Thoughts from 36,865 Feet in the Air with Virgin America

Well, dear blog friends, I have been on about a three week hiatus.  That is what happens when you park your butt on a practically deserted beach in Hawaii.  Nothing.  You don’t think about much, you stare at the ocean waiting for something to hop out and amaze you and you plow through a year of unread New Yorkers and New York Times Magazines. 

The Guilt of Not Reading

I am clearly convinced after a year of New Yorkers that 75% of the time I only read the very short articles and the cartoons.  I kind of came to that realization a year ago, so I stopped my subscription last November.  They were piling up like planes in Philly waiting to take off during a thunderstorm.  I feel smarter for having consumed them, but guilty for not getting to them on a timely basis (plus I was paying more to ship them every year to Kauai than my actual subscription.).  It’s a great magazine, I just was feeling never caught up.

Which, is also, why, just before I left for this trip that I cancelled my NYTimes Sunday subscription. I realize this is not a huge commitment on my part, but at $8.00 a week (two medium soy mistos at Starbucks – blond please), and a year long pile of unread magazines, I knew I was not holding up my end of this relationship.  The incredibly nice lady on the other end of the line tried every trick in the book to keep me as a customer, but the overriding guilt of seeing parts of last Sunday’s paper still there..this Sunday…oy!

2 of these vs..

NY Times Magazine..and piles of unfinished guilt

So after reading  a full year of The Ethicist (I border between ethical and criminal) and Diagnosis (holy crap, I think I have about 17 diseases), a great article on Sex Ed by one of my classmates from high school (which was a cover back in November..), I finished the pile that I had sent to Kauai and took a deep cleansing breath.  Here is a link to the Behind the Cover Story and the Sex Ed Story..

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/behind-the-cover-story-laurie-abraham-on-sex-education/?ref=magazine&ref=magazine

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/teaching-good-sex.html?pagewanted=all

Back to Nothing..with a side stop in LAX

Not a whole heck of a lot happened on my trip to Kauai and Los Angeles (27 brief hours), and that is what a vacation is supposed to be about.  I don’t consider going to Europe or visiting my parents or any other place that I have not been a “vacation, “ that is traveling.  Here are my quick shots of LA.  We stayed at a terrific B&B right at Hollywood Blvd. and Fairfax called The Hollywood B&B.  I totally recommend it   http://hollywoodbandb.com.

The pool in the backyard

Hanging by the pool

My feet at the pool

Arriving in LAX is HARSH at 5:30 am, after an overnight flight (well less than five hours), so we made a stop at Randy's Donuts.  BEST DONUTS EVER!

Randy's Donuts..YUM!

I also got a call from one of my good friends from High School.  He is pretty famous because he and his girlfriend Liza inherited a cell phone from one of Adam Sandler's pals.  It was all over the news..here is Bob..He is awesome! He was participating in a new reality pilot being taped for Animal Planet, so we tried, in vain to hook up

Bob in High School

Bob now, as a STAR!

So, for lack of anything better to do, we did a studio tour..Paramount Pictures.  Actually, it was pretty interesting..but we saw NOBODY famous, or even close. Oh well.

The Kid and I

LOVE THIS MOVIE!

And then the boys indulged me with a trip to the adjacent cemetery..Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Lots of interesting people buried here, its a super cool place, I could've wandered for hours..but we had 30 minutes.

Johnny Ramone is buried here!

There is a super cool Buddhist section..

Then we survived until lunchtime, and met, of course, friends that live in Denver, for lunch and we saw this cool old truck with a big ass surfboard. SO LA...

Hanging in Larchmont

Back to Kauai...

A vacation is when you can go to “that place” where you are compelled to do nothing, and if the spirit lifts you, you, oh, I don’t know, do whatever you damned well please.

It took me about five years to figure out that is what Kauai is to me.  It’s a vast canvas of gorgeous scenery that stares back at me and says, “breathe”, “do nothing,” “don’t check your email.”  I am generally good on the first two, the third, takes practice each time I arrive.  I have been arriving to the same shack on the beach for about ten years now.  Yep, this is the shack.  I am not giving you the link to this place because I don't want you honing in on my annual vacation time.

The shack

The New Traveling Companion

This year we introduced a new player to the mix, we always invite people to come join us, really, we say, we are going anyway, just come.  A few have taken us up, none have regretted their journey here, even when their luggage has become lost, sometimes, terminally.  I travel to Kauai with a back pack and carry on.  Life has gotten easier with kindles, a Hawaii Library Card for wi-fi and a washer and dryer.  So, besides our nephew Hayden, who was a godsend of endless friendship and carousing for our son, it was my new camera. Here he is up on a surfboard!

It’s not a particularly fancy camera, but it comes with two lenses, and when I received it for my birthday this year.  I wanted to take better pictures of my son playing sports, and now, it’s a frequent, nearly constant traveling companion.

Every morning when I would take my walk on the beach, catching the sun rising around 6:23 am, I had her with me.  We saw the most inspiring things…a turtle laying nesting and covering her eggs that first morning, crab condominiums rising on the beach before the tide has risen, the crabs scampering to the sea, as my looming shadow approached them, the thrilling sunrise, and the huge crashing waves.  Its very quiet at 6:23 am, but there is a lot going on at Maha’ulepu Beach.  If you want to know more about this gem, check out   http://www.malama-mahaulepu.org.

Crabs heading to the sea

Mama Honu laying eggs outside our house

Good morning crabby

Sunrise on the beach

I think of taking pictures as an evolution. I have always loved taking pictures, but when you start really taking photos of the small stuff, not the big landscape, its like you have settled into a different kind of place.  I first understood this when I was entrenched in scuba diving.  After 150 or so dives (plus or minus where you go), you pretty much have seen the “big stuff”, you are comfortable that nothing is going to rise out of the dark sea bottom and eat you, and if it does, oh well.  You have gotten over that need to explore what its like past the mythical 130’ ft (less fish, a bit of a buzz), dive with sharks, explore wrecks, German U-boats, and you have are tired of taking pictures of fish butts with a cheap ass camera. 

Before I was a diver, I didn’t understand bird watching.  Bird watchers have a bucket list.. a list of all the birds that can be found.  A few weeks ago in Slate there was a segment on this.. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/birders_the_central_park_effect_proves_that_jonathan_franzen_is_the_world_s_most_annoying_bird_watcher_.html

Scuba divers who are in it for the fish have a similar list/bible.  I have dive logs with hundreds of dives with not only the technical parts of my dive, but what fish I saw.  Sometimes its an exhaustive list, and sometimes, I would spend an entire dive just seeking out something elusive and rare, like a frogfish off of Bequia or Spanish Dancer catching a ride on the jet stream off of North Carolina.  It became not enough to see that elusive fish…you want to photograph it, so you can share that with everyone else who dives, and those who could care less.  So, entire tanks of air could be spent hoping an octopus would emerge from the coral, getting just that perfect shot of a queen angel fish, or capturing a Moorish Idol off the Hawaiian coast.  When people ask me what my biggest thrill was, it was probably diving with an unanticipated manta ray one night off of Little Cayman.  It was magical how she danced and did loops before us in the dusk, consuming plankton, putting on a ballet at 35’ below the surface for our dive lights. There is something about seeing nature like this that makes you feel not only awkward, but rather, useless.  I would post my pictures, but they are all on slides..like the ones you put in a carrousel.

Plane Landing..gotta go..

Well, the plane is about to land, so I am going to sign off.  Here are my brief thoughts about flying Virgin America..DO IT..Of course, they were a little effed up with our take off in Philly, but once you are in the air. It's like a dream come true. See those screens on the back of your chair?  That is an endless array of movies (not free but good!), and best of all, when you want something to drink or eat, you order it, and it shows up..in like 5 minutes or less.  Not when they feel like wandering around the cabin.  It was divine...

Food and Drinks truly at your fingertips!

And I saw this handsome devil in first class, my only celeb spotting, and it was on the plane back to Philly. Terrence Howard, Philly boy...looking good baby...Hello Philly!

Two Miles of Empty Beach...

Welcome to what will likely be a series of blogs that will do nothing but reaffirm your belief that I am a somewhat spoiled, over indulged 1%’er with first world problems. But I write what I know about, and so should you.

We arrived on this little slice of heaven called Kauai yesterday after spending a glorious weekend in the East Bay area with my friends Laura and Steve.

Cal Berkeley. You can buy a sweatshirt even if you can’t get in..

Here is a picture of them that I took from the hills above Berkeley.

We went there on our Saturday morning jaunt because I had to have some type of college swag that lets people think that I am bright enough to go to a school like Cal Berkeley when I actually went to Penn State and Temple. Well, what I really needed was a snazzy sweatshirt and why not kill two birds with one stone Plus, my husband and son wanted nothing to do with going there with us…Whatever.

I have told you about Laura before, and her husband is a secret agent for the government. I am not sure I can tell you that or not..so don’t tell people I told you.  One of the things I like best about Laura is that she let’s me sit in the front seat when we drive with Steve. That is a good thing, because, well, he drives like I do. We both agree that most people driving should not be on the road, except us.

So Steve graciously drove, and I navigated and we made it to Berkeley on a glorious morning. The boys were busy breaking into various private golf clubs before picking up our nephew from the airport.

We did everything one expects you to do in Berkeley, which includes, but is not limited to…get a little lost, express shock at the multitude of homeless people, buy swag and eat Indian food.  We had this great lunch at House of Curry..just off Telegraph near the Greek joint. Slow, but wonderful. I checked in there on Yelp if you need more details.

I bought a very sporty number, a blue zip up Cal jacket that would come in handy later when we dined on the waterfront in Sausalito. Here is a picture of Laura and I, notice my obnoxious untamed mane covering up her lovely face. That is another reason she is great, she could care less about how I look or if my hair gets in the way of her beautiful face. She knew me when I didn’t comb my hair, wore ratty sweatshirts and didn’t use deodorant.

Well, we may not be rocket scientists, but I can promise you one thing we all learned during our trip to Berkeley…one is required to drive a Prius to live there. Jesus, Mary and Batman there were a million of those ghastly cars there. Everyone driving around quietly, looking morally superior..we were in a 14 year old Volvo wagon that Steve and Laura bought IN SWEDEN…its electric blue and probably has been to more Dead shows than all the Prius.es.es.es…(we are trying to figure out the proper plural for Prius..we cannot come to a final answer..perhaps there is none, but since its highly unlikely I will ever have one or two of them its not a big issue. Below is me me just pointing out the obvious…if you look closely you will see I am representing Philly with my Flyers shirt on..

For future reference I will use Priae as my plural for Prius. Capeesh?

Fast forward…dinner in Sausalito…great views, brutal parking and a quick drink with my old beach mate Tracey and her man Rodney at Wellington’s. We had dinner at Salito’s, which despite mixed Yelp reviews (yes, yes, I checked in there too), was just fine; especially since I was not the person who got the whole tray of drinks spilled on her by the poor waitress…


If its Sunday, it must be Stanford..

We were able to safely retrieve our nephew and he willingly (well, had no choice) but to join us on our journey south to Palo Alto. We enticed him with a promised trip to In-N-Out Burger and well, he had no other choice. I am okay with TJ going to Stanford, then I can visit him and Laura all the time.

Clearly, Stanford is the country club of universities. That place was so pristine and clean and amazing that, well, I felt rather unattractive. Its like, the un-Berkley. Here are the guys letting me take their picture. It was nice of them to let me do that.

I would show you a picture of TJ and I, but frankly, I was not wearing my Wonderbra – so I am not pleased with how I looked. I did, however, buy a very nice white Stanford shirt, which will come in handy when I play squash in the fall. People will wonder, “Is it possible that she played squash in college at Stanford?”

Okay, here it is, I made it small so I look smaller.

After catching up with a former colleague for lunch at Calafia Café (while the boys ate at In-N-Out Burger) – oh, I did not Yelp, not professional… we decided that rather than do the San Fran thing, that we would go down to Half Moon Bay and do the Mavericks thing..

Mavericks..from the Shore

The Arms family cannot surf, Powell used to before me, I know this because there has been a surf board in our basement for 16 years.

We are, however, huge fans of surfing movies, not just Lilo and Stitch…we love all those surf movies..Riding Giants, Step into the Liquid…you get the picture. We also like to read books about that stuff. I highly recommend the book, “The Wave.” It came out last year, trust me on this one.

So as we wound over the mountains on Rt. 92, the temperature dropped 25 degrees, the fog and clouds rolled in and the Priae disappeared, and were replaced by dudes with pick up trucks. After a fairly vomit inducing ride to the ocean we were greeted by a surfer’s worst dream…a flat sea. But that was okay, we were staying on solid ground.

So we headed out to Pillar Point; which is the jumping off spot to head out to Mavericks. Below is a picture of the memorial set up for Mark Foo. He is a famous surfer who died surfing Mavericks on December 23, 1994. This is a really dangerous place – another surfer, this one from down the road in Kalaheo, Sion Milosky died there in March 2011.

Also according to Wikipedia, Gerard Butler almost died there while filming a movie  called Chasing Mavericks. Its coming out in the fall, and it will join the Arms Family Surfing Film collection.

The picture below pretty much sums up Mavericks.

Dangerous place for kids

Kids being DangerouS

I am pretty sure my brother and his wife will no longer let me take their son on vacation after tempting him with Stanford, climbing on dangerous jetties and feeding him In-N-Out Burgers.  We also made a quick stop at the famous Mavericks surf shop..and now I have a Mavericks Invitational Tee Shirt..girl cut!


Life is an upgrade waiting to happen..

I made an investment in my happiness on our day of travel, I upgraded my husband and I to first class. It was not expensive, it gave the boys a chance to sit together and watch movies on the ipad and for us to having meaningful adult dialogue.

Bahh haa haa..I crack myself up. Powell was dead to the universe before the plane took off.

But I had what one could only classify as an indulgent breakfast, a cheese omelet covered with pulled kalua pig..Yep, who needs bacon when you can have pig Hawaiian style for breakfast. Being that it was 7:20 am – I did not have a drink with my meal. I realize it was tea time in London, but, a girl has to have some rules.

The flight was a non-event, and being the over privileged girl that I am, I always know what side of the plane to sit on so I can see the beach house as we come in for the landing (the right side).

It was a pretty boring arrival in Kauai…and that is how we like it.


Boobs and Sharks

I am going to go a little rogue here and steal from my husband’s facebook post. This is his eyewitness account..

“Wow, the first few hours in Kauai have been exciting. And the topless girl on beach isn’t even the highlight.

There were two surfers in the water and I was in the surf with TJ and Hayden. So, three people on the beach, one topless, but tough to make out how old. Five in the water. (He is a numbers guy).

The two surfers, a guy and girl, get out of the water in a hurry and wave us out. He has been bitten in the foot by something, probably a small shark.

So surfer girl runs a mile to get their truck (Pam note- up a big hill!) to evacuate the dude. The topless girl now has her cover up on and has a towel around the guy’s foot. Pam and the boys are grabbing the first aid kit from the house.

So we apply peroxide and pressure and the boys help get the surfer guy up the beach to the truck his girlfriend (Pam note – what a cool chick) just brought.

Turns out the topless girl is a redhead from Seattle and about 25 years old.”

Well, that pretty much sums up yesterday.

Of course, here is why I named this post Two Miles of Beach…

This is dead in front of our house. She was actually sitting on the grass. Really, honey, two miles of empty beach and you sit right in front of the house?

Cannot wait to see what is awaiting us when we get to see the Olympic coverage 12 hours after it happened…Shhh..don’t tell me.

PS..the Flyin’ Hawaiian and Let’s Eat

I was a little bummed to hear about the trades of Shane Victorino (a local brudda from Maui) and Hunter Pence – to our west coast rivals. Life is sweet out there. I hope the Giants get you a Prius, Hunter, and I hope the Dodgers love you as much as we did, Shane.

Both class acts…

Crap, there are literally 20 people on the beach, I should just be in New Jersey if this keeps up.