Trip to Hawaii Part 1

Sorry for the long absence from posting. I was lazy for a week in Japan, then I went to Hawaii and was even more lazy, but mainly it was because I was spending every waking moment watching English TV or eating American food.

So I headed to Kauai, Hawaii last Sunday. I left at 7:00 pm Japan time and arrived in Hawaii at 7:00 am. Had I realized that I was going to travel back in time I would have participated in massive amounts of illegal activity on Sunday afternoon since I had a foolproof alabi.

The flight was only 8 hours so its wasn't near as bad as my 12 hour gut wrenching "why am I doing this" flight to Japan. One of the greatest feelings was arriving at customs. Since my flight was about 99% Japanese people they were all rushing to customs because they knew the line would be ridiculous. But me, no I strolled my way through and arrived 2nd in line for the residents line.

The most shocking things about being back in America.

1. Not being the tallest person everywhere
2. I don't out weight everyone by at least 50 pounds
3. The clerks at McDonalds asked me what I wanted in English
4. I could actually read signs
5. Americans are all really really aggressive
   
6. It was weird to actually understand the conversations going on around me. But then I realized that most people are talking about ridiculous stuff like Lynsey Lohan or the calorie content of Diet Pepsi. I guess when you don't understand a language you always assume people are talking about something really profound, or actually I always just think they are talking about me.

Here are some pictures from my trip. I decided to do 2 posts cause I don't have all my pictures downloaded yet. So check back later for the rest.

This is Wameya Canyon. Its the Grand Canyon of the Pacific (Mark Twains words not mine).






The pacific ocean facing West. Sometimes its weird to think about the largest barrier on the planet is between me and my home.
Here are some pictures from our scuba/snorkel trip.

They guaranteed dolphins or your money back. No money was refunded.


This is the beach our hotel was on. Sam, Heath, and I did some boogie boarding. It was fun but it was like 5-6 foot waves. If you hit the waves wrong they would just throw you underwater for like 10 seconds, and I'd have no idea which way was up or down.


The family in front of a waterfall on the boat.

This is the north shore of Kauai. This is the part of the island from Jurassic park. This is where they filmed the helicopter flying up to the island. Its also the second highest seaside cliffs in the world behind Dover in the UK. I took over 80 pictures of this coastline in 1 hour. It was honestly one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen. Here is a link to some more pictures of it if you are interested....
http://picasaweb.google.com/hollee.ford


This valley is called Hanali. Like from the song puff the magic dragon lives by the sea, and frolocks in the (autumn fields?) in a land called Hanali...

Our tour guide said that 300 years ago this valley was home to over 5000 Hawaiians. They kept it so well manicured it looked like a botanical garden from the ocean.

Me and the fam on the north cost of Kauai.

This is where we did our snorkeling/I did scuba diving. Not really the clearest water ever but the scenery was amazing.