Ya know those pictures you see being sold at the mall... usually like a waterfall or something and they light up and the water looks like its moving? Ya, Kev sells those at the mall now. It's a seasonal job until the new year when he starts at Mandara Spa at the Hilton Hawaiian Village! Carly has been doing lots of training for CARE Hawaii getting ready for her "real job" which will also kick in upon return from X-mas.

Aside from the mundane work stuff, the last few weeks have been kinda rainy and slow. But we still find a few things to occupy our time.

We hosted another CouchSurfer named Dave. He's from Illinois and he's about 1/3 of the way through a tour around the world. Started in Europe, made his way west, and is continuing on to New Zealand & Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

While he was here we drove up to the North Shore to catch some of the World Cup of Surfing. The surf was UP with crazy looking waves measureing 12-16 feet! There were tons of photographers swarming the beach but it was Dave who took a "front-page-of-the-sports-section" quality picture of one of the best female surfers in the world being pulled out of the water after suffering bruised ribs. (click to see her face up close--painful)

We then continued down through the center of O'ahu stopping at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, continuing through Honolulu enjoying the local hoiday decorations and finishing up with an authentic Hawaiian dinner at our FAVORITE restaurant, Ono.

The next day we hiked to the top of Diamond Head.

While we were up there, an elderly Japanese woman collapsed from the heat. Kev's three semesters of Japanese in college immediately kicked in and while he helped lower her to the ground gently he was heard to yell "does anyone speak English?!"

A fireman helped revive her a bit and we notified some park empoyees of the incident and they called 911. A fire truck, EMT, ambulance, rescue boat in tow, and helicopter showed up to save the 100 lb. victim.

Dave showed us a neat little hidden gem... a tunnel under the highway that leads to a little spot with a cool view of the waves crashing on the rock.

We got him safely to the airport and tried to take advantage of our days off regardless of the weather... we planned a hike down the Pali trail (formerly the only route from Kailua to Town) It was so foggy there was virtually no view, Kev started to not feel well about halfway down just as the trail seemed to disappear from landslides and erosion. We turned around and the hike back up was slippery and Kev's wardrobe suffered a devastating casualty.

The green cargo shorts served him well for many years.

It was still a pretty cool trail and is DEFINITELY one we'll return to on a clear, more dry day. Kinda takes you back in time.

ONE MORE WEEK TIL WE RETURN FOR SOME SNOW, HOT COCOA, PIZZA, BAGELS, DINERS, and....OH YEAH, OUR FAMILIES!!! :)