Baby, You're a Star

Poop Star
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.

Well, we're back.

And while it's been a great start to the new year (it's hard to imagine how a month off from work wouldn't be), I can't get too rah-rah about it at the moment because I've managed to get sick after returning to the same sleep difficulties that I was experiencing before I left for California and points west.

Eh, let me try anyway.

First off -- no sleeping troubles at all while I was away. (Going to have to let that one sink in -- I hope it doesn't have to do with the mojo of the new house. "New" being relative since we bought the house over a year ago and have lived in it for almost a year now.)

Anyway, a good visit with family and some friends (unfortunately, never enough time to see everyone), a good couple of hikes in the Mojave. And then about 2-1/2 weeks in Hawaii: 7 days on Kauai, 9 days on the big island and a little over 24 hours on Oahu.

Hawaii was awesome.

The picture at top is of this crazy plant/fungus that we found along the side of the trail on the hike we did on Kauai. (If you're interested, another view of it can be found here.) It was supposed to be one of at least two hikes, but it seems that our trip to the Islands was very much about learning how to not worry about making plans or figuring out what to do and just relaxing and having a good time. So we never did get around to hiking the Kalalau trail on the Napali coast (we ended up spending the day surfing and hitting the beaches on the eastern coast... FWIW, prioritizing the second day of surfing over the hike was the SOOTTAD's idea, not that I had any objections), but that just means that we need to figure out when we can plan our next trip back. We did do the one hike in Koke'e state Park (which was fantastic), and take the planned helicopter tour and get our spam musubi, saimin at Hamura's Saimin and burgers at Duane's Ono Charburger. Plus, lots of snorkeling, a luau and a few massages. (Oh, and surfing both days we were on Oahu -- so much for that trip to the north shore.) But a lot more chilling-on-the-beach time than I've done in innumerable years. The SOOTTAD is even sporting a savage tan, relatively speaking.

Anyway, good times. We'll hopefully have a chance to go back in the not too distant future to get that hike in and get some more surfing time. I'll try to dwell on that while I recover from this cold.