Heritage

I have always been aware of my heritage and how privilege I am to have that in my life.  Last night I was reminded of that heritage and got to marvel again at the faithfulness of God; the One who never fails!  My parents and I had dinner with some old friends; people who were the beneficiaries of my parents’ generosity and mentorship.  In the course of the evening, my parents shared stories of when they were starting out in the ministry, and were newly weds.  They have learnt so many valuable lessons from that time, and more importantly, they were quick to realize that they could only count on God and not look to people.  God never failed them, providing miracle after miracle, especially financially with every step of faith they took.

I reflected on how my name had so much to do with these experiences.  Also God used the evening to remind me again that He is faithful and will not fail me especially in this time of wandering around my “wilderness” not knowing what’s in store.  I have already seen His provision for my life through the generosity of friends and family who have taken care of a lot of my needs here in Singapore.  I am blessed.  I have to continue to keep my eyes on Him and my trust solely in Him.

Thank you dad & mum for an amazing heritage and legacy; I am learning to trust and serve like you have.  I love you.

Maui Adventures V – The Wrap Up

Got home late last night so I am just now getting to do a little update.  I had a blast being in Maui and more importantly getting away; it was much needed and very enjoyable.  It is the 4th of July today and the sound of fireworks is rumbling around my neighborhood.  I can’t help but be reminded of freedom on this day and feel very thankful.

Our last day in Maui was a chill day; we had plans to sleep in, then hit the beach for one last run at the sun and then enjoy a night on the town.  Unfortunately for us, the sun was partially hidden most of they day but clouds but still we made it to the beach and hung out for the afternoon.  We decided to head to Wailea, a pretty ritzy area of Maui with nice resorts, big houses and high end shopping.  It was a little bit of a bummer with the sun being covered, however, it was still good to be out and about.

 

My little tribute to the beautiful Maui.

White sand beaches, still beautiful though cloudy.

Ah…the life.

After hitting the beach, we decided to “sneak” into the Grand Wailea Resort to get some pictures on their scenic grounds.

Inside the wedding chapel at the resort.

A beautiful sunset to end a beautiful experience.

Maui Adventures IV – Snorkeling

Morning came unusually earlier – knowing that we were tired, I decided to set 2 alarms just in case since we had to check in for our snorkeling trip at 6:30 am.  Did I mention being tired?  One of my phones is set for Seattle time still and the other is in Maui time, but in my sleepiness I set alarms for both as though it were both set for local time.  So when 6 am rolled around, I jumped out of bed, quickly got ready and woke the guys.  They were really quick to tell me that I was actually waking them up at 3 am!  The wrong alarm went off; I quickly apologized and jumped back into bed.

I was very excited to go snorkeling having never done it before.  We showed up blurry eyed, thanks to me, and checked in.  We quickly found that there were many Seattle folks in town and many of them moved here to work.  Most of them said it was the sunshine that brought them here and they seemed happy temporarily.  We missed the short briefing they had for the people headed out on our tour because we were milling around the shop, so we just followed the masses.

 

The tour we were on was sponsored by the Pacific Whale Organization, a non-profit working on marine life conservation.  We had a bunch of fun loving young people taking us on our snorkeling experience.

The Ocean Voyager – our mode of transport

Eric was very excited for the trip as you can see.

Eric and I posing for another picture.

Here is the Molokini crater/island that we were snorkeling by.  It is a preserved/reserved area so, full of marine life.

This was Jarron’s first time snorkeling as well.

Our stunt man Eric

This was one of the coolest experiences ever.  It was like we were in our own underwater aquarium hanging with the fish and coral.

After snorkeling for an hour, we got back on the boat and headed off to where the sea turtles hung out.  We were stoked because they guaranteed us turtle sightings and they surely did deliver.

Snorkeler Jireh :)

A sighting in the distance.  Let’s just say I was determined to swim by this guy and I booked over there.  I think I even swam over and kicked some people with my fins just to keep up with this guy.

The water in this area was a little murky and cold so the pics aren’t that great.

I think someone had threw food over board or something because all of a sudden these guys came rushing at me and it was crazy.

My attempt at being a cool underwater photographer.  The sun rays were shining through the water the whole time so I thought let’s try the reverse and shoot upwards out of the water and at the sunshine.

Jarron spotted this guy hiding out in the coral reef.

Some good coral shots by Jarron.

What a fun experience today snorkeling!  Learnt some much, especially breathing through a tube.  Looking forward to more fun as we wrap up our trip.

Maui Adventures III – The Road to Hana

Had a rough night sleeping – kept waking up for some reason.  5:15 am came really early again today.  We were hoping to get on the road at 6 am headed for Hana; let’s just say everyone was as tired as I was so we were a little delayed.  The drive was estimated at about 3 hours one way, except we were driving about 74 miles.  It was a winding mountainous road leading to Hana, most of it single lane and huge section of unpaved roads.  It was quite the trip.

 

Jarron manning the wheel on this drive to Hana

The view from the drive

Some of the few & far between patches of “straight” road.

Finally after about 3 hours of driving and then getting lost and getting some more distinctive directions from the locals we found our first stop – 7 Pools.  These were 7 pools of water coming from waterfalls leading out to the ocean.

Our first warnings…

Ocean view from the top of the last pool before the ocean.

Quick upward view of the different pools and the waterfall.

Jarron posing for a profile pic.

My turn.

Eric getting stepping into the ocean

The water was nice and cold.

Welcome to the ocean.

Surrounding rock and greenery

The 3 person shot (me taking of Eric and Eric taking of Jarron)

The Falls

Next stop – Red Sand Beach.  This place seemed to be an elusive place.  We were told the access was shut off to the public but we could risk it and try to get to the beach.  We asked around some more and got an inside scoop and found the best place to park and hike down to this famous beach.  It was indeed tricky to find and quite a treacherous hike (especially in flip flops) but we were determined.

The view on the way to the red sand beach

The cove where the red sand beach was located.

Very scenic

The boys and their “beach ready” bodies ;-) (not so much)

After we took this shot, we started our descent to the beach and what we were not really prepared for what was to come.  As we made our approach to the beach, we started noticing some of the people already at the beach and swimming were nude.  As such we have no pictures from the red sand beach.  It was quite an interesting experience.  On one side of us were two older gentlemen from Europe who were very used to being naked in public and then on the other side were a younger couple that were basically hitchhiking their way around the island and had no issues being in the buff.  We did our thing and had fun.  We didn’t stay long for obvious reasons and we also wanted to check out the other spots around Hana.

Our next stop was the black sand beach which was located in a state park and so there were a lot more people there and of all ages; quite a change from our last stop.

We found ourselves a shady spot on the sand and actually all fell asleep for a couple of hours before heading on the road back towards our hotel.  We were going to stop in a town on the way back for dinner.  We started on our next 74 mile trip down hill.

It was a really fun day albeit a tiring one.  Another early morning awaits us but it should be another fun day.  We are heading out to sea on a boat for a snorkeling trip – really looking to it because it will be my first time snorkeling.  Until tomorrow…peace out.