Live a "fruitful" Life

Life has been... fruity!  As I was getting together all of my pictures to blog, I realized they are all pretty much pictures of fruit.  Gotta love it.

These starfruit and baby bananas came from the University's student organic farm.  We can't get more local produce than that.  The starfruit is delicious- Cody especially loves it.  After his first bite his eyes got so big, and you could tell he was just loving it.  He said we have to grow one of these trees in our yard when we can... good thing they are one of the easier tropical fruit trees to grow in your backyard.

Today in my tropical fruits class, we learned about (and tasted) breadfruit and jackfruit.  Breadfruit are most commonly known in Micronesia, Samoa and Tongan areas- they are the starch staple in those locations.  You typically bake this fruit (that's how we tasted it) just like you would a loaf of bread.  This is the remains of some breadfruit from class:

The Jackfruit was delicious!  I don't have a picture of it- and it is a very complex fruit to prepare to eat.  But if you feel curious you should google image "jackfruit"- they can grow up to 120 pounds!  They are big guys!  They are one of those fruits where most of the fruit is not edible, and there is just a small portion that actually is- nevertheless still yummy.

Cody and I went on a date night to Shokuda Japanese Restaurant last night.  It was amazing!  It was the best ramen Cody has ever had- and it was one of the most quality Japanese dishes I've ever had.  I'm so excited to go to Korea and have authentic Japanese and Korean food- it's gonna be amazing!  How can I ever eat those dishes prepared in Utah? Just sayin...

Last Saturday I went to work at the student farm to earn some extra credit.  Cody came along for "moral support."  His efforts were rewarded though- he found two potatoes he was able to take home and eat.  One was a sweet potato I have never seen before!  It is like bright purple!  Apparently it was awesome, Cody said.  That is another crop we want to grow in a potential future garden.

Oh wow, I hope I didn't make y'all hungry reading this.  Oh well- I definitely believe food is one of those things that goes beyond physical, but is emotional and good for the soul.  Cody and I love eating amazing food!

This City is my Jungle Gym

"This city is my jungle gym" are lyrics by Jack Johnson.  Maybe Honolulu inspired him with this song?  Who knows- but I have felt like that lately.  I have been really able to experience the "jungly" side of Hawaii if you will.  Not hanging by the beach- but been able to be in the middle of Oahu and explore the mountains (just another beautiful aspect of the islands)

Cody and I hiked Manoa Falls.  There are some incredible trees, that are so old we can't even make a guess how old they are.  The trees in the Rocky mountains are all vertical usually, but here anything goes.  The trees grow in every which way.  Here is Cody in a tangle of limbs.

The trees naturally grew in such a way that it created a little passageway for us.

The steps up to the waterfall:  We were lucky it was a dry day, so it was only kinda muddy.  Usually it would be raining- it is a very rainy part of the island.

 Manoa Falls

 It was my first time hiking in the rainforest, and let me tell you, it's clastrophobic!  You're surrounded by such heavy vegetation, and there is so much moisture in the air.  When there was a clearing in the trail, it was such a breath of fresh air!

Another moment when I really love the mountains is when I am at the student organic farm.  When I am up there (for my organic farming class) I just love looking at the skyline and the beautiful green mountains.  I had to go outside of class time last week to take measurements of the temperature of my composting pile.  The pile was 151 degrees F.  (Which is really good and completely normal apparently)  Cody came up with me and I showed him around.  Here I am taking measurements, and showing off my eggplants.

The fun thing about my organic farming class is that we go on several field trips.  Today was our first one, and we went to "Petersen Egg Farms".  That's all I knew about it before going.  Silly me- I thought we were visiting the egg/chicken farm- but it was actually all about worms!  The Waikiki Worm Co. uses the soil under the chicken coops because the chicken poop is full of such nutrients and the moisture content at that location is so ideal for worm harvesting and vermicomposting.  It was actually a really fascinating thing to learn about.

Mindy is the head of this operation, and she really inspired me.  She is very active in the community and has been able to initiate this worm bin operation into several local elementary schools.  The school uses their own organic food waste (paper, cardboard, food) to contribute to their worm bin, or school garden if they have one for composting.  They are recycling and reusing all their waste; their mission is "zero waste."  It's great for the students to learn about this and be actively involved; it's great for the environment because they are reusing all their waste instead of throwing it away as trash; it's great for the schools because they actually earn profit off their byproducts and it helps with school fundraisers and things like that; and the produce grown from the school farms the children can take home- this is especially critical in very low income areas of Hawaii.

As you can tell, I am pretty pumped and persuaded by the things she is doing and the difference she is making here in Hawaii.  It inspired me, and I hope I inspired you, to be more active in your community and try to live and contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle!


P.S. We, yet again, went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay!  This time Cody was able to really see a sea turtle!  (Now we just want to actually swim with one)

C'est la vie in Hawai'i

Cody and I were able to go to the Laie Hawaii Temple this last Saturday.  It was a really wonderful experience.  The temple is absolutely gorgeous- inside and out.  We were also able to participate in some sealing ordinances for married couples who didn't get the chance in this life- I'm glad we can help in this work.

The thing that I love about Hawaii is that when it rains, it's not depressing.  Anywhere else it feels gloomy- but it randomly rains here when the sun is shining.  All of the sudden it will be down pouring, and ten minutes later it will be like it never happened.  There are several times I am on campus and it decides to rain randomly (every day- all the time)  This is me in such a down pour- it's hard to tell it's raining- but it definitely is!

A sign in one of my classrooms stated: "Keep windows closed because of cats".  There are lots of stray kitties on campus.  Here is one that was just chillin' in the tree.

Cody took the following picture in honor of my Grandpa Carl.  In the Ala Moana mall parking lot, there are parking spaces reserved for electric cars, and have the hook up to recharge.  Pretty cool to see how the world is starting to change!

Soak up the Sun

Cody and I had a great long weekend!  One of my new friends from the ward had a groupon for a catamaran ride and couldn't go at the last minute, so she offered it to me and Cody.  I was so excited!  This is something I have always wanted to do, but did not think it would be feasible so soon.

My favorite part was just being on the water.  Something about the ocean soothes me.  Whether it is Waikiki beach, or the bay by Verrazzano Bridge in NYC, I love the ocean.  It was amazing to see how blue the water was!  I have never seen such vivid shades of blue!

In the shallow water, the blue is like a pretty blue-green color.

When you get deeper though, the blue is such a crisp, vivid, navy color.  It's awesome!

(And the lighting was SO good for pictures!)

Cody's favorite part of the boat ride was finally seeing a sea turtle- now he wants to swim with one!

Here's our captain.  Hope he wasn't driving with his feet the entire time!

SURFING.  I wanna go so bad.  Sigh.

That was Saturday.  For Monday, Labor Day, we woke up early and took the bus to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling again.  It wasn't crowded, which made it even more awesome.

Then later we met up with some friends at the beach for a BBQ.  One of the guys goes spear fishing, and they BBQ'ed some of his catches.  I was kind of grossed out to find one of the fishes I was eating (Parrotfish) was one of the ones I was swimming with and admiring earlier.  (I am so surprised I am not completely vegetarian)

We had a really good time.  We also got to witness a Hawaiian Monk seal.  They are on the endangered list and apparently really rare to see just lying on the beach like this:

In conclusion, Cody and I feel like we're livin' the dream... Catamaran ride in the gorgeous Pacific blue, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, and BBQ at the beach with friends.  That's the life!