One of the highlights was hanging out with Jackie and Freddie. Jackie is a friend of Kris's from way back, who it turns out also worked with my little sister at a PR firm in Portland. She's a very sweet, lovely woman and her beau Freddie is a good man, too. After my early morning session at Sandys I drove around the corner and checked Makapu'u and then up to Kailua, where Freddie lives.
I wandered into town and found the Farmer's market going on. I was early, but folks setting up were all super friendly. In the course of about an hour-and-a-half I got invited to a dairy on the leeward side, ate a killer carnitas breakfast burrito, drank a great cup of coffee, and talked story with a North Shore surfer and his mom. That last guy is the one who is sellin the sunrise shell jewelry. He's buddies with Jamie O'Brien and most of the other kids from the surf magazines. Check them out here: http://www.sunriseshellshawaii.com/about.html.
They go out and dive for the shells off jetskis. Pretty cool stuff. They also have developed their own process for creating rings, that's worth checking out.
After all of that fun, I wandered off to the I Love Kailua Town Party, up a block on Kailua Rd. The town shut down the street and everybody came out to walk around, eat food, buy stuff, watch some hula dancers, and listen to some music. Who knew the Air Force has a band called The USAF Band of the Pacific. That must be pretty good duty.
I was able to meet up with a co-worker and his wife and share a beer on the lanai at the Whole Foods Market. I had a killer kobe beef burger at a place down the street. And I had my first shave ice since coming home, from a truck at the end of the street.
I don't get out in the middle of the day much, since I'm usually plugging away at work from seven to five. I realized this fact a couple of weekends ago when I went for a surf around noon and had to hoof it across the street to the shady side, since my bare feet started to singe on the hot street. It was one of those a-ha moments, where I realized I've been walking to surf in either the early morning or late afternoon, times when the street hasn't had that direct tropical sun applied for a while.
The other thing I noticed that day was that the part of my chin that slopes away from my face, angled upward, got nice and pink, since it was at a perfect sun-facing angle. Gotta load up extra sunblock on that spot.
Anyway, all of these factors added up to me looking for a hat and eventually picking up this straw beauty for $12 at Macy's.
Uh, the musubi was extra. This hat may not look like much, but when it's on, it's enough coverage for a small family to walk down the street together in shade.
After all of the fun in town, I went over and met up with J and F at Freddies place near the beach. He's a recently retired construction business owner and he built his house himself. It's a beautiful place and full of fun customizations, including a waterfall and lava-tube slide. Freddie's longtime friend Kirby came over with his wife Allie and we swam, ate some poke, and talked story for a couple of hours. I told them how I've been going to see Cyril Pahinui on Wednesday's over at the Outriger Reef and Kirby told me to tell Cyril, "Kirby says, 'Hi.'"
Small island, my friends.
Aloha nui loa!
