Familiar sights to those who once called an island, Home

If Oahu was never your home these pictures may not mean much to you. They were once so common place to me that I never would have thought of taking pictures of them. Now they symbolize a very special time of my life. Seven years of it to be exact.

Ko'olau Ranch home to Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, Lost and many others. We had school dances and bon fires here and we also bought tickets for a very cool snorkle cruise here. Yeah, it's blury . . . I took the picture from my car window.

China Man's Hat . . . a famous sight.

Banana pancakes and loco mocos . . . mmm. Who used to own this little Laie shop? Sam Choy?

Pineapple field on the north shore . . . they do not grow in trees . . .

After the storm comes the rainbow. I remember carpooling to Kailua with Hayley when we saw a double rainbow outside of our car window . . . nothing beats the view.

So North Shore . . .

The secret walk to Kawela Bay. This beach is great for sunning and for little kids who hate wind. The trees act as natural wind breaker. It is super private and because of this some people think they can sun bathe nude here. Yuck- I don't go to the beach to see naked people, and for heaven sake please don't bend over to pick up your sunscreen! Save that for your European vacations.

I lived near here and spent a lot of time on this beach- Bikini Beach. This view was very familiar.

Love the decor!

The CAC- Cannon Activity Center . . . Devotionals on Tuesday, Basketball games on Friday and graduation day.

This is the path I took to walk to "the Caf" everyday, three times a day to get my food as a freshman and half of my sophomore year. The trees sure have grown tall since then. I remember watching Kai's buddy (and mine) Bobo jump up and try to touch the leaves.

My Dorms. Hale 3. Ma Berta was my dorm mom. Here I worked as a janitor (hey, it pays the bills and at least I knew the bathrooms were clean!) and as a resident assistant. The year I moved off campus, Ma Berta bought me a Thanksgiving Turkey for me and my roommates to cook. Bless her heart.

My window- the second top from the left. Perfect for letting the trade winds to cool us off and we backed right up the the PCC arena. I had three different roommates who became dear friends (Dani, Sonia and Betsy) and we did our homework to the music of the night show.

It was the pre cell phone days, you know. When Kai came to call on me he simply stood outside my window and called my name until I appeared. Ah, the good ol' days.

Kai's dorm . . . Hale 6. I spent an hour in the boys lounge applying aloe vera to Kai's back after he wiped out surfing at Goat Island and shredded his back on the reef. It wasn't pretty.

Papaya

Coconut

My first ever experiences with Walmart were in Mililani. We called it the Holy Land. It was open 24 hours. There wasn't a lot of shopping in Laie.

I hardly spent any time at all on this side of the island, but I did go to this denny's on occasion after spending some time at the Ala Moana mall.

We drove to Tamura's in Wahiawa on our way to Walmart. It was kind of yucky, but it was so much cheaper than Foodland in Laie.

Having a car was not just a luxury, it was a rarety. I spent a lot of time on "the bus" when I was a freshman (holding a stick of spearmint gum under my nose to block out the smells). We took the bus to Waikiki twice a month to go longboarding in the shadow of Diamond head. It is where Kai and I had our first date, paddling in the ocean waves.

I love this temple. It was within a 5 minute walk from my tva apartment and if I stretched my neck I could see it from my second story bedroom in K building. K 230. Kai for Kai.

McDonald's in Laie . . . they don't accept walk-ups to the drive in window . . .or skateboards. We know from experience. But they do have a waterfall inside and one time this old haole lady burst out in a McDonald's tribute song while in line for ordering.