Oh, Oahu!

I've officially been in Oahu for 1 week now, time has passed quickly!
I arrived after dark in Honolulu and was met by my friends Jill and Tony, whose house I've been staying at since.  My first real visual of Oahu was the following morning, waking up in their hilltop Kailua house.  What an amazing view!!  Behind us lay the mountains that separate the two sides of the island essentially (Ko'olau Mountatins), and ahead is a spread of houses in Kailua, and then of course the beautiful blue water Hawaii is so famous for.  They have a great deck on the upper level of the house, and of course, a hammock hanging in the corner of this deck.  I made sure to spend some time in this hammock every day so far, you just can't beat the beautiful view and breeze you get up there!

Hammock!!

Weather wise- it's been in the 80's every day, which seems to be the norm.  I'm told I brought the rain with me, although that means that it rains everyday for about 20 minutes or so...then goes back to being sunny and beautiful.  We are on the windward side of the island, so there is typically a great breeze outside, even if it's hot in the sun.  Apparently there are two seasons in Hawaii...rainy and not rainy...the true rainy season will start in the fall I think.  If you haven't seen a Hawaiin weather forecast...I invite you to visit the following link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-TfZslHKoo&feature=related

During the week- I learned the basic routes around Kailua and visited my new hospital a couple times to meet everyone, do the requisite paperwork, etc.  Everyone at work seems pretty nice and all have offered to help however possible in my transition.  My first visit to the beach was on a slightly more windy day it seemed- however it was still quite nice out I think.  The water was gorgeous- clear, blue, much warmer than I'm used to for ocean water- but apparently cold by Hawaii standards.  There were a ton of water sports going on- no surfing at this location, but kite boarding, wind surfing, SUPs, kayaks, etc.  As I was drying off from the water, the Kailua Canoe Club started launching boats into the water.  The boats held about 6 people and had the main hull with the extra skid attached on one side.  It was pretty cool to see- they essentially charged the waves at a full run to get past the breakers and then jumped in the boat one by one.  They paddle quite fast too with the force of 6 rowers in a boat!  Will have to see if it's easy to get involved with or not- seems like fun!

Kailua Canoe Club launching from the beach park (note the beautiful blue water!)

The neat thing about beaches on Oahu (at least on this side of the island) is that they are essentially in a residential area or accessed by a small park.  There's no massive buildup of stores and shops along the road, no crazy large parking lots, etc.  You either walk along a little path between houses, or over a small green lawn to the beach.  Was a little strange at first, since we associate the massive commercial buildup with the beach on the East coast, but I can definitely appreciate how much nicer it is not to have that at the same time.
In addition to house hunting and learning my way around a bit, we actually did quite a lot over the weekend to enjoy the great outdoors!  Saturday we visited a bay that is now a nature preserve, where you can go snorkeling or scuba diving over the coral reef.  Sadly, much of that reef has been destroyed from visitors (despite their attempts to educated people prior to going in the water), but there were still some awesome fish to watch.  It was a little tricky not to touch the reef- since there was only about a foot of water above the coral with the tide going out where we were.  Will likely try a different spot next time or go out a little further at least.

Hanaumu Bay- you can see the coral right through the water!

Didn't take any underwater pictures, but did see several cool fish including the state fish....dare you to say it three times fast...or even just one time for that matter =).

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a  = state fish

We then proceeded into "town" for dinner and church.  "Town", I've come to learn, means Honolulu- since it's the biggest town on the island and essentially has anything you could need shop wise.  We ate at a small restaurant that serves more traditional Hawaiin fare.  I felt obligated to get the combo plate and dive right in to all the crazy food here!  I actually didn't mind the 'poi'- which is a paste of ground taro root- although it doesn't really have a whole lot of flavor by itself.  'Salmon lomilomi' I had once before and enjoyed, although this particular variety was not that great.  It's a pickled salmon with salsa like garnishes.  There was also a raw swordfish sushi type dish called 'poke', which may have been my favorite on the plate.  Kalua pork is like a bbq pork- pretty tasty of course!  Then there was pork wrapped/cooked in ti leaves- the combo of which is called 'lau lau'.  Apparently the inner leaves are edible since they are cooked more thoroughly, and the meat is generally a mystery at the time of purchase- depends on what the vendor decided to put in there!  And of course, dessert was haupia- the coconut pudding/jello thing I had last week as well.

Top left clockwise- salmon lomi lomi, haupia, poke, kalua pork, lau lau and poi

Sunday was also a big day- there was a behind the scenes tour at the Honolulu Zoo for family and friends of the Honolulu Veterinary Society.  I'm not quite tied into all that yet, but Jill had already arranged everything for us!  Got to see most of the zoo, as well as a tour of their veterinary hospital at the zoo- which was apparently used in 'Lost' filming for all you Lost fans, although I don't know what season or scenes.  Still a cool zoo.  Also saw some cool trees at the zoo (I know- you are supposed to look at the animals...).  One is called a banyan tree- where the limbs will sprout new roots that grow straight down into the ground to help support their weight.  Crazy!  The other is a 'painted tree'- which is a type of eucalyptus.  They look like someone dripped different color paints all down the trunk of the tree...pretty cool when you see a bunch of them together- is a mix of art and nature all in one!

Tony and Tony...one's a tortoise

Banyan tree

Painted tree

I didn't see my old Philly Zoo buddy that day, who now works at the Honolulu Zoo, but should hopefully be able to get in touch with him soon!
Monday and Tuesday were spend with some training at work, paperwork (which is never ending of course), brushing up on some veterinary stuff and hanging out with Jill and Tony.  And of course...swinging in the hammock!