3/1/05

It may seem strange that my first entry of 2005 is of Hawaii, but that’s what

Alaskans do in the winter. Get the hell out of Alaska for some warmth and sunshine!!

Cecelia and I spent 10 days on the island of Kauai in February, and had an absolutely wonderful time. It’s not that far from here (6 hours if you can get a direct flight).

We rented a condo and spent our days snorkeling, swimming, sightseeing, eating too much fresh fruit, body surfing and boogie boarding in the surf and generally soaking up the sun. Of course, we came home with sunburns, bruises from the boogie board, canker sores from all the fruit and weighing a few extra pounds, but boy, was it nice to get somewhere warm!!

Kauai has 145 miles of shoreline, 50 miles of which is sandy beaches, so we went to a different beach each day we went out. We toured the Waimea Canyon, hiked into the Na Pali Coast, took a helicopter tour of the island, walked around Hanalei (remember Puff the Magic Dragon?) and too many other things to list. All in all a wonderful vacation.

We’re still a ways from Breakup here in Alaska, but things are looking up. We’ve had a bunch of days above freezing and we’re closing in on 12 hours of daylight again. This coming weekend is the Iditarod sled dog race, and Cecelia and I will be volunteering as dog handlers again for the ~real~ start of the race, in Willow, the day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage on Saturday. Check back for photos on that!