Wait, Where are We?

This weekend Bryan and I are going camping with a friend from my office and a bunch of her friends. We're really excited to get out and do a Hawaii thing (beach camping) and be social with new people.

And for the occasion, Bryan went to Wal-Mart (yes, we feel guilty) and invested (it was only $40! Wal-Mart bad and good) in a tent. Now here's the best part....

It's a CAMOUFLAGE tent. Can you believe it?! I would never be caught dead in anything camouflage before. Camouflage. How very un-Bay Area.

Now, no offense to the local folks but somehow a camouflage tent is not nearly as offensive here in Hawaii as it would be in San Francisco. I was threatening to fly a confederate flag outside our tent to stick with the theme. But I think I won't. It's a democratic state after all. And word might get back to San Francisco and they'd never let me back in.

I'll post pictures and stories of the camping adventure early next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Adding One More to the Mix

My Hawaii family is now one member stronger. My cousin Will and his wife Heather welcomed their third daughter this week.

There are so many Jenni-relatives in Hawaii that I need all my fingers and toes to count them.

So Baby Lee, welcome to our crazy little clan. Can't wait to see you in person and give you our love!

Sailing the Sea

On Friday night we met some friends for an evening sailboat ride to watch the sunset and catch the weekly fireworks show.

Super cool.

I'm Still High on Adrenaline

Whoooo! I just got pictures from the race and it all came back to me.

And here's a little note from our coach to let you know how stoked we all are..
- Rachel ironed the race...which is an amazing accomplishment. (You try sitting for 6 hours and 46 minutes and steer through all kinds of sloppy conditions...)
- Over the entire race Rachel was never more than 100 yards north or south of the straight line to her goal...confirmed via the GPS (which we watched constantly).
- Not a single woman in that crew ever asked for an extra time out,
- Not a single woman gave less than 100 percent in the boat,
- Not a single woman complained about an injury (though I could see there was some pain),
- Not a single woman complained about seasickness (even though there was some),
- At the end, ANY ONE of our paddlers could have handled the final sprint...there was no one who gave out. (That does not happen often in this race...)
- AND, during the entire race, NOT A SINGLE BOAT EVER PASSED US....and we just picked out boats one at a time and took them out.

Go Us!!

Pics:
#1: I'm in seat 5
#2: I'm in seat 5 (see how my elbow is bent down? Bad form!)
#3: I'm in seat 4 (you can tell I'm fighting for it. Ugh, I can imagine how tired I was.)
#4: Our kick ass team!

I Did It!!!

I am officially an athlete stud. Or as my coworker just told me, I'm really Kama'aina now.

Yesterday I paddled the 41 miles across the Molokai Channel (that's open ocean folks!) with nine teammates. We completed it in 6 hours and 46 minutes. And we rocked it!

It was one of the absolute best experiences of my life. I can't exactly put it into words or put my finger on what was so spectacular about it but it was terrific. And fun! Crazy to think that extreme physical activity and pain could be fun but it was. I had a blast out there.

So here are all the details for those of you who want to know or have nothing to do at work today....

I caught a 6:45 AM(!) flight to Molokai on a little puddle jumper plane on Saturday morning. I was super bummed to have to get up that early and spend my entire day on Molokai doing nothing. But whatever. That's how it goes. And actually, it was great. I ended up getting a terrific breakfast at the Molokai Lodge with three of the "open women" on my team (they're the advanced girls). They were super cool to me and very supportive of my first long distance race (everyone else on my team had already done two similar style races. I did not get to do them. Visit my previous posts for the details). Much of paddling for me is the social aspect and these three girls really made me feel welcome and 'loved' in a way I don't always find in paddling. So my Molokai weekend started off very strong.

We stayed in tiny condo units on the very far west side of the island and pretty much did nothing all day. I napped a bit, walked the beach, watched my local teammates pick opii off the rocks, swam in the pool a bit and napped a bit more. Pretty boring actually. But let me tell you, Molokai is gorgeous. And we were on the dry side. At night we all cooked a massive spagetti dinner together, ate in a circle on the grass like we were in grade school and laughed and had fun. Then we had a team meeting, I burst into tears because I was so nervous, and we were in bed by 8:30.

The crying actually helped a lot. I think it let me get my nervous energy out that had been building for weeks. So on Sunday morning at 5am when we left the condos in a shuttle bus, I was ready to go. And everything else after that just got better and better. We were some of the first to arrive at the beach with 70 canoes around and the sun rising. We had great energy and gave hugs all around. I took a few picture of the experience on a digital camera so I'll have to post those later. Every race always starts with a Hawaiian prayer and for the first time I got teary. And then they were off.

As I mentioned before, each team as 10 paddlers. The canoe holds six. So four girls ride on the escort boat (think nice fishing boat) at all times. We take turns rotating in an out of the boat. Each person paddles about 40 minutes at a time and then rests for 20 minutes or so. We did about 12 "changes" throughout the race and I personally did about seven. I started the race in the escort boat but got to finish in the canoe which meant I got to cross the finish line.

Anyhow, there's not much else to tell you. We left Molokai and could barely see Oahu. But we got closer and closer and the whole time I knew we could do it. It was definitely a situation where I hit my exhaustion point a few times and had to overcome it. I never thought I was one who would particularly persevere in a physical activity but I proved that I am. If I was a runner I might try a marathon next!

Oh, I should admit that I hurt myself pretty good. My body hurts all over today. My entire right leg is banged and bruised. My left knee is super sore. And my mind is still complete mush. But I am one of only 700 women who get to do this experience every year. So I'm psyched.

The Grand Finale

On Sunday I reach the completion of my first season of paddling. I'll be participating in the Na Wahine O Ke Kai (means Women of the Sea) race. It's a 41 mile race from Molokai to Waikiki. We think it will take us about 7 hours to complete.

It should be insane.

It's sort of the Ironman of the paddling world. We expect about 80 boats in the entire competitive - again with teams from California, Australia and NZ. Each team has 10 paddlers and they switch in and out of the boat throughout the race. Which means I'll spend a fair amount of time floating or swimming in the Molokai Channel - famous for it's rough conditions and sharks. Yay, sharks.

I'm psyched for it. I'm a tad nervous and think that it will feel more like torture than fun. But I am just thrilled that I have worked so hard to get here and will actually participate in this phenomenal event.

So wish me luck!

The Vanilla Gorilla

That's the name Bryan has given himself. Owing to his total lack of tan after a half-year in the islands.

Gotta love him.

Sunday, Sunday

Today started off with a bit of excitement when I put the roach spray to use and learned what really hides in the deep dark corners of our kitchen. Bryan hopped about dousing the roaches that came out for fresh air. We had absolutely no idea the spray would DRAW THEM OUT or that so many had made themselves at home. GROSS. But now we have the power (aka spray) and have no problems using it.

The rest of the day was more relaxing and much prettier. We drove to the North Shore to take in the quiet sites and hit the beach. Along the way we passed this buoy that had washed on shore. It is completely mind-boggling that something this large and presumably permanent (hello, it's a buoy marker) could wash up on shore. So we had to take pictures. We each posed and then Bryan took advantage of the waves and pushed it back out to sea.... But it eventually washed back.

Later we stopped at Sunset Beach for a few hours and then went to Haliewa for shave ice and Thai food.

A perfect Sunday.

Ick

Today I bought our first roach spray. We don't have an infestation or anything, but I can't stand it when I see one. I was super bummed about living in bug-land until I remembered the many spiders in my parents house, the insane Box Elder bug drama in Boulder and the mysterious colony of ants in our dishwasher in San Francisco. I suppose every house comes with its own unwelcome visitors.

Paddling Pics

Here are a couple shots from our Kona race. It's my entire Novice B team and us crossing the finish line (3rd boat, 2nd place, 1st in our hearts).

Family Ties

Today I was at the Hawaii Convention Center for a conference on Hawaii tourism when I saw my aunt!

I was completely surprised and delighted to see her. I have never in my life spontaneously run into a family member. Friends, ex-boyfriends, sure. But never my family because they've always lived far away. Running into her today reminded me of one of the reasons I wanted to move here - to get closer to my 'roots.' Definitely made it feel like a small state.

I also saw Peter Greenberg - the travel guy from the Today Show. Some of you know of my mild addiction to the Today Show. It was ridiculously thrilling to see him in real life. But I chickened out of speaking to him.

Vegas Weekend

Bryan held down the fort here while I went to Vegas to celebrate my friend Sara's bachelorette party. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend with most of my college friends. It felt SO good to be with girls I know.

It also felt good to come 'home' to Hawaii. The air felt good, the mountains were pretty, the palm trees blowing, and it felt like home.

But as soon as I got of the plane I was craving In N' Out and ZA Pizza from SF. What's that about?

Do you think I could convince the City of Honolulu to develop a Little San Francisco? Just a victorian building or two, a Whole Foods, ZA, a mellow bar, a cable car for good measure, and Target and In N' Out on the outskirts in the "suburbs". I think this idea has potential. What else should I add?

Weekend O' Paddling

This posting is very long so I'll bold the highlights for you.

I spent this 3-day weekend deep in the paddling world. My team and I flew to Kona for the 35th Annual Queen Liliuokulani long distance canoe race - it's the worldest largest outrigger canoe race. I estimate there were about 2,000 paddlers in town for the event. I saw women with jerseys that read "San Francisco Outrigger Canoe Club", there was a crew from Japan, from Marina del Rey, from Fremont (weird, right?), and I think from Tahiti.

The events officially began Friday night with an 8:30pm team meeting in our coach's room where we learned our crews (I was assigned seat 4 on boat #5), we were told to stay positive and reminded that this was a big accomplishment. Then we went to bed. Only to wake up at 5am.

Saturday morning was CRAZY. Boats stacked next to each other, women running all around. Duct tape being passed back and forth to secure camelbacks to our seats. We actually took over both the women's and men's bathrooms in the hotel. The guys were scared. Hundreds of buff athletic women amped on adrenaline. All prepping for an 18 mile race.

Strangely enough, I wasn't feeling nervous about this race. It was estimated to take just less than 3 hours and our practices are usually about 2 hours so I knew I could keep my arms moving til the end. I was a bit worried about feeling miserable - tired, sweaty, hot, sore. But I was super calm. I also knew we had no chance of coming close to winning. So as long as we weren't the last boat to cross the finish line, we were safe.

We did really well. We were a boat of all first-year paddlers and our steersman had never steered a long distance race before. And we worked our asses off. Of the 85-ish boats in our class, we got 55-ish place. And of the total 135 boats in the entire event (women only) we got 80-ish. I think our time was 2 hours and 45 minutes. About 2 hours and 15 minutes into it my back hurt so bad I thought I might be doing permanent damage to it. And my fingers were burning with blisters that I thought they might actually be bleeding. But I couldn't stop to check them out. No stopping for anything. Eventually the pain lessened a bit and I sort of enjoyed the last 15 minutes or so of the race. Most of my teammates claim to have had fun in the race. Not me. It wasn't fun. It's cool that I did it. And if I paddle next year I'll probably do it again. But it wasn't necessarily enjoyable.

After the race we chilled a bit until our minds were somewhat coherent and I stuck around to snorkel and swim with a few people. The rest of the day is a total blur. We watched the men's race finish back in town*, finally ate some food, and took a nap. In the evening we gathered to watch the Parade of Paddlers (we should have participated but we're a lazy club and we decided to drink instead) which involved hundreds of paddlers walking along the street all carrying torches - very Olympic-esque. Then we partied.

Throughout much of the weekend I had moments where I felt like I didn't fit in or that the other girls were all much better friends with each other than with me. But it was an absolute blast to drink and hit the bars with a big group of girls. It felt just like being in college again. And there are many good stories that came out of it - injuries dancing, hook-ups and drunken conversations. Some people didn't make it home until 4am.

At 9am on Sunday I was greeted by my friend yelling at me "Where's your paddle? You're racing right now! Get downstairs!" I was completely dumbfounded and a silly argument ensued. Turns out, I was racing. All of the Novice B (first-year paddlers) girls were racing in the 6 mile double-hull. Yuck. So I changed, grabbed my paddle, and went downstairs on an empty stomach. A few girls had it worse - they were still drunk. But we had fun.

This race was crazy. First off, we had two normal canoes connected by 2x4's. Which was actually quite cute because that's how we all learned to paddle 5 months ago - and all together. As the race started, we immediately pulled ahead. About 3 minutes into the race we were pretty far out front with only two other boats. We were chasing a red boat as we paddled at a sprint pace. About two thirds of the way through the race we started to catch the red boat. And we quickly passed them. It was awesome and unbelievable. I don't think I've ever felt that good in a canoe. And then, about a quarter mile from the finish, our tail passed their nose and we turned in for the finish line. And they turned towards us, clipped the back of our boat and spun it out. Seriously, like a NASCAR race, we spun out and lost first place. We managed to be the third boat to cross the finish and walked away with a second place medal because the team that spun us was a Masters team. So while we didn't take gold, we showed ourselves, the red boat and everyone watching from the beach that our boat of Novice B girls could out paddle a masters crew. That was fun.

And then we ate, napped and partied some more. And I caught an early flight home to spend Labor Day with Bryan.

If Bryan contributed to this blog, he might tell you about his weekend. I can give a brief summary. He hung out with our friends on Friday night and got dinner and drinks. On Saturday he met a friend to watch the UH game on TV (they played Alabama so it was a big deal) and played basketball later. On Sunday he went to his boss's 41st birthday party which is a very big deal in the Japanese culture. And we went to the beach on Monday.

The picture is a group of us Beachboy paddlers. Our team has the reputation of being athletic pretty white girls. This picture doesn't do us justice because many of us are sunburned or exhausted but trust me, they're all beautiful.

Thanks for reading.

Lots of love,
Jenni

*For those that know the area, the Saturday race went from the Kona pier to Honaunau (City of Refuge), then the men took our boats and paddled them back to the pier. The Sunday race left the pier, went out three miles, turned around and ended back at the pier.

Holy Crap, I Miss Home

Check it out...

http://www.bravia-advert.com/commercial/braviaextcommhigh.html

And watch the behind the scenes footage.

I love good advertising like this. Almost as much as I love San Francisco.