Aloha from Princeville

We're at our second location - a condo in Princeville on the north coast. It's no resort, but we love the extra space and the full kitchen. We enjoyed a very yummy and very cheap dinner of mac & cheese tonight. We've been watching the OU-OSU game too, while appreciating our absolutely amazing view of the ocean. It was rainy and windy today (we did as the locals do and ignored the rain) but it is hard to ignore ocean swells of greater than 25 feet! Hopefully we can find some calm spots to take our snorkel gear and places to swim without major risk of drowning.

Please to enjoy ... more pictures!

Yesterday's hike along the southeastern coast...we saw these crazy eroded limestone cliffs.

Glass Beach- a century-old dumping ground with all sorts of metal junk melded into the lava rocks. There is also glass all over that has been worn down by the ocean into smooth pebbles. The sand is sparkly and colorful.

Friday night was our luau - "the only beachside luau in Kauai!" ... well, it was raining, so it got moved to a ballroom. There are two things to explain about this picture: 1) that's poi I'm tasting, and it is nasty; 2) open bar. Matt and I had more than a few blue Hawaiians and mai tais.

Matt and his drink. We finally wised up and asked for the big cups (as one of our table mates said "you got a big boy drink!" ... although how "big boy" a bright blue beverage is, I don't know)

Today's hike in the rain. It is much more lush and jungle-like on the north/east side than it was in the south and west. There were vines and exotic plants everywhere. On our way back down, we found an avocado and guava on the ground that had fallen from their trees. There are some huge waterfalls in the background of this picture.

The view from our condo. It is cloudy and very windy. The wind and high surf aren't going away tomorrow, but it is supposed to be sunnier.

a few pictures to make you jealous

We're here having a lazy turkey day at the hotel so I thought I'd post a few pictures we've taken so far. The Cowboy game is an hour and a half away and we're eating Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel at 3pm our time (7pm to you Texans).

I'm exploring the rocks just outside our hotel.

Stopping for lunch at the Spouting Horn, the chickens were hungry. First the mama hen jumped onto the bench, and then one by one the chicks hopped on the table. We were surrounded.

Matt and his skydiving instructor Pete. That's our plane in the background. My tandem guy was much less of a dude than Pete so he didn't make the blog.

Matt looks out on Weimea Canyon. He looked like Moses with his stick.

We had amazing views of the canyon on our hike.

Greetings from Kauai

Hello from Hawaii! Or should I say Aloha?

It's really cool here. We got in last night - our flights were insanely easy. We didn't have a third person on our flight from LA to Kauai so we were able to spread out. Also, Venus Williams was on our plane (sitting in first class, of course). We had to drive in the pitch black to get to our hotel (the Sheraton resort on the south side) but only got lost once. The room is unremarkable (we didn't spring for an ocean view) but the resort is on an amazing stretch of beach. This morning we were able to see where the heck we were! We did some exploring, napped, and then spent the afternoon playing in the ocean. It's the perfect temperature and were surprised we didn't get chilled at all.

Tomorrow - skydiving!

roomba

I could see Piper doing this.

truckin' along on my way to 30

Happy birthday to me, the big 2-6. 30 will be here before I know it.

We had a fun time last night at Cisco with Mom and Dad, Mike and Eve, Jay and Stephanie, and Carolyn. It's pretty rare when we can all get together like that. This afternoon we're heading to the ranch for a fun weekend of birthday celebration. Mom is making a couple of her traditional Thanksgiving dishes at my request since we'll be missing her cooking on the holiday. In this case, she's doing her sweet potato casserole and green jello salad. Yum! And tomorrow, Rick, Emily, Taylor, and Alice are coming down and we'll have a great cold fall day at the ranch, no doubt ending in karaoke and a bonfire :)

Kingdom Hearts

I just beat the game Kingdom Hearts (released 2002) on the PS2. I'd had it for a long time and had made an attempt to play it several years ago but never finished it, so a couple weeks ago I pulled it out and started a new game. It's an action role-playing game that features Final Fantasy and Disney characters - you get to play in the worlds of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas, Hercules, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, etc. It ended up being pretty cool, actually. I picked up the sequel for $10 used (there's something to be said for playing older games) and I'll definitely be starting it soon.

It has been two weeks since Piper's disappearing act and I think we've all finally recovered. She got of the house out that Wednesday evening and we didn't find her until Thursday afternoon. Matt and I searched that night and the next morning, handed out flyers to our neighbors, everything we could think of. Susie came by Thursday afternoon to help me look and as we were in the backyard on our way to the alley, Piper responded to our voices with some plaintive meows - she was up at the TOP of our next-door neighbors' live oak tree. Their dog had chased her up there. We had quite a time getting her down and more than once we thought I might break my neck plummeting down to the Forbes' concrete deck. Susie was a superstar, climbing up the ladder after me, getting the cat hand-off from me, and going back down the ladder with Piper in her arms. Piper spent the next 24 hours hiding in Matt's closet and it took her a good week before forgetting the evils of outside and wanted to go into the backyard again. Her little paws were scraped raw from her adventure and she was very stiff from clinging to the swaying branches of the tree. Come to think of it, I was pretty dang stiff after the rescue too.

12 days until Hawaii!!

passport and things

I thought passports were taking freakishly long to get nowadays...and I just got mine in the mail ten days after my non-expedited application. Crazy. Maybe the flurry of activity that began when they started requiring them for travel to Mexico and Canada has passed.

I feel bad that I'm relieved the Aggies only lost 66-28 at home today. Sad times in A&M football.

Matt and I met Oscar and George the birds tonight during a very enjoyable evening hanging out with Rick and Emily at their apartment. I got to play some Little Big Planet and it was very cool. And we had Double Daves pizza rolls - friends, food, and video games - can life get any better?

Get Smart

Why didn't people like this movie? Matt and I just watched it and enjoyed it...maybe my expectations had been sufficiently lowered.

Solid as Barack-ack-ack-ack

Wee!

Our favorite election coverage on TV tonight: BBC America

What we were watching when they called it: Comedy Central Indecision 2008

Most ridiculous status update by a "friend" on Facebook: "[   ] doesn't see how people willingly vote for a socialist who wants to grant freedom to kill babies who survive failed abortions"

Texas/Texas Tech

For the first time ever, I was a Texas Tech football fan. What a game!

I'm also reminded of how stupid certain football fans can be.