2024 hawaii
I had today off so we were free to explore however we chose and didn’t have to be back at any particular time for a lesson which was nice. Karen had expressed interest in visiting Pearl Harbor so we invited her to join us for the visit to the USS Arizona memorial. We met her there and were treated to a brilliant rainbow over the harbor as we waited our turn for the tour out to the USS Arizona.
2024 hawaii
When I had originally spoken to the organizer of the Hawaii region certifications about staying on and teaching, I was envisioning several days of traditional “mounted meeting” type clinics where I would be teaching back-to-back lessons at a facility from morning until late afternoon. However, what actually transpired was very different, and I was not at all sad about it because it meant I had lots of time to play and explore on the island! Had we come to Oahu at a time when kids were off of school this might have been different but the timing of our visit meant that I was somewhat limited to teaching the adults that had flexible work schedules and the kids after school. Today was one of my busier teaching days and I was scheduled to go back and forth between two barns on the North Shore for several lessons.
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2024 hawaii
Today was one of our busiest days on the island. The alarm clock went off at an insanely early time this morning so that we could put on our hiking clothes, don headlamps, and head to Lanikai in order to hike up to the Lanikai Pillbox to catch the sunrise from atop the mountain that overlooks Kailua Bay and the bird sanctuary islands of Moku Nui and Moku Iki (commonly referred to as “the Mokes”). This was to be my first in-the-dark sunrise hike and I admit to feeling a bit apprehensive, hoping that it was something I could do and that I’d be able to keep pace with Scott which is hard enough during the daylight, much less in the dark.
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2024 hawaii
This was the final day of Pony Club testing for Karen and I. We were starting late enough in the morning that Scott and I were able to get in a morning beach walk which had now turned into a bit of a beloved routine for us. The weather was looking a bit suspect so we drove, rather than walked, to Kailua Beach which was a smart move because less than ten minutes into our stroll, the skies opened up. We ran back to the car and drove back to the apartment. We had gotten a Dole pineapple earlier in the week (it may or may not have been grown in Hawaii) and Scott cut it up for us for breakfast.
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2024 hawaii
It was finally time for me to do some horse things in Oahu. Karen and I were the examiners for two small national certifications: a two candidate Dressage C3, and a two candidate HB certification. The Dressage involves riding and the HB covers unmounted horse management topics. I was the “PIP” for the Dressage certification and Karen was the “PIP” for the HB. “PIP” is latin for primus inter pares which translates to “first among equals.” In Pony Club terms, this just means that as PIP you are the one that is in charge of setting the testing schedule and dealing with any unusual circumstances that may occur. We were to start off with the C3 and we had two adult candidates. This testing would take two half days and once it finished we were to transition to the HB which would also take two half days. Splitting the certification up over two days is more user friendly and candidates typically have better outcomes this way.
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2024 hawaii
In June of 1993 a twelve year girl went to the movie theater with her best friend and her best friend’s brother and his best friend to see a critically acclaimed Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster that had just been released- Jurassic Park. The girl had no clue what the word “jurassic” meant and was just there because it was the movie that the best friend’s brother and his friend had chosen. Within the first thirty seconds of the movie the girl was captivated and spent the next two hours and seven minutes on the edge of her seat. She spent the rest of the summer drinking in everything Jurassic Park and dinosaur themed that she could, utterly enthralled with the idea of velociraptors, Tyrannosaurus Rexes, Michael Crichton, paleontology, Robert Bakker, the evolution of birds, DNA, chaos theory, Ford Explorers, Costa Rica, the music of John Williams, and Tonya Harding1. The next week she got her hands on the 399 page novel and devoured it within days. She even dragged her mother to a music/movie store in the mall to preorder the VHS tape of the movie and then when it finally arrived, proceeded to watch the movie nearly every day for the next few months, being able to quote just about every line from it, which I am sure her family just loved and found quite charming. For Christmas that year there would be gifts of model Tyrannosaurus Rexes, and books about the making of Jurassic Park. The girl was obsessed. That girl was me.