I’ve been bad at writing lately. In my defense, I’ve had company for nearly two weeks, and then entirely too much going on this weekend. Time for an update!

My sister came and spent 11 days with me, and we did more things than I can even remember all at once. We made a list to keep track of it all, even. Mostly you can see photos at the photo journal, but I’ll try and give you a little recap anyway. ^_^

The first thing we did was a little driving tour of the island (E got here on Sunday 5/16 very jet-lagged, so this was on Monday), where she discovered that lava rocks are sharp. E also discovered that Hawaiian sweet bread is yummy. I think we went through 3 loaves of it…

The next day I took her downtown and we walked around the zoo and then through Waikiki so we could look at all the tourists. There’s always something crazy going on down there. We had mahi tacos for lunch. Then we had malasadas. ^_^

Wednesday we went to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium and did most of her souvenir shopping (always good to get that done early). I don’t remember what else we did on Wednesday. I think it rained. I don’t have any pictures from that day, so maybe we got abducted by aliens. Who knows. Oh, wait, I think I spent a long time getting my phone fixed. Never mind.

Thursday, we went to the USS Arizona Memorial and I took her on part of the Navy base. We were supposed to have dinner with J, but he had to work late on this project that came up at the last minute… More on that in a bit.

Friday we drove to the North Shore, with a stop at the Dole Plantation along the way. We saw sea turtles and had shave ice, but the traffic was bad so we turned around at Waimea and came back toward home. That night we had J’s birthday dinner with some of our friends who live nearby.

After dinner, J got a phone call… and had to go into work on Saturday morning. He was there all day, until after dinner time. Maybe E and I went to the beach that day, but I don’t remember. I do remember that we got up on Sunday and J got called in to work on that same project, again. By Sunday afternoon we were all tired of J’s ship, but we got invited to dinner at our cousins’ house, and he did make it to that, which was nice.

Monday, E and I went horseback riding at Kualoa Ranch, which really deserves its own post. Maybe it’ll get one later this week. Kualoa is located along the Valley of the Kings, which is a famous filming location. Scenes from Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, Godzilla, Mighty Joe Young, Windtalkers, You Me & Dupree, and Lost have all been filmed there. It especially looks like Jurassic Park because of the wide open fields that seem like they ought to have dinosaurs wandering across them. Seriously. See?

Tuesday we went to the beach, then had dinner with J on his ship (and got a nice tour, too!), then we went downtown for the Magic of Polynesia show. It was pretty good. Oh, and Elvis was there. Surprise Elvis!

Wednesday we went hiking at Waimea Valley and saw ruins, beautiful flowers, and the waterfall. Thursday we went to the beach, and then E had, well let’s call them “adventures” getting home that night.

So that was her visit in a nutshell. We did a lot. I merely summarize.