Okay now, so where did we leave off?
Right, it's been two weeks. I ended up having a really cracked-out week because of Veterans' Day. We were supposed to get a four-day weekend, but because of Veterans' Day concerts, a lot of us ended up with a weird schedule. We had Sunday and Monday off, and then Tuesday I had a gig at a... veterans home. Wednesday was supposed to be a day of, but then at the last minute, we got a gig outside the library at the University of Hawaii on the west side of the island. So there was another work day. I think we ended up doing nothing in particular because Stephen also taught his trumpet student that day.
On Thursday, I had a day off again, so we decided to go to Hanauma Bay again. We didn't get as early of a start as I would have liked, so it was already a little crowded and the water was already a little churned up by the time we got there. I think it was 9:30-10am when we finally got to snorkeling. The fishies were as fun as always, but I would highly recommend going super-early and being done between 8 and 9 like we did last time.
Friday was another gig, and then Saturday we kinda had a catch-up weekend day. Stephen played racquetball, we did grocery shopping, and I think after that we just kinda hung around. Maybe we went to the beach. There's been a lot of that going on recently. On Sunday, we had our big fall concert with the Honolulu Wind Ensemble, and that really pretty much ate up our whole day.
So, okay, there really wasn't much to talk about last week. This week makes up for it! We had Monday off, for no reason I could discern. But then the Navy decided to release the quotas for promotions this cycle. One person in the music program got promoted from E-3 to E-4, four people got promoted from E-4 to E-5, and three people got promoted from E-5 to E-6. That's, like, 3% of the people in the music program. Needless to say, work was a sour, sour place to be, especially because they weren't going to post the actual results until next week. Gotta love the psychological warfare.
The Vans World Cup of Surfing has been going on for the last week or so, so we decided to go check out the waves on the North Shore. I got a random hankering to go on Thursday afternoon, so we just went straight from work. The waves were huge and amazing! It's really hard to describe, because you see how huge they are with up-close videos, and yet in person, because of the distance, you don't realize just how huge they are. But then you see these little specks that are people floating on the waves, and whoa, those waves are huge! You seriously do not go in that water unless you know what you're doing!
We ended up at Sunset Beach, so here are the pictures from that:
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| See how small that surfer dude is compared to that wave?? |
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| Barrels. Bigger than they look. |
Then, on Friday morning, we woke up to the news that Navy Advancement screwed up and accidentally posted the results Thursday night. They realized their mistake and took it down, but then they had to contact the commands anyway and let them know the results.
I made it! Yay!
So on Tuesday, I'm going to get "frocked," which is Navy-speak for putting on the rank of a second-class but without receiving the pay. I don't know when I'll actually get my new paycheck because it depends on how I did on the exam compared to the others who got promoted. If I did the best, I'll get paid sooner, and if I did the worst, I'll get the new pay last. It may be as long as another six months before I actually get paid for my paygrade. Oh well.
At first, we thought we were going to celebrate by going to the place down the street from us that we liked well enough, but then I thought I was more interested in drinks and less interested in food, so we hopped on a bus downtown and tried a bar called Pint + Jigger. It was so good because they totally do the local thing, even with their drinks. As in, the Hawaiian margarita I got used real lilikoi juice and lime juice and stuff, not super-sweet flavor crap like you get in other places. They also did lots of small plates so you can try different things and not feel stuffed. If the bro wants to get drinks when the family visits, I can imagine taking him there and having a good time.
Saturday was a recovery day, mostly because the bus ride is 45 minutes, and getting home at midnight is super-late in my book. Stephen missed out on racquetball and I missed out on my morning kickboxing class, but eventually we decided that enough was enough and we went down to the Ala Moana mall to window shop. Yeah, I live in Hawaii and I wanted to window shop. Don't judge!
We also did a little bit of grocery shopping so we could make Sunday a complete date-day.
So Sunday came, and we went down to Kahuna's on the Marine base to catch the Browns-Falcons game. Yeah. Gotta say, the food is still awful and I always feel terrible when I've eaten there, but the atmosphere is the best. By the last two minutes of the game, half the bar was watching! We keep trying to find a new place with better food to watch, but so far we haven't been successful. I guess Hawaii doesn't care about football...
After a much-needed nap and shower, Stephen and I decided to head down to the North Shore again. I wanted to see amazing waves and eat shrimp from a food truck.
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| Top down, and the mountains |
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| It looks like the mountains run into the ocean |
We went to Sunset Beach again, where they were setting up for the second round of the Vans World Cup of Surfing. The waves were intense! They didn't look that big, but they just kept coming, and there were three or four layers of waves going back pretty far off shore. We just kinda bummed around and watched the others, and then Stephen saw a guy having the time of his life bouncing around in the waves right near the shore. After a little bit, we decided to join, and holy cow I got a new appreciation for how big those waves were! The water got deep fast, and the waves even right at the shore were frequently shoulder-height or higher. The undertow was ridiculous, too -- you'd just get sucked in to this 5-foot or taller wall of water. Here are some pictures and even a couple videos, but I don't think this even remotely does justice to how intense these waves were.
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| Again, bigger than this photo indicates |
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| Trying to bodysurf. The wave really more surfed him. |
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| Bracing for impact |
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| Unphotoshopped color |
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| Taken down by waves |
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| Getting ready for more punishment |
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| Shaka (hang loose) |
I'm having this memory itch from when we were kids in Myrtle Beach, and I remember we had names for the different sizes of waves. The only one I remember, though, was the ones that were big enough to break over your head were called "trash heaps" and Dad would grab a hold of us or toss us over so we wouldn't get totally thrashed. These were trash heaps times two.
As we all know, this week is Thanksgiving, so we'll have plenty of days off to adventure around, plus we'll be making with the holiday cheer with my co-workers. Good to know I actually like a few of them!
Mahalo for checking in, and we'll post again next week!
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