I have been in Hawaii for the last week for those of you who did not know...and here is my blog about the trip!
I went to Hawaii for IVECCS Spring Break, a conference for ECC people in vet med. Mark was supposed to be my guest, but bailed, which sucked, but it all worked out since my good friend Katie from vet school lives and works in Hawaii, and she attended the conference too!
I arrived Wednesday afternoon in Hawaii, Kauai to be exact, and relaxed in the hotel myself that night. It was an easy day. I went for a "run", which ended up sadly just being a 2 miler since it was 85 degrees and very humid.... I had not acclimated yet.
Thursday was an all day event for the conference. A lot of the speakers were my old professors from Tufts, which was great. Most of the topics were interesting. The conference was geared towards ER vets, not specialists, so it was a little basic for me, but that was comforting, knowing that I know more then I think I do. Thrusday night they hosted a lua for us, which was fun, and they had lots of great food. I was worried it would be all about the roasted pig, but there were actually about 5 different vegan options, plus some of the best pina coladas I have eever had (made with coconut milk).
Friday we had off, so we planned a day trip. Katie, her friends Julie and Isabelle from her internship, and Eric (Julie's husband) and I all went for a day long snorkel adventure. We arrived at the tour place at 6am, then took a boat out along the Napali Coast for 4 hours. The Napali coast is VERY isolated and beautiful, and one of the only ways to see it is via boat. I kept thinking that I watch too many movies since a lot of the views reminded me of movies, but then I found out I was right, and a lot of famous movies were filmed there: Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, etc. There was marine wildlife galore: sea turtles, humpback whales, spinner dolphins, and manta rays, and all but the whales were super close along the side of the boat. The down side...I turned out to be quite sea sick, I spent the majority of the time that the boat was in motion at the back puking my guts out...puked 4 times, mostly dry heaving and water at the end, ughh...it took a lot out of me.
The boat then took us to a different island with a bird sanctuary, and we spent an hour in the water snorkeling there, BEAUTIFUL fish, and that is where we saw the manta rays. By 3pm the trip was over, and while it was beautiful and I saw some of the most amazing wildlife, I was glad to have land under me again.
That night we had sushi for dinner (yummy sweet potatoe sushi for me). Needless to say, my vomiting was from sea sickness and not a hangover, but after spending 4 hours of straight heaving I avoided alcohol for 2 days.
Saturday morning I was waiting for the elevator when a chicken appeared on our floor, alone in the elevator, pretty darn funny. The conference went on for the morning, and then Saturday afternoon we went out to the canyon to try to hike. We stopped at Island Taco on the way and I had an amazing meal: tofu taco with cilantro and lime sauce, delicious! I am going to try to make it again sometime myself. The Canyon was a little rainy, mainly because the elevation was so high, but we got a brief 1 mile hike in. Then on the way out stopped at the Kauai brewery- everyone got the platter of seven different Hawaiian mini beers...I normally would have too to sample all of it, but after the day before I sipped and barely finished one beer.Then we watched the sunset on the beach on the south coast before heading back home.
Sunday morning was the conference again. Got to speak with some of the people from Tufts which was nice. Then we drove to the north shore to try and relax on a beach- sadly it was raining pretty hard. We were able to visit a light house on a bird sanctuary before it started raining: saw whales in the distance and on the sanctuary saw tropic birds, albatross, red footed bobbies, frigates, and shearwaters. We saw a cool cave, fed a stray dog with a broken leg that had probably had several litters of puppies (she was so sweet, I wanted to take her home and fix her!), and then shopped in a little town near the beach. We went to a thai restaurant for dinner that night, had a tasty peanut stir fry.
Monday was our last day, and we had the day off again. We went for a kayaking trip: we kayaked up the main river in Kauai about 2 miles both ways, and stopped at a trail. We hiked this trail with our group and guide about a mile both ways to a secluded, 100 foot waterfall in a national park. It was quite an adventure, especially since the hike entailed crossing a river AND sloshing through 1 foot deep mud trails. It was quite a work out and very enjoyable. It was a little annoying that the other guests on our tour were not very kayak savy, and they did not follow proper etiquette well which resulting in someone ramming, scraping, and bruising my leg while we were getting out of our kayak and they were landing.
Julie fished an injured bird out of the river (a Japanese white eye we think) and we called around until we found a rehabber to take it. Then we relaxed at the pool for 3 hours until we headed to the airport and home.
Now that I am home I really miss the weather since it is rainy, cold, and windy here. Hopefully it will get warmer soon!
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