Reintegrating…
As of about 6:30am today, we are back in Dallas. And now the long process of reintegrating with a non-vacationing society must begin. Suffice it to say that we aren’t as excited about this prospect as we were with beginning the trip. But before the reintegration, a review of the last few days.
After Tuesday’s ass-kicking hike, we pretty much went for maximum laziness and relaxation. Thus we perfected the formula of getting up late, going to the beach for a few hours, and doing little else the rest of the day. On Wednesday, we went to Poipu Beach and read our books in the shade. On Thursday, we started at Gillin’s Beach, but because of mosquitos we moved back to Poipu Beach.
Beach stories really aren’t that interesting, so let me throw out a couple of notes:
- One of the many chickens wandering the beach was suddenly thrust into a life-or-death situation. A black lab came out of nowhere and methodically chased a rooster down. After the chase was over, the rooster was clutched in the dog’s mouth and the dog made a direct path off-beach to a residence. It was a surreal experience and we couldn’t quite figure out if the dog was trained to make these quick strikes.
- In our first south-side beach session, a young Hawaiian came up on a Razor Scooter. "Are you enjoying the beach?" he asked. And it went from there with the questions. We found out more incongruent things about this guy in 10 minutes than we thought we should have. And we were peppered with crazy questions. So we now have a new inside joke which involves asking each other random questions like we were that day. The classic question that we started with was, "have you ever eaten an avocado?" Don’t ask me why. Since, we’ve been trying to invent crazy, out-of-place questions to surprise each other when we go in way-too-talkative-incongruent-over-asking-Hawaiian mode.
- We had dinner on Thursday night at the Beach House which is a must-go-to if you are staying on the south side. Get there in time for the sunset as we did not do, but have done in the past. The food was excellent.
- I cannot recall if I mentioned this previously, but we bought a garlic shrimp mixed plate off of a truck one day. It was fantastic. Our advice is to take the trucks seriously as they generally have great food. This is how one of our favorites, Tropical Taco, got its start.
And now to the reintegrating. Toward the end of each trip, I desperately try to search my brain for a way to extend the trip or to make the time between trips less. I come back full of ideas that are going to deliver me from the daily toil of my day job. And so for the first 30-60 days, I’m plotting and scheming. It will be no different this time. I’ll let you know how it goes, but most of the time, I’m beaten back into submission.
Otherwise, the cat is happy to see us. While we were gone, the winter coat apparently was deemed not necessary, so there is cat hair everywhere. Unfortunately for me, this brings my allergies back full-on after the pure oxygen respite of Kauai.
So I guess that’s the trip review for now. Now onto other topics much less exciting and extravagant. Perhaps we’ll start with the Dallas Mavericks!