ok so i’m back from hawaii and not happy about it except that i really missed kylie. here are some highlights…

we went with our friend t to the shooting range and fired his ar-15 all afternoon. not your typical touristie thing to do in hawaii, which is what makes it a highlight. also, by the end of the afternoon i hit a target at 300 yards!

the food, my god the food!! last time i went to hawaii i flew from denver to san fran first and i was seated next to a guy from hawaii and for the entire flight we talked about the food. like everything else in hawaii the food is a wonderful combination of multiple asian influences and it is a big part of the culture. it’s fantastic! zippy’s, malasada’s, the shrimp truck, st. germaine’s.. i ate sooo much and brought almost a suitcase full of snacks and m is bringing back a cooler!

our lanai (aka terrace or patio) at our hotel room on the big island overlooked the dolphin lagoon! wow!
but the absolute best thing ever was swimming with sea turtles!!
they have discovered a small cove on the north shore near haleiwa where adult, healthy sea turtles congregate to eat and come up on shore to sun themselves in the afternoon. it was amazing!! we stopped there for about 20 minutes while we were making a trip around the island, right after we had shave ice at matsumoto’s. but i wanted more so a couple days later i made a trip back by myself and spent about an hour and a half just hangin’ out. you can walk out in the water and while you’re looking for a “good spot” the turtles swim right up to you. of course you’re not supposed to touch them, and i would never dream of it, but while i was walking backwards because i thought the one in front of me was going to bite my toes another one snuck up behind me and hit my leg with his flipper! it was amazing (did i already say that?!) it had to be commemorated, so on my last day on the islands i got inked!

that’s not henna, baby! that pic was taken the same night i got the tatoo so you can see my foot still looks a little angry and puffy, and it did make for a bit of discomfort on the flight home but it was nothing compared to the baby crying for 7 straight hours (not exaggerating)! and speaking of discomfort… if anybody ever tells you getting a tattoo doesn’t hurt, they’re a fucking liar! it hurt like a mother! fortunately mine only took about 10 minutes from start to finish so i could just keep reminding myself about the kidney stone i had once because that was definitely worse. but still, it really, really, really hurt! but as t pointed out later when i was bucking for sympathy.. it was self-inflicted pain so i didn’t whine. They’re not as dainty as I would have liked but I’m pretty pleased with my turtles overall (which i guess is a really good thing).

so anyway, now the only thing i really have to look forward to is snow - hopefully we’ll get some in denver this winter. they got some in the mountains while i was busy getting sunburned on the beach because the conditions were not suitable for snorkeling.

oh, and Superman Returns is finally on at the Cinema Grill!! so you know where i’ll be this weekend! (sigh, i miss Brandon)