Recently someone told me that it seemed as if I posted more messages through Twitter than actual blog posts. This is true, of course, I do post more frequent on Twitter. It is however, as far as I think, not really like I write less on this blog than before. I have said it once before, there is not always material to make a nice long blog post, and often I just didn’t write anything back then when I didn’t use Twitter yet, but now you get to see those things in small messages so basically there is more to read about than before, which seems even better to me

Anyways, it is time for a bit longer post right now

Yesterday we went out in search of the Black Pearl, the ship from Pirates of the Carribean. I told about it before, that they would shoot their fourth movie (’On Stranger Tides’) here in Hawaii, and I also knew that the ship arrived about a month ago and that it was in dry dock for repairs and such. They wrote about this in the local newspaper, and that’s also why I knew it was not somewhere inside, but that you could easily see it from the road.

And that was true!

We found the ship after a short search in about the spot where we expected it (here), there was a fence but you could easily look through the fence. We looked at it from a parkinglot near a boat ramp, from which I just found out it was a private boat ramp (which explains the security at the entrance of the parking, who was not there, by the way, when we entered it). I don’t know how far they could stop us from going there, though, according to Hawaii state law they always have to grant you access to the coastline. I think they just want to discourage people from going there than to really stop them.

Whatever it is, we did see it, and pretty clear as well. Here are some pictures:

As you can see, the Black Pearl is currently not really black, it’s more like black-brown.. I think they will give it a new color (well, it will probably be black haha), and that they sanded it because of that. You can also see that they removed the cabin from the stern and that it now just shows a framework. The figurehead is gone, and so are the masts. They’re really renewing some things on it, and probably also adjust some things for the new movie.

You can see one of the guards sitting on a chair behind the fence on the second picture, they hired those because of the large number of people who want to see the ship.

Here are some more photo’s:

Some of the materials that you can see in the foreground of the pictures are, I think, from the Black Pearl itself. Many of those things look like how you can expect them on a ship such as this.

By the way, I think we viewed this ship pretty late when you see the following pictures of when the ship was only just in dry dock about a month ago. I also added a photo of how the ship looks like in the movie itself. By the way, these pictures are not made by us, they come from the Honolulu Advertiser website:

Like I said, you couldn’t see the stern like that anymore, which is a shame really. I would’ve loved to see it with those statues and such. Oh well, they still have to shoot the movie, who knows, I might get lucky and see some of that.

A fun fact: The Black Pearl (or ‘Sunset’ as it’s name really is) is actually a motorboat with a maximum speed of 9 knots. The masts are only there for the view, and it is actually a ship around a ship.

After we took some pictures here, we went to the other side of the harbor, to the Ko’olina resorts, where you can find some lagoons, and where you can walk nicely with a stroller and such. And because the people from Europe and the US mainland want to see the summer so badly, here are some pictures to get you started haha:

For those who wonder why I am wearing a black thing around my wrist, this is because I recently found out that I have a Carpal Tunnel Syndroom. The splint is making sure that I can’t move my wrist too weirdly and such. Not so nice to have, but I think it is the price I have to pay for all those years (about 25 years) of sitting behind a computer too much. I will now have to take it much easier when it comes to computers and such (and I am doing that also).

In the last picture you can see a building that is still under construction. This is going to be the new Disney resort: Disney Aulani. I think this is going to be a beautiful (and very expensive) resort when I look at the the pictures and drawings.

In the second last photo it looks like there is a pineapple growing in a tree.. which isn’t the case.. I have no idea what it really is but it is no pineapple, that’s for sure haha. It kind of also looks like a way too big pinecone.

And then we went back home again. However, when we were on our way to the car, I noticed that we could also see the Black Pearl really well from this side of the harbor:

So if you really cannot get in on that side of the harbor, then you should just go to the Ko’olina resorts with binoculars or a zoom lens for your camera (you can also see it really well with just your eyes, by the way), where you can still easily view it.

And that was our little trip of yesterday.. I don’t think I have much more to tell you. If there is anything else, I will let you know

Oh, we will go out for swimming soon (and you might not believe this, but it will be the first time since I am here, can you imagine that? Hahaha!).. we bought a few of those swimming pants with diapers inside of them for Isabella, a factor 50 sunblock, and we will buy a small hat and a thing for her to sit in, in the water.. that’s all going to work out nicely, I am looking forward to it already

A tornado on Hawaii, do you expect that on a tropical island? I don’t think so but apparently it is possible… and not just one tornado, but three at the same time…

The weather was a bit weird I think, it was nice but around lunchtime it started to become very dark and it started to rain.. not the normal small rain as you mostly have here, but pretty big drups and there was also a lot of thunder with some heavy bangs. I instantly was like ‘bleh, another rainy weekend’ but it turned out to be different.. the bad weather left as quickly as it came.

I asked Michelle if she had some rain also and she said that there most likely did fall some rain but from what I understood from her words, there was no thunder and aparently not such a heavy rainfall either. It was apparently nothing special on that side of the island where she works nowadays as it rains almost every day for a bit on that side, it is the rainside of the island and with it also the greenest side of the island.

I didn’t think about it anymore until it became night… I was reading the news and I read that there was a tornado on Hawaii earlier that day, in Kapolei (at the westside of the island). And just now I found out that it wasn’t just one tornado but three even. The tornados weren’t that heavy (or just tornado as the other ones were a lot smaller and cannot really be called tornado I think) but still it was still a tornado, even though it was only a F0. He did, however, pick up a golf car and threw that away again (it came down on a golf terrain).

I didn’t know but they aparently have more sightings of tornados on that side of the island.. some people actually say they seem to become bigger (and from what I saw on the pictures and videos, it did look like a nice one, even though it was ‘only’ a F0).

Anyways, I will stop talking now.. here are some links to some pages where you can find some videos of it all since I expect you want to see them:

- Tornado video - 1
- Tornado video - 2

And here are, finally, the last Christmas pictures.. well, for now haha, I got some more but yeah, it doesn’t stay Christmas And next to that I also left some other pictures out of this collection since they were a bit blurry, probably because Michelle moved a bit hehe.. (it wasn’t me, I was filming lol). Anyways, here they are:

And that were the Christmas pictures for now… probably not when it is about New Yerar since it will be soon Chinese New Year and we will most likely go to a parade with a 150 feet long dragon, kungfu practicers and more of that kind of things.. I am looking forward to it

I already said it in my previous message, that I would post some more pictures of some decorated houses but from a different part of the island, and here they are:

These are, again, not all pictures but, yeah, it might really become too much and it has to stay fun to watch it all

We also drove through town again to record some of the decorations with our new video camera, I still have to compile, edit, cut, paste and such so we haven’t got those video’s online yet but Michelle took some pictures, here are a few of them:

I hope that the pictures will not become too boring as I will have at least two more series of pictures for you, one of a normal parade and one of a boat parade.. I won’t post these now so don’t worry, they will come next time

This morning we went towards the west, towards Kapolei, where I had to apply for a social security number (in Dutch you would say personsnumber or ’sofi’-number) at the SSA, the Social Security Administration.

I need this number basically to get a drivers license (I got a Dutch drivers license but this is only valid in the state of Hawaii for one year after entry into the US, plus a drivers license is a valid ID over here), to be able to open a bankaccount, to start certain insurances, pay taxes (oh joy :P) and there are so many more things which makes it necessary for me to get a social security number.

Requesting the social security number was pretty simple, I had the form with me to apply for the social security number, I had my ID with and some other papers which, eventually, I didn’t need to have as the form to request for the social security number and the passport were sufficient. It was my turn after about 20 minutes of waiting and after a short while I got to hear that my social security card would be sent to me within two weeks.

After this we drove towards Chinatown in Honolulu to see if we can find a white Hula shirt for me; I want one for our wedding next monday and on our way towards town we always pass by Pearl Harbor where lately you can find some large white ball on pillars in the water, it is some sort of a large radar installation. We took a picture of it from the freeway:

It might look a bit small on the picture but it is really big.

Anyways, we went towards Chinatown and found indeed a white Aloha shirt. It is unbelievable but we were looking for one since I arrived here in Hawaii, for some reason they’re all sold out at all the stores.

Since we were in Chinatown anyways, we went towards some restaurant where we ate at a ‘real’ Chinese. It may sound weird to say ‘real’ Chinese but we like to call it like that as they serve the real Chinese dishes and not the standard watered down Chinese for western people (I admit, it isn’t less yummy but still, I like the ‘real’ Chinese food also).

After this we went back home and on our way home we found out that on the receipt of the social security number request was a wrong zipcode. I called the social security administration and they asked me to go back to the office to get it fixed. After I dropped Michelle of at home (her mom had to leave so she had to watch the clients), I drove back to Kapolei.

Instead of the twenty minutes of waiting time earlier today, I was outside after being inside for less than a minute as there was nobody else (the people in front of me just left). I explained my story and it was no problem at all, they would fix it and I could go home again. I took some pictures on my way home of the area I was driving in (while I drove so some pictures may be a bit blurry):

The first two pictures are taken of the mountains, or the beginning of the mountains, at the west side of Oahu.. I see these mountains every morning when I wake up (a bit more of the side tho so they are a bit bigger and larger), the third picture is of the road which I took back to Waipahu and in the distance you can see the mountains at the east side of Oahu. Here are some more pictures::

On the first picture you can see, if you look careful, Honolulu at the far right side and you should be able to see that radar thing on the right side. In the second picture you can find Pearl City and the mountains in the distance again from the east side of Oahu and the last picture is where you enter Waipahu on the southwest side, a bit the busy side of Waipahu where we do not live (we’re at the east side). You can also see that it is about time for the rainseason to start as the grass can use some water (and from the looks of it, it already seems like the rainseason started a bit as it rained a lot of times the last couple of days (just as you think to get rid of all the rain by leaving the Netherlands haha).

So, now we just have to wait for about two weeks and I can try to get my drivers license, I can ask for a change of status and all those other things. But first: our marriage next monday