Aloha!

And so it begins...

After an emotionally draining day of travel filled with bittersweet goodbyes, pervasive anxiety and nervous anticipation, I finally reached my first pit stop in Hawaii.  The journey from the comfy confines of my parent's house to the warm breezes of Honolulu took roughly 18 hours.  In that time, I managed to go on a wild emotional rollercoaster filled with laughter, tears and everything in between.  Going from an environment of overwhelming love and support to one filled with a seemingly endless array of unknowns is a shock to the system, but an experience that I'm sure will go along way in the character building department.  I won't bore you with the details, but the moral of the story is that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.  I've always felt blessed to have such a strong network of friends and family, but never more so than yesterday when I finally realized that I won't be able to see the aforementioned for quite some time.  So I don't know whether to thank everyone for being so great...or flick you off for making the initial adjustment so damn difficult!  Ah well, if it were easy then it probably wouldn't be worth it anyways.  So here's a virtual fist pound to all of yinz!

So enough words and thoughts and blah blah blah...let's see some freakin pictures already!


After weeks and weeks of dilly dallying, I finished packing at approximately 12:45am of departure day.  As you can see, I saved the best item for last...

That's my first home away from home, the Polynesian Beach Club in Waikiki Beach.  Current roommates: chicks from Vermont, northern Italy and Korea and a dude from Tampa who was pounding a Bud heavy when I first met him.  I think we'll all get along just fine.

 Panoramic action from Waikiki on morning numero uno.  It was overcast but still a pretty wonderful place to wake up.

 That's just me being a total toolbag.

And there's a crazy bird lady.

Hawaii's native son.

Flat Tina's first appearance!   She looks pretty excited about stuff.

Sunset on Day 1.  One thing you should know is that I love sunrises and sunsets so you might be seeing a lot of pictures like this.  If you don't like it, I suggest you get over it.

Waimea Bay, site of the annual Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational.  Elite surfers are invited to this event to surf ridiculously gigantic waves.  The event only goes off if the waves are over 30 feet.  Unfortunately they didn't reach that level, but still got to see some insane surfing and a good deal of wipeouts.  If these waves had a name, it would most certainly be Gnarls Barkley.  I don't really know what that means, but that's ok too.

Brave souls testing the pipeline.

Just another day at the office....

There's no way you can tell because my camera skills leave a lot to be desired, but that blue clad arm belongs to Mr. Kelly Slater.  No big deal.

This picture is out of order and a stupid one to end on, but that's the door to my room.  Festive, right?

Ok so that was fun.  Before I sign off I'd just like to share a few things that happened today at the surf competition.  The North Shore is over an hour's drive away from the hostel, so in order to make it there in time, me and 13 of my closest friends loaded into a passenger van at 6am.  I sat amidst a Swiss family who had just celebrated the 7 month mark of an around the world journey that will total 13 months.  Mom and Dad and their 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter.  They had spent 4 months RVing in the Western half of the US, 2 months in Central America, and the past month in Hawaii.  From here, they'll venture to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands before returning to Zurich in August.  So that's one of the most bad ass things I've heard in awhile. 

I met some other people today as well, including a 60ish woman from Wisconsin and a 30ish surfer from San Diego.  I was sitting on the beach taking in the action when Wisconsin set up shop beside me.  First she asked me if I was wearing sunscreen.  I assured her that I was.  Then we rapped about the potential for a Steelers vs Packers Super Bowl.  That was followed by a little game of "Let's Make a Deal."  The stakes: authentic Wisconsin cheddar cheese slices and Ritz crackers.  The challenge: rub suntan lotion on the hard to reach places of her back.  So after several nanoseconds of deliberation, the challenge was most definitely accepted!  Whatever weirdness might have existed while I was massaging SPF 30 into a complete stranger's back was immediately forgotten when I took that first delicious bite of cheese.  I guess cheddar really does make everything better!

San Diego surfer's name was Forrest and by the time the time our conversation ended, I had a phone number and an offer to use his longboard whenever I wanted.  I know there's a lewd joke to be made here, but my grandma might read this so I digress.  Being mature is difficult.  Ok so anyways, moral of that story is that "Operation: Learn to Surf" might have just officially begun.  More details to follow...

Well that's all I got for now.  Two days in and I'm feeling quite good about things.  Not really sure what tomorrow holds.  Perhaps a hike up Diamond Head or maybe carving some tasty waves?  Decisions, decisions.

Party on, party people.