Lyon Arboretum, Diamond Head, and Plantation Village

Yesterday we worked early in the morning and then left. Tom wasn't feeling well, so Tonya and I went to the Lyon Arboretum. An arboretum has a lot of different kinds of trees and plants. We walked around the different paths where we were able to see all kinds of different trees. We walked up to a waterfall. It was such a peaceful afternoon.

Then we came back and went and got Mexican food at Surfin' Tacos. It actually was really yummy.

This morning we got up and went to Diamond Head. Diamond Head is a crater that is just off Waikiki beach. So when you hike up to the top, you can look down across all of the beach and the city of Honolulu.

Here we are going up.

You can start to see the sweat on my shirt. I came back pretty wet. It isn't a very long hike. The trail is well worn. You go up a little bit and then there are some stairs. And then you're at the top where you can look over the whole city.

Look at that sweat. Everywhere I go here, I sweat! It looks like I must be tired too... Haha! You can see the ocean and the beach and then the city of Honolulu in the background.

Coming back, there was a Farmer's market in the parking lot. We got some freshly made ginger, basil, and lime water. It was so refreshing and good! It really hit the spot!

After we finished, we went on up the coast and we went to the Hawaii Plantation Village. This was a sugar cane plantation. They took us through the different houses of different cultural groups who came in to work on the plantation. There were Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Japanese, and I can't remember who else. But we went through the houses and they talked about how these groups had come in and what a difficult life it was for them, but how they couldn't leave because they were slaves. Then they talked about how the different groups became part of the culture of Hawaii as they stayed here. I really liked this!

These are taro plants that they use to make poi and I can't remember what they do with the leaves and stalks.

These are the fish ponds. The fish were little tiny things. You can see the houses in the background that belonged to the different groups.

Here we are at the end!
We came back to BYU-H and all of the parking lots are filled with many people here. Right now we are watching the Cultural Celebration going with the temple dedication. Tomorrow will be the rededication of the La'ie temple. I'm excited we will get to be here. It is interesting because the Hawaii temple was one of the first few that were built in the Church. I am excited to be able to go!

Photo Catch up

Here is the beach at Turtle Bay. We mostly played on the sand and a little on the shore.

Here was a cool tree that we were able to sit on for another photo opportunity.

You can't really capture the green color that is really here. Everything is green. It really is amazing!

Here we are out in the rocks along the coast line.

This is the start of the Lyon Arboretum. It is right outside of Manoa Falls that we went to, but we can't get the pictures off Tonya's camera because it is on another card in her camera and we don't have the cord to connect it. The arboretum captures some of the beauty.

Here is some bamboo.

Just some pretty flowers and once again, the green.

At the top was a waterfall.

Day 5 - Work and Manoa Falls

Today we started early - 5:00 a.m. We went in extra early so we could leave a little bit earlier today. I spent most of my time this morning verifying the student lists. So I had the list of students in every one of the classes offered here at BYU-H and a list of students that were loaded into the Student Ratings program and I matched them and made sure they were correct. I didn't check every single class, but I did check a bunch of them. After I finished that, I worked on some screenshots for the Exam Builder that we are designing for Provo's campus. We are trying to keep our projects running in Provo as well as doing the work we need to do here in Hawaii.

When we got to a good stopping point about 1:00, we left and changed clothes and hiked up to Manoa Falls. It was so beautiful! Really, it was one of the most beautiful places I have seen. There were so many tropical trees and plants and it was just amazing! It was a short hike, but really, really pretty. And there were all kinds of different plants and trees, palms, bamboo, some really big trees, and vines and flowers. I guess I kind of liked it up there. I will say though, that I probably haven't sweat that much anywhere else. It's about 1 1/2 miles into and back out of the falls, and my face was dripping with sweat. My shirt and pants were soaked. I looked really good! Haha! And my hair. Wow was I beautiful! Haha!

When we got back, we went by Costco and then we went to eat at a Thai restaurant. I had some fried rice and it tasted really good tonight. I like Thai food because it isn't too heavy.

W thought I would get the pictures off Tonya's camera, but I'm not sure where her camera card is and she fell asleep. I'll have to get it from her when she is awake. I think I will probably go get ready for bed too. 4:00 a.m. comes pretty early!

Day 4 - Work and Turtle Bay

Today was just another day in Paradise. We went in to work early again and had a good day. I went through and checked the data to verify that we pulled in the correct information. Then I started going through the list of students to make sure we pulled everyone into their classes correctly. I also went over and had a visit with Mark Wolfersberger. I worked with Mark at the ELC when I was there. He is one of the coordinators over the English Language Institute here. It was fun to catch up with him.

This afternoon, we went to Turtle Bay, which is a resort area. This is where Tom is staying. They have lots of trails and a beach there, so we went to check it out. We went out and saw the beach and looked at the waves. They were so big! We played in the sand some and had a good time. Then we were going to go swim in the pools in the nice resort area, but we were told we couldn't because we weren't staying at the fancy hotel part. So we didn't swim today. We just came back to our apartment and ate dinner and I worked a little more this evening. It was a good day. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures today either...I'll get some though soon!

Day 3 - Work and Waikiki

Today was a good day too. We got up early and were in the office by 6:00 a.m. I worked on making a list of things that needed to be changed on our Learning Outcomes website to send to the programmer. I'm sure he was thrilled to get 7 pages of things that have to be changed on the website to make it work better. :) Then we had a conference call back at the CTL with Jeff about our Exam Builder. After lunch, I worked on iClicker questions for American Heritage. Today it was interesting. It was about the Great Depression and the policies FDR put into place in the New Deal. As soon as I finished that, we came back, changed clothes, and went to Diamond Head.

Diamond Head is a crater where you can hike up and then look over all of Waikiki. You could almost compare it to hiking up S mountain, only not quite as high, I think. When we got to the trail head, we found out the trail was closed for maintenance and that it is only open from 6am to 12 noon. We'll have to go back another day.

We went around to Waikiki and put on our swimming suits and went for a little swim. Lori, thanks for letting me borrow your swim shorts. I really liked them a lot! I went in the water for awhile. I decided I'm not much of a water person. I think it is okay. I'd much rather walk along the beach and look around. I like the beach, I'm just not a huge fan of being out in the water and having the waves come crashing into you. I really like looking more.

We changed back into our clothes and went to a little Indian restaurant near the beach. I have had better food in other places, but it was okay. It was a little spicier than I like it, but I ate some daal (lentils) and we had some vegetable masala.

It's about a 40 minute drive from the Honolulu side of the island back around to the La'ie side. In a lot of ways, I think I like this side better. Honolulu is just a big city to me. What is it they say, you can take a girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of a girl. :)

Anyway, it was a good day. I'll download pictures probably tomorrow from Tonya's camera and then I'll post a few pictures of our adventures then. Until then, Aloha!

Day 2 - Work and Dole

Today we started to work. We got up early again and we went to the Administration Building where we are going to do our work and met with the directors and got to work. Mostly today I worked on writing information about the Exam Builder that we are starting to work on now. It’s only in the design phase (on paper) so we still have a lot to do on it. Then I was able to get online and so I created some images to input into the Learning Outcomes program that we are going to install while we are here.

About 4:00 we left, came back to our place and changed and we drove up to North Shore. We first went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and saw where they grow fields and fields of pineapples. It was interesting to see how they are just little plants. It also takes a long time (18 months) to grow a pineapple and you can only get 3 pineapples in the life of a plant. The third one comes at about 45 months. No wonder pineapple is a little expensive. As we drove around the coast, we were able to see the waves crashing along the shore. This time of year the waves are between 10-20 feet high. No surfing for me! (Even one of the guys we work with won’t surf them and he surfs a lot.)

This is pineapple frozen yogurt with fresh pineapple in it. It was pretty tasty!

Hooray for Hula Pineapple woman!

Then we went to eat dinner at a little Thai restaurant. Unfortunately it was not good. I guess we will have to find something better tomorrow.

Aloha! From Hawaii

The CTL where I work has been developing web-based applications to improve teaching and learning on campus. (We hope they are doing something like that.)

My roommate and the programmer at the CTL were asked to go to Hawaii to install these programs on the BYU Hawaii campus. A few weeks ago, our supervisor called me into his office and said they needed to send one more person to Hawaii to be able to do the work that they needed to do and asked if I would go. So I talked to family about Thanksgiving and my other supervisor and said “Yes!”

We left an oncoming snowstorm last Saturday to come here. The flight was really good (quite smooth, actually.) The pilot kept coming on saying the planes ahead of us were reporting really strong turbulent, but by the time we got there, they had dissipated. We arrived in the afternoon and it was nice and sunny and warm. We picked up the rental car and went to Costco to pick up some food to keep in our room while we are here. We went to a little Thai restaurant and ate and it tasted really good. I think we were all hungry!

Then we drove up the coast from Honolulu around the island past Kaneohe to La’ie. The drive was beautiful. It is just so green and there are flowering trees everywhere! It’s a little bit misty and humid, but just so beautiful. Tonya and I are staying in the VIP housing on campus – Hale 5. It’s a nice apartment with a nice living room with couches and a big-screen TV. It has a kitchen with stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, etc., two bedrooms and a bathroom. It’s really perfect.

One of the men that Tom and Tonya have worked with before went and bought us some apples, grapes, water, pineapple, cookies, etc. for while we are here. It was really sweet of him. He also got leis for Tonya and me, which are absolutely beautiful. They are so full and they smell so good!

We were so tired the first day!

Sunday we woke up really early (jet lag) and read a little and tried to plan out the things we want to see and do while we are here. Then we went to church in the Stake Center here on campus and then we went to Pearl Harbor. On the way to church we stopped to take some pictures of us on campus. Then it started to rain, so we looked good to start and then got rained on. So much for doing the hair!

Pearl Harbor was a good experience. They have made a movie talking about the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the ships that were here. Then we got on a boat and went across the harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial. There was an almost sacred feeling there. Then we went over to the USS Missouri and toured the battleship, climbing up on the decks and looking at the guns and everything on it. Finally we went into the USS Bowfin, a submarine. It took some ingenuity and skill to build it and to design it to work just right. It was interesting to learn about it.

Here we are on the boat going out to the Arizona. You could still smell and see the oil coming up from the ship. It really was amazing.