After finally getting moving on Sunday sometime early in the afternoon, Valarie and I tried to get some ice cream at my favorite place, Kilauea Ice Cream and Video, only to find out they weren't open for another hour. Deciding to hold out and have ice cream instead of something else, we head to Secrets Beach. It was really nice to be in the ocean, with the sun out at the most amazing beach I've ever been to. Valarie had never been there and had a really good time. Some really fun things happened, I'll have to admit. We had a hermit crab race, looked for shells (unsuccessfully due to the tide), walked the full length of the beach and climbed on the rocks all the way at the other end. This was were we had the hermit crab race. At a tide pool up on the rocks there were some small fish the same coloring as the rocks and some hermit crabs of all sizes with really impressive shells around their bodies. We also, sat on some rocks where at one point a wave came up and water rushed in between the rocks beneath us. Such a magical moment!
Sunday 3/6/2011
After multiple weekends of having fun on the north shore in spite of the weather, there was very light rain and a little sunshine on Saturday and a beautiful afternoon on Sunday. The plan was to go to Turtle Cave, but with it being so wet after a heavy rain Friday night, I decided to meet Valarie at yoga. Afterward we went to Rock Quarries as planned, but most people who were to meet us there didn't come because of the rain. It was really nice hanging out on the beach drinking beer with her. A few friends stopped by and hung out for a bit. Nubia joined us and the three of us hung out together for the duration of the evening. I decided we needed to have a bonfire since it wasn't raining. I chose to break dead limbs off of some pine trees to make sure the wood was dry. Some logs were a little hard to break. At one point Nubia and Valarie were sitting on a log bouncing on it while I held it in the air. Not the easiest or safest way to break firewood, but effective. Another branch I tried to break by climbing up it and hanging from it. Unable to crack it, I got Valarie to hold onto me. For a moment she was off the ground holding onto me while I held the branch. After Valarie and myself finished off a 12 pack, we ordered pizza at the Kilauea Bakery and had a couple Jack and Pepsi drinks. Nubia as designated driver, we went into Lihue to Cafe Portofino to dance. Its not too often when there's an opportunity to be out dancing and partying 'till 2am on Kauai, so we all really enjoyed the night. To add to the fun, there was a dance team who used some pretty awesome led setups including batons and hula hoops. There also was this one girl who used a long cloth hanging from the rafters to do some really crazy spinning in really flexible positions. Valarie was interested in having another drink and was going to buy me one, however, the bartender couldn't handle how busy it was, so we opted not to. It was a good thing because we had a lot to drink anyway.
Monday 2/28/2011
After Sandy and I picked up the food for the weekend we spent at least 30 minutes stuck in Kapaa traffic. I thought we'd zip right up to pick up the rest of our passengers so I threw the ice in the bed of the truck. After a couple minutes of not going anywhere in traffic, I climbed into the bed and loaded a large cooler with beer and ice. I got big smiles from the taxi driver behind me as I kept on grabbing another 12 pack and emptying it into the cooler. The ride from Kapaa to Polihale took a little over an hour. Matt and I rode in the back of the pick up with our stuff. There wasn't much room, but after a couple beers we were fine. Well, that is until we got to the dirt road. Five miles down a not so smooth and in some places a muddy road with Sandy behind the wheel, fully obliging to our requests to just simply keep going since momentum was our best chance of not getting stuck. It was a very rattling experience for us in the back.
After not even 30 minutes there, the five of us committed to coming back regularly. After some relaxation and swimming and beer some of the rest of the group started to show up. A very smart 11 year old started the fire and not long after I started cooking hot dogs. I tried to use the campfire and a piece of a grill I found but spilled the hot dogs in the fire after they cooked awhile. Nesli helped me clean them with beer and we served everyone! They were a hit, and for the second batch I scooped some coals into the grill we brought to cook the remainder. A much easier way.
The sunset was absolutely perfect, slowly dipping into the ocean and shining bright colors into the sky in all its splendor. I love the sunsets here on Kauai and camping on the beach to see the sunset is even better.
As the night wore on some of the heavy drinkers passed out, some of the non drinkers went to sleep and the crazy people played a game with animal sounds.
Matt mentioned that there's a beach as you walk along the rocks to the north thats a 15 minute kayak away. Unfortunately, as I later find out the beach is only there during the summer, when the ocean is calmer. I walked passed where the beach would be, I believe.
There were 4 girls that Loren, the leader of the Kauai Adventure Club encouraged to head down the nasty 5 mile dirt/mud/holey road who camped with us. These girls are some of the crazy people previously mentioned. I tried to get a bunch of people to head for the beach Matt was talking about, but didn't have much luck aside from these girls.
The 5 of us were wandering quite a bit, heading up dry and rocky river beds, crawling into caves, scoping out amazing vistas. At one point I was all alone, but determined to find the beach, but could not go any further because the cliff and ocean were too close for comfort. On my way back I stumble into Chella and after hanging a bit we head up the canyon behind us (where two of her friends came from) and then up the side of the canyon to a really nice spot to gaze out into the ocean and watch the whales. Sometimes we'd get 3 and 4 whales doing their thing at the same time! Out in our view were two Cairns where the canyon curved a bit. They made a spectacular presence because of their location and made our spot so much more incredible.
Saturday February 12 2011
Supposed to have a beach party with the Kauai Adventure Club. it rained all day. There was another meetup from the group at the other side of Hanalei Bay. We combined forces to have a showing of 5 people. There were supposed to be about 20. After beer and horseshoes in the rain we have more beer and play volleyball. Afterwards we head to a jacuzzi and drink some cocktails. Bill, a bartender from Vegas makes some kickass mojitos, pomegranate mojitos, and maitais. The best rainy day you can have!
The greatest thing about playing volleyball at the beach is strangers are always welcome to join. Are there any other team sports where its customary to just join in?
February 4th, 2011
Last night I went for a ride to have a little pakalolo and wind up hanging with a rather eclectic Hawaiian dude who was riding a crf250. I wound up having a lot of pakalolo and we raced around on dirt roads and some asphalt twisties. He didn't have a headlight, and I have bald tires. Only in Hawaii do you go out to have a little after work chill time and wind up racing a guy on a dirt bike.
Last weekend I hiked up river to Makaleha Falls. There was more rock climbing than hiking. My legs hurt for 2 days afterwards. Imagine spending 4 hours maneuvering around a jungle gym...lots of lifting yourself up with your arms, then lowering yourself back down over and over again. The whole trek is absolutely beautiful as are the waterfalls.
The next day I planned on doing an 11 mile hike but decided not to for the sake of my legs while at work.
. . .
Recently at work I:
Saw Laird Hamilton
Boxed up a chain saw and a 80 pound wooden tiki in the same day
Was told I'd make a good hammock salesman
(and he's going to keep me in mind if/when my services are needed)
Had three Katies come in to work IN A ROW to use our computers
. . .
I'd like to just take the time to recognize that I regularly share a case of beer with friends on the beach like on Saturday after our hike. There was no pressure to be anywhere and all of us were entirely in the moment. Nobody wanted to move actually. The beer comforted our sore legs and feet. Oh, I forgot to mention...my hike that consisted of a really long jungle gym made of rocks was done barefoot.
. . .
This whole triple dot thing makes me feel like I'm writing a column in a newspaper. Anyway, I have a 4 day weekend, there's surf, I have scooter parts to install and I want to do yoga. Oh yeah, and there's a rock/soul/jam band I want to see. Good night.
January 21, 2011
I've settled in nicely to my new job. I work 4 days a week, 7.5 hour days. This is a HUGE difference than when I was living in Florida. Before work I go to the beach and have breakfast or go surfing. After work I watch the sunset or go surfing. I bought 10 yoga classes that I will go to over the next two months. I haven't gone up until recently for about a month. I've missed it.
Tuesday night I went to Kealia for a full moon bonfire. There were about 25 people. The Kauai Adventure Club from www.meetup.com inspired the party. The people were great, we had champagne, hot dogs and marshmallows. Chris, a guy I met on Saturday found some Opihi (limpets) which we steamed over the fire as well. They were a nice treat. Chris and I gathered most of the firewood by using two larger logs and stacking smaller ones across them. I'm such a boy scout! The moon was bright and beautiful. It was really neat seeing it come out of the ocean. its not very common to have a clear horizon on a full moon. A lot of people there saw it for the first time. A while after the moon came up, it was glistening on the waves as they were breaking, almost looking like liquid metal rushing by as the waves break. So incredible!
While I'm showing pictures, the other day I smoked out on the beach with some friends who just happened to see me ride my scooter through Hanalei. We hung out for hours and saw the best sunset I think I've ever seen!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
I love hearing the ocean at night. Its a mile away.
My day to day life has tempered down to somewhat ordinary. Aside from that, in a bit of an ironic fashion, I've had some two wheel transportation troubles. Other than my Ruckus motor blowing up, Kauai's finest took my bicycle as evidence because I left it outside a restaurant that was robbed the same night. That day was pretty fun. I met with Alida and at Rock Quarries and walked with her (and my bike) to Kilauea Falls for a swim. It was a very beautiful journey and destination. After 3 weeks of hassling the cops to give me my bike back, I finally win. Days later I get my scooter back. Yesterday I get a phone call from Indy, one of my roommates. He leaves a voicemail saying that he broke a little boy's bicycle and since I'm MacGyver and all (apparently) I get to fix the bike. Mind you, I'm delighted to whip together some ingenuity to fix a 3 year old's bicycle. The rear wheel was FUBAR! Well, here's how I fixed it.
I finished it this morning and later on I receive word that someone knocked over my Ruckus. The fall broke a mirror and my windscreen. How hard is it to have a interesting and simple life? Too add to my two wheel troubles, Jim asks me to help him fix an electric scooter he has. I've tinkered with it and haven't gone into full disassembly of the thing to figure things out. I'll get going with that in a couple days.
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