Friday, May 11th: Diving!

Today we woke up at 5:30a.m. to go scuba diving. I thought we were going to drive there but it was close enough to walk to. While there I got fitted for a wet suit and mask. Later the boat got into the water and we got on board.

At the first dive site there were two coral reefs. At the coral reefs I saw a Hawaiian white spotted Toby, an orange band surgeon fish, and a lot of lau’i Pala yellow tang. My Mom saw a thread fin butterfly fish. On this dive I felt a lot different than when I was practicing my skills because I didn’t have to be looking at my instructor, watching for him to show me a skill every second of the dive. While going down you twist and turn and do not notice you are equalizing because you just do it naturally.

            On the second dive we went to a shipwreck that has green sea turtles. There was a red spiky sea cucumber and a black sea cucumber.  We swam through the shipwreck.  When my dad went in, a green sea turtle followed him.  My mom wished she had the camera at that moment because it looked like the turtle was thinking “my turn!” when he followed everyone else into the shipwreck. 

            My favorite part of the day was when we went into the shipwreck because it looked really cool in there and it was my first time going inside a shipwreck under water.  Now that I have my dive certification I can go diving next week with my dad and mom and my uncle Anthony. 

            Tomorrow my uncle Anthony graduates from medical school.  Now he is a doctor.  We feel very proud of him and we are excited for him to come to Hawaii with my auntie Amanda and their two children who are my cousins, Sydney and Cade.  They are coming here on Sunday.

 In the photo above you can see me on the dive boat.

 In the above photo is me with a turtle - without my regulator (I learned to do this for photos from my Dad).

In this photo you can see all of my dive gear.

Thursday May tenth: diving!

Today we (my grandpa, Uncle Dave, and I) went to Ulua Beach and did dive skills and swimming under water to get my dive certification. For the dive skills we took our regulators out under water and placed them back in our mouths, pretended that we ran out of air and used our buddy’s octopus, used our buddy’s octopus to swim to the surface, and swam to the surface without our regulators. While down there I found two starfish.   The first one was the size of the palm of my hand and the second one was the size of the circle made by putting your pointer and thumb together. 

After we swam back to the beach, we went to the dive shop and did our dive exams.  I only got two things wrong, but I passed. 

Next we went to Mama’s Ribs for lunch.  I had chicken and rice with jalapeño soy sauce. After that we just stayed at home (our condo) and relaxed. Tomorrow we are going diving at a shipwreck with turtles. I have been waiting to do this for five years!  The last time we came to Hawaii I was too young to dive so I snorkelled over top of the divers.

Wednesday May 9 2012: Road to Hana

Yesterday we went on a road trip on a road called the Road to Hana. This is a Road that winds

curving in a zigzag pattern through a forest with places to stop that have waterfalls, pools, and

walking trails in gardens and to bigger waterfalls than at the other stops.  At the first stop there 

was a fruit stand where you could get coconuts that you could drink the coconut water from.  It 

tastes really good with a slight amount of bitterness.

 At the next stop we went to a pool at the bottom of a small waterfall.  To get to the trail to the 

pool you have to climb over a small wall which is really fun because there are vines hanging 

over the wall and you can go up them like you are cliff-hanging.  Below is a picture of Miya and 

me climbing up the wall.

For lunch we went to a Thai food restaurant in Hana.  I thought the food there tasted great 

because it was freshly made and had mahi mahi fish in it.  Below is a picture of us at the Thai 

restaurant. 

 After Hana there is a park called Haleakala National Park with a trail that goes to a big water 

fall and another trail that goes to seven pools but the tide was too high to swim in the pools. So 

we went to the big water fall instead. On the way there was a banyan tree that you can climb on 

so I climbed to the big center of it but my mom wouldn’t let me climb any higher so I climbed 

back down to where my dad could pick me off of the tree branch I was dangling from and put 

me on the ground.   

After the banyan tree we walked through a giant bamboo forest.  When we 

were walking through the bamboo forest there was a slight breeze which shook the bamboo 

and made a beautiful sound.   

After we got back from the waterfall we drove back to the condo and had pizza for supper, went 

to sleep and woke up today.


Today I went to dive class and took a test about diving and we were going to go diving but the 

water was too rough to dive. So we ended several hours early and we studied the rest of the 

book about diving because the instructor told us to.


After lunch we went to Yogurtland which is a place where you get frozen yogurt.  My sister and 

I both think that they just say it’s yogurt but it tastes more like ice cream.  We like it so much 

because there are many flavors ranging from cookies, berries to just plain vanilla.  Once you 

choose your yogurt you can put toppings on it.  I like to put on it caramel cups and graham 

cracker crumbs.  Now we are waiting for supper.  To cook supper we go down to the grill 

outside (the grill’s name is “the banana grill”) and cook our meat and other stuff.  After we cook 

the food we bring it back upstairs to our condo and eat it.

Monday may 7 2012: snorkeling

Today I am going to talk about yesterday because we are having an inside day because too many people got sun burns and/or scrapes but we had a lot of fun. Yesterday we started the day by going snorkeling at a fish preserve.  While there I saw many fish, one of which was a puffer fish that was black with white spots, and another fish that the tail area was white and the front was black with a orange spot. But eventually I got freezing cold and had to hug my mom for warmth which gave her her daily workout (because hugging someone while snorkeling is hard work).  Eventually I got too cold to snorkel anymore.  On the way back to shore I scraped my knee on corral which stung but the worse matter was that I was so cold my lips were blue.  My sister had also gotten scraped on her elbow and thigh, and my grandma got cut on her hand. On the way home I sat in the car wrapped in a blanket. When we got home we had lunch then went to the beach across the street and I snorkeled and saw big chunks of  corral and found one surprisingly close to the edge of the water. After that we went to the pool for a bit and swam then came back to the condo for supper.  My favorite part of the day was when we went snorkeling at Kamaole beach because I went really far out in the water and found little pieces of corral without getting hurt.  While there I saw one fish swimming out of the corral.  He was brown with black spots.  Tomorrow we are going drive on the road to Hana.  On the way there we are going to find waterfalls with pools at the bottom of them and we are going to swim in them. 
In the video at the top of this post my mom is petting an octopus while diving.  The dive master is the one holding the octopus.

Saturday May 5 2012: swimming

Early this morning I didn’t want to get out of bed but my mom got me out of bed by saying she’ll make baked oatmeal when we come back from running. Before that she lifted me to my feet and said “get up.” in my ear. While we were running Dad was scuba diving off a boat.  When he was diving he saw a spotted eagle ray. We “ran” for 30 minutes. After that we went to the pool. While there I snorkeled in the pool and got accidently elbowed by my dad in the mask and got punched in the side of the head again accidently.

            Right now I’m studying about scuba diving so that I can go diving tomorrow and two other days at least. I need to study so I’m ready for my jr. open water Padi diving certification. While I was reading my study book I learned that you need to wash all your equipment after diving with fresh water so that salt and dirt won’t wreck it, I also learned that there are three types of buoyancy: positive, neutral and negative. Positive is when you displace less water than is around you. Neutral is when you place the same amount of water then is around you. Negative is when you displace more water then is around you. when you have positive you float , neutral you stay in one place, and negative you sink.  I also learned that BCD means buoyancy control device. A BCD is like a life jacket but helps you sink or float. Last night we went to Bubba Gump’s restaurant for supper and after that we went to the banyan tree in Lahaina and I climbed on it until I saw the no climbing sign which my dad took a picture of with me climbing on the tree in the background.

In the picture at the top of this post we are at the banyan tree and my sister photo-bombed me (photo-bombing is when someone jumps into your photo at the last moment).

Wednesday May second 2012: finally!!!

We have been in Hawaii for one day so far,  so far today I have gone for a half hour run with my mom, gone to the beach, and gone to the pool. When I was running with my mom we ran for 15 minutes then walked for five minutes, while I was in Vancouver we ran for ten minutes and then we walked for two and then ran for another ten minutes and then we walked for another two and then we ran for the rest of the rest of the 30 minutes. Today while we were at the beech my sister and I would go into the water and grab the sand which when we did so waves spin us around like tops, when I was done with the water spinning (the water doesn’t taste very good) I went up the coral reef to the tide pools were I found parts of a crab and two fish swimming in the tide pool. After lunch we went to the pool were I made a friend who’s name I forget.  He had these little sticks called diving sticks with a dolphin and a turtle on them that when you throw them in the water they float until one of the small holes gets water in to it and it sinks to the bottom of the pool where we would dive to and grab them.

May 1 Monday 2012: So Many Plane Rides!

Today we had to ride two planes. The first ride was two hours long (from Vancouver to LAX), but the second one was five hours long (from LAX to Maui). On the first ride I was still quite tired from the night before flight to Vancouver.  This allowed me to sleep easily but after the ride (from FSJ to Vancouver) I was wide awake and wanting something to do.  This resulted in me going ahead of the rest of my family and going outside when we were still supposed to be inside.  Right now I am on the five hour flight and quite jittery which is why I have already done some homework and am doing my blog and wanting this plane ride to be over. My interesting fact is that I learned today is that L.A.X. airport is very confusing and shaped like a horseshoe.  It has lots of different terminals and there is no signs and the terminals are not connected to each other. This made changing terminals very challenging.  We are finally in Hawaii and it is very exciting with all the birds and palm trees. It has been two years since we last came here and both my grandparents, my Aunt Amanda and Uncle Anthony, my cousins Sidney and Cade and Uncle David are coming too. I can’t wait to get to the beach!