Fun in the Sun, part 2

Aloha friends and family,

Apologies for the delay between blog posts. I started this blog with the idea that I was only going to be here until March 1, when my Airbnb in Waikiki ended and I was scheduled to fly home to Hartford, CT. In my last blog post I talked about how I decided to extend my stay since I felt like my time had gone too quickly, and writing a few months later in mid-June, I feel the same way: I’m still very much loving it out here.

In fact, a couple Friday nights ago I was at Fort DeRussy Beach in Waikiki in almost the exact same spot I went just hours after I first landed here on January 15. I went to the beach right before sunset that day, and I still remember being awestruck at how beautiful everything was. The sun was just beginning to set over the Hilton lagoon and the palm trees were so lush and colorful in the golden hour light. It was characteristically warm out, with the temperature in the upper 70s, which was a much-appreciated change from the frigid weather of New England. Being in this divinely beautiful place in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles from home felt like a dream. It was such an enchanted feeling to be here and at the beginning of an adventure. But mixed in with my excitement were feelings of nervousness and uncertainty. I’d never traveled to a new place on my own before, so I wasn’t sure how or if I’d make friends, if I’d get homesick, or what I would even do with my time here. I looked around and felt tinges of loneliness and anxiety as I saw groups of people, wondering if I’d made a mistake leaving my community of friends and family on the East Coast and whether I’d be able to recreate that sense of community out here. I was reflecting on those feelings as I sat on the beach watching fireworks and having a potluck birthday dinner, surrounded by friends, some of whom I’ve become surprisingly close with in the short time I’ve been here.

It was a happy moment to realize that I have people I consider friends and groups that feel like communities out here. My experience now is pretty different from when I first arrived. I never felt a sudden change, but gradually I’ve become more integrated with various friend groups. Although stressful at times, I’ve quite enjoyed the process of making new friends. Since I started from nothing in terms of social connections, I was forced to branch out and try to make friends wherever I could. I haven’t had to do this in a long time, and it’s been fun to have friends I hang out with individually for certain activities like surfing, some I make more formal plans with to do things like rent a car and drive around the island, some I see regularly because they’re a part of the extensive volleyball social network, and others still who I can hang out with casually for a board game night. In previous places I’ve lived, especially in college and high school, I felt like I had more regular groups of friends I’d hang out with almost all the time and fewer people who I would hang out with outside of my bigger groups of friends.

Here are some pictures of me and some of my friends I’ve made in Hawaii. This one is from the waterfall at the end of the Waimea Falls trail on North Shore. Actually, two of my friends in this photo were just visiting (Olivia, taking the picture, is from LA and Paul is from Germany) but we met at volleyball and ended up hanging out several times during the week they were here.

This photo is from the summit of the Pink Pillbox hike on the west side of the island. These are my friends Taruna, Lizzie, and Cyrus. I met Lizzie through volleyball and through her Cyrus, her boyfriend, and Taruna at one of the potlucks she regularly organizes.

One last musing I had about friendships, community and place is the importance of place. That was what brought me out here originally; I wanted to go somewhere warm where I could soak up sunshine since my lease was ending in Maine and New England winters are cold and dark. Even though I didn’t know anybody out here in the beginning, I still had a great time. I probably would’ve had a better time if I’d had friends the whole time and I’m sure I would’ve appreciated an honest belly laugh during those early days, but I was surprised at how much fun I was still having and how happy I was. Maybe it was the sense of adventure and freedom that excited me because only rarely did I have significant feelings of loneliness and accompanying sadness. The reason I bring this up is because I feel like the conventional wisdom is that people and the connections we form matter the most. I think this is still true, especially when I think about the most meaningful relationships in my life with family and close friends. But I was surprised at how much place matters too. I feel sustained and happy out here from being in the sun and ocean every day. They seem like simple things, but I’ve been surprised at how much and consistently they affect my mood and keep me feeling great and happy. It’s made me appreciate place more than I had in the past.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me as I air some of my more philosophical thoughts. I’ll try to keep the rest of this post a little lighter with more pictures and details of the adventures I’ve had, although I won’t be as meticulous or thorough with all the things that have happened since I’ll be covering a window of three months in this post, instead of the usual one to two weeks in my earlier posts.

Since I last wrote in March, I’ve continued to enjoy surfing and beach volleyball plenty. I still don’t have any footage of myself unfortunately, but I can comfortably get up on waves here on the south shore on all but the biggest days where they get up past 6-8 feet. Most days in the summer the waves are around 2-4 feet, which is a fun size for practicing form while still getting a decent ride. Beach volleyball has also been a ton of fun. I typically play 6 vs. 6 (6’s) or 4 vs. 4 (4’s). I like 4’s better since there’s more running around and each player gets to touch the ball more often. It also forces me to make better passes and so I think I improve more quickly playing 4’s. I’ve mixed in some doubles, but the doubles players out here are usually elite and I’m not quite at that level yet. Besides the competition, I love volleyball as an avenue for making friends. I've met most of my clsoe friends out here through volleyball and I keep meeting new people every week since the group is so large and new people, both tourists and residents, come up and join all the time.

Aside from surfing and volleyball, I go on hikes from time to time and travel around the island with friends on some weekends. I have a moped, which is great for getting around town but limiting when trying to go far away, so I almost always say yes if a friend with a car invites me on some adventure.

Some of the popular places to go are the windward beaches, which are more local and less crowded than the beaches in Waikiki and Ala Moana and have the finest sand and bluest water, the west side beaches for snorkeling, or the North Shore, which has some of the best views on the island and a much more laid-back lifestyle where everyone goes about their days more slowly and seems to have fewer worries.

One notable adventure recently was when my friend Casey from Portland came to visit the island and we took her friend’s car and drove to Kailua Beach to rent kayaks and paddle out to the Mokes, which are some islands about a 45 to 60-minute paddle from the beach.

Only one of the islands is open for exploration, so we disembarked there and walked around. The island is small enough that we did a full circle in about an hour and found the cliff jumping spot on the back side of the island. I only jumped from a height of 10-15 feet, but I’ve seen videos of people climbing as high as the rocks go and jumping from about 80 feet.

After kayaking to the Mokes we got food and ate by a remote spot en route to the North Shore called Kalae’o’io Beach. We enjoyed our food and the serenity there and then did a quick but challenging hike called Crouching Lion. It was only a quarter mile, but almost straight up so we got some nice views of the windward coast from the top.

After the hike we treated ourselves by relaxing on Sunset Beach on the North Shore. It was a solid day of activity and we covered a good chunk of the island.

In terms of off-island adventures, in April I took a trip to the mainland and saw friends in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Since this blog is primarily about living out in Hawaii, I won’t go into too much detail, but it was really great seeing some of my closest friends from college. In Salt Lake City, I visited three of my friends from Bowdoin that live there (Rowan, Theo, and Nico), and then another Bowdoin friend (Noah) and two friends from Portland (Ali and Louisa) flew in, so we had a good group of us and it was so fun to see all of them. We did some skiing, hiking, swimming in thermal baths, and lounging in the backyard in the beautiful weather. One thing Salt Lake City made me realize was that I miss the long summer days that most of the mainland, especially in the north, experiences. Since Hawaii is much closer to the equator, the difference between sunset on December 21 and June 21 is barely more than an hour (since Hawaii also doesn’t do daylight savings) compared to the 4+ hour change throughout the year I’d see in Maine or Connecticut. The sun was setting close to 8pm in Salt Lake City and it was a real treat to have that much light to go out and do things later in the day.

After Salt Lake City, I visited two more of my Bowdoin friends, Will and Jack, in San Francisco. I only had a weekend there but I had such a blast. We packed a lot of activity into one weekend, going to a concert for a band called the Vista Kicks, checking out different parks, playing pickleball and Spikeball, and exploring Chinatown. For some reason I had negative associations with San Francisco going into the weekend, but my time there was delightful and I was very impressed with the city. Parts of Golden Gate Park even reminded me of Hawaii, with the steep forested cliffs plunging into the ocean.

We also stopped at an arcade and I broke the record on not one, but all two, of the basketball games and then broke my previous record after that, all on only four attempts, and I don’t know if there’s anything I can do that will make my dad prouder than that.

All told, I was away from Hawaii for ten days before coming back. It was amazing to see friends, but I was also happy to return to beautiful Hawaii. Part of the reason for that was that I was looking forward to my friend Owen from Avon, CT visiting, which I’ll write about in a separate blog post.

That’s it for now, folks. I’m continuing to enjoy life out here but I certainly miss all your familiar faces back home. As of now, it’s looking like I’ll be here for the foreseeable future, so please reach out to me if you have any interest in visiting! The only thing is I can’t promise you won’t also fall in love with the island and not want to leave, so proceed at your own risk. Thanks all for reading!