hawaii aloha

the strokes have a b-side called 'hawaii aloha.' its a great song. being a 'b side' its not well known, but its got a great 'hawaii feel' to it. another great song which i just heard the other day is 'gamma ray' by beck. its from his 'modern guilt' album. its got a great surf rock/beach boys feel to it. i love beck. he played the hollywood bowl last week and we really wanted to go, but tickets were ridiculously expensive. when i become rich, im not spending my money on cars or big houses. im spending it on traveling and pit tickets to concerts of all my favorite bands. the 'and' in there means that they are a combined purchase. so ill be seeing beck in the pit in some random venue in tokyo before then heading over to catch radiohead the following weekend in the pit in prague.

anyways, thats the future travel plans. now for recent stuff. im not sure that anyone even cares, but i said there would be a three part series with the marriage stuff so i have to make this post so i can move on with other random stuff. so we did hawaii for the honeymoon. it was fantastic. nellie keeps on saying that she wishes we were still on our honeymoon. im pretty sure thats because she doesnt want to go work in the morning though.

so i tried to keep it a secret from nellie where we were going. i did that because i thought it would be a fun surprise, and so that i could keep annoying people from telling me all the things we had to do in hawaii. the ironic thing is that i did tell a few people and some of them gave me advice on things to do and most all of them were spot on with their recommendations. it was as though they had been there before and done these things and tried them out for us. since i dont really know what to say about the trip, ill just be a hypocrite and the guy i tried to avoid and list some recommendations/thoughts on stuff:

1. tandem surfing in waikiki. i remember my friend jason wallace (wally) telling me when he was in hawaii he did some tandem surfing. so we tried it and we actually got up and rode a wave. it was awesome. we were out there for an hour and only caught 2 waves. that part isnt impressive, but we were totally surfing...on the same board...with nellie on my shoulders...while i was hanging five. i know. only five. not that impressive. but ten is hard.

2. the pineapple room. my friend karl suggested this place. nellie and i loved it. the edamame is fantastic. so good. its in the mall, literally inside the macy's. literally. like head to the third floor of the macy's and its in the men's department between the shoes and the boys section or something random like that. you cant access it from anywhere else besides through the macy's. so strange. i dont know who chose the location, but surely he was fired. i dont know what he was thinking. 'hey look, the macy's is closing down their belts and accessories area, why dont we build our restaurant there. perfect.'

3. kayaking in kauai. eh. not the worst activity we did. certainly not the best. it was river kayaking and then a hike to a waterfall which was only ok and not that impressive. kayaking is fun so if you want to do it, then you should.

4. zip-lining. this was the worst activity we did. terribly overpriced and so lame. i did this in costa rica and it was awesome. they pretty much just give you a harness and a beer and send you on your way. if the line snaps and you fall and die, what do they care? they already got your $30. in costa rica you zip line on about 15 lines with the longest one being 300 yards over a valley. you are 40 feet over the tree line. its amazing. hawaii was 4x that amount and there were only 5 'runs.' but 2 of the lines you did twice and one was 'simulated repelling.' it was horrific. it was your classic example of a wildly overpriced activity completely geared towards sucker american tourists who they know are willing to pay because hey, its our honeymoon. other zip lines there may be better, i dont know. if it has 5 lines and ends at a rope swing waterfall, stay away. its a waste.

speaking of the rope swing, that also enticed me. such a sucker. i had big dreams of riding some zip line and dropping off into some pool near a waterfall. im sure pocohantus was also there now that i think about it. anyways, when we got to this rope swing, there were tons of people there that just trespassed onto the private property and took advantage of the free rope swing. which is what you should do if you go to hawaii.

6. shipwreck beach at the hayatt resort. this place is great for a few reasons. 1. the beach is actually great. actual waves and no rip current that will kill you immediately (like so many other beaches advertise). 2. there is a great rock to jump off of. supposedly its the same rock that harrison ford and anne heche (or their stunt doubles) jumped off of in the movie '6 days and 7 nights.' (go to 1:30 in the preview and you can see it.) nellie and i didnt need stunt doubles. it was a great time. although there is no documented evidence of nellie actually jumping off the rock, so who knows if she actually did. the other great part are the pools at the hyatt. all the big resorts are right next to public beaches and their pools are right next to the ocean. they have no idea actually is a guest and who isnt so you can just walk onto the property and swim in their pools and hang out in their hot tubs. which was excellent and highly recommended.

7. the helicopter ride. i actually do recommend this. i say actually not because it is expensive, but because it made me incredibly sick. nellie too. it took us awhile to recover. afterwards we drove to the nearest mini-mart and got a sprite and saltine crackers and sat huddled over on a dirty bench staring at the ground for awhile until we recovered...which was many hours later. we were with 2 german guys that didnt get sick at all so im sure most dont. it just hit us pretty bad, yet i still recommend it.

anyways, those are the ramblings. there is plenty more i could say. we did tons of activities (nodding my head and hi-fiving my bros right now). no literally we did a bunch of great outdoor activities and ate out plenty. if you are ever going let me know. ive got tons of great advice im happy to give, i just dont care what you have to say/recommend.