Hawaii: Part Two

Monday (Pearl Harbor Day):

On Monday we spent the day at Pearl Harbor. We were incredibly lucky to have a connection through one of our group members to Commander Jeff James, who is in charge of the Pacific Navy. He spent the day with us, talking about his life in Hawaii, answering countless questions about the memorials, and spending time with us.

First we went to the Arizona Memorial, where it was incredible to be suspended over the sunken battleship, looking down on its remains. You can still see oil leaking out of the tanks and it sends a chill down your spine knowing that bodies lay entombed in the battleship underwater.

After walking around the visitor center for a while, we took a bus over to Ford Island, where we got to take a tour of the Battleship Missouri. Since we were in the company of Commander James, we were taken on a special tour of the battleship that went deeper into the ship as well as through restricted areas. It was one of the coolest experiences to be down in a battleship, trying to imagine what it would be like to work there.

Tuesday (Free Day – sunrise hike, Chinatown, luau):

We woke up at 5:00 am on Tuesday to make our way over to Diamondhead for a sunrise hike. The mountain looked much less intimidating from the hotel, but it ended up taking an hour to hike straight up to the top going at a very rapid pace. The reward for the hard trek was astonishing, and it was beautiful to see the sunrise in Hawaii.

From there, we headed over to Chinatown, where we quickly discovered hundreds and hundreds of jewelry stands, clothing stands, and restaurants. Hawaii’s Chinatown district is unlike most in the fact that it is not a huge tourist location. It was an authentic experience and we enjoyed some incredible Chinese food while we were there.

In the evening we went to a luau. This was not a traditional luau by any means; it was the supped-up, Six Flags/Disney version of a luau. It was entertaining to say the least, and while it was certainly not authentic, it was fun to see dancing and try Hawaiian dishes, like poi (which is not the most delicious thing to try).

Wednesday (North Shore Day):

We spent Wednesday on the North side of the island, travelling on a charter bus with an incredible tour guide. He took us to Pali Lookout, which is the highest point of Oahu and looks out on the whole North side of the island. It was beautiful.

We then went to Kuala Ranch, where many Hollywood movies were filmed (and Lost is being filmed there as we speak). We took a movie tour and took pictures in the famous areas.

We had lunch from a popular shrimp truck, where I got to have the best shrimp ever (and I am quite a shrimp person). From there, we went to the Dole Plantation and learned more about the pineapples, as well as having a competition to see who could get through their human maze (which is the largest in the world) the fastest. My team lost, but we put up a good fight.

Thursday (Free Day – Hanauma Bay, shopping, puka dogs/shave ice)

Our last full day in Hawaii was spent snorkeling in beautiful Hanauma Bay and shopping for last-minute souvenirs.

The real highlight of the day was getting to try some popular Hawaiian beach cuisine. The first was a puka dog. This is an amazing invention that involves drilling a hole into a loaf of hot-dog bun bread and putting all of your condiments and the hot-dog inside. This may sound simple, but the real treat comes with the condiments. The most popular things to put in a puka dog is mild lemon-garlic sauce, mango relish, and lillikoi (passion fruit) mustard. It was delicious.

Then we went to a shave ice stand. The shave ice in Hawaii is not the same as a Sno-Cone. It is actually the texture of snow and they put it on top of ice cream. Plus, the flavors are much more diverse. I had peach and banana flavored ice on top of ice cream with sweet cream on top. It was delicious.

Friday (Travel Day 2)

Leaving Hawaii was hard to do, knowing that we had school starting in a few days, but we all made it back safe and sound by early Saturday morning.

And with that, I leave you with one last charge to have some more adventure in your life. Try something new whenever you can and enjoy!

Adventure on,

Katie

Hawaii: Part One

For Spring Break I had the absolute privilege of going to Hawaii with one of my classes. Fourteen of us went to Oahu and spent a week in Honolulu to learn more about Hawaiian culture and to have a good time.

Since a week’s worth of activities in Hawaii is more interesting than anything I could ever do in Fort Worth, the next two weeks I will spend talking about the fun things we did during break.

Friday (Travel Day 1):

The day we flew to Oahu, I spent eight and a half hours on two different planes with a four and a half hour layover in the middle. It was the longest day ever, since time changes and a long amount of time sitting down tends to exhaust me.

We got to Waikiki at around ten that night and after eating, we all fell asleep. I was dying to see the ocean, but after a long time travelling, sleep is the only thing that matters.

Saturday (Free Day):

Saturday, we all got to go and explore on our own around Waikiki. It was so cool to see the island for the first time, and it was even more beautiful than I anticipated. Here are the views outside of our balcony in the hotel.

Ocean to the left

Main street down below

Mountains to the right

We woke up at about 7:00 AM (the time change was rough), and went to find breakfast. After walking around for a while, we found a restaurant that looked delicious, and went in. It was our first meal in Hawaii, and it was delicious. Fresh fruit, exotic breads, and unusual coffees and juices were on the table. This is when I knew I was going to be in trouble when it came to food for the week.

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and in the ocean. The waves at Waikiki were much larger than anything I had ever seen before. It was so different and much more fun than any other beach I have been to, and I loved getting to float around for a while. We also found a park with awesome trees that we climbed all over for about an hour. It was a good day where we took the time to get acclimated to the island and rested up for the rest of the week.

Sunday (Outrigger Canoe Club and Obama Tour):

Sunday started out at an exclusive beach club where we all got to go for brunch. It was one of the best meals I have ever had. Not only was the food amazing, we also got to spend the morning on a private beach. We watched the waves, swam, and enjoyed the sunshine.

After the time at the beach, we met up with a local named Uncle Jack who took us on his popular “Obma Tour.” We spent the rest of the day walking around Honolulu to different places relating to Obama. We saw his apartments, the hospital where he was born, the basketball court where he played, and the Baskin Robbins where he first worked. It was an illustration of history in the making. We went to places that weren’t significant until Obama became president, and it was fun to see where he came from.

Uncle Jack - our tour guide

The hospital Obama was born in.

Next week I will continue with the rest of my Hawaiian adventures!

Adventure on,

Katie

Phantom

Last Sunday was one of the most exciting days I have had in a long time.

I finally got the chance to see “Phantom of the Opera” at the Dallas Summer Musicals in Fair Park. I am a huge Broadway buff and I have been dying to see this show for a long time. It was perfect timing this year, because there are rumors that Phantom is going to be packed away for a while and taken off of tour.

I have seen the movie version with Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum approximately 12 times, and can recite and sing every word with few errors. It was about time I finally got to see Phantom in the way it was intended.

While nothing quite compares to a Broadway musical on Broadway, the touring versions tend to be extremely well made. We were lucky to get to see Tim Gleason as the Phantom and Kim Stengel as the hilarious Carlotta. Both of them have made history by playing their respective parts a record-breaking number of times. All of the cast was wonderful and captured the essences of Weber’s masterpiece (though, I would have liked the Phantom to be a little more vicious).

Tim Gleason as Phantom

Kim Stengel as Carlotta

Besides the amazing soundtrack that most people have heard many times, the musical was incredibly creative when it came to set design and costuming. The scene where the Phantom first takes Christine down to his dungeon, the stage turns into a lake covered in blue fog, while the two sit in a boat that glides across the stage. The whole time they are taking their voyage, the background is slowly changing and smoothly transitions to another setting entirely. It is no wonder the people who made the movie changed very few scenes. It was almost like watching a movie on stage.

With the exception of “Wicked” (which I have seen three separate times), there are few musicals that have impressed me with their production quite like Phantom. It was such a treat to see the origin of one of my favorite movies.

The only problem I have with seeing musicals is that I have to constantly resist the urge to sing along. When it came to my favorite song, I couldn’t help it and I sang under my breath along with Christine as she sang “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.”

Here are a few lines from this amazing song:

"Too many years, fighting back tears, Why can’t the past just die?

Wishing you were somehow here again, Knowing we must say goodbye. Try to forgive, teach me to live, Give me the strength to try.

No more memories, no more silent tears. No more gazing across the wasted years. Help me say goodbye."

For now, I am off to Hawaii for Spring Break, so look forward to hearing about my adventures there!

Adventure On,

Katie

Wonderland

This week I went on an epic adventure to a magical world none other than Wonderland. How did I do this you ask? By diving into Lewis Carroll's literary classics or watching the old and beloved Disney animated "Alice in Wonderland"? Sadly, no, but I'm sure you all know the answer, and that is that I went to see Tim Burton's new 3-D cinematic version of "Alice in Wonderland."

The movie is an extension of the original Disney classic, not a remake. It is a story about Alice returning to Wonderland after many years. In her struggle to come to terms with the fact that Wonderland is real, she eventually comes into her own and is able to gain enough courage to fight (and defeat) the evil Red Queen.

My personal opinion about the movie is that it was a visual masterpiece and its aesthetic beauty more than makes up for what it lacks in character development.

The Real-D 3-D was used in such a way that it only served to immerse you more in the story. It is not trying to be a jumper 3-D movie and instead uses the technology to draw you closer into Wonderland.

The story is smooth and full of appropriate quirkiness (though some critics say not enough). It is always incredible to see Johnny Depp completely in his element, and as the Mad Hatter, he really shines. Depp and the Cheshire cat steal the movie together and really embody the spirit of Carrol’s classic tale.

The scenery is gorgeous and the CGI technology is used in this movie to portray a whimsical and imaginary land in a stunning fashion. While Avatar may have stolen the attention from Alice, I believe Alice uses the technology to tell a much better and more entertaining story.

Along with costumes and soundtrack, the movie really excels in all aesthetic aspects, even down to the specific colors chosen in every scene.

Make sure you check out Alice in 3-D sometime soon and see for yourself the incredible immersive experience Tim Burton has created.

Watch the trailer here:

Adventure On,

Katie

Target

This week I did something that is rather uncommon for me.

I went shopping.

I know what you’re thinking. “Katie, aren’t you a girl?” And to that, I have to say a firm yes and explain that I am not your typical girl. Let me also explain that I love to online shop and I love clothes as well as cool gadgets and trinkets.

What I hate is the physical act of shopping. There, I said it. I strongly dislike rifling through racks of clothes that all look the same yet slightly different, trying on clothes and constantly having to put things on and take them off and put things on again, and waiting in lines to check out, especially on weekends. It is such a process and it always leaves me with an achy back, sore feet and an empty wallet.

That is why shopping this weekend classifies as my adventure. You see, I am going on a great adventure to Hawaii for the first time in approximately 12 days (not that I’m counting), and for this large adventure, I need to be well equipped.

This led me out of Fort Worth and back home to Plano to do some much needed swimsuit and Hawaiin-esque clothing shopping.

Where do you think I went first? No, not the mall. I went to Target.

Who doesn’t love Target with all of their heart? Target is a place where I can get all kinds of clothing shopping done, and then quickly escape to the electronics section to take a breather searching through the DVD section.

They had everything I needed, including cute swimsuits, cover-ups, and shorts all for affordable prices. There is no place better than Target for your Spring Break needs.

Next I had to take an adventure to my favorite clothing stores to see if they had anything worth investing in. So I went to adventure through Express, Urban Outfitters, and Anthropologie. While I didn’t buy anything at the time, I tried on all of the things that I had been drooling over online. Here are some of the things that I was looking for:

photos from anthropologie.com

Some items were cute on, and others were not at all. The ones that were cute were incredibly expensive and left me feeling a little appalled at how much was being charged for something so simple (another reason I dislike shopping). This all led to a feeling of accomplishment for my job well done at Target.

An adventure to the mall is not always as fruitful as you would like it to be, and I learned that this weekend in full force. I think I learned my lesson: just go to Target, and life is much easier.

While my adventure blog this week certainly sounds a lot more like an ad about the wonders of Target, I hope you can see that Target is a magical place worthy of your time. It is always an adventure to walk through those hallowed red and white halls.

Adventure on,

Katie

Warhol in Fort Worth

I am so excited to say that this week I had the absolute privilege of seeing the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. What better adventure is there than getting to see firsthand the original artwork of one of the most iconic artists in American history? I can’t think of many things that would be better.

I love going to the Modern because not only is it only $4 for students, it is one of the most gorgeous buildings. Just walking up to the building, it’s apparent that you are someplace special, even if you have no idea that it’s a museum.

The architecture is stunning, but the most amazing part is after you walk in. The entire backside of the building is floor to ceiling windows that is situated right next to a shallow pond that stretches from the side of the building to halfway out in the yard.

The building itself puts any visitor in the mood for art and I started getting really excited to see the exhibit as soon as I walked in. I paid for my ticket and headed upstairs and walked right into the first room that introduced the exhibit.

“Andy Warhol: The Last Decade” is a travelling exhibit that features collected works from the last eight years of Warhol’s life. In the introduction, it explains that many people consider this period the most productive time of his career.

It was evident in the first room that this was an extremely bright and introspective time in Warhol’s career. He was still playing with his silk-screen printing process that made him so famous in the beginning with pieces on Marilyn Monroe and Campbell’s Soup cans. The beginning largely consisted of silk-screen self-portraits and incredible original pop art pieces of iconic figures like Santa, Mickey Mouse, and Dracula.

The next room looked into the oxidation process and Warhol’s foray into abstraction rather than straightforward pop art that focused on the manual art process and less on the mechanical process of screen-printing. There were floor-to-ceiling hand crafted studies on inkblots as well as more hand-painted pieces in the same room.

The next room had many examples of his camouflage pieces as well as more self-portraits.

After that there was a room that had many pieces from a set of collaborations Warhol did with Jean-Michel Basquiat. These are largely opinionated views of American culture and life in the 1980’s. Also in this room are some of the black and white advertisements that Warhol recreated to comment on the commercialism of society.

The final room has a large collection of Warhol’s last subject, recreations of “The Last Supper”. These are some of his largest and most striking pieces. All along the way, I learned more and more about the iconic artist.

Along the side of the exhibit are some examples of early work, like his flower series (my personal favorite, I would love to put them in a kid’s room) and some examples from the Campbell’s soup series.

Warhol’s style is so entrenched in our society today that there is even a Photo Booth setting on Macs that allows users to create their own Warhol-style series of pictures of themselves. His images are everywhere in our culture, and it was such a privilege to see some of his influential pieces firsthand.

I highly suggest that all of you take some time to go through the exhibit at the Modern while it is here. It goes until May 16, so there is plenty of time to get over there and have your own art-filled adventure!

Adventure on,

Katie

Snow!

Last Thursday was a miracle, my friends. Nine inches of powdery, fluffy white snow covered Fort Worth, Texas. It wasn’t just a two-inch layer of ice lightly dusted with a cover of snow. This was real snow.

The phenomenon put my adventurous plans on hold this week since Mother Nature gave us all her own special adventure that was blog-worthy all by itself.

Growing up and living in North Texas my whole life means that snow has always been a foreign substance. All you fellow Texans will agree with me that Dallas/Fort Worth doesn’t have “snow days,” we have “ice days.”

North Texans don’t have snowball fights, but we do have ice-ball fights. They are generally painful and end up leaving bruises that make “ice days” not very fun.

North Texans get entire school days off if there is even a chance for ice. I firmly believe this is because everyone is terrified of a bunch of ill-equipped drivers trying to maneuver their way around on slick surfaces.

For North Texans, there was no precedent for what happened at the end of last week. All of the out-of-state students laughed at us natives, as we looked genuinely stunned. In the parking lot, it was easy to tell who was new to snow because they were the ones using their bare hands to clear their windshields (myself included, it was not fun) instead of the pros with their ice scrapers.

Of course the first thing my friends and I wanted to do was play in it. Campus was crawling with fellow students all trying to do the same, and by about noon, most of the snow was used.

We decided to drive out to find a patch of untouched snow and pulled the car over at the Fort Worth Zoo Park off of University. There we were able to play in six inches of untouched snow while more kept coming.

After throwing snowballs for a while (which was actually fun and not painful, just very cold), we decided to embark on the epic task of making the biggest snowman ever, which proved much more difficult than we anticipated.

After rolling around a large snowball for the bottom and watching it grow larger and larger, we began rolling around another for the middle. We decided that the bottom was done only when it was nearly impossible for two people to push it together. Then we rolled the middle to the bottom and discovered that it is much more difficult to lift large balls of snow than it looks.

With four people trying to lift at once, it was deemed an impossible task and we brainstormed to find a way to construct our epic snowman. Finally, we had an epiphany moment when one of our friends announced she had a towel in her car. From there, we rolled the middle on to the towel and with four people lifting, pushed it over onto the bottom. From there we placed the much smaller head and scavenged around for some arms and various facial features.

This is what we ended up with:

She leaned a bit and was quite scary from a side view, but she was a success for a bunch of native Texans.

Mother Nature delivered quite the frosty adventure last week and I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as I did. TCU has never looked quite as pretty as it did when fresh snowfall covered every surface.

Adventure on,

Katie

Ice Skating

There was a time not too long ago when I daily put my life in danger jumping horses over five foot jumps. I frequently enjoy the thrill of strapping myself into small cars that move at terrifying speeds along tracks at Six Flags. I once went white water rafting through Grade 3 waters.

Yet, when I decided to try ice-skating this weekend, the prospect was a little scarier than I anticipated.

You see, I haven’t been to an ice rink since ninth grade, and while that was only five years ago, I wasn’t any good then. This is why ice-skating was a fun, nostalgic adventure for me this week.

A couple of friends and I decided to head over to ICE at the Parks Mall in Arlington for their late-night open skate. It was from 9:00 to 10:30, and only cost 6 dollars for admission and skate rentals. It all seemed so great until we were handed the skates and suddenly the realities of ice-skating came back to me slowly, like a strange slow-motion movie sequence.

Reality No. 1

It takes forever to lace up skates.

With a million little metal things to go around, it takes a surprisingly long time to work your way up to the bow. I also managed to forget that you are actually supposed to tighten them to a level way above the typical pain threshold. This was a fact that came in to play much later.

Reality No. 2

Balance is a key factor in successful skating.

Just walking on the carpet from the benches to the ice was enough of a challenge. It took every ounce of my being to keep from wobbling enough to break an ankle. Then actually stepping on the ice was a leap. That first step is a moment to remember. I wobbled onto the ice and grasped the side-rail for dear life.

Reality No. 3

It is very difficult to keep from looking like a hunched over old woman doing a strange dance when you get on the ice.

That seems self-explanatory enough.

Reality No. 4

Falling is painful.

While I only fell once and it was only a half-fall, landing on my knees on the hard, cold ice sent a jolt through my bones that made my teeth chatter. It gives you a whole new appreciation for figure skaters. When I watch the Olympics, I will no longer laugh when the poor people fall down.

Reality No. 5

There will always be those rude younger kids who skate around at obscene speeds who think it’s funny to cut off people who are having a hard time keeping their balance.

It’s just mean!

While it was definitely an adventure to get started, it was certainly fun. I also slowly got better and was able to go at a decent speed by the end of an hour. I even attempted to skate backwards, though not so successfully. I was pretty proud of myself and even the fact that a monkey can ice-skate better than me (really, it’s true) doesn’t make me feel so bad.

One last thing…

Reality No. 6

You will get blisters from your skates.

This is true even more so when you don’t tighten them enough. At least I will have the battle wounds on my heels and toes to prove that I’m out there adventuring!

Until next week,

Katie

Cooking

This week I ventured into the relatively unknown territory that is the kitchen.

It is a scary thing to know that someday soon I will be an official “grown-up” and will have to make meals for myself, so I decided the only way to start learning how to cook is to dive right in.

Step One: Choosing a Meal to cook

It seems so simple, yet it was the hardest thing to do for me.

So, I rounded up three friends and lured them away from a night out at the BLUU and asked them what they would want for a dinner. The overwhelming answer to that was “Bread! Good bread,” and “Something edible.”

Starting from those epic words of advice, I decided to turn to my iTouch. Even for the simple question of what to eat for dinner, there’s an app for that.

I let my iTouch randomly choose a type of food and I decided on chicken fettuccini alfredo, a Caesar salad, and "good" bread for my meal adventure.

Step Two: Finding a Recipe

Finally knowing what I wanted, I turned to the ever-knowing Google and typed in “chicken fettuccini alfredo.” From there, I picked the one recipe that looked the most descriptive and decided to give it a shot.

Here is the recipe I found.

Step Three: Buying Ingredients

For this step, I decided Central Market was the way to go. Some of the ingredients seemed odd to me so I decided to go to a place where you are always more likely to find an odd food item.

When I got to the store, it was basically a mess trying to find the exact things I needed. Things like “3 tomatoes” were easy enough to find, since I generally know what a tomato looks like.On the other hand, “four cloves of garlic” was a complete mystery to me. Luckily I had enlisted the help of a close friend who led me around the store like a confused child.

With his help, I paid and headed to a kitchen to get the hard work done.

Step Four: Cooking the food

Since it was my first time making something non-microwaveable, I followed the recipe like it was the Bible.

I chopped.

I sautéed.

I boiled.

I stirred until things began to look edible.

And lo and behold, a meal came out of it.

Step 5: Eating

I held my breath until my friends ate the first bites. After seeing approval, I tried it for myself.

Yum. It was so much better than anything the BLUU had to offer, and I made it myself (with some help).

Along with watching Julie and Julia (which, ironically enough, is about a woman who cooks and writes about it in her blog), break-n-bake cookies, and good company, this potential disaster turned into an adventure I am ready to repeat again.

Really, any excuse to avoid the BLUU is good in my book.

So, with two adventures under my belt, I’m ready to step it up a notch. Any suggestions will be taken into consideration, as always. Dancing lessons could be fun...

Adventure on,

Katie