every thing we did was wrong but we did it anyway

At work we've switched our BBQ days to Monday...it just works better with everyone's schedule. We also switched beaches. We now go over to Kanaha Beach Park which is a lot closer to the airport & way easier for all of us to get to. It's more of a park where we hang out. There's picnic benches and water faucets for hoses and such. If you walk about 50 feet into the trees it'll open up to the beach & ocean. The trees are really neat looking. Standing very tall & looking similar to palm trees (only with longer leaves drooping over each other & giving off a gloomy feel) it almost feels like you're in another part of the world. Not like Maui doesn't already succeed in that! My manager has two little boys & my co-worker Stacey has a little girl. They call these woods the Dinosaur Forest. Every Monday I bring all three kids back there and we run around looking at "dinosaur bones," (photo #1) and we look at "dinosaur foot prints" which is actually just a butt print from the chickens cooling off in the shade. We'll also find the occasional 'lost sandal' which obviously means that person was dinosaur lunch.

As you can tell, I like my Mondays at the Dinosaur Forest.

This past weekend was pretty fun. Friday night I just had a couple drinks at a local bar with a friend from work. Saturday we grilled, drank lots of beer & played beer pong all night. We then went swimming in the ocean at about 1:30am, worked up an appetite and went to Denny's at like 2:30am.

Sunday a friend (Erik's a pilot at work) and I went hiking up in Waihe'e Valley. I've never been up to Waihe'e before, but I've heard about the swinging bridges (photo #2) and was pretty interested in checking it out. We had a little hike before going swimming in a little pool of water. At the pool there was a huge banyan tree (photo #3) that I wanted to climb...so I climbed up the roots towards the top. In the middle of the tree was a huge hole that dropped down to the water about 12 feet below. The hole was super wide at the top, but narrowed down as it went towards the bottom. How do I know that? Oh, well, because I fell down that hole and scraped the skin off the left side of my body between my ass and my shoulder. Yep. I wasn't in pain, but I was more shocked that I almost plunged to my death. Not really my death, but you know.

TRIVIA: The Banyan Tree is a tree that is frequently seen on the tv show LOST.

After my near-death experience (Grandmom, I'm only exaggerating!), we continued on our hike towards another pool of water with a dam creating a small waterfall (photo #4) . We jumped off the left side of the dam into the water fall. The water is maybe 12-15 feet deep right and the current from the waterfall really pulls you under. The background drop for right where we were at that dam was just beautiful. Looking back really far you can see a huge waterfall that's said to be about 400something feet (photo #5) . It doesn't look quite as magnificent from where we were standing, but I imagine being up and close is a surreal experience.

After our adventures up in Waihe'e, Erik & I went to a sushi bar. I've eaten sushi before, but never like this. It's sort of like a conveyor belt zipping past you with differents plates of sushi for your own pickings. I don't know what the hell I was eating last night, but everything tasted good. Even the thing I ate with tentacles & the fish that still had eyeballs. I love that I'm not a picky eater. Another pilot from work, David & his girlfriend Melissa met up with us at the sushi bar. We all went to an arcade called the Fun Factory afterwards. We won lots of tickets and gave them to some little kid.

Today is Columbus Day. Columbus bypassed Hawaii though so they don't celebrate. Instead it's called Discoverer's Day. More of a recognition to James Cook who found the coordinates to the islands & told the world about the existance of the hawaiians. All city & state offices do not regard either Columbus/Discoverer's Day as an official holiday; therefore, all offices are open as if it were a regular Monday. However, federal offices are closed because, well, believe it or not, Hawaii is still a state in the US of A.