Tag: hawaii
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Whale Census
This weekend was the February Whale Count. Since we had a tsunami the weekend before, it was postponed. My day consisted of getting up around 5am, getting ready (including packing a bag with snacks, water, sun screen, sunglasses, a hat, etc) and heading out before sunrise to the Lanai Lookout, which is a spot on…
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The NoTsunami
This weekend was one of those rare events when the local weather personalities get to play at being TV stars and have most of the country hang on their every word. “What word is that?” you might be asking, if you had not turned on the news at all for the 48 hours that were…
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Maui Whale Tails
On Saturday, J and I flew to Maui to go whale watching. This sounds like a little bit crazy, especially since we didn’t spend the night, but Hawaiian Air offers reasonable prices for island hopping and it would’ve been expensive to stay somewhere on Maui, as it’s got a lot of resorts and things. Anyway,…
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The Smell of Rain Forest
It is the rainy season. Clouds hang low on the mountains so that you can’t see all of the sharp peaks, and the odd sunbeam that makes it through the surface makes the treetops almost glow. It doesn’t rain incessantly in a rain forest, but mists a lot with some occasional drizzle. The ground has…
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Giving in to the Geckos
I have finally caved to the geckos. Not the in sense that I am still not planning on shooing as many of them back outside as I can, but they definitely scored a point against me tonight. I was running late to get to the final write-in for NaNo, and saw a little gecko on…
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Hawaiian Sunsets
The sunlight filters through the tree branches behind my back yard and through the medium brown curtains in my dining room, turning them gold and iridescent. The wind has been blowing all day today, so the leaves are flowing across the kitchen walls and the dining room table and it’s just plain pretty. The sky…
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A 90 degree November
There are Christmas decorations everywhere. They seem to have exploded in the week or so since Halloween, which is becoming more and more typical these days, but I can’t help reminiscing for the days when Thanksgiving was its own separate holiday and not just the pre-Christmas meal. And now I sound really old. It’s true,…
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The Gecko Conundrum
The gecko. The gecko perfectly embodies the strangeness that is Hawai’i. To understand what I mean, you need some background information about these small creatures and my experiences with them. First, you need to know that I have cats. Two of them. One of them is content to spend her days sleeping on my bed…
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Pineapple Bliss
So, today I learned an important skill: the correct way to slice a pineapple like a kama’aina (local). Our story begins yesterday, when I realized I was craving fruit. We’ve been living on things like pasta and sandwiches waiting for things to settle in the house (I keep hoping they’ll magically put themselves away for…
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New House Walk-Through
We did an unofficial walk-through of the house on Friday so that I could take some photos and make notes of anything that needs fixing or that is not in “perfect” condition so I won’t get blamed for it later. We have an official walk-through with an inspector on Monday (tomorrow!), but as we’re also…
Joanna Volavka 