Hawaii Part IV: The Images

NATURE HIKE

I love these green mountain cliffs

This is where the wild pigs are (not to be confused with wild things)

A view from the hike

The "waterfall"

The wild hens that fed on our nuts

KUALOA RANCH

Movie Set Alley

Jurassic Parks scenes

More Jurassic Park scenes and Mighty Joe Young shacks

LOST

50 First Dates road

That closest island, Chinaman's Hat, was probably named before anyone cared about being PC

The Ranch House

Tiniest coconut tree I've seen

This thing was dropping coconuts like nobody's business

Poor boar was just trying to get some food and someone tossed ketchup on him.  Atleast he didnt run into John Locke.

Once I find a place to live, I'll be tossing this gem into a frame

REST OF THE TRIP

Trucker Hat Girl and I will always have this rainbow

My best attempts at getting sunset pics

That's right, our hotel had penguins.

Hawaii Part III: The Final Tide

So OK Let's finish up this Hawaii story and get on to the pics.  Last we left I had a long crazy night that involved missteps at every corner.  The next morning I woke up with a slight headache and no mood to eat.  B&A went to get some bfast while I got some coffee and went to lie on the beach.  As I was setting up shop on the beach I noticed one of the girls from the staring contest from days previous fixing up a spot a couple yards next to me.  This girl will be known trucker hat girl, since she wore the aforementioned hat.  I took note and rested off my headache.

A few hours and a few burnt spot later, I decided to call it quits on the beachfront and wash up in time for Borrelli's presentation.  On packing my shit up I saw that trucker hat girl was packing up.  Now I may not have mentioned it before but this was the third time trucker hat girl and I have sat down on the beach and left at the same time.  I think there's something to be said about sharing a beach schedule.  I'm not too sure what it is said, but I know something could be said.

After a quick shower, we all made our way to the Convention Center.  Alethea and I watched Borrelli give his presentation then we called it day and made our way back to the beach.  On return to the beach, I told Alethea about trucker hat girl.  Then as if on cue I point to where she was in the morning and there she was setting her towel up.  Fate ... Coincindence ... you be the judge.   We sat on the beach for a good while and Borrelli eventually made his way over to us from the CC.

A quick mist came out from the cloudless sky and put a huge rainbow out.  It was kinda of awesome and the msit felt fantastic on the red skin.  We got up to leave the beach and wait for it ...... trucker hat girl was leaving at the same time.  I decided to act this time.  When we went to throw our towels away at the same time, I asked her if she noticed the rainbow.  In return I got nothing.  She turned and walked away to watch her feet off.  Sharing the same beach routines I went to wash my feet off.  While Borrelli, trucker hat girl and I were standing at the fountain, I made a joke (albeit lame) and I got no response from her.  So either she is a cold hearted bitch and has no sense of humor.  Alethea offered a more realistic and desirable result, though, that she doesnt speak english.  Let's go with that.

A slow night followed with a lame dinner and a walk around Waikiki.  The next day we took some surfing lessons.  Surfing, I gotta say, is effin amazing.  I love it.  Even though we were on long boards, which pretty much float like a boat, it was still challenging.  Not like snowboarding.  Cant really carve in water.  Carving heelside puts you on you're ass.  Not bad falling off the board is not bad unless you're like me and keep falling on a reef.  By the time I was done I had cut up my wrist and hand.  Not fun, but the salt water cleaned it up.  We were dragging our boards up the beach and I had a really painful sting in my foot.  I looked down and saw a nice blood trail.  I limped to the shower and saw a deep gash in my foot.  I washed it out the best I could and tossed a bandaid on that barely stayed on.

Not alot happened after that until my presentation.  Let's just say I cut alot out in hopes to not go over the alloted 30 minutes.  By the time I finished, my watch said I only took 15 minutes.  I'm pretty sure everyone was happy with that.  And with that, I am finished with my graduate responsibilities.  After we went to see May-Win present for Neil.  Although on the walk over I stopped by first aid and the dude pulled some live coral out of my gash and bandaged it up properly.  May-Win finished up and we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

I spent the dinner flirting with the waitress while getting pressured by May-Win to go after her.  Here's my theory though.  Waitresses will flirt with whomever to get a good tip.  I'm play their game because I'm an attention whore.

Anyways that more or less my hawaii trip.  On the flight back I sat next to a lady who was listening to a book on tape on a walkman.  We had some good chats and watched Kung Fu Panda (Skadoosh) and then parted ways at the terminal.  Great hawaii vacataion followed by a great weekend in SD.  Stay tuned for pictures.

Hawaii Part II e.g. one crazy ass night

So once we left the Ranch, our excursions were over, but the adventures were far from over.  We got back and I went back to the beach while Bobo and A-face took a little cat nap.  I started some more staring contests.  One in particular with this girl in a trucker hat.  We had sat down at the same time and I took note.  I was out in the sun for a while before I went back to room to gather the troops for dinner.  Another note, when I got up to leave, so did my trucker hat girl.

We got back to the hotel after dinner and I decided to gout for some drinks while B&A called it a night to watch the Olympics.  I went out to this bar near the hotel called The Irish Rose.  I know, I'm 5000 miles from NE and I go to an irish bar, but whatevs.  So I sit at the bar and have a drink and suddenly realize I'm full.  Soooo full.  But it's early so I keep on drinking.  I talk a bit to the bartender and watch some Olympics on TV.  But for the most part there is a live band playing cover songs to about 6 people.  

A set later, these two girls sit next to me at the bar and order 2 jager bombs each.  I tell them how badass they are for taking them.  Apparently one of the had just turned 21 a few weeks earlier and has been taking them every night.  They said they had to go hang out with these older guys in the corner playing pool.  They invited them up so they had to hang with them.  They told be to go to the friends bar, The Something Something Club, if I leave before them since they'll be there later.  I saw cool and the give me shit ass directions based on nearby businesses, which does me no good.  The bartender tells me what street its on and that it's by a very large crosswalk.  I say OK since I've seen that street name before.

By the time I leave the bar the girls are still with the guys but I can't drink anymore.  So I figure if I can find the street its on I'll try to find the bar.  I walk down the street from the bar and come up to the road.  OK, I guess I'm going to the bar.  I have a choice though, left or right.  I take a left.  I look for the large crosswalk and find one, but no bar.  I say fuck it and go back to the hotel.  Although I really needed to pee so I stopped by the bar again and figured to get more directions.  I figured if the girls were there I could hang out with them until they leave, but they were already gone.  I asked the bartender for clarification. The directions he gave me were much this time.  He said it was by the International Market Place.  I've passed this place before and head right for it.

I leave the bar and head for the Market Place.  The crosswalk in front of it is far from large.  I look around and see no bars.  The market place is an open plaza so I walked in looking for a bar.  I reached the street on the other side and saw no bar.  The other street had no something something club.  By now it was 12 and I was full and tired so I figured I go back to the hotel.  When I go back into the market place I noticed yellow lines on the ground.  At that point something clicked in my head.  It was something one of the girls had said at the bar.  "Follow the yellow brick road."  Being that close I figured I'd give the bar search one more shot.  I followed the yellow line to nowhere.  Useless.  

Discouraged, I finally gave up and was really going back to the hotel this time.  As soon as I venture off the yellow line I see red lights and hear music coming from ..... The Lava Rock Club.  I put the hotel in the back of mind and went into the bar.  It was underground.  It reminded me of a small Libby's basement that was about 15 times cleaner.  I did a quick sweep and didnt see the girls.  I got a beer and watched people on the small dance floor with crazy wigs on.  After I beer I didn't see my situation getting any better and finally left to go back to the hotel.

I left the market place and decided to take the beach back to the hotel.  I've had enough street roaming for the night.  I walked down some alley and chatted with some dudes hanging out for a few mintues.  I asked where one guy was from, because he's probably not from Hawaii.  He responded saying he was born and raised there.  I turn to his friend and ask if hes from CA since he has an Angel's hat on.  He said he was from Louisiana.  I chatted for a few more minutes and continued to the beach.

I walked a little ways then came up on this girl sitting on a small beach enclosed by a hotel.  I tried talking her.  Here is the transcript:

Me: Hi, how are you?

Her: Good, just enjoying the view.

Me: Well it is a beautiful view.

Her: Yeah.

Me: Where are you from?

Her: Here, actually.

Me: Oh really? Why are you hanging out in the hotel area then?

Her: I'm actually just trying to be alone right now.

Me: Ooooooohk then.  I'm think I'll be going then.

Her: Sorry.

After that strange encounter and walking by countless homeless people passed out on the beach, I sit down at the hotel beach and take a note from the girl and stare out into the ocean.  Only I will be more welcoming if someone wanted to join me.  However, I passed out for a little bit.  I got up and went back to room and crawled into bed, covered in sand.  Good night.

Hawaii

Oh me oh my.  Hawaii is by far the most beautiful place I have ever been.  I want to go back.  I never want to leave that island.  I don't know if it's the relaxed atmosphere, the friendly "Spirit of Aloha", the constant stream of hot girls, or maybe the pure fact the LOST is filmed there.  But I digress, Hawaii is just plain awesome.

I arrived in Hawaii and waited around for Borrelli and Alethea to get in.  Anywhere else, I would have been discouraged to wait in the airport for an hour, but waiting in Hawaii just seems alright.  Once they got in, we took a bus to our hotel, The Hilton Hawaiin Village.  It was literally a village.  5 or 6 hotel towers, bars, restaurants, and shops all willing to charge you twice as much than they would a few feet outside the village.  But it is convenient to get  a drink at the beach.  Oh the beach. 

The beach is amazing.  Clear, blue, transparent water.  Warm, but not so warm that your questioning the presence of the little kids floating next to you.  But with a quick swim to a reef 20-30 yards out, you can see the colorful fish swiming around your ankle.

The first night, and more or less every night, I would leave Borrelli and Alethea behind and go galavanting about the island.  Anyways the first night I spent time at the hotel bar listening to live music.  I kind of felt like Jason Segel in Forgeting Sarah Marshall.  I had a good conversation with the bartender, Pat, and the nice fellow sitting next to me, Brooks McCartney.  We had deep conversations, albeit drunk, about the future, polotics, alternative energy, careers, and society.  I closed out the bar and called it a night.

The next day we spent the morning on the beach.  I was holding a lot of one-way staring contest with he girls around me.  The crappy things about wearing glasses to a beach: have to swim blind and can't hide your eyes behind sunglasses.  After a quick expensive lunch we took our first excursion on a nature hike.  (Check out the pictures in the next post).

The nature hike was pretty cool.  Our tourguide was some old guy with a big pot belly.  I seriously thought he was going to have a heart attack, which I wouldn't be too upset about since he was a Yankees fan.  Anyways, we say alot of cool wildlife and learned a thing or two (which I used a the next to flirt with a girl ... thanks tour guide)  I'll give you more info with the picture post.  We got back had a couple drinks and dinner then called it night since the next morning we had to get up early.

We got up early the next day to catch our 7am shuttle to Kualoa Ranch for an ATV ride and movie tour.  I think we were on the bus for about 90 minutes.  Absolutely ridiculous.  I'm not even sure how you can drive for 90 minutes on an island.  It's only so big.  Anyways we got to the ranch and signed up for our shit and made our way to the ATVs.  They were pretty cool.  Nothing too difficult.  However, we ended up driving past their heavily used movie set road.  Movies such as 50 First Dates, Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, and Godzilla were filmed there.  But most importantly, LOST is filmed there.  We drove right by Hurley's golf course.  And we saw where the got radio reception in the first episode.  I could leave Hawaii know and be all set. 

Next on our schedule was the movie tour, but since we already saw most of the movie sites, we switched over to the Jungle Expedition.  We sat in the bed of an old army truck and drove through the jungle.  I jumped up in the passenger seat and chatted a bit with the tourguide, Tony.  Tony looked identical to Ken Marino.  He was in Reaper, Veronica Mars, and the State.  He does all those movies with Michael Ian Black and Paul Rudd.  Anyways, the guy was the shit.  He visited once, then came back a year later for good.  He's been living there for a 6 or 7 years now and gets to drive around the jungle everyday.  And he speaks fluent Japanese.  I want to be bffs with this guy.

We made a stop with an amazing view.  You could see out to the ocean and see some islands in the distance.  While we were stopped we started to talk to a gorup of kids on the tour.  They were going to college in Hawaii.  Jeaolous.  We exchanged cameras and took pictures of each other.  Borrelli and I noticed that some of trees around us were Halla trees.  Halla trees have male and female species.  One of the hot girls overheard us so I started talking to her about the trees then about other things that were a little more cooler.  (I've started watching the Podcast "Scam School" where this guy teaches you tricks you can do at a bar to be awesome and super cool)  In the middle of our convo, Tony told everyone to get back in the truck.  At that point I began to regret the decision to sit up front since my girl was sitting in the back.  Rats!

On the way out, Tony stopped and picked some fresh guavas for us to it.  I am now a guava enthusiast.  Before I plunge too much more into my jungle infatuations, I'll toss a break in here and continue my story in a new post.

It's been such a long time

Sorry for the lack of updates over on this here blog.  I figured my travels were last years fashion and everyone had moved on from reading about my misadventures.  So this how the next couple posts are gonna roll.  This post will tell all I want you to know followed by a bunch of picture posts.

Last we left it I had arrived in LA and went a lame job interview.  Besides cars flipping over not much to write about down there.  Before I left I found a ticket on my car.  Apparently there was street cleaning going on.  As I was reading the ticket to figure what it was for I saw the street cleaning running me down in the rearview mirror.  Driving back to NV was easy.  These 4 hour drives are nothing for me now.

Next week or two at my Dad's place was slow.  I applied for jobs and watched TV and movies.  I saw a few movies in theaters, including Step Brothers and Dark Knight again.  The adventures picked up when I left for my trip to Hawaii.

My flight left from SD, which meant a 5 hour drive to catch a 5 hour flight.  Atleast it wasn't a 12 hour flight from Boston, like Borrelli and Alethea had.  Saturday evening I got to SD and met Kate at her new apartment.  Her new place is AMAZING.  It's in old town on top of a large hill with a balcony looking out over the bay.  Awesome.  And for a kicker, it's a 5 mintue walk down to Old Town bars and restaurants.  Kate's sister was visiting.  She is like a mini-Kate.  Exactly the same.

Sunday morning, Alex and her new bf brought me to the airport.  The flight was fine and unexpectedly short.  Atleast it seemed short.  I sat next to a lady with a wicked annoying voice.  It wasn't Fran Drescher annoying but it was pretty bad.  She read the entire flight while I watched podcasts and took a nap.  Ironman played on the plane but I wasn't about to watch a huge movie on a small screen.  However I was looking forward the end scene after the credits with Samuel L., but the movie cut out at the start of the credits.  Boo.  But before I knew were landing in beautiful Hawaii.  Aloha.