the ocean

More on Hawaii! This time with pics. Here's the ATV tour:

Can't you tell how hardcore we are? The sky blue sunglasses are an especially dangerous look.

Then there was scuba scooting. It's kind of like scuba, but with a scooter, so it requires little or no effort. Those fish can be pretty terrifying when they're eating bread out of your hand, though. Did you know they have teeth?

It looks like maybe we could be in space or from the future or something. Maybe we are. You don't know!!!!

This is from one of the hikes we did. So yeah, maybe this one was an asphalt trail all the way up, but it was still very steep. That's what the lady in the wheelchair who also did this one thought, at least.

Did I mention I had a celebrity sighting? This is me and good old Barack, sharing a Hawaiian shaved ice. He looks smaller in person.

So we went to Hawaii! It was pretty great. The house Ian's company has there had its own infinity pool and hot tub (or "spa," as the controls classily called it), so we were able to spend a good bit of time just relaxing in the sun. Or on the amazing inflatable swan my friends Hillary & Troy brought for us. I did fall off of it face first into the water on several occasions, to be sure, but it was so comfy that I kept saying I was going to sleep in it and then not doing so.

It was beautiful most of the time we were there, so we were able to do three different hikes, all of which were cool, though potentially deadly. The last one in particular was pretty much straight up the side of this giant hill (or mountain, or volcano; I'm not a geologist) so I was constantly envisioning myself plummeting uncontrollably. Of course, other people had brought their children for the death-defying climb (and then failed to pay even the slightest bit of attention to them as they went romping across the summit), so maybe its just me.

We also did an ATV tour, which was super fun. They showed us where they filmed Lost and Jurrasic Park and all that, which was all well and good, but the real attraction was driving an ATV at top speed through mud puddles and across bridges over and over again. I definitely did become airborne once or twice, which I take as a testament to how hardcore I am. We were, by the way, told we would have to complete a training course before the tour or we could be denied our own vehicles; you can imagine my surprise when whatever the "training course" was just led straight into the actual tour without any sort of pause or discussion of the lady who kept trying to rear end me. 

Anyway, there's lots more to say, but we actually have dinner plans tonight and I also want to draw this out as much as possible for when I can't think of anything else to write about, so I'm going. Aloha.