Wednesday, December 31, 2008

How (not) to win friends and influence people

We had an interesting day today.

Nathan is taking some online classes, and one of his professors is vacationing in Hawaii this week. So today, we met up with him and his wife to spend a little time in the ocean. We wanted to entertain and impress them, so we took them up to the North Shore for a little diving.

The surf report said the waves were way down on the North Shore. Shark's Cove looked a little rough, so we decided to stop at Waimea Bay. One of my most favorite spots. I've talked about this beach before.

Unfortunately it was raining when we got out of the car. And the water was murky because of all the rain! we've had. (It is raining right now, by the way.)

Even though we had some rain, it wasn't too cold to have fun at the beach. But the water was junk! I couldn't see anything. Sometimes I couldn't even see the fins of my swim buddy.

We made our way across the bay and found some rocks with a bit of coral and fish. Whew, I was afraid we would only see leaves and sticks. We watched the fish for a good long while - humu-humu's, convict tang, parrot fish, a cornet fish, and more. Then we watched some crazy people jumping off the big rocks.

While floating on my back, I saw one young girl watching for the right moment to jump in. She let a few waves pass by, waving her arms around like she was going to go for it, but then chickening out at the last minute. She finally stepped off the rock as a wave passed. yikes. Watching the jumpers, made me feel a little sea sick.

After all our water fun, it really started raining. Along with some impressive thunder and lightening. I was wet and cold and ready to go. Unfortunately we made a sad (and embarrassing) discovery as we were rinsing off the equipment. We realized we had locked the keys in the car.

The cell phone was in the car, too.

I had to walk over to the life guard station and climb up the stairs, in the rain, and ask for help. Oh, the humiliation.... There were a lot of life guards.... Luckily I was able to phone a friend. The terrific Mrs. J went by our house, got our spare keys, and drove them out to us. Sorry Mrs. J! The life guards kindly pointed out that locking the keys in the car is better than losing them in the sand or the ocean.... maybe....

We stood in the rain a while longer as we waited to be rescued. (Hurray for Mrs. J) Then we went to lunch. But it was just a little too chilly to stop for shave ice. That was a shame. And though we were all a little wet, it was still a nice lunch. The conversation was fun, even if the diving was a little bit of a downer. (get it? diving....downer....I crack myself up!)

We returned the good prof and wife to their downtown Inn (by way of a muddy detour at the Birthing Stones, and a chance encounter with a smelly homeless man.) It was a really odd day.

I hope our little misadventure won't affect Nathan's grades!

ps - christmas decorations are still up...

pps - Happy New Year!

ppps - I hope it's not so rainy at Bellows this afternoon. And no jelly fish, either.

10 comments:

tootie said...

I think you and your hubby deserve at least an A for effort! And I think that any day in Hawaii is still a good day :)

Happy 2009!

Mary said...

Wendy, did we see any of that professor's lectures while we were there? That's cool you hung out with one of Nathan's teachers, but the key incident would be so embarrassing! Yay for a helpful friend!

By the way, we never went to the birthing rocks - I missed my chance to get some good fertility vibes out there. Darn :)

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of the time when I locked the keys in the house when I was going to pick up some missionarys I was supose to feed dinner to. I had to call a lock smith to come. Dinner was over cooked. And my neighbor was sweet enough to go pick up the missionarys. Who ended up sitting on my porch of an hour while we waited for a lock smith only to come.

Anonymous said...

PS....Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of "locked keys" in the car... I took some christmas stuff to Lori at school the other day & our little Jack Russell came along for the ride. I so smartly left the dog & the keys in the truck while I helped Lori only to hear the door lock being stepped on by the dog as I turned to get in the truck to go back home(=
TJ

Unknown said...

Doh! It was still a day in paradise, how could they complain?

Mary Peterson said...

The professor must have liked Nathan in the first place to even want to visit with him on his vacation. Don't sweat it! It is crazy how sometimes things don't work out the way that we want them to. I'm sure they had a good time anyways. Happy New Year!!!

Unknown said...

sounds like fun to me! It rains here but it is COLD!

Anonymous said...

oh, to be on a beach right now...even a rainy one...without keys...heaven!
Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Hurray for mrs j! Mr j is a lucky man!