My Trip to Hawaii 2016: Maui

Hey everyone! Since I never showed you all photos from Maui back in August, I decided on the last day of the year to do a post about it. Over the Summer, I was in Maui, Hawaii for four days.

One day, my family and I went to the top of a mountain at around four in the morning to watch the sunrise. When we first got to the top of the mountain it was dark out and you could see a ton of stars. We stayed on top of the mountain for about three hours.

The mountains looked like they were from another planet, and I thought that was pretty cool. There was a pit below I from where I was standing and it's known as the world's quietest place.

After seeing the sunrise, we went on a bike tour down a mountain. It was such a cool experience to be able to see Maui from so high up. 

My family and I posed on top of the mountain with one of the bikes.

After our bike ride, we got a breakfast/lunch at a truck that sold burritos, and such.

The next day we went on a 110 mile round trip on the Road to Hana. This excursion is by car, and there are many fruit stands, small shops with banana bread, and incredible views on the way. Hana isn't super special, but the journey there is more amazing than the destination.

The blue bracelet is made with a type of seed that is in Hawaii and can be used as beads.

At one of the overlooks tree was a small shrine to a few surfers that most likely died around there. I thought the shrine was very pretty, but it was hard to get any closer to it.

On our way to Hana, we passed a catholic church in a small neighborhood.

One of the small places we passed on the road was a store that sold jewelry and tie-dye shirts.

Here is a picture of me in front of a Black Sand Beach. I used this photo for my Christmas card.

One of the stops on the road was a smoothie shack, and they had advertised all of their super fresh fruits.

After our trip to Hana, my family and I stopped in a small town called Paia. We ate in a Mexican restaurant, and I had one of the best fajitas ever in this restaurant. I also had a virgin piña colada, which was also very good.

Paia is a beach town, and it has many bathing suit stores, restaurants, tattoo pallor, and cute boutiques.

My family and I stayed at the Grand Wailea, which is a very beautiful hotel. The resort contains so many pools, and had a beautiful view of the water.

Question: Where did you travel this year?


                                                                          xx
                                                            Christina Madeleine

Pearl Harbor + Honolulu 2016

Hey everyone! Today is the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii and I wanted to share some pictures from when I visited it. In August, I went to Honolulu and Maui. While I was in Honolulu, my family and I visited the Pearl Harbor memorial. At Pearl Harbor, there are memorials for the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, and the USS Utah, which were destroyed beyond repair during the attacks of December 7, 1941.

The USS Arizona lies in Pearl Harbor where it had sunk. The memorial is built over the ship, and visitors have to take a minute long trip on a boat to the memorial. The USS Arizona and the USS Utah are able to be seen by visitors because the remains of the ship lay on two different sides of the harbor. The USS Oklahoma had huge hole, and sunk a few miles from its brother ships. The memorial for the USS Arizona is the only one I saw, but it was such a nice experience because the memorial is a truly beautiful. If you closely into the harbor, you can see the oil that has continuously leaked from the ship for 75 years, and there is no way of knowing when it will ever stop.

The memorial is seen as a sacred site in honor of all the people who died on December 7, 1941. For survivors of the USS Arizona, when they die they have the option to have scuba divers put their ashes into the sunken ship. Currently, there are only six veterans from this ship alive.  On this sign, it talks about how when the divers put the ashes into the ship, it's like the soldiers are returning home to their fellow soldiers.

At the memorial, there is a list of all the people who died on the day of the attack from all the ships. The whole wall is filled, and it has the first initial and last name of the soldiers.

Pearl Harbor also has two museums about World War II, and the involvement of the United States during the war. Also, the museums had artifacts from the ships, letters from soldiers, old uniforms, stories, and so much more. It's like walking into a time capsule of this event, and it's so interesting. I loved reading about the people who gave their lives to their country. Also, going to the memorial and the museum made me more connected to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it made everything more real. There's a difference between reading about an event, and actually seeing the faces of the fallen, and the place where it happened.


Other Pictures from Honolulu ( Oahu):

Honolulu is so far away from New York, but once I go to the Island I was so happy. It seems like everyone is just so happy and friendly. Oahu is the most populated island of Hawaii, and is filled with tourists from the mainland and Japan.

 I lived for all the fruit that was accessible to me in Hawaii. All the fruit is so fresh, and almost everywhere has at least one smoothie option. For breakfast one morning I had a pitaya (dragon fruit) smoothie bowl with strawberries, bananas, mangoes, coconut shavings, and blueberries.

My family and I went on a bus tour around Honolulu, and the views were spectacular. I also got to see the veterans cemetery that is filled war heroes, celebrities, known and unknown soldiers. Hawaii is a place with such a rich history, and I was so glad to be able to experience it.

Right when I took this photo, the tour guide pointed out that Obama grew up in Honolulu. Since I have never been to Washington D.C, this is the closest I have been to something that is connected to the president. Although there are tons of beaches and palm trees in Hawaii, Honolulu is a metropolitan city.

If you have ever seen Hawaii 5-0, you might recognize this building... :) In reality, this is a government building, and there is an older, identical building right across from it that was also in Hawaii 5-0.

I obviously had to post some picture of me from Honolulu, so here is a picture of me when I learned how to paddle board  in the lagoon at my hotel. Coincidentally, people were filming for Hawaii 5-0, when I got out of the lagoon.

On my last day in Honolulu, before I went to Maui, I went on a walk to try to get to a mountain. After walking about 1.5 miles and then realized  that the mountain was very far away. The walk was very nice because of the view of the clear water and all, but since it was August, the sun was blazing hot.

 I hope you liked my post about Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. This month, I will be posting about my Maui experience, but I felt it was appropriate to post about Pearl Harbor today. 

                                                                            xx
                                                              Christina Madeleine

My Month in Photos: November 2016

Hey everyone! I know I did two photo posts this month, but that was about two specific events that I wanted to share about. I haven't been updating frequently, and I really want to share what I have been doing. For 2017 I am planning to get myself organized and post on a schedule, but until then I am going to post a lot in December, and for now I am going to show you all what I forgot to share.

 I am in AP drawing this year, so this is the fourth of twenty four pieces that I will have to create this year. I am currently on piece six (so I am not even 25% done, but I have faith that I will). If you can't tell, this is a drawing I did of a pipe in my school.

 As seen in my photo post on Union Square, this is a poster from the NYC Love Rally/ Peaceful Protest.

This was the Empire State Building the weekend of Veteran's Day.

 This is the post-it note wall that now complete covers Union Square, and it's filled with peaceful and inspiring messages (with the exception of a few).

 This is the fifth of the twenty four pieces I will be doing this year in my drawing class.

 This year I am the events coordinator of my school's feminism club (we call it W.O.W i.e Women in Our World). Our club got to host a summit in which we had 15 speakers come including people like Sara Horowitz, Abigail Disney, and many other inspiring women in the fields of business, theater, medical, politics, and more. We hosted a photo booth for the day, so all 85 of our participants could take pictures with out props. It was such a great experience, and I can't wait to plan it again for the second annual summit in 2017.

 I went to a concert on November 19 at Webster Hall for a group called Wet, this is a picture of Demotaped, who was one of the opening performances.

 The group is made up of three people, and their fan base is relatively small. Webster Hall had about 400 people in the room, so it was quite intimate. It was a very tame concert, and the music was wonderful. They have songs called All in Vain, You're the Best, and Don't Wanna Be Your Girl.

 The lead singer, Kelly, sang by herself for the encore. She also gave a small speech about how she was so happy to perform at Webster Hall, and it warmed my heart. People's dreams do come true.

This was what the outside of Webster Hall looked like on November 19.

 The weather in New York is very unpredictable. This was a selfie of me that I took during gym class in forty degree weather. I brought out my scarf, and Kate Spade ear muffs (that I absolutely adore them). My teacher told me that my ear muffs look like little furry animals, but I think they're really fun (and I got them for $55 cheaper than the original price because they were on sale).

 I spent Thanksgiving in New Jersey with my cousins, and this is one of the only pictures I have from it. I even posted it to instagram: @chriistinamariie

 This is the Oculus at the World Trade Center, and it's newly built and has a ton of stores to shop at it. I bought some Christmas presents there :)

 On November 26, I visited my grandmother in Orient, Long Island and she treated us to a very fancy dinner. Since I am a blogger, I just had  to take photos of all my food and of a view.

 If you ever find yourself in North Fork, Long Island I recommend this restaurant because it's in an old house, and they change the menu based off the season.

 The truffle mac & cheese was truly a thing of beauty, haha.

 This was my first time trying tapioca, and I think it's something I would have again.

Last but not least, this is my dog Bosco, and he loves this bed so much that he'll spend all day on it if he could.

Question: What did you do this month?

                                                                             xx
                                                              Christina Madeleine