Going From Bone Chilling Cold Snow to Sweltering Hot Sand

After a whole day of skiing and facing the bone chilling winds and temperatures, we packed up our suitcases and loaded into the car. Where are we going? The airport. How about some nice hot wether for a change? Sounds nice right? Well, I think that someone forgot to mention that their tropical storms are freezing rain and high winds.   Other than that its great here, tropical paradise. This place is also packed full of tourists, and ABC stores... Never heard of that  store before? It is just like a fancy 7-eleven that is more like a mini market carefully stocked with all a tourist needs for life on the beach from snacks to staples and even beach towels and snorkel gear!    They are called ABC stores because that is a name that people can identify world wide no matter what your language is.  You will find one on every city street corner, they are hard to miss.  Honolulu is a big busy city but once you leave the city limits Hawaii is far more rural filled with beautiful beaches and small communities, it is just how I would imagine Hawaii.

Photo: Skiing at PCMR

Question: Describe Park City in five words?

Me: Cold, small, crowded, ski, and friendly

Photo: Taken with Gopro in Hawaii

Question: Describe Hawaii in five words?

Me: Warm, humid, friendly, salty, and small (ish)

When we arrived in Hawaii a wave of humidity fell over me, and instantly my hair seemed to curl and go frizzy. As we walked through the airport we were greeted by friendly  hawaiians. The airport according to my mom hadn't changed since she was there when I was only 6 months old. We stepped out to catch a taxi, but ended up waiting in a huge line, the taxi  driver we ended up with was very informative and funny. He drove us to my dads boat first, and then we headed to the first hotel we were staying in. The hotel was right next to the beach, and it towered a whole 33 stories, along with every other sky rise  in the city.. We stayed on a street that was filled with shops from one end to another and tourists who were avidly shopping from morning until night.    Amongst the modern shops and hotels there are two original hotels which are only a few blocks apart and both sprawl down to the ocean front.   The hotels were built in the early 1900's and were simply gorgeous inside and out.   The Royal Hawaiian is pink a landmark on the waterfront you can see it from anywhere along the beach areaI  I loved the feeling of history when you were inside the hotels.  The photographs they have hung up in their lobby's show the two hotels surrounded by native trees and beach, nowadays they are no longer surrounded by nature but they still stand out amongst the modern city buildings .

 I signed up for a surf lesson,  sadly it wasn't a big surf day so we ended up just hanging out with the instructors, on waves that were much to small to even catch. . I did learn a lot from them  about local surfing . My family and I snorkeled everyday past the sea wall and saw eels and many colorful fish. One of the days we went to the North Shore to look at houses with a real-estate agent named Pat, did I mention we are moving here for part of a year because of  my dads job? Yeah, I guess it's cool. It beats turning to ice in Park City.   Instead I will be tanning at the beach and surfing rather than skiing! We saw many interesting houses but only one caught our attention and we immediately fell in love with it, the house may be smaller but the view was amazing and the yard was huge filled with cool trees, there was even a pommegrante tree!. Hawaii isn't all that bad I guess. The school we are applying for is gorgeous and set at the bottom of a hill and the campus is huge! The name of the school is Le Jardin,  Overall, I think I'll enjoy Hawaii's many different  places,  spanning from small surf towns to huge cities packed with tourists. 

Tis The Season to Be Jolly

As most of you know, it is almost Christmas. (For those of you that celebrate Christmas) This time of year is all about giving and being kind to others, the Christmas spirit also brings joy to all and especially the ones who now will have a nice long break. The little kids go to visit Santa and tell him what they are wishing for Christmas, while others bake with friends and scream Christmas Carols at the top of their lungs. We also send friends and family Christmas cards! Many have different traditions that make the holiday that much more special. Some buy countdown calendars that are filled with chocolate, or little presents. The holiday is also a time to see family and spend time with others that aren't going to be around much longer. Christmas is a time of joy and happiness I am going to show some of my favorite things about christmas.

Photo: Red Bow

Photo: Christmas Candles

Photo: Santa Picture

Photo: Christmas Stockings

Photo: Christmas Tree

In my family we start out by decorating the house with lights and bows, then we wait till a couple weeks before Christmas to buy a tree. We then decorate our whole house with decorations from when we were tiny to the present day. Decorating the Christmas tree is a huge thing in my family and we all get together and spend time together for a hour to listen to Christmas Carols and hang up the decorations along the slim branches filled with small green pine needles. We put all the old decorations and the ones that we have collected for years on the inside of the tree and the new ones on the outside we hang the newest ornaments. We then start the adventure, of buying christmas presents for one another, for me it is nearly impossible for my siblings but my sisters always know exactly what to get me. I honestly don't see how they do it. When we finally reach the night of Christmas eve, we have our close friends come over for a huge dinner and then once they have left we read a story out of the bible, after we read the night before christmas in a pop up book form. After, we have done that we each choose a small gift to open and then head up to bed. 

Christmas Day

As usual my youngest sister is up at the crack of dawn to  see what Santa brought her then once she has made sure her stocking is equal with everyone else's she races up to each of our rooms and gives us a full explanation on our stocking before I can even peel myself out of bed. My sister drags us down the stairs and throws us into the living room to open our surprise. We usually have the same things in our stockings, but this doesn't discourage her. She hovers over our shoulders why we carefully pick out piece by piece, then when she is satisfied she glides upstairs with my parents stockings slung over her shoulder. She tips them out anxiously onto their chests and yells at them to " look!" You can imagine being the youngest and when Christmas rolls around being overjoyed with every minute of it. The only time she wasn't was when Santa brought her the wrong American girl doll and she cried, but at age three I would imagine that would be upsetting. Now it is her favorite and she brings is along with her, she says that her hair will be just as long as her doll when she's "so big." When my parents have come to their censes and we have woken up we all gather around the tree and separate the gifts into piles so they don't get confused, this takes quite a while, sometimes we mix up tags and cards so there is a bit of a quibble over that.

Utah The Worlds Greatest Snow (minus the snow part)

Hey! Everyone why don't you come to Park City and ski, you'll receive an experience like no other. Heres the surprise, you will get to ski on maybe 6 runs with twigs sticking out of the ground, and if you don't enjoy the skiing and fun of swerving around nature, we have runs made of pure plants and trees, I promise most ski resorts won't have as many as we do! With the newest partnership with the canyons we are the Epic resort, buy an epic pass and you will get to ski even more runs with no snow coverage! Have you seen anything like it... I mean we do have the greatest snow on earth but it is just hibernating and giving us the pleasure of scratching up our skis and tripping over loose rocks.

Picture: Google Images

Picture: Park City

Okay... So lets hear it from some locals, what are your opinions on the absence of snow in Park City? Also known as me, in my opinion the lack of snow is insane and very annoying. It is Decmeber as of now and the ground is hardly touched by snow. If we went back  a few years the Snow Plows would be working their butts off to clear the road but right now the chance of snow landing on the concrete is very minimal. I guess they get another season off. The ski resorts can barely manage the snow making for 6 runs, what will the adventurous tourist think that like to ski all over the mountain? Theres the Canyons also that barely have a few runs open and the snow is melting daily. If we don't get anymore snow then this town will fall apart, we rely on the tourist to come pay money to ski at our resorts that used to hold "The Greatest Snow On Earth", now we are lucky if it snows for an hour, a miracle would be a day. The impossible would be a week.  We also "love" Sundaces (money) films, they defiantly bring the town a lot closer (to killing tourist). I mean who doesn't love the city bus when is it packed to the brim and you can barely see the light, oh yes of course we do love the samples. Or at least the High Schoolers do. Well as you can see in my opinion Park City will fall apart with out their beloved snow.

Just letting you all know now, the picture on the front of the PCMR website lies. THERE IS NO SNOW. YET....