Day 8 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/26

Highlights:
-Rainbow sighting en route to Hale'iwa (we saw at least 1 rainbow a day here!)

-North Shore SURFING at Sunset beach - Charlie only, Jaime chillax and take pix on beach.
**Since coming to Hawai'i, Charlie had wanted to learn to surf. He'd surfed in the beautiful bay of Galveston before (or was it Matagorda?), but never anywhere with clean water and bigger waves than a speedboat wake. Finally on our last day in Hawai'i he decided to take a lesson. He ended up taking it from a legendary surfing instructor/coach, Uncle Bryan of the Sunset Surrat surfing school. Uncle B was as nice and as patient as could be. Charlie and another man, Mike, were the only two guys in the class at 8:30am at Sunset Beach on the North Shore....charlie can explain more of his experience soon...
http://www.sunsetsurattsurfschool.com/


-Cholo's Mexican Cafe lunch in Hale'iwa
**Cute little mexican restaurant in Hale'iwa that people rave about. I have to admit that it was just okay, especially compared to the Mex/Tex-Mex we get in H-town. Jaime had a fish burrito (mahi mahi) that was delicious and Charlie had fish tacos (ahi tuna?).
-USS Bowfin
**Since we only got to see the USS Arizona at the beginning of the trip, we spent the last couple hours of our Hawai'i vacation back at Pearl Harbor, touring the USS Bowfin, a submarine. It was pretty cool, but man are those quarters cramped! There were some beds that I don't know how anyone would crawl into - kinda freaky. The terlets were neat and Charlie especially liked the flip-down sinks they had. Maybe we'll install one in our bathroom!
-Airplane ride home.
**After a wonderful trip in Hawai'i, it was finally time to say goodbye to the Aloha State. We caught another beautiful sunset at the airport, which is partially open to the outdoors, and then Charlie hopped on the 7:45pm and Jaime grabbed the 9:30pm flight to Houston (ps: Shrek 3 is pretty good - Jaime got to see it on the flight home).

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_26Day8Hawaii

MAHALO HAWAII!

Day 7 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/25

Highlights:
-Diamond Head Crater hike & Running Descent '07
**In a nutshell, we had precious little time to hike this crater/mountain before our submarine tour later that morning and as usual, we were running 'behind'. So, we hiked to the top (posted signs say to allot 60-90 mins for the 1.5 mile roundtrip hike) in about 20 minutes straight up the hairpin turn mountainside and then we thought it would be fun to run down the .75 mile. We did it in 5 minutes. Let me tell you, going down was waaaaaay easier than climbing up! Oh yeah, then we ran back to our car another .25 mile. Yay sweatiness!...you'll note the sweat in the pictures from the top.
-Atlantis Submarine dive http://www.atlantisadventures.com/oahu.cfm
**Awesome 48-person passenger submarine. Saw turtles and lots of fish, including a white-tipped shark. Coo. Colors change the deeper you go and by 115 feet (our max depth), everything looked funny, including our gum!
-Koko's Cafe lunch (Hale Koa) & Tropical Itch back scratcher
**Charlie got hammered off of a fruity tropical drink, with Bourbon, Rum and other goodness in it. For grins, they gave him a wooden back-scratcher to keep. Nice! Made for a lazy afternoon.
-Beach hangout
**See above comment about the Tropical Itch
-Penguin sighting & turtle fighting
**The mongo hotel complex next door (Hilton Hawaiian Village...?) has everything you can imagine, including penguins from S. Africa and regular ol' turtles. Their were 2 turtles who were rumbling in the preverbial Bronx. They circled each other face-to-face and then ATTACK! One bit the other one's neck skin/fat and they thrashed through the pool of water for a bit. It was cool...and a bit like being on tropical safari.
-Duke's dinner in Waikiki...mmmm Opa fish dinner, delish!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_25Day7Hawaii

Day 6 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/24

Highlights:
-Ultralight Trike rides (Dillingham Field) http://www.paradiseairhawaii.com/
**This was the bomb. Charlie will write more about his experience soon.
-LOST sightings (tv show filming nearby)
**Apparently they film the tv show lost near Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore of O'ahu. We flew over the beaches where they film all of the footage and even stopped by their hangar to see the airplane wreckage from the show. Cool.
-Hiking on trail (lame for waterfall sighting)
**We attempted to hike a 3 mile trail to a "hidden" waterfall and pools, but ended up just hiking around instead since the trail wasn't clearly marked...or marked at all. At one point we thought we heard the waterfall, but it might have been the wind. Either way, the hike was good, just not what we thought it would be. Dang, I wanted to see that waterfall!
-Chinaman's Hat viewing en route to the PCC in 'Laie
**Funny looking island (looks like a "China man's hat") on the Windward side of the island.
-Polynesian Cultural Center Luau & Show www.polynesianculturalcenter.com/
**The luau and evening show were pretty cool. We knew exactly what to expect (Mormon-run center, so very family-friendly and no alcohol) going in and it was quite nice. Poi is gross and not to be eaten as a standalone food. Only a palate-cleanser. Ick. But we tried a bit of everything and it was quite good. People raved about the purple sweet potatoes, but ours were dry. Either way, it tasted like a sweet potato, maybe a little starchier, only purple. The evening show was 1.5 hrs long and fun to watch. Lots of native dancing and singing, it was pretty cool.
Note to anyone who travels...ever...anywhere: When you're in a group situation (like, say, eating at a luau with 500 other people), it's never cool or appropriate to complain non-stop about the cultural things that are happening (like the dancing and exhibits for your entertainment), just because you forgot to eat anything all day long and "are not eating that gross native food". Please, people, keep your narrow-minded and selfish comments to yourself. It ruins the mood of the other people around you who are willing to try something new and experience a new culture.

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_24Day6Hawaii

Day 5 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/23

Highlights:
-Charlie's 29th Birthday!!!
-Hanauma Bay snorkeling and chicken runs
**We drove to Hanauma (ha-na-oo-ma) Bay for some great snorkeling. It was a bit choppy that day, but otherwise very fun. It's starting to feel like we snorkel on every trip we go on (Costa Rica, Jamaica, Hawaii...), although it will be a bit harder to snorkel in Switzerland. Brr! As for the chicken runs, there are chickens all over this island, like it's third-world style. They would run super fast past our beach towel on their way to...or maybe their way FROM being dinner. Yeah, that's it. Good one.
-Halona Blowhole
**This is a hole in some rocks on the edge of the beach and just up the road from Hanauma Bay. When the waves hit it just right, water spouts from it like a geyser. Although, we only saw sprays of it, I bet it looks neat as a giant spout.
-"From Here to Eternity" beach and sea turtles, plus "Digger" the dog
**We stopped at a small fishing shrine just behind the Halona Blowhole lookout, on a nearby cliff. we have pictures from the top of this uber-windy cliff, with beautiful views all around us. Down below we noticed a small inlet that people were using for a beach. There were sea turtles swimming in it with the people & it was so neat. We decided to trek down the cliffside to check it out. Turns out that this beach is the same beach from that sexy "love scene" from the movie From Here to Eternity. We thought it was special. In addition, there was this crazy little dog feverishly digging itself a hole in the sand. It's owner would throw a teensy bit of sand in after the dog, who was completely inside of it's sand bunker by now, and it would "bark!" and then crazily dig out the little chunk of sand the guy threw in. Awesome.
-Keoni's Thai for dinner in Waikiki

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_23Day5Hawaii

Day 4 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/22

Highlights:
-North Shore snorkeling at Sharks Cove, Charlie shark bite
**Our first use of our new snorkeling equiment that we brought from home. Charlie just rented swim fins from the military base for the week. The stuff worked out great (thank you sale at Academy Sports)! Choppy water, but still saw some fun fishies. We snorkeled for 2 hrs straight and didn't even know it. So fun! Charlie got out of the water early, though, when he noticed he was streaming blood from his finger. Since he can not confirm the cause of the laceration, it is assumed that it was a shark bite, naturally, since we were in Shark's Cove. Duh.
-Roadside chicken stand lunch ....mmmmm.
**On our way back to Waikiki, we had lunch at a roadside chicken stand. So delicious and so tasty smelling. Mmmm. We also had Hawaiian Shave Ice (no, not "shaved"). We got it with the ice cream in the bottom. Holy crumbs. So good!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_22Day4Hawaii

Day 3 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/21

Highlights:
-North Shore quick tour (surfing mecca)
**Charlie got released from work a bit early this day, so we decided to move out of the Pearl Harbor bachelor housing and on to bigger and better things in Hawaii. Vacation officially starts this day! We drove up to the North Shore to check out our potential snorkeling, beach spots for the vacation. We hit Shark's Cove first and then Turtle Beach. Except we didn't see any turtles.
-Sharks Cove (for snorkeling)
**See above.
-Waimea Valley Audubon Center with waterfall swimming & tadpole-toe-eating, peacocks
**Since we still had some daylight left (sun sets promptly at 6:30pm), we checked out the Audubon Center. They have a waterfall you can swim in at the very back of the park. While en route to and from the waterfall, we encountered much beautiful scenery and lots of friggin' peacocks and other birds - including a Turducken (John Madden would have been proud). We swam in the waterfall and a nice lady took some pictures for us. Ironically, we saw the same lady and family (4-5 kids, plus mom, dad and grandma) at Hanauma Bay a couple days later. It was cold swimming in there, but absolutely beautiful.
-Beach sunset viewing & turtle sighting at Turtle Beach
**On our way into Hale'iwa for some dinner, we stopped to catch our very first Hawaiian sunset on Turtle Beach. Midway through the romance, Charlie spotted some turtles on the far end of the beach and went to investigate. Once he confirmed turtle-age, Jaime joined him in the romantic turtle-viewing area. Little did she know that the universal symbol for "turtle barrier" was a thick red rope lying on the ground. She proceeded to step right on in the verboten circle and encroach upon the sleeping turtle's personal space. A turtle-protection volunteer ran toward her shouting at her to "please step away from the turtle, ma'am" and so she did. No, there were no signs. Just a red rope lying on the ground. Whoops! Anyway, sea turtles are awesome, snuggly creatures. I wish I could keep one.
-Hale'iwa Joes for dinner
**A starving charlie and jaime then drove into Hale'iwa town for dinner at Hale'iwa Joe's on the marina. Good food, great view.
-Hale Koa Hotel relocate
**We moved our crap (so much of it) to the new hotel, which was surprisingly nice for a military hotel. If you qualify to stay there, we recommend it highly - oh yeah, it's tax free!
-Aloha Festivals street party in Waikiki
**After an exhausting day driving and moving and ...eating, we decided to hit the last night of the Hawaiian Aloha Festival. It's their yearly cultural celebration and this night was the street party. Par-tay! Enhhh. It was fine. There were live bands, booths and food. We hit the tail end of it, maybe the last 45-60 mins and I have to say that Waikiki wasn't as packed as I thought it would be. At least not for a street festival. We saw some good bands (okay, maybe just one) and some terrible karaoke-style, talent-show bands, but it was still decent to see. We were pooped...AND we slept in the next day until 7am!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_21Day3Hawaii

Day 2 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/20

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Hawai'i - is there any other way? While Charlie was busy being a Navy man, I was inside my hotel doing homework and watching class - yessssssssssss! I did take a quick break to do a few laps in the lap pool nearby, but then it was back to the grind...or so I thought. Charlie called about 1.5 hrs earlier than expected for me to come pick him up from work, so that was a very pleasant surprise! With our newfound "extra" time we decided to hit the USS Arizona Memorial just down the road. We entered in record time, and as a side note: the ticket-counter lady commented on my wedding ring and how pretty it was - it went a little something like this:
Lady: Is that your wedding ring????
J: Yeah, it is.
Lady: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG, Diamond Jim! DAAAAAAAAANG!
C: She's pretty lucky, isn't she?
Lady: DAAAAAAAANG, Diamond Jim! You don't spare NO expense!
...the key here being that Charlie's new name is "Diamond Jim". Love it!

Let me tell you, folks, that it is a beautiful testament to the lives that were lost on December 7th, 1941. We watched a brief historical video on the events surrounding that day (from the previous Japan/American relation hardships up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the recovery efforts), then took the boat out to the monument itself. It was very sobering, but beautiful and extremely peaceful. I was moved to tears .

The day concluded with us having dinner on the patio at Sam Snead's Tavern, a nice restaurant on the golf course. It was to bed early again, as 4:45am rolls around pretty fast - especially when you're on vacation!!

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

ps: For the USS Arizona Memorial, we had heard many things about it being hard to get into with long, LONG lines and so forth. Maybe it was the time of year, but at around 2:15pm when we showed up, we got tickets right away to get on the last boat (leaving at 3:00pm) for the day. It worked out perfectly and we recommend hitting the "after lunch" version of the tour since getting there right when they open only means LONG lines!
pps: We may have little-to-no internet access after we leave our hotel tomorrow, so the blog entries may cease until we get home...just an FYI :)

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_20Day2Hawaii

Day 1 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/19

Aloha everyone!
I finally made it to Hawaii after a decent 8 hr flight (thank you Continental Airlines). I will have you all know that mid-way thru the flight someone thought it might be fun to tamper with the smoke detector in the bathroom, so a PSA went over the sound system 'reminding' people that it is a Federal Offense to tamper with them...neat. By the way, for any flight, especially 8 hour ones, remember to wear socks and not flip-flops on the airplane. I think I have frostbitten tootsies.

Yesterday I was greeted at the airport with balmy weather and a cool breeze. Yay Hawaii! Charlie pulled up in his swanky red mustang convertible and swept me off my feet for a tour of the base here. It's pretty neat. They have pirate ships and everything! I love the U.S. Navy!

Most notably was our encounter with the baby squirrel-monkey-ferret on the street. Yes, "squirrel-monkey-ferret" is the scientific name. While driving on base, I noticed a very peculiar looking, but ADORABLE little animal, with a larger version nearby! "Stop!" I shouted, and we pulled over to the side of the road. Nestled near the curb is a sweet little animal with a fun tail, about the size of my whole hand. It was wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street, so we wanted to make sure it made it safely to the other side. He was very accustomed to people or just didn't know any better, so the little tike walked right up to us (with mom watching from across the street) and didn't even care. Well, after a few mins (and a few pix), he was still precariously roaming the street, so Charlie took action. He grabbed the little guy by his adorable fluffy tail and escorted him to the nearby bushes where Mom was. He was my favorite part of my Hawaiian experience so far. I love it here.

Mostly, since I was still on Houston time, we unpacked my stuff in the hotel room (very nice) and then went to eat at Don Ho's in Honolulu. Apparently someone was having an elaborate birthday party there (Happy Birthday Uncle Lory!) so we got to enjoy those festivities as well, including the "Young at Heart" dance troupe consisting of 3 older family couples shakin' it on the Don Ho stage.

Charlie's squeaky flip flops were hurting his feet, so he walked the dirty Honolulu streets like a bum after dinner until we could get to the car. Bold, but gross. Anyway, we made it back home and went to sleep, ready for another day in O'ahu tomorrow.
ps: It turns out our furry friend (baby squirrel-monkey-ferret) was a Mongoose. Who knew?

Hawai'i, Here I Come!

Hoop-hoop!
After much ado about this trip, tomorrow is finally the day I get to go to Hawai'i. Ahhhhh yes.
Only a short 8 hour airplane ride (let's hope it's more of a bore than a "ride") until I get to set foot on the beautiful island of Oahu.
Can you feel the breeze? Bask in the sunlight with me if for only a brief moment...delicious warmth and luxurious "vacation sun" resonate from everywhere...can't wait. Not to mention I get to hang with my main man C-Murda again.
Yes, I'm crazy (as Jenny likes to point out) - crazy for Charlie! I miss that fool and am so very excited to see him again, especially if it means he's going to be wearing his fancy uniform. Ladies look out, he's a ladykiller!

Anyway, I don't have much to say except that while I am a little nervous for the flight (haven't flown for 8 hrs straight in years!), my anticipation and excitement for seeing Cholula Charles rules all. Yay vacation!

Miss you all - jaime

Hawai'i, week 1

Aloha all.

Today completes my (Charlie's) first week in Pearl Harbor. Everything is going pretty well. I'm employed at the shipyard where they currently have a few submarine projects going on. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take any pictures of the subs or of any of the other navy ships around here, but I'm sure you can picture what they look like. I also got to go aboard a real deal submarine on Friday. It was pretty cool. Maybe next time they'll let me drive it.

I had big plans for Saturday including driving to Waikiki, checking out the beach and surrounding area, maybe giving the surfing a try, watching an airshow, and a few other things. Instead I was awakened at 3:00am feeling like crap and having my big toe feel like it was shattered. Being in too much pain to sleep, I ended up wallowing in my pain for the next five hours until the navy medical clinic opened up. I headed over there fully expecting them to tell me I had a fractured foot or something, but after looking at my blood test and x-rays, the doc told me I had gout, and not just any gout, but The Gout! I know my 29th birthday's coming up next Sunday, but I didn't realize I was old until that diagnosis. I also had no idea The Gout was that painful; I could barely walk and dreaded every time I had to get off the bed. So after a few hours at the clinic, they sent me home telling me to take Motrin (of course*) for the next few days and it should go away. So I bought some Advil PM and slept until Sunday morning, decalring Saturday a wash.

(*For those of you who have not served in the military recently, Motrin is the prescription for everything that ails you from compound fractures to bullet wounds to poison ivy.)


Sunday morning I decided to head out to check out the spots I planned for Saturday. Unfortunately my Sebring convertible had other ideas. Since it was a beautiful day (as usual), I decided to cruise around with the top down. It got stuck about half way down and I had to get Thrifty to come out with a new car for me- I now have a Mustang convertible. So after about three hours of that nonsense I finally got on the road. I made it around most of the east side of the island and it was beautitul. I'm sure once Jaime gets here, we'll get some much better photos to share. This will occur on Wednesday afternoon, and I can't wait!

Snake Alert - Part Deux

Yep, another snake sighting.
3 feet long, black water moccasin (sp?), 2 " thick.
She was curled up on our gutter downspout run-off block, chillin'. I shoo'd the girls inside (nice protect dogs, they didn't even notice it) after seeing it flicking its tongue to smell us and I got out the 15' bamboo snake-pokin' stick. Armed with the pokin-stick in my left hand and pooper-scooper pole (with teeth on the end for spearing dog poo, or in this case, snakes) in my right, I tried to usher it toward the pathway fence.
No good.
The wiley snake slithered toward the patio and curled up between the fireplace and the patio. So I stood as far back as I could and gave 'er a few pokes until *SNAP!*, it bit the pole! I hopped up on the patio table and remotely poked at it until I realized it was going nowhere. I scooted down off my perch and angled myself toward my patio door & poke-poke-poked again. *SNAP!*
No good.
Finally after tapping it on the head several times it decided to move. This time toward me.
No good.
I freaked out, dropped the pooper-scooper and took my pokin-pole with me to the patio door. I swiftly ran inside, slammed the door shut and hid behind the glass pane. The girls and I watched Miss Snake (only girl snakes bite with such visciousness, right? :) slither across the patio and out of our yard.
Good.

Fantastic Finds at Casa Marshik

Along with the other wildlife we seem to discover at our house, animals just seem to materialize like crazy. While mowing the lawn yesterday, Charlie found this fun guy on our back fence (Kathy, this should look familiar to you).

It turns out it's a harmless Garden Spider, beneficial for its insatiable hunger for bugs. This spider can eat something like 200% of its body weight in bugs a day - which helps us out considerably. While particularly disgusting to look at and HUGE (~40 mm from leg to leg, about the size of Jaime's middle finger), we welcome her to our humble home. As long as she stays outside and never makes a guest appearance anywhere near where she's not expected!

In other news, after Jaime came home from the store and right before heading to a friend's house to watch some college football, she noticed a mysterious creature scratching at the neighbor's back gate. She thought it was the neighbors dog who recently dug his way out from underneath their gate (and we had to gallantly save from the mean streets of League City)...she was mistaken. It was, in fact, yet another random dog in the neighborhood - sans dog tags or collar. She scooped him up and took him in to our animal-friendly home. "Little Man" or "Boy" as we called him, was quite a gentleman and we knew he must have some people parents around somewhere worrying about him.

Like the good samaritans we are, we strapped an extra collar to his little neck and went scouring the neighborhood for his owners. Door-to-door we trodded on in the 90+ degree heat, with nary a "Yeah I know that dog!" or "He's mine!" in sight. We had a party to get to and Charlie had to finish packing for Hawaii, so we brought Little Man back to our house. We called Animal Control to let them know we had a random dog found by our house, they came out and we decided to keep him instead of shipping him away...just in case his owners were looking for him. So, back in the house he went. Kirby and Sammie were muy curious about the little guy and even got him to play a little bit., which was quite interesting to watch considering he is only maybe 7 lbs and the others are 45-55 lbs (Fatties, we know)!

Needless to say, before we went to our friend's house, we made some "FOUND!" signs for the doggie and posted them around our neighborhood for people to call.

When we returned home from the party, no one had phoned. There were no messages. We kept him crated overnight, which he was clearly not used to because he barked all...night...LONG. Brutal. There was no sleep to be had - truly horrible. This morning we got up on little more than 4 hours of scattered sleep and drove Charlie to the airport for Hawaii. On my return home, much to my joy, there was a note tacked on our front door. Sure enough, our neighbors not 5 houses down had left their dog (without collar or tags) outside and he dug right underneath their fence. They were grateful, though not very receptive to the comment I made about "keeping a tag on your dog, just in case something like this happens". Whatever. Little Man/"Miller" as his real name states, is safely back home after a sleepover at the Marshik Motel.

Snake Charming

For those of you who aren't aware, our hood is home to a few brands of venomous snakes, for example this western cottonmouth found in such habitats as the Marshik Garage and the Marshik Backyard of the mean streets of League City. This is the latest one we found in our garage.

They are normally considered one of the more dangerous species because they are supposed to be pretty aggressive, but this one didn't even show his fangs. He's also pretty small, which I'm told also makes them more dangerous because they're not yet smart enough to control their venom, which they normally need to eat. Most people around here think we're crazy for not killing these things, but they just haven't seen the way Charlie daftly handles these guys with his snake sticks. This little guy indeed was quick work, as seen here (unlike the one that managed to get inside our wall).

PS- charlieandjaime.com is the new place to be.