Back on the Mainland

I'm at my parents' house in Newport Beach this week, adjusting to the pace of life on the mainland and getting ready to drive up the coast. I've decided to drive the Pacific Coast Highway along the California and Oregon coastlines, then to head inland around Portland and head up toward Seattle through the Columbia Gorge at some point. The goal is exploration rather than speed... I'm hoping to poke around all the cute little towns along the way, and stop to hike and/or paddle promising bits of wilderness. I'm looking forward to a pleasantly idle journey. And hey! if I find the perfect little town along on the way, who knows? I just might settle in and stay awhile.

Turtle Sighting

I ran into a giant turtle when I was swimming in the ocean yesterday - it swam right under me and just about scared me out of my wits. (Sure, mock me if you will, but tell me how you'd react if a 4 foot shadow swam under you in the ocean! Even when you know it's nothing it takes a minute to adjust.) Awesome creature, I tried to swim along with it for awhile but I was too slow. Yes, that's right... I couldn't keep up with a turtle. Make of it what you will.

Turtles, by the way, are called honu here.

Hello Again

For those of you taking bets on when I start to get restless, you can put the date somewhere around late April / early May. But Maui has done its job because I'm finally starting to feel right again.

I'm still not sure what comes next, but I'm thinking about heading back to the Pacific Northwest for the summer. I find that I want to spend more time in the mountains, and am looking forward to doing some hiking in the Cascades. And I'm excited about doing more kayaking as well - there's nothing more peaceful than drifting along a still bit of water with only the wind and your fellow paddlers for company, and I'd like to get good enough at it that I can go out on my own.

It's still a work in progress but I look forward to figuring out what comes next.

Whalewatch Friday

The whales are in close this week; my sister and I just got back from the beach where we saw a good half-dozen, two of them just a few hundred feet out. The ones in close lingered there for a good half an hour and you could see them surface and dive repeatedly; we're pretty sure the pair in close was a mother and calf since one was much smaller than the other, and they were never more than a few feet apart. Probably the most we've seen at one time, though there are usually a handful lingering in the channel outside. Pretty cool.

Nighttime on Maui

I've just figured out why the nights smell so sweet here - there's night-blooming jasmine growing somewhere in our neighborhood, and when the wind blows it carries the smell right into our yard.

Nights here are silent, and spectacularly dark. The only sound is the wind in the palm trees, and when the moon shrinks to a sliver you can see the milky way spilled across the night sky. It's one of the things I missed most living in the city, that perfect scattering of stars across the darkness. I find myself resenting the one street light visible from our yard and plotting ways to escape it, just to see what the sky looks like when it's completely and totally black.

Whalewatch

I wish I could find a way to explain exactly what it's like here in whale season. I probably see about 10 humpback whales a day - some in close to the shore, some splashing around further out. I saw two just this evening, swimming around lazily between a couple hundred feet offshore, and one the other day that looked like it was doing cartwheels about 1/4 mile out. When you stick your head in the water you can hear them singing, no high tech equipment required. When you get over the astonishment (though I'm not sure I have yet), it feels oddly companionable. It is unquestionably the highlight of winter here.

Cool Hawaiian Words

Hawaiian is not really a spoken language here - at least not where I live. But there are a number of very cool words you can string together into a kind of philosophy (or maybe just a to do list). These are some of my favorites.

ho'oponopono: to correct or make right, find balance
holoholo: to go out walking for fun
hele wawae: to go barefoot
i kai: toward the sea

There's also a great bit of slang that doesn't really have a literal translation, but pretty much captures the spirit of the islands: "da kine" or whatever, bra. Words to live by, or at least roll around on your tongue for awhile!

Back in Maui after a bit of wandering

Hello! Sorry for falling off the map there. I've been traveling for the last 2 months and never quite got around to posting between trips. I've had a good wander - nothing dramatic, but I got to see a lot of family and friends and had the chance to look after my niece for a week, which was pretty fun.

Maui has gotten greener since I left and smells like rain. As always, I'm struck by how much slower the pace of life is here. Every time I arrive, even if I've been fairly idle as I was this last trip, it takes me at least a week to slow down enough to match the pace of the island and I find myself full of restless energy. Perhaps I'll try to keep some of it this time and put it to good use - I've been meaning to explore the islands here, and it'd be nice to get out & do some hiking.

The other change since I was last here is that the whales have arrived; more than half of the Pacific's humpback whale population winters in these waters, and looking out the window I can see signs of them everywhere. I've always wanted to be here for whale season, and I've never made it before. I'm excited about getting out on the water and seeing some close up.

I'll leave it at that, for now, but I'll try to post more frequently now that I'm back in Hawaii. Hope you all had a good New Year and are happy and healthy as we enter 2009.

My adventures thus far

When I left New York I packed two boxes of books and a few bags of clothes into a rental car and drove down to see my sister in Maryland; everything else seemed an unnecessary encumbrance, and I gave most of it away.

I spent the next few weeks working as a combination sous chef/babysitter at my sister's bed & breakfast (The Blue Heron Inn, I highly recommend it if you're looking for a place to get away for a weekend), where I got to help cater a handful of events and taught my one-year old niece to climb down the stairs.

I would have stayed longer, but I'd had previous plans to visit Alaska with another of my sisters so headed off for parts unknown. The Kenai Peninsula was lovely; we stayed just outside of Seward, down the road from Exit Glacier, and got to do some good exploring while we were there.

My personal favorite was a short kayaking trip on Resurrection Bay; we left around 6 in the evening when most other boats had already come in, and paddled down the coastline for a couple of hours. The water was ice cold, but the sea otters didn't seem to mind and thankfully none of us fell in.

From Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

We also hiked about 1/3 of the way up the Harding Ice Field trail, climbing approx 1000' in the first mile before stopping to rest in Marmot Meadows. The views were extraordinary; we found a rock that looked right over the glacier and sat down to enjoy the view before heading back down. Another definite highlight of the trip.

After Alaska, I took a few kayaking lessons in Seattle where I learned some bracing strokes that I probably could have used on Resurrection Bay, and discovered that it's a little scarier being upside down and sealed into a kayak than I'd been led to believe. My instructor was fantastic; if anyone else wants to learn, you'll find that George Gronseth's course is well worth your time.

All told, it was nearly 2 months before I had a chance to unpack my bags, and it was a relief to arrive in Hawaii and stay awhile. I have done little of note since arriving; this is a quiet place, and I've mostly been spending my time near the water.

Hello!

When I left New York this summer, I promised several friends and colleagues that I would start a blog so they could keep track of my wanderings.

I put off following through on that promise first because I had little to say in the immediate aftermath of the move, and then because it seemed wrong to write about moving to a tropical island when so many of my former colleagues were battling the financial crisis.

That second factor hasn't changed, but as the crisis wears on it is beginning to feel like a weaker excuse and I find that I have no reason not to follow through on my promise.
This, then, is my blog. I promise to catch you all up on my adventures and subject you, from time to time, to my thoughts on what is going on in the world.

For now, though, let me just tell you that I am in Maui looking out over the Pacific Ocean as the sun sets, and that for the moment I am at peace with the world.