Doris Duke's Shangri La

This morning I was able to tag along with some friends to tour the Hawaii home of Doris Duke. I had never heard of Doris Duke before, so let me share a little history with you!Doris was a multi million dollar heiress at age 13, when she inherited her wealth from her father's tobacco and hydroelectric energy empires upon his death. She married James Cromwell in 1935, who took her on an around-the-world honeymoon trip. The honeymoon sparked her interest in art, especially Islamic art, and she began purchasing pieces along their journey. The last stop on their honeymoon was Oahu, Hawaii. What was supposed to be a couple of weeks' stay here ended up being four months! She fell in love with the islands, culture and laid-back attitude. Here in HI she wasn't treated as a celebrity like she was on the mainland. She quickly purchased five acres of land on the south east coast of Oahu (Kahala area) and began planning her Shangri La. By 1937 construction had begun, and while the building itself was completed a few years later, she continued collecting art for her Shangri La until her death in 1993. 

We took the Honolulu Academy of Arts' tour - the only way to see the property. They bus you out to the home, and you are guided through by a docent. Our tour guide was Marilyn, who was so cute and informative! Pictures aren't allowed inside the home, but I did take some of the exterior. 

This is a shot from the backyard - and you can see the kids/public who are there jumping off of the wall into the water. All beaches in Hawaii are public, so anyone can walk/hike over to the area. Some highlights of the tour: the glass wall in the living room descends into the floor to open the room up to the outside, tons of beautiful patterns, thousands of intricate tiles and textiles, sliding jalis (screens in front of windows) that were carved out of different materials that also opened up to outside, fountains, gardens and the smiling camels that greet you at the front door. The camels were once in front of a store in Waikiki. When Doris drove by and saw them one day, she decided to buy them and have them at the entrance to the home, even though they weren't really Islamic! Oh, and when Doris was not allowed to return to the island after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she allowed military access to the property, so officers were allowed R & R there. :)

CLICK HERE for my (outside) pictures from today.

CLICK HERE for the website of the property - where you can see interior shots and do a virtual tour (but it doesn't do it justice!)

So yes, this tour was amazing (if you love art and pattern), and I highly recommend it for anyone who visits Honolulu! I learned a lot today, and once again remember why I love living here so much!:)

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

tagged! AND Infomercial war with MAW...

First things first, I was tagged by Jamie Owens in this blog/survey thingy, and I have never done one of these before, so I thought I would play! 

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. knowing where we will be moving to next (and all that comes with that)
2. Teal, Mai and Beth coming to visit!
3. Mom and Dad coming to visit!
4. Lauren, Brittany and Drake coming to visit!
5. Andrea and Justin coming to visit!
6. Melissa and Mason finally coming back to HI
7. going to Kauai
8. a great upcoming year of FRG stuff

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. got a new Navy id
2. bought some USS Louisville caps
3. went to Bible study
4. procrastinated going to the commissary
5. led my first FRG meeting (as president)
6. ate dinner cooked by Z :)
7. watched the Bachelorette (Wes is such a JERK - I'm sad to be from the same Great State)

8. started reading Breaking Dawn (4th Twilight series book)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. surf
2. have more discipline to work out twice a day
3. fly to the mainland whenever I wanted
4. lose 20 pounds
5. be a better cook
6. start my own company/store
7. know a lot more about fabric and sewing
8. take more photography classes

8 Shows I enjoy:

1. Grey's 
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. The Bachelorette/Bachelor 
5. Army Wives
6. Gossip Girl
7. American Idol
8. Mad Men

8 Friends I'm Tagging:

1. MAW

2. Beth

3. Kate

4. Jessica

5. Ellen

6. Melanie

7. Brett

8. I need more friends to blog!

And now, Mary Alice recently posted a funny infomercial on her blog, so I would like to also post one that makes me laugh EVERY TIME I SEE IT! 

BUMPITS

Rock a pony!

Enjoy! 

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day! 

Zac was finally feeling back to normal on Saturday (after a bout with an unknown illness that kept him out of commission for 5 days!), so we ventured out of the house to Target and then to celebrate the holiday - my favorite! After picking up some last minute ingredients for a side dish and cupcakes, Zac and I cooked and went over to Steve and Marisol's house for dinner. We had spinach dip, dogs, burgers, party potatoes (because a party isn't a party with out party potatoes!), watermelon, potato salad, flag cake and red/white/blue cupcakes!

Zac, Steve, Marisol and I later walked down to Ala Moana park for the City of Honolulu fireworks show. It was fabulous! They had some new shapes I had never seen before - planet looking orbs, happy faces and peace signs. This particular show has been rated one of the top 10 in the nation for several years. It definitely did impress. I managed to capture the finale on my camera, so CLICK HERE to see it! On the walk back to the house, we walked along the pier and saw the biggest fish I have ever seen! A guy had caught a 10 foot, 585 lb marlin earlier that day. CLICK HERE to see! And for the rest of the pics from the night, CLICK HERE.

Happy birthday, America! Don't forget to thank all of our service men and women. :)

Me ke aloha, 

RAWE

BIg Island Trip!

This past weekend Zac and I made our first island hopping trip! Thursday we flew in to Kona on the Big Island. After picking up our rental car (and upgrading for a convertible!), we headed to our hotel to drop off our bags.

From our hotel, the Royal Kona Resort, we drove north, up the west coast to Hapuna State Beach. This is the Big Island's longest "white" sand beach. While the beach was nice, it really didn't compare to some of Oahu's beautiful beaches. From there we drove south a little to see some Hawaiian petroglyphs. On the way we stopped for some sushi for lunch, and that is when I read the news about MJ on Twitter (something I will probably always remember). Sad. The hike out to view the thousands of petroglyphs made me VERY thankful for the development of sturdy shoes. Even though I was only in flip flops, I was so glad I wasn't barefoot! 

From there we drove back to Kona and toured the Kona Brewery! We learned that all of Kona's bottled beer is made and bottled on the mainland, but all of the kegs that are sold in Hawaii are produced there. Widmer Bros. bottles and produces the beer for the Western - Midwest US, and Redhook bottles and produces the beer for the Eastern US. :) (Ahhh...our dear sweet Redhook that was near our home in NH.) After the short tour we tasted a few beers, then had an early dinner and sampled some other beers that we didn't have on the tour. Our favorite Kona Beer is the Wailua Wheat Ale.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to watch the sunset and swim. We turned in early that night in order to get up early the next morning and head out for a day of hiking to the green sand beach! The next morning we woke up, grabbed breakfast and drove to the southern-most point of the island. After finally finding the place where tourists park to hike out to the green sand beach, we started out on our long hike. After about three miles of hiking, we finally arrived at the green sand beach! What a strange color! Papakolea's green sand comes from the high concentration of olivine that is extracted by the water from the cinder. 

Here Zac and I had a picnic lunch and Zac played in the really powerful waves. Luckily, on the

 hike back to the car, a very nice local gave us a ride half way. :) Lopaca (which means Robert), went out to the coast to hunt for octopus, however the seas were too strong that day, so he

 decided to head back in and found us on his way. We jumped in the back of his Jeep Wrangler and thanked him for his hospitality. We still had a few hours of daylight left, so we decided to drive a little further to see a black sand beach! Punalu'u beach was really beautiful! The black sand is course and sticks to you. We played around on the beach for a while, drove back up the west coast and stopped at a coffee plantation, tried some coffee, then went to our hotel to shower and find dinner. Our hotel room balcony overlooked the circle drive and the grounds where the hotel puts on a luau. We watched people file in to the luau and enjoyed the music. After showers we walked a couple of blocks down the road to Lulu's for dinner. We were thankful that we weren't outside at the luau when rain started pouring down during dinner. After dinner we both fell asleep early (again). 

Saturday morning we got up early again and started driving up the west coast and around the north side of the island, back down the east side of the island to Akaka Falls. There we saw a beautiful huge waterfall. We drove around Hilo for a while afterwards, and then entered Volcanoes National Park! There we went to the visitor's center, saw their little movie, then drove over to the Jaggar Museum to view the crater of Kilauea. 

From here we drove down to the Makaopuhi Crater. Here we hiked the Kilauea Iki Trail around the rim of Makaopuhi Crater, down through the crater, and back up. We went

 from beautiful rainforest, down through the area that used to house hot lava and back up the steep side of the crater. This eruption happened in 1959 and produced the tallest recorded volcanic fountain. From the Iki trail we crossed the road to the Thurston Lava tube. The lava formed this natural tunnel.

We continued driving down the Chain of Craters Road, stopped to take a few pictures, and stopped at the end of the road, where lava had destroyed the rest of the road. We hiked over the lava, took a few more pictures, saw the Holei Sea Arch, and drove back up the Chain of Craters road to exit the park. We went all the way around the Kilauea area to the other side of the volcano. We parked at the end of a county road, and hiked out to the area that had been blocked off for live public viewing of the current lava flow into the ocean. We sat out on the hardened lava, waited until the sun went down and watched nature's free fireworks show! I kept wishing that we could get closer to the lava (we were about a mile away)! It was beautiful, and something I am really glad we took the time to do. On the 3 hour drive back to Kona, we stopped at a Subway for dinner. There I sang along to some Michael Jackson tunes with the sandwich artists. We then finished the long drive back to Kona. 

Sunday morning was the Kona Marathon. Zac and I slept in, then walked over to the Kona sea wall for brunch at Lava Java where we had a delicious meal and watched the last of the marathon runners go by. After brunch we ran some errands and then flew back to Honolulu. 

We had a FABULOUS time on our mini vacation to the Big Island! I loved seeing the drastically different beaches, the petroglyphs and the volcanoes!! CLICK HERE for lots more pictures from our trip!!

Me ke aloha,

RAWE

Amy & Austin

One of my best friends, Miss Amy Barker, is getting married!

March 21st of this year Amy's boyfriend, Austin Richards, proposed! Amongst hundreds of rose petals, after a night of the Houston Rodeo, a dream was realized by one precious young lady who had been dreaming of that day ever since she was a little girl. 

Amy and I met the first day of a math class in college. That day we talked through almost the entire class (and many others after that day!), and immediately began a friendship that has grown stronger by the day. It is so hard to believe that that was almost 8 years ago! Since then we have held hands through the journey of life and have made it through so many fun times, happy times, not so fun times and sad times - TOGETHER. We have cried on each others' shoulders, laughed until we cried, prayed together, eaten a lot of ice cream, had many a mani/pedi, planned our lives, and re-planned our lives when things changed. I remember the day she called to first tell me about Austin, the day she called to tell me that Austin had asked her mom for her permission to marry Amy, the day that she called to tell me that she was engaged (!) and most recently, the day she called to ask me to be her Maid of Honor!! 

I am so honored to be asked to be Amy's MOH, and will definitely do that job to the best of my ability and be there for every possible detail. Just as Amy was there for me on my wedding day, I will be there for hers, every step of the way - every application of lip gloss!

(Image by Neal Hacker of Vim Studio.)

Congratulations, Amy and Austin, and I look forward to celebrating with you soon! CLICK HERE to see their wedding website.

Me ke aloha, 

RAWE

Maunawili Falls - Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!! And Dad, I love you!

Today Zac and I hiked up to Maunawili Falls with our friend, Alex Baerg. Alex led the way through what ended up being a pretty strenuous hike. The trail was muddy from rain last night and today, so we all slipped several times and were pretty muddy at the end of the hike. At the falls, Zac jumped off of the side into the pool below. 

CLICK HERE for pictures from our hike. And CLICK HERE for the video of Zac jumping! :)

Afterwards we had dinner at Alex's house with a couple of other friends.

What a great weekend. Zac and I are really looking forward to our trip to the Big Island on Thursday!

Me ke aloha, 

RAWE

Carmichael-Evans Wedding

This weekend I traveled to Breckenridge, Colorado for Lee Carmichael's wedding! Lee and I are both from Pampa, and have been friends since birth. We attended every school together, both went to First United Methodist Church, and were both in many of the same extra-curricular activities. We kept in touch while at college, and she now lives in Denver and works for the Denver Art Museum. Lee is one of the funniest people I have ever met in my entire life, and I am truly blessed to have been able to call her such a good friend all of our lives!

Wed. night I flew overnight (without sleep thanks to some UNhappy toddlers who were screaming), and arrived in Denver at 8 a.m. I wasn't able to check in to my hotel room until 11 a.m., so I perused the local Super Target and had a delicious Sonic lunch to kill time. That afternoon I took naps and watched tv, and took a couple more naps, to rest up for the big weekend. Fri. morning I met Mom, Dad, Janie and Becky at the airport for the weekend of fun. We made a fabric stop in Aurora and then made our way through the mountains to Breckenridge! 

In Breckenridge we shopped their cute shops and spent time with family and friends. I loved being in the cool mountains - the weather was absolutely gorgeous. (Some of the mountain tops were even still covered in snow!) I was able to see and catch up with sooo many friends, and had such a great time doing so. I didn't want the weekend to end! 

CLICK HERE for all of the pictures that Mom and I took throughout the weekend.

Congratulations, Lee and Will - Mr. and Mrs. Evans! 

Me ke aloha,

RAWE