Hawaiian Adventure

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Day 1 in Paradise I think I've slept about 3 hours in the last 48. But lack of sleep is definitely worth what I got in exchange. After getting to the airport at 430am, we were an interesting group, between the six of us we had two large cardboard boxes, three guitars, and about 7 uniquely sized suitcases. On top of that, Dan, Nathan, and I were all wearing our hockey polos with kahki pants. We decided that it would be interesting if we started acting like we were a hockey playing band from Ukraine where Harry would be the German agent, Andrew would be the manager, with Dan, Nathan, Michael, and yours truly the band members. We certainly got a lot of odd looks from people but before too long we were off to San Francisco to catch our connection there. While waiting for the Honolulu plane we all decided we were a bit hungry since my breakfast had been about 2:30am to help keep me awake for an all nighter and I ended up at this icecream shop run by two oriental women. I ordered a banana split which was quite amusing because the server asked if I wanted bananas in it. I said yes, wolfed it down and then boarded the plane to Honolulu. I managed to embaress myself when I first got on the plane. Being a standby passenger I was one of the last to board the plane and most people were settled into their seats. I was trying to load my guitar into the overhead storage bin and there were these two girls behind me so I figured I'd step into the seating area and let them pass. In the process I rammed my head pretty frickin hard into the overhead storage bin I had just opened and made a rather loud klunk that could be heard throughout the cabin amidst laughter and people going "ohhhhhh" I'm just that smooth ;) So I calmly got settled and we took off, with me hoping no one would remember me after a few hours into the flight I came to learn later that while I was sleeping my "friends" were attempting to throw the assorted contents of the United Fiesta Mix snack pack into my mouth while I was asleep. Fortunately they seem to have bad nut throwing accuracy because I never woke up with a nut lodged in my throat. After about 5 hours, (I was off on the half-way to Hawaii game by 25 minutes) we landed and got picked up by my grandparents We decided to spend our first day split between the beach and the pool in my grandparents backyard. Being a world champion chicken fighter we played a few rounds of that in the pool where I quickly led whoever was on my shoulders to victory The beach was fun as we spent a good few hours body surfing the waves at Kailua beach park. They're very small by my standards but it was still entertaining seeing a bunch of people from Highlands Ranch frollicking in the surf! It was a great day except for that the streets in Kailua are very confusing as they all look the same and though I knew I was looking for Keolu drive to connect to Akihala road and eventually Akipola street, I kept getting turned around and I ended up pulling about 5 u-turns in my grandpas 4-speed truck in about 30 minutes. On top of that I stalled the thing when we were in a parking lot in front of a bunch of locals because the parking break was in, but still lets you reverse, so I reversed normally and tried to accelerate and it stalled. Embaressing moment # 2. So far though, I'm extatic to be here and can't wait for tommorow! I only wish that I could have brought everyone with me! Monday, July 11, 2005 Hawaii Chapter 2: Military Police and Sand Boobies! Current mood: ecstatic The past few days have been a blast! We were able to go along with my Uncle Matt to a campsite with a bunch of his co-workers onto a military airforce station called Bellows. I was a little curious to see if the MP at the gate would have any issues with the fact that both Dan and Nathan had drivers license IDs that no longer matched their hair color, but fortunately the guard only needed my ID as I was the driver and we got through with no problem. After we pitched our tent, we immediately suited up in our boardshirts, grabbed our boogie boards and headed to the beach in search of the perfect wave. The surf was fairly decent the first day, though we got to the campsite late, and it was overcast and steadily growing dark while we were on the water. It was shortly after it began to get dark that I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that shark attacks generally happen near dawn and dusk, and though the only sharks supposedly natural to Bellows are the thousands of Hammerheads, that somehow wasn't very comforting so we got out of the water. We spent the rest of the evening playing 5 card Texas Hold 'Em which I rocked at until Michael came along and stole everything away from me. Oh well at least I knocked two people out. We also enjoyed eating all sorts of food, as the Hawaiians we were there with were excellent chefs and kept us well fed. We got to have Teraki chicken and beef, and sirloin steak, and squid, and Ahi, and Ono, and Oysters, and all sorts of other great food! The second day of camping was really the first day we noticed the ants. One of the Hawaiian guys named Hanale (Hah-nah-lay) had warned us about them before but I didn't think they would be that bad. I couldn't have underestimated them any more, althought they are some of the smallest ants I've seen they are like little hellspawned servants of satan that took great offense at the existance of my feet. For something that small to have a bite that painful was quite impressive. So of course we decided to bottle a bunch of them and see if we could have them battle other insects we found such as cockroaches. The ants destroyed the cockroach and the Hawaiians thought we were very strange. We also enjoyed several games of volleyball, though 6 Highlands Ranch seinors are no match for 6 Hawaiian natives at beach volleyball. We did give them some competition though as we were always not too far behind. The boogie boarding was much better the second day and we spent a good portion of the day doing that before we decided it was time to relax on the beach. We began building sand castles and before too long we ended up entombing Nathan. Of course we had to make him female and semi - anatomically correct, so we made a lucious pair of sand boobies for him as well as two arms with wolverine claws. Unfortunately this memory must have occured to Nathan later on when I was trying to sleep/sunbathe, and he covered me in sand and gave me sand boobies also. Though I could never actually see them because of all the sand compacted on the top of my face. Unfortunately in this case ignoring things doesn't always make them go away. I was also fairly amused when Nathan somehow managed to lodge one of his shoes in the top of a 20 foot tall palm tree because he was trying to knock a coconut out of it. After about 15 minutes of throwing footballs, more shoes, and other coconuts at it, Nathan finally got his shoe back and there was much rejoicing. Later that night we decided to go down to this place I know of on the beach where there is usually an occurance of florescant algae that glows bright blue in the sand, however it wasn't there and so we began walking back along this road that had no lighting and was therefore pitch black. A car happened by and as it approached it slowed until it pulled up next to me. A uniformed army guy leaned out the window and asked bluntly "Where are you supposed to be?" Luckly I knew that our campsite was G-5 and informed him of that. He told us that we were out after curfew on a military base but luckly just let us off with a warning and none of us were shot! Phew! Now I can say I've been caught by MPs! Today we came back from camp and decided we would just relax the rest of the day away and Michael, Dan, and I formed a super cool band called the "Existentialists" and sang our first song about Hawaii, as well as practiced our cover "The Lion Sleeps Tonight!" Finally I have found a place where my ability to imitate high pitched vocals comes in handy! Stay tuned...! PS Luckly no one has been stung by a man o' war yet

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Hawaii Chapter 3: The Hukilau and a Vibrating Spongebob Current mood: cheerful Today was another awesome day. There is something about Hawaii that makes it seem much later than it actually is so I've been waking up about a quarter to 9 everyday! This morning I was the first one up and the other 5 were still sleeping. I thought about doing the old toothpaste in the eyes trick so everyone would have woken up with eyes dried shut, but as we had previously decided that was far too brutal and mean. When everyone finally got up we decided we would take a drive to the North Shore. Using my expert knowledge of Oahu's 3 main highways, we made it to the north shore! We started off at the town of Halewa where we went to Killer Tacos and I hade an awesome plate of nachos made from Big Island Kalua Pig. It was quite tasty. Fortunately the name of the restaruant was a misnomer and all of us survived. It was amusing on the way up because Andrew and Michael had my camera and were waving at other cars and acting like they were taking their pictures. We even had one of the cars wave back and then show us a massive bag of lime green marajuana before they passed us and another car while narrowly avoiding a head on collsion! We eventually we made it to the world famous Sunset Beach where there are normally 15-25 foot waves and some of the best pro surfers around the world. We even had the guts to venture into the water ourselves amidst the 15-25 inch waves that crashed on the shore today. We had a great time wrestling around in the water, and I had a rough time cleaning all of the sand that was compacted into my scalp out when I got home. We also stopped by one of the beaches filmed in the movie 50 First Dates, the Hukilau beach near the Hukilau cafe where Adam Sandler met Drew Berrymore in the movie. Unfortunately there were no Hollywood movies being filmed so I guess I'll have to wait a little longer to make it into a movie! On the way back Nathan and Dan continued the waving game and as we got closer to home we finally had someone who waved at us first. It was a pair of Hawaiian girls and one of them definitely made eye contact with my sunglass region before she smiled and waved! Though she was probably actually looking at the reflection of Dan off of my sun glasses... At least they paid us us more attention than any of the girls on the beaches! I also made a wonderful discovery today when I rubbed my hands together and realized that the moist air of Hawaii has transformed my normally dry hands into soft and baby smooth! It is without a doubt the smoothest my skin has ever been! Woo hoo! We also made a trip to Safeway tonight so that Nathan could buy a new toothbrush since he lost his somewhere camping. While looking over the various Spongebob and Powerrangers electric toothbrushes we were wondering whether they came with batteries. I picked up one of the Spongebob models and forced the plastic to bend enough to touch the button. Sure enough the little Spongebob began to shake and vibrate as though he were alive! Unfortunately I could not press the off button without opening the package, so I put him back on the shelf to entertain the other Safeway customers with his dance vibrations. It was quite amusing because two other people saw me do it but just kept walking past. He's probably still vibrating on that shelf right now! I also had fun a few minutes ago as I was reading over Dan's shoulder as he wrote his blog and I was reading out loud every word he typed complete with the pronounciations of mispelled words He began typing lewd comments but I continued to read them anyway. Good times lol! Well I can hear our band beginning to practice in my room so I'd best be off to play with them! Stay tuned! Aloha!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Hawaii Chapter 4: Waikiki and Sopping Wet Andrew Jackson Today was quite a fun filled day, though we didn't get up and going until around noonish because everyone slept so late. Ah relaxation at its best! We decided today would be a good day to take a drive in the trusty old pickup to Waikiki! At this point I'd like to say that if you are ever in the back of a car and the person who is driving has not asked for your directions please do not shout them out over the person who is navigating in the passenger seat... IT IS VERY ANNOYING!!! Plus it leads to lots of wrong turns and such. When we first got to Waikiki and were all unloading the truck this girl passed by with a surfboard and bathingsuit. Michael asked her how the waves were today. It must've taken her a full two or three seconds to stop, turn, and with the most lost and bewildered "my house just exploded when I flushed the toilet" look I've ever seen and slowly exclaimed "I...have no idea..." Hilarious! Anyway, Waikiki was awesome! We spent the first hour or so going around the various shops and checking out what they had in stock. The stores were pretty cool because an hour is a long time for guys to be in a store. In case you were wondering that is not a sexist comment, it is actually a proven fact. We did find this cool Tiki thing for my grandparents that's made of wood and is about 3 feet tall. I'm hoping they'll enjoy it and that perhaps it will grant them magical powers! After shopping and a wonderful ham sandwhich we wound up at the world famous Waikiki beach. Along the way there I took several pictures of the scenery and my camera accidentally went off a couple of times capturing pictures of girls on the beach. *see Dan Andrews' blog* I spent the rest of the day laying in the sun trying to keep my MP3 player from being destroyed by the ocean. It happened once before but luckly the guy at Circuit City didn't look at the encrusted sand and water in the last one I brought in to exchange and they gave me the one I have now. It was awesome to see Diamond head and the downtown Honolulu area! It was also pretty funny because Dan and Nathan both had their wallets in their pockets as they went into the ocean before both realized in horror that all their $20 bills and the other contents of their wallet were now soaking wet with salt water. It was also quite funny to watch Dan take his wallet to the shower and deliberately run freshwater through it. I have a feeling quite a few people thought he wasn't that bright lol. Fortunately Andrew was better prepared and only had $3 in his pocket with him when he went into the water. I spent the rest of the evening laying out on the backyard pooldeck stargazing and hopefully some of the pictures I took of the sky will turn out and I'll be able to claim discovery of a new planet or something! PS We went back to Safeway tonight and the Spongebob from the other day was gone... And they've apparently discovered another Noah's Ark according to the Weekly World News!

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Chapter 5: Stranded at Coconut Island and "It's the Way of the Future" Current mood: cheerful Today was another awesome day! We met one of my Grandpa's friends who used the be the captain of the navy submarine Swordfish and he took us onto a Marine military base where we took his pontoon boat out. We all got to rotate through being driver and navigator. Everything was going fine until Nathan got behind the wheel. He took the boat way too fast through one of the turns and we struck a coral reef embankment. The boat quickly began to fill with water and sank. Just kidding, actually we were all able to drive the boat with no problems. Our first stop was a massive sandbar located in the middle of the bay. The water ranges from not even covering the sand to about 3 feet deep. We were there at high tide so the water was closer to being 3 feet. We decided that it would be fun to play freeze tag since everyone had to do this awesome waddle/swim/run/paddle move to get through the water! We also made it a rule that you had to swim under a frozen persons legs to unfreeze them, so hilarity quickly ensued. After playing that and being quite worn out we went back to our boat for Subway Sandwiches. I had a footlong meatball sub which is usually my favorite except that I was the one who had picked up all the subs so while I was trying to explain 6 different orders to the people at Subway I somehow wound up with Lettuce on my meatball sub. I don't mind lettuce, but it does not taste very good mixed with meatballs and cheese. Our next stop was a island/nature preserve known as Coconut island. Much to my dismay, there are infact no coconuts on Coconut island, although there is the buried corpse of a 6 year old girl which I find to be slightly unerving. I kept worrying that her corpse would rise and she would come after me for dropping some of my lettuce into the ocean. Despite that we all plopped into the water to snorkel along the coral reef. The reef was awesome with all kinds of varieties of colorful fish. There are also these cool plants that live on the coral that resemble a whole bunch of bird feathers of different colors, and if you swish around the water near them they go shooting back into their tubes. Doing that is far more amusing than I expected, though I am quite easily amused. Come find out while I was playing with feather plants Michael and Andrew nearly drowned. I could have just imagined the letters and all the paper work I'd have to write. Mrs. Roth, your son was lost at sea because I couldn't stop playing with the feather plant thingies... Sorry... So I guess I wasn't a great group leader today cause I wasn't even aware that was happening and I almost came back missing 2 members of my group! Phew! When it came time to leave Coconut island we fired up the motor and tried to put the boat in reverse... Nothing! The motor churned a bit but we didn't move at all! Because we had pulled in our anchor we were now adrift in the harbor, moving into the traffic lane! Fortunately this sweet looking local in a 49ers muscle shirt and awesome sunglasses happened by in his speed boat that he was using to taxi people from the main island to Coconut island and he kept us from beaching or drifting into the boating lanes until help arrived for us. Help came in the form of a guy who looked about my age if not younger in this little dinky boat and he very quickly realized that some button that miraculously makes the ship go was stuck and after unjamming it we were on our way! After arriving back home we decided to go hike up to the top of some nearby mountains to the old WWII bunkers that are left there. On the way up Nathan and I were delighted to discover that the strong wind gusts along the path were perfect for the launch and rapid acceleration of loogies! Horray! We got some pretty cool pictures from the top as the bunkers were built on the top of a ridge that overlooks the entire town of Kailua as well as Lanikai beach and a few others. By far the funnest part was coming back down. The mountain was so steep that it wasn't too unlikely for me to spear myself on a bush or trip over a rock and plummet off the mountain and land on someone's roof below. If I knew I would be okay it would have been kind of fun to land on someones roof and explain to them that I figured I'd drop in. At one point I was flying down the mountain so quickly that I was basically just falling and I just managed to grab a nearby tree. I swung around 180 degrees and I managed to stop myself! We picked up some awesome shave ice on the way home and then decided to watch the Aviator It was a pretty good movie and afterwards we were running around saying "It's the way of the future" and trying to act like Howard Hughes in the movie when he starts freaking out. Good times!

Friday, July 15, 2005

Hawaii Chapter 6: Pearl Harbor and the 8 Year Old Navy Pilot Current mood: contemplative The trip to Pearl Harbor was quite an intersting one. It's definitely a trip to be standing in a place where such an incredible act of war took place. You can imagine the planes swooping down over the mountains and attacking the harbor. We decided we would check out the Arizona memorial, but unfortunately the wait was about 3 hours. We walked around the museum for a while and then decided we would get some lunch. Unfortunately the food was very over priced and we decided it might be best to drive into Pearl City and look for some food. I didn't really know where I was going so I figured I'd stop at the first available food spot. We ended up eating at a splendid gas station Blimpies next to a bunch of Hawaiian guys who were older than us but not by much. I mostly tried to ignore them because they made me uncomfortable as they were acting really weird and started by asking if we spoke French or if we thought the one of them with a pony tail was a girl when we first walked in. I was glad when we left to go back to Pearl Harbor Although I've seen the Arizona a number of times, it still sends trembles down my spine to think of exactly what occured that day. A lucky shot from a well placed bomber detonated the entire foward magazine of the ship, instantly killing over 1000 people. To stand over the wrecked hulk of that ship and stare down through the water at the hulk that has become the tomb of the sailors who lay where they fell in 1941 is defintely a reflective experience. There was also a lot of oil leaking from the Arizona which was interesting because in all the times I've seen it, there was never as much oil leaking as there was when we were there. Unfortuately they only gave us 15 minutes on the memorial due to "Navy Security Regulations" before they kicked us off. The boat back from the Arizona was interesting because as we left the memorial a small 8 year old girl and her 4 year old brother were brought to the front of the ship and were allowed to drive the wheel and use the throttle of the ship. It was very cute and made everyone's day on the ship. I thought it was quite amusing that the navy was so lax as to allow 8 year olds to pilot their craft. On the way home I almost got in an accident. People always ask what you were thinking when you do something stupid and the only explanation I can come up with is that there were two stoplights probably about two or three car lengths from each other and I saw the farther away one was green. Luckly I realized the closer light was red just in time to skid to a stop and avoid hitting a turning car. Not a good feeling.... Luckly we made it home okay and I was able to shake it off, but it was still pretty freaky...

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Hawaii Chapter 7: Big Waves and The Man - O - War Strike Back Current mood: happy Today was a very relaxed and laid back day. We stayed up until about 2:30 Hawaii time watching Pearl Harbor and so three of us slept until about 9:30 and the other three slept until about 12:15! We eventually made it to the beach at Bellows where once again my stellar driving skills became evident landed the pickup truck in a deep sand pit. After trying to rock the truck out and trying a few tricks with the manual transmission evreryone got out and pushed while I tried to reverse. Luckly it worked and we were soon moved to a more stable parking spot. Finally we got to boogie board! The waves were the biggest they've been this trip so it was a lot of fun! There's something about being out on the water for me that just relaxes my mind and seems to push everything I worry about out. Plus it was awesome to be out there with my close friends and get to enjoy it with them! Unfortuately the Portuguese man o war were particularly bad today and we saw several in the water. We made it for a few hours before Michael got stung on the leg. Luckly he only got a minor sting and he seemed to be feeling better about a half hour after being stung. I'm still paranoid of man o war, because the last time I got stung the main part of the man o war stung me so I wound up with a blister about the size of a half dollar where the center was and it's tentacle wrapped around my side and all the way down my leg stinging its way down. It was so painful that I actually had trouble breathing for a while until I was able to get some antidote from a nurse who happened to be on the beach. After and in between boogie boarding Nathan, Dan, Harry, and Andrew all decided to dig a massive pit in the sand and bury themselves in it. It was very amusing because they started spazzing out with their heads and making all kinds of hilarious noises. Luckly I got a lot of it on film and will post it when I get back. I was either slap happy or its good stuff because my sides and throat hurt from laughing so much. After we went back out boogie boarding two teenage girls that had walked by us earlier when we were having a long jump contest came to our spot on the beach and watched us boogie boarding for a while. They were both wrapped in towels and when I looked over at them they both opened their towels revealing thir biknis. I didn't really know what to do so I just kept boogie boarding and eventually they got bored and left. Hows that for smooth playah? Anyway, today was a very fun and relaxing day. I've really enjoyed the trip so far and I can't believe that it is almost over. I'm definitely grateful for the chance to have gone on this trip and for the people I got to spend it with. It'll be something that I'll always remember...

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Hawaii Chapter 8: Strange Neighbors and the Sand Divers Current mood: content Yet another day gone by, it's really amazing how fast time flits by. Today we started off by going to Aloha Stadium where the NFL pro-bowl is held to shop at the swap meet. The swap meet is where a whole bunch of vendors set up tents and sell their goods at really low prices. You can buy 8 T-shirts for $20 and numerous other things for great deals! I ended up with new seat covers for my car, this chinese wind hanging thingie and a necklace. I also saw this shop that had all of these replica weapons including all of the swords form Lord of the Rings! I really really wanted to buy the Sword of the King as it was about 5 feet long and looked freaking awesome, but I couldn't justify spending $150 on a sword. At least not yet... After we got back from the swap meet we decided to go to Kailua beach again. It's a beautiful white and soft sand beach and today it was very sunny. I spent a while just lounging around in the sand until someone suggested that we see how far off of the sand bank we could jump into this canal that was probably about 40 feet wide and 10 or 12 feet deep. We took turns running and taking flying leaps from the sand ledge to the canal below. It was quite fun. We also ran back and forth across the canal and lept into the sand embankments which was funner than it might sound because you could get massive air and then come down without being hurt. We've pretty much just been relaxing as usual tonight but there was some excitement when Dan decided to take a run. He decided to run up and down the block my granparents live on and I had heard him pass by the house several times. I decided that if he came by again I would try to scare him. Sure enough he did, so Nathan and I snuck outside and hid on opposite sides of the street behind cars. Dan had just been barked at by a ferocious sounding dog so the timing was perfect. We waited until he was passing in front of us and then both jumped out and yelled. He lept about a foot in the air and yelled and I'm pretty sure that his heart rate probably went up another 10 or 20 beats! Awesome lol! One other amusing thing I just thought of happened a few days ago and I forgot to write about it. The walls in the houses in this neighborhood are really thin to the point where you can sometimes hear the neighbors. During one of these times I was in my room and I could hear from the neighbor's house a man's voice yelling playfully "I'm gonna eat you!" followed by a little girl screaming "Nooooo!" I was very confused by this and have come to the conclusion that my grandparents seem to have very odd neighbors. Tommorow we are supposed to be heading home, but I have not completely decided if I will be leaving tommorow or staying a few days extra. To go or not to go...?

Hawaii Chapter 9: Clueless and the Breaking of the Fellowship

Today went by in a flash. We decided to go to Bellows one last time as all my friends left tonight while I will be staying another two or three days. The waves today were insane, they had almost no form and the entire ocean seemed to be churning and chaotic. We think it was due to one of the two earthquakes Hawaii had this week as I've never seen the ocean quite like that in all the times I've been here. It was still a blast though!

When it came time to leave we discovered we were stuck. There were a lot of people at the beach and so we had parked in a sand lot next to the road. The front row nearest the road was nearly full when we came in and there was a small aisle for cars to drive into the second row. Unfortunately some idiots parked in the aisle while we were at the beach and blocked in everyone who was parked in the second row! There was a possible way out but only through a massive sand pit much deeper than the one that had trapped us a few days ago.

Luckly just then a group of 4 twenty something women arrived at their car in the front row with thier stuff to leave. I figured I'd just follow them out so I started the truck and moved into the spot behind theres. They were facing directly at our truck completely full and still they acted as though they had all the time in the world. One of them started doing her makup while the others brushed sand off themselves and kept going back and forth to the trunk and carefully packing whatever they had back there.

About 15 minutes later we were still sitting there and another guy we had talked to while boogie boarding got in his car to leave. We warned him about the sand and told him he could follow us out after this car we were waiting on. However not even a second car lining up behind us was enough to clue these girls in! Granted we are in Hawaii and everything is laid back, but you'd think at least one of them might have noticed and thought they could hurry up a little. Anyway another 10 minutes of eye rolling and "OH MY GOD!!!"s from our truck we were on our way home.

Somehow when pulling into the driveway I managed to clip my grandparents giant wooden mailbox with the truck. It put a gash and several scuff marks all down the right side of the truck and damaged the mailbox. Luckly most of the scuff marks cleaned off and the gash doesn't look too noticable. I'm going to attempt to help grandpa fix the mailbox tommorow... I'm such an IDIOT!!!!!

Anyway after that incident we went for a last shave ice. The girl who was working there in Michael's blog "The Shave Ice Girl" was there again and recognized us. We told her that we heard she was working again so firgured we'd stop by and she laughed. After all six of us ordered and ate our shaved ice we decided that it'd be funny to go back in and act like we had just gotten there and order the exact same thing again. Plus we all wanted another round of shave ice. So we walked back in and asked for the same thing again! This was met by laughter from the two girls working the shave ice place and they got to work on our second round. We asked if we could just have them fill a cooler for us and they said they've actually had someone who had done that before. Finally we left and I left a $5 tip.

I cannot believe how quickly this trip went. I remember the first day I thought of it back in November or December and how far away it seemed at the time and now it is over! I will always remember this trip! I wish I wasn't so sentimental though as I now feel slightly sad that all my friends have gone and this house seems big and empty without them. I'm weird about stuff like this and I probably always will be but I always stop and reflect about the weirdest things like "If they were still here they'd be watching Matrix with me" or "Who will I swim with in the pool tommorow?" Pathetic I know, but I always have thoughts like these. Oh well I know that I'll be over it tommorow and plus I'm still in Hawaii!!! WOO HOO!!!

Hawaii Chapter 10: Flying Solo and Apparently Getting Run Over is Funny! Current mood: happy Today was my first day alone in Hawaii. Granted that my grandparents were here, but it's the first time in my entire life that I've been to Hawaii where I have keys to a car and I'm the only one going wherever I decide to go! Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy for most of the day today. I decided to give the weather a while to clear and it never did so I decided I'd go to the close beach to my grandparents, Kailua beach. There were a lot of people there! I staked out my spot and jumped into the water. The waves were actually pretty decent size for Kailua so I got a lot of body surfing in. I thought it was kind of amusing because all these people were in the water and none of them were trying to body surf and then I came and caught two waves right in a row and then everyone was trying to body surf. I spent about an hour and a half doing that as it was a lot of fun and I was enjoying showing everyone else how it was done. Two teenage girls kept exchanging glances with me, but again I didn't approach them so nothing came of it. I spent the next hour lying in the sand watching this little kid fly a black shark kite thingie. It was pretty funny because the wind was gusting pretty strong at that point and this kid must've been 4 or 5 and everytime the wind would pick up he would scamper frantically to stay with the kite. Very cute! There were a few times where I wouldn't have been suprised to see him whisked away by the wind! After that I decided I would head on home and I started out. I reached this spot where the exit to the parking lot is and a bike lane intersects the exit. As soon as I approached it for some reason I had a feeling there was going to be a biker since it was a blind intersection. I carefully looked both ways TWICE before giving it the gas but sure enough out of no where came this teenage girl on a bike right into my path. I was only going about 10 mph but I slammed on the brakes and the whole truck skidded a second. She stopped right in my path, looked at me and the truck that had nearly just hit her, put her hand to her mouth like she was trying to hide a smile and then burst out laughing and yelled sorry! So apparently nearly being run over by a dude in a truck is amusing? I didn't know how to react so I just smiled and laughed back and told her that was ok and then I was on my way. The rest of the evening so far has been pretty relaxing. I'm just watching some college hockey and enjoying walking around shirtless ;) Tommorow's my last day!

Hawaii Chapter 11: Goodbye Shave Ice Girls and Goodbye Hawaii
Current mood: cheerful

Today was another relaxed lowkey day. I layed around by the pool under the crystal clear skies we had today for a while and then I went to Kailua beach again with my grandpa.

We took a two mile walking path that winds through the beach park and talked about a lot of different things. We talked about how unbelievable it is that it seemed to him that just yesterday I was an infant, and here I stand today about to head to college and the world beyond.

It's days like this that make it so hard to leave Hawaii! The sky is totally clear, with a gentle breeze and bright sunshine. It's so relaxing! I hope it will be less than 9 months between now and my next visit.

Anyway after the beach park I decided to go to Hawaiian Ice for a final Shave Ice. The two girls who had been there almost every time we had gone for shaved ice were there again and smiled at me as I came in. They remembered that I was leaving soon and asked if I was bummed and I had to say I was. I'll be happy to get back home and see everyone I care about in Colorado, but there's just something about being here that makes me feel truly content, although the lack of hockey is catching up to me! Anyhow we said our goodbyes and they made for me the biggest shave ice I think I've ever gotten! So thanks Michael for breaking the ice!

I should be leaving for the airport in 3 1/2 hours so I need to go and start getting packed before a last steak dinner with my grandparents and the plane ride home!

WHAT AN AWESOME TRIP!!!