Look! It's Casper the Surfing Ghost!

Oh I know what I forgot...We went to Hawaii! Check that…we didn’t just go to Hawaii…we were Hawaii. For 7 glorious days we were sunshine, and luaus and sand and surf…and…and…are you ready to barf yet? Oh calm down, I haven’t left my usually snarky self behind. We were also hurricanes and cancelled fishing trips and poi. But mainly we were rainbows and butterflies. We had so much fun I cried big fat tears when we left. Shocking, I know. It might have had something to do with leaving these little faces behind:
But let's get on with the recap, shall we? The trip was really fabulous. Sure Hurricane Felicia served notice that apparently no matter where I go I’m under threat of having wonderful plans ruined by a hurricane…even if my destination hasn’t seen one in 17 years. Yes, 17. But luckily we mostly missed it and all that suffered was our planned fishing trip which was cancelled. Apparently Captain Rusty didn’t get the memo that we’re from Houston and we OWN hurricanes. Or we get owned by hurricanes? I can never keep that straight. Anyway, one big plan that did not get cancelled…surfing. The HSH and the HSB were suuuuper excited about this. The SIL-E was smart and came up with an excuse to stay and watch from the beach. Me? I pretended like I was suuuuuper excited, while simultaneously telling anyone who would listen that I would probably break my face. My strategy behind this was that if I didn’t break my face, I would seem like a surfing goddess and if I did…well, I warned you didn’t I?

I was surprised (read: not at all) that the HSH and the HSB took to surfing faster than an FBI agent going undercover to bust a band of surfing bank robbers.


Me? I was pretty close to achieving surfing goddess status, except for one minor detail…uhhhh, I don’t know if anyone knew this but you have to keep paddling out into the surf to catch waves. I had no idea how difficult this would be. I didn’t try to kid myself that I’m sort sort of crazy in shape person who would whiz on out there, but good lord. I thought I was going to die. And that was just on the first time out there, never mind all the subsequent times I had to return to catch another wave. At one point I was being lapped by a 17 year old kid who was also taking a lesson and thought he was being helpful by telling me ‘it helps if you cup your hands m’am’ Was that necessary kid? Sure I’m sucking wind like an 80 year old but did you really have to throw the m’am in there for emphasis?? Thanks jerk. I felt better when he totally wiped out on his next wave. Yeah, I’m that petty (and pale apparently). Anyway, I was proud of myself for sticking with it, despite my arms feeling like jelly after about 20 minutes. Oh who am I kidding? More like 5 minutes. I was also proud that our little group was the furthest out there, and I managed to tough it out and not prevent the boys from catching the ‘big’ waves. I had a great time, but I’m not going to lie…when our instructor, Chelsea, told us it was time to head in…I didn’t exactly start crying. Here is a picture of me cheering on the HSH--really just an excuse to rest my arms.
Afterwards we enjoyed mai tai’s at Duke’s…
Yes I know my visor is cockeyed. I couldn’t lift my arms above my head to fix it.