Phong & Nan Visit

Eric's mission companion, Ben Chadwick (aka Phong ), and his wife Nan visited us two weeks ago, sans their two daughters, who stayed in Utah with Phong's parents. Eric and Phong were companions for an astounding 11 months of their mission, including two months in the MTC. Even when they weren't companions, they were still only five minutes away from each other, serving in the same branch of Vietnamese the entire time. Needless to say, they have a very unique and thick bond. Both admit that a lot of who they are today was a result of their mission time together.

We hadn't seen Phong since our wedding, and Nan even longer, so the visit was almost like making a re-acquaintance--especially for me. Early on, we discovered that they are also foodies, resulting in a week-long quest for Hawaii's tastiest treats. On Eric's 31st birthday, we went to Ninnikuya, a Japanese garlic restaurant. That means every dish is themed around garlic, including their ice cream. When we first moved to Hawaii, this was arguably our favorite restaurant. But after a few lackluster visits, we put it behind several other joints. Eric, however, wanted to give it another shot.Thank goodness, he did. Ninnikuya is officially back in the running for our top spot. Their spinach-bacon salad is the best I've ever had, and Eric liked his seared ahi dish so much that he may have officially had an affair with it.

Eric and Phong enjoy the feast

Eric taught Phong to surf and we also saw Star Trek on Hawaii's new IMAX (it gave me chills). But probably the funnest thing we did was our kayaking excursion in Kailua Bay out to the Mokes islands. This gave us an opportunity to try out our new underwater case for our canon. It also gave us a chance to test how well Pearce handled a long kayak excursion. We were planning to take him this weekend on a much longer excursion to Kauai to paddle the Na Pali coast. It's 16 miles long and would have taken us three nights/four days. National Geographic named it one of the most adventurous trips in the world. Turns out, though, the swells never went down enough, plus Eric got real sick. So we're going to try again in July. Pray it works out so you're not reading our obit instead of our blog.

Pearce and Nan wait while the guys get the kayaks ready.

Phong and Nan ready to get going.

Nan, Phong, Pearce and Eric. I'm in my own inflatable kayak taking the pictures.


A gorgeous day. Eric and PP inside the inflatable kayak that I got for him for his 30th birthday last year.

Paddling hard.

Taking a picture of myself.

Almost to the Mokes.


Everyone else had the same idea, I guess.

Our destination.

Pearce checks out the animals found around the Island Sanctuary.



Pearce disturbing someones rock tower.



Eric takes a nap in the sand.

Phong gets ready to snorkel. Where's the sun?

Pearce asleep on the paddle back.

We love playing, and sharing our Island with friends. Unfortunately it had to come to an end. Thanks for coming Phong and Nan!