House hunting

You might think that my first post in England would be about how we spent the weekend in London, or how we met Harry Potter or visited an ancient castle.  Well, it’s not so grand as that.  And we have yet to do any of those things, though they are on the list.  We arrived in England on Sunday the 19th, and since then, we have been searching for the right house (not the perfect house per se, just the right one).  We viewed at least two dozen houses, and most of the time it was easy to say no.  At the top of our list for why we didn’t choose particular houses:  1) washing machines in the kitchen (I don’t like the ideas of mixing my whites with the cooking).  2) carpeted bathrooms (Ewwww!).  3) yards I can mow in less than 60 seconds (no joke).  4) Creepy 600 year old cemetaries across the street.  Of course these didn’t apply to all houses we declined, but the majority fell into one or more of those categories.  Sure there were always the practical items like too far to commute, or not enough bedrooms, but who wants to talk about that. 

With all the traveling around house-hunting, at least we got to see a lot of the countryside.  It’s mostly small villages around here separated by lots and lots of farmland. 

Here’s a bit of village for you:

 

And here’s the farmland:

Now just alternate looking back and forth at those two pictures, and there you have it – just like being here.

And then of course, here’s what was in the back of the car for the last 12 days.  Let’s not mention the emotional roller coaster one (namely two parents) experience while three children are crammed into one seat with no choice but to be touching each other.  (take a deep breath with me now).

But we eventually found one!  A house that is.  We also found the Kinder eggs.

So here’s the house we are going to live in for the next three years (hopefully).  We haven’t signed the lease yet, so anything can happen still.  (knock on wood)   I say that because this is the second house we’ve chosen; the first one fell through because the landlord got an offer from a buyer, and of course that’s the better deal.

One of the main ‘selling’ points was the brand new kitchen ( with no washer in it – though it is nearby, within sight, next to where the fridge will be (hey, you can’t have everything).

AND the yard.  Yes, all the grass in the picture is the yard.  And I’ll be mowing it . . . often.  With any luck I can hire a neighborhood kid to help me out.  I’m already planning on picnics and campouts.

So that’s my perspective.  Let’s see what Lyana says in her post (she’s probably tell the WHOLE story.  I just gave you the cliffnotes version).

Cheers,

Rob

P C C

PCC.

Political Campaign Committee? 

Purple Cows of Colombia? 

Pinkilicious Cupcakes for Cavemen? 

Pop Causes Cavities? 

Nope, all wrong.  PCC stands for Polynesian Cultural Center, and it’s in Laie, Hawaii.  On the way there, Lyana and I were trying to figure out which came first – BYU Hawaii, the Hawaii LDS temple or the PCC.  At our first stop, the temple visitors center, we learned the answer to our question.  Now we know.  How about you?  Can you answer the question tell me which came first?

The Hawaii temple is one of three LDS temples based off the architecture of ancient Solomon’s temple, the other two being the Cardston temple and the Mesa, Arizona temple.  These three temples were built about the same time during the 1920s.  I have visited the other two, so I was looking forward to finally seeing the Hawaii temple and walking its sacred grounds. 

Well, you can see a corner of the temple behind us.  It took several takes just to get this shot (the lady who graciously accepted our request to take the photo kept missing the shutter button or something so the first several pics never happened).

Nothing better than grilled local shrimp (or locally grilled shrimp).  Either way, this place down the road had fantastic grilled shrimp, and the $2.50 cheeseburger wasn’t too bad either.

Now that’s one good-looking shrimp!

Only down-side was you had to peel them, rip off their legs and tear off the tails before eating them.  I guess you can’t have everything handed to you on a silver platter.

And it was great.  (and much better than the Loco Moco I had the day before which I’m still recovering from).

Oh, yeah, the PCC.  I’m gettin' there.  Can’t forget to mention the Hawaiian shaved ice we picked up on the way (insert pic here).  There’s just something to be said about eating Hawaiian shaved ice in Hawaii.  Just tastes better that way.

Now, the PCC (not to be confused with the UCC).  Brianna Peterson (yes, the one and only from Misawa who is attending BYU Hawaii and works at the PCC) was our tour guide.  She was terrific and the kids absolutely loved her.  We usually don’t get tour guides, as we like to handle most things on our own, but having a tour guide at the PCC was a great decision – more fun, kept us on time, and in the end we probably saw more than we would have otherwise.

We made weaved coconut-leaf fish on a stick.

Samoa show was hilarious.  The guy made fire with just two pieces of wood; broke open a coconut and harvested the ‘meat’; even sent a guy up a palm tree. 

There’s the guy on the palm tree.  Our camera was too slow to catch him higher up in the tree.  Where he is, I could have jumped higher. 

The most popular daytime show features dancers from each of the represented islands performing on barges floating down the canal.

Samoa.

Fiji.

Hawaii.

Tahiti.

Sadly, I didn’t get pictures of the other islands, including Tonga, where the dancers rocked the boat so much the ‘driver’ fell into the water.

Here we are with our favorite PCC tour guide.  I think my ‘hang loose’ sign is backward.  I’m not sure what that means.

Ukelele Mark.  (Pronounced oo-kelele, not you-kelele, by the way.  I learned that in Hawaii)

Happy Hawaiians.

Just waitin’ for the boat ride.

Really excited for the boat ride.

And finally, on the boat ride.

Wearing Mama’s shades.  Boy, it was hot and sunny that day. 

Had to stop by Easter Island at one point, just for Alex.

And this guy.  Who is this guy?

For some reason, no pics of the BUFFET dinner.  Yes, it was that big.  We were busy eating, I guess.

Before the night show “Ha: Breath of Life”, we got a backstage tour.  You know, behind the scenes; under the stage; check out the props.  Yeah, that sort of thing.  I sneakily captured a few shots of some secret stuff.  Here’s the only one that’s in focus.  It’s the grass skirts the guys wear when they dance on the fire mats.  The skirts get ruined each time, so new ones have to be made before each show (that’s 6 times per week).

We sat in the Ambassador seats.  No, not because we were special guests, just because we bought the ‘Ambassador’ tour package.  Great seats.  Terrific show.  It’s difficult to explain it fully, so I won’t.  And we couldn’t take pics because it’s copyrighted and stuff.  But for $25, we could have bought a DVD of it afterward.  But here’s the very impressive stage.  Yes, it’s open-air so those clouds are real and so are all the plants and trees on the stage.

And halfway through we got ICE CREAM!!  What a great treat for us, though I was still so full from the BUFFET I could hardly eat it.

And then we went back to our cozy beachside cabin to rest.

Aloha!!

Rob

Diamond Head Crater And Pali Lookout

One beautiful morning in Hawaii…

Okay, I should start out differently because every morning in Hawaii seems to be simply beautiful, sunny and just breathtaking…

For months, we’ve been telling our kids we were going to climb a volcano. This was the day we all were looking for—climbing up Diamond Head. This crater’s name is Leahi, meaning brow of the tuna in Hawaiian. British sailors discovered diamonds on the crater’s slopes and named it Dimond Head in 19th century.  Apparently, diamonds that they discovered, were not diamonds at all, but merely shiny calcite crystals. Some believe it was created about 100,000 years ago. Geologists believe that it will not erupt again.

We arrived to the sight at about 9 am. By that time, the whole parking lot right next to the entrance to the hiking trail was completely full. Robert dropped us off there and drove back a mile or so away to park in residential area.

In the meantime, I smothered Katya, Alex and Mark with sunscreen and got ready for our hike.

“Allow 1.5 hours from start to finish….” hmmmm, can Mark do it?

We started our journey on a pretty easy well-paved trail.

But pretty soon the trail turned into a more adventurous kind. By the way, do you see that blue dot in the middle? That is Katya. She decided to leave her family behind and hike as fast as she could. We stopped her half way (and unfortunately she got in trouble for that…this is not Japan after all).

Family picture at one of the lookouts. Mark is doing amazingly well!

And finally, a family picture on the very top. We made it! No one had a meltdown although it was really-really hot and everyone was thirsty.

We enjoyed the view from the top for a while and then headed down.

This is what the crater looks like if you were to take a picture of it from a helicopter. Amazing!

I believe our hike up and down took a little bit over an hour.  The kids were such great sports!

We grabbed some lunch from a place recommended by some travel books, Diamondhead Market and Grill (it was pretty good) and then headed home for some more beach time.

On the way back to Bellows, we took a more scenic route. These tall trees were amazing green walls on both sides of the highway.

We stopped at Nu Uanu Pali Lookout on the way. This place is one of the windiest places in Hawaii.

Kids had a lot of fun trying to not fly away.

This look out point gives one wonderful views as well.

Oh, there is so much beauty in Hawaii. Our pictures cannot possibly show you how truly amazing this area looks. Hope we can explore someday more of these beautiful places in Oahu.

The rest of the day we spent at the beach;) The end!