Down to the Seas: Crown Victoria, Grilled Cheese, Chasing Waterfalls

The adventures certainly did not stop with the end of SEA. In fact, most of us have been together for the past few days, taking advantage of the islands. Here is what shenanigans I've been up to:

-Going to Pearl Harbor, discovering that the Navy wasn't boating people out to the Arizona, and proceeding to boast with my shipmates and professor (loudly, so others could hear) about the Force 8 winds we lived through and how this was nothing.

-Renting and cruising around Oahu in a Crown Victoria, alternatively feeling like we were "big pimpin'" and grandmas.

-Visiting Mama Seamans to pick up the tents and getting to eat some morning snack that was just where it always is.

-Camping two nights: night one had us in this beautiful site overlooking Honolulu at night. It was almost like back home, except for 2 things: cats and pigs. There were large numbers of cats creeping in the woods, one of which came and nibbled on our cheese, and even a herd (?) of pigs that rooted through the trees around us. I'll take that over raccoons. I also ended up sleeping in the Crown Vic since we didn't have any sleeping bags and the ground sucked the warmth right from us. The second night I took a note from Bear Grylls and suggested we lay down a bed of pine needles under the tents. If your ever looking for a way to stay warm, this is it!
Night two had us at this baller site on the NE side right on the ocean. We sat on the sand near the water and nerded out about which stars and constellations we know while the coals burned down in the sand fire pit we dug ourselves. We cooked fresh corn we'd picked up from a farm stand in beer cans since the only vessel we had for cooking was a single pot which was occupied with cooking our 7 grilled cheeses, one at a time.
If I had a dollar for every time we said, "is this real life?" "I can't believe this is real." I'd be rich. Best way to start summer ever.

-I was quite stressed out the day we were to catch our flight to Maui and I shall tell you why. Our flight left at 1pm. For various reasons, we got to the airport at 12:15. I was CONVINCED we would miss our flight, which is rather understandable if you remember I arrived 6 hours early to my cross country flight. My flying partner was very chill, but I just sat there with my arms crossed, repeating to myself that I couldn't make us go any faster. Well, we made it to our gate and even had 10 minutes to sit down and page through Elle. All's well that ends well, eh?

-Speaking of the flight, it was 30 minutes long. Literally as soon as we reached cruising speed we were descending. My flying buddy was like, "Oh, we're descending" and I was like, "No, we're not". But we were. It was ridiculously short. I felt like I was driving to work or something. It was sweet watching the same exact path we'd sailed up just a week and a half before, seeing the same sights but from the air. Of course my shipmate and I talked (loudly) about our trip sailing from Tahiti to Honolulu and how cool the past 3 months have been. I think we all do that when we're in public, in hopes that we can bore other people with our amazing experiences because everyone on the boat has heard it all (don't worry, you'll get your turn).

-So now I'm in Maui in this incredible vacation house that costs about as much as half a semester at Denison, literally in paradise. I'm currently listening to waves crash on the shore. This morning we went on a waterfall hike to a place with 4 waterfalls. We hiked through a bamboo forest to get to the first one, forded/boulder hopped a stream, climbed up a rope to get to the next one, walked around it to a ladder going up a cliff, climbed that, hiked up another stream through stands of wild ginger, saw a third waterfall, then jumped in really cold fresh water to shimmy up that third waterfall to get to the fourth. It was sweet. This evening we went out for sushi after an afternoon of laying out on the grass near the water and swimming in the water. All the kids sat together for sushi, drinking Hawaiian beer and having a good time eating as much wasabi as possible before heading off to Yogurtland to fill our cups with as many $0.42 oz they could hold. Not to make you jealous or anything.

-Tomorrow this journey comes to a close, with a flight to LAX, Chicago, and finally Detroit where Mom and Da will be there to pick me up. I imaging us running at each other like long lost family, like it happens in the movies, but more realistically I will waddle, hugging my broken duffle bag, tired after traveling for 24 hours with the time change. It's been a long time.