The first week in Maui was quite relaxing, I had never spent much time in Maui till this past trip. Its a lot smaller and quiet than I expected, I thought the touristy areas would be a lot larger. Anthony and Erika finally got married, we all knew it would happen, but it sure took forever. There was a slight hiccup related to their wedding... for some strange reason, they didn't realize I was coming. I'm always the trouble maker it seems. We bounced to a few local watering holes in the area, but all in all, not very eventfull nights out.

After hanging out with the Bay Area gang in Lahaina Maui a few days, I went over to my hometown Hilo on the Big Isle. P decided to hang out with me a few more days to check out the laid back lifestyle on the Big Island. We hiked down Waipio Valley which I hadn't ever done before, the uphill back was a major bitch. I've been getting a bit fat lately, I was a little over 170lbs and I'm only 5' 7". I've got a lot of muscle too, hehe, but I think I gotta lose some weight. The next day we decide to check out the lava flowing into the ocean in the Volcano National Park. We hike through treacherous cooled lava for about 2.5 miles along the shoreline to finally get close enough to see the lava flowing into the ocean. The hot magma hitting the ocean water causes the lava to explode and water turn into steam. Its pretty effin cool. The following day we drive my mom's 4cyclinder CR-V all the way up the highest point on the island which is where the best land based astronomical observatories are located. The height is a staggering 13,768 feet high and the air is super thin, so even walking around a little gets you light headed. P mentioned that he felt high for a while as he acclimated to the lack of oxygen.

P and I also checked out the local nightspots called Uncle Mikeys on wednsday night. It was a rundown looking place, but apparently its the coolest place to be in Hilo. We sat around drinking a couple beers until around midnight thinking it was gonna be dead the rest of the night, then all of a sudden a bunch of youngies started coming in from out of the woodwork. Some cutie that looked no older than 21 came by my chair grabbed me and asked me to dance with her. I haven't been called out like that in a while, so it felt good for a change that I didn't have to chase so damn hard. :) Some of my old high school buddies also showed up later on was shocked to see me making out with the young local girl. They all remember me as the unsocial soccer fanatic. Other than that night, the Big Island nightlife proved to be quite dull. P went home a couple days before Christmas.

After Christmas, my family and I headed over to Kona side for a while. It was a nice relaxing time. I ended up meeting up with an old buddy of mine Jae Hughes who looked to be in great shape. He was working for boating company that caters to tourists. We went out for some beers and he seemed to know everyone in town and everyone seemed to love him, including all the hotties. I couldn't exactly figure out why he was so damn popular, but I heard a story that he had tried to attempt a daring rescue of a large commercial tour boat in a storm a few years prior. Maybe he's just a great charismatic and fun guy that everyone loves.

After a few days in Kona, I flew to Honolulu to party for new years and spend time with Makana and Mitchell. Although I used to live in Hawaii 10 years, I really never spent much time in Oahu. Makana took me out to a few places, but the places we checked out seemed to be saturated with snobby private school graduate types. It was funny to find that so many of the club goers at the local venues were of Japanese heritage. Unfortunately, the majority of them were as boring as sheet rock... I hope to never go to any of those places Makana too me again. On New Years eve, Makana, Mitchell and I went out looking for some fun near Aloha tower area where the fireworks were supposed to go off, but it was saturated with a bunch of old fart tourists. We got out of there and went to a club called Oceans. We got there around 11pm and got our wrist bands. The place got heated up, but the crowd was a I bit on the dry side but it was tolerable. I met a group of asian girls that were in town from San Diego, we toasted for New Years and danced a bit, but lost track of them after that. For whatever reason, I got exhausted pretty early so we headed home straight from there. The next days, I took a tour around the whole island to see what it really looked like. We stopped at a couple beaches to boogie board a bit, the waves were quite big. Makana is a seasoned surfer, but I suck royally. I rented a long board on Waikiki to catch some of the small ripples. It was great excercise and fun nonetheless... afterall I need to burn off my fat. We also stopped to look at Pipeline on the North Shore, those surfers are insane.

Returned back to Hilo about a week ago to just rest and work remotely. I got news from my sister just a couple months back that she was gonna get married in Hilo, so I had to stay in town a bit a longer than I really hoped to. Her wedding was this past saturday and I don't think the fact that my little sister is married has sunk in yet. It was really weird my family all together for such an occasion. My immediate family and extended family haven't ever lived close together nor have we been particularly close, so the pressure and emotions that the big ceremony produced was a strange experience. It was funny to see my dad wearing a tuxedo, I don't think I've ever even seen him even wear a tie before. The wedding had approximately 200 people and had no alcohol whatsoever due the majority of the guests were church friends etc. I had mixed emotions about the whole thing, but overall I'm proud of my sister and hope she will have a happy family. To add to the strangeness of the wedding, my 23 year old brother was the MC. I thought it was comical to have a toast without any champagne. My mom wanted me to go up and say something nice or funny to the crowd, but nothing good came to mind. I wonder if I will regret not saying anything... oh well. I can't do something that doesn't feel right I guess. My brother sang a nice song he wrote for her. I just didn't have anything constructive to say. Maybe its my current cynical ideals on marriage and all that, who knows. Maybe my current reading of Matt Ridley's Red Queen has broken the innate magic that is supposed to be there... maybe it really is that ignorance is bliss.

During the day this week, I've been hacking away fixing some bugs at work etc. Between writing code today, my brother, dad and I chased each other with spring loaded airsoft hand guns. Its great fun. After about 15 minutes of hiding, chasing and shooting we count how many welts we each collected. I think I won today's volleys, I took my time and try to flank my brother from behind most of the time. He had about 15 welts on the front half of his body alone. Today will definitely be one of those days we will remember fondly many years from now. Amazingly, my dad is still quite spry for being 57 already. He still runs around and shoots as well as I remember 10 years ago.

Anyway, if you're still reading this this far... you must have been really bored or you a family member checking up on my ramblings. :) Oyasumi.