Skip to main content

Kite Surfing

One of the funny things (to me) about Kerry is that if he really likes something, he always really likes it. He never gets tired of the same thing over and over (which is good news for me - I shouldn't be replaced with a newer model any time soon). The man was thrilled with Velveeta cheese dip the first time he had it around 19 years ago, and to this day when we are planning what to cook for guests who are coming over he will invariably suggest that I make Velveeta cheese dip. He just knows everyone else will be as thrilled as he is over it.

We live on an island with lots of exotic restaurants, most of which serve an amazing variety of seafood served in fabulous ways you can't even imagine until you've tried it.

He was thrilled, thrilled I tell you, to discover there is a Red Lobster in Honolulu.

Really?

We could eat at Red Lobster anywhere in the country (and have, quite frankly) and he still wants to try the one here. I'm all about new experiences and trying things we haven't had before. Kerry is all about comfort food and happy memories.

(To be fair, our first sort-of date was at Red Lobster. Although neither of us knew it was a date at the time, there was no hand-holding, no good night kiss, and no mention of us liking each other, Red Lobster was where I first looked across the table at my good friend Kerry, and thought, "He's cute. Why haven't I noticed that before?" So it holds a special place in his heart, and he likes going there.)

So after we were rained out of our hike, and we still had some time to kill before we could pick up Ben at the airport and head to the hotel, Kerry said, "Let's go to the beach."

Now, we live on a small island. We are never more than 20 minutes from the beach. We have spent tons of time at the beach and frankly, we are beached out. The kids don't really love the beach anymore unless their friends are there for them to interact with.

But, Kerry and I grew up far away from the beach. The beach was something wonderful and any time you had a chance to go it was a fabulous opportunity and you spent as much time on the beach and in the water as you could, because you never knew when you might have another chance.

I'm over it.

Kerry is not.

But.....Kerry doesn't get to go to the beach as often as the kids and I do. The first year we lived here, the kids and I went to the beach all the time; Kerry was in Afghanistan. We can go to the beach during the week if any of our homeschool friends all want to go; Kerry has to work. We go with anyone during the summer while we aren't doing school; Kerry has to work.

So, with that in mind, we agreed to go to the beach and let Kerry soak up all that beachiness that he so loves.

Amazingly, we happened to spot a large group of people kitesurfing.

I haven't seen this very often. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen it up close.

It was entrancing to watch these people speed along the water, leap high into the air, and flip around. I don't know how they kept from being drug out to sea but they all seemed to know what they were doing and managed to make it back to shore.

And Kerry was able to relax and unwind and that's what really counted.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...