Aloha!!
So, lets see-where do i pick up? I'll start from the beginning of this week-Sunday Patrick, Kathey, and I went to St. Theresa's Catholic Church (i thought it started at 9 so we pulled up about 8:50 only to find out mass didn't start til 9:30-oops!). Church was different-but a Catholic mass nonetheless. It started like this-as we 3 sat down an usher man came to us and sat in front of us and said "aloha guys-where are you visiting from? blah blah...well i have to ask you a question" (dun dun dun...) "will you walk the gifts down for us today?" hahaha we were so nervous he was going to tell us to move, but no-apparently someone is up there looking down on us because we were probably the most random choice of gift bearers (we must stick out like a sore thumb here...southerners, sigh). Also, mass started by saying "Aloha" instead of good morning...i kind of enjoyed that thoroughly. After mass they had a buffet breakfast supporting the Knights of Columbus, so we stuck around for that of course. I wish i had taken a pic of breakfast; it was insane!! sausage, bacon, ham, another type of sausage, pancakes, eggs, white rice, fruit cups, etc. and they gave you ALL of it!
Then on Sunday Patrick and I decided to go to "Little Beach" around sunset because they were having fire dancers. (Little Beach=the nudee beach) Here a few pics...
Little Beach
the sweet fire dancer lighting our way down the hill
That was something i had never experienced before and probably never will anywhere else. I will try to post a video...there is one i wish i could put on here-although, it is a little vulgar, so i will spare you. Always sendable though-let me know if you're interested. ha. The video didn't work-i can e mail if you are interested!
We signed a lease on our new cottage last week so we were able to move in Yesterday (Sept. 1st)! We are SO happy and we love it!! it is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage with a full kitchen (fridge, oven, etc) and a full bathtub (kind of hard to come by)! It also has AC (3 window units-in each bedroom and in the living room) but no one really uses their AC here. August is the hottest month, so during the afternoon it can get almost unbearable inside, but all you do is go outside and do something cool (there is ALWAYS a good breeze where we are, so its nice outside 24/7). Last night was our first night here and we had the windows open mostly. We did turn on the AC for about 30 minutes before we went to sleep, though-and it got so cold we didn't need it any longer. Pretty cool. Our cottage is located on someone else's property-their house is behind us along with their other Ohana (usually a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment type place attached to someone's house) downstairs. Our landlords are pretty cool-in their early 30's and from Cali. They have been super helpful. Enjoy pics of our cottage...
the street front view of our cottage
under our garage view (side door)
our side patio
just a side view of it all (you can see part of the house behind us)
our very own washer/dryer outside the cottage
our living room (you can see out the front door)
our kitchen
bathroom
actually a very large closet space!!
a view looking down the "hall" left door is bathroom, straight and right are rooms
So far we LOVE it!! Please come visit-plenty of room! Fold out couch as well!
On Tuesday we went to Lahaina (the west side of the island). It is very touristy, but they have an awesome "strip mall" which is actually like walking down the streets of New Orleans, i think (plus the awesome view here). It would be a good place to visit and shop. We went to Black Rock, a beach in Lahaina where a lot of people snorkel and there is a big black rock that people jump off of. Unfortunately we didn't jump that day-but one day, soon. While snorkeling, though, we saw 2 HUGE, amazing sea turtles. They had to be about 40 years old. They are SO big and beautiful here. We want to invest in an underwater camera soon so that we can show everyone. We also saw some gorgeous fish! I have never seen anything like these-so bright and colorful, some even neon! Really cool. sicky sicky.
Black Rock
beach at Black Rock
chillin hard
whatuppp
Ok here are more sunset pics-this time from Lahaina beaches...
goodbye sun!
Some fun facts from our trip so far...
+the max speed limit over here is 45mph
+wearing your seatbelt is a law as well as no talking on the phone while driving
+during the day it is around 80-85 degrees, while at night it is in the 70's
+people in costco are VICIOUS!
+a 30 pack of Bud is $20, while a 30 pack of nasty light is $14
+cats are a HUGE commodity over here-everyone has 1 (or 2 or 3 or 50)
+there is a great public bus system (only $1 a ride)
+taxes here are only 4%
+wine is pretty cheap (a $25 bottle at home was only $8 here), but no crane lake
+it hardly ever rains, ever...
+no snakes whatsoever, however there are centipedes that supposedly crawl in your bed and furrow there (we have yet to experience this, knock on wood)
+the food is AMAZING-and they have a mexican restaurant named Fred's that has taco tuesday with all kinds of tacos-cheeseburger (with fries inside) tacos, buffalo chicken tacos, shrimp tacos, mahi mahi tacos, fried calamari tacos, fried chicken tacos, etc...
A few more random pics to enjoy...everyone keep praying for us-especially for jobs and safety! Love you all,
my Keen's-i love them (and they are outside because we don't wear shoes in our casa)
lookin good-out on the job search
for hal-this was at Fred's (taco tuesday place)
Mahalo, Aloha!
Lacey and Pat
