The Most Hawaiian Isle

This post is dedicated to amazing places I saw on Molokai. They call it the "most Hawaiian isle" because it is the most untouched by commercialism. There isn't a single traffic light on the island... that would be because there's no traffic! Rush hour? What's that? The one main town has one main street. The island has one main road. It was the perfect antidote to too much Bay Area! Here are the pics to prove it...

If you follow the main road as far as you can go east on the island you end up at Halawa Valley and Bay. There's a waterfall back there and the river winds down the valley until it meets up with the ocean at a black and tan sand beach.
If you follow the main road as far as it will go west, you end up at Popuhaku Beach, an amazing 3 mile stretch of golden sand and aquamarine water. Just be warned - the wind whips the sand up so fast - your legs will get a blasting! See who is on the beach? That was it.
Most of the west side of Molokai is this beautiful contrast of bright green vegetation and bright red soil. The ocean on the north is in the background.
If you take the one section of the main road that branches off to the middle north of the island you end up at the top of the highest sea cliffs in the world and in the middle of a forest. Here we are hiking to a lookout where you can see the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the north side of the island.
Also on the north side of the island, to the west of the sea cliffs, you find Moomomi, a series of beaches and sand dunes. Again, I loved the contrasts - red soil, tan sand, and black rocks. The spot just behind the big rock in the water was great for swimming.
Molokai was an amazing place!

The Books of June

I realized that it's a new month now! The end of June just flew by - it'll do that on a tropical island (or three). And I did get some good reading in last month! Here are the books...

Flipped - Wendelin Van Draanen - I absolutely LOVED this book! Recommended by my sister and daughter I picked it up this month and couldn't put it down. Not only is it a fun boy/girl story it has some really thought provokers. Read this one!

Chasing Redbird - Sharon Creech - I've read almost all of her books now and picked this one up as a quick read at the end of school. Like many of her books, it's about a girl and a journey she goes on and what she learns along the way. A good read.

Chicken Boy - Frances O'Roarke Dowell - It's so fun to read a book from a young man's perspective. This one has great characters and a narrator you just love. Lot's of funny dialog too. My favorite line was, "You can hypnotize a chicken - but why would you want to?"

Fire Study - Maria Snyder - The third book in the Poison Study series and it keeps up with the rest. Thankfully this one had almost no adult moments. Pretty sure another one is coming out and I'm waiting for it!

Austenland - Shannon Hale - This was pure fun fluff! I got it to read on the airplane to Hawaii and nearly finished it by the time I got there. It's short and sweet. For any Jane Austen fans... especially those for whom Mr. Darcy makes their socks go up and down... it's a must-read.

Nobody's Princess - Esther Friesner - I picked this one up off the New Book shelf at the library and was very happy with the gamble. It's a retelling of Helen of Troy (Sparta) and follows Helen before she gets "abducted". The next part of the story is in Nobody's Prize - I've got to get my hands on this one next.

To Hawaii With Love: Spy Goddess Series #2 - Well... I picked this one up simply because I wanted to read a book in Hawaii that was set in Hawaii. It was pretty funny but very predictable. Besides, it took place on the Big Island and I haven't made it there yet.

Remembered Death - Agatha Christie - Well, I ran out of books on vacation with three days to go. Luckily, the condo we stayed at on Molokai had several shelves of books in the pool cabana. Needless to say, the vast majority of them were romance novels or other unreadables, but I did find one Agatha Christie mystery. I read almost every single one when I was younger, but time and age have made me forget whodunnit. So I picked this one up and thoroughly enjoyed the mystery all over again. ANY Agatha Christie is a good read!

That's it for June... on to July!

'Ohana

This post I thought I'd get a few fun family pictures in...

My dad, boogie boarding at Laie Beach!

The cousins at Waimea Valley.

My grandma (Oma) and mom at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

My dad and sister at the PCC.

Me and my sisters at the PCC. (Can you tell I was trying to take the picture?)

Aloha Again!

I'm back! What a trip! I think I've got enough pictures to do several posts over the next week. So, the first one will be... amazing places on Oahu.

Here was the view from our lanai... this greeted me every morning. (Looking north from Laie Point.)

This is the Byodo-in Temple in the Valley of the Temples (east side of Oahu). Beautiful place! Be sure to ring the giant bell for luck.

We hiked into Waimea Valley to the falls (a trickle this time of year) and the tropical landscape was unbelievable!

We took a boat out to a submarine in Waikiki bay. Here's a view back at Diamond Head crater. Yes, the water really is that color.

Last, this is sunrise on June 21 - the Summer Solstice. My daughter and I got up to greet the sun from a beach just south of Laie Point.

Aloha!

Aloha (the goodbye kind) to home, school, work, foggy mornings, and my kitty (sniff)...

and

Aloha (the hello kind) to beaches, sunsets, snorkeling, and lots of reading time!

I'll be back in two weeks with lots of pictures!!

Across the Finish Line!

I made it! And I'm still in one piece (I think).

Yesterday was the last day of school. Today was my last day of student teaching seminar classes. I am officially finished with my student teaching! It feels very unreal. This is the day I've been looking toward for months. Now that it's finally here... it's just hard to believe. Am I still dreaming that it's today? No, it really is!

The trick now is to figure out what my next step is on the path to becoming an elementary school librarian. Well, that will have to wait two weeks because...

I'm off to Hawaii!

Celebrated.

It's not a 5th grade graduation... because technically you don't graduate. They're just moving on to middle school next year. So they call it the 5th grade celebration. OK, so my son is "celebrated".

Other than the 90 degree weather (hot for here) it was a lot of fun. The 5th graders sang a cute song they learned at Science Camp this year. Here is the chorus:

And I was thinking maybe somewhere later down the road
After all our stories have been told
I'd sit and think of you, a dear friend I once knew
Shot through my life like a shooting star

Isn't that how it is with life? People come and go through the skies of our lives like shooting stars. Our paths are always crossing. We enjoy one another for a season and then time moves, we move, the planet moves...

Celebrate it!