Hawaiian Vacation-Part 1

Oahu-Day 1-20.03.08-Surfing Tips

Because of excitement, I was not able to sleep on the 5 hour flight from Seattle to Honolulu, just thinking of sunshine and seeing my family again. I arrived in Honolulu around noon, the airport is outdoors and the weather was lovely and sunny. Brendan met me and immediately put a flower lei around my neck, paradise vacation beginning. Warm winds and sunshine greeted me, it was unreal.

We headed straight to Diamond Head beach to lay on the sand. I cam across wild roosters and had to get a closer look at that, since I've been commissioned to paint a rooster.

After the beach, Brendan took me to Ghenki Sushi. It was one of those places where the sushi comes around on a conveyor belt and you just grab the ones you like. For some weird reason they also had bowls of fried chicken. The Japanese beer made it an extra delicious lunch. We later stopped to get a Kona Coffee Milkshake from Jack-in-the-Box.

Enough about food. In case you're wondering, I didn't just eat and lay on the beach the entire time. We picked up Lance, my brother's good friend from the island, and his boards and hit the beach. I used his new long board, it had a padded grip type of mat that stretched the entire length of the board.

Surfing was challenging at first. Riding atop the smooth water and gliding takes balance. Many times I plummeted into the salt water, tasting more than I should. Balancing became easy after a little while, but catching the wave was challenging. I couldn't tell which waves were good to catch at first. I learned a few new things though.

1. Never paddle out in the middle of breaking waves(this seems like common sense, but not when you're out there). Instead go out to the sides of the waves. This will prevent you from flipping over and causing collisions with other surfers.

2. If you are heading towards breaking waves; hit them head on, not sideways. Hitting a wave sideways will most likely make you flip.

3. Lance told me not to worry about crashing into other surfers, they will move. I'm not too sure about this one. A few times I had to yell; "I don't turn yet". I think it was obvious by the amount of times the board flew out from under me.

Being in the deep water, sitting on my board and watching the other surfers look out into the distance was a beautiful image. Their silhouettes faced the deep, endless ocean patiently awaiting the next wave. The sun set just before we rode in. Breathtaking imagery, dreamlike.

Brendan said earlier that he loved watching the surfers shower their boards off. I love the calming way they sit up on their boards, await the wave and gaze into the sunset.

Later that evening we met mom, Peter and Maggie at the hotel. From our balcony, we had an excellent view of the ocean and Waikiki beach. The reunion of my family was great.

Oahu-Day 2-21.03.08-Jumping off Waterfalls

Yes; jumping off waterfalls is something we experienced today. Craziness really. My mom was so scared, she couldn't even watch. She would've had an instant heart attack, for sure. I guess she has forgotten youthful days of skydiving.

We did a strenuous hike to the Maunawili Falls, just outside of Honolulu. Pure, sticky, humid rain forest hike of about 4 miles round trip. After arriving at the waterfall, Brendan, Maria and Peter climbed up and jumped in. It took me about 20 minutes to conjure up enough courage to jump from the small landing. Scary stuff. I could not see the bottom and was afraid of slipping or landing on a pile of stones.

The hike worked off the thousands of calories we consumed eating the delicious, hot, greasy malasadas(Portuguese donuts). Leonard's has the BEST Malasadas on the island for about 70cents each.

Oahu-Day 3 22.03.08-Hanauma Bay

Everyone woke up late today. After picking up Tony and Maria, two of Brendan's good friends from school, we headed to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. The entire parking lot was full, so they had to drop us off. After paying the admission, we were required to watch an instructional/educational/safety video for new visitors wishing to snorkel at the bay. It was pretty basic; no touching the coral, no touching/bothering the fish and other sea creatures.

After finding on a half shady-half sunny part on the beach, I put on the flippers, supposedly the correct term for them in Hawaii is "fins". The snorkeling mask worked surprisingly well, I thought that I would be claustrophobic. It actually has a tube that blows the water out that goes into it. So if waves splash over you and the tube, you won't swallow water. The waves were a bit rough at times and I was glad to have this breathing apparatus. Plus the other upside, you can stay under water for long periods of time.

This was my first time ever snorkeling and it was captivating. Fish were swimming in front and next to me. After being under water for about 15 minutes, Maria grabbed my arm and pointed to a sea TURTLE! Not more than 10 feet from us was this amazing, gigantic sea turtle. It was feeding on some plants attached to the coral. At first I was a bit apprehensive, do sea turtles attack? Do they bite? I didn't know. I realized that he was very calm and peaceful. I followed and observed him for about 20 minutes. Watching this large circular creature swim, reminded me of planetary movement or a mobile. He was this gigantic blob floating under water. I would've swam with him all day, it was so soothing. The waves started picking up and I was getting cold, so I waited till Peter found the turtle and then we decided to head back in. On the way back in, I spotted ANOTHER turtle, this one was smaller than the first and more hidden in the coral. It's a whole different world under the sea.

After lounging on the beach for a few hours, we were all royally BURNT. Yes, our fair skin was no match for the deceiving partially cloudy skies. I think I got more burned than ever before. Air pollution is not as great here, so the sun rays have less to block their power. Clean air= intense UV rays.

More Waterfalls!

So, as one can probably guess, I have been hiking the last four Sundays. It's a great way to spend the end of the weekend. This weekend was no different.

After getting locked out of my own bedroom on Friday afternoon, I realized that Roberta is not only a great roommate, but an extremely patient lock picker. For some reason all of our bedroom doors have locks but no keys to go with them. By accident I must have switched the lock in the morning. When I arrived home in the afternoon, I immediately assumed someone had played a mean trick on me. After realizing no one in my household owns wire hangars or paper clips(mine are IN my room), Roberta resorted to bobby pins. Those did little good. After prying the handle off with a screwdriver, she was able to somewhat pick the lock using the bobby pin and a small Allan wrench. After about 15 minutes of trying that I decided that I was just going to use the hammer to finish the job. Not only did it loosen everything, thus allowing the door to open, it was the most perfect object for me to let loose on. Whacking a doorknob with a hammer feels great. THE BEST OUTCOME of this "dilemma" is that now I have a broken door to paint and draw on. This could also be the place my roommates leave me notes.

After that eventful afternoon, the evening turned out to be relaxing. After weeks of searching craigslist, I finally found someone willing to sell me a Magnetic Fields ticket for under $50! Most others had been asking over $100! Ridiculous, I know. The concert was held at Town Hall. I imagined it being an old vintage movie theater, but it turned out to be more like a governmental/church building with pew seating. So different was this show from other indie rock/folk concerts I have been to. People sat attentively in their seats, no dancing, screaming or singing along. I felt as if I was at a classical concert. As for the music, the entire show was done acoustically. They played several off their newest album Distortion, a few from I and many from 69 Love Songs. I was disappointed not to hear at LEAST one from my favorite album Get Lost. Overall, they gave a quality performance. The music was so beautiful and calming, almost like an opera, where one drifts in and out of thoughts. Well worth the ticket.

Saturday was spent relaxing, eating the pounds of sweets Roberta made, and painting. I have finally begun the rooster painting. I think it'll end up being a fun project. In the early evening we decided to go out and purchase beverages for the evening. A note about Washington State: you cannot purchase liquor in grocery stores and you cannot purchase beer in liquor stores. So two trips were necessary. Goldschlager is this awful schnapps with gold flakes in it. It's not really conducive to the climate here, it's more of a negative degrees type of drink that warms your stomach. I will stick to Jameson. Hanging out with Mike and Roberta, I decided to pose a simple question to get a conversation going. Little did I know that it would turn into a philosophical debate escalating to a heated argument, making me exit to resume playing mandolin. It all started when I asked them about personality flaws. I now know what questions to avoid. Anything like that seems to turn political or religious at some point.

Ah yes, the HIKE! What I mentioned way back at the beginning of this posting. OK, so usually we have breakfast at the house. This week Roberta made orange/blueberry muffins, chocolate walnut bread, lemon cupcakes, AND pancakes! Mike also donated some girl scout cookies. I decided it was best not to add donuts into the combination, or else we might end up with adult onset diabetes one day. We were all so stuffed on the way to Wallace Falls. When I say all I'm referring to Roberta, Drew, Matt and I. Bear did not come for this one. Next time, he's coming.

It was a little over an hour drive till we reached the trail head. The hike began through some dry grassy terrain, quickly turning into lush moss-covered forest. Everything was mossy, moist and muddy. I'm so glad to have real hiking boots now, they are so much easier on the rocks. Along the trail there were three different spots which we viewed the falls from. The last I found to be the most amazing because of the view of the countryside(see picture above). According to the guidebook, the total distance of the hike was 5.6 miles with an elevation gain of 1,100 feet. It also claims to have the largest waterfalls in the area.

After the hike, we did kept the tradition in going to the first DQ(Dairy Queen-for those of you who don't eat fast food) we saw. Not such a good idea. All of us felt a little on the queasy side. Seeing the new Will Farrell movie probably didn't help digestion. Maybe next time we should opt for picnic food.

ciao for now

March/Spring is here!

Yes! It's true. Spring has reached Seattle, at least from a Midwesterner's standpoint. The last few weeks the temperature has not gone under 40 degrees.

I've been busy working, hiking, painting, playing banjo and hanging out with my new friends.
Roberta, Drew and I have been taking hikes the last two Sundays. The first one we went on was the Cougar Mountain trail, off of I90. It was surrounded by the ever-sprawling suburbia, but was a nice short hike, about 2.5 miles, round trip. Hike #2 was a more scenic hike on the Twin Falls trail. This trail head was also off of I90. The views were incredible, I will post a picture or two soon.

With painting I've been doing some of my ongoing collage work. I am also starting a new portrait and constructing miniature houses which will soon become villages. Later in May, I believe I'll begin a Sumi Painting/Calligraphy class. I really want some new brush techniques. My one roommate and I have begun a collaborative painting on an 8 foot by 3 foot piece of Masonite board. We are working on it in the front hall. It's been an interesting first try at something of this nature.

In other art news, I have finally made it down to SAM(Seattle Art Museum). Impressive were the masks from the Native Cultures and the amount of Alaskan art that was there. I was a bit disappointed as I am with almost every museum, with the amount of Expressionist era pieces in the collection. there was a single, faded Kandinsky drawing! But overall there was a great deal of beautiful artifacts from Africa and the Orient.

Banjo playing has kept me from going crazy. I love jamming on it or just picking it up while I am waiting. At some point I will have everyone in the house playing something, singing, or dancing on the clogging board I intend to build. For right now, they have been enthusiastic listeners.

Bridge likes bikes, but does NOT like being harassed by fellow bikers. I managed to talk Roberta in to going on critical mass, her first ever. It was a strenuous ride to Gas Works park in Fremont. On our way out of gasworks, I was told by a fellow biker to "get a white light" for the front of my bike. I have a blinking red light on the front and back, supposedly this is ILLEGAL! She told me that I was breaking the law. For lack of a witty comment, I responded with silence, she noticed this and scoffed, saying "...and she's not even listening!" I am an outlaw, a lawbreaker, a cyclist not following the rules, RIDICULOUS...
maybe next time I'll just take my SUV to mass....

ciao for now.