Blue Friday

I will call it "Blue instead of Black Friday".
I absolutely hate shopping ( I don't have the money) so I just tell myself that I don't like to shop.

The thought of fighting traffic and a crowd of people makes me cringe.... so I decided to have a nice enjoyable ride to North Shore on my bike Friday.

I was very nice outside, but the ride there was way to easy. I was averaging 22 mph without giving it much effort so I knew that I had some work cut out for me on the ride back.

I spent alot of time on the ride taking pictures, this is something that you don't do if you are riding with other people or training for an event. Where you are training, you are really focused on the ride/workout. Friday I tried to soak up as much of the little things that I could. Before I know it, me and my beautiful love Hawaii will be separated.

This beach area is about 7 miles from my home, alot of the coastline on the ride looks like this. It is absolutely breathtaking and fun to ride when the side winds are howling.... I got to kind of ride with a lean due to the stong wind.

Another stop not to far down the road for some shade and photos....

Isn't this just a beautiful little spot?

Here is some local opinion.... put on sheets to make a billboard. This has been here for long time, I just have never taken time to stop or read. Do you know the history of Hawaii and how it was taken over? It is pretty sad, but it seems this is the story of all lands at one time or another.

I stopped at the Vans Triple Crown 2nd event at Sunset Beach. I stayed there for about an hour but it is tough for me to be at the beach in my bike outfit, I am sure to everyone that looked at me they were thinking... What is up with that girl dressed like that (what a weirdo) About a year and a half ago before I ever rode a bike, I would have thought the same thing. HA HA

I had to get a shot of the cute $2 drinks......... gotta love coconut milk!

All the pretty horses...... They have a nice home! This is what I rewarded myself with at the Hygenic Store, Slammed the coke and stuck the Hot Dog in my back pocket. It made riding in the wind by myself all worth the work.

My Thanksgiving

I didn't go Boar hunting for Turkey Day but this is the little fellow that I seen near where I live. I am not sure if he was a pet or just a wild guy out for some food but he was on the side of the road eating grass. I have never seen pigs eat grass like this..... my memories of pigs on farms where them being feed "SLOP" which is anything and everything that people would collect from their kitchen or farm that might be edible.
Anyways, I am keeping a lookout for this guy, he seemed kinda friendly when I got close up so he might be someones pet?

I started the morning by attending the 10 mile Turkey Trot in town. I didn't register or actually start at the official start line, but I ran with the participants and enjoyed it. It was motivation to run and I didn't have to run alone.

Here are my legs in the sand while I stretched when I got to the beach afterwards....

It was so windy on the Turkey Trot, I knew that my surf spot would be a mess so I headed to the "West Side" (not all the way, cause it was really big) I stopped at a spot called "TRACKS" there was lots of people and it was really tiny surf, but I enjoyed being in the sunshine and sheilded from the strong winds. I got to chat with some folks in the water and that made it worthwhile.

I ended the day with a visit to the Movies with my friend Laura. We had a Thanksgiving Dinner of Movie Popcorn with some wine she snuck in the theater. Yummo!! We seen "BLIND SIDE" Oh wow, it was soooooooooo good. I would recommend this movie to everyone!

1 year ago....

Last year for Thanksgiving weekend, I took the Superferry to Maui and spent the weekend with a friend's friends! I have to say that it was the most memorable Thanksgiving that I can remember. In my past 12 years I can't remember a very special Thanksgiving, lots of holidays spent out to sea, or on duty on the ship eating a meal out of the "galley" I wanted to share with you my experience from last year.

Lots of the food was cooked in IMU "underground oven" Here are some photos of us removing the dirt and potatoe sacks to reviel the food.

This was the setup for dinner out in the yard.

Thanksgiving Dinner was amazing, the company was the best. The next day Clayton and I rode our bikes to Upcountry and here is some of the beautiful scenery on our rideWe stopped at the Ulapalakula Winery for a taste... Yummy!Sunset

The next evening was an event called "EAST MEETS WEST" The tradition started due to a public event of food/wine pairing... They just recreated it at their home for more fun and no cover charge for food.

We all prepared food dish to be paired with a drink, each food was displayed on a table with the folks who prepared it giving a little review of the food/drink before serving it. It was really fun to prepare and later taste all of the dishes....

Clayton sported an apron that said "Who are these kids and why are they calling me Mom?" It suits him very good :-)

Food was based not only on taste, but it was judged on presentation and how it paired with wine or whatever beverage that you choose to pair with it. This was super fun and a great way to bring friends together for an entertaining evening.This was a crab boil.....

I made this Bruchetta, It was so yummy! I didn't get a picture of it until after it had been ravished.We had some wonderful entertainment, the guys played instruments and the ladies danced Hula that was so beautiful. This was a truly amazing experience for me.The next morning I took another quick spin on my bike before I had to go back down to catch the superferry.

Strange Things

It's Thanksgiving Eve and I am excited. I got to talk to my dad this morning before heading to work and that was nice. I had my breakfast & coffee and I was ready to head out to work.

My neighbor (man) was outside this morning. I said the usual hello/good morning to him and he told me he had to move my car last night to park his in the back of the driveway. Cool..... I have no problems with that at all.

Well, to my embarassment I opened the door of my car to find a pair of my underwear in the floor of the driver side. Yep! I can't even imagine what my neighbor must have thought about that.

He knows that I am an active girl that always has a surfboard in the car or a bike hanging off the back. I don't know if it crossed his mind that I also use my car as a locker room. Yes, I change clothes in my itty bitty Miata. Hopefully he thought about that, but oh well. If anything now, my neighbor thinks I am a COMPLETE FREAK that surfs alot!

Ahh.....

Today was a beautiful day here in Hawaii. I snuck away to surf at lunch time and ended up going back to surf again after I got off work. I just can't help it.

I entertained myself with taking some photos along the highway back to work. Don't worry, I was wearing my seatbelt. I just wanted to share the view on the drive I make everyday to head to and from work.

Big Swell gonna hit tomorrow so we will see what happens. I am pretty excited for the long weekend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

If you are my family reading this, I love you so much and wish more than anything that I could be meeting up and sharing Thanksgiving with you and giving hugs and smiles. I will be home soon, I can't wait to come visit. Maybe we could eat Thanksgiving meal then???

10 Weekends Left :-( I think??

Yes, I am counting down my precious weekends............

Saturday mornings start early for me and I really love that. I always look forward to the day's adventure. This Saturday morning I finally made it to the fountain to ride with the Quick Release Group and only 2 people were there :-( That was ok, but I really looked forward to seeing old friends for the first time in way to long. Allison and I went to the Pali, I really wanted to climb it since I haven't climbed a hill in what seems like forever.

We were very lucky with a clear, breezy, cool morning with NO RAIN!!

Here is a trickle of a waterfall on Nu'uanu Drive. I love this road, there is no traffic and all you hear is the sound of the stream flowing while you slowly climb in the cool mountain air :-)

I love flying down the Pali on the other side..... the wind was so strong I had to pedal most of the way down. It is so much fun. I don't have pics or videos of that because it is important to have both hands on my bars. A helmet cam would be cool though. Here is a picture that I found on the web, we decend in the lane that the white car isn't on. It was alot cloudier Saturday, but still fun.

Here is a picture that I took after we got to the bottom. As you can see it was cloudy, but still just a perfect day.

We ran into Katy in Waimanalo, she rode back with us to Hawaii Kai where she lives. Here is a not so straight picture of the ride back.

In the afternoon, I headed up to North Shore and paddled out at Gas Chambers. It was very nice and not to many guys in the water. I caught some fun long rights and got killed by taking a few big ones on the head. I love surfing so much, I just got a little cold out that day. Can you believe how cold I am going to be in San

Diego?

After the surf sesh, I went and got some coffee to warm up and headed back home. Sunday I surfed on the base at k-bay.... It was fun and not many guys out. I was glad to get some sunshine.

I am so excited that this is a short week and I can sqeeze some more surfing/riding in!!!!