Went | The Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

My nephew had a football game Saturday afternoon, so we figured the Aloha Stadium swap meet was a good way to kill some hours before the game. I wanted to find myself another lava lava (what my family calls a sarong), and see if they had any good souvenirs. 

Before we left, we rented some boogie boards for our Sunday trip to Waimea Beach. 

The swap meet did not disappoint. It was so hot, but we cooled off with shave ice, frozen bubble tea (the taro was delicious!), fresh cut mango and pineapple as we dipped into each tent. We ended up buying mostly food: macadamia nuts, taro bread, guava and coconut cake, and fresh cut coconut, but the day was worth it. Afterward, we all piled into the car and my nieces were asleep within minutes. 

This last photo makes me laugh because there's an almost identical picture of me and my older sister, Bea. We're at Six Flags, and I'm staring at the ice cream she's eating while eating my own ice cream. It was fun getting to see the sister relationship as these two get older. 

On travel, highlights, and jumping off of rocks.

Coming back from a long trip away, people always ask for the highlights. My friend Crysty, after a summer in Beijing reporting on the summer Olympics, told me, "I have so many stories, but they'll have to come out naturally. As I remember them, I'll tell you." It's only been two days since Mike and I got back from visiting my sister, brother-in-law, two nieces, and nephew in Hawaii, but I've already relived so many of my favorite moments on the grass in front of the MFA with Jenna and Katharine, or on the phone with Meg and Bea. I've always been a self-proclaimed homebody, so this deep love of going to new places feels like a secret part of me that I've been able to explore in the past few years. I always assumed that student loans and the lower end of the salary spectrum would keep me from seeing as many new places as I'd like, but every year I prove myself wrong.

So much of the trip felt like the highlights, even the next to the last day that we spent almost exclusively inside Nessa's house preparing food and watching a movie and hiding from the sun. I love the version of me that notices the moon; the girl who rolls the windows down as soon as the car has started, wraps her hair around her fingers and turns the music up. I love it when I am dancing in the living room trying to make my niece laugh, when I find myself genuinely impressed by the people my sister's kids have become in the months since I have seen them. I always bring so many books when we go to the beach, forgetting that I will always prefer to be among the waves rather than baking on a towel squinting into a book. I will stand at the top of a 40-foot rock, knees locked, calves weak, breath shallow, and then I will step forward, I will pinch my nose, and I will step off. I will yell, "Shit!" despite the crowds of children. I will apologize to the dad bobbing near me when I surface, pick my tremendous wedgie, and swim to the shore, still shaking.

Back from Hawaii.

Oahu is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. Beyond the ecstasy of being on vacation for a week and a half, I woke up early each morning ready to see more. We left defeated by the sun, our hearts and bellies full. We arrived on Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning we were exploring Hickam Air Force Base and Pearl Harbor, where my sister and her family live (it's fitting that Oahu is known as "the gathering place"). We visited the beach on the base, which was a nice first taste of the beautiful beaches we would see over the following week. My sixteen-year-old nephew complained about how crappy the beach was, but even the crappiest beaches on Oahu beat out the nicest beaches on the east coast. 

Before we left, Mike and I had a loose mental list of the things we wanted to do like drink a pina colada on the beach, jump off a rock into the ocean, hike up a mountain or crater, watch the sun rise and set, eat fresh sushi, to name a few. I can happily say that I feel like I soaked up as much as I could in the time we had there. We're already planning to go back before they're transferred somewhere else.

Where we're headed.

Did I tell you we're going to Hawaii? My brother in law was stationed there this past February, so Mike and I are taking advantage of having family on O'ahu, and we're going for a little over a week, starting today. I'm not the best at planning vacations—my strategy is to play it by ear—but we've been slowly wading through a couple of travel books on O'ahu in preparation. I'm immediately drawn to the history and cultural sections of the books, so while Mike is figuring out which beaches we should visit and where to find the best cliffs to jump off of, I've been filling him in on proper lei etiquette (don't take it off in the presence of the giver as that indicates you're rejecting the giver's affection; don't throw it in the trash, instead, take it apart and scatter the pieces with which it was made back to the earth), and the native Hawaiians' struggle with independence (still ongoing today).

This will be my last post until we get back, but I will bring you back stories and pictures and more freckles than you can shake a stick at. Enjoy these last days of summer; write down what you see, what you feel, what you hear beyond the whirring of your window fan.