We kicked off our weekend on Friday by going to the Byodo-In Temple in Kaneohe. The temple was built in 1968 in honor of the Japanese immigrants who arrived in Hawaii 100 years earlier. It is designed to closely represent one of the more famous Buddhist Japanese temples that was built over 900 years ago!! It was one of my favorite things we have seen so far on the island.
Apparently, the television series "Lost" also had several episodes that were filmed here.
I love how often our pictures have Mike's long arm in the corner... :)
The grounds there were beautifully kept!! There were trees and plants with pathways going all around the temple.
The rock gardens were raked, so obviously people weren't allowed to walk on them. They looked awesome.
And of course there were Bamboo Trees.. so Mike did his traditional Bamboo Tree Warrior Pose. Although I have to admit this one is my favorite, due to the fact that it looks like a bamboo poking him in the butt.
We had a lot of fun just wandering around the grounds, and Mike knows a lot about Japanese culture so it's always fun to do stuff like this with him!!
Later that day we went into town for something called "Street Grindz." Basically, all the street vendors who sell food park their trucks in a parking lot together and you can walk around and try delicious local food. It was a lot of fun.. we got a rancherito enchilada and some ahi poke.
We met up with some friends from the Makiki Ward, Rachelle and TJ... They came over to play some games after, we had a lot of fun with them!
Mike and TJ playing football on the kinect
Rachelle and I doing the downhill skiing competition.
Saturday we had friends over for a movie night... we have had a thing with Avengers lately and we want to watch each of the characters movies... We watched Hulk a few days ago, and Thor with our friends!
Just enjoying the view and the company!!
Sunday was also great. We are really enjoying the Moanalua Ward! I sat next to a sweet girl named Meg in Relief Society whose husband is training to be a pilot for a really prestigious company... I think it was a commercial airline or something. But the testing sounds SO HARD and if he passes it there are so many loops to jump through I couldn't believe it! And they are just here on faith that he will pass it... if not they have no idea where they will go, and if he does then they move to Hong Kong. CRAZY. I would be freaking out if my life hung in the balances like that and we just didn't know what we are doing! Luckily, I don't think the Lord puts you in situations that you aren't capable of handling. She is awesome.
Today we we went to Waimea Bay!! It is SO GORGEOUS there. I'll have to admit that I wasn't feeling so well this morning, but I was really glad we went and spent the day with some great friends!
From Left to Right... Isabel, Caeser, Brett, Heidi, Hottest Man Alive, Me... ;)
Enjoying the water!
How can you look at that face and just not absolutely love it???
Playing cards on the beach. We were playing Uno, but it was SO windy and some of the cards blew into the ocean! Luckily Heidi saved them!!
We went to Hickam to stand up paddle board after we left Waimea, but they said it was "too windy" It was SO not too windy to paddleboard, but oh well, what can ya do?
We decided to go to a program they were doing down at the Ala Moana Beach Park, right by where we used to live! They say there were 40,000 people there, although I have a hard time imagining it was that many... Anyway, they do a floating lantern ceremony in honor of all of the deceased. Mike and I made a lantern for our Grandparents who have passed on and it got sent out in the water. It was really touching.
Ours is on the very bottom. It felt good to do, since of course we can't go visit any graves today living so far away!
Happy Memorial Day!!
