Here we are, 3 weeks in, and 1 to go. I had a rough day today. I spent six hours on a boat yesterday puking my brains out. I don't expect any sympathy because these adventures are self-imposed. Yesterday was the best, worst day of my life. Most people take gravol before going on a boat in the ocean, but I chose to scarf 3 tacos from the Great establishment of Taco Bell. I think Taco Bell is food from the Gods, but they are not as satisfying when they come up the second time. I am glad though that our big-ass tuna love regurgitated soft tacos with hot sauce, at least the 180 pounder we hauled in did.
I booked a six hour ocean fishing trip with Deep Sea Fishing Kauai. I was by myself, so I booked a shared trip. There was only one other guest and we had two crew. The tourist's name was Jesse and he was from Oklahoma. When he introduced himself, I kept hearing Jizzy. "I'm Jizzy". Then I'd repeat, "Jizzy?" "No, Jiizzzyyy. He thought that by saying it slower, I'd get it, but I didn't. We repeated this one too many times.
We had Andy, our main fishing helper dude. He's a crazy surfer following the waves around the world. He's off to Samoa to guide surfing there in a couple weeks. Then he is coming back to Hawaii for the winter when the big waves slam the coast. Hawaii waves in the summer, compared to the winter, are like Jack Pine skiing in North Bay, to Sunshine Village in Banff.
Then we had our captain, Captain J. He was a born and raised Kauaian about 5'4 who has been boating out of Port Allen since he could remember, about 25 years.
These guys were very serious and intense. They were basically setting the tone. We the tourists are there to pull in fish for them. They eat if we catch fish. A common theme with the tourist operators around here are to claim they are not making money on this particular trip. There were only two of us on the trip when there should be 4-6, but they can make money if they catch fish.
Captain J explained how things would go down and asked what we wanted to do. They told us they caught a 310 pound tuna the day before. This was the biggest tuna caught in the last 25 years. The record is 325. I wanted to break the record. Jizzy wanted to catch some small fish to feed his family. The guides explained that they could slice a steak off a marlin, but not off a tuna. The market does not take sliced tuna, but they take sliced marlin, for whatever reason, I don't know.
The plan was to try and find some small fish and then search for the monster. Andy was all nuts over finding the monster too.
We set out and the water was rough. They said you might get wet. I was soaked in nine seconds. My seat was on the windy side and I got slammed by waves in the back of the ehad for the first 3 hours straight. I took off my crappy cotton tee and knew I was in for a burn without sunscreen, but oh well. Soon I was covered in granular salt. That my sound stupid, I know I'm in salt water, but I was covered in chunks of salt, thicker than granules of sand.
I knew right away I would toss my tacos, it was just a matter of time. I chatted with the guys for a while and then it just got to be too much. I broke my sunglasses in the washroom right before stepping on the boat. From the squinting, slamming waves in my head, rocking boat, I was starting to fade. But I wanted a monster in that boat. I decided to go below, which wasn't really below, it was just under the captain's seat. There was a wonderful aroma of shit, puke, fish guts, and diesel gas, but there was a table to help prop my head up. The guide slathered his face in sunscreen and didn't rub it in, so he looked like the walking dead. No one talked for a couple hours like this.
At this point I asked him how many people get sick on the boat. He said every day. There was some comfort in that. They should make shirts "I barfed on Captina J's boat and survived" or something way more clever , but you get the idea. A few minutes later, my next question was, "where do I puke?" He said overboard, but go to the down wind side.
We were still cruising against the waves and wind and thought for sure I would go overboard, but I needed to see what my insides looked like.
So I crawled to the edge, hung onto the gunwale and heaved'er really good. The tacos tasted the same on the way up, but I didn't enjoy it as much. I was actually able to video some of my barfing and it's in extremely high quality HD. I did feel better after this and being so close to the side of the boat with half my body hanging over the edge, made me more comfortable on the boat too.
Meanwhile, they call this suffering, fishing. Basically we had seven lines in the water and I know they never went to the small fishing spot, they went straight for the monster, which was ok by me. There was a spot in the ocean where a pile of birds were flying around and there were about six other boats rocking out. Watching thos boats in the ocean was insane. I can't beleive they don't flip, but they don't. This wasn't a bad day out there, it's just typical Hawaiian water in the summer, rollers from every direction.
WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZ goes my line. "THERE, THERE, THERE GET IT!!!" "ALRIGHT LET HIM TAKE IT!" "WAIT, WAIT , WAIT, NOW GET ON HIM!!!!"
Andy had explained earlier how it would look when we landed one. You basically let the fish take the line for round 1 and tire him out. Then we start pulling him in, in rounds 2-10. He had also explained that one man was no match for an Ahi Tuna. This was a team effort. The other thing I was thinking of, was that this fish is money and survival to these guys and there was no way we were not going to pull this monster in.
I reeled for about 10 minutes until my forearm was so tight, it wouldn't reel no mo. So I got Jizzy on the line. He was in heaven reeling like a pro. "watch the drag you two!!! It's game over if you hit that!" There were so many little details. Jizzy reeled until he couldn't. I took over again. We hauled him towards the boat an inch at a time. If he gave a foot, we took it. Andy got on the line with both hands pulling and I reeled in. Later, Jizzy got back on.
The reels were in holders on the side of the boat. Captain J asked if I wanted to move to the big chair and reel him in from there. He said the best spot was from the side of the boat, but they could harness me in the big chair if I wanted. I said "No, let's haul him in from here." "Alright Jon!", he said happily.
Andy and Captain J were funny because they didn't listen to each other. Andy says to me "Alright we're putting you in the big chair!" "Oh no" I thought. By the way, these two crew were yelling and frantic and pumped on adrenaline and Jizzy was in a parallel universe somewhere.
" jON KEEP THE TIP UP. mAN, KEEP it UP!! (Again we're talking about the fishing rod here dirty people)
So I've got the rod in my left hand, the reel in my right, I'm sitting in this chair and being harnessed in. They hook the rod up to me and we're in for the long haul. Unfortunately, I have no strength in my left arm. I may have been ok, if the hands were reversed, but they weren't so I was screwed. I was squeezing the rod between my legs and starting to blabber about some stupid surgery I had. They're still yelling and freaking and somehow the message got through. Through this whole process you have to keep tension on the line, if you let it go slack, the fish can snap the line and your face goes on their website as the idiot who let the monster get away and made everyone's families starve.
We got the rod back to the holder on the side of the boat. We reeled another minute or so, until we saw the monster circling under us and the lead was the rod tip. Andy grabbed the line and workedc him to the top of the boat. I was helping to keep the line clear. Captain J grabbed a gaff and both him and Andy hooked the fish and slid him onto the boat.
There was a crazy uproar for four men. Jizzy yelled "That's the biggest fish I've ever seen!!!!!AAARRRGHHHH!!!!"
You may not want to read these next lines.
The fish needed to be clubbed about ten times in the head with an aluminum bat and then it's throat was slit. There was a silent prayer said at this point. This fish gave its life to provide for many families. There was blood everywhere and they just tossed buckets of water and it all drained away. Then I realized how much blood had been spilled in that boat before me.
I got a couple shots of me with the fish on the boat. Jizzy went down to get his camera. He was never the same after that. Like I said before the aroma was so wonderful down there that only Freddy Kreuger could love it, or maybe Jason Voorhees too.
Jesse had such a shot of adrenaline pump through his body and after it ran its course he was done. He barfed his brains out and I caught that on video too.
Unfortuantely for me, I don't get adrenaline that easy anymore after all the shoulder dislocations.
They asked what we wanted to do. We said lets troll home. They said ok. Then they didn't listen to us and kept looking for a second monster. We had no luck, they came down and said, "Sorry guys the fish are here and we had to try. We can troll on the way home or we can pull everything up and get you back." We opted to get to the port.
I looked at Andy and said "If we didn't have a monster already, I would suffer all night until we did." We pulled up the lines and went home.
As we cruised back, I sat in the big chair. I couldn't think of anything that didn't make me sick. Everything I thought of turned into something sickly. I thought of my bed and it became a waterbed. Usually, I can use visualiztion to get myself out of painful or stressful situations, nothing was working. Then I visualized that I was gravol, not that I was taking gravol, but that I was gravol. I was the stuff that people took to make themselves feel better. That worked. I also prayed to God, thought of friends and family and kind of cried a bit, like World Cup is over kind of tears.
We landed in port and Captain J's family was there to share in the catch. I got a couple more shots with the monster and said farewell to Jesse and his family. It was a bonding experience like no other and then you just say cya later.
Since we came home early, I had an hour to klll. I worked as one of the crew, helping to load the fish in a truck and clean the boat. We chilled with a beer shooting the breeze. These dudes were way more chilled at the end of the trip then the start.
Krista picked me up with Melody. Oh yeah, the two waved as I left the port earlier that day. It was so cute to see my little munchkin waving feverishly from the dock. She really has grown up here.
On the drive home, there was a beautiful rainbow over a beautiful church. I stopped, took a shot and felt like God was winking at me after I asked for help through my ordeal with the monster. This is not like me, but we are allowed to evolve.
We went and rented a movie and the movie store floor was rocking. I was standing at the cash bobbing back and forth. I ate a few bites of salad and that was all I could handle.
So, today was a bad hangover day, one of the worst, and I hadn't even drank. I was starving so we went to go for lunch. We got in the jeep and the smell of tacos brought it all back. Krista said it wasn't tacos, but my sweat-soaked t-shirt from soccer two days ago. Whatever the smell was, by the time we sat down in the Indian restaturant, I was going to toss tacos again. We got up and left. I feel better now, after a day of rest and am ready to rock the last week here, and I will always have the story of catching the monster.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
JC's Take on Things
I have found it difficult to blog because there is too much fun to have as opposed to writing about the fun we've already had, but after 2 runs, too much sun and a rashed up belly from surfing, I'm ready for a day of writing, painting, music and perpetually playing sportcentres.
Today, my thoughts are with Mark and Charlotte who are delivering a baby as we speak. Yesterday, I finished a Stephen King book called Duma Key. It took me 2 years to read it. I bought it because the title had Duma in it. Duma was my dog that died. At the same time I finished the book here in Hawaii, Mark and Charlotte had to have their dog Grizzly put down back home. Pure sadness. I don't know that this is appropriate blog material, but the coincidence is too much. The book was about art manifesting into reality.
Now we anxiously await the arrival of beautiful Violet.
Tonight, we are off to a Luau. Lomi Lomi, poi, hula dancing, fire breathing, should be cool. But now I should go back to the beginning.
7 years ago, we made lists. Lists of lists. One of the lists was top spots to visit. Hawaii, Spain, Australia, and Disney Land were on both of our lists. We're usually busy with schedules all the time, but after having my shoulder rebuilt at the end of March all schedules were put on hold. We decided to go somewhere. We threw out a bunch of ideas from driving to and along the East Coast, to South Africa for the World Cup. Since I was at home with one arm, I researched. From the research, I discovered that Hawaii was an affordable option and Africa was not. I conintued to look into a Hawaiian Adventure and I pictured renting a cottage on the ocean and just chilling for the month. Krista did her research and found that Kauai was the Garden Island and would offer the most true Hawaiian Experience. We decided to commit. We knew that committing would be difficult and that we would end up missing things with friends and family back home, but life never takes a break. Aaron and Nicole's wedding, Sean and Amanda coming home, Mark and Char's baby, ultimate games, coaching soccer, our pets, our friends and fam....
But, we needed to do something as a family, our new family. The three of us have not really had a chance to hang out together yet. Krista and I got to travel the west coast for a month, years ago, and it really helped to shape our relationship. Now we wanted the same chance to spend time together as our new family. We knew Melody would love it here, but we were anxious for the difficulty in getting here. We also hoped everyone would understand what we were doing. I hope everyone gets to follow their dreams, because the effort is worth it. You get out of life what you put in.
So, that brings us to making arrangements, booking flights, apartment, vehicle, insurance... I was able to do it all from Krista's little pink notebook. The trip changed the more we looked into it. Instead of sitting on a beach all day, we decided to stay in a jungle with an ocean and moutain view and rent a jeep. We would do more exploring and activities instead of beach bumming. Luckily for us Sirius radio stock has done well.
I am still amazed that from my couch, I could hire someone to pick me up at my front door at 2am and drive me to the airport. Mike gave one word answers to my questions and soon reaized he just wanted to drive, which was fine with me so I could sleep. Airports are stressful and I was annoyed with all our luggage, but I knew I would be grateful with the stuff once we were there. I was also happy with the decision to not tour all the Hawaiian islands and just land In Oahu and fly to Kauai. (There are very few direct flights to Kauai).
There is a 6 hour time difference, which has been awesome. I get up early and go to bed early, which is new for me. We'll see if I can bring that home with me. So we went to bed at 6pm that first night in Oahu.
We only had til 430 the next day on Oahu, so we hired a driver to tour us to as many places as we could see in one day. We were supposed to have a small limo, but when we went down to the lobby, there was a massive stretch jobby. The lobby was full of military dudes and they were giving me the evil eye, like "Why do I have to go kill people and you get to cruise in that thing?" I also got a really short hair cut and I think the corporal may have thought that one of his soldiers was going AWOL. (The stewardess on the plane asked me if I was military.)
Scott Dang was our driver a super nice Korean who migrated to the island 17 years earlier. He said the small limo had a/c issues so we were driving around the second biggest limo on the island.
Oahu, is superbusy and touristy. Oh yeah, and beautiful. It's busy beacause people want to be there. Melody was a star. Japanese tourists taking pictures of her and she makes friends easily. People treat me much differently with my baby by my side.
I loved the Temple, the macadamian nuts, the beaches, the sun, and just cruising with surfing videos playing in the limo.
Then we flew in a little plane to Kauai.
I rented a jeep and the clerk upgraded us to the four door which has been a trip saver. We have had great luck, free upgrades all over, the plane, the limo, the jeep, the kayak. I found people are a mirror of yourself. Send out a positive vibe and you get slammed back in the face with positive radiation as if from the sun itself. No joke.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed that I have a degree in Geography because I get lost all the time. We found our apartment after only 13 wrong turns.
The apartment is perfect for us. Great location, great price, free amenities, fruit overflowing and falling from the trees and best of all free pets.(chickens, lizards and spiders). By the way, all dogs on this island are sedated. They are all so chilled it's weird. I'm used to our crazy pack of wild dogs back home and there are none like that here.
Krista's written about most of this stuff, so I'll try not to repeat too much. Basically, our plan was to tour the enitre island in the first 2 days and then narrow our focus to the spots that we want to see and do the most. The first tour to the north east was awesome and I've never felt like such a tourist. I want to video and photo everything. The next day was great as well. We made it to a remote beach, by chance. We were at the hottest part of the island, on the hottest day, at the hottest time. The beach sand really burned my feet, like one of those hot coal runs. I felt crazy vulnerable. My little baby is so pure white, I was simply in fear. We ate an uncomfortable lunch and ran from there. My biggest fear of coming to this island was a little baby sunburn. We learned from that experience and have had more fun at the beach since then. That hot-ass beach was freaking amazing though and we are going back this week.
We tried a different beach called Lydgate, which has boulders lined up to create a safe swimming spot for babies. Here, I took photos. I am really beginning to love taking photos. I thought I would enjoy videos more, but I'm finding, I'm more able to express myself through a camera more than with a pencil, a paintbrush, words, or video. It's also impossible to take a bad shot of Melody. Later that day, I bought a sweet ride and rod from walmart. I had to buy a licence for fishing and for my bicycle. I'm looking forward to riding and sticking a rod in the rivers and creeks around here.
The next day we attempted to summit our first waterfall with the baby in my backpack. It was intense. The bamboo grove was amazing and we really pushed. We hiked and climbed to where we found a german family. I scambled on my own from there for another 15 minutes and the climb just got more difficult. I committed to coming back on my own.
The next waterfall we saw was much easier to get to, we drove. There was a beautiful rainbow at the base of the waterfall and I had fun trying all the different features on my camera to try and capture the best shot. There are people making money in all sorts of ways here. At every tourist stop there is omeone selling something. At Wailua Falls there was an old hippy weaving baskets from the palm trees. People love being here so much, they make anything out of nothing and try to make a buck. You can climb a palm tree, knock down some coconuts, and crack em open for tourists to drink. You have to show the stomach rash to prove you were in the tree.
On our western trip, through the rockies, we have this memory of cruising through the rockies eating fresh roadside cherries, here we will always have the memory of cruising along the ocean eating fresh pineapple.
This brings us to the 4th of July, my first in America. I was amazed at how little patriotism there is. I have discovered that Canadians are much more patriotic than Americans. Americans don'thave the best rep in the world, but every American I have ever met has been awesome. They are down to earth, sincere and pretty much the opposite of the painted Hollywood stereotype.
We then visited Waimea Canyon. Whenever I'm around heights, the edge always calls me. I want to go over the cliff and get right into the geography, hopefully with a rope and harness. But this was justa sight-seeing trip. There is an outfitter here who will take you up the canyon and you can ride your bike down. It's a 12 mile downhill. Next time we go the west side of the island, I'm going to do my own tour down. I'm super stoked to try that.
It was this point that I wanted to do a couple things that we couldn't all do together. I'm not a golfer, but I read about a beautiful, easy and cheap course, so I gave it a shot. $9 for 9 holes. My shoulder held up well, I was happy about that. I ended up hooking up with a retired teacher and his younger replacement. We talked about the teaching scene on the island and a leave of absence from the NNDSB is a real possibilty in the future. Don't worry fam, we're not talking about this septmeber. Oh yeah, I almost killed my Hawaiian buddy Roland. Beacause of my shoulder, that has to be the reason because I used to be an awesome golfer, I developed a wicked slice. If I didn't yell f-o-u-r-, I would have nailed him. He actually had to duck, dodge, dive, and dodge my golf ball like a wrench.
The golf course was near a town called Koloa, which was where the Ultimate game was going to happen. I found an on-line ultimate group here in Kauai. They meet every wednesday at 7. I met some super cool people. There isn't a league here and I think most people would have played bare foot, but it rained, so most wore shoes or cleats. It started with 4 v 4, but people kept showing up. Not just people but families. Lots of people showed up in the rain to play and cheer. There was awesome spirit. Truly. It was fun at first, then it got chaotic with so many people in and out. Then they said lets play to seven. I connected with an older soccer player guy named Jim and we scored six in a row. My last grab was a flying one hander where I had to rotate matrix style through the air, land on my back, slide fifteen feet on my neck and roll into a summer sault, all the while hearing the cheers from the crowd. Through the whole slide, I just kept thinking how beautiful it was to play on real grass without crazy ankle snapping trenches like our sh**&ty North Bay field. I wanted to be invited back next week, so I figured I should let kids score some points. My competitive nature is never far from the surface. this week, I'm going to bring the 2pointer to Hawaii. I will be ready to return from the DL to join my team when I get home.
The next day, I was so happy to get a game of soccer under my belt. I had seen this beautiful beach front field and was dying to get a game on it. I stopped at a sports store and Manny told me about the game. I'm amazed they play indoor soccer here. The summer is the off season here, so it's all pick up, which is good for me. I met a bunch of people and within 5 minutes, I was invitedto tournament in Oahu. It's an old-timer tourney in august, so I can't make it, but it's nice to be asked. I'm old to play with college guys, but I'm a hot shot in the old timer league now. Life is perspective, I could be sad about being old with young guys or happy about being young with old guys. I'll take the latter. I love sports. I would have lots of friends already if we lived here, just because I play games.
We went to he beach again and this time I snorkelled. There were freaking fish everywhere. The people in the water had no clue. I grabbed my under water camera and took as much video as I could. That was awesome!
The whole spider deal was crazy. He was the isze of my hand. The little f*&ker shot me and wiggled his teeth. Die mofo die!!
We read about the Queen Baths. There have been a few things that have been difficult to do with the baby. We hike down this path and end up at an old lava flow, like 5 million year old lava flow, then there is a scary sign about 28 people drowning in the area because surprise waves will sneak up, knock you into the sea and KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! The sign left enough room to put lots more death markings. Krista turned around with the baby. I took a quick jaunt to the bath, took a couple of shots and turned back. There were locals hiking down a secret steep trail and were diving off rocks with crazy crashing waves. These locals reminded of the hills or the OC. The crazy waves only happen in winter, but with the baby in a known dangerous spot, you just have to do the right thing and be safe.
The next day we went back to Hanalei and I rented a kayak while Krista shopped. She's in shopping heaven:)I bought a little telescopic rod from walmart. There were two Hawaiian dudes, pulling up nets. They seemed anxious that I was fishing, but oh well as they say, there's many fish in the sea. I took lots of photos and tried fishing. The only thing I caught was a fmaily of three in a kayak. I saw a massive sea turtle and caught his big head on video. There were lots of people doing the stand up board paddling. It looks cool. I paddled the river to the ocean and just enjoyed being on the water. I was not impressed with my crummy lure selection that came in my $18 rod reel and tackle combo, but I was fishing. I saw a bunch of fish, but that was around one of the hawaiian dudes nets. Bubba burgers are awesome!
We've been eating really well. I've been trying as much as I can. Last night I grilled us Maco Shark. We've been eating sushi, mangoes, papaya, fish, eggplant...I'm looking forward to the all you can eat luau tonight. I've typed this whole blog through lunch and am ready for a snack, but one last post from yesterday.
We rented a surf board. We parked our stuff in front of a group of locals who were having aparty. We provided their entertainment. We should have charged them. The good news is my rebuilt shoulder rocks. I would have dealt with at least a dozen dislocations on this trip so far, but it is tight, sometimes too tight, but I can deal with that. Anyway, I kept trying to launch from the wrong place. I got slammed lots, but didn't quit. Later, I launched form another location and made it past the rollers and hung out with the other srufers, bobbing away. It's cool being on the other side of the rollers as you're about 2 stories from the top of the wave to the bottom,, but you just bob. I'd have to say that my board wasn't big enough and I'm talking about my Surf Board for you dirty-minded individuals. The lady in the store told me the bigger the board the more stable it is. Now I know what she meant. I didn't even really try to stand up. As soon as I pushed down the board flopped, so I hung on. I rode back to shore and was wonderfully slammed by a massive roller (massive in my mind anyway). It was fun to be under water, cool and collected, with the chaos of the wave and my board sloshing over head. A crazy wipeout, with no pain. Surfing is not skateboarding or snowboarding. I'm sure you could slam in a reef or get your own board in the head, but it's no road or snow rash. Well, actually I have a rash from lying on a sandy board, but oh well. I could see really getting into the sport with more time, a lesson, better equipment and a year of shoulder rehab under my belt.
Now, I'm going to check on baby Violet news, have a snack, write a tune called "The Termites Party", and maybe paint a scene. We have just under 2 weeks left and we have some cool stuff planned form here. I'm sure we'll keep y'all posted. Aloha and Mahalo!
PS Loved the World Cup. All of it. 330am games, missed calls, fouls, goals, drama, stress...I didn't predict anything right, but that's reality tv at its best.
Today, my thoughts are with Mark and Charlotte who are delivering a baby as we speak. Yesterday, I finished a Stephen King book called Duma Key. It took me 2 years to read it. I bought it because the title had Duma in it. Duma was my dog that died. At the same time I finished the book here in Hawaii, Mark and Charlotte had to have their dog Grizzly put down back home. Pure sadness. I don't know that this is appropriate blog material, but the coincidence is too much. The book was about art manifesting into reality.
Now we anxiously await the arrival of beautiful Violet.
Tonight, we are off to a Luau. Lomi Lomi, poi, hula dancing, fire breathing, should be cool. But now I should go back to the beginning.
7 years ago, we made lists. Lists of lists. One of the lists was top spots to visit. Hawaii, Spain, Australia, and Disney Land were on both of our lists. We're usually busy with schedules all the time, but after having my shoulder rebuilt at the end of March all schedules were put on hold. We decided to go somewhere. We threw out a bunch of ideas from driving to and along the East Coast, to South Africa for the World Cup. Since I was at home with one arm, I researched. From the research, I discovered that Hawaii was an affordable option and Africa was not. I conintued to look into a Hawaiian Adventure and I pictured renting a cottage on the ocean and just chilling for the month. Krista did her research and found that Kauai was the Garden Island and would offer the most true Hawaiian Experience. We decided to commit. We knew that committing would be difficult and that we would end up missing things with friends and family back home, but life never takes a break. Aaron and Nicole's wedding, Sean and Amanda coming home, Mark and Char's baby, ultimate games, coaching soccer, our pets, our friends and fam....
But, we needed to do something as a family, our new family. The three of us have not really had a chance to hang out together yet. Krista and I got to travel the west coast for a month, years ago, and it really helped to shape our relationship. Now we wanted the same chance to spend time together as our new family. We knew Melody would love it here, but we were anxious for the difficulty in getting here. We also hoped everyone would understand what we were doing. I hope everyone gets to follow their dreams, because the effort is worth it. You get out of life what you put in.
So, that brings us to making arrangements, booking flights, apartment, vehicle, insurance... I was able to do it all from Krista's little pink notebook. The trip changed the more we looked into it. Instead of sitting on a beach all day, we decided to stay in a jungle with an ocean and moutain view and rent a jeep. We would do more exploring and activities instead of beach bumming. Luckily for us Sirius radio stock has done well.
I am still amazed that from my couch, I could hire someone to pick me up at my front door at 2am and drive me to the airport. Mike gave one word answers to my questions and soon reaized he just wanted to drive, which was fine with me so I could sleep. Airports are stressful and I was annoyed with all our luggage, but I knew I would be grateful with the stuff once we were there. I was also happy with the decision to not tour all the Hawaiian islands and just land In Oahu and fly to Kauai. (There are very few direct flights to Kauai).
There is a 6 hour time difference, which has been awesome. I get up early and go to bed early, which is new for me. We'll see if I can bring that home with me. So we went to bed at 6pm that first night in Oahu.
We only had til 430 the next day on Oahu, so we hired a driver to tour us to as many places as we could see in one day. We were supposed to have a small limo, but when we went down to the lobby, there was a massive stretch jobby. The lobby was full of military dudes and they were giving me the evil eye, like "Why do I have to go kill people and you get to cruise in that thing?" I also got a really short hair cut and I think the corporal may have thought that one of his soldiers was going AWOL. (The stewardess on the plane asked me if I was military.)
Scott Dang was our driver a super nice Korean who migrated to the island 17 years earlier. He said the small limo had a/c issues so we were driving around the second biggest limo on the island.
Oahu, is superbusy and touristy. Oh yeah, and beautiful. It's busy beacause people want to be there. Melody was a star. Japanese tourists taking pictures of her and she makes friends easily. People treat me much differently with my baby by my side.
I loved the Temple, the macadamian nuts, the beaches, the sun, and just cruising with surfing videos playing in the limo.
Then we flew in a little plane to Kauai.
I rented a jeep and the clerk upgraded us to the four door which has been a trip saver. We have had great luck, free upgrades all over, the plane, the limo, the jeep, the kayak. I found people are a mirror of yourself. Send out a positive vibe and you get slammed back in the face with positive radiation as if from the sun itself. No joke.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed that I have a degree in Geography because I get lost all the time. We found our apartment after only 13 wrong turns.
The apartment is perfect for us. Great location, great price, free amenities, fruit overflowing and falling from the trees and best of all free pets.(chickens, lizards and spiders). By the way, all dogs on this island are sedated. They are all so chilled it's weird. I'm used to our crazy pack of wild dogs back home and there are none like that here.
Krista's written about most of this stuff, so I'll try not to repeat too much. Basically, our plan was to tour the enitre island in the first 2 days and then narrow our focus to the spots that we want to see and do the most. The first tour to the north east was awesome and I've never felt like such a tourist. I want to video and photo everything. The next day was great as well. We made it to a remote beach, by chance. We were at the hottest part of the island, on the hottest day, at the hottest time. The beach sand really burned my feet, like one of those hot coal runs. I felt crazy vulnerable. My little baby is so pure white, I was simply in fear. We ate an uncomfortable lunch and ran from there. My biggest fear of coming to this island was a little baby sunburn. We learned from that experience and have had more fun at the beach since then. That hot-ass beach was freaking amazing though and we are going back this week.
We tried a different beach called Lydgate, which has boulders lined up to create a safe swimming spot for babies. Here, I took photos. I am really beginning to love taking photos. I thought I would enjoy videos more, but I'm finding, I'm more able to express myself through a camera more than with a pencil, a paintbrush, words, or video. It's also impossible to take a bad shot of Melody. Later that day, I bought a sweet ride and rod from walmart. I had to buy a licence for fishing and for my bicycle. I'm looking forward to riding and sticking a rod in the rivers and creeks around here.
The next day we attempted to summit our first waterfall with the baby in my backpack. It was intense. The bamboo grove was amazing and we really pushed. We hiked and climbed to where we found a german family. I scambled on my own from there for another 15 minutes and the climb just got more difficult. I committed to coming back on my own.
The next waterfall we saw was much easier to get to, we drove. There was a beautiful rainbow at the base of the waterfall and I had fun trying all the different features on my camera to try and capture the best shot. There are people making money in all sorts of ways here. At every tourist stop there is omeone selling something. At Wailua Falls there was an old hippy weaving baskets from the palm trees. People love being here so much, they make anything out of nothing and try to make a buck. You can climb a palm tree, knock down some coconuts, and crack em open for tourists to drink. You have to show the stomach rash to prove you were in the tree.
On our western trip, through the rockies, we have this memory of cruising through the rockies eating fresh roadside cherries, here we will always have the memory of cruising along the ocean eating fresh pineapple.
This brings us to the 4th of July, my first in America. I was amazed at how little patriotism there is. I have discovered that Canadians are much more patriotic than Americans. Americans don'thave the best rep in the world, but every American I have ever met has been awesome. They are down to earth, sincere and pretty much the opposite of the painted Hollywood stereotype.
We then visited Waimea Canyon. Whenever I'm around heights, the edge always calls me. I want to go over the cliff and get right into the geography, hopefully with a rope and harness. But this was justa sight-seeing trip. There is an outfitter here who will take you up the canyon and you can ride your bike down. It's a 12 mile downhill. Next time we go the west side of the island, I'm going to do my own tour down. I'm super stoked to try that.
It was this point that I wanted to do a couple things that we couldn't all do together. I'm not a golfer, but I read about a beautiful, easy and cheap course, so I gave it a shot. $9 for 9 holes. My shoulder held up well, I was happy about that. I ended up hooking up with a retired teacher and his younger replacement. We talked about the teaching scene on the island and a leave of absence from the NNDSB is a real possibilty in the future. Don't worry fam, we're not talking about this septmeber. Oh yeah, I almost killed my Hawaiian buddy Roland. Beacause of my shoulder, that has to be the reason because I used to be an awesome golfer, I developed a wicked slice. If I didn't yell f-o-u-r-, I would have nailed him. He actually had to duck, dodge, dive, and dodge my golf ball like a wrench.
The golf course was near a town called Koloa, which was where the Ultimate game was going to happen. I found an on-line ultimate group here in Kauai. They meet every wednesday at 7. I met some super cool people. There isn't a league here and I think most people would have played bare foot, but it rained, so most wore shoes or cleats. It started with 4 v 4, but people kept showing up. Not just people but families. Lots of people showed up in the rain to play and cheer. There was awesome spirit. Truly. It was fun at first, then it got chaotic with so many people in and out. Then they said lets play to seven. I connected with an older soccer player guy named Jim and we scored six in a row. My last grab was a flying one hander where I had to rotate matrix style through the air, land on my back, slide fifteen feet on my neck and roll into a summer sault, all the while hearing the cheers from the crowd. Through the whole slide, I just kept thinking how beautiful it was to play on real grass without crazy ankle snapping trenches like our sh**&ty North Bay field. I wanted to be invited back next week, so I figured I should let kids score some points. My competitive nature is never far from the surface. this week, I'm going to bring the 2pointer to Hawaii. I will be ready to return from the DL to join my team when I get home.
The next day, I was so happy to get a game of soccer under my belt. I had seen this beautiful beach front field and was dying to get a game on it. I stopped at a sports store and Manny told me about the game. I'm amazed they play indoor soccer here. The summer is the off season here, so it's all pick up, which is good for me. I met a bunch of people and within 5 minutes, I was invitedto tournament in Oahu. It's an old-timer tourney in august, so I can't make it, but it's nice to be asked. I'm old to play with college guys, but I'm a hot shot in the old timer league now. Life is perspective, I could be sad about being old with young guys or happy about being young with old guys. I'll take the latter. I love sports. I would have lots of friends already if we lived here, just because I play games.
We went to he beach again and this time I snorkelled. There were freaking fish everywhere. The people in the water had no clue. I grabbed my under water camera and took as much video as I could. That was awesome!
The whole spider deal was crazy. He was the isze of my hand. The little f*&ker shot me and wiggled his teeth. Die mofo die!!
We read about the Queen Baths. There have been a few things that have been difficult to do with the baby. We hike down this path and end up at an old lava flow, like 5 million year old lava flow, then there is a scary sign about 28 people drowning in the area because surprise waves will sneak up, knock you into the sea and KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! The sign left enough room to put lots more death markings. Krista turned around with the baby. I took a quick jaunt to the bath, took a couple of shots and turned back. There were locals hiking down a secret steep trail and were diving off rocks with crazy crashing waves. These locals reminded of the hills or the OC. The crazy waves only happen in winter, but with the baby in a known dangerous spot, you just have to do the right thing and be safe.
The next day we went back to Hanalei and I rented a kayak while Krista shopped. She's in shopping heaven:)I bought a little telescopic rod from walmart. There were two Hawaiian dudes, pulling up nets. They seemed anxious that I was fishing, but oh well as they say, there's many fish in the sea. I took lots of photos and tried fishing. The only thing I caught was a fmaily of three in a kayak. I saw a massive sea turtle and caught his big head on video. There were lots of people doing the stand up board paddling. It looks cool. I paddled the river to the ocean and just enjoyed being on the water. I was not impressed with my crummy lure selection that came in my $18 rod reel and tackle combo, but I was fishing. I saw a bunch of fish, but that was around one of the hawaiian dudes nets. Bubba burgers are awesome!
We've been eating really well. I've been trying as much as I can. Last night I grilled us Maco Shark. We've been eating sushi, mangoes, papaya, fish, eggplant...I'm looking forward to the all you can eat luau tonight. I've typed this whole blog through lunch and am ready for a snack, but one last post from yesterday.
We rented a surf board. We parked our stuff in front of a group of locals who were having aparty. We provided their entertainment. We should have charged them. The good news is my rebuilt shoulder rocks. I would have dealt with at least a dozen dislocations on this trip so far, but it is tight, sometimes too tight, but I can deal with that. Anyway, I kept trying to launch from the wrong place. I got slammed lots, but didn't quit. Later, I launched form another location and made it past the rollers and hung out with the other srufers, bobbing away. It's cool being on the other side of the rollers as you're about 2 stories from the top of the wave to the bottom,, but you just bob. I'd have to say that my board wasn't big enough and I'm talking about my Surf Board for you dirty-minded individuals. The lady in the store told me the bigger the board the more stable it is. Now I know what she meant. I didn't even really try to stand up. As soon as I pushed down the board flopped, so I hung on. I rode back to shore and was wonderfully slammed by a massive roller (massive in my mind anyway). It was fun to be under water, cool and collected, with the chaos of the wave and my board sloshing over head. A crazy wipeout, with no pain. Surfing is not skateboarding or snowboarding. I'm sure you could slam in a reef or get your own board in the head, but it's no road or snow rash. Well, actually I have a rash from lying on a sandy board, but oh well. I could see really getting into the sport with more time, a lesson, better equipment and a year of shoulder rehab under my belt.
Now, I'm going to check on baby Violet news, have a snack, write a tune called "The Termites Party", and maybe paint a scene. We have just under 2 weeks left and we have some cool stuff planned form here. I'm sure we'll keep y'all posted. Aloha and Mahalo!
PS Loved the World Cup. All of it. 330am games, missed calls, fouls, goals, drama, stress...I didn't predict anything right, but that's reality tv at its best.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday July 10, 2010
After a delicious lunch at (Kauai's own) Bubba's Burgers, Jon and I parted ways for the afternoon. He rented a kayak to paddle and fish (I'll get him to blog about that!) and Melody and I were left to our own devices to shop in Hanalei. My favourite part (strictly in terms of shopping) about Hawaii so far has been all of the Roxy gear, especially their teenie wahine line, which I have only ever found bits and pieces of at home. Anyways, it has been fun and Melody will be one well dressed little girl! After we were shopped out, we shared a shaved ice and hit the beach. I've discovered we have a little girl who loves to get dirty. At the beach she covers herself in sand and mud and loves it! Sand free (relatively) and back in the Jeep, we headed back to Hanalei to catch a glimpse of Daddy in the kayak...another fantastic day. Pics to come!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday July 9, 2010
Wow! Time is flying...
it was a busy week, I'll see if I can remember the highlights...
We visited Waimea Canyon (Mark Twain called it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific). It was a long drive up a very winding road, but well worth the drive. Unfortunately, pictures don't quite do the canyon justice, but it was pretty amazing. While on the west side of the island we took our time touring neighbourhoods and taking in the sights. We found a few local beach spots and some absolutely incredible houses! On the way home we stopped in at the Kauai coffee plantation for a caffeine fix.
This week Jon and I spent some time on our own (Jon played soccer, ultimate and golf and I hit up the beach with some books!), and then together, we visited the baby beach at Lydgate Park with Melody. Jon went snorkelling and saw some amazing fish.
The other night while brushing my teeth I discovered that there was a fourth occupant in our little suite. After a minor freak out, some photos and videograpy, we shut the bathroom door and hoped he would find a way out by the morning. The next day, Jon went into the bathroom and insists this massive spider shot a web at him, he was still there! After attempts to relocate the spider peacefully, he met his match at the end of a broom handle. I still can't go into the bathroom without scanning all corners first!
Today took us once again to the North Shore where we visited the Queens Bath (a beautiful scenic hike past a few waterfalls and ending ultimately at tidepools), which we dubbed the Laguna Beach of Hawaii based on the people who were hanging out there. We found an excellent lunch spot around Hanalei (a shaded area overlooking the beach)and this evening we strolled along Kapaa's board walk along the ocean. Unfortunately, a monk seal had washed up on the shore. So, although it was neat to have seen one, they are pretty amazing, very sad circumstances.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Honua Lani Gardens
This is our home away from home while we are staying on Kauai, and I don't think we could have found a nicer spot. I haven't quite figured out all of the goings on here, but Melody and I did have a chance to explore today while Jon was on a hike. We are living in the ground floor of the owners house (she is a former Canadian who vacationed here and never went home), there is also a larger cottage (I've never seen the occupants), and several other buildings which I assume are the residences of the gardeners and caretakers. We are about 5km from the ocean and the town of Kapaa. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea...
Fireworks
Our usual after dinner routine has been getting ready for bed (seriously!), but tonight we ventured out to the Concert in the Sky, in honour of July the fourth. Melody was a bit small for the bouncy castles, so we bounced her outside of one. She had a ball pushing around her stroller and walking on the grass. The fireworks display was wonderful, and the band that provided the music was really fun. It was a great evening, even though we had to sprint back to the Jeep because of a surprise down pour. Our latest night so far, not home until 10pm!!
Sunday July 4, 2010
Today brought another visit to Hanalei (one of my favourite areas so far). On the way we stopped at a Kauai craft fair and a farmers market where we purchased a cold coconut, a pineapple already sliced (divine) and some Kauai spices for our steak dinner tonight. It is the fourth of July so we are off to a fireworks show.
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