Monkey Island (almost!)

The vog has cleared! The weather in Hawaii has been as it should be these past few weeks. I'm not sure if we are back to having the cleanest air in the world again, but we no longer have the brown skies one would expect to see in mainland city.

Derek and Nicola have come and gone. We stayed busy with going out to eat and meeting up after work. We also made it out the the sand bar for a day. After over a year of waiting, we finally made our attempt at Monkey Island in Derek's inflatable kayak. It just so happened that I was the only one that had water-capable sandals out there, so I ended up pulling the kayak towards the landmark with three lounging passengers encouraging me.

We made it to about 150m of the island, just before the start of the ocean channel. The waves were about 2-3' and the current was strong. As soon as the water was chest high, I started to have doubts about whether or not it was a good idea. An inflatable kayak does not inspire the confidence that a sailboat -with or without a mast- does.

In the end, it was Derek's call. He decided that it wasn't worth the risk of getting swept into the ocean. I called him on it. In the past, he was always the devil sitting on my shoulder, encouraging me to push the envelope just a little further. When I told him that gaining a sense of caution was a new trait in him, he told me that, "having a heart attack can change your perspective." Amazingly, neither Derek nor I were seriously injured during his entire time here. The worst thing that happened is he lost his wedding ring at the sand bar.

That was also a good day in that we met up with our old friends: Tomollie (also known separately as Tom and Hollie). They were old roommates of Juliet's and were regular attendees at the weekly TV on DVD Wednesday nights. They have been doing a lot of sailing (with no motor at all), so these past few weeks I have been meeting up with them at the sand bar. It looks like we are going to try to get TV on DVD going again next Wednesday. Battlestar Galactica. I know, it sounds nerdy, but everyone who has seen it swears by it. Plus, what better way to break in a new house.

That brings me to my last piece of news: it looks like I will be moving to Lanikai. I don't want to jinx it since I haven't signed the lease yet, but all indications are looking good. Depending on who you ask, Lanikai is the best neighborhood on Oahu. It is small, since the mountains block it in, and it has a beautiful stretch of beach looking out onto the Mokulua's ("two islands"). It's a really expensive area, but you get what you pay for. The house is just across the street from the beach and is very large and open. I am looking forward to getting away from apartment living for a while and having a garage, yard, and more space. Plus, I won't have to park a mile away if I come home after 7:00pm because all of the street parking is gone. That in itself is worth the hassle of moving.

Catching Up

Things in Hawaii have been going on as normal. I have been working on the other side of the island for some time, but it looks like I will be back to the Windward side starting this coming week. I’m not sure how long I will be here, but that means no more books on tape. I love those. It’s like reading, but you don’t have to burn out your eyes.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a night at the sand bar by myself. It had a been a really long time since making an escape like that. I left right after work on a Friday and ended up staying about 22 hours, which isn’t bad considering I only brought a piece of salmon, a small loaf of peasant rye, and a carton of soy milk. It was really nice to get away. I was hoping that I would be able to escape the sounds of all things human, but the din of Kaneohe and H-3 traffic didn’t subside, despite it being about 2 miles away. The lesson to be learned there is that sound really carries well over water. Despite the traffic when I was topside, it was a relaxing evening. When I went below all I heard was the water and constant cracking and popping sounds of the ecosystem growing on the bottom of my boat.

The next day I slept in until about 9:00am and spent the day reading. I broke my own rule of not bringing non-essential electronics aboard when I decided to bring my mp3 player, but it was a good move. My least favorite part about the sand bar is when people think that everyone within a 200m radius wants to hear their choice music blasted over their tinny boat speakers. Listening to Interpol and Songs: Ohia through my headphones was much more pleasant than listening to the indecipherable jumble of Hawaiian music and modern rock being bombarded at me from port and starboard. All in all, it was a really good day.

I have been trying to get out on my motorcycle a little more. Every since the successful radiator flush and fuel filter replacement from about a month back it has been running great. The problem now, I noticed while traveling quite fast on H-1, is that my back brake doesn’t work. At all. As you might guess, that has kept me from riding very much. I’m hesitant to spend more money on a motorcycle that isn’t worth much in resale, but brakes are a key component of any vehicle. Hooray for my $600 economic relief check. I already spent it (and then some) on a new laptop, but that my laptop was made in China, so I guess it doesn’t really count as relieving the American economy. BMW parts are probably made in China, too, but the $75/hr labor is coming from Americans, so that would be pretty patriotic of me to get the brakes fixed, right?

The other good news I have is that Derek and Nicola are here on island for vacation. They are both doing really well. Derek’s memory is back and he we have been able to rehash some of our old injuries/accidents together. I’ve mentioned it before, but every time I’ve gotten hurt on this island, Derek was there. We have a pretty full weekend planned, so I want to be sure to post this before I break both of my arms or lose a foot in a shark attack.

Fishing

I have been tagging along with Dan and his friends for the past week or so. I have been having a lot of fun and hopefully they haven't minded my constant presence.

Last night we all met up in Chinatown. It had been a while since I had been out and it was a good time. Our favorite game to play in the bars is watching hapless, lonely guys hit on the transgender crowd. Last night was no exception. Sitting down, the two "ladies" looked feminine enough, but upon seeing them standing, their man-frames gave them away. Oddly enough, most people don't seem to mind and continue dropping their "A-game." There has to be something behind that. I'm guessing a small part of the equation is alcohol.

I cut out from the bars early (and apparently missed out on the excitement) in order to get some rest for today. We went charter fishing this morning. We only caught two fish, but it is always nice to get out on the ocean. Later this afternoon, we are going to go to Waikiki for the Kokua festival. Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, as well as Mason Jennings will be playing. I'm not sure if we will pay the $40 entrance fee or listen for free from Kapiolani park. Either way, it should be a good time.

We didn't really fish. The lines were all prepared and we just waited for a bite. After that, we did reel it in, but that was as far as we went. Someone else pulled the fish into the boat, stored it, and even cleaned it. We really just relaxed, for the most part.

All of us relaxed besides Mike. Unfortunately, this is what he looked like for the majority of the trip.

Kevin and I "caught" fish. What that really means is, we were the closest to the chair when the line snagged and we spun the reel. Pictured are two mahi-mahi. Mine is really bigger, it's just that Kevin is standing in the foreground (ok, not really).

Overnight at the Sandbar

Dan has some friends from Minnesota in town and I have been tagging along. Last night we made our way to the sandbar. The weather in Hawaii has been cloudy and wet lately, but it was a nice evening. Maybe it was because of the weather, but we were the only boat out there until after 9:00am this morning. That was a first for me. It was really nice not having to contend with anyone else. The sandbar was ours and the sunrise this morning was nice. There was a good number of clouds at different elevations and that made for some great color.

Pre-dawn

Day-break

Water and sand

Due to the sketchy weather, everyone (besides me and my waterproof stuff) slept inside. I finally got to turn my table into a bed. That was a first time the table bed fulfilled the bed role. It worked nicely.

Valley to the Top

Last weekend I went on a hike with a friend from work and his father in-law. It was the best hike I have been on in quite a while. It was a full day of scrambling through brush and walking up a dubious trail, but it was an enjoyable trip. We started just outside Honolulu and walked about 7 miles to the windward side of the island. Hard boiled eggs, homemade chocolate/honey bread, and a camelbak full of water were keys to success.

Orchid? It was a bit wilted, but this was a first seen for me in Hawaii.

This is a hill, not a wall. Very steep with swirling winds at over 2000 ft. Fun.

The hill we ended on used to be some sort of communications station for the Coast Guard.

A view of Kaneohe Bay from the top of the trail.

Parents' Trip

Things have been busy lately. I still haven't had a chance to post any picutres from when my parents were here, but better late than never.

My parents really enjoyed their vacation to Hawaii and I had fun showing them to my favorite spots on the island as well as some of the touristy things that I hadn't done up to that point. I'm glad they were able to finally make it out here. I took a few days off work while they were here and some of the key places we went were:

Arizona Memorial

Diamond Head

Sandbar (it's out there, to the left)

Kolikoli Pass

Maunawili Falls

Besides what's pictured, we also made it to Waikiki for a couple of days, the Polynesian Cultural Center, the North Shore, Mokapu'u Lighthouse (no whales, though), and Chinatown.

We were very productive.

Video?

I tried this before with a higher quality video, but the file was too big to load. Let's see if it works with the camera on "email" quality video. The video itself is of the cottage my parents stayed in for the first few days on island.

Other than that, my parents just got done with a week out here. I took off work for most of the week and I was able to show them around a bit. It was a busy week, but a good time. My dad broke his arm the first morning he was here, but he took it like a trooper and didn't let it ruin his vacation.

I hope to upload some pictures this weekend...

The Cost of Laziness: $250

Blogger hasn't been working for me lately. When I try to post, the tool bar has been missing, meaning the all important picture upload tool and spell checker are gone. Without those, posting seems less appealing. This morning all is well again, so here is a post with both pictures and correct spelling.


In the past couple of weeks, Jens and Anne have come and gone. It was good having them here. We all hung out on the weekends and they did their own thing during the week while I was at work. We spent the night at the sandbar, went to Mokapu'u Lighthouse for the sunrise and some whale watching, went to the North Shore for some shrimp shack and wave watching, and they taught me some German.

Apparently they don't have aluminum cans in Germany, so Jens is re-living the American joy of shot-gunning a beer while Dan tends the fishing line in the background. We caught a fish, but it broke the line and took the hook with it.

Girlie drinks at twilight.

Morning swim at the sandbar after spending the night.

The height of German fashion.

The weekend after Jens and Anne left, I went out to the sand bar with (from left to right) Wook, Justin, Danny, and Dan.

Sunrise.

Kayakers silhouetted against Mokapu Peninsula.

That brings me all the way to this weekend. What happened this weekend? Per the title of this post, I lost $250 because I was lazy.

Like most areas with a high concentration of people, there is a shortage of parking where I live. I usually park about a mile away from my apartment when there is no street parking nearby and walk the ten minutes back to my place. However, since I was planning on going to Chinatown for the monthly First Friday festivities and I had a couple of bags to carry up to the apartment, I parked in the guest lot instead of walking. I planned on driving downtown anyway, so I would only be there for an hour.

I got home and got lazy. I decided to not go out and I forgot about my car until precisely 7:00am the next morning when I shot out of bed with feeling of dread very similar to the one you get when you realize that you forgot to do a major school assignment or oversleep by an hour or two on a workday. I ran outside to check on the status of my car and, sure enough, it had been towed.

Getting your car towed in Hawaii is not cheap. To be precise, for me it was $250 (cash only) not cheap. $75 hook up fee, $25 impound fee, and $7.50 per mile towing fee. So it goes. I really have no one to blame but myself, and even if I could have been mad at someone, it wouldn't have done any good. Dan gave me a ride to Sand Island to pick up my car and I paid the painfully polite cashier through the tiny slot in the fully enclosed impound yard office trailer.

The rest of the day was spent swimming and playing football at Kailua Beach. Today's excitement includes working on my motorcycle and buying groceries. I really need to stop putting off fixing my motorcycle since my parents will be here next weekend and I hope to let them use my car. I plan on taking a few days off in order to do some of the tourist things with them. I still haven't been to the majority of the tourist site on the island despite living here for almost 2.5 years. I guess that, too, can be chalked up to laziness.

Deutschlaenders!

Jens and his girlfriend Anne are on the island. Here are a few pictures from the first couple of days. So far we have climbed Olomana and we went to Maunawili. Last night we all went to Dan's for kebabs. Today we are off to Chinatown for dim sum and then we are going to spend the night at the sandbar. I will update with more pictures and writing later.

Flight of the Navigator!

(Sushi Sunday: Deluxe Family Platter and Flight of the Navigator.)

(The best facial expression of the whole movie.)

So, not much going on lately. I have been actually getting out for night life these past few weeks. Yeah: bars, music, and beer. Craziness, I know. It's not the way I usually roll, but it's a good change of pace.

The boat is still mastless and the motorcycle still overheats. I have been lazy. I was hoping to get some of that taken care of over the long President's Day weekend, but I have an old German friend from high school coming to visit later this week. Our exchange student Jens will be coming out this Thursday. I am looking forword to it. I ran into him once in college when he did a road trip across the US with some of his German friends, but other than that, it's been about 9 years since I last saw him. He is best known for kicking a guy in the head trying for the extra point during a football game against Wisconsin Dells (Germans play soccer, so make the exchange student the kicker. Makes sense, sort of. His explanation, "if he did not want to get kicked, why did he cover the ball?") and the line Mike made his repeat quite often, "stop kicking my backpack."

Lanai

This past weekend Dan and I went to Lanai for a version of camping. It was a fun and interesting weekend.

We bought our tickets last weekend at the revival of Sushi and 40s Night. It was a good night. A couple of drinks into the evening, Dan listed us as doctors on the airline tickets. Of course, there could have been some sort of legal ramifications if something went wrong, so I set the story straight in the remarks section. "We are not real doctors" probably would have cleared us from any blame had anything gone wrong.

The flight itself was one of the highlights of the trip. We flew in a nine seat plane. It was small and our pilots, while probably the B-team, were pretty funny. Their safety speech was as follows:

Pilot 1: Welcome aboard Go! Airlines, we will be taking off shortly for our flight to Lanai City, Lanai. Your nearest emergency exit is behind you on either side of the aircraft. You can also come out our doors up-front, but you will have to get through us first. There is a fire extinguisher in the back, which could also be used as a club. If you do get clubbed by one of us, there is a first aid kit on the wall next to this plastic, terrorist proof door up here, which we ask you to stay behind. Hang on and enjoy the flight.
Passenger: When do you serve the beer?
Pilot 2: Actually, we don't serve beer on this flight, but you can bring your own. According to FAA regulations, you are not allowed to open it, so you have to pass it to us, we open it, and hand it back.
Passenger: Really?
Pilot 1: He's not kidding. Of course, a sip tax also applies to every beer we open, so you won't get a full beer back after passing it forward.
Pilot 2: It's a small tax. They just gave me my pilot's license back, so I don't like risking it as much anymore.


Following that, we flew right over Waikiki on our way to Lanai. Lanai airport was the most interesting airport I have ever been to. It was like I imagine any municipal airport being like, except we were commercial passengers. The pilot got the key to the airport from coded-key box and asked us to keep our voices down in order to avoid waking the guard. Nice.

Before describing the route we took after leaving the airport, I need to give a short history of the island. In a nut shell, someone owns the entire thing. It used to supply 20% of the world's commercial supply of pineapples when Dole owned it. At that time, every arable square foot of land was covered in Dole pineapples. Eventually the water went dry and American labor became too expensive. David H. Murdoch bought it all and put up two resorts, which is the island's only real economic engine. Only 3,000 people live on the island, all in Lanai City.

Today, the old pineapple fields are covered in grass and some small shrubs. Most of the roads are old field access roads. We tried cutting through the fields in the beginning, but the shortest distance (or at least fastest) between two points isn't always a straight line. If you are ever in Lanai, stick to the roads. All we got for our trouble was itchy legs and lost time.

We made a bee-line for the road and turned on my GPS (worth every penny). With the help of some satellites and digital maps, we made our way to Kaonolu. It was the site of an ancient fishing village and a residence of Kamehameha I. We found a spot to put up the tent for the night . The weather was great, but the ground was not. It was covered with some very large volcanic rocks, with no where to put up a tent to avoid all of them. On the bright side, we each saved $5 by not going to a campground. A fair compromise, I suppose.


The next day we looked at the sights in the area, including Kahekili's Jump (a 30m drop where Kamehameha made warriors prove their bravery. No, we didn't jump.), the ruins of the fishing village, and a couple of heiau (shrines). We sat next to one of the shrines and ate breakfast while watching the crabs and fish in the pools below, as well as the occasional humpback whale in the deeper water. After breakfast, we made our way up the dirt road towards Hulopo'e Beach.


The beach was nice. By that time we had walked about 13 miles (I just mapped it out on Google Earth) since our arrival on Lanai. It may not sound like a lot, but much of that was up hill on rough roads. Ok, even that it doesn't sound bad, but the point is, the water was nice. It was next to one of the resorts, so we got an eye full of the rich European looking people with their small knit caps, oversized designer sunglasses, and not-quite-Speedo swimsuits. The water was full of locals and dolphins, so that was fun as well. We ate lunch on the beach and began walking up hill towards town. A little more than a mile into the walk, a passerby offered us a ride. We weren't about to say no.

Our new friend was a teacher who had been living in Hawaii on and off since the 1970's and had recently decided to make Lanai her home for good. Luckily for us, she both wanted to show us around the island and also really wanted to take her new xTerra off road. Again, we weren't about to say no. We got to drive the entire Munro trail, which took us across the spine of the island and made for some wonderful views. Lanai, Maui, and Molokai are all very close to one another, and that is even more obvious from 3000 ft.


Later in the afternoon we picked up a grill and some chicken on a stick. We headed down to Polihua Beach, just past the Garden of the Gods, and grilled out. We watched some whales swim nearby and the green flash of the sun setting (I didn't see it). A few beers into the evening we talked about all of the high brow philosophical topics you talk about while in front of a fire on a beach in Hawaii, namely, how sweet it is to live in Hawaii and have a fire on the beach. This is also known as 'the good life.'



We went back to Lanai City and made some lumpiez (Filipino pork wraps dipped in hot and sour sauce) and passed out pretty quickly. The next morning it was straight to the airport, a long bus ride home, some doughnuts from Kaneohe Bakery, and a full day of trying to think of something to do. We didn't come up with anything, so it ended up being a day of eating and TV watching. I think it was our feet that led us to that decision.

Maintain

I have a history of ignoring maintenance on everything I own. After a few minutes of reflection, I think I have narrowed down the top 5 reasons for that:

1. I am not very mechanically inclined.
2. I procrastinate. A lot.
3. I have a natural flight response whenever a project becomes more difficult than what I originally signed up for.
4. I don't operate in the realm of exactness, just approximations (I am currently holding my car together with marine adhesive, steel epoxy, and a killer combo of disassembled pens and super glue).
5. I don't trust anyone who charges $75/hr plus the cost of parts to have my best interest in mind. Right or wrong, I assume that they don't care about addressing the actual problems as much as they care about maximizing their profit by recommending questionable, expensive, and unnecessary procedures.

All in all, I think it has just been a bad couple of months. Allow me to list my problems:

1. My Toyota station wagon suffered an exploded radiator (technical term) 5 days before I left Japan. The result: no return on my original purchase price. In the end, that's not so bad. The cost of the vehicle averaged out to about $9/day plus fuel, which is way less than the $55/day car rentals over there.

2. My sailboat got reamed by the Kona Winds right before I returned to Hawaii. My mast is still waiting for me on the bottom of the marina floor. While it is true that I ignored most maintenance on the boat, the actual piece of the boat that failed is not something I would have replaced during routine maintenance, anyway. The winds were so strong that the metal clasp holding the 1/4" wire to the boat sheared. Nature is strong.

3. My Honda Accord is limping badly. Despite feeding her $250 in parts (CV axle, distributor cap, spark plugs and wires) and giving her hours of TLC (oil change, brake bleeding, and tender words of encouragement motivating her to overcome her old age) these past two weeks, she is getting very poor gas mileage and shutters while driving. Per the mechanics advice back in 2003, I am going to try replacing the oxygen sensor this weekend. Maybe that will help.

4. My BMW K75 motorcycle is sluggish on the acceleration and overheats. I think it may be due to a clogged fuel filter. I didn't come up with this diagnosis on my own; internet discussion boards aren't just for the video-gaming crowd and desperately lonely. Also, I remember a seemingly related event from a few years ago while traveling. We were driving to Mt. Everest and our Tibetan driver stopped to clean the fuel filter (really dusty roads) because the Land Cruiser was very sluggish. His cleaning methods were pure: he simply took out the fuel filter, put the thing up to his mouth, sucked out the problem, gagged and possibly puked, put the filter back in, and pressed on. I think I will spend the $25 for a new filter and skip the middle steps, but I hope to have the same results.

As the old aphorism commands: "Know Thyself." This weekend if I can overcome reasons 1-3 from the top of the post, I shouldn't have to worry about #4. As for #5, I think Robert Persig had an admirable way of looking at it all in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Basically, even if I exacerbate my original problem and have to pay someone to fix it plus the additional problems I cause, at least I will have learned something along the way.

When all is said and done, it's simply a matter of perspective. As long as I can come to the end of this project and write off expenses under "education" rather than "I have no idea what I am doing and I should have paid someone else to do it in the first place," I will consider it a success.

Kauai

This past weekend, I went to Kauai with a few friends. Kauai is a beautiful island and the trip was the perfect length to see everything we wanted to see without having to spend the whole holiday there.


We arrived on Sunday morning and made our way to the Na Pali Coast. Na Pali translates to "the cliff(s)," which is an accurate description of the hike. I have heard from a lot of people that Na Pali is the most beautiful part of Hawaii. While it was a great hike and had some beautiful scenery, I can't say that it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in Hawaii. I think it is pretty difficult to rank different parts of Hawaii against one another. There are so many things here that are so impressive, it is nearly impossible to make a definitive list. I will say that it was impressive, but with the build-up preceding the trip, I was expecting a little more. Another thing that may have affected my perception was the crowds. I am willing to bet that the whole ordeal would have been more pleasant and tranquil had the trail not been so heavy with traffic, but on a holiday weekend, it is to be expected.

Of note, the girls think they saw Sarah Jessica Parker in the parking lot by the start of the trail. It may or may not have been her. If anyone knows how to track down celebrities, it may be worth looking into. Also, we didn't take any pictures because we thought it would be rude (i.e. we have no proof.)

Yesterday we slept in, got some breakfast, and headed for Kipu Falls as our first destination. The falls there are unlike the majority of the falls that I have seen in Hawaii. Usually, the water cascades down a rock face in a thin stream. In Kipu's case, the face of the falls was about 25 meters across and 10 meters high. The pool at the bottom was quite large and deep. One of the added bonuses of the falls was that on a ledge at the side of the pool the owner's of the land (the falls is on private property, but the owners don't try to keep people out) installed a ladder and rope swing. Depending on what point of the swing you released the rope, you could get a pretty good drop into the water.

The rapids leading up to the waterfall were very strong. In order to get to the pool, the best way was to jump from the top of the waterfall, swim to the ladder, and play on the rope swing. The return trip was a little more difficult. I almost lost it in the rapids and would have been pushed over the falls. After my first failed attempt at crossing, I decided to walk upstream until I found some rocks to climb across. I do better with climbing than swimming.

After the falls, we went to Waimea Canyon. This is one of the places that, if I were making a list, I would definitely have up there with the most beautiful places I've seen. It's called Hawaii's Grand Canyon. I wish I could give an good representation of the canyon, but I am not the best with words and my pictures never show the things as I saw them at the time. The best description I could give of the canyon is that it seemed to be dripping with light from both the sky and the reflection off of the nearby ocean. The way that the sunlight drenched everything was the most alluring aspect of it all for me. I wouldn't even describe it as bright or clear, but instead thick and full. It was as if the light was a liquid coating covering the entire scene. It was beautiful. I'm not sure how else to describe it.

After the canyon, we all got some shave ice (not shaved, mind you) and headed back towards the airport. Despite my car having some troubles with the brakes and a really bad shake in the front right tire, we all made it home by 9:30pm. It was New Year's Eve, but I decided against going out. I was in bed by 11:00 and not even the constant sparkle and boom of the fireworks (they people here really love fireworks) interruped my sleep. I slept in until after 8:30 this morning. I think that is the most I have slept-in since getting back from Japan. Today I am finally getting my day of sleeping in, sitting around, and doing nothing. Hooray for the holidays.