Hang Loose!

Sunrise? Living my entire life on the west coast and being somewhat of a nightowl I can't remember the last time I saw a sunrise. But in Kauai where I had a 3 hour time zone advantage and staying on the east coast of the island I got to see a couple great sunrises.

I went to Hawaii in hopes of continuing the development of my surfing skills. The first day I surfed Hanalei Bay on the north side of the island where there were a bunch of school kids also surfing (on a monday morning). I was quickly able to gage my level of skill . . . . . which is that of maybe an 8 year old girl. I couldn't believe how good these kids were, and how bad I was. . . .

The other thing I learned about surfing is that it is a lot like skiing and snowboarding where mother nature controls the conditions and there is nothing you can do about it. One day you could be having a perfect day catching almost every wave to the next day paddling around getting hammered every wave. On one of the days where there was little to no surf I rented a stand up paddle surf board which I found takes crazy amounts of balance.    

Oh and it turns out I look hawaiian. Everybody thought I was a local asking me which side of the island I was from. In one case I even got a the locals discount on the rental of the paddle board. The guy did not want to believe that I was not from Hawaii. Which side of the island are you from? I'm not from here. Oh, which island are you from. I'm not from Hawaii. Oh, which island is your family from? I'm not Hawaiian. Oh, you sure? Well you look local, I'll give you the locals discount. Okay.

 

Whether I look Hawaiian or not is debatable however I can say I eat like one. I ate about 12 spam musubi's and had loco moco at every chance possible. What is loco moco you ask? It is heaven on a plate. Plate of white rice topped with a ground beef patty, fried eggs, and lots of gravy. What a great breakfast!

I got back to Tacoma after 5 days in Hawaii for just enough to unpack, launder and repack. As hectic as it was, I couldn't be more excited to spend the next 5 weeks with Margie finally in Japan, Vietnam and Thailand (Believe it or not it was about $1000 cheaper for me to fly from Hawaii to Seattle to Japan than to fly directly from Hawaii to Japan). After working her tail off since starting law school, we were both looking foward to a sabbatical together!