Day 7: North Shore and Roommate Dinner

I just realized that I don't need to capitalize letters of important words in my title.  All the letters are capitalized anyway...

Day 7 after classes, Family whisked me away and we started making our way to the north shore.

When I say after classes, I mean after my first class, because I kinda didn't make it to my second class.  It's my dreadful genetics class, and we had a quiz that I was nowhere near prepared for (which is how I feel usually before his damn quizzes).  So I skipped out and we were able to start our day earlier.  And I made up the quiz.  Everyone wins.

Our first stop was at the Dole pineapple plantation.  There lies the largest maze in the world (presumably), but it was closed the day we were there - of course.  But it was still really interesting to tour around and learn about pineapple-growing-field-places-things.  We even rode the choo-choo (appropriately named the Pineapple Express) to get a view of the pineapple fields.  Then we grabbed lunch and pineapple-flavored ice cream (WHATT?).

Our next stop was at the north shore to go surfing!  On our catamaran ride earlier in the week, one of the workers suggested Buttons surf school and said he was the best.  We found the beach and his little tent station and got right to it.  Buttons (actually his nickname) is like the same age as my dad and still going strong and surfing every day.  He had one of his friends/coworkers help out too, since all three kids were surfing.  We went to a different beach than the one we were originally at because he said the waves were a lot better slash less dangerous.  Nobody complained about that one.

Buttons is a cool guy.  So chill about life and nature and everything I'd imagine a great surfer to be like.  He taught us the mechanics of surfing and how to get up and all that jazz, which didn't seem to complicated.  I was so eager to get into the water!

Mom and dad sat on the beach as the kids, Buttons, and his friend paddled out to catch our first waves.  I can't remember who got up first, but all 3 kids were able to do it!  It didn't take any of us that long to catch on.  Both Sister and Brother started out saying they were goofy-footed (right foot forward), but by the end of the surf sesh, at least one of them realized they were, in fact, not, and switched stances.

Surfing is one of the greatest feelings, and different from anything else.  I absolutely loved it.  Buttons did a great job of creating lasting memories for all 3 kids (and Mom and Dad who took some great shots of us):

Sister

Brother

Me

Someone had told us that Buttons was a surf legend, so naturally, I looked him up a few days after we met him.  He is one of the first people that started doing tricks on shorter surfboards like 360s and other awesome stuff.  I also read that he was at one point a serious druggie, and was even captured by Dog the Bounty Hunter.  His life is quite fascinating, but I have a feeling if my parents had known this before going to his surf school, they would have reconsidered.

I'm glad they didn't.

For dinner, we picked up my roommates and went to this little Italian place near Waikiki.  It was really good, but pretty much abandoned since the APEC conference was going on.  APEC is something like the Asian Pacific Economic Comittee or something else that I really don't know what it's about.  All I know is that people were complaining about them being in town.  All these important people from other countries were here so there was super tight security.  Even Obama was here.

It was great having my roommates and my family at dinner.  Everyone got along really well and it was a good time.  Afterwards the roommates got all the leftovers and we dropped them off back at the apartment.

I told Family that they needed to try mochi while they were here, so we went to Bubbie's and got some.  I'm sure some of them were really skeptical when I explained that mochi is like a ball of ice cream inside a rice pattie-type thing.  I said it was delicious and they shouldn't worry, but they didn't believe me.  We got the good flavors and everyone tried some, even Brother.  The consensus was that it was good, so I was happy.

Mochi is delicious, and everyone should try it!

The rest of the night was uneventful.  It was late and we were wiped out from the day's activities.  It was starting to become sad because I knew my time with them was almost up, but I wanted to make the best of the next few days.

Aloha!