Catching up...

Wow... its been quite some time since I last posted - sorry! Busy schedule. :/

I'll start off with the pics and fill in the best I can recall :)

Several weeks ago Monty's friend Pam came for a visit. We all had a great time hanging out and exploring the island. One of the best things to do is to check out the local icecream and Bubbies is as good as it gets :)

Pam, my cuz Vinnie and me enjoying some delicious watermelon soju! :) Best tasting soju and its at this place/bar called Duck BUTT. Yes, no kidding, Duck Butt! 

At Duck Butt, they are known for their pupus (appetizers) - this one is the seafood pancake. Sounds like an awful combo but its surprisingly delicious :)

How can I not take cuz V to see Makapu'u point.. geez - I love it here

Pineapple icecream with fresh pineapples at the Dole Cannery - super delish :) 

Arizona Memorial

My schedule with the Children's Alliance is M-F 8-11 and Sats from 8-12. Unfortunately on Aug 20 I wasn't able to work the morning so the boss said no worries, she needed help in the evening at an event instead. When I arrived at the Honolulu Arts Museum, I found that I was to talk to the guests before and after a musical performance of the Hot Club of Hulaville and John Jorgenson.  What a wonderful evening of great music. I am truly loving my life out here. :)

Went parasailing - again. I absolutely love it. Parasailing is so much fun! :)

I took cuz to see the view from the Pali Lookout again. Isn't it amazing?

Saw this recipe on the Sunset Magazine site and thought Judy and I should make it for the next potluck. Unfortunately, no BevMo on the island - couldn't find all the ingredients so we had to improvise. Still came out great. 

In Santa Clara every Wednesday there is a meditation night that is hosted by the Mehta family and it is open to anyone and everyone.  I decided to start a Honolulu meditation night - instead of out of my home, we meet on the beach at Ala Moana - isn't this a LOVELY location for meditation? We are blessed here in Hawaii. :)  

We saw a flyer for a Shakespeare performance outdoors at the Mission Houses Museum. Great backdrop and a wonderful evening. Slight issue not being able to hear all the performers, otherwise outstanding. :)

We had a free night so Judy and I walked all around Waikiki - we ended up at the Halekulani Hotel - one of (if not the only) 4-diamond resorts on the island. Beautiful hotel, would love to stay - visit places like this when I travel someday.

Beautiful, colorful art everywhere we go. :)

This picture doesn't do it justice but the night sky here in Hawaii is just amazing. We see so many stars and when the moon is full, it truly lights up the night sky. :)

Delicious and refreshing Rum Punch at Soul De Cuba - i stopped by after buying tix across the street for the Gabriel Iglesias show in Dec. :)

Again, another photo that does not do justice to the actual view. This picture was taken from Tantalus.  Its comparable to the Twin Peaks view of San Fran. Breathtaking. 

When cuz Vinnie came, somehow my door broke/fell off. Took over a month to find someone to help put it back on :/

tsunami exhibit at the Bishop Museum - fun

View of the Bishop Museum - gorgeous brick building - lots of people get married here

caught my eye.. it looks so real

an actual island hut!

Feather Man!!! EEK - i would not want to see this guy somewhere!

I've been so busy lately that I haven't actually cooked in a while.  It was nice  to  finally head to a friend's potluck and of course I made my specialty: Indian style chicken and potato eggrolls. Traditionally the outside would be a triangular shaped stuffed tortilla but its easier this way.  

Took this picture so I can show my friends back in Cali how long my hair has gotten - it used to be super short.  We were headed out to downtown, chinatown.  Bamboo 2 was having a special drinks night in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Beautiful centerpieces we set together this past weekend.  Annual fundraising gala for the Children's Alliance of Hawaii.

The gala was held a the Royal Hawaiian  - what a beautiful backdrop for a gala

Me and my awesome friends who helped with the silent auction and the cleanup. Thanks girls! :)

Random Acts of Kindness ~ Hawaii

One of the first things I did upon moving to Hawaii was start up my RAOK meetup group.  I am happy to say that I now have nearly a 100 volunteers and the group is growing daily. :)  Visit the group page if you'd like to see more photos, see upcoming events and even join up - its free. :)  www.meetup.com/kindness

I recently posted at Make-A-Wish event where we (volunteers) were positioned throughout the Ewa Beach Golf Course to help run the Golf Tournament (fundraiser for MAW) and also spread the word on Make a Wish.  It was a fun day - I learned a lot about golf and would like to give it a shot one of these days. :)

The next morning, I took a group of 13 to the Children's Alliance headquarters where we helped stuff, label, organize and pack over 150 backpacks for kids. This was quite the challenge as space was limited but we all had fun. :)

We had so much fun, in fact, that the ED of the non-profit offered me a position with the non-profit  - I'm so elated, I've been wanting to work at a non-profit - its one of the reasons why I moved to Hawaii.  I'm glad its all finally coming together. :)

If you think I have a busy schedule - keeping up with my part-time day job at the lawfirm, then part-time job at PHOCUSED and being a Make-A-Wish wish granter, organizing my meetup group, and oh, yeah, working for Flipbooks at weddings/graduations, well, guess what, I still have time. Yes, a few weeks back I started training to become a CASA/GAL.  What's that you ask?
"Formerly known as the Volunteer Guardian Ad Litem Program, the CASA  Program is comprised of trained volunteers who are appointed by the court to represent the best interests of a child in a child abuse or neglect case in and out of court. CASA volunteers must be at least 20 years old and able to spend between 4 and 25 hours a month - serve as fact-finders, advocates, and monitors for children in need."
I'm so excited about this opportunity. I've  been driving out to the Kapolei courthouse every Saturday as there's a 40-hour mandatory training before one can  be certified. I have 2 Saturdays to go. :)

In addition, I want to/will be organize(ing) the Be The Change day of service in October in association with SAALT.  The group organizes this nationwide day of service in honor of Gandhi's famous quote: "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

:)

Adventurous foodie? Getting there

Recently my friend Priya invited me out to dinner at her place. She said her and her international friends go out, buy groceries (different theme/cuisine) every time and they come home and cook together.  On this particular night it was Korean night.  Our first stop, Palama market for Korean groceries.  I had never been in a Korean market before - VERY INTERESTING!  I wouldn't be able to tell you what most of the stuff in this first pic is, but at the very top (end) is dried/seasoned codfish and the light and dark grey stuff next to it is dried anchovies. Yes, they bought both of these.

There were 7 in our group.  Priya and her brother who are from Guam, myself (Fijian), Aki who is Japanese, Marco full Italian, Yang who is Chinese and his girlfriend from China as well.  In the pic above, at the very bottom of the pic is Beef Tongue. Yes, tongue. Next to it the bacon looking meat is actually pork belly (VERY DIFF FROM BACON), up on the right is the pork rib (albi?) very very very delish, and next to that is chicken. We also had mushrooms, onions to grill, all the anchovies/codfish/sprouts/etc to enjoy and lettuce to make wraps.

Needless to say everything was super delish and the 7 of us devoured all the food very fast and we were pleased with the results of the hotplate bbq. Very adventurous and delicious dinner indeed. :)

One oh fo suweee (cont'd)

Ok, so let me start off by explaining the title of this and the last post... one oh fo suweee is actually the radio station 104.3 but the dj on Fridays has this interesting accent and says 104.3 in such speed and with his accent it comes out "one oh fo suweeee". :)  Lois, Carlos, Jules and I all joked about this non-stop. I don't know, I guess you just had to be there to get it :)

So lets see, we left off on the last post on Sunday beach picnic at Nanakuli Beach in the Waianae part of town.  On Monday Lois, Jules and I headed off to the North Shore at 7 am in the morn. Yes, its an hour drive so we had to get a head start. Our destination? Kualoa Ranch on the north east coast of the island. :)

We had planned to do the half day excursion which included 2 tours and a lunch buffet. For our two tours we decided on the movie tour which entailed us being bussed through a small portion of the ranch and areas of land being pointed out as the movie tour.  Example:  "See that hill over there?" "Well that hill was in the movie Jurassic Park"  "See that mountain over there, that was the background in this ___ movie" "see that dirt road, that was in 50 First Dates".  Honestly, the tour was not all that spectacular - they shouldn't be selling it as a movie tour.. but I can't complain too much, the scenery was gorgeous. :)

This is the Jurassic Park Hill where the professor and 2 kids are walking and suddenly a herd starts running towards them and they hide behind a huge log/tree trunk off to the left of here.

Interesting note - this is Godzilla's foot and apparently originally 8 ft deep. Every morn the ranchers would have to rescue the cows that had fallen in over night. :/

This pic does not do justice to these gorgeous mountains.

Chinaman's Hat on the left and turtle island in the center - its called turtle island due to the shape. Do you see it?

Myself, Julie and Lois enjoying the ocean breeze and being out on the beautiful water. Lovely day indeed.

The Pond was more than merky - it was the worst water I've seen on the entire island, luckily it was just a man-made fishing pond and was separated from the ocean which was back to beautiful teal waters.

After the Ocean adventure, we were taken back to the ranch where we enjoyed a quick buffet lunch and then we were off to Shark's Cove to snorkel! :)  We had heard so much about this place we couldn't wait to go.

Wow, what a pleasant surprise and what a tourist hotspot! :)  The pic below is courtesy of another blogger as we girls did NOT take our cell/cameras out to the beach for fear of them being stolen.  Gorgeous, isn't it?  Now imagine 200+ snorkelers in this same area.. yes, the place was SWARMING with people but it wasn't bad at all.. the 3 of us certainly enjoyed our time. :)

After snorkeling we had certainly worked up an appetite.  It was 630 now and we were hungry - we decided to try out the various shrimp trucks. Giovanni's is the most popular on the island, and where we headed first, unfortunately though we reached at 645 and they were closed for the day. Boo!  :/  Luckily though, they referred us over to FUMI's Shrimp truck where we enjoyed coconut covered shrimp, tempura shrimp, lemon/garlic, and spicy shrimp.  It was delish and satisfying. :)

The next morning was Lois' last day so we decided to visit Pearl Harbor. Oh dear.. if you plan to visit, definitely pack your handkerchief.  Prior to visiting the Arizona memorial, you go to an auditorium to watch a 30 min video on the history of Pearl Harbor.. oh my goodness, I was a big ball of mess. Magarmuch ke asoon (meaning alligator tears), oye.. I got sooo emotional watching this video.  *sigh* I am just in awe of the courage that people showed that day - nurses treating victims, fellow civilians and military men pulling their comrades out of the burning water - yes, burning water. *sigh* I am just beside myself. I don't understand why, why do a small number of people make decisions, bad decisions and hundreds of thousands of innocent people then have to pay for it. Not just at Pearl Harbor but all around the world - everywhere, war - why? Why for power/greed/ego. Ugh.. this all makes me very sad. :(

Anyhow.. the video made me very very sad but the memorial was peaceful and solemn. 

After the memorial, Lois and I were invited to an authentic home-made Mexican meal at Carlos' place with awesome Mole made by Julie - yumm!

Afterwards it was time to rush Lois to the airport.. so sad - so many days of fun and laughter. Missing my dear amiga very much.

Myself, Lois and Hustin.