June 2004

6-5/6-04, 9:35pm Hawaii time/2:35am Texas time

Well, I'm sitting here on the plane and I know there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep, so I figured I'd pull out my laptop and start on the first update in a week. 

Maui was amazing.  I have so many new pictures (which will be put up asap).  The trip started off with a bang and a bit of a sunburn as we spent most of our first day on the beach outside our condo (yes, a condo... I am from Friendswood).  It was so gorgeous.  Think about all the pictures you see from Hawaii... and that's what it looks like.  Clear blue water, huge waves, perfect sand, cloudless skies... the works. 

The second day was by far the highlight of the trip, though.  It began at a whopping 1:30am, which wasn't too bad, since I was still on Texas time.  But we got up that early, drove halfway across the island to end up at a little hole-in-the-wall bike shop at 3am.  They handed us our incredibly stylish gear and drove us up to the top of Haleakala, the volcano on the larger half of the island.  Following an absolutely stunning sunrise at the crater, we got on bikes and, without a guide, just the four of us, we rode down the way we'd come up.  You didn't even have to pedal, it was so steep in some places... you'd just coast down, maneuvering through wide open countryside and tiny Hawaiian towns, stopping at little fruit stands or coffee shops on your way down.  It was so great.  By far the most fun I've had on a vacation ever. 

Oh, yeah, and I finally got leid!  I couldn't believe it took so long, but by Wednesday, I finally got some... flowers, that is.  And from a quite handsome Hawaiian boy in a sarong.  Not bad for my first lei.

The rest of the week was spent visiting a really cool aquarium, eating at a traditional luau, hiking through bamboo forests to hidden waterfalls, feeding frozen peas to fish while snorkeling, and of course lounging around for hours on end on the beach.  So awesome.  They're not kidding around when they call it paradise.  I won't bore you too much with the details here, since I'm probably going to be talking about it non-stop when I get back anyway. 

Oh!  And since Hawaiians no longer hand out leis to people as they step off the plane, I've decided that Texans need to pick up the tradition.  And we can start it.  Just head out to the dollar store, pick up a couple of packages of those little plastic leis and then drive up to the airport.  Greet everyone with an "Aloha"... scratch that... make it "Howdy"... and then lei them.  They might kick us out, but then we can just head out to the parking lot and lei unsuspecting travelers there.  Sounds like the start of something great to me. 

Okay, my laptop's slowly running out of battery now, so I'm gonna try and get some sleep... or read... or something.  See you guys soon!