Christmas Eve: playing in the sand // Christmas Day: playing in the snow

On Christmas Eve, our last day in Hawaii, we spent the afternoon at the Honolulu Zoo, the evening sitting on the Waikiki Beach and the night flying back to Portland. While we sat with our toes in the sand, watching people swimming in the Pacific Ocean and hearing people wishing one another a Merry Christmas we felt so strange...we were sitting on the beach in 75 degree weather on Christmas Eve!!! It didn't make sense!

Ieva playing with the goats in the petting zoo

Andrew & Ieva in front of a huge Banyon tree

And then...

We went to sleep on a plane & woke up in Portland where we drove from the airport to Andrew's grandparents home in The Dalles where there was snow on the ground! We didn't exactly go out & play in it (it was a relatively thin layer), but it gave us a white Christmas nonetheless! Yahoo!

A week in photos...

As of yesterday evening, we've been in Oahu for a full week already! And we still have 3 full days left! Woo-Hoo! Below you can see what we've been doing...

FRIDAY: Ieva's first day on the beach in Waikiki

FRIDAY: Hannah, Andrew & Ieva at Hannah's Travel Industry Management (TIM) graduation banquet (Ieva liked the egg rolls!)

SATURDAY: Andrew, Vicki & I hiked to the top of the Diamond Head Crater - the view of Waikiki was amazing!

SATURDAY: We did a BBQ at a park in Waikiki on Saturday to celebrate Hannah!

SUNDAY: We found Hannah in the crowd of graduates!

MONDAY: Ieva playing in the sand on Lanikai Beach in Kailua

TUESDAY: we had plate lunches at the popular Hawaiian food chain Zippys - Ieva loved the pastries!

TUESDAY: Hannah starts to pack her stuff - I guess Ieva's going back in a box!

WEDNESDAY: On our drive out to Waimea Bay on the North Shore, we stopped at Kualoa beach

WEDNESDAY: After playing in the waves, we stopped at Giovanni's shrimp truck for the North Shore's famous shrimp - yummy!

THURSDAY: Ieva & I take a dip in the pool in the back yard of our rental house - notice the owners dogs behind us - Ieva loves them!

Hawaiian Geography

I (Kim) knew very little about the geography of the Hawaiian Islands before this trip. We are staying on the island of Oahu, which is the home of the busy city of Honolulu. Of Hawaii's overall population of 1.3 million, the island of Oahu is home to nearly 900,000. The University of Hawaii is in Honolulu, in the region of Waikiki. We stayed in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment on a busy street a few blocks from the 40-floor hotel where Hannah lived. Honolulu is a city of diversity. On the same street I saw a pick-up truck with 2 big Samoan guys riding in the back, women walking decked out in Chanel from their heels to their jewelry, tan blond guys on bmx bikes with surf boards under their arms & middle-aged tourists with camera dangling from their necks. Not to mention the joggers, the homeless and all the women pushing baby strollers. There were A LOT of people in Honolulu and we were glad to get out of there on Sunday after Hannah's graduation.


We drove the coastal route around the southern end of the island to the much more rural city of Kailua where we're spending the rest of the week. Here, there is more green space than people. There are no 40-story buildings. In fact, the tallest thing I've seen in Kailua's downtown is the 2-story Macy's department store.

Since being here, we've been to Lanikai beach - considered one of the most beautiful beaches on Oahu. On Tuesday we went to Kailua beach - just down from Lanikai - and rented a tandem sea kayak. The waves were too high to go out to the bigger of the 2 off-shore accessible islands, but we were able to kayak to the flat island - a small, flat lava rock island which also houses a bird sanctuary. The kayaking was great, until we were taken by surprise by a wave that knocked us out & over the edge. It's a good thing we were essentially on the beach - close enough for us to provide some good entertainment for the sun bathers watching.
Us at the Kialua Beach

On Wednesday we drove out to the North Shore - the part of the island known for big waves & good surfing. For all our LOSTaholic friends, we went to the Waimea Bay Beach which is across the street from the filming location of the 1st season of LOST. There's nothing left giving us any indication that the filming was done there, but the mountains towering above the beach did look familiar in an eerie kind of way. The waves at Waimea Bay were pretty big - the red warning flags were out on the beach - and gave us some of the most fun wave playing we've had in Hawaii yet! (Don't worry - Ieva stayed on the beach with Grandma & Grandpa.)

Waimea Bay Beach on the North Shore

Today after Ieva & I got time playing in the pool at our rental house, Andrew, Vicki & I went to Oahu's best place for snorkeling: Hanauma Bay. The landscape was breathtaking and the fish were surprisingly tame. The coral reef was really shallow in a lot of places, making it difficult to not touch it, but the colors & types of fish were amazing to see at such close range.

Looking down into Hanauma Bay - the best snorkling on Oahu!

Tomorrow we'll go back to Waikiki to take Ieva to the Honolulu zoo! More photos to come soon...

Our reason for being in Hawaii: Hannah!

Some of you may have been surprised to hear about our Christmas travel plans to Hawaii this year...but we wanted to be sure you knew that we were here for more than just the chance to learn how to say "Mele Kalikimaka" (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian) & to get tan.

Today, Andrew's sister Hannah graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a degree in Travel Industry Management (TIM). On Friday evening we joined her in a smaller ceremony for her classmates in the TIM program. It was cool to meet some of her friends & instructors & hear about some of her goals for the future when each of the graduates were individually introduced. There was also an incredibly delicious Hawaiian "heavy pupu" or what we would have considered a buffet. On Saturday, we had a family BBQ to celebrate at a local park in Waikiki, complete with marinated raw fish & octopus on Hannah's request. Then this morning we decended upon U of H's campus with a few thousand other family members to watch the ceremony & cheer for our graduate. I had never been to a graduation ceremony that large - despite it being a small one for U of H since it was a mid-year graduation with roughly 1,000 students recieving diplomas of some kind. The commencement speaker was especially interesting to me, as he is a native Samoan and talked extensively about his upbringing there. After the ceremony, we joined in the parade of family members heading to the soccer field to greet our graduates & take photos in 85 degree weather.

In Lithuania, the tradition is to give graduates flower bouquets. Some students will have so many flowers in their arms that they seem almost overtaken by them. Here in Hawaii, the tradition is to give graduates lei necklaces to wear. Hannah was wearing one during the ceremony (as were many students), but out on the soccer fields was where the rest of the "leing" took place. There were even lei booths set up selling leis made out of everything from native hawaiian flowers to shells to candy. It was amazing to see the diversity in them. And, like in Lithuania, some students recieved significantly more leis than others, but instead of having to hold them in their arms, they piled them around their necks nearly covering their faces! Hannah came away with a solid 8-10 leis beatifully decorating her neck.

All in all, it was great to be able to see Hannah in her academic context and to celebrate her accomplishments with her. And being surrounded by the surf, sand & palm trees hasn't been too shabby, either!

Half way around the world...

Our Christmas vacation has officially begun! After over 25 hours of airline travel, we finally arrived in Honolulu this evening. We're exhausted, so we're heading to bed, but we wanted to let you all know that we made it! We'll write more & post photos later! Thanks to all of you who prayed for our travels - especially for Ieva - in general, she did great!

Merry Christmas at LCC!

The annual Christmas program at LCC came & went this past weekend. Over 100 staff, faculty & students were involved in telling the traditional story of Christ's birth through music, dancing and drama. It was a fantastic time and over the course of the 2 evening performances, we had over 1000 people in attendance!

Merry Christmas a little early!

Thanks for the "Buh"

In our last post we talked about our tradition of going to McDonald's for a Pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner (really just a "feels like home" moment) but that's not all the turkey day happenings that we have been able to generate here in our fifth year in Lithuania.
Almost every year we have been able (or suckered into) to cook a relatively major thanksgiving dinner for some group of people be it all of the study abroad students (American students who come for a semester to LT), for our Life Groups (first year student classes that Kim and I taught and are teaching), our friends or this year, our Tri-S group, a small group of American students that we get to play Mom and Dad to for a semester. Beyond that we have the Internet so we can see pictures of the Macy parade and if I want to stay up late enough I can watch NFL games live on a Swedish television channel that we have, so I got to watch Dallas destroy Tampa Bay live along with all of you back home. Things have certainly become more normal but I have to admit (as I am watching Atlanta who just beat Washington live) it sure helps that I can watch American sports from time to time.

So anyway, back to this years thanksgiving dinner with our Tri-S group. We meet with them about once a month for Spiritual Sustenance and Soup (Tri-S) which is designed to give them a place to chat or vent about their experience with someone older that has probably experienced the same or similar things. Our group is great and one night in early November we were with them and casually asked if they would like to have a thanksgiving dinner with us and they jumped at the chance. So on Friday after Turkey day, Kim and I whipped together what is steadily becoming "Our Thanksgiving Dinner" which included a Turkey, Massive amounts of Mashed potatoes and gravy, a Pumpkin Pie, Green Bean Casserole, New Orleans Corn Pudding, Bread, Stuffing from scratch (thank you allrecipes.com) etc. To some of you that might sound normal but if you've seen our kitchen, it is kind of a feat. We do have the worlds weirdest oven and stove top which is either on High or OFF so cooking things that require delicate cooking conditions is a challenge. However, it was again a huge success and I continue to marvel at Kim's ability to envision such a big meal and to make it happen so successfully (have you ever cooked two casseroles and a Turkey in the oven at the same time?) Ok, so she had some help, but really you have to give her all the credit.
After this meal we still had the Staff and Faculty dinner (Lunch) on Sunday afternoon which is where we all get together as a community and share a big meal and finish that up with decorating LCC's buildings for Christmas. Kim usually is the instigator behind the decorating and was again this year. The process goes pretty quickly when you have 20 people or so to hang lights, decorate fake trees, (Sorry Oregonians, it wasn't my idea) hang garland and other Christmas accouterments.

Overall the season feels like it should. We are reminded of what we have been given, what we are blessed with, what we miss when loved ones aren't here and what we have to look forward to in the future. It was fun this year to have Ieva at a stage where she can enjoy the food too, even if she couldn't name anything that she's thankful for. Although sometimes she is pretty thankful for this thing called "Buh". We're still working on that but maybe she's got it right and "Buh" means "everything" and isn't that what we're supposed to be thankful for anyway.

This post was written by Andrew. He does have a degree in Communication and he does know how to use a computer.