Aloha

Hi there,

After several lovely going away parties (thank you!!), getting rid of a whole bunch of my stuff, quitting the job, and saying good bye to so many of my friends, family, and my cat; I have begun my trip. Thanks to everybody for coming out to my going away gatherings and for your kind wishes for my journey.

After spending a few days with my parents in Fresno and an evening in Santa Cruz with my very good friend Heidi, I have arrived in Honolulu. The weather here is interchangeably rainy and gorgeous. I am staying with my friends Mel and Jesse (see photo) in the Nuuanu-Pali area; basically up the hill from Honolulu in the rainy mountains.
The first thing I did when I got here was take a very long nap while it poured down rain all afternoon. Friday I headed into Honolulu proper with Mel. She works at the Nature Conservancy office downtown. I explored China Town early in the morning while the weather was still cool and the vendors weren't being pushy. Propelled by my market purchases, I explored the downtown government buildings and the Iolani Palace, home of the former Hawaiian manarchy (see below).

From there I took another bus through Waikiki. There was not much I wanted to see there. I am not into shopping and I like beaches that have very few or no people on them and I am saving my trip to the aquarium for a rainy day, so I kept going toward Waimanalo and stopped at an amazing beach at Makapu'u. I spent some time there tidepooling and enjoying the views before I took the bus into Kailua and over the Pali back to the house.

Today we went snorkling in Lanikai where we saw tons of fish, descent coral bommies, and a pretty large sea turtle. The wind was churing things up so the visability was not fantatstic but we still had a nice time and the sun came out after lunch so we all got warmed up and sunburned. On the way home we stopped off at the Pali overlook for a beautiful view.


We had an unexpected visitor in the house tonight: a pregnant house gecko. It jumped on Jesse's jeans and posed on his bum while I took this pic.
While Mel was cleaning the house she found this little beastie: a centipede introduced from Thailand. I guess they can get twice this big and really hurt if they bite you. I hope not to see one of these alive while I'm here. This one was preserved in the freezer. Jesse is an entomologist (studier of insects).


Overall I am having a good time. The people are really nice and I am enjoying all the fresh fruit. Honolulu is a little congested and seems very poorly planned. The drivers are bad but at least they usually stop when pedestrians want to cross the street and they seem to try not to put each other in danger. I think most people are just too distracted by the shiny windows on all the buildings or maybe its the wonder of what this island looked like before all the buildings and invasive species got here. In any case, I am looking forward to seeing more of the island in the coming days. Hope you are well!