don't forget the sunscreen

One of these years I'll remember to pack the sunscreen on these camping trips. After the first ride on the quad, I was sunburned.

Other than that, we had a great time. Lots of roads that were great for riding the quad on that just kept going and going (and going). The clouds would start rolling in around 10 in the morning, but it didn't rain until late Sunday night.

Okay, we camped at Marshall Lake, and there was no water at the lake. But we had no boat anyway. We kinda felt sorry for the people that were there with boats. Then we really felt sorry for the people in tents because the rain was bad enough that they packed up and left at 12:30 Monday morning.

And I got to fire some guns. Granted, they were all boyfriend's. But I sure enjoyed the 44.

being a celiac on an island

I'm seriously kicking myself. I thought that since I can find gluten free items in stores such as Fry's and Safeway, I wouldn't have any problems out here on the island of Oahu.

First of all, there are no chain grocery stores. They take pride in that. The closet thing I could find was Longs Drugs that had lots of food I couldn't eat. The Wal-Mart that's within walking distance had a limited amount of food and sadly, no Redbridge.

I also walked to the asian market to see what they had. Most of it was mixed with soy sauce that I couldn't eat.

Yesterday was boyfriend's birthday. I was desperate to make a cake for him. I wanted it to be a cake that I could eat too, but I was resigning myself to admit that it might be a Betty Crocker birthday cake.

But in asking around, I got the names of a couple "natural foods" places that were a block apart. So I hopped on a bus to go over there. Not too surprised that it was by the university. The first place only had Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour. I didn't want to have to buy the xanthum gum, and other things the cake recipe called for. So I checked the other store a block away.

It was a natural foods market and deli, so I wasn't holding out much hope. But as I walked in I saw Boomi Bars, I began to hope. I then found a Gluten-Free Panty yellow cake mix, and almost burst into tears and song. I also picked up an energy bar that was gluten-free. If it's any good, I'll probably buy a case.

So boyfriend got his birthday cake gluten-free.

I hate baking out here because it's so humid it permeates everything you try and make.

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As for restaurants. Forget about it. Even Outback that offers a gluten-free menu seems to be lost here. I had been doing good by eating a lot of sushi rolls and avoiding the soy sauce. But last night, I treated boyfriend to ShoreBird (I ran into some newlyweds that raved about it). It was a nice on the beach setting, but it's a "cook your own food" place. Boyfriend tried to clean the grill we were using, but it was either something on the grill, at the salad bar, or from the bar that got me.

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But seriously - what's up with the Spam? I'm not joking. Even McDonalds downstairs offers a Spam breakfast sandwich. You can get Spam in sushi rolls. And of course, Wal-Mart has a huge section of Spam in their limited grocery section. I haven't seen someone carrying around containers of Spam, but there must be enough of a demand to warrant McDonalds serving it. At least Spam uses potato starch, so I can eat it, but why?

land of flowers

I *heart* my macro settings on my new camera. It works so well on shots such as these:

Bird of paradise.

Yeah, we have hibscius plants in AZ. But I had never seen a white one before.

This was from a flowering tree in the park a block away. I thought it was pretty.

one fish, two fish

So I finally made it to Waikiki beach this morning. The man made beach was okay, but I wasn't finding a lot of inspiration. So I continued on to the protected reef area. I got some nice pictures of the waves crashing on the pier, and some okay shots of the reef below. Walking along the pier, there were all kinds of fish at that section of reef.

Photographing fish that are under the water while you're above with a constantly moving ocean in between is very difficult. Even with a short shutter setting. Most of the pictures look like abstract art or oil mixing with water. But here's some that I'm happy with how they turned out:

This guy was there a lot with two others. He'd jump out of the water when food was tossed in (I wasn't feeding them). I ended up taking most of my shots of this fish because he was so striking I thought it'd be easy to get a good keeper.

These were called torpedo fish by someone watching. I don't know what they really are. These guys were the easiest to photograph it turned out. There was a small school of them the entire time I was there.

This was the most difficult because he didn't hang around too much. He was black with small orange dots on his lower body.

This guy wasn't around much, but he sure was striking. I'm glad I was sorta able to catch him on the camera.

no cable, no problem

I was hoping to buy a new USB transfer cable. In the driving around we did yesterday, we stopped at a CompUSA. And in talking to the sales guy, he claimed that for Olympus it's their brand version so they don't sell it.

But I learned about card readers. I held off buying one until this morning. And it was $10 less at Wal-Mart (thank you Wal-Mart!) So I finally got the first 130 pictures uploaded to my laptop. So here goes:

The view from the "lanai" (porch). We're up on the 21st floor and have a nice view of the mountains (except for those eye sore high rise buildings.

What's a picture of Hawaii without the beach? This is not of Wakaki beach, but a beach on the other side of the island where boyfriend has stayed in the past. I did take some pictures with my feet in the water. I was surprised at how cool the water was. With the strong winds, I wasn't going to get any more wet than the feet.

on Ohau

My first thoughts on what it's like over here.

It's humid. But the breezes feel great when they kick in. And when the sprinkles of rain come in, it feels incredible. It was constantly breezy yesterday, so it was a bit chilly when I was at the pool and such.

It's very difficult to navigate here simply because nothing goes in a straight line. Streets, canals, etc. I swear that if a street is straight for more than 250 feet, they will put a curve in it. There's a construction crane nearby that I was using a landmark to orient myself to find my way back. I'd start walking back and then at the next street light, I'd be going the wrong way.

Traffic is horrible. I'll never complain about red light runners in AZ because it's ten times worse here. And there's a lot of locals and tourists that walk here. And there's a constant background of horn honking here.

Food. Prices for things like cola isn't that outrageous. But the price for milk and ice cream is enough to make you faint. I paid $4.59 for a quart of milk! Wal-Mart is the best prices for foods, but the Wal-Mart within walking distance isn't a Super Wal-Mart so the grocery section is very small. That Wal-Mart doesn't have Redbridge, and nothing really gluten free. There's a Super Wal-Mart on a bus route that I may or may not get to. There is ONE store that's called a natural foods co-op that looks like my best option for finding a lot of gluten-free foods. I'm hoping to get there today when boyfriend gets back from a short day at work today. The Enviro Kids food I did find by the beach is about a dollar more than the mainland prices, but it's here.

In case you're wondering, the price for a gallon of gas is about the price currently in California, so it's not that bad.

Liquor. The prices aren't that bad compared to the mainland. Haven't found a potato vodka here. But they have a local brand of vodka that's based in fruit and "fresh Hawaiian water," that isn't bad. I tried a sample bottle and didn't get sick. So I will be bringing some bottles back with me. The Hawaiian wines I've tried are very sweet (even the reds).

The atmosphere is very friendly. I'm sure it's in part because they want to be friendly to the tourists. I felt comfortable here immediately. Within the first couple of hours walking around looking at places, people were asking me where the beach was! I guess I'm approachable or look more like a local than a tourist. I'm really going to get to Wakiki beach the next day or so (really I am).

Hopefully I'll get to picture posting soon. I have some awesome pictures already on the camera. Hopefully today I'll get some more taken today.

Aloha!

Well, I made it to the island of Oahu. The only mishap was the lack of information in locating the proper baggage claim area. But I eventually recovered my bags with no mishaps.

Finally got the internet working on the laptop. But my USB cable for my camera seems to be bust. So no posting pictures until I can get that working. Hopefully I'll remember the next time I go out wandering.

I'm within walking distance of Wakakiki beach, the mall, a Wal-Mart, and lots of bus routes.

The one thing that disappoints me is the lack of gluten-free options. Now I don't look so silly bringing as much of it as I did. I was able to locate a box of EnviroKids cereal and snack bars.

To be continued....