~Grace & Roger~ 6.21.07~

Cousin got married at Turtle Bay on North Shore. It was a picturesque paradise wedding, overlooking the water, including the sunset too.





Snorkeling at Shark's Cove. Thankfully, no sharks.


Shrimp plantation. We ate out of this shrimp truck on the side of the road, and it was delish!
 

After lunch at the shrimp truck, we went on a hike to a waterfall. As Ian noted, small hike for small waterfall, but it was still a nice hike. Saw lots of new plants/flowers and birds.


Headed back to Sunset Beach for some swimming in the ocean, and of course the sunset.
 
That's Philip, Henry, Ben, and Iming running into what they thought would be cold water, but it turned out to be not so bad.

At Kualoa Ranch

You know how I love horses!

But even more adventurous, we went ATV-ing! through the filming sites of Lost, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the ride, but the scenery was incredible! Up the mountainside, through the valley, across a small brook, and overlooking the bay and Chinaman's Hat.
 

After ATVing, we were all dirty, but we went across the road to the park looking out on Chinaman's Hat.


If you've been to Hawaii before, you'll know what this hat is about... only the best convenient store ever! ABC Store on every block baby, probably even more frequent per square mile than Starbucks on the mainland.



Cousins at the Sheraton. This was the view from the guys' room, looking out towards Diamondhead. Come to think of it, I didn't go down to Waikiki beach at all during the trip, but the view was plenty refreshing. =) From my mom's and my room, we watched sea turtles from our balcony! You had to look really hard and wait for several minutes, but they'd come up for air and wave their flippers around. SO cool!

I must say, this trip to Hawaii was AWESOME! Many new and exciting things, i.e. Ben's first visit to Hawaii, ATVing, ocean view hotel room, sea turtles, shrimp truck, and MY COUSIN GOT MARRIED! So now I am cousins with Roger and Dan too! Family, fun, fishies, and freedom from school (well temporarily).. this vacation goes down as one of the best!
Where to next....?

I am currently very pensive about injustice and suffering. But until I have sorted out my thoughts (if ever), I'll make note of a happier occasion:

Happy Birthday to Ben! We had a wonderful weekend in LA. Went to Venice Beach with Ben's homies, ate some Lee's sandwiches, played bright-pink-Venice frisbee, and then the best part: we rented a tandem bicycle and biked up to Santa Monica along the beach. Tandem bicycling should be considered a new form of the trust game. When I was seated, I couldn't see in front because Ben was blocking my view. But then I figured out that I didn't have to pedal, so I just stood up on the pedals to look over Ben's shoulder. So I had quite a fun ride as Ben steered and braked and did most of the pedaling. Riding a tandem bike was a new and exciting experience in itself, but enjoying the scenic route of the bike path between Venice and Santa Monica, and the diverse vendors and street shows along the beach front, this was the most fun I've had in a long time. To make it even better, Chris rented a "chopper" which is this elongated tricycle, which even more hilariously was falling apart and made a ridiculous falling-apart sound as he pedaled.
After the beach, we went home to a birthday dinner for Ben, where all his friends and relatives were gathered. It was a great reunion of his friends from high school and college, and I got to meet Ben's half-cousins too.
On Sunday, we visited my brother and chatted over Cinnabon and Pretzels.


Ben's farmer tan. Gotta fix that before Hawaii!

We rode to Santa Monica on a tandem bike!


Here are Chris and Ben on the bike in front of the original Hot Dog on a Stick. Look how happy Ben is!

 
Ben's cake before, during, and after. That's what happens with you let Ben cut a cake =P

Thankful for family and friends, and precious moments shared with them.

Then: When I was in elementary school, my mom took me to the San Diego Wild Animal Park thinking that it was the world-famous San Diego Zoo. We were visiting friends in LA, and we drove down to San Diego, but of course, as you're going south on I-5, the first sign you come across is San Diego Wild Animal Park. Little did we know that the real zoo was more south, down by Balboa Park. Anyway, we went to the Wild Animal Park and honestly, it seemed rather shabby for "world-famous," and I was quite underwhelmed by the exhibits as I rode the tram. The one cool thing I remember was seeing a flamingo standing on one leg. I think the only real reason why I remember ever going to the Wild Animal Park was because my hamster died that day. You see, after visiting what I thought was the zoo, I called my dad (who was babysitting my hamster back home) to tell him about the animals that I saw. But he told me that my hamster, Marshmallow, died that day, and I cried, so loud and hard that my mom took the phone away from me so that my dad wouldn't feel too bad. Long story short, or is it already too long?, my dad buried my hamster in a shoebox under the apple tree (because Marshmallow liked apples), and I have always associated San Diego Wild Animal Park with my hamster.

Now: Ben and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for our 3-year anniversary. We have this tradition of going to a touristy place on anniversaries. First year was California Science Center for the Body Worlds Exhibit, and second year was the Huntington gardens and library. This year, as we were in San Diego, the options were Sea World, Zoo, or Wild Animal Park. I chose Wild Animal Park because I heard that it's new and improved, plus there is a fatty student discount annual pass for both the Zoo and the Park. And, I must say, bravo San Diego, much better now. There are new exhibits, like Journey Into Africa, where we got to see a lot of the animals that I saw on safari in South Africa, only here they were much easier to spot. There are also opportunities to feed giraffes, but the giraffes were not hungry by the time we walked over to the feeding area on the other side of the park. It's okay though; I just marveled at them from a distance. Also saw lions, l'elephants!, gorillas (did you know?: it is not polite to stare at gorillas! just as it is not polite to stare at people), springbok, a half-zebra creature, and a duck with a fro.



And of course, this trip to the Wild Animal Park was brought to you by the number 3.

In case you can't tell what that is.. it is a funfetti cake with funfetti frosting and sprinkles. Except, I used the sprinkles to spell out Mieh-Bing is 3! Chopsticks are so useful, and yes, I spent way too much time positioning the teeny tiny specks of sugar, but this was fun, yah? And yeah, I totally ate most of that cake. But it's okay, because I joined 24 Hour Fitness and you really can find me at the gym (sometimes)!