Tuesday, December 23, 2014

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. 



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