At the library from a grandma.  haha - not what you thought this post would be about. 

I was at the library doing some email, when an Chinese grandma sat down at the same table and waved at me.  I waved back and continued with my email.  Shortly after, I got up to leave for lunch when she waved at me again.  I thought she was just waving goodbye, so I waved back, but then she stopped me.  She asked if I was Chinese or Japanese; after I responded Chinese, she started speaking to me in Chinese.  It was the typical question of where you're from so I said my parents grew up in Taiwan.  Then she said we should become friends.  I was confused and thought I was misunderstanding her Chinese.  But, sure enough, she started ripping off a piece of paper asking for my name and number.  In my head, I was kind of protesting - friends with a grandma, what does that entail, what does that mean?  Plus I was now running late for lunch, so I was trying to hurry up the conversation.  I didn't want to be rude, either, so I said OK.  As she had me write down my information, I told her that I would be moving in two weeks, but she said it didn't matter.  Then she gave me her information.  She was even really diligent to get the spelling of my name and my phone number correct.  She was cute, but it's not just me that thinks this is random, right?

I went on a 7 day cruise in Hawaii – it was a great way to see the various islands, although I will say the accommodations could have been better.

Nevertheless, I was able to enjoy a quick cursory tour of Hawaii. Our itinerary consisted of
Day 1 - Land in Honolulu
Day 2 – Hilo (Big Island)
Day 3 – Maui
Day 4 – Maui
Day 5 – Kona (Big Island)
Day 6 – Kauai
Day 7 – Kaui
Day 8 – Oahu

In Hilo, we went to the National Volcano Park. It was neat to see the giant fissure caused by the volcano eruptions as well as the lava rocks and lava tube. It would have been really cool to actually see the lava flow, but that would require a long 11 mile hike with the whole family or me not getting seasick as we drove around the island at night. Oh well.






In Maui, I got to do the Maui Downhill ride, where they drive you up to the top of the Haleakala Crater and you coast down for about 20 miles. It’s beautiful scenery since you start at around 10,000 feet and go down to about 5,000 feet in elevation by the end of the ride. The switchbacks were beautiful (and a little scary in the beginning), and I can say I’ve officially ridden through a cloud now. We also went to a few beaches and to a luau. I was pretty impressed by the firethrower; he performed a lot of impressive tricks!