Our six month Hawai'ian adventure has come to a close. These six months have gone by so quickly. When we first moved here, we were in awe of the beauty of this place. Now, six months later, we are still amazed
when we look out our window! From the breathtaking rainforests that we conducted our research in, to the gorgeus, blue,
ocean, we are constantly finding ourselves surprised at the absolute beauty of our surroundings.




We felt like tourists for the first couple of months as we soaked in as much of the island as we could. We had some bad
times (see posts related to our car being stolen) and really good times and through it all we had each other! We made some
really good friends and actually got a bit of research done! We scouted out a bit of "hidden O'ahu" and made a lot of otherwise
normal places "our" places.




In the latter half of our stay here, we spent a lot of time at home. Travel, without a car, was difficult, so we didn't
do much of it. However, we still learned a lot. We had a lot of time to reflect on where we were and what we wanted to do
in life.




Ben learned that he can depend on Ashley. He learned that life is too short for it to be full of stress and self-created worries. He learned
that Hawai'i is an incredibly un-productive place (it's too easy to get distracted by everything) and that the most important things
in life are (usually) right in front of you.




It is amazing what a lot of time in a such a wonderful place can do for your soul. You begin to see things as they are, not how you want them to
be. Your mind becomes a little clearer and finally you can describe yourself and who you are without giving it a second thought. The 'self' that you have discovered
something so important and so incredible it cannot be described in words. It brings you peace, finally, and you do not ever want to leave it. This is Ashley's view of
Hawaii. A little something that brought her closer to home. Oh, well...




We have had a really awesome time sharing the past six months of our lives with all of you and were very fortunate to share
our experiences. As this chapter in our lives closes, a new, very exciting one is beginning and we hope to maintain a fairly
regular web-journal throughout. In leaving Hawai'i, we are leaving a big part of ourselves here and it's not a question of if but when we will return to find them again. Writing this post
has been very difficult for both of us as we've become so attached to this place. We will miss the Shave Ice from Kokonuts, the "big
waves" at Makapu'u Beach, the "best reuben we've ever had" at Bonacasa's, the Unagi, the Li Hing, our friends Jimmy and Youko,
the daily rain, the perfect weather, the frequent rainbows, the amazing view from Roundtop Drive, the mosquito bites, the Pali Lookout,
the "powdered sugar" sand at Kailua Beach Park, a full nights' sleep, the "street" mangoes, guava and avacado, incredible snorkeling
at Shark's Cove, moist skin, tans and sun bleached hair, being talked to in Pidgin, the 7 waterfalls in "our" valley, and, of course, the reason we came out here: the rainforest and it's many frog inhabitants.
We hope that you have had as much fun as we have during this adventure and, while Ben vowed
earlier never to use Hawai'ian words, it seems fitting to use a couple as a closer to this post.




Aloha & Mahalo,


Ben & Ashley