Hi everyone. It's Jennifer here with a new English lesson.
First of all, a big "mahalo" to those of you who followed my summer vacation vlog. Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I also shared photos from my vacation on Facebook. I'll put the link to my Facebook page in the video description.
Be sure to visit. That way you can see just how beautiful Hawaii is.
I've had time to look through all the photos and videos that we took, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite
memories from our family vacation. And along the way, we can study some useful vocabulary.
Okay?
On June 29th, we flew to California. We took a six-hour flight from Boston to LA.
This was our first visit to Los Angeles and we didn't have much time, just one night.
So we all agreed on one destination: the Hollywood sign. That's where I did my first live stream.
On June 30th, we arrived in Kona on the Big Island. That's in the west. We stayed at a resort in Waikoloa Village.
One thing I enjoy about traveling is the chance to try new foods, I like to try the local cuisine.
The local cuisine refers to the way food is cooked in a particular region.
In Hawaii, we ate fish, beef, and pork. I learned that lau lau pork is
meat wrapped and cooked in a taro leaf. The leaf helps keep the meat moist and tender.
Hawaiian meat dishes are often served with a side of white rice, sometimes with a bit of cabbage too.
Smaller cafes often gave us a little bit of potato and macaroni salad, and fancier restaurants
often serve two types of fish: ahi and mahi mahi.
My husband and I are big fans of Japanese food,
so at the markets that cater to Japanese tourists, we ate our fill of tempura,
miso soup, sushi and other yummy dishes. Our children were able to find their usual favorites, like hot dogs,
pizza and chicken strips.
When stores and restaurants cater to certain people, they provide what those people want and like.
You eat your fill of something. Then you get enough. You get plenty.
My son ate his fill of pizza while on vacation, and my daughter ate her fill of sweets like Hawaiian shaved ice.
You know, the funny thing is that as an English language teacher,
I think it should be "shaved ice" with an -ed ending because someone shaves the ice for you.
It's shaved, just like we can get crushed ice. But oddly enough most of the signs in Hawaii
advertise shave ice.
Well "shave" or "shaved" ice. It's a yummy treat. Have you ever tried it?
Maybe you could even make it at home if you have the right tools.
While we were still on the Big Island, we drove across the island to the east and visited the Botanical Gardens.
That's near Hilo. Well, just down the road from the gardens,
there was a small local cafe, and we got some Hawaiian shaved ice.
It was so big and it was on top of this little cup...that as we were eating it just fell over
onto the table, but it was so yummy that we decided to eat from the top down to the table.
We didn't touch the table, but we were eating from the top because it was so yummy.
And we didn't want it to go to waste...and it was funny because as we looked around the same thing happened to other
people and they did the same thing!
My husband and I agreed that we didn't want to spend all of our time at the beach,
so we included a lot of activities like
horseback riding on a ranch and visiting Pearl Harbor.
Some of our favorite activities cost next to nothing, which means we didn't have to spend much money.
Pololu Valley Lookout on the Big Island was completely free.
The only price we had to pay was with our legs. We had to hike to
enjoy a beautiful view of a lush green valley and a black sand beach.
The trail was steep. I thought at one point someone would fall and break their neck, but luckily no one did.
Sometimes mothers can be overly dramatic, and we express our worry about the danger of falling by saying things like,
"Be careful! You can fall and break your neck."
But thankfully no one in my family got hurt while hiking, and no one we passed on the trails got hurt either.
And that's a good thing because along the trail we passed ladies in pretty summer dresses and cute little sandals.
And I thought they made a poor choice of clothing for a strenuous hike.
But I'm not the fashion police so...
Have you ever heard about the fashion police?
The fashion police are the people, especially in the media, who criticize other people's clothing.
So I'm not the fashion police. So who am I to criticize?
Well, speaking of fashion choices, there is one poor choice that I made.
After I lost my phone, I wasn't able to check the weather, like I usually do every morning.
We drove up the coast of Oahu
and we didn't realize it was going to rain... hard. We ended up getting soaked to the skin.
We didn't have our raincoats. By the time we found a store that sold ponchos, it was too late.
Our clothing was completely wet.
We weren't happy about being wet, but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying our day.
So to get soaked to the skin or be soaked to the skin means to be completely wet. Your clothing too.
We also got a little wet on the Fourth of July.
There was a drizzle, but thankfully it didn't affect the fireworks.
In fact, I think the light rain helped us stay cool. It was hot and it was humid.
We walked to a city park in Honolulu, and we watched the fireworks from there.
We spent four days on the Big Island of Hawaii and then four more days on Oahu.
In addition to visiting Pearl Harbor on Oahu, we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation (Center),
Hanauma Bay for snorkeling, and then the Polynesian Cultural Center.
One thing that put a damper on the vacation was the loss of my cell phone.
But everyone else had theirs, so we still had enough photos and videos. It wasn't so bad.
To put a damper on something is to affect it negatively.
Something becomes less enjoyable, like a vacation without a cell phone.
But when we got back to Massachusetts,
I was able to get a new phone and restore all my old photos up to the day when I lost my old phone.
So as they say, all's well that ends well.
That means that I can forget about the difficulties and unpleasant things
because in the end we came home happy and one of my dreams finally came true. I went to Hawaii.
Once more here's the vocabulary you can learn from this lesson.
Local cuisine
Cater to someone
Eat ones fill of something. Next to nothing or cost next to nothing.
Fall and break one's neck. The fashion police. Be soaked to the skin.
Drizzle
Put a damper on something. All's well that ends well.
Why don't you choose two of these expressions and write your own examples in the comments? I'll offer corrections as time allows.
Well, that's all for now. If you enjoyed this vocabulary lesson, please remember to like this video.
Always thanks for watching and happy studies!
Mahalo!
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