My Trip to Hawaii, Part 2

Hello everyone! Let's continue the saga that was my vacation! You can read part 1 here in case you missed it :D

Day 6 - 06/05 - Myu Rang Sa Buddhist Temple

Did you know that there's a Korean Buddhist temple tucked away in the mountains on Oahu? Neither did I! The name means Broken Ridge, and being the good Koreans/half-Koreans we were, we stopped by for a visit. One of the first things we saw were several clay jars of what I'm presuming to be holding kimchi and other food hanging out on the roof of their kitchen.I think since the temple is not super well-known, there were almost no tourists besides us, and only a handful of other people visiting the place in general. It was very quiet, with ponds and gardens. The temple looks just like something you'd find in Korea, which I found pretty cool. I knew upon visiting that I had to paint, and after walking around that's exactly what I did.To be honest, I could have probably done 10 paintings in that one area. There was so much inspiration everywhere! The temple is surrounded by heavily forested mountains, and the clouds and fog met down and practically melted into the tops of the trees for a fantastic misty look. You could also look down and see much of the island from the upper levels of the temple, and the architecture itself is pretty amazing. Even the tiny chili peppers and lotus flowers seemed paint-worthy. I wish I could have an extra week to just trek up each day and find something new to paint. But alas, I had to settle on one!I decided to paint the first courtyard you come across, which had a large statue surrounded by a pond. To be completely honest, the end result is not my favorite, although I had a very fun time painting the palm fronds in the front. I just made the mistake of saving those for the end and painting the background behind too saturated! So you end up seeing through the palm fronds and they get completely lost if not for the lineart, and even then it's barely saved :/ I also have mixed feelings about the building behind the statue, although looking at it now it doesn't look half bad. Not every painting will be a winner though, and I definitely learned a lot from it that I can now carry with me moving forward!If you want to learn more about the temple, you can visit their website here! And definitely go visit if you ever swing by Oahu!

Day 7 - 06/06 - Makapu'u Tidepools

Back again at Makapu'u! And this time to see the tide pools!We actually took a side route first, since with the trail you can either go directly up the mountain like we did on day 1, or you can go to the side towards the beach. We did that first, and sure there were some tide pools, but they weren't what we were looking for, and walked back to the beginning of the main trail.We walked about 2/3 the length of the main trail, and then started our descent! Down the literal cliffside!! Of the mountain!!! Make no mistake, as a balance-challenged person, this was one of the most difficult, frightening things I'd ever done. There's no proper "trail" so to speak, but there was a bit of a makeshift one with arrows painted onto some rocks...but they were more for people climbing up. I think I spent at least half an hour, if not longer, slowly and meticulously, ass to the grass, making my way down. I think all my other thought processes had shut down and I was focusing slowly on getting to the bottom without falling or dying lol.FINALLY we made it to the tide pools, and omg was it worth. There was a blowhole nearby that would spout water up every so often, and the pools were deep enough you could swim in them! By now I was thanking my past self for choosing to wear my water shoes, because they were perfect for walking over the slippery rocks with at least a little traction, AND when I hopped into one of the pools, I could still walk around safely and without heavy feet. The best of both worlds. Highly recommend.One of my friends had bought goggles, and even though the water was crystal clear above the surface, below it was like one of my favorite nature documentaries. You could see coral, anemones, and colorful rainbow fish swimming around. Urchins hiding in little alcoves, and sea cucumbers...it was truly amazing. I wish we had snorkels so I could stay underwater longer, as the colder temperature was making it hard for me to hold my breath for much longer than 5-10 seconds.I had thought about swimming around to the deeper end of the pool, but the waves would break directly on those rocks, and there were a couple large ones that -- excuse the pun -- literally made waves in the tidepool haha. I had to grab onto one of the rocks so I wouldn't get pushed around, and at that point decided to exit the water, since I wasn't the best swimmer and was a little paranoid about getting slammed against the rocks. Some other people there were braver though, and equipped with snorkels and fins they swam around the entire pool.At last it was time to paint, and I have to say this one was my favorite painting I'd done in Hawaii. I didn't even feel the need to ink it because I thought it spoke for itself. This was also one I was grateful to have taken my watercolor class for, because I would not have been able to do those rocks otherwise...While I was painting, the other two people I was with were sitting closer to the edge of the rocks, and a HUGE wave came up and splashed on top of them! It was so big that it actually pushed one of them into the other, who nearly slid into one of the pools. They also lost their flip flop, but unlike my ring they were able to get it back...The climb back up was 100% easier, and done in about half the time as the descent, but I think we all took a nap afterwards lol. And then karaoke time!

Day 8 - 06/07 - Ke Iki Beach and Byodo-In Temple

This was my last day in Hawaii....nooooo T-T. The days felt long, but they still had to come and go, and unfortunately the end was nigh...On this day we drove up to North Shore with the intention of going to one specific beach, but the parking lot was completely full! We kept driving until we came upon this beach, but as soon as we picked a spot on the sand it started raining...and not just light rain. Was kind of a bummer, especially since the water was actually a pretty good temperature. But we stuck it out anyways, though the way the beach is set up, the wet sand is at an angle into the water, and the tide was pretty strong. I didn't venture that deeply because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back out again. Even one of the people we were with said it was a bit scary when he swam out. So on the beach I stayed.A note about the beach. The sand was so smooth and pretty! It wasn't as fine as Kailua, but you could see the grains used to be little seashells, but were now completely rounded! It was very pleasant to walk on.The painting I ended up doing was my 3 friends playing around by the rocks. I'm still not quite sure what they were doing -- stacking rocks? Building a dam? -- but it was fun to paint something a bit more personal. It did start raining halfway through the painting, so I had to rush it, so not exactly my best work, but I still like it since it's more of a memory.After the beach day, we went to the Dole pineapple farm and got dole whip (which is SUPER good!) and then swung by this Japanese temple behind a cemetery. I think this one is more well-known than the Korean one, as there were quite a bit more tourists. The fun part about this place was that you could be little packets of food to feed the fish and the birds! I got a couple sparrows to eat from my hand, which was extremely rewarding since those little dudes are shy.In the last hour before they closed, I took a seat and painted the lake in front of the temple. This time I made sure to paint the trees in the foreground first. I still think I could have done better with the leaves, but I like how the water turned out, though I don't think the fish really translate as well. Still, it was a fun painting experience, even though I got eaten alive by mosquitoes D:

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So that was my trip! I had so much fun, got so much inspiration, and painted some neat things. I'm actually thinking of making a calendar with my paintings, so I'm planning on painting the remaining three off of photographs from the trip in the next few weeks. What do you guys think? Would that be something you're interested in seeing? Let me know!I already painted 2 Hawaii-inspired pieces, though since they're in portrait composition, not sure how to make that work with the 9 landscape ones :/ The first one is of a waterfall at the Japanese temple, and the other is of course my dog wearing the aloha shirt we got him from the True Friends store in the Ala Moana mall :)I hope you enjoyed reading/seeing my trip and paintings! Have you been to Hawaii or Oahu? Let me know what your experience was like!