May 30 2005
vacation
this had to rank as one of the best weeks of vacation ever.
it started with my six day trip to hawaii (oahu), to which pictures are posted now. the first time i went to oahu, i wasn’t really sure what was going on, so a lot of time was wasted finding places to eat, things to do… and we didn’t have a car, so it was hard to visit anything out of waikiki.
this time, over the course of those six days, i had plate lunch - a traditional hawaiian lunch meal consisting of two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and meat - 3 times. shave ice (intentionally not with a “d”) twice at a really good shave ice place called waiola shave ice, and once at a place more remote, but still good, called aoki shave ice. unfortunately, we only had malasadas once at leonard’s, but it was really good regardless.
with the car all week, we also visited a lot of neat sites on the island. tantalus drive is a road about 10 miles northwest of waikiki that winds up a big hill and provides a nice lookout over waikiki. there are three panoramic shots of from there. kailua beach is two and a half mile long beach along the windward (east) side of the island where you can also rent kayaks and row out to some islands some hundreds of yards off the shore. there was a nameless beach somewhere on the north shore of the island that we also stopped on. it was basically deserted but very pretty. if you look at the panoramic pictures, you’ll be able to tell which one it is right away. on the very northeast part of the island is a place called la’ie point. that’s the picture where a couple of hundred yards off this point, there’s a big hunk of rock with a hole blasted through the middle of it by a particularly nasty storm. there are a couple of other lookouts, but those are just random stops on the side of highway 83, which runs north-south along the windward side of the island. the really busy looking beach is waikiki beach, which was about two blocks from our hotel.
every saturday, sunday and wednesday, merchants set up shops around aloha (arizona memorial) stadium and you can buy stuff really cheap there. i intended to pick up most of my souvenirs there, but unfortunately, i was in such a rush that i didn’t take advantage of any of the deals. otherwise, i would have grabbed some shirts and cheap luggage ($15-$20 for one of those standard roll-along luggages). i took a picture of one of several places where you could pick up 10 t-shirts for $20.
during one of our drives, we had also intented to swing from the north shore back down to waikiki through the wai’anae part (west side) of the island, but unfortunately, the highway was never fully constructed along the north west bend, and as a result, it’s just an unmaintained dirt road that was gated off and inaccessible to anything besides off-road vehicles. when we discovered that, we didn’t particularly feel like going back down and up the west side of the island, so that was abandoned for some other time. otherwise, there are also some really peaceful beaches and a couple of man-made lagoons on the wai’anae side of the island.
something else we saw while driving, but didn’t take pictures of were the haiku stairs, which is a wooden stairway leading basically straight one of the mountain ranges on oahu. it ascends 2,220 feet (approximately 222 floors, more than the two world trade center towers combined) basically straight up (it was previously one of a number of wooden ladders strung over the mountain to allow the military to build a super powerful radio antennae along the top ridge of the mountain), where basically, if you fall, you won’t be getting back up. we were contemplating doing this climb, but unfortunately, it was closed to the public at the time. another thing we drove by that was pretty cool, was ‘ehukai beach, or the banzai pipeline. that place had those monster waves that would curl over themselves forming “pipelines” like you’d see at a surfing competition.
it was a really beautiful trip. a lot of the pictures were just quick shots taken while driving, to give an idea of what the scenery looks likes. in particular, the green, ridge-y mountains that run north-south on the island.
after i got back from hawaii, i still had activities at home. i played hold’em friday and sunday night. some basketball on sunday. and some driving range action, hiking, and dinner with carl before he headed off to texas for work yesterday.
when i went to the driving range on sunday, i learned a REALLY important point that eluded me the first two times i’ve been. forget keeping your arms straight so that the club is an extension of your body. forget imagining that your body is a spring and that you just unwind at your core and let your arms follow through. in the game of golf, you typically KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL during your swing! again, another way where hockey has totally screwed me over for golf, because in a game like hockey, and most other team sports, you keep your head up when you handle/pass/shoot. additionally, keeping your head in place forces your body to unwind in a more straight up position, sort of like how you have better form swimming freestyle when you aren’t constantly moving your head to the left or right to breathe. anyhow, that was a great revelation.
sunday, i also went up to lake natoma to watch the ncaa women’s crew championship. cal took the national championship in dramatic fashion. there were three grand finals (there were also petite finals, but the grand finals represent the top 6 places, and the petite finals represent the bottom 6) left, the four, the junior varsity eight, and the varsity eight. after the grand finals of the women’s fours (boat of four people), cal was 3 points behind virginia. the point system worked such that each finisher is awarded two points less than the boat that came in before it. with two races left, the varsity and junior varsity eights, cal had to beat virgina by a total of 2 places. in the junior varsity eight grand finals, cal came in second to virginia, so now cal was 5 points behind virginia with the grand finals coming up, and now cal had to beat virginia by a total of 3 places. the cal women’s varsity eight is basically the best out there. and they would have to be their best in order to win the championship. up through the halfway point of the race, the cal crew was a close second behind princeton. the announcers were saying that this was a position that they were not used to seeing cal in. fortunately, the virginia varsity eight is not as top notch as the rest of the field and they were straggling in fourth. over the course of the final 1000m (the entire race is 2000m) the cal crew overtook princeton and finished first, and virginia couldn’t pull it out and finished fourth, giving cal the national championship by 1 point.
that’s the most emotionally satisfying way to win, for me at least. your team does what they are supposed to do. it may not mean winning every race, but it means getting the points you need. and then when it comes down to it, your best perform like heros and bring it home.
now, i’m just catching up on some tv and relaxing before the workweek start.
i also caught the finale of 24 while i was in hawaii. i thought that it was a really good way to end the season. much better than season 2 and 3 and it opens up a lot of opportunities for season 5.