Experimenting With Hanging Photographs...

So we got some good pictures while we were in Hawaii.

I've been experimenting with hanging them in different ways, and this is what I've settled on in the living room...for now...


I may keep moving them a bit more, and I also have some other pictures that I would like to get printed that might make them look different in the end, but for now I think they look pretty good!

Day Two...

I had the alarm set today for 9:00...but then were woken up at 7:00.

We hit a place called "The Gazebo" for breakfast. Waited about an hour, but it was worth it. The food was AMAZING.

When we got back, everyone got ready and we hit the water. I skipped the pool and went right straight to the Pacific Ocean.

The water was great, and it was a bit windy. We swam in the ocean for a while, then hit the pool for a bit. After that, we came in to get dried off and get some renting done.

Cathy, George, my dad, and I went to rent me a paddle board. It ended up being a bit more than I had planned on spending, but the place I had planned on renting from wasn't open. Oh well. It's vacation, right?? We then hit Snorkel Bob's to get some rental snorkel gear...which was awesome. They rent prescription masks, so Cathy and I both got prescriptions that match us perfectly.

We came back, and I figured that it was time to try out the board...I spent enough on it, might as well get some money's worth out of it.

It was windy and choppy, and I was not very successful. At first, though, I couldn't even get up on the board on my knees, which is how they suggest to start. I was able to get around on my knees pretty well, but every time I went to stand up I fell off almost instantly. I think a lot of it was the wind and waves. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning I'll be able to get a bit better cooperation from the ocean, and hopefully that will translate to a bit more success. If not, I may have to travel a bit south to get some flatter water. I found a couple of places that I saw already that was a bit flatter, and the guy that rented me the board suggested that if I headed further south I'd find really good water.

The good part about the day was the weather cooperated pretty well. It rained off and on, but nothing that really put a damper on anything. It's supposed to rain a bit more tomorrow, but then the forecast is looking a lot better for the remainder of the trip.

The rain that has happened over the last couple of days has made some of the snorkeling not very good, but the guy that rented us the equipment told us a good place to go. So we might give that a try tomorrow, as well.

I also got a souveneir. It's a tiki that was hand carved. Really cool.

Also, so far, every single person that I've interacted with here has been SO friendly. It's definitely a change of pace from pretty much everywhere I've ever been. Awesome.

Day One...

The flights today seemed to last FOREVER.

When we arrived in San Francisco, we got to sit on the runway for an extra 30 minutes or more while we waited for a gate.

I finally got some sleep on the flight to Maui. That was after not getting any sleep the night before, and not really much the night before that, either.

We arrived in Maui at about 6:00 PM, got the rental car, and made it to the condo.

The condo is AWESOME. Since it's dark, it's difficult to see what's around...and it's raining. Bad news, there is lots of rain in the forecast.

We ordered a couple of pizzas, ate those, and are now getting ready to hit the sack. We'll see what day two brings.

New Handheld...

Today a Playstation Vita arrived on our doorstep, courtesy of Cathy.

I've only had a few minutes to play around with it, but the hardware seems absolutely amazing.

Time will tell how awesome the thing really is, but for now it seems like it's going to be pretty solid. Games are available in a WIDE price range...from a couple of bucks for downloadable games (stuff similar to the ones for iOS and Android) to $50 for full blown console like games.

If we both end up really liking it, I may have to look into getting one for myself so that we both have one.

I know that we both have a 3DS, and neither of them gets used very often...but the thing about the Vita is that it solves pretty much my only gripe about most handhelds, the lack of a second analog stick. The Vita feels just like a real console's controller.

Sick Friend...

So my buddy at work Scott is sick.

The thing is, the doctor's don't have any idea what's wrong with him. MRI, X-ray, and blood tests all come back negative...but his stomach is causing him so much pain that it hurts when he walks, eats, sits...really all the time.

He's scheduled to go in for a HIDA scan in the next week here, but they can't get him in sooner because of some confusion with his personal doctor and the ER.

Either way, I'm keeping him in my thoughts and hoping for the best.