Category: 365

  • the big 2-5

    356.365 - the big 2-5

    Today’s my birthday, and I’m 25 years old.

    In my stronger moments I realize that I’ve actually done quite a bit for my age – got a degree, written and published a book (!), started a pretty successful business. And I can get recognized in Hawaii! Of course, there’s still so much to be done and sometimes it feels like time it just slipping by.

    Thanks for reading, commenting, tweeting (find me @cosmicplutoknit), and generally being awesome. I don’t know what I’d do without my fabulous Internet Friends and the knitting community at large.

    Knitting’s pretty much the same old projects right now – but I’m hoping to move up and onto some new ones soon! In the meanwhile, of course I bought some yarn for my birthday – Koigu.

    birthday koigu

    Got enough of the purple-blue for a sweater, and two skeins each of the pewter and pink – I’m thinking it wants to be colourwork. I ordered a Hanne Falkenberg kit that I’ve had my eye on for awhile too. I don’t know when the last time was that I was this excited to knit someone else’s pattern!

    Have a great summer weekend. Mine involves cake!

  • the big island

    I’m home! But I’ve still got lots to catch you all up on from the trip – the whole last week on the Big Island.

    Monday we drove the northern route to get to Volcanoes National Park – it was a long drive (about 4 hours), but the scenery was interesting. There’s lots of different types of landscapes on the island, from lava fields:

    lava fields

    To almost southwestern tribble-looking plants:

    funky landscapes

    To lush green rainforest and jungle.

    Akaka Falls
    (Akaka Falls)

    Unfortunately, it was super rainy, cloudy, and cold, and once we got to the actual park we realized that we couldn’t really see much of anything! Plus, the main short route around the caldera is closed because of new volcanic activity.

    kilauea caldera

    You can just make out the rim of the caldera there. I could process the photo and bring it out more, but really, that’s what I saw. We decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road a little ways before turning back, and it delivered – there were some pretty big craters!

    another crater

    On Wednesday we took the Atlantis submarine tour, which goes 100ft down to the ocean floor. Photo taking is hard because the water filters out colours and makes everything blue and grey!

    341.365 - fishy face

    underwater

    That was pretty much it for activities, for me – one of my sisters and my mom went on a snorkel tour, but I wasn’t too into it. Other than that, I did visit another coffee plantation and bought loads of Kona coffee, shopped for clothes, and lounged about.

    Fun time in Hawaii, although it’s rather far away – the trip home was over 20 hours thanks to an 8-hour layover at Honolulu airport. And lugging 8 pounds of coffee in my luggage kinda sucked.

    But apparently the next trip is already booked!

    sunset on the Kona Coast

  • kaua’i: beaches and cliffs

    the beach

    Kaua’i is beautiful. And a big change from O’ahu, which is the most developed island and full of tall buildings! There aren’t any tall buildings on Kaua’i, apparently because there’s a law that says that no building can be taller than a coconut tree!

    juice stand

    We flew on Hawaiian Airlines, which was fine and super short – about 30 minutes total. Then we picked up our rental car and headed for the resort. There’s just one highway that goes around the perimeter of the island, where all the towns are – the interior of the island remains all rainforest and jungle.

    We got to the resort a little too early to check in, so we took a drive up to Hanalei, where there’s this little shopping plaza. I found a cute bamboo jersey dress and the yarn store!

    Strings and Things

    Strings and Things is half music store and half yarn store! They did have a little bit of locally dyed yarn, but otherwise a mostly mainstream selection. I do wish I’d looked for that yarn store in Honolulu that had Japanese stuff, but oh well.

    Sunday we went for a drive up the coast and stopped at a couple of beaches for pictures and a little bit of walking along the water line. I’m a little freaked out about swimming in the ocean here because Kaua’i is known for rougher waters, a strong undertow and riptide. There was even a handout at the resort on “How to survive a riptide”. Yikes.

    dangerous swimming

    331.365 - hanalei bay!

    Hanalei Bay was rated #1 beach in the world on some list – it does have a pretty awesome view!

    the cliffs

    picturesque beach