"I sent Linden back to New Zealand. Green card ran out. It was that, or get married."

"What was wrong with her?"

"Absolutely nothing," Seven confessed. "She cleaned like banshee; she never let me wash a dish; she listened to everything I had to say; she was a hurricane in bed. She was crazy about me, and believe it or not, I was the one for her. It was, like, ninety-eight percent perfect."

"What about the other two percent?"

"You tell me." He started stacking the clean glasses on the far side of the bar. "Something was missing. I couldn't tell you what it was, if you asked, but it was off. And if you think of a relationship as a living entity, I guess it's one thing if the missing two percent is, like, a fingernail. But when it's the heart, that's a whole different ball of wax."

Apparently Inglorious Bastards is an awesome movie...according to 19346 of my friends.

Here's a hymn to the garnet and the gold
Ringing to the sky
Here's a song for the men and women bold
Sing with heads held high

Striving ere to seek to know
Fight for victory
Alma mater, this our song to you
Echoes F. S. U.

Tonight was Hymn Night during preseason for the Marching Chiefs. Sure, I'm bummed I wasn't there to sing the Hymn with other past and present Chiefs, but at the same time it feels kind of good. I do miss all my friends and I haven't made a visit up to Tallahassee in months. But at the same time I'm glad I'm not still in Tally. I guess I finally feel like I'm growing up, just a little, and in a good way. Maybe it's because I would have felt like I was stuck in a rut if I stayed in the little college town. Felt as if I was waiting for something to happen without doing the work. Who really knows? Either way, there will always be games on the weekends and being an alumni has it's perks, especially for the band.

So much for attempting to post every few days 0:)

Things have pretty much gotten back to normal the very next day I returned from vaca. I kicked off the week with an 8 hour shift at the Aquarium both on Thursday and Friday. Saturday I was suppose to work at the AQ, but due to Trish's car breaking down and Brad helping her out (both are my managers), I was asked to cover the lunch cruise that afternoon. On the plus side they didn't need me at the AQ after that cruise so I got the rest of the day off. The downside was I lost some hours of work. Then Sunday before leaving work I was asked to cover a shift because Dee wasn't able to come back for her Monday shift, so I made up my lost hours :)

Tuesday after work I met up with Bri, Ben, Alex, Bri's parents, and her parent's friends at Four Green Fields on Platt and Plant with the rest of the running club. The club runs a 5K every Tuesday down Bayshore then hangs around Four Green for food and beer. It was the first day I did any kind of exercising since I've been back. It was pretty rough for me. I'm used to running on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym, not to mention I've never run/walked a 5K in my life. I've been to the gym everyday since then. I doubt I'll go today since I'm already dressed for work from 3:45pm-11:30pm.

Aside from work and exercising, my roomie and I have been going out to our usual bars. I was able to go to MacDinton's happy hour the first Friday of the month since I worked at the AQ instead of a cruise. It's been probably close to a month since I've been. And it worked out because Nicole and John are now back in town from spending the summer back home in Rhode Island. We all met at MacDinton's, so it only seemed fitting to go to happy hour their first night back in Tampa :)

Last night I went out to Acropolis for dinner and then Dunderbak's for some German beer to celebrate Caroline's 24th birthday. I saw some old faces from her old Land O' Lakes neighborhood she grew up with, and met some new ones. We had a good time all around.

Nothing too exciting has really happened, so if you couldn't really tell from my nonsense of a blog :P

The first day home I noticed three dead butterflies on our back porch. The ceiling of the porch doesn't quite connect with the frame of the screened in walls. As a result there's all sorts of insects dead on our floor that got flew in but are unable to find their way out. I decided to take the butterflies for a last minute "art project". I have some 3x4 pieces of plexi glass I salvaged from an old class project. I used those and duct tape to make a frame. I pulled the wings off the butterflies and framed them. Not quite sure what to use them for now, but I have them nonetheless.




*EDIT*
The picture of the butterflies was too big and never uploaded before I had to head to work. In fact, it never uploaded period.

Work wasn't so bad. The first cruise didn't go too well. I had 27 packages, and only sold 11. Of course that messed with my confidence a bit. But the second cruise.... I sold packages like it was the larger yacht; 30 out of 33, totaling $520 in sales. And to top it off I made a $12 tip :)

Our last day in Maui :(

We woke up, packed, finished up some laundry, and picked up around the house. We first went to Lahaina. The family ate lunch at Pioneer Inn then walked around the town for a few hours. For dinner we headed back to Charley's in Paia

My mom overestimated our time it would take to turn in the rental and get through security at the airport. We ended up getting there 3 hours before our flight. There was only one layover, in Phoenix, AR. I attempted to sleep on both flights, but I couldn't fall asleep more than 20 minutes at a time. The first flight didn't have any Nap Packs on the plane, so I pretty much froze to death on the red-eye. The second flight I at least had my mom's jacket that she wasn't using to bundle up with.

Banyon tree that has about 7-8 "trunks".


Paia.

Another pretty relaxing day. We started off going to La Perouse Bay National Park, just because we wanted to see it. There were little tide pools all around the lava rock that had tiny crabs, snails, and fish inside. Then we went to Big Beach for about half an hour so my mom could say she went "swimming". Really, she just stood on the shore until the crashing waves made it feel like she was standing in waist deep water.

Back at the house we gathered up most of our souvenirs to ship back to the house. My parents packed all their clothes together and their suitcase was 49.5 lbs at Tampa International. My sister's bag wasn't much lighter. Mine was only 30-something lbs, but there's no way I could have stuffed all of our souvenirs in my suitcase.

For the evening we did a sunset cruise from Whalers Village. We had very few passengers on our cruise, which was nice. There was one family who had a little boy who was completely terrified and was causing a distraction during the safety announcement. I'm pretty sure everyone was annoyed.

The cruise aboard Teralani was nice. They had an open bar, and the dinner wasn't too bad. It was a make shift buffet style with caesar salad, ono fish, some kind of chicken, ratatouille, and bread. The cruise lasted about two and a half hours.

Back at the house as I was editing photos from the day, my dad comes inside from the backyard area and tells me there's big frogs in the little pond. I grab my camera and run outside. There was about a dozen frogs in the pond. Not quite bull frog sized, but still pretty big.

The rest of the evening consisted of finishing up editing photos while watching past and present Shark Week shows on Discovery.

A hermit crab from one of the tide pools.


Sunset cruise on the Teralani.


Frogs in the pond.

Today was a more relaxed day. We took our time getting ready for the day. Our parents drove us to Waihee Valley Trail. They dropped off my sister and I off to hike the 4-5 mile trail, round trip. The beginning of the trail had a sharper incline for about 50-60 feet, but other than that it was a pretty easy trail. There was two swinging bridges to cross and two other times we had to do a little boulder hopping across the river. The end of the trail was signaled by a man-made waterfall.

There were two guided tours along the trail. My sister and I were behind the first group, and ahead of the second when we started. Somewhere along the way we got behind both tour groups. There were also a few friendly dogs along the trail. They followed the tour groups because they apparently have lunch by the falls, and the dogs knows they have food to beg.

We met up with the groups at the end, where everyone was jumping into the water off a platform. One of the tour guides did a flip into the water, which inspired my sister to follow suite. I eventually jumped off the platform myself, but only after psyching myself out first.

The walk back went pretty quickly since we already made stops on the way "up". There was also more people hiking the trail that passed us. Our parents picked us up, and we headed back to our side of town, Kihei, for some lunch. We stopped at Da Kitchen where I got a fish sandwich. It had two huge filets in between the bread bun. I ate one on the sandwich and saved the other for dinner.

My sister on one of the swinging bridges.


One of the dogs, Hoku, we met along the trail. Her name means star in Hawaiian.


Waihee Valley.

The alarm on my phone went off at 3:30 a.m. I tell myself, "Get up now or you'll hold everyone behind." I get dressed, brush my teeth, etc., then make sure my parents are awake. At about 4:15 a.m. the family piles into the car. This day we begin our journey to Haleakala Crater for sunrise.

Light begins to show itself about an hour before sunrise, 5:59 a.m. according to weather.com. When we arrive at the Haleakala National Park to pay the $10 fee (that's good for three days admission), a hand-written sign says sunrise it at 5:52 a.m. The park ranger also told us it will take about half an hour to drive to the summit. Feeling like we were going to miss sunrise, my mom drives a little more reckless than usual. I have to say it's one of the few times her driving hasn't made me somewhat nauseous.

As we reach the summit, there's only a few parking spots left, and quite a few people. I tried to tell my mom that I read online that quite a few people go to the still active volcano, but that didn't seem to matter since we left our house just in the nick of time. I don't remember the time as she parked the car. All I did was jump out and head for the short hike up to the top of the summit to escape the larger crowd on the observation platform.

The thermometer in the car read 48 degrees, or somewhere close to that. Up on the top of the summit, however, felt a lot colder due to wind chill. The only part of me that was exposed and was hard to handle was my ears. I waited atop the 10,023 foot volcano with a few other onlookers braving the cold. Finally, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds (that were below the mountain top). When I felt satisfied enough with my photos, and my ears were frozen to the point where I thought they were going to bleed, I decided to head back down to get warm.

Just before we walked back to the car, the four of us saw a little bird running away with breakfast in its beak. We knew it wasn't a nene bird (Hawaiian goose), because it didn't resemble the goose based off nene crossing signs we saw on our drive up. At another observation building just up the road, my mom and I discovered the bird we saw was a dark-rumped petrel. Turns out they're endangered, roughly 600 on Maui, and few thousand on Kaua'i. Squid is also part of their diet, and squid beaks can be found around their nesting areas. Unfortunately, since it is a National Park, any hiking must be done conducted on the trails only.

There's also an Air Force Observatory, but since it is considered military, it's closed to the public. And of course we bought our share of souvenirs.

Naturally when one has been awake since 3:30 a.m., he or she tends to get hungry around 8:00 a.m. For breakfast we stopped in a town at the bottom of the crater called Makawao. Casanova's was one of the few places open for breakfast. We all left very pleased and full stomachs. My sister also bought a shirt for her big or little (I can't remember which), that read:

"Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics German, the lovers French and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the chefs British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized by the Italians."

Once finished at Casanova's we walked around the town for a short bit. That was probably a bad idea because we ended up in a store called Collections, and bought all sorts of items there. They had little jars of jam and jelly in 8 different flavors for only $1.25 each. I couldn't decide what flavors to choose from, so I just bought one of each. Or so I thought until just now, realizing there was one flavor I forgot. I don't think I would have liked it anyway, being a mustard-something blend. I like mustard, but not in large quantities. The one I am most interested in trying is a chili pepper jelly. Yes. You read that correctly. Chili. Pepper. Jelly. I also bought a little perfume scent of coco mango if memory serves correctly for Katie, and a bracelet with enamel flowers. My sister bought a skirt that was on sale, and in which the clerk gave her additional discount, a pair of sunglasses, and one of the jellies for a friend.

When decided we were done with our Wakawao visit, the family was going to head to another town we had yet to visit, Haiku. Somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn. No worries. We ended up finding a surf board fence, I'm pretty sure it's one in the same as I continually saw as matted photos by a local photographer in many gifts shops around the island.

Continuing on our unplanned driving route, we attempted to find Jaws. It's a beach that's become popular in recent years with surfers during the winter months where waves can reach 60-70 feet. Maui Revealed made the short half mile hike there sound easy, but once my sister and I got into the area we discovered it was more of a labyrinthian dumb. It also appeared to be an automobile graveyard. Not realizing it would take a lot longer to get to the water we originally told our parents to come get us in 45 minutes. After walking about 20-25 minutes, we decided it would take too long to reach the shore and headed back to meet up with the 'rents.

Remember those black pools I mentioned from Day #2? Turns out they have a name. According to Maui Revealed, they're called the Olivine Pools. I think I remember reading that the authors of the book named the location themselves. We went back there, this time equipped with swimsuits, towels, and water noodles. That's right, water noodles. The 'rents didn't climb down the lava rock with my sister and myself to join in the water activities. Later in the evening in my sister discovered we were playing around during one of the choppiest and windiest times at the pool. But, we survived.

The tide started to come in, so we decided it was best to get out of the tide pools before the Pacific grabbed us with one of its 6 +foot waves. We stopped at the grocery store before heading home for a foraging kind of dinner.

Sunrise atop Haleakala Crater.


Surfboard fence.


Erin doing a canon ball into one of the Olivine Pools.

Today was a very relaxing day. We didn't do much. Did a little shopping, bought a sun dress and a pair of earrings. Unfortunately my left ear needs to be re-pierced. There's still holes on both sides of my ear, but I can't get the earring through. My sister tried her luck at surfing. We went to Little Beach (the one that's a little more naked than most beaches) for sunset. And that's pretty much my day.

My sister surfing.


Sunset at Little Beach.

Now that I have working internet again....

The Road of Hana.

I was woken up by my mother, and told to get ready for the trip to Hana. We all packed clothes in case our parents decided to stay the night. The book my mom was reading, Maui Revealed, gave all the mile markers on where to stop for some sight seeing, mostly waterfalls.

The day began with breakfast in Paia at Charley's. Not knowing we were going to stop for breakfast on the road I ate a giant blueberry muffin at the house. While each of my family members ordered actual meals consisting of at least three different types of food, I ordered a peach yogurt parfait with almond granola. It came to me in a fairly large margarita/wine glass with some star fruit at the base. The dish had so much granola in it, it was like eating a granola bar with a hint of peach yogurt. It was good all the same. I didn't try the star fruit though.

On the road to Hana, we made a few stops. Not near all the ones listed on the book, however. One included a short hike to Twin Falls. There was a rope swing there I photographed my sister swinging into the water. I didn't try it myself because I thought I would have another chance to jump in some other watering hole at another stop. Little did I know, I got out voted to make more stops because no one else wanted to see other waterfalls. Of course I'd want to stop at every spot mentioned in Maui Revealed, because of my photographer's side of me, but because of being out voted I never got a chance to go swimming in any other watering hole :(

Ke'anae Peninsula was one of our stops along the way. It's an old Hawaiian Village. In 1946 it was nearly completely wiped out by a tsunami except for the stone church that was erected in 1860. Upon our arrival we immediately saw some activity going on in the choppy waters. Turns out a group of small time movie makers were filming an independent film called Finding Gogan. I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled, but they literally just began filming so I doubt there's anything remote on the internet about it. All I know is that it's based in Tahiti. I guess Hawaii fit more of their budget for filming locations.

Part of our trip was interrupted by road work just passed the Kaumahina State Wayside. There was a landslide some time back and after clearing the road, the state still have to put up netting along the way. The road block was only about an hour's wait so we decided to park our car and mingle with the rest of the tourists doing their journey to Hana. My dad, he's a friendly guy who will talk to anyone, made fast friends with a local who lives in Hana. He was a fun guy. The film grew also decided to take advantage of the block for some time lapse of the sky. Just as the road block was cleared and cars were on their way, it started to rain.

Aside from stopping two more times for different falls, we stopped at what I believed is the Nahiku Marketplace for a very late lunch/early bird special dinner. All of the other food shops were closed, so our only choice was Chinese. My dad got shrimp fried rice, my mom colonel tso chicken, my sister lemon chicken, and I got lemon pepper shrimp. The fried rice flavor tasted richer than your general Chinese place. I didn't care for the tso chicken, something about the flavor that put me off. I didn't try the lemon chicken. On the menu it doesn't tell you that you have to work for your food. My shrimp I had to peel off the shell, but it was very delicious. The lemon flavoring also ran into the rice and mixed pretty tastily with the soy sauce.

To figure out where to stop next, my dad took us on a detour to the Hana airport. It isn't an airport for commercial planes, but instead small, private charters that wouldn't had more than 10 people in one aircraft. We watched on plane take off, while another was loading its passengers. One of the guys wasn't traveling with the others, and my dad asked him who was getting on the plane for my sister. After the ice was broken she mustered up the courage herself to ask him if a pro surfer boarded the plane. Then she asked if he was a pro surfer himself. He answered, "Yes" to both questions. All we got was his first name, Sean, or Shawn...not sure how he spells it. As we loaded back into the car and headed back on the road to Hana my dad mentioned that Sean/Shawn was rolling a joint in the car just before he interrupted him.

Our last stop before Hana was Waianapanapa State Park. There's all sorts of scenic sights to see there, including a small black sand beach, a blowhole, and lava tubes. It was over cast and fast approaching dust so I didn't get very breathtaking photos. Then it began to rain again, and my sister, mother, and I had to run back to the car.

We didn't stay long in Hana itself. Stopped at a couple of places to check on prices for the night, but our parents had already decided just to drive back to our rental house. It really isn't a far drive...mileage wise. The Road to Hana is the popular route, therefore, it's all nicely paved. However, my parents decided to take the south route back to our house. Peter told them it was a shorter route. I'm sure it is, but it's not quite as nicely paved. The asphalt is old, and bumpy. It's better to have some kind of SUV, or something with four-wheel drive. Not that we needed a four-wheel drive, our rental car is a Toyota Camry. Some of the road wasn't even paved. Parts of the road also had cow crossing signs, meaning there was no fencing to keep cows from wondering into the road. Luckily, driving a Camry didn't allow for speeds faster than 20 miles per hour because we came across many a cow in the middle of the road. And they took their sweet time getting out of the way.

We finally made it home around 10:00 pm, all weary and ready for bed. I was the last one to bed, about half an hour after returning "home".


Our parents told us we would return to some of the places on The Road to Hana, especially those of black and red sand beaches. By the time we got to those locations it was too dark to really see anything.

My sister swinging on the rope swing at Twin Falls.


The line of cars from tourists waiting for the road block to be removed and continue on their way to The Road to Hana.


The black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park.

"I gotta feeling...."

I've had that song stuck in my head since about 7:00 am. My sister and I woke up early again, this time for a snorkeling trip with Blue Water Rafting. Our raft name was Kanaloa, with Captain Nikki (that's right, a girl captain), and Dante for "crew". The ride began heading to the lava flows, and what a fun ride it was. My sister and I sat in the front where it would be more adventurous. It started off as category 2, and went up to category 3. I'm not sure if it's measured the same as white water rafting, but there it is.

Molokini Crater was the second stop, the first snorkeling location. We started on the inside of the crater. The water was so crystal clear you could see at least a hundred feet, probably more. There was one whitetip reef shark spotted, but it was resting under a shelf of coral on the bottom so I couldn't get any real great photos of it. I did see it's tail, so it's something :)

Next was a little spot on the outside of the crater. Before jumping into the water, while everyone was getting their things together, Dante was throwing bits of muffin into the water to make the fish go into a frenzy. It was amusing. In the rock itself there's a huge crack from top to bottom. It's called The Elevator. The touristy thing to do is tread water at the bottom and allow the tide to make it look like you're riding up the crack.

The second snorkeling location was the same reef my sister and I scuba dove...at least I think it was the same reef, just a different section of it. I did see one green turtle swimming off into the deep blue just before I climbed back into the raft. After that we had sandwiches on the raft.

On our way back to the dock my sister and I spotted wing tips of some kind of ray. It was hard to identify it because of the speed of the boat, and the fact that was basically sailed right over it.

When our mom picked us up, and we showered and relaxed for about an hour, my family drove to Iao Valley State Park. We walked around on a little path to explore a little. After that trip we walked around Wailuku for a bit. We also made a quick stop in Waikapu. I bought a shirt at this shop called Maui Thing and discovered they have a First Friday. Unfortunately, we won't be in Maui next Friday :(

Back at "home" we ate BLT's a fries for dinner.

Molokini Crater.


Iao Valley State Park

Scuba was incredibly awesome. I knew it would be, but what I don't know is why I've been putting off becoming certified for so long. There was one other couple, who was celebrating their third year anniversary, that did the trip with us. Their names were Dacia and Sam from Portland, OR. Bobby Baker was our instructor and a fun guy. Very enthusiastic about his job. You could just tell he loves what he does.

About the first 30-45 minutes was spent going over hand signals and the do's and don'ts. Then we went on our first dive to get used to everything. We didn't sail anywhere, just walked straight into the water where there's a decent sized reef not far from shore. The dive was 29 feet deep and we stayed under for about 45 minutes. Saw plenty of fish and a couple of turtles off in the distance. We learned that if we got too close to coral to push off on a dead portion with two fingers, but not too hard or else you'll go straight for the surface.

The second dive was "turtle cleaning station". It was a different section of the same reef where it was popular for turtles to chill out while fishes cleaned their shells. We saw 3-4 good sized up close and personal, the smallest was about the size of a generic backpack.

Bobby had an old Minolta film camera that he took pictures of everyone underwater. The roll of film was free of charge. He gave it to me to develop and do some Photoshop magic. Then I'll make copies to send to the other couple and Mr. Baker himself. Unfortunately, that means I probably won't have the diving photos ready to post until I get home.

When my mom and dad picked up my sister and myself, we all went to a "deli" for lunch. When I mean "deli", it was a place where they cooked specific meals each day, and that was the menu. Basically the menu changes everyday. They also had sandwiches. My parents split an egg salad sandwich because neither were very hungry while my sister and each got a different chicken dish from the menu. Her's was chicken mixed with a spinach and other kind of plant with a creamy sauce. My chicken meal was more like BBQ, but the sauce was a tad more sweet than your usual BBQ sauce. Each plates came with choice of macaroni or green salad, and white or brown rice.

For a little afternoon relaxation, the four of us drove down to Big Beach. The waves there literally crash right on shore and is great of all kinds of boogie boarding antics. The force of the waves crashing suddenly also creates random whirlpools that kick up the sand resulting in a dark shadow. It can be undaunting when one sees the shadow, almost as if some large aquatic creature is coming after you. The water itself was crystal clear.

Big Beach has some small cliffs that closed in the beach. It really made for a beautiful scene. One of the cliff walls had a natural staircase valley. My sister and I climbed up and over to the other side, and discovered another beach enclosed by cliffs. This one was more...naked. I'd say about a third of the beach-goers on that side of the cliff were nudists.

The rest of the day was pretty much chill. Went to the grocery store with the 'rents to buy some veggies to make stir-fry. We all watched sunset down at the beach, then came home and cooked dinner.

The super clear water at Big Beach.


Learning Hawaiian through beer bottle caps.


Generic palm tree sunset photo.

This will be a short post. I'm really tired, and have to get up at 5:00 am for a scuba trip. Today we went up-country. We stopped at the Tedeschi Winery for some wine tasting. I bought a bottle of Maui Blanc, a white wine made from pineapple. Then we went driving in search of a road that wasn't a road, but a trail, wanted to see if things had changed since the 2006 comment my mom read. When we discovered it was still just a trail that vehicles couldn't drive on, my dad turned the car around. Before heading back to the house we stopped at the Floral Gardens. For a very late lunch we went to Fred's Mexican Grill. Afterwards my mom, sister, and I stopped at some touristy shops. For sunset it was my dad, mom, and myself at the beach. It wasn't very spectacular, at least compared to last night.

Pineapple!


This flower reminded me of fireworks.

The time difference didn't mess me up too much today. I did wake up at 6:something in the morning, and ended up taking an hour nap around 3:00. My parents met and talked to the guy we're renting from, Colorado Bob as my mom likes to call him. He and his buddy Peter told them where we could drive around just to try to figure out what we wanted to do. Basically, we drove along the edge of the northern part of Maui, stopping here and there for photo ops. Of course if it were up to me we would have stopped 2938465 more times. My sister and I are going back one day to explore the black pools (similar to that name) we couldn't quite climb down all the rocks very easily. Plus, our parents wouldn't have wanted to wait much longer than they already did for us.

In the afternoon we stopped in Lahaina for lunch. Fed a crab. That's right, a crab. It was about 4-6 inches in length. When we got "home", my family went grocery shopping while I napped. Then Bob and Peter came over while we were all relaxing outside. They were giving us more advice and directions, much of which was kind of lost in translation because Peter is a bit of an overexcited talker. Not to mention all the Hawaiian named roads he was throwing out there, which ended up running together.

For dinner my mom and sister made twice baked potatoes, which were probably the best I've had to date. My dad grilled some t-bone steaks. Then I noticed the sky from sunset through the trees. I ran inside, grabbed my camera, ran through the patio area and out the fence, then down the dirt road of a protected area of land. Realized I wasn't going to get a great shot, so I said, "I'm taking the car and going down to the beach". My mom and sister came along. I got decent sunset shots, considering we were late...at least late when it comes to sunset timing. It was the first time we went down to the beach and stepped foot on the sand. It's the softest sand I've ever squished through my toes. It almost feels like silk. The water was a bit chilly, but that won't keep out, especially with the sun shining. When we came back home I started going through my 400-something photos and began editing.

Just passed a valley of Kahakuloa Village on Kahekili Highway.


Enjoying a local golden ale, Big Wave, during lunch at Kimo's in Lahaina.


A lily in the little pond of the patio/yard area.


Sunset at Kamaole Beach.

I’m a dreamer. I have been for as a long as I remember. Sometimes I’m surprised how I still manage to live my days in as much reality as I do. I often tell myself I’ll learn all sorts of skills, or practice at ones I’ve already acquired throughout the years. But when it comes down to it I usually do not. I use “distraction” as my excuse. I begin focusing on too much at once, biting off more than I can chew in attempts to make myself a more well-rounded individual. This results in beginning many projects of all sorts that are very rarely completed. Too many times I try to rush through my days, in a constant mind-set that one thing or another needs to be accomplished right then and there.

Hindsight is 20/20. I accomplish more when I slow down and force myself to be patient. For example, I told myself for years I would exercise and eat healthier on a regular basis but never continued passed a couple of weeks. It’s now been roughly four months. I’ve not only successfully matched and exceeded my goal weight, but I’ve managed to maintain it as well. And now that I’m used to having a more active lifestyle I cannot image sitting still for very long. When I do, I not only get bored and antsy, and begin I to feel lazy.

I’ve learned early in life that I’m better at reaching short-term goals rather than long-term ones. It’s time to grid up my life and take it one square inch at a time. The more squares I complete, the more of the bigger picture will come into view. It’s time to slow down to an idling speed to achieve one dream at a time in hopes it will one day help me to become the kind of success I want in life. And a ten day trip to Hawaii seems as good a time as any to begin etching the corner of one of those small, seeming-less insignificant, square inches. Each day of my trip I will post a photo or two with at least a one liner caption, but I’d like to try for a more specifics. Of course that will depend on how fatigued my body and mind feels after a day of adventuring into a new environment, after adding in that six hour time difference.

First Flight:
Pretty uneventful. It being only about an hour and half from Tampa, FL to Charlotte, NC. I spent its entirety reading a book called The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich:

“Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends - outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and long-time legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a less-than-smooth approach with the female population.

Eduardo figured their ticket to social acceptance - and sexual success - was getting invited to join one of he university’s Final Clubs, a constellation of elite societies that had groomed generations of the most powerful men in the world and ranked on top of the inflexible hierarchy at Harvard. Mark, with less of an interest in what the campus alpha males though of him, happened to be a computer genius of the first order, which he used to find more direct route to social stardom. One lonely night, Mark hacked into the university’s computer system, creating a ratable database of all the female students on campus - and subsequently crashing the university’s servers and nearly getting himself kicked out of school. In that moment, in his Harvard dorm room, the framework for Facebook was born.

What followed - a real-life adventure filled with slick venture capitalists, stunning women, and six-foot-inch identical-twin Olympic rowers - makes for the most entertaining and compelling books of the year. Before long, Eduardo’s and Mark’s different ideas about Facebook created in their relationship, faint cracks which soon ruptured. The collegiate exuberance that marked their collaboration fall prey to the adult world of lawyers and money. The great irony is that while Facebook succeeded by bringing people together, its very success tore two best friend apart.”

Second Flight:
I’ve must have flown a couple dozen times at least, or close to it, and no matter how many times I’ve sat window side I’m still intrigued by what one sees down below. The last update our pilot of the US Airways A319 EOW announced was we were flying over Dallas, Texas, but that was close to an hour ago. If we’re not over Texas any longer, I haven’t the slightest idea what state we’re flying above. All I do know is that what I see out my window is a lot of [what appears to be] barren land, with one exception. Some sort of grid lines, that seem to have no pattern, populate the aerial view. Rectangular shapes interrupt or end the “borders”, making the below landscape appear like an earthly colored circuit board.

Third Flight:
The first time I fly over the Pacific Ocean and my seat is literally smack-dab in the middle of the wing. I suppose there really wouldn’t have been much to look at anyhow. From what I can tell, it’s almost as if the plane wasn’t about anything at all. Just a mass of space. The clouds below cruising level are thick with the occasional patch opening the sunlight down to the water. The blue of the water is essentially the same color as the sky. Even so, I would have liked to have seen the brilliance of the color.


I have been awake for literally nearly 22 hours....

From the backyard of the apartment we're staying in :)


The joint where we ate dinner

I'm stuck in Zone 0 searching for Zone X so I can find my way back to Zone V.

It was a great one. Started out the day early, headed over to Orlando for Ilea's wedding. It was nice a small, and it was good to see some familiar faces I wouldn't otherwise see on Tally visits. I wish there was more dancing, but beggers can't be choosers. The reception ended at 4:00, so I had plenty of time to get home and celebrate my birthday at the new club in Channelside called Aja. That was some great fun, especially since I didn't have to drive anywhere and could drink more than usual ;) I'm sure there are some embarrassing photos, and there's definitely an embarrassing video I'm not looking forward to seeing on Facebook.

Charlie Crist came into the Aquarium today. Here's why:

http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/40251457.html

And I took pictures of the event :D



I also got a $24 tip on the dinner cruise.

I can has MacBook? Yes, yes I can :D

It seems I eat candy canes any other time than besides during the Holidays.