Before going to the airport, everyone had time to have breakfast together. Susan said she was so happy to see us again and was crying when we had to say goodbye. She hugged me and told me I'm such a sweet girl. Mom said she wanted to stay longer by ourselves so we could geocache more and stuff..that would have been nice, but I couldn't really handle the sun and heat and humidity anymore lol. Mom and I did manage to find two geocaches on the way to the airport, which was nice. I guess nine total is better than none lol. Even if I was tired of the sun, it was still sad to leave lol. I hope there's less drama when I see everyone next time (yeah right :P). Thankfully the flight to Seattle was shorter than when we left from there, 5 hours and some minutes. This time I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron (OMG I love the humor in those movies haha) and National Treasure: Secret of the Tomb (LOL at the lady playing Candy Crush on her computer). We got back to Fairbanks pretty late..it was nice to sleep lol

Here are more pics, though I haven't uploaded all of them yet:

( hawaii )

Yesterday me and my family mostly hung out by the pool (first I had to find a bathing suit, which was painful. It was so much easier when I was a kid lol). They're even crazier than I remembered haha. They couldn't stop talking about my tattoos, it was amusing. :P Aunt Patty has one on her ankle that says "meow" with a simple cat face on it, which is similar to the one I was thinking of getting next! Someone said of all of us, me and Patty seem the least likely to get tattoos, and yet we're the only ones of the group that have tattoos lol. We all got drinks..mine was a yummy fruity one..I'm so glad I can get drinks with them now haha. Mom and I stopped at one, but others just kept drinking throughout the day and getting wound up. Getting in the pool felt nice after sitting in the sun..I got sunburned, but not too badly. Mom and I found our first Hawaiian geocache too, woohoo!! Eventually it was decided to order pizzas, which mom would pick up since she only had one drink. Aunt Susan called our orders in and rode along with mom to get them. They were gone a long time..when they finally got back here we all congregated in Danny and Patty's room..when we opened the foil on the pizzas, it was a disaster. NONE of our orders were right..Susan said the restaurant was super busy and only one person was serving..she even called to complain but nobody even answered the phone..wow. She was pretty angry about that. Mom called it "the Hawaiian Pizza Fiasco" LOL. Eventually we had to escape to our room cause we couldn't handle everyone shouting and being so hyper..relaxing in bed was very nice after that :P

Today I woke up feeling horrible..I've been dealing with face/ear pain for a couple or so weeks and I just felt..run down and strange. I couldn't stand it anymore, and figured I had some type of infection, so mom took me to the closest clinic, 18 miles away in Waimea. The doctor said my sinuses are probably blocked and recommended some decongestants and stuff to try. He wrote me a prescription for antibiotics, but he only said to take them if I don't feel better by Monday. I do feel better after taking Sudafed and stuff. I hate being sick on vacation! Waimea is so weird..it's always rainy and cooler there, even though it's not THAT far from Kona (plus it's higher in elevation). Kona is like the one spot on the island that's always sunny and warm..I've always thought that was so weird lol. Mom and I decided to geocache on the way back..it's still CRAZY windy, and we got soaked from the rain..brrr!! Misty Mountains Cold from The Hobbit suddenly popped in my head, since there were pine trees around and one of the lyrics is "the pines were roaring on the height" haha. We managed to find two caches (and two we didn't find)..even if i got soaked and cold and grabbed a dead fish that I thought was a rock (ewww haha!!), it's part of the adventure and makes it even more fun..we just had to laugh at how crazy the wind was. I love our geocaching adventures haha. Now I'm relaxing in the room, but I'm gonna join Susan and co. by the pool now (I didn't want to wait till tonight to update, I'd probably be too tired). We're gonna go to a yummy restaurant tonight, yay :)

[Error: unknown template qotd]Yeah, mom and I were watching the Northern Lights a few years ago in the valley and we kept seeing this light in the distance. We first thought it was a car, but it obviously wasn't when it drifted straight through the tundra. It was completely silent. It kept drifting till it got to the edge of the trees and quite near is. It hovered there for a couple seconds and the light just went out..right as it did, you could see the housing the light was in. We were pretty spooked and weirded out and left after that haha. To this day we still have no idea what it was. We keep thinking of ideas (like a drone) but everything we thought of makes noise. So weird..

Mom and I are possibly going to Hawaii with family I haven't seen in 10+ years in February! That'll be awesome :D

( An album with good memories )

Today's trivia: A thirsty camel can drink 35 gallons of water in just six minutes

I'm back home (well at mom's house till later). On Monday we went to a black sand beach at basically the northernmost point of the island. I saw Maui in the distance! Cool haha. We had to walk down this steep rocky cliff..I was so not looking forward to coming back up. The beach had really rough surf with big waves..I wouldn't want to swim there. After hanging out there for a bit we drug ourselves back up the cliff. I was SO hot..I had to keep pouring water on myself..then I was uncomfortable and cold in the car haha. We saw a couple whales coming back to the hotel! We had dinner, hung out and packed. Booo

Yesterday the flight to Seattle left at 11 or 12 something. I was so sad leaving. I liked that I knew what I was looking at when we took off though..like I saw that crazy road to that nice beach and the beach. The water was sooo blue and clear! So pretty. I rented a Digi Player again and finally saw the end of The Dark Knight Rises and watched The Green Lantern (AWESOME. Ok I like superhero movies haha). We got to Seattle at 9 something I think..we had around 3 hours there so we had dinner and looked around in stores. The flight to Fairbanks left at 11 something. I had a middle seat (I wanted to sit by mom but it was Ryan's turn. I was in the row up from them). I didn't want to sit next to two strangers. The guy next to me was pretty big and part of him was in my seat and he kept brushing against me. He also snored SUPER loud. The girl by the window saw how upset I was and switched seats..but I was too far gone. I just started BAWLING right in the plane. I kept saying horrible things about Ryan cause he is ALWAYS annoying to me and was tired of being around him..eesh. I really wanted to switch seats but then we'd have to disturb everyone. Ughh. Eventually I listened to music on mom's iPad (mmm Enya) and was calm enough to read. We got to Fairbanks at 1 or 2 something. Worst flight ever. :/ Also embarrassing..jeez. It was like 6 degrees when we landed..joy. When I saw the smoke from the power plant I automatically thought of Kilauea haha. School starts tomorrow..aw man. It may be hard to go back to real life. :P Pics soon!

Today we took a tour to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We went in a van with other people (13 in total). The guide picks you up at different hotels..one was the Mauna Lani! I stayed there last time with dad and LOVED it..it was nice to see it again. :D Mark was pretty knowledgeable about Hawaiian legends, plants, animals, etc. It's nice to have that extra touch. It takes a couple hours to get to the park..it's on the wet side of the island. It was interesting transitioning from sere hilly land to wet lush forest. When we went through the dry area Mark was telling about GLACIERS that used to be on the volcanoes around us!! WHAT..glaciers in HAWAII??! He even showed us a terminal moraine from one of the glaciers!! I never thought I'd see anything relating to glaciers here! He said when the glaciers melted all that silty dirt blew off the volcanoes and formed the mounds around us. AWESOME haha. It was rainy and chilly while we were there..I feel like it's like that everywhere besides our hotel..wth haha. We drove to the summit of Kilauea (4,190 feet) and looked down at the caldera, which was steaming! There's a lava lake there (you can't see it unless you were in a helicopter or something). Pretty cool. We also explored lava fields, went to these cliffs (it was super fun to watch the waves just smash up against them! You could feel it in your feet! You could also see steam in the distance from lava going into the ocean) and explored a lava tube..way cool! Lava looks so interesting. There was also a lovely forest with huge ferns and cool bird sounds. We ate dinner near Kilauea's summit (it was dark by now) and then went back up to the summit to see the glow from the lava! (Luckily the clouds weren't totally obscuring it) It was so cool..it was bright orange/red and you could see it pulsing as the lava rose and fell! Wow. Then it was time for the long dark drive back to our hotels..luckily I had a flashlight (Mark gave them to us for the walk to the summit) so I read on the way back. I'm glad to be back on the warm side of the island haha..or at least the sunny/warm window at the hotel. :P Now..bed!

Alohaaa. So the first flight left Fairbanks at 1:30 AM Sunday morning. We waited FOREVER on the runway until a de-icer came and sprayed the plane. I tried sleeping in different positions, but the best one was on mom's shoulder haha. I think the plane got to Seattle at 5 or 6 something. It was really cool seeing all the city lights! After we landed we ate breakfast and then boarded the next flight..I think it left at 7 something. Mt. Rainier in the sunrise looked awesome! It was gonna be at least a 5 hour flight so I rented a Digi Player (they forgot to swipe everyone's cards since there was turbulence and the pilots really wanted them sitting. Oops haha). I watched Ice Age 3 and a lot of The Dark Knight Rises before we had to give them back. There was like 40 some minutes left..I wanna see the end!! Haha. It was cool seeing the Hawaiian Islands suddenly rise out of the ocean. We landed at 11 something..it was so warm!! And it smelled good haha. I'm so not used to the heat and humidity. :P After getting our luggage and rental car we went to eat at Outback Steakhouse..I hadn't eaten there in years. Then we went to Wal-Mart and drove the 30 some minutes to the hotel. I took a nap since I was so tired. The hotel is pretty nice..it has three pools! After relaxing in our room we got our bathing suits on and went walking on the beach! The water was cold at first but got warmer when you got used to it. The sand felt painful..maybe it has lava in it. After that we went swimming in the heated pool. It was AMAZING..it felt so refreshing! Especially since I felt so smelly and gross after traveling. It felt so nice to swim. Plus I need to swim before I start my period. :P The sun was setting while swimming..it sets SO fast here! In Alaska it stays on the horizon forever and takes even longer to get completely dark. So weird. We tried the jacuzzi too which was also nice. After that we went back to the hotel, got dressed and went to dinner. Yummy! At one point I looked up and saw a cat face that looked like Cheetah's! That was so weirdd haha. The waitress said it was Morris, the hotel cat. He went around to the tables and begged for food haha. He seemed to like me..I kept petting him hehe. Mom fed him lobster which he LOVED. Aw cute hehe. After dinner we played some Pictionary and went to bed (they're so comfortable!). So nice to sleep!

I was so confused when I woke up and saw sunlight at like 7 something. I thought it was the bathroom light for some reason haha. We slept in and then went to breakfast. Now we're just sitting outside..it's so sunny and clear! The palm trees are lovely too. There are all these cute little birds flying around and frolicking hehe. I wonder what we shall do next..yay :)

Here, have a pic of the view from our table!

Today was the volcanoes final (I took it in the professor's office haha. It was rather easy) and now the class is over..aw. It was such a great class..one of the best I've ever taken! Now to figure out what to take next semester..

This is the hotel we're staying at in Hawaii. *drools* Aunt Susan got us a good deal (she's a travel agent and has been to Hawaii a LOT). Mom said it's the hotel we stayed at when I first went to Hawaii as a little kid. Cool! It will be awesome :D

( 104. Change )

Would you rather have double vision or hear a constant echo? The echo

Today's trivia: The tower of St. Bride's Church in London inspired the three tiered wedding cake. A London baker decided to copy the idea as a design for fashionable weddings and it has continued to be as popular today as it was almost 300 years ago (I've been there!! We came across it accidentally haha)