Unexpected day; Grace abounds

I never would've predicted today to be the way it ended up. Before I went to sleep last night I thought to myself it will be just another day off - sleeping in, passing time until my hubby wakes up before he goes to work.

Um, no...

I woke up to a call about work. My boss is still out of town and there are associates of hers helping out with store-runs for supplies. We have had the usual trouble of getting everyone at the store participating in making lists, and I am only one woman (now I really know how my boss feels). Long story short, one person was apparently frustrated that they were going to the store so often so abruptly ended our conversation after receiving a call from my co-workers who were on the clock after he had already left the store. I text soon after that I sensed the irritation but it was unnecessary as we can go to the store ourselves if it's not convenient for him. He never replied as to whether or not he was getting all our stuff so I waited...

...in the mean time...

I went to the pool deck to check my messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc, and chill out. Turns out I wasn't going to pick my friend up from the airport later as planned, since she didn't make the flight. Ok, that's no problem. Then I see a text from an old friend, long since out of touch. We've recently (as well as off and on) been messaging on Facebook and just exchanged numbers. We ended up texting for a bit then talking on the phone for over an hour, catching up and filling in the gaps. What timing; I needed that. I hope we really keep in touch, and keep the laughs going. We're both nuts and it just works.

...back to the store...

So finally I text to inquire as to whether our supplies are coming or not - we just needed to know. I end up running to the store, which was fine, I needed some things for home anyways. Sad to say, it was the first time I drove to and shopped at Safeway by myself since we moved here. Yeah, I know. Anyways, I called my boss, which I've been trying to avoid, to verify what I should get and what I should let the store go without for possibly a day. She graciously assisted me while on her vacation and I happily delivered the goods.

...oh yeah, the airport...

Turns out the boxes for my friend that is moving here did make it on the plane, so we needed to eat and head there before J had to go to work, with time to stop back here so he can still help drop off the boxes. Long story short, we did it. Got some awesome fish from Nico's just as they were closing, and got the boxes back to our apartment with plenty of time to cuddle and say a long goodbye. I love happy endings!

~

The theme for the day is GRACE. I didn't not receive or show much grace in the morning regarding work inventory, for which I should probably apologize later to the co-workers I vented to, lol. Grace did abound throughout the rest of the day: as my friend and I reunited (very important to me), as my boss took time from her and her hubby's time to ease my mind, as my honey used his pre-work time to help me do a favor for my friend (very excited she's moving here), as the cooks at Nico's stayed open 10 minutes longer to fry our fish, and as God helps me realize daily that I am married to the perfect man for me. ♥

[Pic: Diamond Head 1/30/10 from Ali'i Kai Catamaran]

The last weekend in August

My hubby had a surprise for me last Saturday and Sunday; he was gonna take me somewhere he'd gone before, but knew it would be a new experience for me.

All I knew was that we were headed towards the North Shore. I was super excited until I realized that there was no SD card in my camera! Nooooooooo! So we stopped in Hale'iwa town to pick up our 2GB of memory to capture the days events.

[Pic, top: famous Hale'iwa sign / Pic, below: cop on an ATV on thefamous Hale'iwa bridge]

Hale'iwa was busy as ever with tourists. And the roads seemed a little backed up, but we attributed it to tourism and slowly made our way to our goal destination...Waimea Valley.

This is where you can walk through about a kilometer of preserved Hawaiian native plants. There are rare birds, and at the end of the hike you get to see Waimea Falls. Here are some of the pics we took along the way...

We didn't swim because the falls was low, and the water seemed a little stale murkier than he remembered, so maybe next time. It was a nice hike; flat, not too long both-ways, not too crowded. We didn't get to see the endangered bird that lives there, the 'alae 'ua (Hawaiian moorhen), but we saw that pekake (peacock) and chickens of course, and a few others. The highlight of course was waiting for hubby to walk all the way back to the falls to find the car keys - oh boy.

On our way back, we stopped in Hale'iwa again for some dinner at Cholo's Mexican Restaurant. It was either that or the Thai food truck, which I'll have to wait for. I was craving some goooood Mexican food for sure. The were out of tamales, so I got fish tacos (ahi). It can be hit or miss with fish tacos, but they were loaded, very yummy. Plus, they had a few hot sauces I had never tried. Some burned, some didn't, but it was all good. We checked out a little surf museum and several surf shops, then headed to Sunset Beach Park to watch...the sunset. (haha)

We were shocked to see the swells happening - it's still summer! Not sure why, but there were freak swells crackin' and we watched for at least an hour, until the sun was gone. We don't even have a rack on our car to bring the boards, but we wished were good enough to surf there in the first place...someday! That will be one of our goals while living here.

The sunset was gorgeous, but the ending was a bit stifled by some clouds on the horizon, as usual. Still got some great pics and even some with surfer silhouettes - nice.

One last look...

...and then we headed home.

That was Saturday. Here is Sunday; more simple, but still awesome:

Went to our new church, met a couple people that seemed interested in actually seeing us to say hi again some other time (I dunno, just got that vibe). Then we went grocery shopping and got all the goods at Safeway. Had some good eats at home, then took a nap. THEN we got ready to go SURFING. Geared up with board shorts and SPF 85, we grabbed our boards and headed to Waikiki. We were ready to go! But the waves were not. It was completely flat!!

We didn't let the moment go: we bought some extra cheap goggles and paddled out to do some "diving" and look at the reef and fishes just off shore. That was a lot of fun. When the waves aren't coming in so constant, you can see everything down there. Just FYI, we did find Nemo. (wakka wakka)

Some waves started to pick up (about 2-footers), since the tide comes in right after sunset. So as the sun was setting, we joined the dedicated surfers who had been out for hours catching what they could. I caught a lot of those little waves and stood up every time with the pink and orange sky behind me.

To satisfy our newly grown appetites, we grabbed some dinner at the burger joint my boss also owns, called Teddy's Bigger Burgers in Waikiki. Heard it was really good, even back in Washington, but we put them to the test ourselves and boy did they passed. Really really good burgers; we'll be back for sure! Of all the burgers we've had here so far, Teddy's has been the best by far.

We decided to walk around the block since my honey at a double 9-oz patty burger - yeah, yikes. We stopped at a part of the beach where Indiana Jones was playing at an outdoor theater screen. So awesome! Wasn't a fan of the movie, but it was cool to sit in the sand under the stars and moon with all those people, just watchin' a movie. Then we rented one on our own, and it was all a perfect end to a perfect day.

Corny, I know. And much longer than I thought it would be! It was like two full days of being on a date with my husband; we don't get a lot of those opportunities, but now we'll be looking for them.