Jellyfish Sunrise

Hello all!

I'm writing from an internet cafe in Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii!

We've been on the island since Friday afternoon, and have had quite a mix of experiences since!

At this moment, the experiences that come to the surface for me are unfortunately the negative ones, though there have also been many lovely ones. We're camping in a rural area on the Windward Coast, which is really lovely. We're *right* next to the ocean - WINDY, but beautiful.
We stupidly forgot to leave the rental car outside the campsite gates this morning, and since they are locked from 7pm to 7am (and 24 hour security apparently does NOT mean that someone is actually awake at 4:30am, and they are VERY cranky and threaten to throw you out of the park if you wake them up at that hour), we missed our lovely plan (and our $200) for our Dolphin-swimming sailing/snorkeling adventure tour with Wild Side Specialty Tours that left from the other side of the island at 6:30am. Serious, serious bummer.

Even worse, though, is the feeling that we are everyone's worst Clueless Demanding Mainlander Urban Tourist Nightmare. We keep inadvertently breaking campground rules and not understanding the way things work in the country. The only thing I can say for us is that there are probably many people who fit this description who are also mean and unapologetic, which is certainly not us. Our problem is just that we don't get it.

So we decided on an urban adventure today. We do feel dorky, since we're dressed more for the country and don't exactly *blend*, but it's a bit comforting to be back in a city where we understand the culture at least a *little bit* better.

But we are still reeling a bit. We're definitely going to spend some time on the beach today, hopefully before it gets horribly crowded.

I definitely need to mention how lovely most of the people here have been and how unbelievably stunning the scenery is. We've been scarfing down local bananas and avacadoes (avacadoes that are sweeter than what we get at home, and *juicy*). We found a truly fantastic vegetarian cafe in a little surfer town on the North Coast for yesterday's lunch. And we stood in the surf and watched the sunrise yesterday morning. Oh yeah, at which time I got stung by jellyfish on both feet. Um, ow. Turns out the bay where we are is jellyfish central this time of year at high tide with a strong on shore wind.

Hmm, I seem to keep coming back to the bitching. I guess that's just how I'm feeling at the moment. Soon, I'm sure we'll have regained equilibrium and be able to really relax and enjoy ourselves. I think that jet lag & noisy nighttime camping neighbors don't help much. By Tuesday, the Labor Day crowds will have thinned, though, and (if we haven't got ourselves kicked out of the campground by then) we should be able to get some better sleep.

In the meantime, we'll seek out our comfort zones. I'd like to find a yarn shop today. Y would like to find a public library. Tonight we'll steel ourselves and head back into the country and try very hard not to piss anyone else off.

Much love to alla youse,
Emily