Aloha!

Yesterday was an action packed day. Both Clarissa and I had off so we did a million and two things. We went to the Iao Valley State Park for a photoshoot with her friends really early in the morning, went to the Honolulu Coffee shop to visit Nicole (HEY GIRL, I'm all about the fishing and boss pictures cooking fish on stones), drove all the way down to La Peruse, checked out McKenna Landing for some snorkel action which never happened because it was murky, quickly saw Big Beach because it's the "quintessential Hawai'i beach", had a swim at Keawakapu in Wailea, went to my fitting at Tamara Catz, tried to find the Princess Pools again, and had dinner at Colleen's with Cindy & Jason.

 This was some of the Japanese garden in the Iao Valley..

 Clarissa doing her thing in the Portuguese gardens...

 Big, beautiful Iao Valley "dreadlock tree" aka Banyan tree.

 So big!!!

 I was so excited! Definitely wore wrong hiking shoes...again. Oh well, these are now my hiking shoes.

 I had to have a million pictures. The air was so fresh and crisp...it felt like "real air".

 Climbed into a secret cove with a waterfall. Brandi (the henna artist) is on the left and turns out the woman on the right is Nakota's older sister, Everly. REALLY. Small world.

 The Iao Needle is right behind me. I am so Indiana Jones right now.

 "The fairy green place"

 Hiyooo, ginger in my hair! Hiding in a green sea of lushiousness.

 Nakalele blowhole. This is it still if you see the little hole in the middle, that's where it blows.

 The waves didn't really feel like crashing so we didn't get to see it shoot up 70 feet or anything but I captured a little blow!

 This place is called La Peruse. Everything in this picture is volcanic rock and ash that has been left from the last time that Haleakala had an eruption. I stubbed my toe at least fifteen times and it hurt like a muuuugggg. I guess I should just pack proper closed toe shoes if I intend on going on an adventure?

 Not sure what's going on here, but I like it.

 I was ready to go into the water dress and all.

 If I told you what this picture reminds me of and why it makes me laugh, you would all laugh.

...oh well. Too late. This is what my hair reminds me of. UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE. lolol. (You should all be laughing but know, I am so serious)

 I love this picture.

 Creepin' on Clarissa at La Peruse.

 BIG BEACH SIGNS.

 Oh, hey there.

 Big Beach view.

Then we went to Keawakapu Beach for a swim...

You couldn't see my face and because some of my readers were SO concerned over my beach bod, I figured I'd filter it. If you click it, you'll see the most attractive face ever.

So we left and went to Tamara Catz after a quick beach shower. You know those showers at the beach. Anyways, we get to Tamara Catz and they were like "Oh, do your hair just like that." I said, "I just came from the beach." Seriously. They want it as BIG as possible, so I tried to do that before they took the sample snapshots.

 I'm so brown!!!!

 Dress one.

 Some outfit she gave me. Loooved that top and color.

 This is the dress I couldn't stop looking at the first time we went into Tamara Catz. I prefer it in all white, but I can't just walk around in beach wedding gowns. I would love to though because I LOVED IT.

 Does anyone want to come up with an occasion that I can wear this dress? Please.

 Back of the dress.

They also had me try on this pink dress but no pictures of that. Pretty simple. I asked them what they had in mind for the shoot and they're pretty "go with the flow". I'm really glad Clarissa is shooting me though. Probably will put me more at ease. AH! Can't wait! This Monday at 4:30 is the call time. I don't think I'll be able to release any pictures until Tamara Catz does, but we'll see exactly what this arrangement is....and if I can get some goodies and gifts!

If I do get a gift, I am getting that dress. Friends, come up with an occasion that I can wear it PLEASE.

After that we tried to find the Princess Pools again. The Princess Pools are natural pools made out of lava rocks that fill like a basin with sweet water. It is in the thick of the rainforest hidden from everything, basically. It's close to impossible to find (even the locals don't really know about it) and extraordinarily beautiful, according to Clarissa. She told me that it is covered with a canopy of vine and all sorts of things that grow in the rainforest and the sun filters through at specific times during the day. Well anyways, last time was an epic fail and so this time we had a few more directions than last...still nothing concrete but a better idea of where to find it. We parked on some strange road and had to hike about an hour until we found where it was AND THEN it was too dark to even go to it. Maybe early Monday morning we can try to find it again...

 Beginning of the road we started to hike on.

 On that far out cliff is a house. So remote. So removed. I don't know if I could live out there...unless I was crazy in love and only watched SVU.

Clarissa had done a photoshoot for a friend's birthday at the Pools. This is one of her pictures from it. This kind of gives a little bit of surrounding scenery so you can get a jist of what it would look like. In the back its only black lava rock and the pool is deep enough to swim. I think I'd have to see it to explain it...

Even though we didn't actually make it to the Princess Pools, we did manage to have a little photoshoot nonetheless. It was getting dark so we just chose some vine-y area and decided to shoot there. It's really hard for me to be shot in nature because I'm really not that much of a nature girl. When we found the spot, I immediately ripped my dress off got down to my bra and panties to try to catch the right shot. I got annoyed that my bra was going to be in the picture so I literally chucked that sucker into the dirt path and was like "hope you don't mind, I have a ___". HAAAAA. Can't wait to see the pictures, pretty sure some of them probably have some boobies. Actually, I'm positive they do. Woohoo. What am I even going to do with these? I'm going to look back when I am 80 and remember the time I got naked in the middle of some random rainforest road and took some pictures in vine with wild hair. I'm sure it will make for a good story...and hopefully some even better pictures :) I mean if nothing else, we saw a rainbow when we left. I'd call that a perfect day.

 I woke up with over 35 mosquito bites. FML. Don't get naked in the rainforest. I have ten alone on my right thigh.

 Sue (the bookkeeper) gave me this! I was going to download it on my Kindle but this is THE BEST guidebook the island has to offer. Apparently locals hate it because it turns all the private, hidden gems into tourist attractions. Oh well, I'm a fake local.

And this was so sweet.

Happy 3 day after National Sibling Day day! 

With warmest aloha (my favorite mermaids),

MJ