8/5/08 - greetings from hawaii!

[alantani]

what a mess! we had only monday to repack after getting back so late from alaska. i got a call from my mother in law saying that my 89 year old father in law had fallen and could not get up. he landed hard on the side walk and banged up his left cheek and elbow after tripping on his shoe laces. spend the morning in the hospital, then babysat the kids for rest of the day while my wife spent the afternoon with her dad. we finally got him admitted, my wife's sister arrived and took over, and we finished packing for hawaii. he's bruised, but not beaten.....

tuesday morning, we're ready to roll......



it was a 5 hour flight. piece of cake with a video player.





meet my 10 year old, christina.....



and her friend from japan, misato.



welcome to hawaii!



a quick shuttle ride to avis and we're on the road.





a quick ride out of town and north to waialua.









jesse lovett is the owner of chupu charters in haleiwa. he helped set us up with this house. it's a great little place, complete with it's own guard dog. meet harry!!!!!!!!!!



the house looks out on the water. pretty windy this afternoon.



back to the house to unpack.





first stop was aoki's for shave ice.





i saw this place and had to stop.



meet barry sweet. he owns the place with shawn anguay. forgot the name of the kid in the back. barry was working on a penn spinner with a bad bearing.









our first dinner on the island was at haleiwa joe's. jesse suggested it. really nice place. we got there at 5pm (8pm california time) and was too early for dinner. we ended up ordering 6 appetizers, which worked out just fine.





back at the house, we walked the beach and watched the turtles pop up and down.







my new best buddy.....



g'night, guys!



wednesday morning ......









breakfast at the house was rice, portugese sausage and eggs (well, um, scrambled instead of over easy).



we snorkeled at sharks cove, bought lomi ahi, teriyaki chicken, kim chee and tsukemono at haleiwa super, had lunch at home and then spent the afternoon shopping.







dinner that evening was at a thai place called haleiwa eats! great food.





this morning we snorkeled at the beach in front of the house.







had an unexpected visitor.



the evening was spent at the brigham young polynesian cultural center. got a decent luau and a show. for this, i get to go fishing. about time!



















this stuff is killing me. water everywhere and i can't fish. i'm trying to get on a boat with chupu charters. tomorrow was cancelled. looks like saturday or sunday.

spoke to jessie late thursday night and found out there was no room on the boat for yesterday, and there was no room for today as well. my last shot is tomorrow, sunday. we leave on monday.

we started out yesterday morning with another hawaiian special. you guys didn't know i could cook, did you?



the rest of the day was just like all the others, only i caught a nice nap in the afternoon. dinner was at jamesons. dinner was ok but expensive as hell, the sunset was nice.





dessert was at flavormania. the guy must have seen all the kids and took pity on me. i got four scoops for the price of two.



here's something you won't see in california. found this little guy by the kids' room.






yeah, it was the biggest cockroach i've ever seen!!!!!!!



i'm keeping my fingers crossed for sunday........

uggh!!!!!! finally home. what a trip. i got only one day on the water. it was at lake wilson for my first day of fresh water fishing in years. we started at a local canal just off waialua beach road, outside of haleiwa, to pick up live bait. our catch here was 30 little tilapia.



meet ian. he's the son of jesse lovett, owner of chupu charters.



jesse had been trying to get me out on the ocean and had no success because the charters were all full. finally, he decided to take me out fishing himself!





we drove out to lake wilson and launched the boat.







that's right, guys! hawaii has peacock bass!!!!!!!!!





killer bait.





ian had more important things to do, then decided that he was going to kill a few fish of his own.











guys. that was 3 hours, 30 baits, 30 peacock bass, one bag of doritos, two reeses peanut butter cups and one soda.



on the way back, jesse was able to find me a spot on the foxy lady. when i spoke to my wife, i found out that she was running late, very late. it had been a long week and the kids were on edge. our 8pm dinner (11p california time), the kids finally had a melt down. we got them home, showered and tucked into bed. i talked it over with my wife and decided to cancel the fishing trip. i didn't want to the kids to end the trip on a down note. i drove out to the landing and made my apologies.



here's the kuuloa kai.....



here's the karlyn ........



meet captain dave of the foxy lady. he's been fishing these waters for the last 30 years.



our crew for the day is from houston.



a few shots around the boat. these guys don't mess around.













i wanted the kids to end the trip on a high note, so later in the morning we headed back out to shark cove for a morning of snorkeling.







in the afternoon, the kids played on the beach and i headed back to the dock to meet the boat.











that evening, jesse came over for dinner and brought four big slabs of ono. we talked shop most of the evening.



fishing is much different in hawaii. lots of plusses, a few minuses, and some fantastic sunsets!



long post, i know. mahalo for sticking with me for the whole trip.[/