At Long Last

After having come home from vacation to find that my computer had crashed beyond all recognition (those last two posts I had written at work...shh, don't tell my boss), and also that Itchy had run away again, I have been in no mood to write any stories of substance about my fun and exciting time in Hawaii.

Since I've come home, I have gotten a new computer (yay!), recovered Itchy (I'll write about that in another post, I think), and started rehearsals for Grendel. So it's not like I've not been having adventures, it's just that I only have a small window of time with which to post anything. So I guess I'm going to stick with the Hawaii stories for now.

We arrived at the Honolulu airport after a grueling 11 hour nonstop flight from Newark. The good thing about the nonstop is that it really does cut down on the travel time. The bad thing is that the flight just keeps going on and on and on and on...

My mom met us at the airport with her partner, K., and after we got the rental car, we caravanned to the North Shore of Oahu, where we would be staying for the next week. My mom had rented a beautiful vacation apartment for us, but when we got there, we could care less how big or spacious or close to the ocean it was; all we wanted to do was sleep.

In the morning, however, we went outside and beheld the beauty of this vacation rental called Waimea Wonder. I cannot stress enough what a great time we had there. We were in a two bedroom apartment, complete with kitchen, living/dining room, and wrap-around porch. The apartment itself was its own house and stood with the landlord's house (also the same size) on the property.

When we walked to the yard behind the landlord's house, we realized that we were right on the ocean. The backyard opened out onto a rocky shore, and there were two coconut trees with a hammock strung between them (Ray's favorite part of the whole place). There were benches facing the ocean as well as a gazebo to take one's morning coffee, I would assume.

It was like we had our own private ocean. It was so peaceful, and while we were out there that first morning, a monarch butterfly kept flitting around the garden, reminding me of my plans to have a butterfly release for the wedding.

We spent the first day recuperating from jet lag. Actually, we spent the whole week recuperating from jet lag, which made it all the harder to get back on East Coast time when we returned, but it was worth it. Ray discovered (of course) that we had cable with our TV, so he loafed around watching the Discovery Channel while I puttered around making breakfast.

My mom had stocked the kitchen with everything one might need, including fresh papayas and mangoes and locally grown coffee. Ray, who eschews all vegetables and most fruits (especially the exotic ones), had bacon and eggs for breakfast, but that just meant more papaya for me.

My mom and K. came over around lunch time, and we went "into town" to Haleiwa, which is the most popular tourist destination on the North Shore. Most tourists (and hotels) are in Waikiki, which is on the southern part of Oahu, in Honolulu, so the North Shore is a little more country, and the locals like it that way. They get their share of tourists, especially surfers, but the bulk of the tourists stay in Waikiki, where the hotel deals are.

We ate at the famous Haleiwa Joe's and then walked around the rustic shopping area, where my mom pointed out an off-the-wall shop where the eccentric owner paints and carves old surfboard and other pieces of wood and displays them. There were large wooden painted birds hanging from the trees, angry-looking turtles painted as if they were coming out of the surfboard at us (perhaps some foreshadowing?): indeed, a whole garden of surfly delights. While we were touring the outside of the shop, we were approached by a very tall, friendly, black woman who either had purposely styled her hair into an Afro that stuck out almost ten inches around her head or, more likely, hadn't combed her hair in a week. I can't remember her name, but Ray called her Rastafarian Rita for the rest of the trip. She was very nice, although she clearly wanted to sell us some of the surfboard art, and she was the one who recommended that I buy a disposable underwater camera for snorkeling. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have had those pictures of the fishies.

Well, now my time has run out, and my post has gotten way too long. So I shall say adieu until I have a little more time to show you more pictures and tell more stories.

More Teasers

For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting pictures and stories from Hawaii, I've been a bit busy because my computer died a slow and painful death. I do have a new one, thank goodness, but I've been loading all my extra software and stuff on it, and haven't had time to blog.

That being said, here's something to tide you over. I like to call this one "Ray's view of Hawaii."

Turtlebane

Just as a follow-up to my previous post, I did want to mention that I went back twice to the turtle beach to see if I could find another turtle and NOT freak out this time, but I didn't see any. There was even a local guy standing on the beach telling tourists that they were definitely out there; all one had to do was swim out there, and they would come. But try as I might, I didn't see any.

Ray says that the one turtle I had the encounter with told all the turtles in the area to keep away from the crazy flailing girl. I'm thinking I scared away all the turtles on the North Shore for two days. When we were driving to the airport, we passed the turtle beach, and I actually did see one out in the water, but we didn't really have time to stop, and I didn't want to get on the plane dripping with seawater.

More tales to come, attached to pictures, which I have yet to download from Ray's camera.

Swimming with the fishies

I just got back from Hawaii, and I'm exhausted. I managed to write a few tidbits down while I was there, and I just finished scanning a few pictures into my computer. Keep posted for more stories about the trip.

This Hawaiian vacation has been spectacular. I only have a couple days left, and I have managed to keep from burning myself too badly.

Yesterday, my mom and I went snorkeling. Ray wasn't really interested in getting in the water, so we left him lying in the hammock outside our vacation rental, happily reading a book.

I really wanted to try to see the turtles at Turtle Beach (apparently it's a favorite place for turtles to hang out), but there is never a guarantee that you'll actually see one. Apparently, the place attracts a lot of tourists, and a lot of the locals are upset that the tourists are endangering the turtles' livelihoods, so there are all these signs up all over the beach that say "don't crowd the turtles," and other such warnings.

When we got there, the beach was pretty crowded, and my mom was pretty pessimistic that there would be any turtles at all, due to the large volume of tourists. I guess the turtles might also have "don't crowd the tourists" signs posted around the beach, too.

Anyway, my mom wanted to leave before we even got to the beach, but I saw what looked like a rock in the water start to move, so I kept on going. Now, I haven't gone snorkeling for some time, and I'm not the world's best swimmer, especially when it comes to underwater stuff, so I figured I'd wade in and just stick my face in the water and remind myself how to snorkel for a while, just up near the beach part, before I go looking for turtles.

So I put my mask on, put the snorkel in my mouth, and stuck my face in the water, getting used to breathing through the snorkel, and lifted my feet off the sand, and started to float. I turned my head to the left and saw my mom's legs, and I turned to my right and saw a GIANT SEA TURTLE as big as me, not three feet next to me, looking at me as if to say, "Hey."

"Holy shit!" I screamed through my snorkel. I backed away and stood up, my heart pounding. I had had an underwater camera in my hand, and instead of taking a picture or just taking in the beautiful of such a marvelous creature, I had freaked out and probably freaked out the poor turtle, who was gone by the time I got the nerve to go back underwater.

I'm probably the only person on the beach that morning who had seen a turtle, and what did I do? I freaked out. I'm so MAD at myself!

After my brief encounter with the sea turtle, my mom took me to another little snorkeling cove away from the tourists, and I managed to actually keep calm and take some good pictures. You'll see more as soon as I'm more awake to put them on the site.










(a humuhumunukunukuapua'a, the state fish)

Parting Shots

Tomorrow Ray and I are off to Hawaii to visit my mom and decide where we want to get married next year. I'm very excited, although it's 8:45 PM and I still haven't really started packing. I figure I'll stay up late tonight to get my body used to the 6 hour time difference between here and Hawaii. Oy.

I'll most likely not have any or very limited internet access while I'm away, and although I'll take lots of pictures and have plenty to say when I get back, I thought I'd leave you all out there with some pictures of stuff right here in NJ.

First, Ray and I went to a diner the other night, and the placemats were covered with ads, as is the norm for many fine dining establishments such as this. While we were waiting for our greasy waiter to serve us, I amused myself by laughing at all the ads. This one in particular had me chuckling.

In case the photo is too blurry, the ad says "Specailizing in Honda's and Acura's for over 25 years." I'll be over here, grinning and watching you all cringe at the spelling and grammatical errors. I have already cringed, so now I can enjoy you doing the same.

In other news, I have more cute pictures of my cats. Well, okay, this time I got a picture Scratchy, who likes to hide under his chair (you saw his feet earlier). Whenever I try to get him to go outside and play, he rolls around and shows me how cute he is. He likes to convince me that if he's this cute right now, he'll be cute all the time, and therefore I should just keep him indoors all day long.

I'm not sure why, but he also looks like he's glaring at me, as if to say, "Don't take pictures of me unless you've talked to my agent!"

Look Ma, Three Arms!

So I was driving to work today, listening to the BBC World News (as I always do), trying not to get depressed about the horrible things going on in the Middle East (BBC loves to abide by the "if it bleeds, it leads" rule), when all of a sudden, they start talking about some baby in China that had three arms. THREE ARMS? I almost had to pull over.

The reporter was interviewing the doctor, asking him questions like, "So why did you detach the third arm?" I was sort of expecting some sort of explanation of the physiological damage that could occur with a third arm, but he said the extra arm was almost perfectly functional. It's just that the parents had requested it be removed so the kid wouldn't be teased when he got older.

I guess that's a good point. And there is the concern that you'd have to sew in an extra sleeve in all his shirts...what a pain. But think of the plus side: he could have turned out to be a one-of-a-kind virtuoso pianist! I guess they thought what's the point, unless he has FOUR arms, right?

Stoned Cats

Not much to report these days. The lazy, hazy days of summer are upon us, and Itchy has taken to lying in and around the catnip every day. Whenever he comes in for dinner, he acts very out of character and starts rolling all over the ground and trying to eat our feet. I told him he has a problem, and his response was, "Meow," which I interpret to mean, "Hey man, I can stop any time I want!"

In the meantime, Scratchy is in search of the best shady spot in the garden. Sometimes it's under the shed, sometimes it's by the pond. But when he's inside, he likes to go under the chairs that have skirts to hide from the sun (and his annoying brother).

I took this picture of Scratchy the other day...I think I thought at the time that one leg was a hind leg, and the other is a front leg, so you can only imagine what position I thought he had contorted himself into. But now that I'm looking more closely, it just looks like those are two front legs. Well, you get the idea, anyway.