This morning started way too early for me.  2007 seemed to have more to offer than time to give it, and while many people are starting off the new year with hangovers and blurry memory, I’m lucky enough to be merely low on sleep from days of saying, "why not" to every opportunity that comes my way.

It started Saturday night after Italian food. We (Adam and Bob) watched a movie (Pollack, which is excellent), and went to bed. It was a recovery night that still managed to keep me up until midnight. I awoke Sunday morning early to join a group that rides from Boca Hawaii. I wanted to have the group leader, Eduardo, teach me some Portuguese for my trip to Brazil in four weeks from now. I now know how to ask for little kisses, beer, and to compliment women. I’m not sure how that gets me to my hotel, or finds me food, but it’s a start.

Continue reading “The Sun Lies?”

The days have been blurring together since I got back to town from Uncle Carl’s on the North Shore. On my way home, I was planning to take a bus, then hitch a ride the 8 miles from Honolulu to Hawaii Kai, but I was lucky enough to see my uncle”s good friend Brian who let me borrow a spare car for a few days.

I rolled into Hawaii Kai Wednesday night, and started scheduling and scheming. The options presented to me were suddenly beyond what I had imagined in my auto-less vision of life in Hawaii Kai. The essentials had to be taken care of first: my bike needed tools and a bike rack, which meant swinging by the new Triathlon shop in town, Momentum Multisport, where my friendly mechanic Tom now works. Next, I had to see if I could find a good deal on a surf style button-up shirt. They’re nearly impossible to find in Seattle, and hard to miss in Hawaii, so I was headed to the mall for after Christmas sales. The mall was next to the beach, so I could do an open water swim, and Ala Moana Beach Park was close to the freeway so I could head get back without too much traffic.  It all went smoothly, except I had a little bruise to my ego at the beach. I did one lap of the beach, a length each way, which is close to 2km, on the way back another swimmer caught and passed me. I wasn’t going hard when he caught me, but I tried like hell to keep up, and in about 300 meters he completely wore me out.  I hate the off-season, it makes me feel so out of shape..

I got back from my adventures just in time to see Adam heading out the door with a golf bag. It was dark out, which made me question the legality of his intentions, but I hopped in the car without question.  It turns out the driving range has lights, and costs next to nothing to hit your fill of balls.  My fill was pretty small considering I swing a golf club like a chimpanzee, and the frustration of being terrible has a snowballing effect.  I started off hitting a ball 300 yards and finished struggling to hit the ball past the 100.  It’s hard to have patience for a sport you not only don’t play, but don’t intend to pick up.  Here’s a short list of things I’d rather do: kite boarding, rock climbing, bass fishing, or a good game of marbles. Actually, as far as recreation goes I would take knitting over golf. The Havrilak’s on the other hand, hold golf as a sacred path to spiritual enlightenment.  They have been glued to the golf network for “Tiger Week”, and have insisted that Tiger Woods is not just the best golfer in history (I’m not contesting that), but that he is the best athlete in American History. Bob related him to what you would get if Michael Phelps, Mark Spits,and Ian Thorpe’s talents were added together. “What Tiger has done to the sport has changed it forever. They haven’t changed swimming events because of Phelps, but they’ve built new golf courses because of Tiger.” — True — But Tiger only wins 75% of his races. Michael Phelps probably sets World Records in 75% of his races.  “Tiger spends more than twice the time training as any swimmer, or runner.” — True — Non-athletic events don’t require as much recovery time. It’s the age old question: Does a skill game qualify as a sport?  I say yes. It’s a competition, and I tend to agree with ESPN that if it’s a competition, then it’s a sport. I just think it’s a boring sport, and there’s no way to compare Tiger to the purists, Phelps, Prefontaine, or Armstrong.

[Photo: I haven’t had a chance to download the pictures from the last few days, so I’m throwing in some random shots I took in the first part of my trip.  This is Trish picking out a Pineapple. Apparently you are supposed to pull a leaf out of the top, and if it comes out easily, then the fruit is ripe.]

Wednesday morning I slept in until 10, which is unheard of for me. It felt great until I finally got up and realized the mosquitos I was too tired to deal with the night before had left welts on both my cheeks.  I opted not to shave over the welts, and instead went for my first long run since before Treasure Island (Long run is relative in this instance, as you’ll see by the 14km lo Haleiwa that took me nearly 75 minutes. Now that is some slow running.  The highlights of the run: wild moma pig running after her two little baby pigglets, and sneaking past the guards on the set of Lost.

I got back from my run and there was a war going on.  Boomer and Katie (my cousins) had invited over their friends and six kids were running around with Softair guns shooting each other.  I was pretty close to joining in, but decided instead to join my uncle for dirt bike riding through the valleys above his house.  I really wish I’d remembered my Garmin for the motorcycle ride because I have no idea where we went.

The ride was really fun, and the fact that we were rained on nearly the entire journey just made it better.  To the left is my Uncle Carl on his dirt bike.  His bike is a lot more fun than the ’91 KTM 125cc bike that I normally ride. That bike is a great bike, but the extra 75cc’s that Carl has made for a much easier time in the trails.  I only know this because my bike was being very tempermental, so Carl offered to trade.  He cleaned the carborator out by blasting blue smoke in my face up a big hill, but as soon as he decided the carb was clean and  the bike would work for me, the spark plug cap fell off and the bike quit.  We fixed that and headed to a trail called Daisy’s, which doesn’t make much sense because there is no way daisy’s would grow in all that mud so low in the valley.

Carl and I agreed that both of us would prefer if I didn’t dump his nice bike (I’m not that good), so I took back the 125cc as we headed down the trail-head (left).

I was having a blast, rounding tree roots, throwing mud, one hand feathering the clutch (my hand is actually sore from this), one hand on the throttle, and both feet helping with balance (again, I’m not so good).  Then the spark plug gave out.  We switched the plug and Carl convinced me to take his bike, figuring it was easier for him to be on the bike when it stops than to have to walk back every time it happens. We cruised out without any more problems, and after a slight   deliberation decided not to push our luck with more trails. That was fine with me, as I was pretty content with the fun I’d already had.

Back at Carl’s house I was saved from a 2.5 hour bus ride back to Hawaii Kai by Brian and James, Carl’s good friends, who offered to lend me a car for a few days.  That’s right, this dude is cruisin’ with wheels now! I’m unstoppable. In fact, Thursday turned into a pretty good day because of it.  More on that later. For now, It’s bedtime back in Adam and Bob’s place.

Sunday I Coach Mike left for Switzerland to visit his ex-wife and three kids. He was running around frantically trying to find Pegasus Barbie. With Mike gone, I’m now staying with the Havrilak’s.  Adam is a friend of mine that I got to know toward the end of my time in Honolulu and who I got along with immediately because of his work ethic, outgoing social style, and willingness to try out just about any crazy idea.  Bob is Adam’s father, who moved here recently from Minnesota and is among the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of mooching off of during my travels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob is thinking of buying a boat to moor at his waterfront condo in Hawaii Kai (just east of Honolulu), so we got to take it out for a test ride. It was my first time in a boat in Hawaii, which is surprising since I spend so much time boating in Seattle.

 

 

 

Adam and I went to Hanama Bay for a swim, which was the first time I got to test out the underwater abilities of my new camera.  The water was a bit murky, but the camera worked great.

We were nearly swept out to sea by the current, but luckily we know how to swim good.

Oh yeah, and still no sunburn, thanks to the Hawaiian Island Creations 2x Sunblock!

 

The food has been great too. Check out the salad I made to go with our second night of Sushi. It was great! Bob took us to the store and we stockpiled the refrigerator. We have fresh produce, and tons of good food for the next few weeks. I’m stoked.

Next post I’ll talk about how Adam and I made fools of ourselves on Christmas Eve, and how David Hasselhoff fits into that story. Unfortunately (or possibly for the better) I forgot my camera for that excursion.

I’m no longer sick. My infection is gone. My ankle is back to normal.  Everything is looking up.  Saturday I went with Coach Mike and Marion Summerer to take more photos for a coaching ad Mike is going to do.  The first round turned out nothing worth seeing.  The pictures I saw made Mike look grumpy, and Marion look mean. I just look uninterested. I’m sort of a smiley guy, and when they tell me to look serious or mean it just doesn’t work. I couldn’t intimidate a two year old.  Regardless of whether Mike got the picture he wanted, it was a cool sunset to watch. Not as colorful as they can be, but the full moon was rising at the same time the sun was setting, which made for a cool scene. We had the view of the moon over Hanama Bay to one side and the view of Diamond Head with the sunset to the other.

 

 

 

After the photoshoot we hit up the Kona Brewing Company for dinner. It was pizza and beer, which doesn’t go well with my plan to eat only non-processed foods. Both were delicious.

This is a Pirate ship we saw while Mike and Kurt pounded down more beers at the Havrilak residence. With the moon continuing to rise, I decided to join up with my friend Trish and some of her possie from MIT to do a night hike up Makapu, which is on the southwest tip of Oahu.  There’s a lighthouse and the trail to it is paved, so it’s an easy hike to do without much light.

 

 

The view from the top was spectacular. The moon was so bright you could see for miles and everything in the ocean just glowed.  This picture is of Rabbit Island, which some people think looks like a rabbit. It’s no bugs bunny.

I had an interesting discussion on the way down about how Hawaii is being overdeveloped. It seems there is very little green space being saved on the island, as most of what is left is old agricultural land, and will eventually be rezoned for more homes.  It makes me glad I can enjoy it while it’s here.

I Spent the last couple days hanging out with my friends Matt and Trish, who I share my bad sense of humor, fashion sense (lack of), and heightened involvement with our inner child (immaturity). It has been great fun.

We went to the North Shore yesterday.  After a 40 minute run, and a two hour lay on the beach with intermittent swimming (still not sunburned thanks to HIC 2x sun block), we headed to Haleiwa for a late lunch.

 

We ate at Cholo’s, where they slaughter the chickens right on the floor of the restaurant.

(My new Olympus 790SW takes 1.5 seconds to power on and take a picture, which has let me capture a few of these "Kodak moments")

 

 

 

Next up, shaved ice at Matsumoto’s Grocery (this guy built his fortune on selling ice with syrup to  millions of future diabetics).

I got sugar free banana and strawbery with ice cream and azuzi beans (black beans cooked in sugar water).  Matt got the classic Rainbow, and trish got something weird.

 

 

"Ben you look ridiculous with that curly hair"                    -4yo Sada Pokorny

This is the view from the Pu’u O Mahuka Heiau above Waimea Bay where we went swimming.

These are my cousins, Katie and Boomer.

Matt’s sitting on the right getting ready to be ambushed in a airsoft gun fight.

We had four of these Ahi steaks. You just can’t buy this much good fish on the mainland. I love it.

 

I finished this post days ago, but didn’t have internet at all, so I’ll probably post more new stuff tonight.  It’s been a great weekend, so check back for David Hasselhof,boat rides, night hikes, and more shooting.