Koke'e! *video*

This last weekend has been quite a whirlwind--great fun.

Friday I took Heidi and Luke to the airport to go see Heidi's mom on Maui. On my way back I met up with good Michigan friends Rich and Jami, who had just arrived Wednesday, and met their friend Zach. I saw their place where they have nice bedroom size "shacks" and then we went down to Kealia beach and met Grizz, and then went up to his place and played music, hula hooped, and passed grapefruit with our feet while climbing around on a swing set. :)

I spent the night at Rich and Jami's then took Heidi's car home, got some warm clothes and got a ride back from Rich. Grizz came down and the four of us, myself and Rich in the bed of Grizz's pick-up, headed down the road to Koke'e, the state park up in the mountains in the center of the island. To get up there you have to go all the way around to the Eastern side, making a backwards C around the West side. We stopped at a great thrift store where I scored a great pair of pants from the free bin and bought a bathing suit since I had somehow left my bottom at home. Then we drove around the corner and stopped at Salt Pond Beach, a great swimming beach protected from the waves by a reef. Had a picnic lunch, went swimming, showered off, and hit the road again. Stopped once more for supplies in Waimea then up the canyon we went.

We stopped at two overlooks one of which looks out over the Kalalau Valley! Rich and Jami were excited to see "home."



Then down a long winding road to a camp spot where Grizz had heard there might be a party. We set up camp, cooked dinner,



and met our neighbors, a couple who we invited to play music with us but said they were tired and were just going to chill before going to bed. Well, a little after it got dark, people started showing up. Young people with costumes in the theme of Alice in Wonderland and many colored glow sticks. It was quite fun like this for a while though we wondered if our neighbors were having trouble sleeping. Then, some more people showed up with a big stereo and a laptop full of music and started playing loud techno party music. There was flaming poi spinning, and loud music for hours. Our neighbors packed up and left around midnight. Rich felt really bad... I tried sleeping in a hammock but the rain came down and in under the pavilion and so I went in the tent. Woke in the morning and went on a hike with Jami. We went up the trail for about two miles and would have liked to go further but didn't ahve any watre with us so headed back.

When we got back, most everyone was up and there was more music and more food all morning until people started going down the river to a waterfall. When everyone came down, most of the young people jumped off, about 30 feet, into the pool below. Then we hiked down to the next waterfall which was maybe 40 feet tall and no one jumped off of. Hiked back and decided to head home.

I spent the night at Rich and Jami's again then met Heidi, Ant and Luke and went to a big playground, much like Kid's Kove in TC, where I watched luke for a few hours while Heidi and Ant went on a job. When we got home, I took a shower and relaxed the rest of the day.

settling in to everyday life *video*

I missed a couple days... usually whenever I'm online I elect to talk with friends on MSN instead of write in here, but I'm feeling guilty today so will put a little more effort into it.

Lets see... Today's Wednesday...

Monday H, L and I went west along the North shore to a beach with the intent of snorkeling. The water was a little bit too rough though and Luke was really fussy so we left shortly. After we were home for a while, H took L for a long drive to get him to go to sleep. I stayed inside for a while then went outside to take some pictures.



Tuesday Anthony had a survey job down in Waimea so we all went out there together.

L and I played at a little park while A and H did their thing.

The drive one-way is about an hour and a half so Luke had a good nap on the way home and the rest of the day went smoothly.

Today, Wednesday, is apparently play-group day at the little local park. L isn't very interested in organized activities though so his regular trucks and things were a big hit as usual. After playing at the playground for a while we came home, ate a little, then headed to the beach to surf. The waves were great for surfing, if only my skill level was up a little. It kind of felt like I was in a washing machine... The salt water bothers my eyes so every time a 4' wave would crash over me the recovery time of just wiping my face would take so long by the time I was done the next wave would be on top of me! Anyways, I got out after quite a while trying and watched Luke and Makela while the Heidi, Kim and Matt went out together. Luke was very tired and we came home and took a nice long nap. :)

more surfing and a goddess festival

Yesterday we went to the beach to surf around 8am... I probably spent about an hour in the water. There weren't many waves but I managed to catch a few. I'm getting better!

Came home and took a shower then off to the Guava Kai plantation where a friend of a friend told me there was going to be a little "goddess festival". Heidi dropped me off and I went in. It's a beautiful place, the road leading up to it is surrounded by guava trees, and the festival itself was in a garden--


There were vendors and food booths, one of which had raw chocolate samples and I had some chocolate banana pudding with chopped macadamia nuts. yum yum yum!!
There was some music then some hula dances and then some circle dances in which everyone participated. I can't say I was too good at the hula... :P
After the dances I met a couple people. One guy, Paul, who played the tabla drums knew Daniel Paul who we met at the Maui sufi camp in '03. He's actually also originally from Michigan as well as another guy that we were talking with(I cant remember his name...)! Some of the people I talked with know my friends Rich and Jami who are coming this week and were all really excited when I told them they were coming too.
I got a ride home from a guy, Robert, who played the guitar with Paul. He stopped and got me a guava to taste on the way out. they're yellow on the outside and pink with little seeds that you can swallow on the inside and taste somewhat like a sour strawberry. Really good!! He dropped me off at the park, I said mahalo for the ride, and gifted me with one of his cd's. Very sweet of him. (Note to curious readers: these guys I'm talking about are all much older than I... in case you started thinking anything of it. ;) I then walked back to the apartment, about a mile or so...

After a little while at home I took Luke out for a little walk. We took his "big tonka" truck out and "tested the gravity" at some little hills. Kim and Makela were out for a walk too so we hung about for a while. Again, Makela wanted to hold my hand or for me to hold her much of the time. We came back home and had dinner then I spent long hours talking to friends on msn... I might be having fun, but I still miss everybody back home!!

Of Sight-seeing and Surfing! - Getting used to my new home

Friday morning I woke around 5 or 6, partly because of being accustomed to the eastern timezone and mostly because of the excitement of being in a new place.

If I recall correctly, we walked around the grounds of the apartment for a little while then Heidi, Luke and I went into Hanalei. We went to Papaya's(a healthfood store) and then met their neighbors, Kim and Matt and their daughter Makela, at the beach. The little ones had fun running around in a little tidepool and sliding in the sand. Makela is very sweet and after a little while was sitting on my lap and wouldn't get up. Heidi and I went in the ocean for a little bit just before we left. It's going to take me a little while to get used to the taste of the salt water...

Then we went to Foodland, another grocery store, for dinner supplies and kleenex(I've been quite stuffed up after all those plane rides) where Luke started falling asleep in the cart. We took him home but when Heidi tried laying him down in the bed he woke up and wouldn't nap any more the rest of the day. Wasn't always pleasant after that, he would get pretty fussy.

We had lunch then drove over to the library where Luke got a couple new books about trucks and loaders and excavators and I got a library card of my own. Then stopped at the park for just a little bit then home for dinner--honey glazed tofu and pumpkin seed couscous. Yum! They're vegetarian and I think that's going to suit me just fine.

After dinner we went down to the pool for a bit then home and to bed; I was tired!!
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Woke early again this morning. I organized my closet a little before everyone got up.

Around 9 or so Heidi, Luke and I went down to the Princeville hotel. As we were preparing, Heidi was talking about trying to dress "touristy". This confused me as I'd never gone anywhere and tried to look like a tourist! When we got there I understood; It's quite a big fancy place and I felt kind of out of place.



We took the elevator down to the beach, walked around then took a looong flight of stairs back up to the parking lot.
We then went to Kilauea Point which is a National Wildlife Refuge and visitor's center. Lots of sea birds and Nene geese, Hawaii's state bird.

Threre's also a lighthouse.



We came home and Luke took a successful nap which made for a happy boy the rest of the day. When he woke up we all went back to the beach in Hanalei. Heidi took me out surfing on some little waves. I've wanted to learn to surf ever since I visted Maui in 2003 and now I'm hooked! Cant wait until I can catch some waves a little bit bigger!

Home, dinner, bedtime.

Of Airports and Aircraft - The adventure begins!

I said goodbye to Traverse City at 8:15 yesterday morning. Looking down from the plane as we took off the city was all green with spots of red, yellow and orange. Beautiful; I will miss it.

Detroit airport was uneventful. I tried to get a breakfast sandwich at a Charley's subs but (at 10:30) they said breakfast was over so I had to settle for a philly ham & swiss with the works which was much too hot to handle at first and not much to talk about anyways. I tried to connect to the internet but the "free public wi-fi" was "restricted"... ?? We had a slight delay as our flight attendants had arrived late and had to travel the whole length of the airport, but soon we were on our way.


Mountains somewhere on the way to Phoenix, AZ

At the Phoenix Airport, I had to go from "terminal 2" to "terminal 4". This involved going outside the airport, finding and catching catching the right shuttle and asking several information desks along the way where I could get my boarding pass for ATA airlines. Then through security again. (laptop out of my backpack, shoes off, everything out of my pockets...) Then I was in though and set to sit and wait another hour for the next flight. I thought about getting some food, but airport food is quite overpriced.

The flight to Honolulu was a little over 6 hours... very long and tiring. I managed to catch a little sleep but never as much as I would have liked. They showed two movies on the flight, Spiderman3 (which I didn't watch) and Wild Hogs (which was sort of dumb). Mostly I read my current book, Brave New World.

At Honolulu I had to get my bag and change terminals again, go through security again, and wait another two hours to then board an little plane to Kauai who's flight took about a half hour.

Then, at 10PM, I was there! I grabbed my bag at the baggage claim and called Heidi to let them know I was there a little early. Heidi, Ant and Luke walked up from the parking lot and gave me the traditional lei. It was quite dark so I couldn't see much yet. Pretty much we just drove home and went to bed; I was very tired after 20 hours of traveling!

I slept well and dreamt lengthy dreams about how my new life would be.
Then I woke up to this -


More about today at the beach later!