weekends, a birthday, the Big Island, and SUP

I have failed at my blog updates.

Moving on!  What has happened in the past couple of months?  Welllll... I got a car, which would explain the lack of blog posts.  I've been trying to do as much as possible.  And by as much as possible, I really just mean going to the beach and out in general so I can meet people. 

Not to brag, but my weekends have been pretty amazing.  My birthday weekend, which was at the beginning of May, was spent on a sailboat with some snorkeling and beach time thrown in.  If you decide to come to Maui, take a sailing trip with Paragon out to Molokini for some snorkeling!  The snorkeling at Molokini isn't spectacular, but the sail out there is pretty great.  Plus, you'd be supporting a friend (yay free advertising)!  So Monday of my birthday weekend was spent sailing, snorkeling, and watching some wind and kitesurfing at Kanaha.  Kanaha is located on the North Shore in Kahului.  I would claim it's the windsurfing capital of the world, but I could be making it up.  It's extremely windy at Kanaha which makes for excellent wind-watersports.  Windsurfers and kitesurfers abound with the random gutsy person stand-up paddleboarding (SUP).  There's actually a windsurfing race in June that's held at Kanaha (and yes, I will be in attendance!).  Monday evening was spent having an Aloha dinner at Cafe de Amis with co-workers for an intern who was leaving the next day.  Have I mentioned Cafe de Amis yet?  It's a lovely open-air restaurant located in the beach town of Paia.  They serve crepes and curries and some delicious lilikoi (passionfruit) margaritas.

Tuesday, my actual birthday, began at Grandma's Coffee House located Up-Country in Kula.  Best Chai ever?  Yes.  After, I stopped at Ulupalakua Winery for a wine tasting and to pick up my fantastic birthday present from my brother.  After, I headed down to the south coast near Makena and spent a couple of hours at Little Beach.  Now, Little Beach is a clothing optional beach.  These sorts of beaches are typical in Europe... so if you decide to go and end up feeling a little hesitant, just pretend you're somewhere in Europe.  There is apparently a drum circle there every Sunday evening and sometimes some fire dancers join in.  I know that you're probably thinking of some funny quips as a response, so we'll just leave it at that.  I also ended up at the gym and then had dinner with a friend post-beach.  One of my best birthdays yet, I think.

I ventured all the way around East Maui with a stop in Hana (Ha-Nuh) on one of my weekends.  It's an amazingly beautiful (and sometimes treacherous) drive.  Large tour buses like to drive tourists on Hana Highway... this makes for some unwelcome surprises around turns and questionable driving on one-lane bridges.  There is a red sand beach which takes a little bit of hiking to get to in Hana.  I didn't venture out there this time due to time constraints but I hope to get out there sometime soon.  There's a really good Thai restaurant that's located under a tent near Hana Bay.  It's pretty popular and it took me about an hour and a half to get my tofu pad thai when I was there... so plan ahead.  I ate my lunch at Hana Bay and watched the local school group practicing on their outrigger canoes.  Hana is a small town and it seems pretty close knit.  I'm sure it'd be nice to spend a day or two out there experiencing the slow lifestyle that is lacking a little in the valley due to the mass of people and tourists.

In other news, I took a trip over to the Big Island of Hawaii last month for work.  It was my first trip to the Big Island; I was working the majority of the time, but I did have a chance to check out the Halema'uma'u crater and caldera at night in Volcanoes National Park.  Since I hadn't visited our sister facility on the Big Island yet, I was chosen to transfer one of our chicks.  Want to know more?  Read the new blog about the Maui Parrotbill chicks we've had the privilege of raising!  There are some more recent entries about other species as well if you want to check out the link on the right.  We've actually been in the news a couple of times in the past month.  Hawaiian Airlines is showing a clip about the 'Alala on their flights.  You can check it out here.  We were also on Jeff Corwin's Ocean Mysteries shown on ABC a couple of weeks ago.  Pretty cool, yeah? 

What else has been happening?  I'm slowly taking the steps to having paddleboarding as my hobby.  I've been twice now.  The first time ended in an unfortunate mishap that involved a wave and rocks and my self and a spiky sea creature.  I went again this week and avoided further injury.  It takes some practice to get balanced on the board, but it's worth it once you get the hang of it.  The trick is to not psych yourself out... especially when there could be certain ocean creatures lingering under you while you paddle.  My birthday present to myself was a roof rack and the next step is to save up for the right SUP that I want.  Last Saturday was the Butterfly Effect paddleboard race.  This year it was a three mile downwinder from Baldwin Beach to Kanaha.  It's basically a paddleboard event for women of all skill level.  It begins with a beach cleanup and, this year, it ended with a couple of events in Paia.  I was a little bummed that I couldn't make it this year and I've decided that I'll definitely be partaking next year.  Check out their website; they've recently posted a video from this year's event!  Because I had to work and wasn't quite prepared to do three miles on a paddleboard, I opted to go to the Maui Brewer's Festival instead.  It was a pretty good festival with lots of beer tastings, appetizers, and live music.  And people.  LOTS of people.  SO MANY PEOPLE.  It was a good time though.

I would leave you with a Hawaiian factoid, but I'm all out of words.