Is it really Halloween?

Today will be the first Halloween in years ( I can't even remember) that I will NOT be celebrating Halloween!!!  Instead Chris and I have been basking in the sun in Hawaii.  OKAY...OKAY...sun and clouds.  I wont lie...we have had rain nearly every day since we have been here!  But it's not like Seattle rain, and most of the rain has been at night when it's dark, so no biggie.  I realized I left Washington in a hurry trying to forget my last cross race. 

Chris, Whitney, Aaron, Katie, and I all carpooled to the MFG race in Kent on Oct. 24th.  Here is how it went....awful.  Whitney and I warmed up together (she decided to race in the 3's since it was a self seeding field) and it was pretty cold, but that's okay.  We rode up and down the road a few times, ate some cliff shots and then decided we should head over to the start line.  As we were heading that way the rain came back (do we remember that day?  If you are like me you have blocked it out of your memory).  It came back with avengence and it started pouring.  So instead of continuing to warm up Whitney and I stood under the Nuun tent waiting for the race start.  We soon find out they are delayed.  We stood under that tent for nearly 40 minutes freezing our assess off.  To make a long mizerable morning short...I didn't want to race after standing in the cold and rain, we lined up, I was cold.  There is no better way to describe the race other than I was cold.  I was cold when we started, my legs weren't warmed up, and I wanted to be in Hawaii.  That race was by far my worse cross race EVER.  I will choose to block it out of my memory. I placed 6/8.  Horrible.  At least I can say I have that race out of the way. Here is Whitney, Aaron, and Katie at Starbucks waiting for our hot chocolate!

And now for the good news.  HAWAII!!!!  I love it.  It's warm, the sun shines, everything about this place is for me.  I wake up early even...without a problem!

There isn't much to update you on, other than this place is amazing.  I will give you some photos.  Chris and I tried to go on a bike ride a couple days ago.  When we got out of the car we thought we were going to get blown away.  It was as windy as a ferry boat.  So we decided to just do a little out and back ride.  Well Chris is SO smart he didn't bring the pump with him since we were only going out for a little bit (typical male) and I got a flat tire.  So he rode back to the car, and I sat and waited. 

Then I got stunng by a bee.  I wasn't happy and it hurt.

Did you know what the Hawaiin state flag looks like?  I didn't...until today.  It's under the USA flag.  SInce that ride was a fail we decided to ride the following day.  If you don't already know this, we are staying in Kona (the big island) and the Hawaiin Islands are formed from Volcanoes (I hope you know this) and well the big Island is nothing but a series of lots of mountains.  So if you go anywhere you climb big hills.  So we climbed up to about 1500ft (from sea level) in about 9 miles.  Check it out...

Today we were going to go to Captain Cook's memorial, but decided against it because we didn't feel like walking 2 miles directly downhill.  So instead we drove farther South to an easier access beach and Snorkeled.  We saw Dolphins, fish, turtels, eels.  All sorts of sea life.  I am enjoying my time.  Now as I sit here drinking my blended beverage I will leave you with some photos to admire. 

We crashed the Mauna Kea Resort Public Beach...this is paradise for sure!Who has my Mai Tai?



Some old man showed Chris how to do this, naturally I posed



This was taken today at an awesome snorkeling beach. 



Today

 Tomorrow we are off to the Volcano.  Given the sun doesn't change my mind like it did today!!  I hope that we can see some flowing Lava for Chris.  I used to come to Hawaii all the time with my Grandma and Grandpa (which reminds me) when we were growing up so I have seen all the touristy things there are to see.  But the Volcano is very cool. 

Nearly every day Chris and I have gone into town to walk around.  It's so awesome we ride our bikes 2 miles to town and it's SO easy.  The other day we were in some Sandal shop and I hear this women say to her childen "Look with your eyes not with your hands".  I nearly had a heart attack, or a laughing attack  When we were growing up my Grandma used to say "Touch with your eyes not with your hands" so we would go around to everything put our eyes on it.  She would get SO mad.  I have never heard anyone say those words since my Grandma.  It was very funny .

Maybe I will sneak away and report about the Volcano tomorrow....just MAYBE.