May 2006 Archives

My flight left at 6am yesterday morning, which meant Kara and I had to get out of bed at 3:30am! ATA allowed three checked bags, so I brought a suitcase and two U-Haul boxes packed with clothes, electronics, tennis rackets, and other random items. I also had a small suitcase for a carry-on, and my laptop as my “personal item.” So, five bags for me to haul around through the airport.

Getting through security was a breeze, took off my shoes, took off my coat, emptied my pockets, took the laptop out of the bag, shoved it all through the x-ray machine. On the other side, I grabbed all my stuff and got dressed again. I walked away thinking about breakfast, and two or so minutes later I hear on the intercom “Jake and Kara murgle blarg jib. Jake and Kara jiggle blab.” What? And how did they know Kara’s name?? I went to a courtesy phone, but the office wasn’t open yet. So, I went back to the security station and told them that I heard my name on the intercom. I told them my name, and they said “Go over there.” As I approached ‘over there’ I saw two people rummaging through my carry-on suitcase (oh, did I not have that with me?)

Apparently what happened (I pieced this together from the info I got from the security people, which were VERY nice by the way) was I left my suitcase on the table outside the x-ray machine. So, when I shoved everything through the machine, the suitcase wasn’t included. A few moments later, someone noticed an unattended suitcase just sitting there, so they ran it through the x-ray machine, AND THE ALARM WENT OFF! Now, I’m guessing here, but I bet things got a little tense for the security station. They opened up the suitcase (gingerly I assume) and right on top was my checkbook. This was how they knew our names...

So, I’m standing there while they remove every item from my loaded up suitcase. She mentions that they would have had to do this even if I hadn’t forgot it, because the alarm was set off. I packed my Xbox 360 in the carry-on, so there were TONS of electronic parts and cords and whatnot to remove and swipe down (to check for explosive residue). As they were pulling out items, I said “I don’t think I packed anything embarrassing, so I think we’ll be ok.” A minute or two later, the lady going through my stuff said “Are you moving, or are you just traveling with your games?” “I’m moving.” “Oh, where to?” “Maui.” “OH!” hehe

Check back tomorrow for more!

The flight was bumpy but uneventful... It felt really long too. I’m not looking forward to flying to Japan and Taiwan (did I mention that I’m flying to Japan and Taiwan at the end of this month?) When we arrived in Kahului, that humid tropical smell hit me, and I thought “Do I really live here now?!?” I walked down to the baggage carousel and right when I got there, I saw my boxes and bag. So I ran over and pulled them off the belt. The boxes had not had a good flight... They were smooshed all up and one had a giant gash along the side... Now I know why they had me sign a waver to check them... The box stacking job on the rented cart that worked so well in Portland now was a disaster because the boxes were all soft and messed up. As I went down a ramp, the boxes shifted and my carry-on suitcase tumbled off the cart... Good thing I hand carried over the Xbox 360, I hope it still works! (but if it doesn’t, there’s a Costco nearby, and apparently they take back anything!) Somehow I got the shifting tower of boxes to the rental car shuttle area and got all the boxes loaded on the bus. When we got to the rental car area the bus driver handed me all my boxes and then there I was, standing outside the building with two large boxes, two suitcases, a laptop, and my coat... and no cart. I took a bunch of trips to move my stuff from outside to inside, and then got in line. Once I got the keys to my sweet Dodge Neon, I had to abandon my stuff to get the car. I quickly brought the car closer to the building, and then loaded all of the stuff up (trip by trip). I was a little warm by the time I finished...

I left the airport, heading toward Kihei. Missed the turn, so I ended up going by the way of Ma’alaea, which was fine by me. I was soaking in the sights of my new home. The hulking mountains just off in the distance, wisps of clouds here and there, palm trees swaying in the wind, and when I reached Ma’alaea I saw the ocean for the first time from the ground. WOAH, I live on a tiny island in the middle of a giant ocean... BOOM (that was my brain just exploding). When I got to Kihei, I found my hotel and pulled in. I walked up to the desk and noticed that it was pretty much outside. The place had a roof but no walls, I guess what’s the point when it’s warm year round.

I walked into my room with some trepidation. I had booked my stay at the Aston Maui Lu through Hotwire.com (where they don’t tell you where you are going to stay until after you have paid). Once I discovered the name of the resort, I checked online at Trip Advisor and people were ranting about how disgusting the place is (bugs, rats, filth, you name it). But, my room is just fine, it’s just a rundown hotel room, I have no problem with that. I did do an inspection though, to make sure there weren’t bugs everywhere or something. When I pulled back the sheets on the bed, I noticed a daddy longlegs-ish spider was crawling on the comforter. No big, I flicked it off, you’d see that anywhere.

To be contiuned?

On Monday after I got settled into the hotel, I headed out to see a townhouse that we were interested in. The place was REALLY nice, it had just been remodeled, so there was new tile everywhere, and nice wood floors, and the furnishings were nice too. AND, it was right across the street from the beach!! But, it was $1600 per month... Something we could do, but was it necessary? I told the guy I was very interested, but I really wanted to see a few more places before I make a final decision.

I went over to L&L Drive In to get myself a plate lunch, something I’ve been looking forward to for many months! Got the Kalua Pork, it wasn’t that great, but the macaroni salad was AWESOME. After lunch I walked to Safeway to get some suntan lotion and some local microbrew. I’ve been a little worried about what kind of beer selection would be here for me, so I thought I better investigate. I bought a six pack of Kona Brewing Co’s Big Wave Golden Ale for (eek) $9.36. I don’t like it... It takes kind of citrus-y, no fruit in my beer please. I also stopped at the ABC Store and bought a tour book called Maui Revealed, which the girl next to me on the plane highly recommended.

At this point I started thinking about buying new clothes... I didn’t really have any shorts, so I’d been walking around in tennis shoes and jeans. But I didn’t want touristy clothes, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided that Costco might be a place to get cheap local clothes. But, I didn’t have a Costco card... so, I called Kara and got her to add me to her account. Then I drove out to Kahului to get a membership card. When I arrived, I tried going in the entrance, but a girl stopped me and said “I’m sorry, we’re not letting anyone in, our power is out.” I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so I figured I’d just stand there and wait for the power to come back on.

Fifteen minutes pass, and now there are a ton of people waiting outside Costco with their oversized grocery carts. Finally the power flips on and we get the ok to enter. I approach the membership services desk, explain my situation, but they say their computers haven’t come back online yet. So, they give me a temporary pass and let me go in the store without checking my story out. Once in, I went to the optometrist and made an appointment to get my eyes checked for contacts (Billy swears by Costco contacts). Then I browsed around the store for a while, looked at printers, monitors, bikes, etc. I also looked at the clothes, but didn’t see anything I liked. By the time I was ready to leave (with nothing to buy) the computers were back on, so I got my exclusive membership card. My dot matrix picture is HOT!

Back to Kihei, got a copy of the Maui News at Safeway so that I could call on rentals in the morning. Got a taco salad at Maui Tacos... it was huge and not very good... Back to the hotel, and off to sleep.

Tuesday morning rolls around and I was awake WAY too early. I got up and typed up some stuff for LTM. I read some of Maui Revealed too, and I’m here to say that it really is a good book. One interesting thing I read was that the north Kihei beaches are NO GOOD to swim at. The water is murky (sharks!) and there is lots of algae and seaweed thanks to a drainage pipe a little further south in Kihei. The beach at the $1600 townhouse is included in this area... What’s the point of living steps from the beach if it’s a beach that you don’t want to swim at?!? Once it was late enough, I called on a bunch of rentals and ended up making three appointments scattered throughout the day. I also went to Matson’s website and discovered that my Jeep was available for pick up!

I was getting hungry for breakfast, so I checked the Maui Revealed book (seriously, it’s like my best friend by now) and found Kihei Caffe. Drove down there, you order inside and then find a table outside. Now, maybe it’s just because I’m happy to be in Hawaii, but I thought the breakfast was outstanding! The bacon was super thick and smoky tasting, and the hashbrowns/homefries were so good I couldn’t bring myself to put Tabasco on them. I never got the water I ordered, but they did have a bunch of roosters strutting around the tables... that was pretty cool.

After breakfast I drove by the apartments that I was going to see later in the day. I especially made a point to stop by the nearby beaches and see how nice they were. Kama’ole Beach III looked very nice, it even had a lifeguard station ala Baywatch! At noon I went over to a real estate office to view the condo at Keonekai Villages. Connie had me fill out a rental application and leave a credit card, and then she just gave me the condo keys and told me where to go. I drove out to Keonekai and checked out the condo... and really liked what I saw! The rent for this one was only $1250, and though it wasn’t as nice as the townhouse, it was definitely still nice. Plus it has covered parking (a big plus since we have a convertible) and it’s close to a nice beach. I saw the other two apartments throughout the day, but this was definitely the winner. I’m meeting with them tomorrow to finalize the paperwork, so unless something goes very wrong, our new address will be 160 Keonekai Rd, Kihei, HI.

After I saw the apartment, I drove out to Kahului to pick up the Jeep. I dropped my rental car off at Dollar, and their shuttle actually took me to the Matson pier! After finishing all the paperwork on the Jeep, the first thing I did was take the top down (of course!) Then I had to buy gas, since the tank was almost empty. Gas costs $3.66 per gallon here, so it cost 40 bucks to fill up... neat. So now where to? I know, WalMart!! Yup, I went to WalMart to see if I could find some shorts (I was still in shoes and jeans at this point). WalMart had some good stuff, I picked up three pairs of shorts and some flip-flops. I also grabbed a small bottle of POG (Passion, Orange, Guava) juice, ohhhh it was so delicious.

Once I had decided on the Keonekai Villages apartment, I had to go back to the real estate office and slip $20 under the door. I didn’t have any envelopes (Darn, did I forget to pack those? What was I thinking?!) Fortunately Star Market is right across the street from the office, so I ran in there to get envelopes. I also thought I’d grab more beer to sample other local microbrews (don’t worry, I hadn’t finished the six pack yet). I bought one bottle of Kona Brewing Co’s Fire Rock Pale Ale, and one bottle of Kona Brewing Co’s Longboard Lager. I had better luck with these two, the Lager wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t offend like the Golden Ale. However, the Fire Rock Pale Ale was very much my kind of beer. I also saw quite a surprising thing, Star Market had Mirror Pond stocked on their shelves!! That was a relief to see, even if the price tag was $8.50 for 6...

I went back to L&L Drive In for dinner, this time I got the Teri Steak Plate Lunch. The thin cut beef was very good, but it was a little tough to cut with plastic utensils. I was working my way through it when SNAP! all the tines on my fork broke off. I felt a little embarrassed, but I got up and got another fork, and sat back down to continue eating. This time I was more careful on the cutting, but after a little while, SNAP! down goes another fork! This time I’m very embarrassed, and as I’m sitting there deciding if I’m really going to get up and get another fork, the girl behind the counter hands me another. When I left, the other girl said “Was it good?” I wonder if she was really interested, or was just teasing me for apparently being SO into my food that I broke two forks!

I got back to my hotel room and decided to read a bit more of Maui Revealed. I got a bit of the way through a few sections before I thought to myself “You know what, this book is actually so good that I should really just read it all the way through!” So, I thumbed back to the beginning of the book and started reading. The writing style of the book is pretty fun and casual so it’s really entertaining to read. Don’t know if I’ll really make it all the way through it, but it’s chock full of useful information, so I bet the further I make it through, the better off I’ll be. I started falling asleep around 8:30pm (11:30pm in my mother time zone) so book down, lights off, eyes closed. Gone.

I really need to try to stay awake later over here. I’m waking up at like 6am, an' dat no gut. Played some Tetris DS for a while, sat out on my porch and read more of Maui Revealed. Around 10am, I decided to go back to Kihei Caffe for breakfast. I planned on getting something different, but nope, I just got the 2 eggs breakfast again. After breakfast, I walked down to South Maui Bicycles to start my bike shopping. The guy there was pretty helpful, he showed me a bunch of street and hybrid bikes. I’m really trying to decide what kind of bike I want... I figure I’ll really only use it on the street, so I don’t want to get fat mountain bike tires to slow me down. But the hybrid bikes (thin street bike-like tires, with a mountain bike build) are pretty spendy, starting at $400. And the street bikes start at like $1000, so they are WAY out of the question!

After South Maui, I drove out to Kahului again to check out the selection at Island Biker. Their cheapest hybrid was $550, which really seems like too much to me, but I took it on a test ride anyway. I’ve always had mountain bikes, so this thing felt SO light to me! Plus, it had very thin street tires, so the turning was very responsive. I feel a bit tempted by it, it really felt nice, but $550?!? I’m supposed to go back to South Maui Bicycles tomorrow to take the Trek 7.3 FX for a test ride ($489)... Am I really going to spend that much money on a bicycle???

After Island Biker, I stopped by Kmart to check out the clothes, nothing good. I also went to the automotive section and did pick up some Hawaiian seat covers for the Jeep; red with white flowers, it looks sweet. Then I hit the Sports Authority and shopped for some boogie boards for me and Kara. I decided on the Morey Classic Series (Morey apparently invented the modern day boogie board back in the 70’s). I got a blue medium sized board for me and a red small board for Kara, they look so cute sitting against the wall... his and hers boogie boards. I’d love to give mine a spin, but I’ve discovered one problem with being in Hawaii alone... no one to rub suntan lotion on your back! I guess I could go out there with a tee shirt on, but then I’d look like a fat kid who’s ashamed of his body! I’ll probably do it tomorrow though, I don’t know that I have much else going on then...

While I was driving around, I heard a radio advert for Clearwire. The guy that showed me the $1600 townhouse had already told me about Clearwire and it sounded pretty freaking cool. What it is is wireless broadband... Your modem only needs to plug into a power outlet, and you are ready to go with broadband internet over the air (768Kb for $30/mo or 1.5Mb for $37/mo). The guy that told me about it said that he’s actually setting the thing up in his car, so he’ll have broadband wherever he goes! Woah!!! Plus the radio advert said it’s only $20/mo for the first 3 months AND if you sign up now they’ll give you a free companion airline ticket to the mainland (basically buy one get one free). Yeah, sign me up... NOW! I saw a Clearwire store while driving around Kahului, so I stopped in to find the catch. No catch as far as I can find (well, there is a $50 activation fee). Man, as soon as I get that apartment, I’m marching down there and getting my wireless modem and free ticket home, sooo awesome!

Drove back to Kihei again, Mokulele Highway is a one-laner cutting through sugar cane fields. Not the quickest drive, but can you complain? Oh, while I’m on the subject, let me just say that almost every posted speed limit here is exactly 10 MPH slower than you’d expect. Pi’ilani Highway is much like the Milwaukie Expressway... 50 MPH? Nope, 40. And roads that are like, say Halsey, that skirt neighborhoods are marked 20 MPH!! Does that mean that everyone drives slower on the island? No, everyone drives as fast as the streets SHOULD be marked... I don’t know what’s up with that, but whatevah...

By the time I got back to the hotel, my hair was a tangled mess. I decided that my hair was just too long for me to be driving around in a convertible all day. So I called up a nearby Great Cuts and made an appointment to get trimmed up. This was a big step for me, my mom was a hair dresser, so I have NEVER paid for a haircut! I went in there and sat down, and Michelle says “what do you want?” Now I can’t just say “Oh mom, you know how I always like it.” So I told her that I needed it shorter, but not so short that I’ll get a sunburn on my scalp! She said “I’m thinking a number 4 on the sides, and about an inch off the top.” I said that sounds fine, that I’ll be good with whatever. Halfway through the haircut, I confessed that this was my first paid-for haircut. I know that we were both thinking the word ‘virgin’ but neither of us said it. It turned out well, the cut cost $22, and I tipped $3, was the right amount??? I have no idea.

And now I’m sitting here typing a bunch of stuff and drinking some beer... I suppose I should go out and get some dinner sometime soon, sushi sounds good...

I didn’t end up finding sushi. I tried, but the place I went to was closed. So, I ended up going to a nearby Thai restaurant instead (not just any Thai restaurant but the first Maui restaurant we ate at back in 2004). I ordered the Beef Thai Garlic and MAN it was good! I think I might go back there tonight and try something else. YUM!

When I got back to my hotel after dinner, I heard some singing coming from somewhere nearby. So I walked toward the sound to investigate, and discovered that it was coming from inside the main resort building. As I approached the stairs, a guy standing at the bottom turned toward me and said “Hi.”
I said “Hi, how are you?”
He said “Good, are you just out for a walk?”
“Yeah, I heard the music and I was coming over to see what’s going on.”
“Oh, we’re about to have a Bible study, would you like to join us?”
“Sure.”
“Are you here on vacation?”
“Actually I just moved here.”
“Oh, us too, where’d you move from?”
“Portland, Oregon.”
“Oh! We just moved from Medford Oregon three weeks ago! There are actually quite a few people from Oregon that go here!”

So up the stairs we went and we sat down in the third row just in time for the preachin’ to start. The preacher, Dom, was talking about Philippians 1, what with Paul chained to Praetorian Guards and “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it,” etc.

After the service I talked to Bill (the 50-something guy I met outside) for quite a while. He was a missionary down in Mexico for two years taking care of disabled kids, and as that was wrapping up he got a job offer to do construction here on Maui. Part of the apparently incredible job offer was a brand new 1800 square foot house in Wailuku for only $275k. Amazing! So they moved over here, and they’re staying at a hotel until their house is done being built. After a while, Bill said that he’d like to introduce me to Dom. So he grabbed Dom’s attention and did just that.

Dom was really nice, he asked me a bit about myself (where I’m from, what I do, why did I move, did I go to church in Portland, etc). So then he says he’d like to get together with me over coffee sometime if I’d be interested. I said sure, so we made plans to meet at the Starbucks/Jamba Juice at 8am on May 13th... So I’ve already met some people here, very cool! Shortly after that, I took off and walked back to my hotel room. Dom said, “It was nice meeting you, see you on Sunday!” I was very excited about meeting people here, so I called Kara up to tell her the good news even though it was past midnight over there. She said she was still awake, but there’s no way she was... I felt like I was talking to a zombie (which is understandable... since she loves to eat brains... I mean because it was so late!) Anyway, after I talked Kara back to sleep, I read for a little while and went to bed.

Alright, that concludes my highly detailed reporting of the first three days in Maui. It’s surprising to realize that a whole week has passed since that midnight call to Kara! That next day was pretty low-key, I had lunch at Aloha Mixed Plate (I got the Ali’i Plate, my first taste of Lau Lau since returning to the islands) and then walked in the water on Ka’anapali Beach.

Friday was really busy, I moved into the apartment, I got hooked up with Clearwire, I got a local insurance card for the Jeep, I ran the Jeep through the safety inspection, I went grocery shopping ($170), I signed back up to WoW...

The weekend was kind of boring, I had the optometrist appointment at noon then I shopped around Costco and bought a new printer. The rest of Saturday was pretty boring... until I went to a party in Seattle. Everyone was hanging out at Carlton’s place, so they set up a webcam and I got to join them. It was kind of weird/funny, Carlton gave me a tour of his new condo by carrying the laptop and webcam through the place.

I went to church on Sunday (the name of it is Calvary Chapel South Maui), the topic was communion... Then I went home and sat around. Around 5pm I was feeling really restless, so I left the apartment and just started walking. I ended up walking about three miles (round trip) up S. Kihei Rd. and turned around when a guy in a car full of locals shouted something at me (don’t know what he said, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t ‘haole’). My feet were blistering up by the end, I was wearing my flip-flops... not the best footwear for a long walk.

Monday was my first day ‘at work.’ It went very well, I was proofreading all day... I ended up working most of the day from bed, in my boxers... it could be worse.

Tuesday: see Monday.

On Wednesday I received a couple packages with all of my work equipment. I needed to buy a few things as well, so I took most of the day to go buy stuff and set it all up in my office space. I ended up buying a Viewsonic LCD monitor (VA2012wb) from Costco for $400, but I’m having a heck of a time getting the video card to display the monitor’s native resolution (1680x1050)... I might end up taking it back. I ended up taking Clearwire back, I was getting crappy reception, so my internet connection would drop out all the time. I got a cable modem instead and now everything is connected up well. At 7pm I went to night church, but ended up leaving a little early because I was feeling a little sick.

Here are a few pics of my new work environment... What you don't get from the pictures is feeling of warm wind blowing in, and the sound of it blowing through the palm trees. Add sounds of birds cooing and chirping and you might get a sense of how sweet this setup is!

Kara arrives in Hawaii today!!! I’m super excited, because I’ve been very bored and lonely here for the last week or so. Yesterday I was talking to her on the phone, and I mentioned how I kinda freak out (in a good way) every time I go for a drive and see all the beautiful sights. So after the call, I decided to go for a drive. First, I prepped the Jeep for Kara’s arrival (removed the back seat and took down the soft top) and then I picked a destination... Paia.

Here’s a map of the complete route I ended up taking. It was a very pretty drive, just past Paia the road moves out to skirt the coast. The ocean was choppy looking; this was the windy side of the island after all! Speaking of, without the top half of the doors to protect me, I was getting a bit beat up by the crosswind blowing against my side! And it appears that the windward side really does get all the rain. As I approached Paia, the sky was dark and cloudy, but on I went hoping that I wouldn’t get rained on!

Right about when I hit Haiku (letter B on the map) it started raining. Just a little at first, nothing to make me pull over and put the top up for. But as I kept going, it started raining harder and harder. Big fat drops would hit me every once in a while, falling down from the powerlines above. But I knew that if I just pressed on, I’d soon escape the rain! My glasses became rain speckled, cutting down my visibility. Also, windshield wipers don't work if there’s rain on the INSIDE of your windshield! But this wasn’t miserable, it was fun! I was never cold, even though I was at higher elevation, being rained on, and wind blowing at me at 40 MPH.

Just as I expected, the rain let up as I turned away from Upcountry. Right when I got on to Haleakala Highway (where the route turns NW near Pukalani) the clouds broke, and sun started beating down. By the time I got back to Kahului, I was dry! I can’t describe how magical this place is. The sights are overwhelmingly beautiful, the sound of wind rushing through palm trees is ever present, and the smells! You often get a whiff of that humid, tropical island smell, but every once in a while you get smacked with a new smell. Yesterday I passed by the sugar cane mill and the whole area smelled strongly of sugar cane. I kept sniffing and sniffing as I drove, it smelled so good. And along the route east of Paia, the road darts down into a valley and then climbs back out. The valley was filled with a wonderful smell of flowers.

I can’t believe I live here.

Kara arrived on Monday, but I had to work so we didn’t get to do much outside. So, I took yesterday off from work so we could play. But first we had some business to attend to.... a trip to DMV (nothing says vacation day like DMV).

This was hands down the most enjoyable trip to the DMV. The lady that helped us was VERY nice. She took all of our information and handed us Hawaii license plates. They recognize Oregon’s vehicle registration, so we only had to pay $21 to transfer the registration to Hawaii. She said next April we will have to pay $113 for one year of registration (in Hawaii, the cost of vehicle registration is based on the weight of the vehicle!) She also got us all ready for driver’s licenses, but told us that we’d have to take a written driving test! We couldn’t take it until noon, so we left and bought a driver’s manual to freshen up on all the details.

Frantic studying over lunch, but then we realized that the driving manual was surprisingly devoid of numbers. Oregon’s test asked all these questions like “how far behind an emergency vehicle must you stay?” or “how far away from a fire hydrant must you park?” But this book was just full of vague statements like “don’t park too close to a hydrant” and “driving too fast is kind of bad.” So then I realized that that driving test would be a cake walk... and it was. I missed two questions and Kara missed 4 (we could miss up to 6 questions out of 30). With tests passed, we got our pictures taken and left with licenses in hand ($40 a piece).

Now it was time to hit the beach. We wanted to break in our new boogie boards, so we headed off to Wailea to see if we could catch some waves. The water was SO warm, but there weren’t any waves to speak of. So, we packed back up after playing at the beach for a while, and decided to explore the south Maui beaches with my trusty Maui Revealed guidebook in hand. Our first stop was Polo Beach, and as we approached, we remembered being here once before. One day back in 2004, we were looking for beaches, and I ran down to this one to check it out. It was too small and crowded and had a bunch of rocks on the beach so I decided it was no good. Our visit yesterday found the same thing, so we walked back to the Jeep and headed out to the next beach.

The next one was Palauea Beach and we had been here before too. This beach is nice and secluded, with trees to give shade for white boys like me. There are no bathrooms or anything here, so I suppose you have to plan ahead! The waves were huge the first time we came here, but they were small yesterday. So, on to the next beach, Po’olenalena Beach. This was another nice beach with shade trees, but small waves. So, further down the road we stopped at Makena Beach (which we thought was Big Beach). This beach was pretty blah. The area was ok, but you have to park quite a distance from the beach, and then walk along this sandy cliff for a while before you get to inhabitable beach. No waves...

We had hit the end of the road, so we turned back. But as we were heading back, we realized that there were more beaches south, so we turned around and headed down a different road. Now we actually found Big Beach, and holy crap if it isn’t big! I can’t believe we never came to this beach back in 2004, because it’s very nice! The shore is a bit steeper like Ka’anapali’s, which might make for some good boogie boarding when the surf is up. We walked along the beach, and headed toward the rocky outcropping to the north where we knew Little Beach hid behind. Little Beach is known as a nude beach (even though nudity is illegal in Hawaii), so we figured we had to go check it out. But before we got there, we climbed up the rocks and explored up there for a bit. As we came down closer to the ocean, we looked down and saw HUGE sea turtles swimming around. Every once in a while they’d pop their heads up for air and they looked so cool! We stood there for quite some time, just checking them out.

Ok, here’s where this post turns x-rated. We headed down to little beach (fully clothed, mind you) and yup, people were naked there. We walked the length of the beach and back, along the water, just taking in the sights. It was... interesting. I’ll admit I saw far more wangs than boobs (and boobs come in twos!) but it really had me wondering what a sack sunburn would feel like! OUCH!

With most of the big south Maui beaches scoped out (along with a few of the denizens) we headed back north to check out the beach nearest our place. Kama’ole Beach III is only a five minute walk from our apartment, so it’s safe to assume that it’ll be where we’ll be spending most of our time. Maui Revealed also said that Kam III has the best boogie boarding waves when waves are small. The book was right, we were actually able to boogie board here! We hung out here for maybe an hour or so, but the waves died down and we were getting hungry, so we headed home.

Not too bad for a day off from work in the town you live in...

One of my favorite things about having a blog is looking through search strings that people typed into google (or where ever) to find my site. A lot of times they make sense, but sometimes the strings are just wacky! Here are some gems from the last few months:

• old channel#9 perfume tv ads i am made of blue skys
• huge vaginas
• animals of delaware
• boy with eyeball spy cameras tv show bbc
• fake us money
• effin linear algebra
• pictures of medieval time shoes for weathly ladies
• kennemer cutting machine

One thing I love about having a blog is it gives me an excuse to learn how to make web stuff. I took a bunch of pictures of our apartment a few days ago, and I thought it would be cool if I could arrange them in an image map of the floorplan. So I drew up a floorplan in good ol' MSPaint and added blue field of view markers where I snapped the pics (think of them as reverse arrows, the triangles open up in the direction of the picture). I was pretty surprised at how easy it was to make one of these, I simply had to record the coordinates and links in a map table, and there ya go! So, the blue markers are links to the pictures, check it out.

Kara had the day off on Friday, so we had a picnic lunch down at the beach (Kam III). After work, we wanted to get some boogie boarding in, but the wind was blowing too strong at Kam III and Wailea, so we gave up on that idea. So, we watched LOST and then ran to Long’s Drugs to buy a jigsaw puzzle. Kara caught the cold that I had the week before, so she went to bed early.

Saturday we went out for breakfast at Kihei Caffe, then bought some snorkel gear and drove out to Ka’anapali. The weather was nice and sunny in Kihei, but it was cloudy and drizzling when we got to Ka’anapali. The wind was also blowing pretty hard, and all of the resorts were flying their red “get in the ocean if you want to die” flags. So, we turned back towards Kihei... Next time we want to go to Ka’anapali, we’ll make sure to find out the conditions first, since it’s a 45 minute drive each way!!

We ended up going to Kam I and here we got to try out our new snorkel gear. Maui Revealed said the area between Kam I and Kam II is ‘pretty decent’ for snorkeling... I guess it was decent. It was mostly just sand and sandy coral with the occasional fish. No where near as packed with fish as Hanauma Bay. We also saw some little crabs and a bunch of sea anemones, so that was pretty cool. Once we got back to shore, we grabbed our boogie boards and rode the waves for a while. When that got old (because of few waves) we got out and played some paddle ball (smack a little rubber ball back and forth between us with wooden paddles) in the surf. Our best volley was only 10... we’ve got some practicing to do. Once we were done at the beach, we headed home and barbequed some chicken on the grill. Ate that, watched some TV, did some puzzle, pretty much took it easy.

Sunday we went to church, then headed home with big plans to go hiking and snorkeling, etc. But then we decided to go play some tennis instead. So we ate lunch and then we went to “play tennis.” The quotation marks are needed because what we did shouldn’t be considered tennis because we sucked so badly! We started playing pretty regularly last summer with Billy and Dave, but we sure lost our skills since then!! We wore out quickly in the midday sun, so we went back to our place to decide what to do next.

I didn’t really want to go back out in the sun because I got sunburned a bit the day before, so we decided to go see The DaVinci Code. The ratings have been abysmal for this movie, but we kinda wanted to see it anyway, so we decided to ignore the critics. I’m glad we went, I thought the movie was pretty entertaining. I’m guessing the reason why the ratings are so low is because apparently everyone in the world (except me and Kara) have already read the book. Since movies are never as good as the books they’re based on, people walk away from the movie disappointed. Well, since I didn’t really know the story, I thought the movie was alright.

The end.

Well, I'm in my first foreign country (sorry Canada, you don't count). I arrived in Japan at 2pm on Tuesday (that's 6am Monday for you west coasters) and took a bus ride from the airport in Narita to Ikebukuro in Tokyo. The bus dropped me off at Sunshine City Prince Hotel and I had to walk a few blocks to my hotel (Hotel Wing International Ikebukuro). I had a little map to get me there, but the streets on the map weren't marked and even if they were, they would be in Japanese! But I found it without a problem by just counting the streets.

By the time I got to my room it was 5:30pm, so I decided to walk around a bit and see what I could see. What I saw were a lot of Japanese people and a lot of Japanese signs. After a while it started raining and hundreds of umbrellas instantly appeared, which was fine except I didn't have an umbrella of my own. It wasn't raining too hard, so I pressed on… until it WAS raining too hard. Then I stood under a covering and waited for the rain to stop... but it didn't. So I ran across the street to AM/PM and bought some Japanese candy (stuff Billy recommended) and an umbrella.

Buying something in Japan goes something like this: I put the items on the counter. The cashier rings them up and talks in Japanese. I stand there wondering if he/she is asking me a question. The price comes up on the register, I hand some money to the cashier. The cashier says some more stuff; I stand there like an idiot. Change is handed to me, I say "thank you" and walk away. Oh yeah, and I keep trying to give them my money too soon. Once they ring everything up, they start bagging the items. But I have already seen the total and stuck my money out. So they stop what they are doing, take my money, give me change, and THEN go back to bagging my items... Don't mind me, I'm just a little slow...

With umbrella overhead, I walked back to my hotel. Yeah, let me tell you about my hotel room. Imagine a closet... now add an RV bathroom. Billy warned me that the room was small, but I was STILL surprised when I saw it. There is only a twin sized bed, pushed in the corner of two walls. Then there is maybe 2 feet of walking room around the other two sides of the bed, and a desk lining those two walls. You can't pull the chair all the way out from the desk because it hits the bed. The bathroom really does feel like an RV bathroom. Everything is plastic, but then the toilet is high tech (it's got a bidet and 'toilet shower' with a 'preparation' button to purge the cold water before it sprays you down).

I did not sleep well that first night... the bed and pillow are ROCK HARD. Plus, I woke up around 2:30AM (7:30AM in Hawaii) and couldn't fall back asleep!