Tokyo, Bali, Thailand and off to Laos tomorrow on a three day slow boat. Thought I would borrow Nick's most recent blog entry to get everyone up to speed. ( http://nickmitchelltravels.blogspot.com )
Nick writes:
"It has been a busy couple days over here on the other side of the planet. After leaving Bangkok aboard a nighttrain headed to Chiang Mai our group was greeted by our lovely host (or hostess) named Natalee (pronounced NATAAALLLEEEE with a lady-boy glee) who promptly told me he/she would be taking care of me this trip - just ask for anything I need and she will deliver. Awesome. The nighttrain was pretty nice - we had half a 2nd class car which consisted of pairs of facing seats that after 9PM (or when a conductor felt the time was right) transformed into an upper and lower bunk. I was assigned the upper and was priviliged enough to have an air consditioning duct above me, the door to the next car next to me (which did not close) and a bright neon light immediately near my eyes. Thank you to Advil PM for a sound four hours of sleep. Prior to sleeping we had a marathon game of Uno that took up most of the members of Car 11.We arrived to Chiang Mai to be scooped up by hotel salespersons and escorted to SK House where our rooms were only $8!! With warm water!!! Chiang Mai is in the north of Thailand near the Himalyan (?) foothills and is a mecca for the outdoorsey backpackers with trekking, off-roading, mountain biking, anything possible in the national parks in the surrounding hills. We signed up for a three day two night trek through the southern national park. The next morning we were driven about two hours south to begin our trek with our guides Foo and Pot. They were funny characters and provided many laughs, learnings and guitar for sing alongs the entire way. After a two hour hike through the hilly jungle arrived upon a small waterfall (with the COLDEST WATER IN THAILAND and camp for night one. Dinner was pretty tastey until toad stew appeared in front of me (I immediately converted to a vegetarian after a small bite) and then we sat around the camp fire and played cards while our guides proceeded to get piss drunk off "Thai water" (rice whiskey). That night was perhaps the coldest sleep of my entire life. 10 degrees celcius (about 49 farenheit - celcius to appease my NZ friends with the unfortunate luck of living with both the metric and celcius system of measurement) I was literally shivering in a ball with the covers over my head. My feet spilled out of the sheets for a couple hours and were numb when I brought them back to sheets.The next morning we headed out for a six hour hike and while walking through a rice field a farmer passed us atop his elephant strolling through the forest. Very random. Foo went on to explain that some farmers use elephants, others use water buffalo and others use something called a machine - and machines are better because they don't eat or sleep. Useful life lesson. After what seemed like ages we arrived at a village to sleep the night and had a rowdy night of singing and drinking Thai water around the campfire with Pot's stirring renditions of Thai popular songs.Our final day of Trekking had a 2 hour hike out of the valley where the village was located and a short ride to the elephant trek. I shared an elephant with NZ Nick named Tokia with our driver and we headed off to the hills. Elephants do not provide the most comfort but the view sure is good from atop and Tokia, although stopping every minute to reach aruond with her trunk to request a banana from NZ Nick, was keen to pick up any object thrown from atop her to the ground and return with her trunk. Shoes, water bottles, anything.Next adventure was riding a bamboo canoe down a river captianed by a 10 year old Thai boy nicknamed by his patrons "Short Round" - as he was a spitting image of the Indiana Jones character without humor and more Napoleon-like character. I have not been yelled at so much in so short of time in my entire life, let alone my a three foot midget kid. "Hey you, hey you, NO NO NO NO" or "hey you, hey you, SIT SIT SIT" where echoing off the river valley our whole trip. One would think after Short Round fell off the raft twice and had to be scooped out of the water by me and thrown back to safety there would be some appreciation. None, only harsh glares when I was out of line (this I cannot figure as I was standing still not moving an inch, but was still lashed with a "hey you hey you NO NO NO")....Back in Chiang Mai town last night our team of ten went to a hearty Thanksgiving feast at a Mexican food resturaunt where margaritas replaced wine and Chang beer replaced the turkey. As Gabe and I were the only Americans, we taught the Aussie and Kiwi's about our holiday and we all stood and gave a toast to what we were thankful for this trip (mine being that I met such great travel friends after arriving alone in Bangkok and now am amongst ten people!). After dinner we walked to the reggae district and celebrated Thanksgiving properly. This morning we awoke to an all day mini-van trip to the city of Chang Kong which lies on the Mekong River. I am looking across the river at Laos while the sunsets and tomorrow we board a two day slow boat trip into Laos. We stopped along the drive at a temple Wat Karun (?) outside Chang Rai that can only be described as unique - a white palace created in 1997 by a famous Thai artist that has monuments to suffering one most reach before nirvana. This was almost uncomfortable as one mural had the World Trade Center on fire with a dragon wrapped around and Neo (Keanu Reeves from Matrix) standing watch - very eerie."
Thanks Nick!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Pad Thai
Due to a rapid increase in internet prices and a decrease in time, I've struggled to find time to write. I'm currently in Ko Toa, Thailand, diving in search of the highly elusive whale shark. Yesterday I went on two dives with Ban's. On the first dive I saw a 3meter bull shark. My friend Skye was supposed to be my dive partner but she has an ear infection. I've been travelling through Thailand for the past few weeks with my friend Nick from my Bali adventures, my friend Skye from New Zealand, her bf Nick, his brother Cam, Cam's friend from school Izzy and Skye's friend Brooke from Australia. Did you get all of that? Nick, Nick, Brooke and Cam are all getting there Open Water certificates, so we should be here for a few more days. We arrived in Ko Toa after a twelve hour trip from Railey via a long tail boat, 4 hr bus ride and an rooftop overnight ferry ride. Turned out to be quite the adventure. We stayed just north of Raley in a backpacker haen call Tonsai. Both Railey and Tonsai are a Rock Climbers dream, with hundreds of routhes and rock faces as high as the eye can see. Had I not shattered my toe a few nights prior, I would have attempted a few routes. Seeing as no one else in the group had any desire to climb, we made our trip there a short one.
The last few weeks have been nothing but beautiful weather, aside from a few rainstorms here and there that last for a few minutes. Not a dull moment in this group. Especially the four days we spent in Koh Phi Phi. A typical day would consist of waking up early, chartering a long tail boat to some remote island or beach, a few games of UNO, frisbee, snorkelling, lounging around, some pb&js, a hike up to the viewpoint for the sunset, dinner, and then some "buckets." "Buckets" are...well they are just that ...."Buckets" of booze. Most of the bars offer free "buckets" from 10-10:10, 1-11:10, and 12-12:10. Cam and Nick had the system down! Get to bed around 3am and do it all over again.
Gotta run, we are headed north the Chang Mai in a few days for elephant rides and a little meditation. Enjoy the pics!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Week In Review
Last week as the surf started to drop, Nick, Mariah, Josh and I decided to check out some of the other islands in Indonesia.
A fast boat took us from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan. The island is very small, 8 square kilometers to be exact. Upon arriving we saw hundreds of small canoes scattering the shore, most of which were propelled by a man standing on the front bow maneuvering himself with a long stick. On the island the main cash crop is seaweed and on a low tide you can see the seaweed plots divided with stakes (you want to avoid the stakes with your surfboard at all costs!)
We had heard that the island might have waves, so with a little optimism we brought our boards. There are a few different breaks on the island, Playgrounds, Lacerations and Shipwrecks. All of the breaks work best on a high tide. Just in front of the bungalows where we were staying is Shipwrecks. To get out to the break you either pay 10000 rupiahs ($1) or you paddle. Josh and I paddled. By the time we got to the break we were freezing...yes! freezing! There must have been a cold current coming through because after an hour my toes turned white. Mariah, a Mainer', kept laughing at us calling us babys.
After our surf we rented bikes and decided to ride around the island. We stopped at Mushroom Bay and took pictures on the bridge to Nusa Ceningan. Josh and Mariah were in a hurry to get back to the fruit stands in town. Every day they make me try a new fruit, every one smelling worse than the last. Josh's favorite is a durian. Apparently in Thailand you can't bring it on most buses because it smells so bad. When we got off the speed boat in Nusa Lembongan, the locals were saying in Indonesian, "look at the tourist with the durian." J and M also bought a 20 lb jackfruit the other day, which broke the refrigerator shelf.
After two days on Nusa Lembongan, we took a different speed boat to Gili Trawangan. We found the island to be a little funky. With no cars on the island, you either walk, ride a bike or take a small horse carriage. The island is mostly known for its superb diving and magic
mushroom milkshakes. Unfortunately we didn't partake in either, just a little snorkeling. Mariah and I decided to cycle around the island, and while the island was much smaller than Nusa Lembongan, the roads consisted of 4 inch sandy stretches. It felt like we were walking our bikes through the desert. After two days and no surf we headed back to Bali.
After spending a few crazy nights in Kuta, we packed our things at headed back to the Puri
Uluwatu villas on the Buket Peninsula ( that is a pic of the villas that overlook the surf!). Nick and I rented mopeds and drove, while Josh and M took a taxi with all our bags and boards.
The tide was too low this morning so Josh, Nick and I took our mopeds down to the temple Pura Lehur just a few minutes drive away to mess with the monkeys. Mariah started work as
the manager at the villas today so she didn't get to partake. If you're not wearing pants they make you wear a sarong and sell you food to feed the monkeys. And trust me, you want the food so you can barter with the monkeys when they steel something. ie cameras, sunglasses. I played tug o war for my camera and one monkey ran off with Nick's sunglasses. The pictures we took are classic, check out the sequence of the monkey tricking me!
A few more weeks in Bali, then I'm off to Thailand on the 9th of Nov. We surfed this afternoon at Ulu but the waves are a little inconsistent. We are pondering riding our mopeds two hours north to Ubud for a few days, before the surf picks up again on Monday. Fingers crossed!
Aloha
Thursday, October 22, 2009
I love Indo!
Okay, here we go! It's been over a week since my last blog entry, so I have a lot of catching up to do in a short time.
I arrived in Bali on the 12th of October. On the flight from Taipei I met Rodrigo, who is from Brazil, but has been living in Oahu for the past 6months. We spent the first few days staying with a friend at the Hard Rock in Kuta, then headed down to Padang Padang to surf.
After a few days of surf I headed back to Kuta to hang with Ben's friend Mariah. She is from Maine, but speaks Balinese and just got a job as the manager of the Uluwatu villas. Mariah came to Bali with her friend Josh, who owns a restaurant and farm in Costa Rica and I must note that he is a vegan who eats more than any person I know. After every meal he asks ,"when is lunch #2? when is dinner #2?" We are also joined by Nick, who is a former USC grad traveling while in between jobs. In the past week we've been lucky enough to score some epic waves at Uluwatu, Impossibles, Dreamland and Nusa Lembongan.
Bali is amazing... you can live for dirt cheap or you can spend a little bit more and live like a king! It is hard to get homesick when the waves are good, the food is amazingly cheap, the sun is shinning and the beers are flowing. Sleeping in bungalows overlooking the ocean. White sand beaches. Too much Fun! I never want to leave. Gotta run tho. try to get pictures up soon!
I arrived in Bali on the 12th of October. On the flight from Taipei I met Rodrigo, who is from Brazil, but has been living in Oahu for the past 6months. We spent the first few days staying with a friend at the Hard Rock in Kuta, then headed down to Padang Padang to surf.
After a few days of surf I headed back to Kuta to hang with Ben's friend Mariah. She is from Maine, but speaks Balinese and just got a job as the manager of the Uluwatu villas. Mariah came to Bali with her friend Josh, who owns a restaurant and farm in Costa Rica and I must note that he is a vegan who eats more than any person I know. After every meal he asks ,"when is lunch #2? when is dinner #2?" We are also joined by Nick, who is a former USC grad traveling while in between jobs. In the past week we've been lucky enough to score some epic waves at Uluwatu, Impossibles, Dreamland and Nusa Lembongan.
Bali is amazing... you can live for dirt cheap or you can spend a little bit more and live like a king! It is hard to get homesick when the waves are good, the food is amazingly cheap, the sun is shinning and the beers are flowing. Sleeping in bungalows overlooking the ocean. White sand beaches. Too much Fun! I never want to leave. Gotta run tho. try to get pictures up soon!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Bali
...Bali adventures coming soon! currently on the island Nusa Lembongan, off to Gili Islands today. Will update soon!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
トイレはどこですか。
"We travel to have enlightening experiences, to meet inspirational people, to be stimulated, to learn, to grow." Rick Steves.
I'm in full travel mode, safe and sound in Tokyo. My friend Alban says there are two types of people, the ducks and the chickens. The ducks migrate and travel, the chickens don't travel, they lay their eggs and take care of their young. He says I'm the duck! =) It's 5:30 am and I just awoke in Alban's apartment. The view from my room looks out over the Tokyo skyline. What a life! Alban moved to Tokyo with his girlfriend Claire about a year ago. I met him back in my Hermosa Beach days and we've been friends ever since. He is in charge of the Asian region for a French sparkling juice company and she works for a French architectural firm. They are both French and of course, their wine refrigerator is almost as large as their food refrigerator.
Lets rewind back a day, a long day. And don't worry I'm not going to describe every day in detail, just the most worthy ones. At the airport in Honolulu, I was approached by a customs officer. He asks,"Where are you traveling? Are you traveling alone? How much cash, travelers checks did you bring? And how many bags did you check?" I answer, "Japan, Bali, and Thailand. Alone. Hmm... let me check...$2. And I didn't check any bags." So he gives me this look, hands me back my passport and says, "you're crazy, you know that right?" Ahhh shucks.
My flight over was a breeze. This is where I met Gibby. Gibby is originally from Philly, but has been a bouncer for the past 8 years in Honolulu and is off to see his girl in Japan for a few weeks. I slept little on the plane and made the mistake of watching the moving My Sister's Keeper. Disclaimer: Boys! Do not watch this movie with girls around, I cried for a good hour and trust me, I fought it!
Landing in Tokyo I discovered that my ATM card doesn't work at 90% of the ATM's. But thank heaven for 7-Eleven in downtown Tokyo, it finally worked! Gibby decided to tag along, or I decided to tag along with Gibby, in case my card never worked. I would have ended up in China if it weren't for Gibby's japanese. I know I know, I may sound like a stupid American, but I thought all kids in Japan were taught English at a young age. Wow, was I wrong. I was also thinking I might run into some Ninjas and Samurais. Wow, was I wrong ;)
My flight landed at noon. And with the help of Gibby's friend Shiho, we deciphered Alban's address, and I made it just before night fall. Shihu and Gibby introduced me to Kamo Soba, a duck noodle dish, and taught me a few greetings to help me on my way. Alban explained to me that if you ask someone for directions in Japan, they will walk you across town until you find it. Shihu guided me all the way to Alban's apartment and made sure I met Claire. Arigato!
I may have to buy a rain jacket, apparently there is a Typhoon headed for Japan today. In Maui that would probably ruin my day but in a city like Tokyo there are still tons of things to do.
Btw, トイレはどこですか。means Where is the toilet? My parting shot is of the buttons on the toilet at Alban's apartment, I'm yet to learn to use them but he reassured me he would teach me today =)
I'm in full travel mode, safe and sound in Tokyo. My friend Alban says there are two types of people, the ducks and the chickens. The ducks migrate and travel, the chickens don't travel, they lay their eggs and take care of their young. He says I'm the duck! =) It's 5:30 am and I just awoke in Alban's apartment. The view from my room looks out over the Tokyo skyline. What a life! Alban moved to Tokyo with his girlfriend Claire about a year ago. I met him back in my Hermosa Beach days and we've been friends ever since. He is in charge of the Asian region for a French sparkling juice company and she works for a French architectural firm. They are both French and of course, their wine refrigerator is almost as large as their food refrigerator.
Lets rewind back a day, a long day. And don't worry I'm not going to describe every day in detail, just the most worthy ones. At the airport in Honolulu, I was approached by a customs officer. He asks,"Where are you traveling? Are you traveling alone? How much cash, travelers checks did you bring? And how many bags did you check?" I answer, "Japan, Bali, and Thailand. Alone. Hmm... let me check...$2. And I didn't check any bags." So he gives me this look, hands me back my passport and says, "you're crazy, you know that right?" Ahhh shucks.
My flight over was a breeze. This is where I met Gibby. Gibby is originally from Philly, but has been a bouncer for the past 8 years in Honolulu and is off to see his girl in Japan for a few weeks. I slept little on the plane and made the mistake of watching the moving My Sister's Keeper. Disclaimer: Boys! Do not watch this movie with girls around, I cried for a good hour and trust me, I fought it!
Landing in Tokyo I discovered that my ATM card doesn't work at 90% of the ATM's. But thank heaven for 7-Eleven in downtown Tokyo, it finally worked! Gibby decided to tag along, or I decided to tag along with Gibby, in case my card never worked. I would have ended up in China if it weren't for Gibby's japanese. I know I know, I may sound like a stupid American, but I thought all kids in Japan were taught English at a young age. Wow, was I wrong. I was also thinking I might run into some Ninjas and Samurais. Wow, was I wrong ;)
My flight landed at noon. And with the help of Gibby's friend Shiho, we deciphered Alban's address, and I made it just before night fall. Shihu and Gibby introduced me to Kamo Soba, a duck noodle dish, and taught me a few greetings to help me on my way. Alban explained to me that if you ask someone for directions in Japan, they will walk you across town until you find it. Shihu guided me all the way to Alban's apartment and made sure I met Claire. Arigato!
I may have to buy a rain jacket, apparently there is a Typhoon headed for Japan today. In Maui that would probably ruin my day but in a city like Tokyo there are still tons of things to do.
Btw, トイレはどこですか。means Where is the toilet? My parting shot is of the buttons on the toilet at Alban's apartment, I'm yet to learn to use them but he reassured me he would teach me today =)
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Here today, Gone tomorrow
Where to begin?
It has been months since my last blog so I have some catching up to do. I continue to work on a sailboat in Maui, surfing whenever there are waves, and enjoying day after day of sunshine. The boys and I raced in the Hana Relay this year, sponsored by Polli's Mexican restaurant and wearing Mariachi costumes, we placed 1st out of 122 teams with a 6:13 mile pace. For anyone who doesn't know the Hana Relay it is a fifty-two mile race, from the airport in Kahului to Hana, along 617 curves and over 56 bridges through the most breathtaking scenery in all of Maui. We even had a support team, also dressed in Mariachi costumes, blaring ghetto mexican music while riding a tandem bike. Definitely the highlight of our year!
Abe and Beth came to visit in August and we borrowed Alli's kmart beach cruisers and rode down Haleakala Crater. Byan Dennis also paid a visit and we drove around the entire island in a 24 hr time window.
I'm still yet to travel this year, other than a short trip to Oregon and Washington in August. Short, but what a great trip! I got to skydive in Oregon and see my niece Blakely. I just said my goodbyes to Oren and Alli who are traveling to South America, Israel, Cali, and Georgia for four months and Kyle and Heather who are traveling to Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand (check out http://kylethevagabond.com). And tomorrow...I'm off on a two month trip which includes 6 days in Japan visiting Alban and two months exploring Bali and Thailand.
I've been extremely busy the past week packing, finding places to store all my junk, moving out of my house, working and all the while there has been a south swell, which has made it hard for me to get anything done. Not to mention it feels like a bazillion degrees on the West Side. I'll be sure to blog as much as possible along the way.
Aloha
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Year 2009 to date...
SO it's 2009! April 11th! Incredible how fast time flies. Since my adventures in El Salvador, I have made my way back to Maui and I'm not going anywhere for awhile. Atleast not for two months...I had to send my passport in to get renewed. It really sucks that you have to turn your old passport in when you renew. In ten years I somehow avoided losing it, although I did put it through a few spin cycles. Ben and I moved into a new 3 bedroom unit back in December with my friend from UP, Jeff Fanning. Jeff had won a car on the Price is Right last summer, took the money and fled to Maui. Don't believe me, see for yourself on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khtJ8hN8TC0
Where is Jeff now? Back in Alaska, he just left a few days back for a job opportunity. But, not before he stepped on a sea urchin and had to go into surgery! ouch!
My dad visited back in February and we had one hell of a weekend. I took a few days off and we headed to Hana for a night. We visited Red Sand beach, Waimoku Falls, Wainapanapa, and spent a night at a hotel on the water. For those of you that have never visited Hana, there are very few restuarants. We were planning on just cooking in our room, but when my dad asked the cashier at the grocery store for places to eat, she replied, "My house!" We pulled up to a small house in Hana town and when we knocked on the door, we were presently surprised. For only 16 bucks we each got chicken, a small salad, black beans and rice. If you ask my dad, he would probably say it was the best meal of his life. If you know my dad you wouldn't be surprised. My favorite bumper sticker is at the Hana General store, it reads, "NEW YORK PARIS TOKYO HANA."
We are in our last week of whale season, thank god! At one point I was working three whale watches a day and at the same time I was taking medicine for acute toncilitis, which I probably got from doing whale talks on the boat or maybe even from the whale snot...very high in bacteria!
We should have a new addition to the Cecka family, either today or tomorrow. Another girl. I'm sure my sister will start another blog for her.
One of my best buddys Rachel Kvamme visited last weekend. Definitly worth few paragraphs. Rachel and I have been friends for about 8 years now, I had always considered her as my older sister, as she always gives me this "I'm in trouble look" when I do something dumb, then she says, "Gabriellllll." I love it.
So I decided to take the weekend off, which really isn't that easy to do during our spring break season, but yes, thank you Chris. I picked Rachel up from the airport and we headed down to Kihei to go sailing with my friend Michael in close to 20 mph winds, 30 mph on the gusts. If you knew Michael you would tell us we're crazy, actually most of my friends did say just that. Just the three of us sailing down the coast, what a great adventure. Although we almost didn't even make it out to the boat on the moaring becuase we almost undershot the paddle out in the dingy and the wind was holding us off. For a second there I was thinking, crap Gabe, Rachel's first day and we are going to have to call the coast guard for a rescue. That night we headed to Cool Cats, our local hang out, for a little Oren Masserman on the ukelele.
On friday we headed to Lanai for the night. We put up a hammock on the beach and drank a bottle of wine, while listening to the commedian Mitch Hedberg. After dark my local Lanai friend Dustin gave us a short ride up to the Manele Bay Four Seasons Hotel (http://www.fourseasons.com/manelebay/), where we spent the night....NOT! But we did play a little yahtzee on the hotel's veranda, then challenged a few General Electric big wigs to a game of shuffleboard and jumped in the hot tub, before returning to our luxurious double LL Bean tent.
Busy busy weekend. The next day we went up to Lanai City to eat breakfast at Blue Ginger,
where we saw George Lopez, had Rachel not pointed him out I would have never known,
actually I still have no idea who he is, so I 'googled' him five minutes ago =)
After breakfast we went to the Lanai Pines Sporting Clay range. Really really fun. We were given a half hour instruction (apparently Rachel has a dominant left eye!), then let loose with a golf cart and our rifles strapped to the side. So don't mess with us, although you do have a 30% chance of getting dropped if you cross us in the woods, which is roughly what Rachel figured we averaged. We took a couple of classic rifle pictures, which you can find on the cover of next months issue of, "Fox and Hound" and "American Rifleman."
We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing crochet and lounging around in the Japanese garden at the Koele Lodge, which is also run by the Four Seasons. After joined back up with Captain Brian, we sailed home, showered, then we were off to the Drums of the Pacific Luau at the Hyatt. Breathe... The weekend continued on much like that...but I have to go for a sunset surf right now because Ben keeps bugging me to get of my computer so I'll have to fill you in on the rest a little later. I'll post the pics from the weekend on my next blog...
Aloha
Gabe
Where is Jeff now? Back in Alaska, he just left a few days back for a job opportunity. But, not before he stepped on a sea urchin and had to go into surgery! ouch!
My dad visited back in February and we had one hell of a weekend. I took a few days off and we headed to Hana for a night. We visited Red Sand beach, Waimoku Falls, Wainapanapa, and spent a night at a hotel on the water. For those of you that have never visited Hana, there are very few restuarants. We were planning on just cooking in our room, but when my dad asked the cashier at the grocery store for places to eat, she replied, "My house!" We pulled up to a small house in Hana town and when we knocked on the door, we were presently surprised. For only 16 bucks we each got chicken, a small salad, black beans and rice. If you ask my dad, he would probably say it was the best meal of his life. If you know my dad you wouldn't be surprised. My favorite bumper sticker is at the Hana General store, it reads, "NEW YORK PARIS TOKYO HANA."
We are in our last week of whale season, thank god! At one point I was working three whale watches a day and at the same time I was taking medicine for acute toncilitis, which I probably got from doing whale talks on the boat or maybe even from the whale snot...very high in bacteria!We should have a new addition to the Cecka family, either today or tomorrow. Another girl. I'm sure my sister will start another blog for her.One of my best buddys Rachel Kvamme visited last weekend. Definitly worth few paragraphs. Rachel and I have been friends for about 8 years now, I had always considered her as my older sister, as she always gives me this "I'm in trouble look" when I do something dumb, then she says, "Gabriellllll." I love it.
So I decided to take the weekend off, which really isn't that easy to do during our spring break season, but yes, thank you Chris. I picked Rachel up from the airport and we headed down to Kihei to go sailing with my friend Michael in close to 20 mph winds, 30 mph on the gusts. If you knew Michael you would tell us we're crazy, actually most of my friends did say just that. Just the three of us sailing down the coast, what a great adventure. Although we almost didn't even make it out to the boat on the moaring becuase we almost undershot the paddle out in the dingy and the wind was holding us off. For a second there I was thinking, crap Gabe, Rachel's first day and we are going to have to call the coast guard for a rescue. That night we headed to Cool Cats, our local hang out, for a little Oren Masserman on the ukelele.
On friday we headed to Lanai for the night. We put up a hammock on the beach and drank a bottle of wine, while listening to the commedian Mitch Hedberg. After dark my local Lanai friend Dustin gave us a short ride up to the Manele Bay Four Seasons Hotel (http://www.fourseasons.com/manelebay/), where we spent the night....NOT! But we did play a little yahtzee on the hotel's veranda, then challenged a few General Electric big wigs to a game of shuffleboard and jumped in the hot tub, before returning to our luxurious double LL Bean tent.
Busy busy weekend. The next day we went up to Lanai City to eat breakfast at Blue Ginger,
where we saw George Lopez, had Rachel not pointed him out I would have never known,actually I still have no idea who he is, so I 'googled' him five minutes ago =)
After breakfast we went to the Lanai Pines Sporting Clay range. Really really fun. We were given a half hour instruction (apparently Rachel has a dominant left eye!), then let loose with a golf cart and our rifles strapped to the side. So don't mess with us, although you do have a 30% chance of getting dropped if you cross us in the woods, which is roughly what Rachel figured we averaged. We took a couple of classic rifle pictures, which you can find on the cover of next months issue of, "Fox and Hound" and "American Rifleman."
We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing crochet and lounging around in the Japanese garden at the Koele Lodge, which is also run by the Four Seasons. After joined back up with Captain Brian, we sailed home, showered, then we were off to the Drums of the Pacific Luau at the Hyatt. Breathe... The weekend continued on much like that...but I have to go for a sunset surf right now because Ben keeps bugging me to get of my computer so I'll have to fill you in on the rest a little later. I'll post the pics from the weekend on my next blog...
Aloha
Gabe
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