Making up for lost times

With only a week to go, I feel pretty badly that I haven't been keeping up with this blog in the last month. So, I'll try to recap a bit, and mostly give pictures of the great things I've been doing...

One week after Hopu, my PARENTS came to town for Thanksgiving! In their time here, we did a lot of hiking and island exploring. Sunday Funday was dedicated to them, as the girls met us at Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling:

We then headed up to the North Shore, watched some very skilled child surfers, and then made our way to a wonderful beach for sunset. While there, we saw this INCREDIBLE mother sea turtle nesting and laying her eggs. Micki made sure we gave her a lot of space, but we did get this photo:

Thanksgiving day itself was spent hiking here, which was pretty incredible:

Overall, it was a great trip. I am feel so grateful that they were able to take off work and make it over here to see the Island and see what I've been up to. (I even took them to Ultimate a few times!)

Since they've left, I've been trying to make the most out of my remaining time here. The following Sunday Funday, I went with the girls, to Ka'ena point, which is at the northwest point of the island. Here are some pictures, although it was pretty difficult to capture the beauty of the place on film...


It's such a stunning place! It's also an albatross sanctuary, so I got to see this lady, also nesting and laying her eggs, probably:


This Sunday Funday was especially great because Emily Shaw, a recent Haverford grad and friend, was in the area and was able to join us! I'm glad we were able to have a full and beautiful Sunday with her there, too!

Since then, I've had a lot of photo-less adventures. Last Saturday, I woke up and rode my bike to my favorite beach right below Diamond Head. I had never biked there, let alone biked that far in Honolulu, so it was a bit of an adventure, and I got a bit off-track. In that detour, I stumbled upon a huge farmers market, and bought the most delicious local tangerines. It was excellent to have a whole morning to myself, being outside and having my own personal adventure.

Now, classes are over, and I just have to battle my finals next week. I'm feeling pretty sad that I have to spend this last weekend and last week caught up in academic endeavors, but it looks like it might be a grey and rainy weekend, so I won't be too tempted to play outside...

The goal now is to manage my time well enough to get all my studying done, conquer my finals, and still squeeze out a few more adventures... Hope to post a little more before leaving, too!