We had a game night after GC last night which was pretty fun. I did more standing around, talking, and drinking coffee than playing games, but it was a good time. I didn’t stay too late because I’ve been getting up earlier with my new hours at work (which has been great). The night hadn’t ended though until Rich and I attempted a figure skating routine (don’t ask), and Hal taught us all how to dance like Carlton from Fresh Prince. There is a game night tonight too that’s a few hours earlier. I might go to this one too and actually play a game. Luego.
This is probably the most informative video of our game to date. It was just posted on Gamespot, and has a lot of in game footage. It’s pretty sweet. Check it out.
Wow, it’s Saturday and I’m at our condo, and I don’t have plans. This is a strange feeling. I’ve been quite unplugged this week. I’ve gone a really long time without blogging. This week went pretty fast in comparison with my week in Hawaii. Work has been great. We’ve been doing a lot of research to start on a new project. We had our annual reviews, and I got a raise. Woohoo. So it’s been a good week. Stayed up way too late last night hanging out with some good friends singing songs. I logged a little time on the piano, guitar, and djimbe. It was a great time. Now to figure out what to do today…
This is just one of many shots from our hike down to the waterfall Thursday morning. I’ve finally hit one of the limits of a free flickr account. It will now only show my latest 200 photos unless I upgrade. I might upgrade, but I’m going to wait it out a couple days or weeks to see if I feel like I’ll still be using it a bunch. Besides, if you see some pictures that you would want to make prints of, or just have better quality copies of for any reason, just email me. The free account doesn’t let you download the highest quality images. We also had dinner at a nice quiet Japanese restaurant that Dan had been wanting to try out for a while. It was a winner. Good dinner for cheap (by island standards). We’re heading out to check on the waves, and maybe take one last shot at surfing if we find any. I’m sad to be leaving in the morning, but excited to be back home. I couldn’t imagine having a more relaxing vacation anywhere else. I had a great time. My next post will probably be from back in Seattle. Aloha.
Today Dan has work off so I don’t want to waste much time blogging. I’ve posted some pictures though, of sunsets, beaches, and Ben’s (Dan’s roommate) dog Makai. We plan to hike down to the waterfall that you can see from their back yard today. That should yield some more fun times, and nice pictures. And maybe more surfing later too.
Dan just went off to work. Amazingly he was able to schedule it so he only has to work today and tomorrow while I’m here. And it’s a pretty short day at that. Yesterday we did a little driving to get a good look at the island. We had thought about doing a hike down to Waimea falls, but the weather and our stomachs were both uncooperative. We had planned to pick up some local food on the way, but each successive place we tried was closed (a lot of places close at 2 pm). There was some rain and clouds on and off yesterday which helped it cool down a bit. It has been pretty dry out here so far this year. Back in Kapaa, we finally ended up in Scotty’s Barbecue and both had a sandwich sampler which was quite delicious. Of course, we were pretty hungry, so that may have skewed our perception a little. Otherwise, we had a pretty lazy day around the house. We played a lot of music.
Dan’s roommate Ben showed us a video of some friends who, out of boredom, sold their house and bought a small sailboat (not knowing how to sail). Ten years later, they had traveled the world over and had two children. It easily rivaled much of what you could see on the Discovery channel. This morning (pictured, I’ll try to clean up a little for future photo ops) the surf report didn’t sound promising. We went over to Kapaa and Dan got a haircut. I picked up some Locals brand sandals. Dakine (the kind) that the locals wear. I also grabbed a few postcards that I hope to write while Dan is at work. On the way back we stopped for lunch at Mermaids Cafe, where I got the best wrap ever. It was seared local ahi tuna with cilantro sauce, rice, and cucumber in a green tortilla. You can check out a picture in my flickr gallery, but be warned, it may make you hungry. Now back at Dan’s place, I might walk out to the picnic table overlooking the waterfall to write those postcards and do some of the reading I brought with me. Or maybe a nap.
My trip to Hawaii is going quite well. I’ve had a relaxing time so far. I’ve posted some pictures that you can check out, but I’ll give you some backstory so you can try to piece together what they’re from. Saturday afternoon I landed in Honolulu with a short stop-over prior to my flight to Kauai. There was a beautiful courtyard garden with quite a variety of foliage. Since I had some time before my flight I took the opportunity to snap some photos. When I got to the Lihue airport Dan picked me up in his blue Ford pickup and we drove up to his place in Kilauea. We walked out back through the yard to what was just about all I needed to see. Right out back is a picnic table in some nice shade overlooking a valley with a beautiful waterfall at the bottom (I’m going to try not to use many adjectives from now on; you can insert beautiful, gorgeous, and breathtaking just about anywhere in these descriptions). Dan usually travels with his ukulele (ook, not yuke) pretty close by, and so island music is almost always at hand. We took a bike ride down to the bakery to pick up some pizza dough for dinner. The evening was pretty quiet.
Sunday morning we got up at around 7:30 after my morning reading and had some granola for breakfast and went out to do some surfing Hanalei. I took some video footage of Dan which I’ll try to edit and post up sometime after I get home. Afterwards, I took a few tries at it myself on Dan’s long board which were only semi-successful, but fun nonetheless (I think I’ll have a few more chances to take a stab at it). Then we drove around and stopped at some scenic points as we waited for the order we called in to the best burger place on the island to be made (best bleu cheeseburger ever). We rounded off the rest of the day at a birthday party for Dan’s friends MJ and Paul at a mansion at which one of their friends is a caretaker. I haven’t even been here two days, and already have had quite a vacation. I’ll be sure to let you know more soon.