Day 1 (mid-day)

A shot of Publics from the Condo.

As mentioned, I got a little boogie boarding in this morning. We then took a walk into Waikiki. Well, a partial walk - the car was parked across the street at Kapiolani Park and the meters were going to kick in at 10, so we drove down to the Shell, parked there, and meandered into towne in search of food.

The old Denny's at the corner of Kapiolani and Kalakaua always had a great view, but the food was, well, Denny's. The place has been sold (and for all I know it was sold a decade ago) and is now Lulu's Surf Bar. The view is still great (especially with a pumping south swell), and the food is now standard Hawaiian tourist fare. Pricey but tasty, with good size servings.

We continued down through town and made contact with one of the beach boys. He was pau hana but gave us his card and said to call later to set up an appointment for the girls for tomorrow. They really liked him and this will free me up to give Sue a surf lesson at the same time. I contacted Bruce C. and he let me know that Greg's board down at the racks is available.

We came back to the condo, grabbed the boogie boards, and the girls went out to catch a few waves at The Wall.

BTW - although we have three digital cameras with us, no one knows where any of the requisite cables are to upload the pictures. We're hoping to pick up a media converter and will post some shots soon.

Travel...

... has really gotten to be a miserable experience in this country. Being treated like terrorist cattle, not being able to get seats together for Sue and I, waiting in line for an hour and a half to pick up the car I reserved, really sucked. But now, less than a day later, it all fades; because I am home.

The swell I mentioned is here, and very nice. I went out on the boogie board at dawn this morning. Tongs was a clean 4' with only a handful of people out. Very nice. It did highlight, however, how out of shape I am. The bouncy drops down the face of the waves will either straighten out my back or destroy it. Only time will tell.

Getting ready

Our flight is tomorrow morning. I guess I should be running around getting ready; but most stuff is good to go. I've got the laptop, the guitar, and the boogie boards (Bruce C. is arranging for a surfboard). But mostly, I've got ku`u ipo, so I'm ready to go.

Speaking of the surf, I've been monitoring the newly arriving south swell via these webcams. The Sheraton Surfcam has presets for various surf breaks - including Pops and Tongs! The skycam allows you to pan and zoom the camera yourself, which is kinda nice. The NWS is calling for a high surf advisory until Wednesday. What a great way to be welcomed home! Although, I have to say the new surf measurements are going to take a little getting used to. When I heard the forecast for 8-10 foot surf, my first thought was waves breaking over the channel bouys at Bowls! But apparently 8-10 is what we used to call 4-6. Whew - it's been 5 years since I've been on a board and I'd like to ease in to the death-or-glory drops, if you don't mind.