Conclusion

Well now I find myself on my couch in Corbeil at 2am unable to sleep and I have no idea why. Probably because it feels like 8pm and I slept in til noon today. The whole family slept til noon. Krista got the baby up around 7 brought her in to bed with us and we stayed there til the phone rang. I don't care how late I stay up tonight, I just have to get up in the morning.

We've been home for 36 hours after a 24 hour journey home. We were back yesterday around 3pm and went for dinner with Judy, Bob, Liz, Terry, Amanda, Sean, Roxy, and in no particular order, well, other than girl, boy, girl.

It was great to see everyone is well, happy and still like to eat. The new beach front dining location is awesome and having our brother and sister here from worldly travels and as new neighbours is even better. Our house was in good shape and well manicured and the cats were happy to get outside.

There was an ultimate game at 6, but it would be mean to just leave and play, but I can't wait to see friends and hopefully the new baby tomorrow at ultimate. I made it out to soccer and I had really missed the North Bay soccer community. We may not be the best in the world, pretty close, but not quite, but we are a community. There is a soccer culture that I wish could work together better, but it does work nonetheless. It was a close game with my goalie Tyler Cowden making a huge stop on a penalty shot with ten seconds left in the game. I knew he would make the save, I've seen him do it many times. There were some young kids at the game from Luc's camp and they were saying "Nice Save Goalie!!!" So I asked them if they wanted his autograph and they were so excited. Tyler was emabarrassed, but he reluctantly scribbled his name down and ran away. It was a great save though, and as a goalie, you don't often get to keep points on the board, you just have to deal with all the shots that whiz past you. Anyways, this is nothing about Hawaii, but like I said I can't sleep.

So our journey home began by finishing packing, dealing with our crazy landlord, dropping the jeep off, and getting yelled at for the amount of beach sand in it. I didn't think it was too bad. I had only made a few castles in the back seat to entertain Melody. The lady was lecturing me on charging me $50 and how hard is to get sand out of a jeep and blah, blah, blah and I thought this whole island is a beach what planet are you on, of course there's going to be sand. What she heard was, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I could clean it." Anyways, I didn't get charged and I hopped on the shuttle back to the airport where I had left Krista, Melody, all our stuff, with some weird dude, who I gave my credit card to. That was really strange, but he was a porter working off tips, helping people like us with too much stuff and kids and the dad running to return the vehicle. This guy got us checked in and was able to slide our luggage in at a reduced rate, so he ended up being a huge help.

When we went through screening, we took the standard shoes off, belt and bling, but that wasn't good enough. Our carry on bag had all kinds of crap in it and the security guard pulled it all apart. The laptop bag was thoroughly searched and there were twenty cables left tangled on the floor. The best part was going through Melody's 2 day lunch bag of ten jars of baby food, water, and 3 bowls of cereal. She tested everything with litmus type paper, sprinkling cereal onto acid for other tests, wiped down baby jars with napkins and burned the paper to see the colour of the flame. But the best part was that she told Krista that she would have to be frisked because the baby food couldn't be opened. That seems to make perfect sense to me. Krista was looking hot in her tight yoga pants is what I was thinking. She couldn't have hidden anything even if she wanted to. I was wearing overstuffed cargo shorts and they didn't pat me down. I was kind of depressed about that.

So we pulled our stuff together and now were short on time. The kind of good part of travelling with the baby is that you get loaded in the plane first, but the bad part is you're on the plane the longest. We met a great little guy who was flying by himself. He had visited his dad in Kauai and was going back to his mom's in Honolulu. The plane in Hawaii is like the bus. It's only a 21 miunte flight. You climb and then you descend. There is no cruising.

We landed in Honolulu and were happy our luggage was meeting us in Toronto and that we did not have to be screened again. We scarffed the worst Burger King we could and walked around the over priced shooping stores, grabbed our boarding passes and then camped out at number 17 gate. You can't leave stuff unattended or they'll confiscate and destroy it, so we took turns manning the stuff and walking the baby around. I found a relatively empty gate and played tag and stuff with the baby. She kept asking for a boost onto this board walk thing and had fun running up and down it. There was one other family there and this ten year old dude started showing off his break dancing moves for us. Melody just plopped down and loved watching him. The young guy liked showing off so it was a match made in the airport. I did this for about two hours trying to tucker her out for the nine hour flight ahead of us.

The flight went better than the other nine hour flight and we were squished in the two seats with the three of us. She didn't really sit still, we were basically jungle gyms, but as long as she didn't scream and cry we were happy. She didn't cry once. Really. AT the end of the flight, we were literally congratulated by people on the amazing feat they witnessed. We didn't get any sleep, until about an hour left when they started serving everybody a bunch of crap that they hadn't bothered to serve the other 8 hours, and woke us up.

We landed in Chicago and walked the two miles from one gate to the other. It was quite surreal to have just missed night. We didn't sleep and it was only dark for a couple hours. We chased away from the setting sun and basically caught up to it before a night could take hold. There was a moment on the plane where it was pitch black with a full moon on one side and the deepest shade of red I've ever seen in the sky, on the other side.

So we were hanging loose in Chicago for the three hour layover. Krista went to get a bite. She came back a minute later with a huge smile and said "You have to walk by the bar over there. Look to your right. It's Rupert!" Any survivor junkies know who Rupert is. He's the only guy to have won a million bucks on survivor just for being the people's favourite. He has a crazy shaggy beard and is totally off the wall. From the show I knew he wokred with troubled kids.

So, I go walk by, fully intending to talk to him, but he was on his cell. I turned back, not sure what to do. Do I bug him? DO I ask for a photo? DO I pull all my crap out to get my camera? Then I said to hell with it. So, Krista went to get her food. She came back and said he was still sitting there, so I thought I would go again. I walked by and he was back on his cell.

Then I said to that's it. I stuck my hand in my packsack, trying to find this little secret compartment where I had stashed my secret spy pen, found it, turned it on, clipped it to my shirt and went on my mission. I walked up to the empty bar, except for Rupert, and said "Oh hey, Rupert, wow, nice to see you." I was trying to act surprised. He said, "Nice to see you." The bartender handed me a menu and I said, uuuuhhhhhhhhhh, pretending to really be looking at it and said "Actually, I'll just have a coffee."

Rupert's buddy showed up and they chatted a bit about pastries. Then I asked Rupert if he still works with kids. He ranted for the nest ten minutes, in a good way, about what he does. I just kept nodding, saying the odd "uh huh" and "oh really", and just trying not to smile too much. He basically works with 18-22 who will go to jail and puts them to work fixing, cleaning, and maintaining parks. He helps kids get their freedom back. He's from Indianoplis, but was in Chicago trying to spread his program across the land.

I've since watched my spy video and it's really quite a good look at the bottom of my chin. Obviously I had the wrong angle on it, but I did catch the conversation on tape and I got video of him taking a picture with some kids.

Then we got a 1.5 hour flight to Toronto and the baby did fine again, until we landed. She was out of it, the stewardess was a beeatch and we were tired.

We had booked our shuttle pick up about four months earlier and we had no easy access to a phone our entire month away so I did not call to confirm. The same guy who dropped us off was supposed to pick us up. He had given me a card, told me to go to pre-arranged service, they call him and he shows up. Well, he wasn't there, he wasn't in the system, we weren't in the system and we were stuck. I walked nine miles around the airport to find a payphone, stuck my credit card in there and called a cell answering machine. I couldn't leave a return number. Then I called the company and got another machine. Now I'm ready to break something, and not because he's not there, but because I knew I should have found a way to reconfirm. So, I'm sitting there plotting a hotel, or rental car and how I will take this shuttle company down. I left the number on the pay phone on another machine. Then, I called his cell again and he answered and was just around the corner. We slept the entire drive home. We didn't have a key to get in house and the secret key was missing so, I had to tap into my criminal mind and search for a way in. There's always a way, but some ways are smoother than others. We popped a screen, slid in, threw our crap on the floor, had cold showers because we turned the hot water tanks off and went to see family. As my profile status said: 10,000kms, 3 planes, 2 shuttles, and one cup of coffee with Rupert=home sweet home.

Well, now, it's 3am, so I'm going to keep rolling.

Before the conclusion, I think I left off somewhere after catching the monster and trying to eat at an Indian food restaurant the next day and wanting to toss my tacos. That seems to be a good spot to pick back up.

The next day we tried the Indian restaurant again and it was really good. I would really like to learn how to make a hot ass curry dish. Curry is the best, but we don't even have a jar here. The problem we were having and it was becoming a real problem was Melody's little face. She teethed the whole time away and whenever I've heard people talk about teething, I think of teeth. But what I've found as the problem, is snot. Little Melody has been diagnosed with CF, so I'm not sure if this is a bigger problem for her than other kids, but I guess their sinus drains while their teething. So her nose began running and we would wipe it. AFter wiping it so much her upper lip turned red. Then her lip began to bleed. Then the sore got covered in more snot and we would wipe some more and make it worse. We also stuck a suction tube up her nose and try and pull the snot out from the source and we have a ventilator with medicine that steams open her lungs and we have antibiotics to prevent lung infection. At the end of the day, you're looking at this beautiful girl who is a tuff little trooper who didn't complain at all unless we tried to help her.

So we're sitting in the Indian restaurant and this nose thing is running away from us and we're feeling horrible. We had researched it the night before and we diagnosed it as impetigo and you basically get it clean, disinfect and keep it clean. We used tea tree oil and polysporin and got it totally cleared up within about four days, but it started improving by the next day. Also, in the back of our minds was a virus called leptospirosis found in the Hawaiian streams, which is a flesh eating disease. We hadn't had her in the water, but you tend to worry as a parent:) We kept it low key the rest of the day.

We went to our favourite baby beach the next day to meet our friends Craig and Parv. They are really Liz and Terry's good friends, but I have met them many times. I talked mostly with Craig and he's working on a novel and we had fun chatting about character analysis and other things that I don't get to talk to other people about. We went snorkelling and I lost my mask and had to use the other snorkelling set to find the one I had lost. After I found it, I felt like I should just go hunting for treasure if I can find stuff so easily. We mowed down at the all you can eat pizza hut buffet just before my longest run. I felt like Pizza The Hut from Space Balls. That was one of the worst ideas I've had in along time, running with three medium pizzas, 4 salads, nine cokes, 3 plates of lasagna and nineteen dessert pizza slices, sloshing around my gut. I thought tossing tacos was bad, this was awful. The run I did was on Kahuna street. I call that run "The Big Kahuna".

The reason I had to do the run was because I wasn't going to be able to get wet, or soak, or sweat for the rest of the trip. I wasn't going to be able to get wet because, duh duh duh, I was getting my first tattoo. Well, we were both getting them. Krista already had one. She has these angel wings on her entire back with a...just kidding about that. She now has two little tattoos from two vacations, but she can write about that.

I had always wanted to wait til I was fifty to get one,just to keep some cool things to do in my back pocket, but Hawaii is the land of tattoos. I researched every artist on the island and found the right guy. I saw his work, I read everything I could find about him and he was the guy. His work was the most detailed of anyone else. It was a challenge to come up with the design but I knew he could piece it together. I had drawn all the parts and he helped to add the details.

When Duma died years ago, I drew my first picture. I didn't intend to do a drawing, it just came out of me. I really like what I had done and didn't know that was in me. Since that day, I have continued to let art come out of me. I never intend to do anything in particular, but if I am inspried to put a mark on a page, I conintue to put other marks and eventually I stop and have some sort of expression to look at. Usually, I just make mistakes, then I'll repeat the mistake, so it makes the first mistake look intentional.

That first drawing was a Yin Yang with Duma's name hidden in it. I started with that drawing and added Krista, Melody, and Roxy. When I drew Roxy in, it took the shape of a sword. I added a pen tip at the sword, threw a soccer ball and music note in the Yin Yang cirlce, blinged up the sword and added a little snowboarding and cycling dude riding off it. There's a lot going on, but that's me. The sword is over my shoulder surgery scars.

I didn't picture how much it would hurt. Many people have tats and I didn't think it would be a big deal. He started and immediately I went into shock, thought I would toss tacos again, and pass out. Luckily, I know the signs of shock and lied down before I hit the floor. It was close. I wasn't sure what sent me into shock, if it was just the needle or that I could feel the needle poking into the tendons that were just pulled over and reattached in my shoulder. Then I was wondering if I had given it enough time to heal before sticking ink into it. Then I could feel the tendons being played with as if they were guitar strings.

Jarod assured that this happens to most people, well, the men anyway, as women are much stronger than men at taking pain. He said let the adrenaline run its course and I would be fine. We watied about five minutes, started again, and I went into shock again. We decided we hadn't let the adrenaline run its course. I jumped out of a plane, I hauled in monster, I scrambled up a waterfall and I did not get that rush that I was looking for. Well, I got in the tattoo parlour. I thought I was going to have some strange marks of a barely started tattoo on my shoulder and that was it because I just couldn't take it.

We sat about ten minutes, he went back to work and we got it done. It took about 2.5 hours, but I am really happy with the end product and it was worth the pain. Adrenaline is the best drug and you don't have to take anything for it, it's inside you. I'm also happy that I don't need it as much as I did in my early twenties.

I had a great time chatting with Jarod. He is a very interesting person and I know I didn't even scratch the surface. I had read about some of his favourite authors and had brought him some book gifts and we're going to make a reading exchange program. We call it the International Cool Guys with Tattoos Reading Exchange Program. I.C.G.T.R.E.P for short. It will be like Oprah's book club, but cooler because we have tattoos. I really hope people get humour when I'm trying to slap them in the face with it:)

It's 330 am and the baby just woke up. I was able to feed her, change her, and rock her back to sleep, while Krista got to keep sleeping. That's the best.

So, the last few days we saved some easy touring things to do, out of the sun and surf, which is hard on this island. We drove to another waterfall, visited a traditional Hawaiian village, read books out on the lawn chairs while the baby napped, took photos, explored, drove down dead end roads, found an old Japanese cemetery, tried to win another contest by taking photos of a turtle on vacation, watched the Junior life guard crew, weird Yoga dude, light houses, menehune Fish pond, searched for Johnny Depp at the Marriot, and ate hot n sour soup.

The Jr Life Guards were these crazy fit kids in training. They would make a reality show that would kill the Hills. The Menehunes are these legendary Oompaloompa type figures that were said to origianlly habitate the island. They were thought to only work at night and moved to the mountains when the Marquesans and Tahitians showed up. Eventually they moved to another island. There big fish pond was basically a fish trap. I really wanted to find a Menehune and make a mocumentary film trying to find one. I kept video taping locals asking if they had seen a Menehune, but surprisingly, no one had. They are essentially Hawaiian Leprechauns and since I'm part Irish, I thought I would get along well with the Menehune and maybe they would want to come home with me and work at my ice cream parlour that I want to open. Maybe some other day, I guess.

On our second last day, we wanted to go to the west side again. We watched a parade for the Koloa Sugar Plantation days. Over half the island used to be sugar, but countries like Brazil began producing sugar without human or enviro laws, which dropped their costs. Kauai couldn't compete and the plantations closed up one by one. The parade was fun, but you had to ask yourself, did they plan this or did they just pull it together. It was as good as any parade I've seen here, but not freezing like the cold and wet Santa parades.

The celebration after the parade was good with foods and performers. the best was the drumming band. Last year in Detroit, they didn't have cheerleaders, they have drummers. The drum is a powerful instrument that vibrates your soul. Twelve drummers in unison vibrates the universe. Anyone want to be in my drumming band?

We continued west after the parade. I had already paid for a tank of gas at the rental place, so I was trying to return it close to empty. Well, we drove to the most remote part of the island just before dark and I was praying the light wouldn't come on. We made it to the most western tip in North America and watched the sun take a bath in the ocean. I learned that the horizon falls away 11 miles from your view. It seems farther than that. I don't know what I was expecting, but the sun sank and we left. There were no special colours, GOoodidn't speak to me and a million bucks didn't fall from he sky, but it was nice. I hate it when you build something up, and reality just can't compete with imagination.

The road to this spot is worse than bumpy and half way back the light went on. It's a small island so I was sure we would be fine, but everything closes early. The stress of potential mistakes sucks. We made it to a gas station, which I knew we would, but I hate that voice that's calling yourself an idiot for putting yourself at uneccessary risk. Shut up voice, we're fine, this is fine, we'll be fine. Dummy. I'm not dumb this is fine. On this goes until the problem is solved. I guess we call that voice conscience or something. We hadn't intended on going that far, but we couldn't find the beach we wanted and we were too far committed down the dirt road before I realized the gas situation. Oh well, we only drove 11 miles with the light on, but 5 miles took a half hour on the rough road. Ahh, it's fine.

The next morning, our last day, I got up at 5 am, and headed for the most easterly tip of the island so I could have the sun cleanse my soul after taking its nightly bath in the ocean. There were hundreds of freshly dug crab holes after the tide had gone out. I watched, photographed and videoed this event like its something that never happens. It's happening somewhere all the time. Since the beginning of time. It's responsible for time. Without the sun rising and setting, there is nothing. So this particular sunrise was special because it is the only one I have ever rolled out of bed for. I sat on the beach and couldn't believe what I was feeling.

I climbed waterfalls, I rode a bike down a 12 mile mountain, caught a monster, rode a horse, went surfing, read 5 books, jumped out of a plane, got a tattoo, 4x4ed up a mountain, snorkelled with crazy fish, photographed my brains out, drank 10 mai tais at a Luau, scored 12 goals in a soccer game, caught a matrix style catch in ultimate, met new friends, got in better shape, saw all kinds of hot beach butts and it still wasn't enough. There was one thing left to do.

I needed to see the Napali coast. The hike is 11 miles of remote clff hugging slippery treacherous terrain. You need to camp to get it done. I just didn't want to be away from the family for a few days. We were planning a family heli tour and that was cancelled a week ago. It didn't feel right with the sick baby and Krista didn't really want to after jumping our of the plane. I thought of running the hike hard, but that was bad for the tat, and you can take a coast cruise, but you get soaked, so I booked the heli tour. Krista and I had already decided that we would each take a turn with the baby and the other could do what they wanted. Krista wanted to soak some more rays.

While she was gone, I looked after the baby. She began to cry, I went to get her and it was a lovely scene. There was shit everywhere. There were perfectly rolled turds in the bed. Superb smears on her face, hands, stomach and calves. Little brown clingers were in her hair. There was shit smeared on the crib itself and on the matress. You know what, that was the best part of the trip. All of that shit, just because I like to say shit. Shit is a great word. In fact I think Melody says shit sometimes. I think she says Whats' That, but it gets reduced to dzat, which sounds like a German version of shit.

Krista came home, everything was cleaned up, the baby bathed and she didn't believe my story. Krista said I was full of shit. It's 430am now and maybe I'm getting tired. Shit the sun is kind of coming up.

So after all the shit, I went to my heli tour and I saw the ugliest shit I've ever seen. Mountains, volcanoes, beaches, waterfalls, cliffs, reef. Those views just couldn't compare to the shit.

We ended the day with a shave ice on the beach, which is like a snow cone, but not granular, it's fluffy. As we were sitting there we said, you know, we never did see a crab on the island and we thought it was weird. Then we looked at where we were sitting and realized there were ten of them around me. I screamed louder than Melody ever has and spilled my sticky shave ice all over my cool guy new white shorts. I love life. I love my family. I love my friends.

I know we were extremely priviledged to have this adventure and the best part was being with Krista and Melody 24/7/30. Aloha. Mahalo. Cheers. Peace.

Last day...

Well, its here, our last day. 2000km on the Jeep, 2000 pictures on our computer, countless hours of video, some souvenirs in the suitcase and a lifetime of memories. The past couple of days we have been revisiting our favourite sights and places, just making sure we didn't miss anything the first times (we didn't!). I will really miss just cruising with my little family in the Jeep, the island music entertaining us at every turn. Yesterday we took in some of the Koloa Plantation Days celebrations, a parade and party in the park. Our plan was to stay west to see the sunset. After a yummy bbq dinner we headed out to Polihale (this is as far west as the road will take you before the Na Poli coast which is inaccessible by car, the highway ends and it is a really rough sandy road for about 5 miles). This was our third visit and definately our most enjoyable! There were 2 wedding parties on the beach, one was taking their photos. We had never seen so many people out there, I guess that is the thing to do on a Saturday night. Anyways, on took some amazing photos and all three of us enjoyed the experience in our own ways. On our way home we stopped in Port Allen for McFlurries and stopped on the side of the highway so that Melody could partake. She loves ice cream! It was a late night, and I had to put my sandy, ice creamy baby to bed without a bath, wild!

bedtime anecdote

Aside from walking, running and dancing, Melody has taken to squirming away from me while I am changing her diaper, since we don't have a changing table here, this usually means she scrambles to the other side of the bed and hops off the side (she has become a pro at this manoeuvre!) Anyways, after her bath, I was trying to dry her off when she escaped (well I let her escape) and she headed right for the closet where she had seen me put away our shell leis from the luau. She loves wearing these. So now here is a mental picture for you....squeaky clean, barenaked baby running around the living room wearing a shell lei, too cute for words!

We had a great day today! Met our friends Craig and Parvaneh at the baby beach in Kapaa. Melody ran around in the sand for hours and made a friend at the station where you shower the salt and sand away. It was nice to see some familiar faces and share stories about being a tourist in Kauai. We do miss all of you at home very much, and with our trip winding down, well it won't be long until we see you!

Waterfall Scramble and full-on 4x4ing

Somehow these 2 adventures were left out of other posts.

I went back to the wettest spot on earth and scrambled up the waterfall. This spot was where Krista, Melody and I ran into the German family. I went back to get to the top of the mountain.

I had bought these wicked spy sungalsses and was video taping the whole deal. They say this is a trail, but it's not really. There is some evidence of an old trail sometimes, but I basically had to weave in and out of the waterfall and climb the boulders. This is the wettest spot on earth, so the boulders are very slippery. I had to calculate each step. Our landlord told us it was a 2-3 hour hike, so that's what I budgeted. Unfortunately, 2-3 hours was barely to the top. I hate getting into an adventure and having a deadline. I have this award on my wall back home from when I was seven at a YMCA camp and it is the Never Gives Up award. SO I have this problem getting half way and not being able to turn around until the mission is finished. This can lead to problems because I'm worrying about timelines and not about each and every step through wet boulders and full-on jungle.

So, my cool shades were destroyed when I went down into the waterfall. Luckily, I landed on my fat left cheek, but the video of the wipeout was wrecked. I don't expect anyone to watch all these videos, but 20 years from now I may want to remember.

So I climbed and climbed and ended up in this massive bowl. There were 5 waterfalls in different directions. I didn't know which one to choose. So I just let the terrain choose for me. At this point, the climb got steeper and I began to wonder how I was getting down, but I went on. I didn't get to a point where I was afraid, but to a point where I knew I would have to be slow and methodical. I ended up at this spot where fruit was overflowing the trees and these flowers had fallen off the tree and lined the riverbank. It was beautiful, but kind of looked like a burial site. I climbed on. Eventually I ended up at a 50 foot waterfall and had shower in it and woohooed. The walls in this cavern were smooth and there was no way up. I had wanted to end up at the top of the mountain, with one foot on each side, straddling the peak, but this would do for today.

I stumbled down the mountain, scraping my belly and shins. There were a few spots where I had to solve the way down like a jigsaw puzzle, but that's really fun when you have a mental and physical challenge in front of you. I made it down and was only about an hour late. I had rode my bicycle to the base of the mountain and had stashed in the woods. It was still there and my walmart special coasted me home. Actually, there was no coasting it was an uhill struggle.

Today, I was going back to this spot, but I had another deadline to meet and didn't want to deal with the stress of that. We're going to meet Craig and Parv from Krista's hometown and that should be fun, not stressful. So, I'm living my waterfall scramble adventure vicariously through writing.

The second adventure we forgot to write about was the 4x4 trail after Krista's SUP lesson. When we rented the jeep, the clerk told us about a road that goes up a mountain and with 4x4 you could go past where everyone else parks. Since then a couple other people told us about the road as well.

So we had some time, the baby was crashed out in the car seat, so we gave it a shot.

We drove up the mountain and there are many sites along this particular route, but we said we'd check them out later. We drove to the top of the road, saw everyone picnicing and kept driving by them. We drove through two rivers and kept going.

Basically, we were on the other side of the mountain that I scrambled up earlier. Again, this mountain is the wettest spot on earth, so the trail is basically alive and changes by the moment.

We chucked the jeep into 4x4 and crept along. It wasn't too bad in the beginning. We got to a fork and chose right, which was actually wrong. I don't have any 4x4 experience and we got to some big puddles. The kind from movies where you'd see the guy walk in slowly and then he'd fall in over his head. We crossed one and then got to a bigger one. We were both nervous and I got out to check it out. It tried to calculate a path, checked the tires, and decided, it wasn't going to happen. It took me about 97 points to turn around, but we did it.

We drove back and instead of heading home, we took the left, which was right. This road was less wet, but really rocky. The jeep was contorted up the trail like some Yogi master, but it was awesome. We past a few parked vehicles, but made it to the top of the road. There were a few spots, that I didn't think the vehicle could tackle, but it moved like a bulldozer. We've sinced looked at Jeep prices on-line, maybe when the truck goes down.

We made it to the top of the road and of course there was a trail heading up the rest of the way. At this point we were higher up than the helicopters doing their tours. I told Krista I would run up the trail for 90 seconds. It ended up being about 5 miuntes, well maybe 7 or 10, but I ended up straddling a peak. It wasn't the top peak, but it was a peak. I had rattled my two girls pretty good up the mountain, so I climbed down as quickly as I could.

It was getting late, we were hungry, but that was a crazy adventure. When you use vehicles or technology, they simply get you deeper and it gets much harder to get yourself out if you need to.

We've been listening to Jawaiian music the whole time here. So we cruised back down the bumpy road listening to the Hawaiian Reggae tunes this little island has to offer. We were both relieved to find ourselves at the grocery store picking up tasty biddles after another wild day.

a few extra details...

Since Melody seems to be taking an extended nap, I decided to write a few more details. So weird that the Bachelorette has already eliminated a contestant tonight and it is only 4:30 in the afternoon here (I guess the good part about that is I found out on facebook and now I don't have to watch the show!). So, Melody and I took in the Kapaa board walk again last night. You may remember from an earlier post that we had seen a monk seal, but I thought it was dead...well, turns out it was just sleeping!!! We saw another one last night and the area all around it was roped off with a sign. It said that the seal was there for rest before its trek to Ni'ihau to give birth and it needed undisturbed rest to be able to deal with the sharks...that was exciting!

I found my favourite spot on the island last week. Anini Beach. I had read that it was a good spot for kids, so when Jon went horseback riding, I decided to take Melody and check it out. When we got to the actual beach, it was a bit busier than I liked, so we kept driving down the coast. Eventually, we found a shady little spot, where the black volcanic rocks had made a lagoon. Shallow, warm water, no waves, perfect for a little baby just learning to run! It was absolute heaven, no one in sight, except for a guy who was spear fishing. We took Jon back on another day. That is when we saw the little dog that had chased a chicken right into the ocean. I have never seen a chicken swim before!

On Friday, we tagged along to record Jon's skydive. I will admit, this made me very nervous, but because the weather was so overcast, we spent a lot of time hanging out with the crew. Picture this: a red, dusty field of sand, right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Small landing strip, with a small plane that had teeth painted on the front. In the middle of the field was a little trailer and awning where everyone hung out: Dave the amped up owner, Ian the pilot, Crystal the parachute packer and Ed and Enzo, the divers. Because all of the jumps were backed up, there were also the clients: a young couple (her first jump, not his), an older man and his young wife (they had three kids and he had spent a stint in jail for medicare fraud, it was their second jump) and another couple that owned a kayak business out of Kauai. Needless to say, it was an entertaining few hours, this place could be the setting of a pretty great reality show. By the time Jon jumped, my nerves had disappeared because I had seen 6 successful jumps, and was on friendly terms with the staff....so when the opportunity came for me to take the plunge (a cancellation), I found myself in borrowed running shoes and a harness. I can't quite explain the decision making process (I think it took place over several hours in fact), I truly believed that I would return to my family safely, having accomplished something only a few people ever get to do. So, all suited up, Enzo, Ian and I headed out to the little plane. The experience was intense, and amazing, of course I purchased the dvd, so the memory won't ever fade. After the free fall is over and the chute opens it is like everything stands still, that part was amazing. Unfortunately, the rest of the way down we had to take a few turns and my motion sickness kicked in full swing. At least I didn't throw up on Enzo (he said customers do it all the time), I waited until we were safely on the ground. Unequivocally the most insane thing I will ever do. I think I will be very happy to keep both feet planted firmly on the ground for the rest of my life!

Luau to the Monster

I was really impressed with the Luau. There were probably 200-300 guests, but we talked to the owner a few times and they made it still feel intimate. The pork was the best. The tasteless poi paste, was, well tasteless paste, kind of like toothpaste without the mint. Our dinner company was cool. Two edgy tattooed californias drinking out of a bag with the diva child, and a newlywed Floridian couple on their honeymoon. I was happy when they were shocked we've been married for almost seven years. Not about being together so long, but that we look too young for that, lol.

The show at the Luau had dancing from Japanese, Chinese, Tahitian, Maori, and Polynesian cultures. The Maori part makes me want to go to New Zealand. We toured the estate and they had every type of plant, flower, and tree that the island has to offer. The grounds were highly manicured and beautiful. We were treated to a sunset photo shoot with the owner taking the shots.

At the end of the show, Krista carried the baby all slumpped in her arms to the car. She behaved so well.

The next day we got up early, packed the car with beach gear and my hot rod and drove back up Waimea Canyon. We got there early and it wasn't too busy yet. We drove by the Sky to Sea tourist operator with about 20 tourists and bicycles. They paid about $100 for the service. Krista dropped me at the top of the canyon and I duct taped a camera to my ride.

I cruised the 12 miles downhill, woohooing every corner. The road is in great shape and there was no traffic behind me. You can bike down the mounitain faster than a car. The video is not the best, but I'm glad I have it.

After the jaunt down the mountain, we went back to the secluded beach we went to a couple weeks earlier. We were more prepared, but it's just not a spot for babies, or inexperienced tourists. I had fun taking photos of Krista in big waves. They were big and knocked her suit off. There was no one in the beach near us for miles. I got slammed in the waves taking video and we both had sand in all our nooks and crannies.

We were back to a Wednesday, ultimate days. In the morning, I booked a horse back ride to a waterfall picnic and back. Krista went to the beach with Melody. I met two couples, one cool, one dorky. The dorky couple were two math teachers from Texas and they looked miserable. They whined about their hotel, their car, the towels....The other couple was cool. The whiney couple claimed to be very experienced with horses, but everyone knows that if someone has to claim to be good at something, they're usually not. Anyone who is really good at something usually says they're just alright. Anyone really good at something knows that there are more people even better than they are, so they don't claim to be the best. Even if you are the best at something, you don't stay the best, just ask Tiger, or Lance, Or Michael, or Wayne.

On with the horseys. Rhonda was my guide, a true cowgirl. She was a fourth generation Kauain, mixed with Portugese. My horse's name was Waicoco. He was a good horse and did his job. All 77 horses at the ranch were boys, so they didn't fight over the ladies. The last 15 horses came from Calgary and Rhonda wanted to go the Stampede there someday. Sha asked if Calgary was close to North Bay. Her island is only 100 miles across, so I said no, it's not close. I had to convert my kms to miles for her. She also laughed when I said Eh?

We only walked the horses which was fine because it was probably the nicest day we had had yet. We rode to a trail head, scrambled to a beautiful waterfall, swam and had lunch. The dorky couple complained about how cold the water was incessantly. The other couple looked at me and winked. After filming I jumped in for a dip. Refreshing cool spring fed water. Lunch was fine and I sat alone staring at the waterfall trying to take it in. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit in your pocket. We rode back and got some pictures with Melody and the horses. By the end of the trip, the dorky couple were so happy. they were compeltely trasnformed. They never get exercise so they didn't know what to do with the endorphins pumping through their systems. They actually sat in shit and were loving it.

Krista had found her favourite spot called Anini beach and had fun playing with the baby in a seculded yet safe spot.

Later that night, I went back to ultimate and there were different people from out of town there. A bunch of the same old locals returned and we had a great 7 v 7 game. It was close but we prevailed. That was fun to be in a real game again. After the game we chilled in the park with a pop and shot the breeze. Troy and Ken were mountain bikers, Angie ran marathons, Ben was the cool guy, Ian was a skydiving pilot, and Jeff was the quiet guy. Ian and I hit off the week before and he plays a role in a later adventure.

That night, I drove back to the apartment with the roof off the jeep, Jawaiian tunes on the radio, and loving the star show. That was a nice moment.

The next day, Krista had a stand up paddle (SUP) lesson booked. It was kind of weird because it wasn't a private lesson, but she was the only booked. I joked that she was on a date with a studly Hawaiian dude. Melody and I roamed the beach for awhile. I pulled out my rod and casted a dozen times, but there wasn't enough weight on the line to get it more than a dozen feet from shore. After they paddled down the river, they returned and asked that I drive down the beach and pick her up. I was really proud that Krista picked up the sport that quickly and really seemed to enjoy it.

I drove dwon the beach to where there were 20 people taking surfing lessons. All of a sudden I felt like an ididot for just renting a board and going to a big surf spot on a big surf day. I could defintely handle what these people were doing. Maybe, before the end of the trip we'll give it another shot.

After the beach, I went to my weekly pickup soccer game. We played 5 v 7 and I scored 12 goals. These guys weren't terrible, but every shot went in. I was invited to another game the next night at a different field.

I sweat here. I sweat like I've never sweat before. I'm wringing out my shirts after workouts and they pour like draft from a keg, not that I'm drinking much. I've only had a couple Coronas here and there.

The next morning was saturday. It was really grey, rainy and ominous. I had a skydiving jump booked for 1030. We got there on time, but the weather had stalled the earlier jumps. We didn't bring a cell phone, so the owner was calling ontario to tell me to come later. We sat around with some crazy characters telling stories in the red dirt. We watched a jump and it seemed like a well-oiled machine. Ian, my ultimate buddy was the pilot. I've always wanted to skydive, but just never got around to it. It was definitely mixed emotions. I figure there are people in the military, firefighters, policemen, race car drivers, lifelong skydivers....What I was doing was with trained professionals with a 100% success rate.

We got in a plane and rose to 10,000 feet. When we were above the clouds and before the door opened, I prayed to God. I am not overly religious, but I felt closer to the big guy than ever before.

I jumped tandem with a guide. This means I was strapped to a guy named Enzo, we jumped out of a plane, did a couple summer saults, free fell for 30 seconds and then he pulled the chute. We swung around the sky for about ten minutes. There was a rainbow every time we arked around the ocean. We landed on our feet, I watched the video, got a free t-shirt for waiting, and that was it. I wouldn't do it again, but that's done. We left there and I played soccer at an exotic church to the purple setting sun over the lush green mountainside. It was a fitting end to a glorious day.


The next day was hunting the monster. Today, is coming to an end. I have about 5 bites of dreyer's chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream to eat and I'm hitting the hay.

We don't have too much planned for the next week, but I'm sure there's more adventure in us that needs to get out before the 28 hour journey home.

one week to go...

Well, we are down to 7 days, it doesn't feel like a lot of time, but it is the length of an average holiday. We really have taken in every single thing this island has to offer (well, not every single thing, but you get the idea). In fact, I was shopping at a store in Hanalei, and when she saw Melody, the store owner told me about their childrens store in Poipu. Naturally, I had to track it down :) So, Melody and I dropped Jon off to his deep sea adventure and spent the afternoon shopping all the little towns on the west side. When we came across the store that had been recommended, it took me 30 seconds to realize I had already been there! Speaking of shopping, one of my best finds were a silver pair of baby Havaianas. Actually, Melody pulled them off the shelf herself, honestly! You can tell by the picture how proud she is :)

This week we attended a Luau. There are many to take in all over the island, but we chose the Smith Family Luau (an interesting name for a Luau, but they explained that their great grandfather had come from England and married a Hawaiian woman). The Luau really is family run, from the chefs to the dancers. After we were ushered in and presented with leis, we posed for a photo that they would sell back to us later. We took a trolley ride of their gardens, lots of different plants, a lagoon and many, many peacocks. At 6:00, we all gathered around for the Imu ceremony (this is the unearthing of the pig that has been cooking underground all day). Jon went in for a closer view, and I hung out near the back with Melody. I noticed a woman, fixing herself drinks (complete with ice) from her cooler and kind of laughed to myself. Little did I know that in a matter of minutes this woman would be my dinner companion! After the Imu ceremony, we moved into the Hale to eat!! Delicious food, kalua pig, teriyaki beef, mahi mahi, roasted chicken, rice pudding, coconut jello...It was buffet style and we were seated at long tables. Our dinner companions were, the cooler lady, her husband and their 2 year old daughter October Skye on one side, and Sadie and Thomas from Florida on the other, they were on their honeymoon. It really was an interesting meal. October was going through a "diva" phase (according to her Mom), and although Melody was up past her bed time, she was a trooper! After dinner, we all moved over to the theatre and were entertained by Tahitian, Polynesian, Chinese, Japanese, Maori and Hawaiian dancing. We had to carry our sleeping baby to the car when it was all over!

This week, after being tossed about too many times in the waves to try surfing, I decided to try my hand at stand up paddling. I really enjoyed it. I had no problem standing up, and even mastered turning around. After a little practice on the Hanalei river, I was able to paddle out into the ocean and right through Hanalei Bay. I didn't even fall off! I would really like to try it again at home. I think it would be fun to stand up paddle around the lake.

There are many more things that happened last week, but those will have to wait for a later post. Thanks for reading!