So, we've made real progress on the bathroom. The tub/shower area still REALLY needs to be re-grouted and the lower cabinets need to be painted, and ultimately I will be getting new towels and bathmat/stuff. But it's way different than it was a week ago! I'll post a pic soon, but I'm lazy right now.
Otherwise, I pimped the patio. It needs more done, but it looks a billion times better already. We're barbecuing on the 9th, so if I know you and you want to come by, come on over!
We also painted over the blue wall. I was sad to see it go, but for selling this house eventually, it was necessary. I think some of my personal funkiness can stay, but some of it is REALLY FUNKY, and I'll probably have to tone that down.
I have not yet even opened the tote bag where my school stuff is. I need to soon. I promised the students who needed to revise their papers that we could work on them over the summer. I'll do a couple a day all next week, and then start meeting with the kids.
I finished Blindness by Jose Saramago, which was good, and for as absolutely horrifyingly grotesque as it was in the middle, it ended on an optimistic note. I recommend it. Now I'm back to trashy reading with the newest Augusten Burroughs...
I desperately need a haircut, but I've been lazy and spending all my money on the house. I'm serious, I wake up almost every morning with a big blond white-fro. Plus, in the back it flips up like Florence Henderson's. This morning I looked like Christopher Walken -- it was bushy, but also kind of flattened on top. Oh my GOD, do I need to call Monique for some hair love...
My ballet teacher has been sick or injured or something (she NEVER shares personal information, but she was moving stiffly and has had a substitute for a couple days). Anyway, her substitute is a young lady who is getting her MA in choreography/dance. She was a student at the studio until last year, so we have been fellow students for about three years. Anyway, the young lady, who we'll call Josie, is a very good dancer herself, and I know that she is probably going to be a good teacher someday if that's what she wants to do, but, well... she's irritating me! First, it's easier to take direction from a woman my mother's age who worked as a professional dancer. Second, it's hard to shift from peer to instructor/student. And third -- she doesn't 100% seem to understand that we are fat arthritic old ladies who can't do the same stuff that the girls majoring in dance can do. And finally, she's having some trouble making that transition, too. For example, if Miss Bobbi gave an instruction, but then we tried to do it and all really did horribly and looked like shit, she might patiently demonstrate again, give us corrections, and often she'll give us some analogy to keep in mind or something. If it's really, really bad again, then she might smile and say "okay, well, we'll work on that again tomorrow." But she wouldn't laugh at us! And neither did Josie -- but she was laughing. In all likelihood, it was nervous laughter about having not demonstrated well or something, but I am not really cool with hearing laughing when I know I am not doing a step well. Unless it's me. I laugh at myself regularly.
There were other things, too, but it's not worth making you read it...
Ummm, my sweetie is sick, and I feel really bad for him, because there's not a heck of a lot I can do. So send him immune system vibes!
Mockula out.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Invisible car, house stuff, back
Well, I'm like Wonder Woman -- I have an invisible vehicle! Yes, really! I was driving down Folsom Blvd, which for non-Sactowners, is a 4 lane street (2 westbound, 2 east). Almost all the stoplights do not have protected lefts -- in other words, if you're turning left, you have to wait for the people going straight to go, then you turn. So I'm going west and I come to a red light. There's a guy heading east with his left turn signal on. The light changes, and he turns right in front of me, almost as though he didn't even see me. Well, I was still contemplating this when, less than a block later, a giant SUV coming towards me veered into my lane because it was, frankly, too wide for its own lane. But when he saw me approaching, did he scoot over into his own lane? No, and my theory is that he really didn't see me -- because I was invisible! Cool, huh?
Well, mom and I have been working on the house, and right now the big project is the bathroom. I took down everything, threw out the cabinets, bought new cabinets, bought new towel racks (there were SIX towel racks before; you'd have thought I was running a home for wayward girls), and primed the whole place. I've put one coat of white on the trim and ceiling and will do another today. Then it's "Heritage Hills" on the walls, a sort of hot cocoa color. I hope it's not too dark, but it looks really classy and neutral to me, and I think with the trim and lights and stuff, it'll be nice.
I'm kin dof wondering what the criteria are for being able to say that you've "thrown your back out." See, I'm only 30 and I've never had a serious back injury, but I do have times when simply turning my head or attempting to balance my noggin upright sends me into nausea-inducing pain. It's not that bad today (it's a bit shy of that), but for close to two weeks, it's been tense, tight, sore... and in Hawaii it went as "out" as it ever goes. As in, it took me several minutes to stand up, and even longer to lower myself into a chair or onto the bed. Because OUCH. It hasn't entirely gone away, and I'm ready for it to. Also, I'm trying not to take too many painkillers because we're trying to get knocked up (I'm also trying not to talk too much about that on the blog, but whatever). Yoga makes it temporarily better, then infinitely worse, so I didn't go today.
Okay, I'm done. Take care.
CM
Well, mom and I have been working on the house, and right now the big project is the bathroom. I took down everything, threw out the cabinets, bought new cabinets, bought new towel racks (there were SIX towel racks before; you'd have thought I was running a home for wayward girls), and primed the whole place. I've put one coat of white on the trim and ceiling and will do another today. Then it's "Heritage Hills" on the walls, a sort of hot cocoa color. I hope it's not too dark, but it looks really classy and neutral to me, and I think with the trim and lights and stuff, it'll be nice.
I'm kin dof wondering what the criteria are for being able to say that you've "thrown your back out." See, I'm only 30 and I've never had a serious back injury, but I do have times when simply turning my head or attempting to balance my noggin upright sends me into nausea-inducing pain. It's not that bad today (it's a bit shy of that), but for close to two weeks, it's been tense, tight, sore... and in Hawaii it went as "out" as it ever goes. As in, it took me several minutes to stand up, and even longer to lower myself into a chair or onto the bed. Because OUCH. It hasn't entirely gone away, and I'm ready for it to. Also, I'm trying not to take too many painkillers because we're trying to get knocked up (I'm also trying not to talk too much about that on the blog, but whatever). Yoga makes it temporarily better, then infinitely worse, so I didn't go today.
Okay, I'm done. Take care.
CM
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Day 9 Volcanoes & Hilo
Today {Note -- I'm still just writing down what I put in my notebook} we got up and went to Hula Bean (where I got some cute stuff for Mom and Boompah yesterday) and had a damn good cup of coffee and a scone. Then we hit the road for Volcanoes National Park. It's a long drive, but it was worth it. First, we just checked out the visitor's center, but then we went to Volcano House and in the back of that we could see sulfurous steam rising from the Kiluea caldera.
----WAIT-----
I forgot that we went to the farmer's market and they had papayas at 7 for a dollar and avocados the size of softballs, and $2 pineapples and "apple bananas" and flowers and jewellery and baskets and bags and a lady warbling "America the Beautiful." Sweetie bought a fishhook necklace and we talked to a guy from the Polynesian Cultural Center who makes them (but not the ones at the market).
------OKAY--------
Then we drove Crater Rim Road. We checked out the southwest rift, which is exactly like those nightmares of the earth opening up and swallowing you. Then we drove around to a place where you could walk out adn peer right over the side. There was steam coming out of everywhere, and the smell of sulfur starts to get in your mouth and lungs. We went pretty far to get different views of the caldera, which was basically hardened lava about 450 feet down. There were deep steaming crevices everywhere and people had left gifts for Pele like fruit, flowers, incense and vodka. I thought a lot about my friend Grace {Note - She grew up in Hawaii and took her life a few years ago. She felt very connected to her heritage and had Hawai'an tribal tattoos, as well as one of Pele on her back.} After a while I was having trouble breathing (and my feet hurt -- I'm usually not such a whiner, but they really hurt), so we went back to the car, ate candy, and went to one more stop. The Thurston Lava Tube, which is only about 2 miles from the dry, smoking crater, was in a rainforst. Yes, really. And it looks like something out of Indiana Jones. The birds were howling and screaming, and after a shady descent, there was a huge, tube-like cave, dark and dripping wet. Pretty cool.
We were hungry, so we went to Hilo, which was closer. I had heard Hilo was nice, but from what I saw I'm not convinced. It looked really run-down, for one thing. Hardly anything was open, there were huge stretches of what looked like Del Paso Heights, and the downtown, which has some cute old buildings and could have been charming, was practically a ghost town. We ate lunch in the only place we found -- a sports bar. It was one of those meals that wasn't actively bad and we were full afterwards. We did find a bookshop with gifty stuff and spent a while there, but then we blew out of Hilo. It was a long drive back.
Once back, it was almost death march time again! This was even worse in many ways, because Sweetie was determined that we would, if we walked long enough, find that one charming little place with fabulous food. Alas, no. We had some adequate Chinese food. Then we got a shaved ice and ice cream respectively and went to spy on the luau.
Unfortunately, it was over, so all we say was an endless array of fat, tacky tourists in matchy-matchy aloha-wear. Many of them had dressed their unfortunate fat children in matchy two-piece outfits with bare midriffs, so that their plump little bellies were hanging out. I know it's awful to say, because I'm chubby and Sweetie used to be fat, so we know it's a struggle, but the absolute parade of it was just off-putting. It was kind of a fitting end to Kailua-Kona, with its panhandlers, dirty or unavailable restrooms, crap-shacks and shit-peddlers, Hard Rocks and Bubba Gumps, and mediocrity. I didn't hate it -- I mean, I was still in Hawaii with my wonderful husband on vacation, but at dinner tonight we both agreed that everywhere we've been on California's coast (Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Point Reyes, S.F., Berkeley) has better food and is less tacky than this place. Tomorrow we have until about 10:15, then we're on our way home. I'm ready.
_____________________
Okay, since I didn't write anything else after that, I'll just tell you that we had another nice breakfast at Hula Bean, stopped by the farmer's market again, went to Hilo Hatties, then the grocery store for a sandwich, and then the airport. We had an uneventful flight home.
I had a couple random observations that I'll relate later.
Take care,
CM
----WAIT-----
I forgot that we went to the farmer's market and they had papayas at 7 for a dollar and avocados the size of softballs, and $2 pineapples and "apple bananas" and flowers and jewellery and baskets and bags and a lady warbling "America the Beautiful." Sweetie bought a fishhook necklace and we talked to a guy from the Polynesian Cultural Center who makes them (but not the ones at the market).
------OKAY--------
Then we drove Crater Rim Road. We checked out the southwest rift, which is exactly like those nightmares of the earth opening up and swallowing you. Then we drove around to a place where you could walk out adn peer right over the side. There was steam coming out of everywhere, and the smell of sulfur starts to get in your mouth and lungs. We went pretty far to get different views of the caldera, which was basically hardened lava about 450 feet down. There were deep steaming crevices everywhere and people had left gifts for Pele like fruit, flowers, incense and vodka. I thought a lot about my friend Grace {Note - She grew up in Hawaii and took her life a few years ago. She felt very connected to her heritage and had Hawai'an tribal tattoos, as well as one of Pele on her back.} After a while I was having trouble breathing (and my feet hurt -- I'm usually not such a whiner, but they really hurt), so we went back to the car, ate candy, and went to one more stop. The Thurston Lava Tube, which is only about 2 miles from the dry, smoking crater, was in a rainforst. Yes, really. And it looks like something out of Indiana Jones. The birds were howling and screaming, and after a shady descent, there was a huge, tube-like cave, dark and dripping wet. Pretty cool.
We were hungry, so we went to Hilo, which was closer. I had heard Hilo was nice, but from what I saw I'm not convinced. It looked really run-down, for one thing. Hardly anything was open, there were huge stretches of what looked like Del Paso Heights, and the downtown, which has some cute old buildings and could have been charming, was practically a ghost town. We ate lunch in the only place we found -- a sports bar. It was one of those meals that wasn't actively bad and we were full afterwards. We did find a bookshop with gifty stuff and spent a while there, but then we blew out of Hilo. It was a long drive back.
Once back, it was almost death march time again! This was even worse in many ways, because Sweetie was determined that we would, if we walked long enough, find that one charming little place with fabulous food. Alas, no. We had some adequate Chinese food. Then we got a shaved ice and ice cream respectively and went to spy on the luau.
Unfortunately, it was over, so all we say was an endless array of fat, tacky tourists in matchy-matchy aloha-wear. Many of them had dressed their unfortunate fat children in matchy two-piece outfits with bare midriffs, so that their plump little bellies were hanging out. I know it's awful to say, because I'm chubby and Sweetie used to be fat, so we know it's a struggle, but the absolute parade of it was just off-putting. It was kind of a fitting end to Kailua-Kona, with its panhandlers, dirty or unavailable restrooms, crap-shacks and shit-peddlers, Hard Rocks and Bubba Gumps, and mediocrity. I didn't hate it -- I mean, I was still in Hawaii with my wonderful husband on vacation, but at dinner tonight we both agreed that everywhere we've been on California's coast (Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Point Reyes, S.F., Berkeley) has better food and is less tacky than this place. Tomorrow we have until about 10:15, then we're on our way home. I'm ready.
_____________________
Okay, since I didn't write anything else after that, I'll just tell you that we had another nice breakfast at Hula Bean, stopped by the farmer's market again, went to Hilo Hatties, then the grocery store for a sandwich, and then the airport. We had an uneventful flight home.
I had a couple random observations that I'll relate later.
Take care,
CM
Day 8 Kailua-Kona
Okay, okay, I know I've been home 4 days already. I kind of crashed, then threw myself into home improvement projects again. So I've neglected the blogging. But after day 7, we drove about 30 miles south of the resort to Kailua-Kona. Here's what I wrote in my little notebook, pretty much word for word.
Well, I haven't been able to blog, so I'll make some notes for when we get home. Okay, so yesterday, Wednesday, we took advantage of the Gold Lounge breakfast, then headed to Kailua-Kona. It wasn't all that long a drive, but we drove down Ali'i Drive to do some sightseeing and got caught in traffic. We came back to where the King Kamehameha is, but we couldn't check in without our voucher, which we'd left in the car. So we walked around and peeked in the shops. We bought $20 worth of candy, partly because hey, who doesn't love candy, but also because they were the only place around with an available bathroom. After some pretty significant walking around, we found a mediocre Thai restaurant. Lunch was... food. Then we checked in. Sigh. It was kind of a disappointment after the Fairmont. And I was hoping for 70's kitsch, which it definitely has in spades, but it's kind of not kitschy enough to satisfy my Brady Bunch longing. Like, it got kind of an 80's southwestern pastel update. It still has shag carpet and a bamboo couch, but the end table lamps are both highly 80's, as is the abstract bedspread. Also (and we didn't know this at this point in the story, but I'll just get all my complaining about the hotel out at once), it may be the noisiest place I've ever stayed. And yes, that includes the place in Portland that was upstairs from the bar. There was a noise that went on frequently but intermittently all night. Our first guess was that it was a jackhammer, but it turned out that it was the elevators. There was also a running-water-in-pipes sound that was so loud I went out in the hall to investigate. Okay, back to Wednesday.
We decided to drive up a little highway to a coffee shop the guidebook said was good, but after a long drive, it was closed! The place next door looked like a cafe, too (there were booths out front), but it was just a tiny shop that sold coffee beans and macadamia nuts. We bought some coffee and headed the other direction. Incidentally, we passed FOUR cemeteries on a short stretch of road. Our guess was that there aren't many places you can dig and bury bodies, because so much of the island is lava rock.
Anyway, we passed several very small towns, usually just a cluster of 4 or 5 buildings, all but 1 or 2 closed. Interestingly, like Carmel, there's a huge proportion of galleries to, I don't know, grocery stores and gas stations. Another interesting thing was that many of the buildings were completely decrepit -- seriously falling-down rusted-roof, peeling traces of six colors of paint and yellow newspaper in the broken windows, yet several of these places had the front door open and seemed to have an inventory. We saw a guy pull up and walk into one of these places and simultaneously exclaimed in surprise when we saw it was an operating business.
Anyway, we ended our trip at Bong Brothers, a kind of health food shop, where Sweetie bought a shirt and we got cold drinks. We stopped at the hotel briefly, then went downtown. Shaved ice, shopping (I got a super-cute dress), and soom the dinnertime death march began. Was Sabi open? No. Could we locate Aki? No. That ramen house we saw in another area several blocks away? No. We walked and walked and walked, and I could feel the cuts in my feet opening and closing like painful little mouths, sticking to my sandals and filling with stray sand and dirt. I really can't overemphasize how hot it was or how much my feet hurt. Finally, we stopped for some mediocre pizza served by a hostile woman. And that was Wednesday.
Well, I haven't been able to blog, so I'll make some notes for when we get home. Okay, so yesterday, Wednesday, we took advantage of the Gold Lounge breakfast, then headed to Kailua-Kona. It wasn't all that long a drive, but we drove down Ali'i Drive to do some sightseeing and got caught in traffic. We came back to where the King Kamehameha is, but we couldn't check in without our voucher, which we'd left in the car. So we walked around and peeked in the shops. We bought $20 worth of candy, partly because hey, who doesn't love candy, but also because they were the only place around with an available bathroom. After some pretty significant walking around, we found a mediocre Thai restaurant. Lunch was... food. Then we checked in. Sigh. It was kind of a disappointment after the Fairmont. And I was hoping for 70's kitsch, which it definitely has in spades, but it's kind of not kitschy enough to satisfy my Brady Bunch longing. Like, it got kind of an 80's southwestern pastel update. It still has shag carpet and a bamboo couch, but the end table lamps are both highly 80's, as is the abstract bedspread. Also (and we didn't know this at this point in the story, but I'll just get all my complaining about the hotel out at once), it may be the noisiest place I've ever stayed. And yes, that includes the place in Portland that was upstairs from the bar. There was a noise that went on frequently but intermittently all night. Our first guess was that it was a jackhammer, but it turned out that it was the elevators. There was also a running-water-in-pipes sound that was so loud I went out in the hall to investigate. Okay, back to Wednesday.
We decided to drive up a little highway to a coffee shop the guidebook said was good, but after a long drive, it was closed! The place next door looked like a cafe, too (there were booths out front), but it was just a tiny shop that sold coffee beans and macadamia nuts. We bought some coffee and headed the other direction. Incidentally, we passed FOUR cemeteries on a short stretch of road. Our guess was that there aren't many places you can dig and bury bodies, because so much of the island is lava rock.
Anyway, we passed several very small towns, usually just a cluster of 4 or 5 buildings, all but 1 or 2 closed. Interestingly, like Carmel, there's a huge proportion of galleries to, I don't know, grocery stores and gas stations. Another interesting thing was that many of the buildings were completely decrepit -- seriously falling-down rusted-roof, peeling traces of six colors of paint and yellow newspaper in the broken windows, yet several of these places had the front door open and seemed to have an inventory. We saw a guy pull up and walk into one of these places and simultaneously exclaimed in surprise when we saw it was an operating business.
Anyway, we ended our trip at Bong Brothers, a kind of health food shop, where Sweetie bought a shirt and we got cold drinks. We stopped at the hotel briefly, then went downtown. Shaved ice, shopping (I got a super-cute dress), and soom the dinnertime death march began. Was Sabi open? No. Could we locate Aki? No. That ramen house we saw in another area several blocks away? No. We walked and walked and walked, and I could feel the cuts in my feet opening and closing like painful little mouths, sticking to my sandals and filling with stray sand and dirt. I really can't overemphasize how hot it was or how much my feet hurt. Finally, we stopped for some mediocre pizza served by a hostile woman. And that was Wednesday.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Poi and surfing -- Check!
Today started off a little rough. We had a lovely breakfast, then I started putting on my walking shoes and sweetie started putting on his swim trunks. There was a distinct moment of "What are you doing?" "Getting ready for the petroglyphs, what are you doing?" "Getting ready to go snorkelling..." So we went snorkelling this morning, but it wasn't really working out for me, and not 'cause I was crabby or anything, I really wasn't. It was just that the water was super-rough and cloudy, and my mask kept leaking water, and it was running in my eyes and getting in my nose and stuff. My left eye started burning, so I tried to swim with it closed, but it turns out that that really screws with your depth perception, so I just gave it up. I could have gotten another mask, but I was enjoying just chilling in the sun and watching the people. Sweetie gave up pretty soon, and so for a long while we both just lay there in the sun. But as I watched people, more and more kids checked out surfboards and started paddling around the lagoon and standing on them. I remembered a promise I'd made to myself that I would try surfing if I got the opportunity, and I had the opportunity, didn't I? So, I checked out a surfboard.
Well, on the classic TV analogy scale, it was on the opposite end from Gidget and more like the Three Stooges. Yeah, I could lay on it face down just fine. I could hook my ankles on it, but not kneel. Then I got the hang of kneeling for brief periods. I could also sit and hang my legs off or sit with my legs in front of me. But to save my life, I couldn't stand up. I started thinking that my surfboard was a kid-sized one and it was too small to keep my big-boned self afloat. I went and got another one. Sweetie was just watching me the whole time, trying not to laugh, I'm sure. Anyway, after I got the big one, I found it a lot easier to do stuff, but the stuff was still sitting and kneeling. I kept trying and trying to stand, but the best I could get was getting one foot flat on the board and the other knee still down. Sweetie came out and held it for me, and I finally ever-so-briefly stood up. Then fell right off, of course. But by then, Sweetie was sorely tempted to try it himself, so we started taking turns. Eventually, we both stood up on the thing for a second or two at a time. Some advice from a guy passing by helped - he said it's almost impossible to stand up unless you're moving. So we stared paddling or just shoving each other, and it did help. I have to say, it took forever to get anywhere, and the damnable thing was like an emery board or a buff-puff on the surface, so my knees were really abraded, btu I couldn't give up. Know why? Because not only were there some stinking lithe young muscular teenagers able to just jump up to standing in a matter of seconds, and not only were there several approximately eight-year-old kids doing it with ease, there was -- wait for it -- a FRICKIN' BABY walking around on a board! Oh yeah! Sure, her dad was holding the board for her, but she was about 18 months old, and he kept placing her on the board, then she'd run to the end and he'd grab her before she fell in the water. Over and over. A frickin' baby. You'd think if a baby could do it, I could. Sheesh.
Anyway, when we got out it was already lunchtime (we really spent a LONG time trying to get up on this thing), so we showered, I disinfected the approximately twelve cuts on my feet (yay coral), and then we ate leftovers from last night's Cafe Pesto dinner. Mmm. Then we decided to go to the new Tommy Bahama shop that opened near here. It was in "the Shops at Mauna Lani," which would make you think there were more shops than just that one, wouldn't it? Well, you'd be wrong. And Sweetie was done with Tommy Bahama in abotu 20 seconds, just enough time for me to sniff a couple candles. He went outside and sat down. I looked around for a minute more, but didn't want to keep him waiting. Besides, the salespeople were SUPER-friendly, which always kind of creeps me out. So we go back to the car, I say "where to?" and Sweetie answers "the Petroglyphs." Well, we had talked about going in the morning when it was cooler, and I had planned to wear my good walking shoes and take some water, but hell, I really wanted to see these and this was the first time Sweetie had actually seemed like we might go, so I jumped on it.
The entrance to the Puaka Petroglyphs is right by our hotel, but we still drove to the parking lot. We sort of glanced at the sign, thought it said to follow the beach trail, but we quickly realized that the beach trail just led straight to our resort's golf course. We doubted that was the petroglyhps. So we went the other way a little bit. Nope, just some kids surfing (damn them). So we walked around, looked at a big pit, saw a mongoose, and looked at the map again, which really didn't help. As we turned to go back to the car, we finally saw a sign marking the trailhead. So, we started down it. Now, I'll say right now, that I do think an early in the morning, stocked with water, wearing good shoes trip would have been a better one, but it was still cool. After about 10 minutes of walking through a dry, dusty wood, the trail opened up onto a huge, gently curving flow of pahoehoe with hundreds of carvings in it, mostly of human figures (basically stick figures, but some of them with more rounded or triangular bodies, some with spears, some with bent knees, etc). All the signs were basically like "Please don't touch them or try to make rubbings. We don't know what they are. Feel free to take a guess." It kind of amazes me that no-one has figured out whether they're ceremonial, some type of prayer, some sort of commemmorative thing, a complicated story... They're just there. There's not even very much to keep you from walking around right on top of them. In fact, some of them are right in the middle of the trail, and there's a circle of rocks around them so you don't step on them. It's strange.
Okay, then we were REALLY hot and thirsty, so we came back to the hotel and hung out until tea, and then hung out some more until we went to dinner at Roy's Waikoloa Grill, which was good. We both ate too much, and too much rich food. Sweetie's came with poi, so we both got to taste it for the first time. It has about the consistency of Cream of Wheat and tasted like absolutely nothing. I'm serious, it had pretty much no flavor. I told Sweetie I thought it tasted like flour and water mixed into a paste. But, I'm in Hawaii and now I've had poi. Yay!
We're probably going to go for another swim this evening and take some pictures since it's our last night here. Tomorrow night we'll be at the King Kamehameha further down south in Kailua-Kona. We probably won't have free internet, so I'll -- well, I guess I'll see or hear from most of you when I get home. I promise to blog when I get back, too. Oh yes, you can't stop the blogging!
Take care,
Mockula. (Makula in Hawai'ian.)
Well, on the classic TV analogy scale, it was on the opposite end from Gidget and more like the Three Stooges. Yeah, I could lay on it face down just fine. I could hook my ankles on it, but not kneel. Then I got the hang of kneeling for brief periods. I could also sit and hang my legs off or sit with my legs in front of me. But to save my life, I couldn't stand up. I started thinking that my surfboard was a kid-sized one and it was too small to keep my big-boned self afloat. I went and got another one. Sweetie was just watching me the whole time, trying not to laugh, I'm sure. Anyway, after I got the big one, I found it a lot easier to do stuff, but the stuff was still sitting and kneeling. I kept trying and trying to stand, but the best I could get was getting one foot flat on the board and the other knee still down. Sweetie came out and held it for me, and I finally ever-so-briefly stood up. Then fell right off, of course. But by then, Sweetie was sorely tempted to try it himself, so we started taking turns. Eventually, we both stood up on the thing for a second or two at a time. Some advice from a guy passing by helped - he said it's almost impossible to stand up unless you're moving. So we stared paddling or just shoving each other, and it did help. I have to say, it took forever to get anywhere, and the damnable thing was like an emery board or a buff-puff on the surface, so my knees were really abraded, btu I couldn't give up. Know why? Because not only were there some stinking lithe young muscular teenagers able to just jump up to standing in a matter of seconds, and not only were there several approximately eight-year-old kids doing it with ease, there was -- wait for it -- a FRICKIN' BABY walking around on a board! Oh yeah! Sure, her dad was holding the board for her, but she was about 18 months old, and he kept placing her on the board, then she'd run to the end and he'd grab her before she fell in the water. Over and over. A frickin' baby. You'd think if a baby could do it, I could. Sheesh.
Anyway, when we got out it was already lunchtime (we really spent a LONG time trying to get up on this thing), so we showered, I disinfected the approximately twelve cuts on my feet (yay coral), and then we ate leftovers from last night's Cafe Pesto dinner. Mmm. Then we decided to go to the new Tommy Bahama shop that opened near here. It was in "the Shops at Mauna Lani," which would make you think there were more shops than just that one, wouldn't it? Well, you'd be wrong. And Sweetie was done with Tommy Bahama in abotu 20 seconds, just enough time for me to sniff a couple candles. He went outside and sat down. I looked around for a minute more, but didn't want to keep him waiting. Besides, the salespeople were SUPER-friendly, which always kind of creeps me out. So we go back to the car, I say "where to?" and Sweetie answers "the Petroglyphs." Well, we had talked about going in the morning when it was cooler, and I had planned to wear my good walking shoes and take some water, but hell, I really wanted to see these and this was the first time Sweetie had actually seemed like we might go, so I jumped on it.
The entrance to the Puaka Petroglyphs is right by our hotel, but we still drove to the parking lot. We sort of glanced at the sign, thought it said to follow the beach trail, but we quickly realized that the beach trail just led straight to our resort's golf course. We doubted that was the petroglyhps. So we went the other way a little bit. Nope, just some kids surfing (damn them). So we walked around, looked at a big pit, saw a mongoose, and looked at the map again, which really didn't help. As we turned to go back to the car, we finally saw a sign marking the trailhead. So, we started down it. Now, I'll say right now, that I do think an early in the morning, stocked with water, wearing good shoes trip would have been a better one, but it was still cool. After about 10 minutes of walking through a dry, dusty wood, the trail opened up onto a huge, gently curving flow of pahoehoe with hundreds of carvings in it, mostly of human figures (basically stick figures, but some of them with more rounded or triangular bodies, some with spears, some with bent knees, etc). All the signs were basically like "Please don't touch them or try to make rubbings. We don't know what they are. Feel free to take a guess." It kind of amazes me that no-one has figured out whether they're ceremonial, some type of prayer, some sort of commemmorative thing, a complicated story... They're just there. There's not even very much to keep you from walking around right on top of them. In fact, some of them are right in the middle of the trail, and there's a circle of rocks around them so you don't step on them. It's strange.
Okay, then we were REALLY hot and thirsty, so we came back to the hotel and hung out until tea, and then hung out some more until we went to dinner at Roy's Waikoloa Grill, which was good. We both ate too much, and too much rich food. Sweetie's came with poi, so we both got to taste it for the first time. It has about the consistency of Cream of Wheat and tasted like absolutely nothing. I'm serious, it had pretty much no flavor. I told Sweetie I thought it tasted like flour and water mixed into a paste. But, I'm in Hawaii and now I've had poi. Yay!
We're probably going to go for another swim this evening and take some pictures since it's our last night here. Tomorrow night we'll be at the King Kamehameha further down south in Kailua-Kona. We probably won't have free internet, so I'll -- well, I guess I'll see or hear from most of you when I get home. I promise to blog when I get back, too. Oh yes, you can't stop the blogging!
Take care,
Mockula. (Makula in Hawai'ian.)
Day 6! And no, Michael, I'm not trying to write 50,000 words...
Today was very low-key. We got up and had breakfast, then went snorkelling. Since yesterday early morning was so perfect, we thought today might be similar conditions, but it was practically a different ocean. It was much less still -- lots of waves washing into the little bay, and several times we found ourselves pushed toward rocks and coral. The water was also really silty and cloudy, so although we saw fish and turtles, I would say not nearly as many as other days. We took a long break on the beach, then Sweetie went back out snorkelling and I got a body board.
The body board. Well, the vision and the reality were quite different. See, I thought I was going to be gracefully riding atop this thing like Paikea in Whale Rider, but instead I looked like that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry's girlfriend opens the jar of pickles naked. I mean, I was sort of crouched on the thing trying to keep my balance in my bikini, and getting sinus-fuls of saltwater and just generally not able to figure out why I would float on styrofoam instead of under my own power. So that didn't last long, although I think Sweetie enjoyed towing me around on it for a while.
Then I read a bit longer, and then we dinked around, then got sandwiches from the deli. In the afternoon we took a nap (well, I finished my book, but very quietly, and lying down). We had dinner at Cafe Pesto again -- really, that's probably the best, most reasonably priced food around here. After we got back, we went swimming for a while, soaked in the "secret" whirlpool for a while, then walked down to the beach.
It was a little cloudy, but there was a clear patch right above us, so we stargazed a bit. Then we noticed several crabs running around on the sand. At first we just saw one, then we saw a total of 7 or 8. Also, there was a mound of sand and a hole near my chair, and something popped out of it very briefly. We kept an eye on it and saw the thing a few more times -- I think it was also a crab, but a different kind, and bigger. There were a couple others as well, but they moved so quickly and so rarely popped out of their holes that we never got a great look. Now it's almost bedtime and there's not much going on. The World Cup is on, and I finished my book so I'm working on a magazine. Oh, when I get to post more pictures to Flickr, I'll show you the really good one I got of a turtle today. He was hanging out in the very shallow water and had a crowd of kids admiring him. But he was so damn close to the surface I got a fantastic shot of him.
Okay, well, Mockula out.
Take care.
The body board. Well, the vision and the reality were quite different. See, I thought I was going to be gracefully riding atop this thing like Paikea in Whale Rider, but instead I looked like that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry's girlfriend opens the jar of pickles naked. I mean, I was sort of crouched on the thing trying to keep my balance in my bikini, and getting sinus-fuls of saltwater and just generally not able to figure out why I would float on styrofoam instead of under my own power. So that didn't last long, although I think Sweetie enjoyed towing me around on it for a while.
Then I read a bit longer, and then we dinked around, then got sandwiches from the deli. In the afternoon we took a nap (well, I finished my book, but very quietly, and lying down). We had dinner at Cafe Pesto again -- really, that's probably the best, most reasonably priced food around here. After we got back, we went swimming for a while, soaked in the "secret" whirlpool for a while, then walked down to the beach.
It was a little cloudy, but there was a clear patch right above us, so we stargazed a bit. Then we noticed several crabs running around on the sand. At first we just saw one, then we saw a total of 7 or 8. Also, there was a mound of sand and a hole near my chair, and something popped out of it very briefly. We kept an eye on it and saw the thing a few more times -- I think it was also a crab, but a different kind, and bigger. There were a couple others as well, but they moved so quickly and so rarely popped out of their holes that we never got a great look. Now it's almost bedtime and there's not much going on. The World Cup is on, and I finished my book so I'm working on a magazine. Oh, when I get to post more pictures to Flickr, I'll show you the really good one I got of a turtle today. He was hanging out in the very shallow water and had a crowd of kids admiring him. But he was so damn close to the surface I got a fantastic shot of him.
Okay, well, Mockula out.
Take care.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Day 5 -- Snorkelling, Hawi, hula dancer...
We started with breakfast in the Gold Lounge (natch), then met Sweetie's co-worker for snorkelling. She'd never been, and we were trying to help, but she couldn't get the mask to fit around her glasses, didn't have contacts, and couldn't really see without her glasses, so it was kind of a bust for her. I had a good time, though, and saw several humuhumunukunukuapua'as... Yeah, that's the state fish and they're really cool-looking and they're everywhere down here. I just like saying it, though. It's got it's own little rhythm. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Then we lay in the sun and read -- no more sunburn for me yet! After quite a bit of dinking around doing nothing, we decided to go see Pu'ukohola Heiau near Kawaihae. The short story is that there was an old Heiau, or kind of a temple, on this spot, and Kamehameha was told that if he built a big bad-ass temple there, he would be victorious in all his battles and become king of all the islands. So in 1790 he started building it (by hauling volcanic rocks down a 20-mile long fire-bucket chain, basically) and a year later he was finished. It's kind of shaped like (not to be disrespectful, just to give you the idea) a gigantic sofa, in that there's a low spot with two high sides and a high back. On it were several smaller structures for ceremonial purposes and living space. It's pretty gigantic. At one point, there was a third heiau in that spot in honor of the shark gods, but it sank into the sea! At the same location, there's a flat, wooded spot with a fishing pond that a couple hundred years ago was a village, but it hasn't been protected at all, and there's basically nothing left. It was sad, actually. At home it seems like we've been able to preserve, if not everything, at least quite a lot. But here it's just gone.
Then we just drove for the heck of it. We headed north until we reached Hawi, which is pretty much the northernmost tip of the island, although it's still significantly on the West side. It does get a LOT wetter and greener there, though. The town was small and parts of it were totally decrepit -- one building had several rusty video game machines rotting out front, and it appeared that the roof had caved in and there were weeds growing inside. But on the same block was a clothing store selling the Free People label and a sushi restaurant that ran us almost $40 for a very light lunch. Altogether odd. There was also an apparently unmanned vegetable stand selling plantains next to a closed shaved ice trailer.
Then, just because we could, we drove another two miles into Kapa'au, which was even more decrepit and everything was closed, except that the community center was jumping with activity. It's Kamehameha Day this weekend, and there's a big statue of him there that is currently draped with leis. I got a good photo. But we were thinking of trying to get a shaved ice or something, but every store there was closed, including the "largest used book store on the big island."
We got our treat finally back in Kawaihae. I was thinking of having a shaved ice, but went with Kona Coffee ice cream. Mmmm. Then we came back here, enjoyed tea, hung out by the pool and in the hot tub a bit, then got ready for dinner. We were planning on getting something at the deli, but it was closing as we got there, so we went to Brown's Grill instead. It was a mix of good and bad -- we got a fantastic table with a great view of the sea, and there was decent live music. But the prices were pretty outrageous for what we got -- not that it wasn't delicious; it was. But you know, it was just one of those things where, well, my simple pasta dish was $27 for no appreciable reason. And then there was dancing. If you know my husband, you may have heard that he is made extremely uncomfortable by people dancing while he eats. Suffice to say, he was once traumatized by a belly dancer. We actually go to great lengths to avoid them. Apparently, the phobia also extends to hula dancers. A woman in a colorful loose dress approached the musicians while we were eating, and Sweetie whispered "Oh god, I think she's going to dance!" I reassured him that if anything, she was probably going to sing, but in fact, I was wrong. She slipped off her shoes, and I thought for a moment Sweetie was going to be sick. She then danced in our direction for about two songs before they took a break. Poor Sweetie. I had to hide my face behind my napkin at one point so she didn't think I was laughing at her while he urgently whispered through clenched teeth "DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!"
And, well, with the exception of another beautiful sunset and a seaside stroll, that brings us to now. I'm sorry to report that our trip is now more than half over. But not to worry! We still have more snorkelling to do, another hotel to try out (although one without an upgrade such as this, I daresay), more yummy things to eat and amazing things to see. I'll report on them all, ad nauseum, I'm sure.
Then we just drove for the heck of it. We headed north until we reached Hawi, which is pretty much the northernmost tip of the island, although it's still significantly on the West side. It does get a LOT wetter and greener there, though. The town was small and parts of it were totally decrepit -- one building had several rusty video game machines rotting out front, and it appeared that the roof had caved in and there were weeds growing inside. But on the same block was a clothing store selling the Free People label and a sushi restaurant that ran us almost $40 for a very light lunch. Altogether odd. There was also an apparently unmanned vegetable stand selling plantains next to a closed shaved ice trailer.
Then, just because we could, we drove another two miles into Kapa'au, which was even more decrepit and everything was closed, except that the community center was jumping with activity. It's Kamehameha Day this weekend, and there's a big statue of him there that is currently draped with leis. I got a good photo. But we were thinking of trying to get a shaved ice or something, but every store there was closed, including the "largest used book store on the big island."
We got our treat finally back in Kawaihae. I was thinking of having a shaved ice, but went with Kona Coffee ice cream. Mmmm. Then we came back here, enjoyed tea, hung out by the pool and in the hot tub a bit, then got ready for dinner. We were planning on getting something at the deli, but it was closing as we got there, so we went to Brown's Grill instead. It was a mix of good and bad -- we got a fantastic table with a great view of the sea, and there was decent live music. But the prices were pretty outrageous for what we got -- not that it wasn't delicious; it was. But you know, it was just one of those things where, well, my simple pasta dish was $27 for no appreciable reason. And then there was dancing. If you know my husband, you may have heard that he is made extremely uncomfortable by people dancing while he eats. Suffice to say, he was once traumatized by a belly dancer. We actually go to great lengths to avoid them. Apparently, the phobia also extends to hula dancers. A woman in a colorful loose dress approached the musicians while we were eating, and Sweetie whispered "Oh god, I think she's going to dance!" I reassured him that if anything, she was probably going to sing, but in fact, I was wrong. She slipped off her shoes, and I thought for a moment Sweetie was going to be sick. She then danced in our direction for about two songs before they took a break. Poor Sweetie. I had to hide my face behind my napkin at one point so she didn't think I was laughing at her while he urgently whispered through clenched teeth "DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!"
And, well, with the exception of another beautiful sunset and a seaside stroll, that brings us to now. I'm sorry to report that our trip is now more than half over. But not to worry! We still have more snorkelling to do, another hotel to try out (although one without an upgrade such as this, I daresay), more yummy things to eat and amazing things to see. I'll report on them all, ad nauseum, I'm sure.
Day 4 -- Mauna Kea trip!
No more pics for a while -- I ran out of room on Flickr. But I do have updates for you...
Yesterday we got on the van for our trip to the summit of Mauna Kea. We headed out on the Saddle Road, a road originally built as a one-lane road through the center of the island for cattle ranchers, but expanded by the government by patching the sides with additional asphalt. As you might imagine, it's a bumpy ride. What's so strange (and wonderful and interesting) about this place is that within 45 minutes or so, we went from nothing but lava rock as far as the eye can see, to lava rock with some dry grasses, to more grasses and a few trees, to lush greenery spread over the hillsides. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and interesting, and was able to tell us a great deal about the native and non-native flora and fauna, which is a surprisingly interesting story, though not really unique; like most places in the world, people got here nad screwed everything up. My favorite story was that of the mongoose -- apparently there was a rat problem here on the island, so they imported mongooses to hunt them. What they didn't realize was that the mongooses and the rats had an entirely different schedule, and that the rats here climbed trees and the mongooses did not. So then they had a rat problem AND a mongoose problem. Anyway, we drove through ranchlands, most of which either still did or at one time had belonged to Parker Ranch -- I guess the founder was something like Kamehameha's nephew-in-law, so he'd been given innumerable acres to ranch on, some of which have now been given back. We stopped for a surprisingly nice dinner at a dilapidated old ranch with quonset huts from WWII, then got back in the van. We started climbing and climbing. We could see Mauna Loa well, and Greg, the guide, told us stories of Pele and her sister Poli'ahu and how they fought. He also told us of a regiment of fighters, enemies to Kamehameha, who were engulfed in lava from Mauna Loa, and whose footprints you could still see. We got a little geography lesson as we passed the cinder cones, and we learned the difference between a'a and pahoehoe (a'a is cooler when it flows, so it ends up as big rough chunks, whereas pahoehoe is smooth, so looks ropy and smooth when it cools. One of the most interesting displays of the difference was in a place where pahoehoe had flowed over a'a, and you could really see the distinct difference. We also noticed that a lot of the rock (and particularly one cinder cone) looked bright red -- it's because the iron in the rock is rusting! Older rock looks redder than newer rock.
As we climbed, we soon rose above the cloud layer (we had another little lesson about inversion) and had the most amazing views of Mauna Loa and Hualalai and Maui in the distance. We kept going up and up until we could see the observatories on top of the mountain. It was really striking. We put on our parkas and walked around on the summit. The observatories were all opening their giant doors silently and swinging the telescopes around to focus. It was cool. It was like Star Wars meets The Neverending Story. Here's this amazing technology, but at the same time this dreamlike cloudscape. It was hard to know where to look. Then the sun began to set, so we all watched that. I was hoping to see the green flash, but I guess I thought it was bigger. It was more like "Hey, was that a little bit green just now?" But our guide says we saw it, so we saw it! The sunset was incredible, too. It goes down really quickly here (it's at less of an angle), but then the orange light continued to play on the horizon and through a little crack in the clouds like when you blow on a coal. It was gorgeous -- and freezing cold! There was still a bit of snow up there, actually. What a change from down on the coast! Then we went back down a bit to the visitor's center where they gave us yummy chocolate chip cherry cookies and hot cocoa and busted out the telescopes. I really learned a lot -- things I never knew about constellations and things. It was kind of mind-blowing, in the way that only astronomy can be. You know, billions and billions of galaxies bigger than this one that would take billions and billions of light years to reach -- that sort of thing. Stuff that it's hard to wrap your head around. Easier was just looking in the scopes -- I saw Alpha Centauri twinkling in multi-colored brilliance. We saw Vega, we saw a galaxy, we saw a "jewel box," we saw the moon in bright close detail... And I saw something that I would guess most of the people I know have never seen - the Southern Cross. It's quite easy to spot -- it looks just like a kite. It was such a wonderful experience. I'm really glad we did it.
Yesterday we got on the van for our trip to the summit of Mauna Kea. We headed out on the Saddle Road, a road originally built as a one-lane road through the center of the island for cattle ranchers, but expanded by the government by patching the sides with additional asphalt. As you might imagine, it's a bumpy ride. What's so strange (and wonderful and interesting) about this place is that within 45 minutes or so, we went from nothing but lava rock as far as the eye can see, to lava rock with some dry grasses, to more grasses and a few trees, to lush greenery spread over the hillsides. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and interesting, and was able to tell us a great deal about the native and non-native flora and fauna, which is a surprisingly interesting story, though not really unique; like most places in the world, people got here nad screwed everything up. My favorite story was that of the mongoose -- apparently there was a rat problem here on the island, so they imported mongooses to hunt them. What they didn't realize was that the mongooses and the rats had an entirely different schedule, and that the rats here climbed trees and the mongooses did not. So then they had a rat problem AND a mongoose problem. Anyway, we drove through ranchlands, most of which either still did or at one time had belonged to Parker Ranch -- I guess the founder was something like Kamehameha's nephew-in-law, so he'd been given innumerable acres to ranch on, some of which have now been given back. We stopped for a surprisingly nice dinner at a dilapidated old ranch with quonset huts from WWII, then got back in the van. We started climbing and climbing. We could see Mauna Loa well, and Greg, the guide, told us stories of Pele and her sister Poli'ahu and how they fought. He also told us of a regiment of fighters, enemies to Kamehameha, who were engulfed in lava from Mauna Loa, and whose footprints you could still see. We got a little geography lesson as we passed the cinder cones, and we learned the difference between a'a and pahoehoe (a'a is cooler when it flows, so it ends up as big rough chunks, whereas pahoehoe is smooth, so looks ropy and smooth when it cools. One of the most interesting displays of the difference was in a place where pahoehoe had flowed over a'a, and you could really see the distinct difference. We also noticed that a lot of the rock (and particularly one cinder cone) looked bright red -- it's because the iron in the rock is rusting! Older rock looks redder than newer rock.
As we climbed, we soon rose above the cloud layer (we had another little lesson about inversion) and had the most amazing views of Mauna Loa and Hualalai and Maui in the distance. We kept going up and up until we could see the observatories on top of the mountain. It was really striking. We put on our parkas and walked around on the summit. The observatories were all opening their giant doors silently and swinging the telescopes around to focus. It was cool. It was like Star Wars meets The Neverending Story. Here's this amazing technology, but at the same time this dreamlike cloudscape. It was hard to know where to look. Then the sun began to set, so we all watched that. I was hoping to see the green flash, but I guess I thought it was bigger. It was more like "Hey, was that a little bit green just now?" But our guide says we saw it, so we saw it! The sunset was incredible, too. It goes down really quickly here (it's at less of an angle), but then the orange light continued to play on the horizon and through a little crack in the clouds like when you blow on a coal. It was gorgeous -- and freezing cold! There was still a bit of snow up there, actually. What a change from down on the coast! Then we went back down a bit to the visitor's center where they gave us yummy chocolate chip cherry cookies and hot cocoa and busted out the telescopes. I really learned a lot -- things I never knew about constellations and things. It was kind of mind-blowing, in the way that only astronomy can be. You know, billions and billions of galaxies bigger than this one that would take billions and billions of light years to reach -- that sort of thing. Stuff that it's hard to wrap your head around. Easier was just looking in the scopes -- I saw Alpha Centauri twinkling in multi-colored brilliance. We saw Vega, we saw a galaxy, we saw a "jewel box," we saw the moon in bright close detail... And I saw something that I would guess most of the people I know have never seen - the Southern Cross. It's quite easy to spot -- it looks just like a kite. It was such a wonderful experience. I'm really glad we did it.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
IMG_0030
Okay, I promised some gals I would drink a mai tai on the beach, and here I am! I asked the bartender to make it as girly as possible, so there's a cherry, a wedge of pineapple, a slice of lemon, and an orchid floating around in there...
This morning was relaxing. Sweetie had breakfast with me, then went to his conference. I scheduled a massage, then went and soaked in a tub for a while. At massage time, I came back to the "spa without walls," and got into a robe. Dahn, my masseuse, came and got me and I told him how my back was aching. He gave me the "sports" massage. Okay, now this is particularly for Monkeygirl -- you know how we often complain that people don't massage hard enough? Well, I almost had to tell this guy to ease up. It was SO good, though. The regular stuff was all great, but then at the end he kind of stretched and pushed me around to stretch out my lower back adn hips, and it was delightful. Also, if you've ever wondered, those nature sounds of waterfalls and tropical birds are NOTHING compared to actual waterfalls and tropical birds. It was in a "hale," (I hope that's right) a little bamboo hut thing with shades outdoors. It was so nice. I chilled in the spa for a little while afterwards to read the Chronicle and drink iced tea.
Then I decided I would go shopping -- I knew Sweetie probably wouldn't want to, and there were some stores I'd seen nearby that I wanted to check out. I'm glad I did -- I found some cool jewellery -- but mostly it was expensive touristy stuff. I did go into a place with muumuus and stuff, thinking that my grandma would be thrilled if I brought her a muumuu from Hawai'i, but alas, they were really expensive, far beyond my "souvenirs for friends and family" budget. I also liked this odd garment for me (the best way to explain it is as a long strapless dress with elastic across the back and two scarf-like wings that come from the side seams from about the armpit to the waist) that could be tied in a bunch of different ways, but that was really spendy, too.
So now I'm back at the hotel -- Sweetie was thinking of skipping the last session today, so he came back and ate lunch with me, but then decided he'd better go. So I'm waiting for him and perusing the web.
Tonight we're going to the observatory. The trip leaves at 3 and apparently we don't get back until quite late, so I probably won't blog tonight. I'm not jet-lagged, but I do find myself feeling really sleepy at about 9 and waking up perky and refreshed at like 5:30. We'll see how I do at 11 tonight when we get back! Worse yet, Sweetie's actually been in bed asleep at about 9 each night, so he'll probably be even more tired than I am...
Take care!
This morning was relaxing. Sweetie had breakfast with me, then went to his conference. I scheduled a massage, then went and soaked in a tub for a while. At massage time, I came back to the "spa without walls," and got into a robe. Dahn, my masseuse, came and got me and I told him how my back was aching. He gave me the "sports" massage. Okay, now this is particularly for Monkeygirl -- you know how we often complain that people don't massage hard enough? Well, I almost had to tell this guy to ease up. It was SO good, though. The regular stuff was all great, but then at the end he kind of stretched and pushed me around to stretch out my lower back adn hips, and it was delightful. Also, if you've ever wondered, those nature sounds of waterfalls and tropical birds are NOTHING compared to actual waterfalls and tropical birds. It was in a "hale," (I hope that's right) a little bamboo hut thing with shades outdoors. It was so nice. I chilled in the spa for a little while afterwards to read the Chronicle and drink iced tea.
Then I decided I would go shopping -- I knew Sweetie probably wouldn't want to, and there were some stores I'd seen nearby that I wanted to check out. I'm glad I did -- I found some cool jewellery -- but mostly it was expensive touristy stuff. I did go into a place with muumuus and stuff, thinking that my grandma would be thrilled if I brought her a muumuu from Hawai'i, but alas, they were really expensive, far beyond my "souvenirs for friends and family" budget. I also liked this odd garment for me (the best way to explain it is as a long strapless dress with elastic across the back and two scarf-like wings that come from the side seams from about the armpit to the waist) that could be tied in a bunch of different ways, but that was really spendy, too.
So now I'm back at the hotel -- Sweetie was thinking of skipping the last session today, so he came back and ate lunch with me, but then decided he'd better go. So I'm waiting for him and perusing the web.
Tonight we're going to the observatory. The trip leaves at 3 and apparently we don't get back until quite late, so I probably won't blog tonight. I'm not jet-lagged, but I do find myself feeling really sleepy at about 9 and waking up perky and refreshed at like 5:30. We'll see how I do at 11 tonight when we get back! Worse yet, Sweetie's actually been in bed asleep at about 9 each night, so he'll probably be even more tired than I am...
Take care!
IMG_0023
Yeah, that's Mockula-eye view. Hot legs, huh? Anyway, today was quite chill -- Sweetie had to go to his conference early, so I took a long bath, then had breakfast in the Gold lounge (delicious!). I then took teh yoga class. My back was feeling quite tense this morning, but it felt good to do yoga, but afterwards it went right back to tense. Then I went down to the beach and SLATHERED the sunscreen on. I got a kayak and paddled around. I wore a t-shirt and put my sarong over my legs. I just hung out and paddled back adn forth mostly. I never sing loudly to myself anymore, so I sang my lungs out, since nobody could hear me. After a while I came back in and sat in the hot tub for a while, then discovered their "secret" whirlpool tub. (It's not that secret, just kind of secluded.) By then my back was into full-on ache mode, so I just chilled and read my book and sat in the hot tub. It got kind of windy and overcast, so I headed back to the room and changed, then did a little shopping (not buying, just looking). I grabbed a yogurt and some snacks, then went to wait for Sweetie.
We hung out while he ate his lunch (and shared some with me), then went back to the hot tub together. Then we pretty much just hung out -- I took a nap -- and got ready for dinner with his co-worker and her friend. We were going to go back to that place we liked from the first night, but there was a Mexican restaurant there that came highly recommended by another guy they worked with, so we tried it. It was good, but I've had better, too. Then we showed off our room, and now we're just hanging out. It's hard to adjust to the time change. Each day we've been up early, and now it's only 9 here, but it's midnight at home, so we're both sleepy. Sweetie's watching the World Cup (and channel flipping) and I'm going to go back to reading Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell. Then probably crash.
We hung out while he ate his lunch (and shared some with me), then went back to the hot tub together. Then we pretty much just hung out -- I took a nap -- and got ready for dinner with his co-worker and her friend. We were going to go back to that place we liked from the first night, but there was a Mexican restaurant there that came highly recommended by another guy they worked with, so we tried it. It was good, but I've had better, too. Then we showed off our room, and now we're just hanging out. It's hard to adjust to the time change. Each day we've been up early, and now it's only 9 here, but it's midnight at home, so we're both sleepy. Sweetie's watching the World Cup (and channel flipping) and I'm going to go back to reading Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell. Then probably crash.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
DAY 2
So this morning we got up pretty early (time difference), so we hung out here and read and such before breakfast. Then we took advantage of the "Gold floor's" continental breakfast, which pretty much ruled -- there were fresh baked goodies, pineapple that Sweetie declared the best ever, plus several other fruits, a fruit parfait, muesli, assorted cheeses, bagels, jams, hard-boiled eggs, three kinds of juice, coffee, tea... I don't even know what else! Anyway, it was all really yummy. We walked around the grounds a bit, including a trip to the little sundries store for Bactine, since Sweetie got a cut on his foot yesterday. Then we pretty much immediately started snorkeling.
First, a little background. My first attempt at snorkeling was in jellyfish-infested waters (and when I say infested, I mean the jellies in that water were thicker than tapioca pearls in bubble tea) with someone who was, among other things, not a good explainer. I was wearing a hood which was tight around my neck, which is one of the only things that really makes me panicky (I never wear turtlenecks for the same reason). And water kept getting into my mask. Long story short, I freaked out and gave up quickly. I figured I'd try it here, but wasn't really sure I'd get into it at all.
Anyway, back to today, I played around in the shallow, warm water for a while and got my bearings. I didn't try to dive or anything, but I got the hang of floating and whatnot. I swam out quite a ways, and it was AMAZING. I must have seen at least 30 different kinds of fish in the most beautiful colors. It was like wandering through all the rooms of the aquarium, except not, because you are floating right there above them! I saw fish with electric purple, fish that looked like 80s preppies, in pink, yellow and teal, little mod fish in black with white polkadots, those ones that are flat and triangular-ish in yellow and black. It was just incredible. I saw tons and tons of different kinds of urchins, and what I thought was an eel (now I realize it was a needlefish). Then I got pretty thirsty and went back to shore. After a little rest, I decided I would try diving. I was psyching myself up for it, but I just couldn't quite bring myself to try it, until finally I thought -- Dangit, I'm going to show her! (Meaning, of course, the first person who tried to teach me.) And I took a deep breath, dove, swam around, then floated back up and blew hard to clear the tube. It worked! Then, I was a snorkeling machine -- I was inspecting the coral, going face to face with turtles (lots of them, actually), and I even got up close with a real eel -- a BIG one. A big, ugly, mean, intimidating-looking one with TEETH. I called Sweetie over and we tread very carefully around his little hidy-hole. You could definitely tell he was checking us out, though.
Other interesting things I saw down there included a colorful fish with angular stripes who was kind of charging me and Sweetie. He kept coming closer and we kept swimming back. Neither one of us really wanted to be butted by a fish. I also got to see a turtle go poop! I had been finding it interesting to watch them rise to the surface, so I was watching this one as a stream of air bubbles rose from him. I thought he was exhaling, but wait... wasn't that the wrong end? So I looked more closely and saw another stream of bubbles and two nuggets! Ha! I saw a sea turtle poop! Anyway...
We got horrible sunburns, both of us. We were in for three hours, we were wearing SPF45 sunscreen, and we reapplied halfway through, but to no avail. We're like lobsters.
We drove into Waimea for lunch. We had really tasty sandwiches at a coffee shop, then browsed around some shops. We decided to just get sandwiches for dinner and check out the appetizers and snacks on the Gold floor offered from 5-7. (I love saying the Gold floor.) So we came back, snorkeled a bit more, then retired to the lounge, where they had cookies, pretzels, nuts and some other appetizers out for tea (I actually tasted a tuna one!) We hung around, me reading and Sweetie preparing for his presentation, and they switched from tea time to appetizer time, where they had mushroom tartlets (that were delicious), a big spread of sushi, crackers and cheese and fruit and crudites, and rack of lamb crusted with rosemary and kukui nut, and they had scallops. After a while, we wandered back to the room and hung out. I was super-sleepy, so I napped for a while, and now we're watching cartoons.
First, a little background. My first attempt at snorkeling was in jellyfish-infested waters (and when I say infested, I mean the jellies in that water were thicker than tapioca pearls in bubble tea) with someone who was, among other things, not a good explainer. I was wearing a hood which was tight around my neck, which is one of the only things that really makes me panicky (I never wear turtlenecks for the same reason). And water kept getting into my mask. Long story short, I freaked out and gave up quickly. I figured I'd try it here, but wasn't really sure I'd get into it at all.
Anyway, back to today, I played around in the shallow, warm water for a while and got my bearings. I didn't try to dive or anything, but I got the hang of floating and whatnot. I swam out quite a ways, and it was AMAZING. I must have seen at least 30 different kinds of fish in the most beautiful colors. It was like wandering through all the rooms of the aquarium, except not, because you are floating right there above them! I saw fish with electric purple, fish that looked like 80s preppies, in pink, yellow and teal, little mod fish in black with white polkadots, those ones that are flat and triangular-ish in yellow and black. It was just incredible. I saw tons and tons of different kinds of urchins, and what I thought was an eel (now I realize it was a needlefish). Then I got pretty thirsty and went back to shore. After a little rest, I decided I would try diving. I was psyching myself up for it, but I just couldn't quite bring myself to try it, until finally I thought -- Dangit, I'm going to show her! (Meaning, of course, the first person who tried to teach me.) And I took a deep breath, dove, swam around, then floated back up and blew hard to clear the tube. It worked! Then, I was a snorkeling machine -- I was inspecting the coral, going face to face with turtles (lots of them, actually), and I even got up close with a real eel -- a BIG one. A big, ugly, mean, intimidating-looking one with TEETH. I called Sweetie over and we tread very carefully around his little hidy-hole. You could definitely tell he was checking us out, though.
Other interesting things I saw down there included a colorful fish with angular stripes who was kind of charging me and Sweetie. He kept coming closer and we kept swimming back. Neither one of us really wanted to be butted by a fish. I also got to see a turtle go poop! I had been finding it interesting to watch them rise to the surface, so I was watching this one as a stream of air bubbles rose from him. I thought he was exhaling, but wait... wasn't that the wrong end? So I looked more closely and saw another stream of bubbles and two nuggets! Ha! I saw a sea turtle poop! Anyway...
We got horrible sunburns, both of us. We were in for three hours, we were wearing SPF45 sunscreen, and we reapplied halfway through, but to no avail. We're like lobsters.
We drove into Waimea for lunch. We had really tasty sandwiches at a coffee shop, then browsed around some shops. We decided to just get sandwiches for dinner and check out the appetizers and snacks on the Gold floor offered from 5-7. (I love saying the Gold floor.) So we came back, snorkeled a bit more, then retired to the lounge, where they had cookies, pretzels, nuts and some other appetizers out for tea (I actually tasted a tuna one!) We hung around, me reading and Sweetie preparing for his presentation, and they switched from tea time to appetizer time, where they had mushroom tartlets (that were delicious), a big spread of sushi, crackers and cheese and fruit and crudites, and rack of lamb crusted with rosemary and kukui nut, and they had scallops. After a while, we wandered back to the room and hung out. I was super-sleepy, so I napped for a while, and now we're watching cartoons.
Balcony 3
Hi all -- this is most of an e-mail I sent to my mom upon arrival in Hawai'i.
Whoa! Well, it was a long, cramped flight, but since we got here everything's gone swimmingly! We got lunch at a mediterranean place that was delicious. They let us check in to the hotel early, and we were expecting it to be convention-y, like an Embassy Suites or something. But NO! This place is RAD! We feel like super-hot shit, actually! We had a guy bring our bags up and show us the open-air spa, the tennis courts, the pool, the patio, the place where the complimentary breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks are, but since they upgraded us, of course, there are complimentary beverages and snacks available in our own personal snacky area... The whole place even smells good! I swear, it smells like Frangy-pangy![Ed. In Joke -- frangipani] The landscape is unreal -- it's all lava rock everywhere -- big stretches of dry black cracked earth. It's humid here, but comfortable. It's in the 80s and there's a nice breeze. Oh my gosh, mom, it's SO COOL. [Sweetie] is paranoid because they upgraded us -- he thinks we're going to be charged extra or that they're going to harvest our organs or something. Anyway, there's so much to do I'm going to run, (I'm sorry, he's ranting, and he just whispered "There's gotta ba a catch.") but I'll keep in touch! The wireless is complimentary!
Incidentally, the upgrade was from a $159 a night room to a $759 a night room -- for REALS. No wonder we get our own concierge and have to put our room key in the elevator to even access this floor! We went swimming in the ocean and the pool tonight, got in the hot tub, walked around the grounds, then went to dinner at Cafe Pesto, which was delicious and (no, it couldn't be!) reasonably priced! Okay, now, even though it's only 9:30 here, it's 12:30 where I came from, and I got up at 4, so I'm about to hit the sack, and hard!
Whoa! Well, it was a long, cramped flight, but since we got here everything's gone swimmingly! We got lunch at a mediterranean place that was delicious. They let us check in to the hotel early, and we were expecting it to be convention-y, like an Embassy Suites or something. But NO! This place is RAD! We feel like super-hot shit, actually! We had a guy bring our bags up and show us the open-air spa, the tennis courts, the pool, the patio, the place where the complimentary breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks are, but since they upgraded us, of course, there are complimentary beverages and snacks available in our own personal snacky area... The whole place even smells good! I swear, it smells like Frangy-pangy![Ed. In Joke -- frangipani] The landscape is unreal -- it's all lava rock everywhere -- big stretches of dry black cracked earth. It's humid here, but comfortable. It's in the 80s and there's a nice breeze. Oh my gosh, mom, it's SO COOL. [Sweetie] is paranoid because they upgraded us -- he thinks we're going to be charged extra or that they're going to harvest our organs or something. Anyway, there's so much to do I'm going to run, (I'm sorry, he's ranting, and he just whispered "There's gotta ba a catch.") but I'll keep in touch! The wireless is complimentary!
Incidentally, the upgrade was from a $159 a night room to a $759 a night room -- for REALS. No wonder we get our own concierge and have to put our room key in the elevator to even access this floor! We went swimming in the ocean and the pool tonight, got in the hot tub, walked around the grounds, then went to dinner at Cafe Pesto, which was delicious and (no, it couldn't be!) reasonably priced! Okay, now, even though it's only 9:30 here, it's 12:30 where I came from, and I got up at 4, so I'm about to hit the sack, and hard!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Great America and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Okay, so I chaperoned a trip today to Great America, and I might have had more fun if I'd gone on some of the rides, but I'm not sure -- there was an average of an hour's wait for each ride. I'm serious -- we were there from 10 to 4:30, and we stopped for lunch, but otherwise, the kids did nothing but go on rides, and they were able to hit, I think, 5. Frankly, the whole experience was a little weird -- I haven't been there in several years, and it was a lot more trashy than I remembered. Like, I could not begin to tell you the last time I was in a place where I saw more prison tats and unhealthy BMIs all together. I'm not kidding. I saw tattoes, all in prison green, of a bulldog, the Raiders' mascot, skulls, flowers, initials, names (one on the neck), and, right before I left within 10 seconds of one another, I saw bicep tattoes on WOMEN that said "Thug Life" and "Lou Dogg." Also, it doesn't seem like the type of place that sees a lot of vegetarians. FYI.
The best part of today was that I got about a third of my papers graded and also finished the book I was reading, Johnathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I loved his first book, Everything is Illuminated, so I was really excited about this one, and with good reason. It's almost hard to explain, but basically a very intelligent but socially awkward boy (I wondered at times whether he might have had Asperger's syndrome or something) is trying to solve a mystery, but it's more to deal with the grief of losing his father than anything else. And he doesn't know the half of what's going on. It's a very unique book in its layout and format and storytelling (some of the chapters are written by Oskar's grandmother and a mysterious silent man). Notice how I'm not giving anything away? That's because I really, really want everyone I love to read it. Mom? Althea? Jenny? Suzanne? Are you listening? You're my main book friends, and this one is going to start making the rounds. I'll have to e-mail Leafy Greens.... Warning, though; I cried. At Great America and on the bus home. Had there not been people around, it wouldn't have been limited to a few quiet tears down the cheeks, either. I was sobbing on the inside. Definite 9/11-related tears, too, so if you're particularly sensitive to that, keep that in mind.
The best part of today was that I got about a third of my papers graded and also finished the book I was reading, Johnathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It was fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I loved his first book, Everything is Illuminated, so I was really excited about this one, and with good reason. It's almost hard to explain, but basically a very intelligent but socially awkward boy (I wondered at times whether he might have had Asperger's syndrome or something) is trying to solve a mystery, but it's more to deal with the grief of losing his father than anything else. And he doesn't know the half of what's going on. It's a very unique book in its layout and format and storytelling (some of the chapters are written by Oskar's grandmother and a mysterious silent man). Notice how I'm not giving anything away? That's because I really, really want everyone I love to read it. Mom? Althea? Jenny? Suzanne? Are you listening? You're my main book friends, and this one is going to start making the rounds. I'll have to e-mail Leafy Greens.... Warning, though; I cried. At Great America and on the bus home. Had there not been people around, it wouldn't have been limited to a few quiet tears down the cheeks, either. I was sobbing on the inside. Definite 9/11-related tears, too, so if you're particularly sensitive to that, keep that in mind.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
I felt like this guy yesterday
Yeah, so teachers are supposed to be prepared and have lesson plans and evaluate their students, right? Well, I'm trying to do all those things, and I keep getting screwed in the rear. For example, let's take 3rd period. I have planned four days worth of oral presentations. I'm counting it as one of their final grades. This is a four day week, and it's the last official week of instruction (next week is dead week, then finals). So I find out last Friday that all my 3rd period kids will be attending an assembly this Friday. I find out Tuesday that they're supposed to go to the bookroom Wednesday to return their books. A TA comes in yesterday to deliver benchmark exams which take two days and are supposed to be returned on Friday. And this morning in my box there's a survey ther kids are supposed to complete today. Um... correct me if I'm wrong, but did other people just dump 5 days of work on me in a four-day week when I already had four days' worth of work planned? That fucking sucks. Not to mention the fact that I have to pack my entire classroom to move, that I have over 100 papers to grade this weekend, that I agreed to chaperone a field trip that will take about 12 hours on Saturday, that we're having a houseguest this weekend (so I had to clean)... And, of course, the new washer and dryer were delivered yesterday, but the dryer didn't work, probably because that fire shorted out the outlet, so we have to have an electrician come to change the outlet. His initial suggestion and estimate was $1,100 to replace the entire breaker box, but I talked him down to $450 and the outlet itself. By the way, if you ever have a reason to call "59minuteservice" electricians... they guarantee 59 minute service, and were true to their word -- plus or minus 7 hours. Although Mom had to bear the brunt of that, not me.
Anyway, I have a To-Do list a page long (12 point font), so I had better get moving.
Oh, and dear friends and family, if you haven't heard from me lately (and trust me, none of you have), this is why... I promise I'll be a better friend/granddaughter etc. this summer.
Anyway, I have a To-Do list a page long (12 point font), so I had better get moving.
Oh, and dear friends and family, if you haven't heard from me lately (and trust me, none of you have), this is why... I promise I'll be a better friend/granddaughter etc. this summer.
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