Weekend Sailing around Oahu

To finish off the year we were invited for a three day sail with some friends of Mike's, Matt and Andrea. They own a beautiful Benneteau 473, which is a 47' sailing vessel. That's actually a prett big boat, but definitely still falls under "small craft". The plan was to sail to Pokai Bay on the west shores of Oahu, but a big northwestern swell caused us to shift our destination to beautiful Kaneohe Bay on the windward side.

We started the day early removing leftover Christmas lights and decor from the previous night's sailboat light parade in Waikiki. Then we headed out. It was a beautiful cruise out to Diamond Head. The waves became more choppy and confused. We had plenty of wind for a good sail with a reef in the main to keep our power in a safe range. We bounced along the beautiful south shores of the island, past Haunama Bay, Halona Blowhole and Makapu'u Lighthouse. Soon we were rounding to the windward side. The waves were bigger. Matt estimated 4-6 feet. At this point my brain decided it was done with the ride and I fell asleep.

I woke from my nap to Mike yelling about a whale and steering way off to a side. I jumped up and looked over the side in time to see the white side of a humpback whale slide under the boat. Apparently it surfaced right ahead of us and he almost hit it. That would have been a tragic and early end to our trip. I wasn't really feeling a swim. I know, pampered little princess right here.

Finally we were in the calm waters of Kaneohe Bay. A super battered reef keeps the waves out to sea. We anchored in front of Secret Beach. This is owned by Kualoa Ranch. So all day long tourists are shuttled in and out. It's a beautiful semi-private beach. It was lovely to have the place all to ourselves once the tours ended.

The second day was all for exploring the beautiful cove and enjoying the sunshine and water. We each took a spin on a standup paddleboard. It was super windy when I went and I had to come back on my knees. Mike took Schooner, the resident weenie dog, out for a ride. We all climbed into the dinghy and explored Chinaman's Hat. A lot of people swim or kayak to get there from the public beach. Andrea and I did a little snorkeling while Mike practiced his bushman skills on the island. We went back to the boat for lunch and naps afterward.

The sunrises were fabulous both days. I woke early and had the first sunrise all to myself. It was peaceful and wonderful. On Day 3, everyone was up for sunrise, though I still had the early dawn colors alone. It was gorgeous!


Oh, also important (my level of important, not like cancer important), some rain rolled in during breakfast and the rainbow was out of this world. It was a full arc. Pictures or it didn't happen, you say? Bam!

Our sail back was anything but relaxing. The earlier rough, confused seas were now larger. I steered the boat out the channel and through the "washing machine" past Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. Look Here's a picture of me driving. Annoyingly, the seas look flat in every picture. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Anyway, back to the tale. Suddenly, we caught a mahi. We reeled it in, filled its gills with cheap vodka (apparently that's a thing!?!??), and stuck it in the freezer to die slowly, because we're monsters like that. We continued our tack along the coast, flying along with 25 knot winds as we rolled all over the 8 foot seas. Waves crashed over the bow and we even took one over the stern. Unsurprisingly, we were the only boat on the water. Something minor about a small craft warning...

Soon we were nearing Makapu'u where we would hit a hopefully calmer swell. And, suddenly, we had another mahi! Two on the same trip just using hand lines and lures! I guess it pays to be the only boat. Once again, we doused him in vodka, but this one was not going down without a fight. He ultimately lost, but he definitely tried. He was delicious, btw.

As we finally rounded Diamondhead, the water calmed significantly. Once in Waikiki, it was calm and wonderful. There were boats everywhere. It was an adventure, and one I'm glad that I did (and survived).

Running the Honolulu Marathon

3.5 years ago I ran my first marathon. It was hard. I overtrained and ended up with weird issues and a banged up knee from running it. However, I ran it with my sister and had a fantastic time with her. I remember for the first 10 miles my feet were numb. I think we walked the entirety of mile 23. I was glad to have finished, but pretty sure I wouldn't do another marathon.

Earlier this year, I ran my first ultramarathon. It was gorgeous and an adventure as much as a run. I loved every minute of it! The scenery was unparalleled, the people around me were friendly and awesome. My knees were shot by the end, but I don't regret a minute of it.

Because the Honolulu Marathon is iconic and local. I chose to run it. It's the marathon portion of the original Ironman race. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Also, they have a killer locals rate and I'm a frugal girl. ANYWAY... I changed the way I trained for this race. I started training around two months beforehand rather than the four I had trained before. Instead of running a half marathon or more every weekend for two months like I did for Seattle, I worked my way up from 3 miles, adding two per weekend and planned a half marathon the month before. I never ran more than 15 miles and did not hit a wall. Oh, and before you ask, yes I took screen shots of the race photos so they still have watermarks. At $37 per photo, I'm cool with crappy Paint jpgs.

The Honolulu Marathon begins in front of Ala Moana Park at 5 AM. I can't even call that "bright and early". It was pitch black out. We woke up at 330 and walked the two miles to the start line. See? Local. Easy. I love easy logistics. We joined about 20,000 other runners standing and stretching in the middle of Ala Moana Boulevard. The countdown happened and the first runners were off! We were in the middle somewhere and it took another 8-9 minutes before we reached the start line. During that time, a fireworks display lit up the night, crashing overhead and making me excited for the run to come. I mean, I vaguely felt bad for the people living next to the park. I've been known to lose my mind over loud noises when I am trying to sleep. Sorry fancy condo people!

The fireworks were a great start to the race, but it didn't get boring after that. We ran through downtown Honolulu, dodging slower runners and walkers who had started with the early groups. My calves were tight and not into the early morning run. I started an audio book and lost myself in a story of champions. Soon, I found myself running through City Lights on King Street. There was a giant Santa, shirtless, hands up in shakas (or hangloose signs for all you haoles). Aloha to you too, sir! Palm trees wrapped in lights lined the streets. Pretty cool!


Soon I was climbing Diamond Head while the sun rose around me. It was absolutely beautiful! There were so many places I wanted to take pictures. Photo taking while running leads to blurry pictures of nothing though. So I only got a few. The lens may have been a little sweaty, my bad.

Before I knew it, I was at 10 miles. I settled into a run walk routine to keep my body focused. Run four minutes, walk a minute. Run four minutes, ooh the mile marker is just ahead, keep running until the mile marker, walk a minute. My book was captivating. All around me were runners of all ages, shapes and sizes, people dressed in costumes, and others with matching running atire. Among my favorites were two young men with grass skirts and coconut bras, A girl dressed as Sailor Moon (complete with bright yellow wig!), a middle-aged woman in a traditional Japanese dress running barefoot, and several Japanese couples in wedding attire.

Time seemed to melt away and I found muself in Hawaii Kai at the turnaround. I was on the home stretch. There were so many amazing spectators in Hawaii Kai with chopped up bananas, orange wedges, grapes, pretzels, candy, etc. that they were offering to tired runners. I was beyond impressed with the encouragement, generosity, and enthusiasm. It really does mean the world when someone is out there telling you that you're doing great. I ate a 2" banana section, one grape, and an orange slice. That was my nutrition for the whole race. I like to run fasted. So I hadn't eaten that morning. I guess I had a few small cups of Gatorade along the way.

My book ran out as I was beginning to tire around mile 21. My strategy the whole time was not to think "one mile down", but to think "only 25 miles left". So, at that point it was "just over five miles to go, no big deal. We can do this!" I switched to one of my super perky dance music playlists. I'd make sure I ran to songs with the perfect run cadence. I'd walk when my body wasn't feeling it. I didn't let myself drag though. I always found a point to walk to and started running again as soon as I reached it. In the meantime, here's Mike with his tongue out likely because he stepped on a small rock.

I crested Diamond Head on the way back and forced myself to run the entire downhill. I was exhausted at this point. I'd been running for about four and a half hours. I had some long blinks that indicated my body was over it. The photo below sums it up. Can't you just feel the aloha?

I dashed down the hill, walked a few moments, and ran again. On the final flat stretch, I forced my tired legs to get me to a particular telephone pole. I could then walk for three poles before running to that bus that was blocking the intersection two or three blocks ahead. When I got to the walk point, I realized that wasn't a bus! It was the finish! I picked up the pace and ran the rest of the way through.

This was the first race I've done where no one I knew was waiting for me at the finish line. Usually Mike either runs with me or meets me at the end. This time, he hurt his leg a week prior and ended up walk-jogging the whole marathon, barefoot because he's a crazy man. The marathon committee provided showers at the end, which was unbelievable! I picked up my finisher shirt, sat on the ground and stretched for a few minutes. Oh, and when I say "sat" I clearly mean sprawled on the ground grinning like a maniac.


It probably took me an hour on my wobbly legs to make the 2.2 miles home. I sat down a bunch of times and finally made it to a Biki (bike share) station to rent a bike for the remaining 1.5 miles home. I had time to shower and relax for a minute before heading back to the finish line to cheer Mike. It was fun to watch the finishers. There were a handful of elderly runners, a man in a hand-pedaled recumbant bike, and a bunch of high school boys supporting an injured comerade across the finish line. So inspiring!!

Of course, I looked down at the tracker right as he ran past, so I only took a picture of his back. I ran to catch up, which actually felt less bad than I would've thought. I ran the race in 4:42:32 which was about 35 minutes faster than my previous race. I'm not injured. All in all, I feel really successful and proud of myself. Mike finished in 7:41 on a hurt leg without shoes. He's pretty cool.

Ohana Trip #3: Big Island Wanders

For the third year in a row our Hawaiian ohana flew to another island to explore for a long weekend. The first year was Lanai, last year was Kauai, and this year we visited Hawaii. Since we had access, we chose to spend a few days at the Kiluea Military Camp in Volcano, HI (inside the national park).

KMC is a government facility that's a little dated but way cool (and way cheap!) resort style hotel. There are a bunch of cabins arrayed around a central social area. The social area has all sorts of things: a cafe, bar, game room, mini theater, tennis courts, and even a bowling alley. The best part is its proximity to Volcanoes National Park.

Unfortunately for the first day we arrived right as the sky opened up and downpoured for the next several hours. We hung out at the cabin we rented, made a bunch of food and played games. It was nice. Once it was time for Iris to go to bed, Mike, Thomas, Camille and I wandered over to the game room and played a couple of rounds of pool. As it turns out, we're all really bad, but we had a great time anyway.

The next morning was bright and beautiful. We drove the couple of miles to hike the Kiluea Iki Trail. I've done this one a few times before, but it's so cool that I'm sure I'll do it a few more. The trail is a 4 mile loop that circles the top of the crater for a half mile before dropping in. Then, hikers walk across the crater, back up the other side, and around another top section. The whole hike is STUNNING! Brad, Rachel and Iris came down to the crater but didn't finish the loop. Iris is only 18 months after all.

Thomas has a geology degree and was absolutely fascinated by the lava formations and steam vents. Camille and I spent a good amount of time checking out beautifully iridescent bits of lava rock. Mike was, as always, perfectly content to wander all over the place and climb on things. Overall, I think it took us about an hour to wander across the crater.


Afterward, we walked around the steam vents and checked out the overlook into the main Kiluea crater. This is the one that caused all of the fuss last year when it erupted. It's changed so drastically in the past year and a half. Check out this video for timelapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2BFFK_r5NU. Way freaking cool!

Later that day, we all piled into Brad and Rachel's 7 seater car and drove a couple of miles to Volcano Winery. We honestly could've walked it, but the skies decided to open up again. Less rain, but being wet in a winery just didn't sound fab. Weird how that works. The winery is a way cool little tasting room. They import almost all of their grapes, blend them and ferment them locally. I believe they have some grapes they grow there, but they're more expensive. Instead we paid $8 each for 8 tastes. It was pretty fun! We loved the first white wine they served, which was super strange because Mike doesn't like white wines.

We decided that it was a perfect night to check out the bowling alley. It was actually pretty decent. Brad and Rachel stayed for a game, which Brad won (Brad wins everything). Thomas, Camille, Mike and I played round 2. Everyone did better the second game except for me . It was fun anyway. I hadn't bowled in years.

The last morning of the trip, we were awakened by a 4.9 magnitude earthquake that happened near Mauna Kea, one of the larger volcanoes. It made the whole place jiggle for a minute. Way freaking cool! I made a ton of pancakes and we had a brunch feast. Then we parted ways. Brad really wanted to visit the botanical garden. The rest of us really wanted to visit the newly formed black sand beach at Pohiki.

We stopped at the Volcanoes National Park visitor center. I wanted to stamp my journal since I just realized in Joshua Tree that this is a thing. Seriously, I've been to six national parks this year and only managed to figure this out on numbers 5 and 6. We ended up watching a video on the collapse of the crater. It was similar to the one linked above, but longer and more extensive.

Then we drove about an hour to the coast, past the infamous Leilani Estates where big fissures opened in the earth and cars and homes were swallowed by lava. I drove through wide sections of road that had been newly constructed through recent lava fields. There were dead trees uprooted and baked stark white against the black stone.

When we arrived at the park, we were amazed to find that there was a wall of rock that blocked roads, covered sidewalks, and crumpling picnic benches. Below is a screenshot from Google Maps that hasn't yet been updated. You can see a park on the right side that is scribbled out. That no longer exists and is covered by a hugs field of lava (as shown in the pic above). Along the beach, the area between the black lines is full of black sand. There's a little dock and boat lauched there that used to go to the sea and now have only a little pond to service. CRAZY! The world's newest beach, and we got to visit it.


We walked down the beach, doing a bit of exploring and just taking in the amazingness of the whole thing. The waves were breaking pretty hard on the shore, but wanting to get my feet wet, I walked to the edge of the waves. The next wave ended up being the biggest one we'd seen. It crashed toward us and Thomas was the only one to escape. Camille, Mike and I were soaked to our waists, laughing and shrieking as we ran up the beach. (Ok, Mike wasn't shrieking.)


Brad, Rachel, and baby girl met us at the airport. I asked how the botanicals were. It turns out Iris was sick and they didn't end up going. They just puttered around Kona and got ice cream. I love both of those things, so it doesn't sound like a total loss to me. Poor baby though. It took about a week for her to heal. We boarded our plane as the sunset at the awesome tiny Kona airport. Another fabulous ohana trip!

Joshua Tree Exploring

Vacation Races strikes again! This is the company that, with their amazing video advertisement, had us running ultramarathons in Arizona back in March. Mike saw a cool video of a night time run in Joshua Tree National Park. We decided, sure, let's do it.

Eight months later, we flew into San Diego. We met my friend Melissa for breakfast then headed east to Joshua Tree. Mel and her husband were supposed to go with us to Joshua Tree, but had both come down with nasty colds. Rather than share those with us, they opted to stay behind and we planned dinner on our way back to Hawaii.

Since we had a spare bedroom in the Airbnb, I called my mom to see if she and my stepdad were free for the weekend since it's only a 3.5 hour drive to Joshua Tree from Las Vegas. They were! Yay! We beat them into Joshua Tree by a few hours. So, we went into the park to see what we could see.

The park is GORGEOUS! If you haven't noticed in my past posts, I love the subtle beauty of the desert. I enjoy all the different colors and creatures that go unnoticed at first glance. Having spent the past three years in the super-saturated landscape of Hawaii, it's really nice to go back to my desert roots occasionally.

A two lane road navigates park goers through groves of prickly joshua trees. Apparently these trees only grow about an inch per year. There are cool bouldery rock formations everywhere. The park is known for its exceptional rock climbing. However, after scrambling around on that rock for a few days, I'm not sure I'm ready to shred my skin on the rock faces. We'll have to come back and try someday.

We ended up at Hall of Horrors, which is a climbing spot. Mike took one look at the rocks and immediately decided the trail through them was boring. An hour later, we'd ditched our shoes and climbed all around the big boulders looking for views and just enjoying ourselves. The sun was starting to set, lighting all of the rocks and flora up in the most beautiful golden light.

We arrived at the Airbnb just as mom and Wayne were coming into town. We had dinner, played games and caught up. It was so nice!

The next morning we threw all of us into the rental car and drove through the park to the cholla garden. Cholla (choy-ya) are these cool cactus that grow super tall and prickly, but their bases die beneath them. The plant spreads when the base collapses and it builds up from all the points around it. There were warnings not to touch it since the barbs were near impossible to remove.

Afterward we visited the Ocotillo Patch, which is more of just a few of these woody brush trees here and there. It looks like several have died fairly recently.

Skull Rock is apparently one of the popular areas for boulder scrambling. It's named as such for the obvious reason that one of the rocks looks like a giant human skull. It also has some beautiful trails on the opposite side of the road.

Because I heard it was awesome, we took a short detour up to Keys View Overlook which has fantastic views of Coachella, Palm Springs and the Little San Bernadillo Mountains.

We tried to stop at Boulder Dam to see the petroglyphs, but there was absolutely nowhere to park. So many people. I gave up and it was well past lunch time anyway. Mike and I took off for the race expo to pick up bibs, shirts and a headlamp. Mom and Wayne ended up going back there for sunset and had no trouble finding parking.

The race was... maybe not what I expected. Yes, you run in Joshua Tree, but it's the town and a ways away from the park. It's on super sandy dirt roads. If you've ever run in loose sand, you know it's brutal. That's definitely not my favorite thing. However, the worst part about it was the dust kicked up by 2300 stampeding humans. I could not breathe. It hurt to breathe. I hadn't planned ahead and brought a bandana to wear around my mouth because I honestly didn't think about it. For this reason, the run was very hard. Mike was a dreamboat and stayed with me the entire run, which, of course he did in his sandals. Weirdo. We started the race at the tail end of a gorgeous sunset and finished with a sea of stars overhead. We finished the race only 4 minutes slower than my goal time. So, not bad considering.


The next morning we packed up the house and hiked the Fourty-nine Palms Oasis trail. This is a way cool three mile out and back that starts in stark dry desert and ends at an honest-to-goodness desert oasis. We loved it! The shade of the oasis was wonderful! The hike was low-key enough that our tight legs didn't bother us. They weren't really the issue anyway. My lungs felt burnt. It was like someone was sitting on my chest. On the way back, we found a desert tortise walking down the trail toward the oasis. I wonder how long it will take him to get there.


Shortly after, we parted ways with mom and Wayne and headed back to the city. As we checked into the hotel, the power went out. So, we had a room number, but no keys. We waited half an hour and finally just left for dinner. We met Mel and Ryan for Mexican food in Old Town on Dia de los Muertos weekend. It was not calm or quiet. The people watching was fabulous! Lots of sugar skulls and floral headbands. Three hours later, we finally said goodnight and went our own way. The hotel power had only been back on for 15 minutes when we returned.

Joshua Tree was amazing! There's so much there that I didn't have time to do. I would've liked to hike Ryan Mountain, Mastodon Peak, Hidden Valley, the Boy Scout Trail, and Boulder Dam. I would like to do some actual rock climbing. I highly recommend coming this time of year. The days were mid-70s with cool nights. This area is known for its incredibly hot days in the summer. Joshua Tree, we'll be back.

Disclaimer: Despite not loving the dusty night run, I still want to do every single one of Vacation Races half marathons.

National Park 15/61.