It's Monday! Yesterday was Sunday and it was great. My dear friend, Molly Gorsline, goes to school at UHM down in Honolulu, and her parents are here this week visiting. They wanted to see the North Shore and they picked me up on the way! From there we hit Haleiwa, where we devoured some delicious acai bowls. This was late morning. We all got larges, which fed us till dinner time. Huge. Next we hit Waimea and lounged in the sun and rain... It was truly a mix of Hawaii and Washington, with lukewarm water and sun interrupted by intermittent rain showers that were quite chilling. Mostly though, it was warm. Molly turned me on to the beautiful activity of shell collecting! It's so fun! I can't wait to camp on the beach and find all kinds of gorgeous shells the next morning.
We hung out for a good while at Waimea before heading back early so Molly could study for midterms. It was such a nice day being able to see and spend time with friend from home in a completely different place. Thank you Steve & Janet!
I'm all over the place with this post. Let me tell you about LAST Monday before I share about this one. Last Monday, a small chunk of our STN ohana set out on yet another hitch hiking adventure to the North Shore. Not to worry, I only ever hitch hike if there are guys with us now. This time we were picked up by my wannabe self in male form. His name was Gregg and when we climbed into the back of his old beater van, we realized we were sitting on his bed. He was truly a beach bum extraordinaire. He was brown from the sun, driving shirtless with his wispy, sun-bleached curls flowing in the wind, and in his van he had two surfboards, a bike, an electric guitar, a little candle and a dream catcher. Oh, and a mattress with some bedding. I'm in love with his life. He does actually have a house somewhere on the west side, but when there's good swells, he just sleeps in his car on North Shore. I was jazzed.
We got to our destination, Ehukai, where we thought we were meeting friends. Turns out they were way down at Sunset. We hung out for a while, then walked and hitched down to the gang at Kaki's, near Sunset. Everyone was there. Most of our internship group ended up there, plus some staff. We had bbq, wave watchin' and sun bathin'. The waves were absolutely WILD that day. The swell was big and the waves were beating the shore so hard, it created a ridge where huge waves would crash and flow over the lip into a little reservoir. We would lay on our stomachs and putter around the little reservoir when we wanted to swim, then stand on the ridge to watch the waves. They were unreal. Puget Sounders, you know the only waves we ever see are the 1/2 footers caused by the wake of the ferry. This was nuts. It sounded like violent thunder and was almost scary to watch how powerful it really was, yet at the same time it was so incredibly beautiful. You couldn't take your eyes away. Mike, our photographer here, came and wanted us to help him with sort of an optical illusion. He had us stand, safely on the ridge, in front of the waves while he stood far behind with his camera zoomed in. This made it so you couldn't see the steep slope where the waves would crash between us and the ocean. It looked like we were almost right in front of the massive waves. So cool. It was one of my favorite beach days, ever.
A few days later, we saw we'd made the news. Some of you may have seen this on my facebook. One of our staffers, Pypyr, was out body boarding the next morning, and ended up helping rescue two people who had gotten swept in the waves and tossed around the shore break. Pypyr and the lifeguards went and got them out of there. They were pretty out of it, but safe, praise God.
The rescue made the news and they interviewed a lady who had been there taking photos. She had apparently also been there the night before, when all of us were. She told the interviewer about the rescue and how dangerous it was out there. She went on about how there were men and women there, taking photos dangerously close to the waves like it was nothing. Babies in diapers and irresponsible people, she couldn't save them all! I forget what all she said, but you can watch it (http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/category/240193/new-video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=7825080#.UHkoKofaIWE.facebook). She did the same thing Mike did to make it look true. Rude. We're all jazzed to have made the news anyway.
As for today, it was our day off again (Sundays and Mondays). A group of us hitched to Haleiwa, where we grabbed acai bowls and rented boards. Then we headed down the road, past the park where we have Once-A-Month Church, to Pua'ena Point. I didn't catch a wave, but I was close. This was my first go since I've been here, and since I tried 3 years ago in Seaside, Oregon. That was my first and only try, and though I got up a couple times then, I'm having to start back at the bottom now. Can't wait for Surf Outreach, where we get lessons every week!
After surfing for a few hours, we hitched to Waimea to meet up with some others. I napped, then we left. It's been a decent Monday. Time for bed. Tomorrow's fasting day and later, all night prayer! I'll tell you about it tomorrow, maybe Wednesday. Till then!
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