Little Rascals

We did the Thursday night movie night on the lawn again with the family (and Scott) by the bar between lagoons 3 & 4 at Ko Olina. The movie tonight was the 1990's "Little Rascals" remake. Scott flies home tomorrow, it was good to see one last West Side sunset with him. Aloha Scott, Na Hui Ho.

(8/9): In case you can't read! The illustration above says: "Movie Night. Yesterday I went to Ko Olina with my family. We watched a movie. We sat on the grass. I ate popcorn and drank water. I wish I can watch (it again)"

Training Day

Well, it's getting pretty close to the end of the North Shore swim series. The overall winners are determined by the sum of their times for all four races. Just one left, the last race July 8, is the longest. It runs about 2.3 miles and goes from Ehukai (Pipeline) to Waimea Bay. I'm barely in third place, so to stay in the winners circle it is going to take a little work. Ernie, Kate (see video) and I went up to swim the course for race #4 before work this morning.

video from race#3

Coconut Bras

We took Scott to a luau today, and I'm to lazy too write it up. So I'll quote directly from Scott's travel blog:

"..After a shower and a babysitter we headed out to Paradise Cove at Ko'Olina with Quinn and Sue. The objective of the evening was to take part in a Luau, something everyone should do while here. I went into this thinking.... ok this is going to be cheesy, and the food will be kind of mediocre because they're feeding hundreds (if not a thousand) people at once. We got there and had a complementary mai tai, which was made more alcoholic via trademarked Carver Sippy Cup Technology. There were demonstrations on how to wear sarongs, how to husk and crack open a coconut, as well as tree climbing. As always there were hula lessons, of which you will not see me attempt. I have no rhythm, much less coordination to move my hips and hands and feet in three different directions at once... However that doesn't stop some people, does it Quinn?

The food at the luau was good, much much better than I anticipated. They had originally pulled a cooked pig out of a pit, but I have a feeling the time it takes to do that and the time we got to eat, it would have been impossible to separate all that meat and make it taste as good as it did. They also brought around some of the food they'd be serving and made some poor sap eat Poi. LOL, his face says it all.

The food served was some generic stuff for people with bland palates, (sorry Sue) like Fried Chicken, some pasta salad and vegetable salads. They also had a sweet salmon salad which had pieces of salmon, some tomato and onions... it was a lot like Ceviche, but not quite. They had the pig all shredded up which was friggin awesome, and various other delicious deserts like Haupia. Interestingly, George Takei (Commander Sulu)was sitting one table over from us.

After fire dancing, hula hip shaking, and 3 enhanced Mai Tais... I decided this is a must-do if you go to Hawai'i. Also, the luau at the PCC doesn't have booze, so.... what fun is that?!"

Big Weiner

We took Scott for dinner with the fam at La Mariana restaurant down near Sand Island today. It's the Tiki-Bar restuarant recently made famous by the movie "50 First Dates", an Oahu must-see. On the way there we intercepted the Infamous Oscar Meyer Weiner-Mobile. As Sand Island is pretty much full of industrial warehouses, we suspect that the Weiner-Mobile was on it's way to be stowed in the secret undisclosed Oscar Meyer weiner-cave for the evening.

btw: Strangely apropos is that Hurley (Jorge Garcia) also blogged a Weiner Mobile sighting this week.

Swap Meet

It was our house-guest and longtime friend Scott's first morning in Hawaii. We made up a big breakfast of pancakes eggs, fried rice and hashbrowns, and ate outside under the coconut tree in the backyard.

Right afterwards, we all piled into the van and headed out to Aloha Stadium to immerse in the weekly Swap Meet that happens in the stadium parking lot. Sue picked up some shiny things including a couple new shell necklaces and hair clips. I found a new bucket hat to surf in, and we all had some fresh hot malasadas.

Before Sue headed out to work this afternoon, Scott, Ben and I all went down to the beach to enjoy the ocean while the littles and Sue napped. We brought boards and Ben and I paddled out. It was soooper windy, maybe the worst I've seen at HauBush. I caught a couple long rides but it was pretty tough going for Ben. We were lucky to get off the beach without dinging up any boards. Scott took the only casualty, he waded off the apron and into the coral and gashed up his left pinky toe. We fortified Scott's wound with beer, poke and poi once we got back to the house.

After the kids afternoon naps we made a run for Don Ho's at the Aloha Tower market place. I fed the kids and got us both tipsy for about $35. They have really good pupus specials and well drinks from 3 till 6. We got a couple "surfboard" pizzas, and other fried food along with two rounds of G&T's. Good evening!

video: Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

Moving Day

Well, I had to help a friend I've known since highschool move into his new home today. He bought an apartment in Waikiki and is getting ready to have his family move out here to Hawaii to join him. His old apartment was a sweet bachelor pad in China Town.

Since I was going to be off for the whole afternoon helping with the move anyway, I went ahead and PTO'd the whole day off work. What better day to spend a morning than with a family surf session on the beach. I got some really fun footage with the GoPro surf cam Sue gave me, and we ate some McDonalds take-out on the beach. Afterwards Ben went out and I paddled along beside him.

Today was the first day I can say Ben really stood up on a wave. And wow, I think he's got it. He popped up again 3 more times. Four rides makes a session I'd say. Good job Ben - I'm proud of you!

Sweet 16

What she said....

Da Hui

Today was July 4th and Sue had a morning shift at Ala Moana. We dropped Sue at the mall and then the kids and I went to go watch Greg Adams compete in "The 31st Annual Hu`i O Hele Nalu Independence Day Paddle Board and Standup Paddle Race" at Waimea Bay. I brainfarted on the drive from the mall to Waimea and ended up heading North on H3 instead of H2. For those that don't know, there is no Stuckey's or Flying J to peel off on half way up the Ko`olau, nope. Making that turn is a half hour boo-boo. You are in Aiea and then next stop, you've bored through two mountains and are coming down a 3000' concrete rainbow into Kaneohe.

Making the best of it and deciding not to double back, we took the "scenic route" and went counter-clockwise round the island from K-Bay all the way to Waimea. It takes about an hour, which is about the longest you can drive on this island and not end up pretty much in the same place.

We saw lots of ocean, I had time to put in a much-needed call to my parents, Nate barfed, and still we somehow miraculously managed to get there in time for Greg's big finish. As we came around Three Tables into Waimea, we saw a flotilla of surfboard paddlers, seated paddleboarders, and standup boarders. There was a racing division for each.

We stayed around after the Race, and entered Ben along with Ilikea in some of the children's division games they had afterwards. Ben elected not to do paddleboarding but participated in the beach run and did very well in the ocean swim.

Having been to several North Shore open water swim events I can say with authority that paddleboard events are WAY cooler than swim events. The event was heavily sponsored by Red Bull, some brand of vodka, food was free (free for like a thousand people!) hot dogs, teri-burgers, sliced oranges, ono grindz. I think I'm going to give up swimming and maybe start paddleboarding. Those guys are rock stars.