day two hundred and twelve

gaaah once again i have let this blog slip a bit. but 'tis ok because of all the updating that's about to go down. first, and this happened a while ago, i went to another pro sports game (#36). my boss is a huge mariners fan so he took us all out to the ballgame to drink, eat lots of stadium fare, and, you know, bond. it was awesome both to get half a day off and to get on the jumbo-tron - TWICE. true, the game was sparsely attended, but we still danced our butts off to earn a spot on that screen and we were proud nonetheless. plus, they finally brought griffey out in the bottom of the ninth to hit the game-winning drive down right field. exciting!

mariners win! that blue sleeve belongs to me. this picture belongs to mina's iphone.

like i said!

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now for the real hotness. kyle and i recently met some friends for one amazing week on hawaiian's northern-most island, kauai. when we first discovered the opportunity to go, we decided it would take the place of our seaplane trip, which would be put on hold. in the meantime, to make it up to both me and the list, kyle rented a harley and drove us all around the island for a day and a half (#12). i absolutely loved it - hands down my favorite list activity so far, and maybe the most exhilarating thing i've ever done. kyle's had his motorcycle license for a while, and now i'm totally inspired to at least look into getting mine.

our sweet ride

one of the first places we took the bike to - waimea canyon

and the very next stop

scenic point along the backroads of lihue

ahhhhhh so cool

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the cabana we stayed at also had four beach cruisers, which helped me take care of my bicycle riding goal (#76). we hopped on the two prettiest ones and took a little trip around princeville, mostly through the gorgeous golf course just across the way. i was a little rusty at first (turns out taking weekly spin classes doesn't really do anything for your actual bike skills), but i was cruising just fine when we got caught in a downpour that came on too fast to escape it. once it calmed down we hopped back on and took some pictures of our mean tricks.

sweet moves!

totally awesome!

until i sort of fell off of it

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finally, after conducting some research on things worth doing in kauai, we decided we could not leave without taking a ride with birds of paradise - on power hang gliders, that is. we got up super early to drive more than halfway around the island to meet our pilot for an early morning flight. after suiting up and getting a brief lesson in how the thing works, we were up! the views were stunning; seeing the shape of the island against the bright blue water from the air was breathtaking. plus i saw a freakin' rainbow while i was up there! it could not have been more worth it.

suited up and ready to fly


lining up on the runway

view of the kauai coffee fields - that's my plaid shoe

as soon as i landed, kyle was ready to go up for his own thirty minute session the pilot took tons of awesome shots from the air, which i had no qualms about dropping some extra cash to get burned onto a dvd. while taking a ride in a power hang glider is not on my list, taking a ride in a seaplane is, and these are similar enough (both in nature and in price) that i'm gonna go ahead and count that task as completed (#16). there's a good chance i'll still get into a sea plane before my 1001 days are up, but since the point of this exercise is to experience life more fully (not necessarily to stick so stringently to the rules i made for myself), this more than hits the mark.

the rainbow was even more vivid in person

another view of the rainbow - i still don't understand how those things work

i'm steering! and squinting! they recommended i take my shades off.

but he got to keep his somehow? whatever - look how high we got!

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