..: the week long adventures of m&k:..

Disclaimer: This is going to be a suuuuuuuper long post filled with a trillion pictures and little stories of the entire week my best friend was here. You're welcome.

Day 1: Obviously, she wanted to start off her first official day, with a beach morning. I couldn't blame her. We went down to Temple Beach, and it was beautiful. A bit windy, but super pretty. We jumped in and swam around for a bit, but it was kind of a flawed decision, since we were going to the PCC in just about an hour. We enjoyed the sun and the surf anyway. It was so fun to have her there and to have a beach day with her... in Hawaii!!

We kept laughing, yet were complete 'awww' of all the things we had done together in just a year! It was just barely over a year ago, that I was here in Hawaii with my family, wishing she was with us! Having fun, playing in the waves. I said to her as we were sitting there, "Can you believe you are actually here?" She said, "If you would've told me a year ago that we'd be sitting on the beach together in Hawaii, I would've laughed in your face." [That's because she thought I was a complete psycho who was obsessed with Kolkata and the homeless people there--long story.] We both just cracked up! It was definitely crazy, that just barely 18 months ago we had even met, became really close only 13 months ago, and now are sitting with each other on a beach in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Yeah, we were pretty lucky.

After some good laughs and talks, we headed across the street to wash off and then over to the PCC to walk around there for the rest of the day. It was a good time, and a few of my friends showed up to bum around with us. We went to this new big IMAX theater they have called "The Hawaiian Journey." It's super cool, I'd never seen it. It's all narrated by this kid and it talks about the creation of the Hawaiian islands. The seats move so it's like you are soaring over Hawaii, and when you are going over the lava it gets all bumpy. It also sprays out scents, and water. So when you are going over the ocean and a wave crashes, it mists from the back of the seat in front of you. It's awesome. Well, the friends that showed up, hadn't seen it, and we had watched it when we first got there, so they went and watched it, and we decided to go take a canoe ride. It was pretty funny, cause we showed up, and who else, but Jimmy [the kid who picked up Mary from the airport] to chauffer us around on a canoe. Right? So funny. So they usually wait for about 5 people to at least show up to take people out, and Jimmy was actually putting his canoe away when we showed up and I go, "Oh Jimmy, you're going to give us a ride, right?" He smiled and all his buddies laughed! He didn't wait for 5 people, instead, gave Mary and I a private canoe ride down throughout the villages and PCC. It was super fun and peaceful. Gotta love first class connections! ;)

Soon after, we went and grabbed some dinner at the cafe and then headed back over for the night show. I was exhausted and fell asleep for a second, but Mary enjoyed it [the show that is!] She hasn't been here to Hawaii for about 8 years, so she hadn't seen "Ha: Breath of Life" yet, she saw the old one, so that was fun for her. We had a super fun day, and were excited for the rest of the week.

Day 2: Today we went over to Bikini Beach [to take the short cut] up to the Point! We saw friggin' Portguese Man-A-War everywhere, it was crazy. But get this, I learned if you pop the bubble [their body] that they can't sting anymore? So what do you think I did all the way up and down the beach? Yes, stepping on their little bodies with my toes until you hear a 'POP' sound. It sounds super cool, but sometimes it can be super sketch to step on them, cause sometimes their tentacle is all wrapped up on them.

 

We got to the Point and climbed some rocks and saw some sweet black crabs. It was a good time.

After the Point, we decided to go grab some ice cream at the store, and then head home and figure out our next move. On the way home from the store, it started pouring rain!! We were drenched.

 

 We know, we look awesome. So after it stopped raining [so we thought] we decided to get on the bikes that my roomie, and Robyn left and head up to Kahuku. Why not, right? The shrimp trucks are there, and it's only a 6 minute bus ride, so I knew it wasn't a very far bike ride. 

So we start on our way, just riding on the side of the Kam highway. No big deal, right? Everyone's doing it. Well, there was a bike path on the opposite side of the road about a 1/4 of the way up, that we didn't start using until we were about 3/4 of the way there. Mary had the brilliant idea to take it. No seriously, it was brilliant. It was a lot safer than riding on the side of the road with cars passing going 40+ miles an hour. 

We got to Kahuku in about 20 minutes or so and got some yummy shrimp at the shrimp truck! Giovanni's is the most legit shrimp truck there is! Shrimp for daysssss peeps. There were some little shops there so we walked around for a few minutes, and then I told her I wanted to just ride around the little town on some back roads. I hadn't rode a bike just for fun in I don't know how many years. It was super legit, and the total Hawaiian experience. Seeing Hawaii how the locals see and experience it. Super great time.

On our way back, obviously it started raining like we were about to go through a tsunami. It was awesome. Not. We made it to a cool little beach, neither of us had ever been to; where they had there little cabins people can stay in and 'camp out' on the beach. The cabins were so tiny, we weren't sure how people could actually lay down straight in there, we were sure they had to bend their knees. They were small!! We messed around on the beach for a bit and found a cool rope swing thing [after both of us almost wrecking on our bikes in the soft sand] and then back home we went. 

 

That night we were going to see "Man of Steel" at the midnight premier with a bunch of my friends. Wahoo, right? No. We were already tired. We came home and showered and then I tried to teach Mary how to french braid! That was a treat. Before too long, we headed over to the game center for a bit for a couple games of pool, and then off to the movies we walked. 

So let me just tell you. Yeah, Superman looked cool. I didn't really know the story that well [I'm a Marvel Comics kind of girl] but I thought hey, why not, lets go. So we are sitting there, not to mention it is almost 4AM Utah time, so Mary is soooo tired. We are sitting there and both just thinking, can we go home yet? The movie started and there were aliens? Whaaaat? Already I was like yeah.... this movie is not for me. I looked at Mary and she had the same face. So sitting there, both exhausted and not really sci-fi fans, fell asleep for a bit, but still were able to wake up and understand what was going on. At the end though, when no one was dying and people just kept fighting we both looked at each other and were like, "can we leave now? please?" We were over it. Luckily, the kid sitting next me had a car and he asked if we wanted a ride home. I said yes and told Mary and she looks at me and says, "You got us a ride home? You're the best." Then looks at the kid and says, "Thank you so much. If we didn't have a ride, I'm pretty sure I would've just slept under a tree." It's true, I don't think either of us would have made it home that night.

Day 3: We definitely did a bit of sleeping in this morning. We then jumped on the bus and head up to Sharks Cove for some snorkeling!! It was awesome!! We took Honu's underwater camera and took a ton of pictures [but these pictures I posted are pictures of the pictures cause I don't have a place to load them onto--sorry for the crappy quality]. But it was so fun! I wish I would have known about Sharks Cove before Toni came, cause I definitely would've brought her there as well [side note, I wish I would have known about a lot more stuff before Toni came, because even though we had a total blast, we would've done a lot more than we did, sorry Ton!!] So Mar and I saw a sea turtle and swam with it for a while which was super cool, and there were a bunch of schools of fish. Oh, and then on our way up, I found a gecko, caught it and Mary told me she would die if I ate it, so I stuck it in my mouth... Jokes, jokes! I didn't. Just pretended to, so I could see her face.

Then we walked up to Waimea, and caught some beach time there while we could, before taking the bus up to North Shore for some shopping, shaved ice and dinner in Haleiwa.

I can't forget to mention watching the beautiful sunset on the beach!!! Front row seats to the most beautiful site in town [during that hour.] It was so amazing that night.

Day 4: Today we got up early and headed to town. It was the longest bus ride of our lives over to Ala Moana and then to the Aloha Stadium for the swap meet. We had a good time and she got some fun stuff and I got her to taste pineapple with Li Hing Mui on it! Yum!!! Seriously though, spending 6 hours on a bus for one day makes for a very exhausting day. I even got a few pictures of Mary trying to sleep on the bus. This girl has so many pictures of me sleeping it's nuts, so once in a blue moon, I get one of her!

After the long day on the bus, we went and grabbed a bite to eat the Seven Brothers, and then just came home and chilled. She was getting bored, and I was feeling bad. I mean, it was a Saturday night! So I told her to put her shoes on we were going on an adventure. At that point I had no idea what the heck our adventure was going to be, but I pretended I knew what I was doing. We went and hopped on the bikes and I told her, "this is what people do here on Saturday nights..." She thought I was joking, but as we were riding around campus she goes, "This really is what people do here on Saturday nights." Yep. I thought of a plan, but it quickly changed as she suggested going and getting ice cream sandwiches from Seven Brothers, since we were too full to one earlier. We head over there and grab an ice cream sandwich as well as a pumpkin bread sundae to share... when who walks in but Jimmy and all his buddies. What a coincidence. It was 10:30pm and after he ordered, came and sat down by us. We started chatting and I asked him what he was doing after this.. He said nothing so I said, "Great, you can come build us a bonfire on the beach." He acted all surprised and was like, "Oh yeah, is that what you want to do?" Obviously, that's why I said that. Reluctantly after a little convincing, he agreed to come build us a bonfire on the beach. Yay team!! I was so excited. I had never had a bonfire on the beach, and either had Mary, so we were psyched. So with some friends tagging along we headed down to the beach and they built us a bonfire. They had a lighter, we dug a hole, and they used the dead palm leaves and sticks they found on the beach. Being Fijian, they knew what we were doing. Mar and I are sitting there like, "Um, do we need to go get some wood..." White girl problems, seriously. It was great. Hearing the ocean crash into the shore, with the fire sparking and the breeze blowing, not to mention all the bright white stars out on such a clear night, it was truly magical. It was the perfect ending to our long day.

Day 5: Happy Fathers Day to our papas!! Sunday we went down to Bikini Beach and took some fun pictures on the beach swing and then decided to take the bus up to Haleiwa again to play for another beach day.

There was this cool little Queens Market going on up there that we walked around at and then grabbed some shaved ice. We headed over to the beach and because it was a day to celebrate fathers, there was tons of families there, but we found a cool little place on the North side of the beach to catch some rays.

               All morning Mary kept saying, "We need to remember to call our dads, we need to remember to call our dads..." Okay, okay. So we went to call them, and neither of them answered... twice!! At some point or another we were able to talk to our fathers, and then we went and checked out a cool rainbow and grabbed some dinner at a sandwich shop.

We enjoyed watching the sunset [once again] on the North Shore and all I could think was how much I was going to miss this girl when she leaves in two days.

Day 6: So today we decided to go on a hike... Why? I don't know! But I had done a bunch of research and asked around to find a good hike to do and we finally decided on Laie Falls. Before Mary came she really wanted to do Stairway to Heaven; but after being here for only two days my friend Manu told us that there 42 BYU-H students were just detained after doing the hike. I mentioned it's illegal, right? So, I guess the neighbors called the cops and there were a bunch of policemen waiting for the students at the bottom of the hike. Soooo, even though it would've been a great story 'ending up in jail together, pointing fingers and laughing', we decided her husband might not like having to bail her out of jail... so we decided to play it safe [well, safer].


So Laie Falls was the winner. We were supposed to have a permit for it, but we were over asking permission, so we just did it. I looked up online and read all about it and found a supposed scout map... Lies!!! The scout map was crap. It said we had to go through this pine forest then turn to the right to the falls... False!! There was like 6 pine forests!! Freak. Once we started getting closer up to the top of the mountain, the view got more and more beautiful, so we were like, awesome, this is pretty, can we turn around yet? We were kind of over it. Not to mention, it was sweating freaking hot outside. We were both like, "Why aren't we at the beach today?" Seriously. But, after getting lost a few times and finding our own trail, we made it to the 'lower' falls. So we are sitting at these lower falls and I'm sure my face was priceless. I look and Mary and said, "Are you freaking kidding me? This is it?" She laughed cause we were both thinking, "this is what people rave about, that awesome Laie Falls... serious?" I decided to scale the rocks to see what was above it [cause that's what I do, I scale rocks and shiz these days], and luckily there were upper falls. It was only 15 feet tall, and there was a big swimming hole below it, but it was definitely better than the lower falls. We were both a little sketched out to swim in the swimming hole, because it wasn't very clear, so we settled for just putting our feet in and trying to keep the nasty mosquito's away. Which by the way, ate me freaking alive!!

 

After about 45 minutes or so, we decided to head back down the mountain. We pretty much ran down it, actually. It cut the time almost in half! After we got done with the hike, it seemed like we had to walk 6 miles to get home, when in reality it was probably only about a mile, maybe a mile and a half. When we got home, we changed, drank about a gallon of water, each, and then headed to the caf. Exhausted and worn out, we were over the day. We took showers and were ready to just chill.

Mary had to pack her bags that night, and I just laid in bed and watched her. I know, some friend I am, huh? Yeah. I'm awesome. I was tired, and I know she was, but honestly, I hated watching her pack her bags. I didn't want her to leave. After she was done we were just sitting on my bed, just about ready to hit the lights.. when the power went off for us. Awesome. It was 12:40am and people were out in the hallways and staircases all freaking out and being idiots and we were both thinking, "it'd be so sweet to play night games right now!" It was awesome. Watching everyone be total freaks for a few minutes, kept us awake a little bit longer.

When we were finally able to lay back down that night, I whispered and told Mar, "But I don't want to close my eyes... cause then I'll fall asleep and when I wake up, that means you have to go..." I know, pathetic! Like a little kid fighting to keep their eyes open so they don't miss a thing-- it's exactly what I did for as long as possible that night. Tomorrow was inevitable, and it, it was going to suck.

Day 7: I woke up and looked over and Mar was already awake. I said, "Why didn't you wake me up, you could've woken me up!!" She said, "No, it's fine, I just woke up a little bit ago... I  hate getting up, this is the worst part of the day." I looked at her and said, "No Mar, there is a worse part to today." Well this happened, and that happened and before you know it I'm sitting on the bed crying. I still got her till 7pm that night [that's when she had to be dropped off at the airport] and the water works were starting already? It was going to be the longest, yet quickest day ever.

After I freaking calmed myself, freak, we got ready and headed out for one last beach day. That was a lot of fun. Mary decided to not stick any sunblock on today though, it being her last day she was like, what the heck... and didn't. So we went to the beach for a few hours, went and grabbed some lunch and then we biked up to the Point for another hour or so to just hang out. It was a good time... but then Mary noticed this weird tan line [red-line] on her arm and then noticed how burnt she was getting, so we had to call it quits and get home. We stopped for a snow cone on the way home and then raced to get her home so she wouldn't get anymore burnt.

 

 Luckily, her burn was not nearly as bad as Toni's.  Not even close. It was just a surface burn, so I wasn't super worried. What Toni endured was pure torture, and so I was glad that at least she wouldn't be enduring pure hell flying home that day, more or less just some major discomfort. I swear. People come and visit me and I send them home like they were just baked like a lobster... It's awful! I try my best to keep sunscreen on them, but sometimes, the hawaiian sun just gets the best of them.

After putting on a bunch of aloe and burn free, it was about time for her to go. We looked at the pictures throughout the week we had taken and laughed about them. Oh, and then my roommate was freaking out about the gecko outside our room, so I had to go out and catch it off the ceiling, so she'd stop freaking out. I mean look at it, it's tiny!!! Silly girl..

 

Before you know it, Mar's ride was there to take us to the airport. Traffic was on our side, so we made it 20 minutes earlier then we even expected. Goodbyes were next... which obviously SUCKED, big time. If you know me at all, you know what a big friggin cry baby I am; and that saying goodbye to anyone I love this much, especially my sisters, family and best friends, I just can't deal, like at all. Staying composed is not my thing in these kind of situations. So I got her bag out of the trunk, gave her a big hug, told her I loved her and she says, "It's going to be okay, don't cry." Hahahaha, good luck with that one. Obviously I start crying, and she says, "I'll see you at Christmas." We were both crying by then. Christmas? It was so far away. It is so far away.  But it was [is] the next planned time we were [are] going to see each other. I could do this, right?

I got in the car and through the window watched her roll her bag away. I swear my heart was breaking. I wasn't ready to not see this girl I call my soul mate for another 6 months. I'm never ready to not see any of my siblings [because my best friends are my siblings I was never given and my siblings are also my best friends] for 6 months. But like the old saying, "distance makes the heart grow fonder," I'm sure these next 6 months will just prove that all over again. I feel like the distance in-between many of the siblings in my life, has made us grow closer together. Obviously, if I had the choice, I would have all my siblings move here to Hawaii so I wouldn't have to do this goodbye crap, but since that's not going to happen, I guess I'll just let my heart do the work and continue to miss them... the better part of this though, is that when it's time to say hello again, it is that much more special. Christmas hellos cannot come soon enough.

So many kisses to all my siblings, best friends, family & soulmate tonight from across the sea xoxoxo