of padding and protective gear on the players; unlimited substitutions; lots of stopping the clock. Four, 15-minute quarters take aboooouuut 3 days to play out. Australian versions of "football" include: Football (what we call soccer): This isn't football...it's soccer. Kick the ball down the field to score goals; don't touch it with your hands; no tackling; padding unnecessary. Australian Rules Football (or "Footy"): Soccer + Basketball-like game played with a ball that looks like a Football on a modified Cricket field. Kick the ball between the goal posts to score; bounce the ball or touch it to the ground intermittently so you don't get called for holding; no throwing the ball; same contact as soccer or basketball - no tackling; no padding required. Rugby: Football + Wrestling + (in the case of Rugby Union) Cheerleading. Run the ball down the field to score a "try" (like a touchdown) and pick up the extra point by kicking the ball through the posts (like a field goal - not sure what this is called). (I have to say, I love the term "try" - they passed out signs to everyone at the first rugby match I went to in Queensland that said "TRY!" on them and I felt like I was cheering at a little kid's game where parents were promoting good effort over winning.) No pads - just a mouthguard and an optional piece of fabric over your head to keep your ears from getting ripped off during the wrestling portion of the game. (A few guys had on what looked like a kneepad or brace, but I assume this was just holding their leg together.) Players beat down the possessor of the ball, then, without a stop in gameplay, they scramble up, pass it off to a teammate, and keep pushing down the field. After they wrestle the ball possessor a certain number of times and they haven't made it to whatever the equivalent of the end zone is called, they have to kick it and it's now the other team's ball...still, the clock doesn't stop. The only time the game is halted is when a try is scored, when a call is being scrutinized (which doesn't happen often), or someone loses consciousness and/or a limb, and two 40-minute halves with a 10-minute halftime take about and hour and a half to play out. We weren't close enough to see anyone bleeding this time, but it happens - sometimes profusely - and never seems to stop anyone. I can't tell if there are actual plays - I'm sure there are, but I don't know when there is time to communicate them since the game hardly ever stops. It usually goes like this: guy gets ball, passes it behind him or sideways to a teammate (no forward passing) - this happens until the sucker at the end doesn't have anyone left to pass it to and is forced to run dead on into the wall of giant Clydesdale-like men in front of him where they will trample him into the ground. The victim relinquishes the ball to the nearest teammate behind him and they start the "play" again. I don't know all of the differences between Rugby League and Rugby Union, but, while everyone I know seems to prefer Rugby League, I recall loving Rugby Union because of the additional competitive cheerleading-like facet. I don't mean they have cheerleaders on the sidelines - I mean these giant men with thighs the size of tree trunks ban together in a scrum and hoist a teammate high into the air to get the ball before they are chased down the field for their beat down. It really adds to the spectacle in a "picture Paul Bunyan as a competitive gymnast" kind of way. If you want the particulars, there are no doubt numerous resources that compare these games based on actual fact (if you're into that) - the Guardian has an interesting page that compares stats on players and popularity. Luckily, we didn't need to fully grasp the ins and outs of the game to enjoy our evening at Allianz Stadium. I would like to note here officially that the Broncos are my team. Being the avid rugby fan that I clearly am, I will always be faithful to the Brisbane Broncos, as they were the first team I ever cheered for (and I will always be a Queenslander at heart!), but Pickle argued that, as Sydneysiders, we should support the Rabbitohs, particularly since we were going to be sitting in the burrow. Also, while I have a Maroons scarf from the State of Origin games, I don't have any Broncos apparel and the allure of a cheap team t-shirt exceeded my loyalty. I should have stuck with my Broncos: the bunnies went home HUGE losers, with a score of 47-12. Ah well - I figure, as a (secret) Broncos fan, I didn't lose. We got t-shirts to wear to cheer on the Rabbitohs in future matches (where they're not playing the Broncos). Plus, we got hot dogs (sort of), and I met the Rabbitoh Warrior - Wins! -JLAfter a bit of a hiatus from "doing fun things" to restore our energy levels and our bank account from our Hawaiian adventures, we decided it was time to return to fun! We cancelled our 3rd consecutive weekend of ordering in food and watching movie marathons in our PJs and opted for something that required us to shower, getting dressed, and venture out into the world. So Saturday afternoon, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner, theater and dessert. We started at Kura Kura (we'd been there before during Chinese New year...for Japanese food...and visited the sister shop below, Kura, on a subsequent visit), as the theater is in Chinatown. Kura didn't disappoint. We ordered a salmon avocado roll, Wagyu beef tartare, a dragon roll (cucumber, avocado, cream cheese topped with eel), takoyaki (fried octopus balls topped with bonito - fish flakes), and a spicy tuna roll...it's dangerous when you're ordering on the iPad and can add to your order at on a whim! All were delicious. After dinner, we headed over to the historic Capitol Theatre. When I say historic, it actually has a very colorful history...the building itself was built in 1892 to house markets. In 1916, the space was converted for a circus; the conversion included a 12 metre-wide water tank for seals and polar bears with a hydraulically controlled cover that was used as a circus ring when the pool wasn't in use (the tank is still there today, covered by the new floor). 10 years later, it was converted again, this time into a grand atmospheric theater with sculptural replicas and architectural props adorning the space and a high, blue-painted ceiling where points of light could be made to look like the night sky. As the economy took a turn for the worse, the theater became run down and was slated for demolition by the end of the '70's, but was saved in '81 by the Heritage Council and restored to the tune of $30 million. Tunnels once used for the circus animals are now dressing rooms. The space definitely has a lot of character.
We were at the Capitol Theatre for a performance of Les Misérables. The Australian cast has previously toured Melbourne and Perth. They have been in Sydney since March, and are about to close here to move on to Brisbane, so we wanted to be sure to catch this show while we could. My first experience with this iconic musical was while I was student teaching during my senior year of college. The high school I was at was one of the first in the nation to perform the musical, as the school edition was released in 2002 for Victor Hugo's (the author of the novel upon which the play is based) bicentenary. I played oboe and English horn in the pit orchestra. The production was like no other high school musical I'd ever witnessed before (or since). The budget was shocking, the talent was jawdropping, and I was hooked. When I attended my first professional performance of the musical, I was actually fairly disappointed that Fantine didn't quite measure up to what I'd expected after the amazing performance given by the high school senior who starred in that high school production. Perhaps that's always how it goes when you fall in love with a stage production - it's sometimes hard for subsequent performances to measure up to the highlights of your first experience. This performance was Cameron Mackintosh’s "new" version, and it had its pros and cons for me. Gone is the turntable stage, which obviously made it difficult to tour with previous productions - while I appreciated the novelty of the old stage, I didn't miss it. I loved the fresh effects - they brought the experience up to date without going overboard and turning it into some modern spectacle. Crashing waves were projected on a scrim in the first scene as convicts rowed the boat; full backdrop projections were used to provide perspective and depth as Jean Valjean navigated the Paris sewers, dragging Marius to safety after the fall of the barricade. Similar effects were employed for Javert's dramatic end - the only time I questioned whether I cared for the updated technical infusions. The score was beautiful in terms of instrumentation. The only complaint I have really is that, in some points, it just seemed so hurried....to the point where I wasn't sure if the concern was for audience attention span or because the cast and crew had somewhere more important to get to. I get it - Les Mis is not exactly succinct - at 3 hours, I'm sure it runs overly long for some, but I'd honestly rather see less critical and momentous numbers cut entirely than to experience a rush-through of moments that need time and space to achieve their full emotional impact. It was alarmingly rushed at times, to an extreme where the opening scene felt like a first-time conductor double-timing tempos out of nervousness. Overall though, it was a great show and the talent did it justice. Javert and Eponine, in particular stood out to me in this cast, and the woman playing the innkeeper's wife was fantastic in the role. It was Pickle's first time seeing Les Mis, and he really enjoyed it. (Luckily, I'd given him an overview of the synopsis before we went, as I think the pacing would have made it even more difficult to follow for someone unfamiliar, and strangely - maybe this is an Australian thing? - there was no Playbill.) All in all, it was a great show, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to see it. After the show, we stopped off at a nearby ice creamery called Passionflower for a fun and funky sundae of sorts. Ours - the "Superstar"- consisted of three scoops of ice cream: black sesame, sticky rice and taro, accompanied by crushed peanuts and homemade black sesame milky rice balls. It was a tasty way to top off the evening...
Here's our itinerary (well, this is the itinerary I designed for the time our family was with us - Pickle and I continued on to Kauai and the big island for some honeymoon time after this)... Wednesday, July 1Pickle and I arrived on Wednesday, July 1 - we left around 6pm here and, after 9 hours of flying back in time, arrived in Honolulu at 7:30am the same day. We checked into our hotel (the Coconut Waikiki) and headed out to our appointment with the marriage license agent. We grabbed some lunch at the Mai Tai Bar (poke score #1 and 2 for me, as I got the poke and poke tacos) after shopping around a bit at the Ala Moana Mall and completed our shopping for Hawaiian welcome bag goodies at Wal-Mart and, of course, the ABC Store. Poor Pickle held up as long as he could, but the jet lag hit him hard at Wal-Mart, and he ended up sitting on the floor in the corner while I hurriedly scurried from aisle to aisle, spinning with indecision. We returned to the hotel for a nap for Pickle and some bag-organizing time for me and then hit up P.F. Chang's for dinner so Pickle could get his promised "American" Chinese food and I could snag some sushi. (Honolulu sushi > Sydney sushi by a factor of 100!) Thursday, July 2The welcome bags were ready to go by the next morning, and we left them with the super awesome staff at the front desk to be delivered to our family's rooms before heading out to explore Waikiki for the day. We rented a guitar for the wedding ceremony (SUCH a better idea than checking Pickle's guitar through all of the airlines) and stopped by Foodland for poke score #3. Oh.My.Goodness...this was no joke some of the best poke I've ever had (and I make it my mission to eat as much as possible when I'm in Hawai'i!) I don't know how I'd never stopped into Foodland for poke before, but I will never miss a chance now that I know! We snagged two large poke bowls with 2 different kinds in each and ate them outside in the parking lot on a bench before heading back to the hotel to greet our families and get ready for dinner. Dinner that evening was at Tiki's Grill and Bar - it's a fun place for Waikiki first-timers with good food, great views, fantastic staff and fun decor. Friday, July 3Friday, we all headed Waikiki Beach for some fun and sun. The parentals rented some lounge chairs and beach umbrellas and settled in while the rest of us hit the water. We broke for lunch at RumFire, which provided some deeeelish food, breezy shade and a postcard-perfect view of Waikiki and Diamond Head. We ended up camping out for quite awhile there, enjoying all of this and great company! We went back for more beach time before returning to the Coconut to get ready for dinner at Yard House (poke score #4). We skipped the Friday night fireworks with the idea to catch the Independence Day show on the 4th (we actually missed it, thanks to the Sheraton blocking our view from the beach) and headed back after a late dinner to crash. Saturday, July 4Saturday morning came early for Pickle's brother and dad, as they set out to beat the crowds at Pearl Harbor, and not much later for my dad, sis, brother-in-law, soon-to-be-sis, Pickle and me, as we caught our ride to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling (the moms enjoyed a late start while we were out and about). Snorkeling is fantastic at Hanauama Bay. It's the first time I used the shuttle service to get there, and it worked out really well - the guy who picked us up gave great tips about the best areas to check out and the visibility was SO much better than where most people we snorkeling. No turtle sightings this visit, but there was no shortage of colorful and unique sea life. When we returned from snorkeling, we dropped off my dad, collected Pickle's brother, and headed out for poke score #5 at Ono Seafood Takeaway - a local favorite and hands down the freshest, tastiest poke EVER. It's a little hole-in-the-wall joint, so we grabbed our poke bowls and fresh Hawaiian juices and found some seats on a stairwell in the outside parking lot. (Yes, I realize this is the second...and not the last...time we have eaten in a parking lot - sometimes the best food doesn't come with the most sophisticated decor...or walls...or seats!) After that, we hit up Waiola Shave Ice (I got the Thai Iced tea flavor with condensed milk and Pickle got chocolate and Oreo cookie) before heading back to shower, nap (for the guys) and get ready for dinner at Duke's. Eating at Duke's is a must for every Waikiki first-timer: beachside seating, live entertainment, fresh leis, great service and some serious legit food and drink. And the hula pie...oooooh myyyyy. It was a great evening! Sunday, July 5We slept in Sunday (sort of...it seems Pickle always got to sleep in and catch naps, but I slipped into "band camp mode" (I used to be a band director), running mainly on adrenaline and very little sleep throughout the trip). Anyway, the plan was to head out to Alicia's Market (open since before Hawai'i became a state in 1949) for some an authentic Hawaiian lunch). Head there we did - our taxis dropped us off, and we even snapped a few pics in front of the iconic sign before reading the notice on the door explaining they were closed for the entire duration of our trip. Woops! We recalled our taxis to head to another restaurant, which ended up being far too long a wait when we arrived, so we hopped back in and made a third attempt at lunch at Highway Inn. While I'm sure everyone would have loved Alicia's, I'm glad we found our way to Highway Inn. Our waitress explained many of the most common traditional Hawaiian dishes to everyone, including historical facts, information on ingredients, and cultural significance, which was pretty cool. They've been around for 68 years and are one of a few establishments that serves authentic Hawaiian food on the island. I opted for the plate lunch, with kalua pig, 'uala (purple sweet potato), laulau (pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaves), lomi salmon (think salsa + salmon or salmon ceviche), poi (I haven't developed a taste for poi, but wanted everyone to be able to taste it), and the best haupia I've ever tasted. Pickle order a mini-size of one of their takes on a loco moco (high carb, high fat, hungry surfer food - rice, hamburger patty, gravy, fried eggs - there are many spinoffs on this formula). Lunch turned out to be a delicious detour on the itinerary. After that, we headed out to check out the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. With all of the lunch diversions, we didn't have a ton of time, but it was enough to get a good look. Everyone bought something - we bought a tacky little coconut feathered-head thingy to hang from Wilson (our yucca plant). Both of our dads actually bought wedding bands for themselves at the market. The evening was spent at the beautiful Azure restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, where we had our rehearsal-less dinner beachside with a gorgeous view of Diamond Head. It was an evening of gratitude and love as we opened cards and gifts from friends and family back home, and thanked our families for their very generous support of our destination wedding. Pickle's brother even prepared a Top 10 list for the occasion! It was a really wonderful evening. Monday, July 6 - Wedding Day!July 6 came all too soon for the ladies - 4am was the projected arrival time for hair and makeup...and they were actually early! The ladies came to our suite to get ready, as Pickle left for his dad's room and all of the guys reset their alarms to a more reasonable hour for breakfast (psht...boys.) The videographer arrived at 6am and started shooting details and "getting ready" footage (picture both a hair and makeup artist fussing over you at the same time while a videographer hovers 8 inches over you with his camera cuing you on when to blink - yikes.) I fixed up my makeup as best I could after they left (I don't know why I thought I would like someone else's vision for my own face - I had jet black eyeliner on my bottom waterline when she left...sigh.) and headed down for a "first look" with my groom. The videographer set it up on the sidewalk along Ala Wai Canal, and it worked out really well - well, I haven't seen the video footage yet, but it worked in the sense that we were both psyched to see one another anyway ;) After our first look, we all excitedly boarded the charter bus to beautiful Waimanalo Beach. The bus ride was beautiful, as our route took us through lush, green cliffs before making our way to the pristine white sand and surreal azure waters of the windward side of the island. We met up with our photographer there, who helped us set up an ideal spot for the ceremony. We wrote the ceremony ourselves, and Pickle's brother took all of the necessary steps to become a marriage officient in the state of Hawai'i so he could perform the ceremony. He did an amazing job. My sister spoke, telling "our story" (so far) and offering her best wishes. Both of our parents also prepared what they wanted to say during the ceremony. My brother-in-law kept and offered up our rings, and my new sis-in-law held the box where everyone placed their messages to us for our 5th year wedding anniversary. (Each couple recorded a video message that was saved onto little glass and cork bottle USBs with their names in them, so we'll have a message in a bottle from our parents, siblings and their spouses to watch on our 5-year anniversary...kind of like a little time capsule). It was warm and sunny but not hot, thanks to the breeze and at toward the end of the ceremony, we were gifted with a little misty pineapple rain for just a couple of minutes for good luck! I can't say that the ceremony was flawless and everything went "as planned" - but I kind of loved the mishaps, as they made for some pretty good laughs...Pickle wrote a song to accompany his vows - he played guitar and sang to me, and it was SO perfect. It also drew a little crowd of Japanese tourists (pretty much the only people on the beach), which wouldn't have been a problem if they'd taken some photos or recorded from a distance, but they basically joined the wedding party until a few angry stares and mouthed words from the mother of the bride and more polite gestures from our photographer cued them to move along. The videographer didn't turn the mic on (he had ONE job!) before handing it off, so the audio from both my sister's and my parents' speeches wasn't recorded. This was actually really unfortunate for my sister because she did an amazing job during the ceremony and left us all teary-eyed. No worries - he just re-recorded them after the ceremony while we took photos so he could edit it in later (though apparently he didn't tell them he was video recording and my sister said she rolled her eyes and made faces as she read when she made mistakes, thinking only the audio was being captured). And my parents...oh my poor parents! In their speech, my mom mentioned places I'd moved and travelled to (with the message ending with the sentiment that we're always welcome home)...my sis and brother-in-law said during the re-recording, she got flustered and just sort of started yelling locations (my brother-in-law did the best impression: "Miami University, Florida, Saudi ArabiAustraliiiiaaaaa" <--- this text does not do it justice. I laughed 'til I cried when he did it, and I'm laughing right now just recalling it! My mom said my dad "thought he'd be cool" and started talking without reading from their script and ended up repeating himself and "sounding like Rain Man" (my family is nothing if not good at taking digs!). Anyway, I'll be very interested to see how this all plays out in the wedding video, but to me, the wedding ceremony was perfect in all of its imperfections! After the ceremony and some photos on the beach, our family boarded the bus to return to the hotel and Pickle and I took off with our photographer for some shave ice and more photos at Lanai Lookout. After that, he brought us back to the hotel where we grabbed some lunch and attempted a quick nap before the luau. En lieu of a reception, we hosted everyone at the Paradise Cove Luau. It's rated as top on the island, and I'd attended before and loved it, so we stuck with what (we) know. It was SUCH a fun evening! I was worried everyone might be too exhausted to enjoy themselves (particularly the ladies after our ridiculously early start to the day), but there was so much to do, (eat!) and see that (despite the bags under my eyes in all of the photos and the fact that they were never really open all of the way), we were all engaged and alert enough to enjoy the event. Paradise Cove has heaps of included pre-event activities like making flower crowns, temporary tattoos, spear throwing, exotic bird encounters, the shower of flowers, and a lot more. The imu ceremony unveils the pig from the earth, after which everyone is called to the buffet dinner. The show is fantastic - good variety (I think the family favorite was the fire dancers), perfect level of crowd participation and long enough to make it worth it, but not so long you start to wonder when it will wrap up! It was a fantastic finale to a wonderful day :) (We don't have wedding photos yet - this is not what we wore to our wedding - but here are some photos from the luau. The last one is from Waimanalo Beach, where we got married...) Tuesday, July 7Pickle's family left early Tuesday morning, so we'd said our goodbyes the night before. The plan for the day had been to go paragliding, but the winds had kicked up quite a bit the night before, and after touching base with our guy, we found the conditions were too dangerous to go. Not a problem! I was pretty sure they'd still let us jump out of a plane, so my sister and I orchestrated a fantastic change of plans and scheduled ourselves and our hubbies for some skydiving on Thursday. Thus, Tuesday was spent mainly adapting our plans and eating. We hit up Foodland again, this time with my whole family for my poke score #6 and 7 (I got a poke bowl and then another order of poke without rice) and stopped by another Waiola Shave ice location so my parents could try some frozen Hawaiian tastiness. I got lilikoi (passion fruit) ice with lilikoi seeds on top and Pickle ordered lychee and cherry. We shopped our way around Waikiki a bit (Pickle and I invested in a Waikiki Ukelele Company concert uke as a souvenir...I've started to pluck my way through IZ's version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' in an attempt to learn to play) and then met up for dinner at MAC 24/7, where my brother-in-law made a bold attempt at the pancake challenge with the cinnamon streusel pancakes. Pickle and I tackled the gigantic bananas foster pancakes with pralines and chocolate ganache as a team (but not as part of the challenge). We were all deliciously defeated! After that, we strolled up to the other end of Waikiki and to visit Duke. (There aren't many pics from this day, but there's footage in our highlight reel.) Wednesday, July 8Wednesday was a bit of a free-for-all, as Pickle and I had a photo shoot with our photographer planned in the North Shore area. My parents flew to Kauai and took a heli tour of the garden isle before driving to Waimea Canyon; my sis and her hubby had planned to do a shark snorkel, but the waves were too choppy, so they spent the day checking out the beaches and food trucks in North Shore. Pickle and I got all dressed up again and headed out to Waimea Valley for some sweet shots in the beautiful green hills. After that, we made our third stop at Foodland this trip for poke score #8 before heading to the Hawaii Polo Club for a sunset horseback ride. The horses were beautiful polo ponies and the views were amazing! We rode with a beautiful unpopulated beach to one side of us and huge green mountains to the other. We were accompanied the entire way by Wilma, a feral pig who has made herself right at home among the polo ponies. She fell right in line and trotted along with us the entire hour and a half! Our ride concluded with a little spell of pineapple rain, yielding a rainbow that started high in the jagged, green cliff and touched down in the water just off the beach where we were riding. (No pics from July 8 yet, as we let our photographer do all the picture taking, but there's horseback riding footage in our highlight reel.) Thursday, July 9Thursday morning, we were all (minus the parents) up early and headed out to North Shore again, this time for some skydiving. We checked in for our safety briefing (i.e., sign-your-life-away session) at Pacific Skydiving and waited to be called. I have to say, Pickle did an amazing job (this is not his "type of thing", as he doesn't enjoy heights in the slightest, but he loved it! We all opted for the 14,000-15,000 ultimate tandem for over a minute of freefall (the highest you can jump without wearing an oxygen mask). It. was. awesome! We met up with my parents back in Waikiki for some okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) for lunch at Chibo. While the others headed back to the hotel for nap time, Pickle and I hit the beach so I could take a surf lesson. I've gone before at Waikiki and had a really successful go at it, but I won't lie - it was not the same story this time around! Firstly, I realized after my lesson that I was putting my wrong foot forward (literally), which I'm sure didn't help me. The tide wasn't optimal either, but to be honest, I was just wiped! I rode a few in over my hour-long lesson, so, given my lack of sleep, post-skydiving adrenaline crash and the dense okonomiyaki sitting in my belly, I chalked it up to a win, but man, I was exhausted! We hurried back to the hotel, where Pickle snagged a nap and I showered and got ready for dinner. We went out to La Mariana Sailing Club (a hidden - especially at night! - Honolulu gem). La Mariana brings the old school tiki bar vibe. It's a cool, off-the-beaten-path spot that feel like going back in time. They commission their tiki mugs directly from Oahu-based Gecko'z South Sea Arts - I bought my second one this trip to start an official collection. After dinner, it was back to the hotel to say our inevitable goodbyes, as my family prepared to return home the next day. (No pics - great video though...check out the highlight reel!) Friday, July 10Our Friday wake-up came early, as we had an 8am flight to catch to Kauai. Our plan was to take deluxe waterfall safari heli tour with Safari Helicopters, but unfortunately, they cancelled due to visibility. The flight just before us had gone out (ours was the first one cancelled), and while it was a bummer not to be able to go, I was grateful not to have paid for an expensive tour of the clouds! Instead we rented our car early and headed out toward Waimea Canyon to see what we could see. We stopped along the way for lunch at Gaylord's at Kilohana Plantation. We headed out to the furthest lookout in the state park and worked our way back. Some were completely socked in - it was eerie to walk up to the edge of a cliff and see nothing in front of you. Others, we were able to see some of the sights. Our last stop wasn't at an official lookout, and we were able to see the most from that vantage point as the sun cut through the mist and drew out the burnt orange walls of the canyon adorned with bright green vegetation. A giant waterfall was visible in the distance. It was definitely a sight to behold! We stopped for some ice cream (Kona coffee for me and cookies and cream for Pickle), along with some lilikoi bubble tea with mango juice balls, before saying goodbye to Kauai and heading back to Oahu. Saturday, July 11Saturday morning, we packed up our things and moved to the big island of Hawai'i for the remainder of our trip. We rented our car and checked into our adorable apartment in downtown Hilo. The Lohi Apartment is part of a little group of rentals called the Lotus Garden, run by Megan, an Australian expat. The self-contained little village was brightly painted and so unique and fun! Our apartment was beautifully modern and Asian-inspired and came complete with an outdoor shower that opened out into a koi pond. It was very cool - though unfortunately not in temperature, as there as no aircon and it was atypically hot and humid the first two days of our stay on the big island! It was cute though, and it was nice to have a little place of our own with some personality. After meeting Megan and checking in, we hurried off to Skyline Eco Adventures for our ziplining tour. We did the Akaka Falls course and it was awesome! I've been ziplining before, but it was in a cave, so this was a completely different experience for me and a new one for Pickle. I was a little skeptical about how exciting it would be after skydiving, but it proved to be a great adventure! They, of course, start you off with some easy lines, but by line 3, you're headed over a 40-ft. waterfall; line 6 includes a 200-ft. drop-off into a ravine, and the final line is a minute and a half of zipping over a 450-ft. canyon, complete with a Jurassic Park-sized waterfall! The staff were really great and shared interesting tidbits about the culture, history and vegetation we saw (including sleeping ferns that close when touched and mini bananas, purple pineapples and sugar cane we sampled) without beating you over the head with long, informative speeches. We had a really great time! Afterward, we stopped by Akaka Falls briefly (where I found a baby chameleon on the path!) before making our way to the Hilo Farmer's Market, where we snagged some spring rolls, dumplings, Spam musubi (ball of sushi rice topped with grilled Spam and wrapped with nori - seaweed), dragon fruit, sweet red bean pastries, and purple sweet potato tapioca. We scarfed it, and Pickle took quite the nap while I looked through our photos and played with the gekkos in our apartment. We had a late dinner at Moon and Turtle before hitting the hay. Sunday, July 12Sunday allowed us to sleep in a bit, as we didn't have too busy a schedule. We'd planned to hit up a local seafood shop for some poke, but found it closed. After trying a few other places that were also closed, we opted for a local grocery called Island Naturals we we picked up some just-ok food and snacks for our 5-hour tour of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. We booked a private tour through Lavaland Hawai'i because they didn't have a group tour running that day. We ended up going out with the owner, Malia, who was down right fantastic! While it's true that we could have accessed all of the places she took us for free through the park, the knowledge and enthusiasm she brought really made the whole experience. She took us to some great off-the-beaten-path sites, and provided an amazing amount of information - those insights made what we were seeing so much more meaningful than if we'd gone exploring on our own. The terrain was surreal - like landing on another planet. Even the technology set up by scientists conducting research looked like space probes taking samples on Mars. Steam rolled out of the ground from vents and thick green rainforest butted up against the black, cracked earth, creating a surreally stark contrast in landscape. We returned to the Kīlauea caldera at night to see the bright red glow the of lava - it was an awe-inspiring sight. We stopped for a late night dinner in Hilo at Ken's House of Pancakes, a local favorite recommended by Malia. Monday, July 13Monday morning, we hit the road for Kona and our last day on the big island. Before heading our of Hilo, we stopped for some raw cane juice with lime at the Sweet Cane Café and some malasadas (Portuguese donuts - fried dough rolled in sugar) and a maple bacon donut from Lanky's Pastries. Fueled by sugar, we buzzed off to Punalu'u black sand beach, where we encountered crabs, an eel and two Hawaiian Green Sea turtles sunning themselves on the black, volcanic sand. Next, it was on to Pu`uhonua O Hōnaunau, a historical park. This was a place of refuge in ancient Hawaiian times, where those accused of breaking the sacred laws (like letting your shadow fall on palace ground or walking in the royal chief's footsteps) could escape their pursuers and be absolved of their crime. It is still a sacred sight today. From there, we moved onward toward our next hotel, stopping off at Da Poke Shack for my #9 and 10 poke scores along the way. This place was ranked the #1 place to eat in the U.S. in 2014 on Yelp - that's out of ALL restaurants of ANY genre and ANY price range in the ENTIRE country - but I have to say, Ono Seafood and Foodland blew this place away (and that's just for poke). Ah well, it was poke and I'll take it (plus, it wasn't too bad...I ordered seconds after finishing my first bowl!). After a quick stop at Target (not just because I love and miss our U.S. Target, but because I needed to buy some new board shorts after Pickle hung mine out to dry on the balcony at the Coconut and they blew away during the night!), we checked into the Royal Kona Resort, quickly changed into our swimming gear, and headed back out for our final adventure of the trip: a night snorkel with manta rays. There are a number of companies that do this, and we went with Sea Paradise because they weren't quite as large as some but allowed enough passengers to require enough lights to draw the rays. The process is that these companies bring bight spotlights out into the water, which draw plankton - which then, in turn, draw the manta rays, as this is their food source. We were out in the water for an hour, and it was pretty surreal - the manta rays looked so alien-like in the blue water under the glow of the bright lights. They circled gracefully over and over, sometimes brushing up against us, but always in complete control of their path. It was an amazing final adventure to our trip! The Highlight Reel...We're both so grateful for the opportunity we had to share such an amazing experience with our families. My parents live in Ohio, my sis and brother-in-law live in Texas, and Pickle's parents, brother, and sister-in-law are all in Kansas, so it was so awesome to have everyone meet in Hawai'i for the first time. While we love our extended families to pieces, the whole small-scale destination wedding format really made so much sense for us to minimize all of the stressful coordination of a larger wedding and just focus on spending quality time with our parents and siblings, especially now that we're all so distantly scattered. Our friends and family were certainly with us in spirit, sending cards via our parents and messages via Facebook. We are so appreciative of all of the love and well-wishes! I put this video of our trip together to share the experience. (ProTip for our moms: After you hit play, click the little gear icon in the lower right corner of the video and under quality, select 1080pHD...the video quality will be much better.) Hope you enjoy! -JL
T-minus seven days to...
Wedding Day!
Pickle and I will be heading off to beautiful Hawai'i in just two days, and in one week, we'll officially be teammates for life! We're so psyched for the whole trip - not only for our once-in-a-lifetime start to our new adventure, but to see our families and make some amazing memories together too! We'll be spending 9 days on Oahu before visiting Kauai and the Big Island for some honeymoon time.
I'm sure there will be plenty of memories to share when we return, but for now, I thought I'd share our engagement announcement. It was nearly a year and 4 months ago that Pickle hijacked my Valentine's Day plans (he'd made all of the plans for us on Valentine's Day, so I arranged for a sequel the following weekend, but our Mikadog tore her ACL and had to go through surgery, so it was a month later when we finally made it out.) I planned the whole evening as a surprise - fine dining, tickets to see this amazing exhibition of light installations by Bruce Munro at the Franklin Park Conservatory, and a hotel suite...all (I thought) Pickle knew was that we were going to Columbus for the evening (except that my sister had been feeding him every little detail behind my back so he could plot his proposal!) It was a beautiful night, and I could not have been more surprised when he got down on his knee at the end of a path through the field of light to ask me to marry him. We were both so excited neither of us really remembers what was said (Pickle said he'd had a lot of things ready to tell me, but it basically came out as "Iloveyousomuchwillyoumarryme?" to which I responded "ohmygoshohmygoshYES!ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshAgggghhhhhh!") We're a little better prepared for the wedding ceremony and we'll have some people there to document it in case we black out from happiness :)
-JL |
AuthorsJamison Lorraine Archives
November 2016
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