All posts tagged: adventure

Weekly Small Pleasures (#3)

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1. The Pixie Chino from Old Navy.  I’m in love. It’s extremely rare to find pants that fit me well and are equally flattering. For most hula people, shopping for pants is always a challenge. If you’re not a hula person, you may be wondering why. The constant sway of hips requires one to dance with knees bent, which means hula thighs are much more muscular than one might expect and so the search for pants that can accommodate thick thighs never ends well and usually means we walk out with yet another pair of leggings, but not this week! Thanks, Old Navy! Yes! 2. Being Sick. I started feeling sick on Tuesday and then it escalated to the point I couldn’t get out of bed two days later. I shouldn’t have been surprised, considering everyone around me was getting sick, but this was humbling. I haven’t been this sick in almost 5 years, so being vulnerable and weak forced me to slow down. It also made me realize that I need to re-tweak my lifestyle formula, including stress management, diet, sleep, and exercise, to stay healthy. …

M is for Muse

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What once was an organized and relatively clean home, is now a home full of creative opportunities.  I like to tell my self this when ever I see the clutter of toys, bibs, baby blankets, straw cups, and other baby related items scattered in my home.  When I would find my spouse’s stuff all over the place it would drive me nuts.  Compared to him, I cannot believe how one little person has caused more confusion and chaos, but I am learning to find comfort in our beautiful mess. I have noticed that my baby’s stuffed animal giraffe is the central theme when it comes to playing, eating, bathing, and dressing.  At our baby shower, one of my colleagues gifted me a set of giraffe toys, which trickled into various giraffe like items.  I never thought I would find it amusing to watch my little one interact with her giraffe. When she eats, she wants her giraffe to also eat.  When she is ready for her nap, she makes sure her giraffe is also tucked …

A is for Amazon

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During one of my holiday breaks while studying abroad in South America, I spent one-week in Iquitos, Peru.  It was always a dream of mine to explore the Peruvian Amazon.  Being able to travel through the Amazon river with a local native was so surreal.  The small canoe we traveled in might have been fine in the smaller tributaries, but when we were in the middle of the large Amazon River, where you cannot see land on the other side of it, I felt a bit meek and scared. Along the way, we would pass small villages and get to see the daily happenings of the locals which included washing clothes along the river.  Some folks even were swimming and fishing.  I was terrified of swimming in the river as I was scared of the piranha that might be lurking in the brown water.  I hardly set foot in the water unless it was only a foot away from the shoreline. Every evening we would stop at various resting spots.  One of my memorable ones was with a family …

Don’t Forget to Breathe

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“Taking one down… faking a smile with coffee to go.” David Powter’s song, Bad Day, was playing on the radio; the timing was uncanny. I had slept through my morning alarm, and I was late for work.  As I traveled down Kawaihae road in a frenzied state, I managed to spill hot coffee on my white blouse and all over the cars center console. A series of colorful “words” quickly ensued. “This is going to be a long day,” I thought to myself. And it was. I spend a lot of time on the road commuting between jobs and devote many hours working through occupational hurdles in my head. Sometimes turning-off the “work switch” can be difficult; that seemed to be the case on this particular day. En route to my second job in North Kohala, the large number of humpback whale sightings took me aback. Whales breeched every 6-10 miles and spouts reached 10 feet high. At that moment Mat Kearney’s song Breathe In Breathe Out blared through the car sound system: “Breathe in breathe out…breathe in …

Happy Hilo 2014!

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Hilo is the first city in the Hawaiian archipelago to greet the new day with the rising of the sun at Kumukahi, but the word “hilo” refers to other things in Hawaiian culture. The phase of the new moon is named Hilo, marking the beginning of a new lunar cycle. It’s also a style of lei making that involves braiding and binding different plants together to create something be given and worn with love. We have each considered Hilo to be our home at some point in our lives and it’s where Holoholo Girls originated. Our friendships were forged here and it continues to host our ongoing evolution. Because of its many beautiful connotations of new starts and the constant weaving of lives together, we would like to wish you a Happy Hilo 2014. From our homes and hearts to yours, we wish you and your loved ones health and safety in this upcoming year and that it will be filled with new adventures and opportunities for growth.

Du Jour Thursday

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Find life experiences and swallow them whole.  Travel. Meet many people. Go down some dark alleys. Try everything.  Exhaust yourself in the glorious pursuit of life.” –Lawrence K. Fish Photo credit: M. Andaya

Dreaming of Adventure

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“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” -Jawaharlal Nehru As a young girl I often fantasised about becoming a world explorer. I spent many hours going through our home encyclopaedia collection from A to Z, picking out countries I wanted to visit and learning about exotic cultures. Daydreaming was my favourite pastime (still is). If I didn’t have my head buried in a book or at the neighbours playing tetherball, I was on the rooftop dreaming up exciting adventures in distant lands. I grew up in a middle-class household where both parents juggled two full-time jobs and worked tirelessly to support two daughters. It took 12 years of saving and careful planning before my parents could afford to take my sister and I on our very first (and sadly last) trip to the mainland USA as a family. Making the 15-hour, 10,634 mi. trans-Pacific trek from Guam via …