Hawaii Weekending

Our first full week in Hawaii was busy, busy, busy.  Les was at work while I was dealing with car stuff.  We hadn't been to Hawaii in 11 months, so first thing was getting the car washed so we could see out the windows.  I then had to get a safety inspection and oil change.  From there I headed to the satellite city hall to pay our car registration, then it was back to Jiffy Lube to get our safety inspection sticker!  Hawaii is pretty easy going about this stuff, but I don't want to drive around in a car that isn't legal.

Of course we were up early every morning while we were there.  Les joined me for a few runs and also rode his bike while I was running solo.  By the time Saturday rolled around we were ready for some R&R.  Les rode his bike to the north shore.   After my run, I drove our car there to meet him. 

We headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant on the island - Cholo's.  They never disappoint.  We then spent several hours relaxing at our favorite beach park - Kaiaka Bay Beach Park.  This park is usually just local families with kids and extremely mellow.  There were several giant sea turtles in the water very close to the beach and I enjoyed watching them while Les took a nap! We were there for over two hours, just relaxing and enjoying a pleasant breeze.

 

We then headed in to Haleiwa and Matsumoto's Shave Ice.   We both ordered SMALL shave ices that aren't actually small!

 

I got watermelon, lilikoi (passion fruit) and sour apple over vanilla ice cream.  Les got banana cream, coconut cream and blue pineapple with azuki beans over vanilla ice cream.  SO yummy!!

 

On Sunday morning we took our time getting out and about.  When we finally did, we headed to my favorite mountain - Tantalus.  I have been running and Les has been riding this loop for a decade.  This time we packed our trail shoes and explored some of the trails.  It was quite an adventure but so beautiful!  For the most part we were in the shade.  A little over 8 miles with lots of climbing over rocks and roots.

Although I didn't take any pictures, the real highlight was being at church on Sunday afternoon!  We have missed our First Church ohana and were happy to give and receive lots of hugs.  And of course hearing Pastor McGriffin preach is always a treat.

A Day of Bliss

I was up super early Saturday morning and headed to Tantalus. This 10 mile loop never gets easier, but I am getting faster!  I actually had a personal best on the 4.4 mile climb and my third best on the entire route.  It was completely dry with very little wind.

 

While I was running, Les was pedaling his way to the North Shore.  I got cleaned up and drove over to meet him.  We had a wonderful lunch at Cholo’s Mexican restaurant and followed that up with Chocolate Mint gelato from Il Gelato that tasted just like a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie.

We then headed to Kaiaka Bay Beach park.  The last time we had been there was November 9, 2019!  Definitely way too long!  There were quite a few families there, but we found our own spot and spent about three hours relaxing.  One of us relaxed more than the other…

I enjoyed watching a father with his little girl.  She was probably 5 or 6 and she had his full attention.  They played in the water and in the sand.  He had her on a boogie board and she was having a blast.  As they were leaving I told him how much I enjoyed watching them.  He said, “Thank you, she’s my world.”

We had one more stop on our itinerary - Tropical Farms Of Hawaii.  They are the only place where you can buy Pineapple Snow - white chocolate covered macadamia nuts with pineapple flavoring.  We also picked up some Hawaiian coffee and flavored macadamia nuts.

Even the drive back to the condo felt blissful!  It was the perfect Saturday!

R & R & R South Carolina Style

As I mentioned last week, we took a trip to South Carolina.  Our original plan had Les traveling a week before me for his annual Georgia cycling trip with Lance.  About a month ago there was a flash flood in Georgia and the road to Lance's cabin was washed out.  The road would not be reopened in time for their trip, so that part of the trip got canceled.  I was originally going to fly into Atlanta, meet up with Les, then we would drive to Hilton Head Island.  Thanks to Southwest Airlines, we were able to easily change our flights and we both flew in to Charleston instead.

 

We arrived in Charleston on Sunday evening and checked into the Barksdale House Inn.  This was a home built in 1778!  The staff was very welcoming and we enjoyed our brief visit.  We reserved a rental car but didn't pick it up until Monday afternoon, so after a wonderful breakfast on Monday morning we left our luggage with the office and headed out to explore Charleston for a few hours.

A day in Charleston does not disappoint!  The old homes and churches are beautiful.  

 

"Almighty God has been worshiped on this site since 1680"

There is SO much history.  This is a time capsule for Fort Sumter, the location of the first shot fired that started the American Civil War.

 

We have been to Charleston before and I will happily go back, but our destination for the week was Hilton Head Island, about a two hour drive from Charleston.  I searched VRBO for a condo and I am very happy with the one we chose!  I am learning that many larger condos are often a similar price to something smaller.  The choice between a studio with a "kitchenette" (microwave, mini fridge) vs. a two bedroom, two bath with full kitchen and laundry is kind of a no brainer to me when the price is similar.  We wanted to be able to eat most of our meals in the condo so we wouldn't have to deal with wearing a mask.

 

 I loved the colors of the kitchen, and it had everything we needed.

My driver is looking a little tired.  Or is this the face of contentment?

Our first stop after the condo was The Mixx on Main.  I'll share all our great eats in a special Friday Foodie tomorrow, but let me just say that the food on Hilton Head was outstanding!  We only ate out three times, but each one was excellent.  After filling our tummies, we headed to Harris Teeter to pick up groceries.  The rest of our stay consisted R & R & R = rest and relaxation and recreation.  In other words, sleeping in, walking on the beach, and riding our rental bikes.  

Hilton Head has approximately 60 miles of multi-use trails so we knew we wanted to rent bikes.  With almost 30 bike shops on the island, you would think renting a bike would be simple.  And it would be if all you wanted was a beach cruiser.  From experience, I know that riding a beach cruiser is only good for short rides and we wanted more than that.  I spent quite a bit of time before our trip checking websites and finally found Atlantic Bike Rentals.  They had 21 speed hybrid bikes with disc brakes - definitely more our speed!  They were delivered directly to our condo on Tuesday and we rode Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a total of 50 miles! I didn't take any pictures while we were out riding, but here is Les checking them out.

The beach in front of our condo was so cool!  At high tide it looked like this:

But when the tide was out, there was a large sandbar.  We took our chairs out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and almost completely empty beach. 

Check out at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday arrived much too quickly, then it was a day of travel.  We drove from Hilton Head to Charleston, then flew from Charleston to Nashville to Los Angeles.  We had a wonderful trip and came home completely refreshed!

100 Kilometers!

I wrote in June about my Summer Riding Goal.  As July was coming to a close my right knee started hurting.  We cut a couple of our training rides short because of it.  I gutted out my longest ride last week but not without a lot of pain in both knees.  Les did some research on the cause of knee pain when cycling.  It appears the pain was from the position of my bike seat/saddle.  He made an adjustment and I rode on Monday with little pain.  Still, as we left our house at 5:00 yesterday morning, I was a bit concerned.

We drove to Ventura, parked and Les started putting our bikes together (he takes the wheels off to fit them in the car.)  We started riding at 6:45 under cool skies.  Our route took us from Ventura to Santa Barbara.    We rode inland for a while on the way out, but we stayed along the ocean as much as possible.

 

My other concern for such a long outing was nutrition.  I did not want to bonk.  I had yogurt and a banana at home, then sipped on a coffee on the 45 minute drive.  A few minutes before we started rolling I ate a Hammer Gel (about 100 calories.)  I had two water bottles on my bike, each one had a scoop of Hammer Perpetuem (approximately 250 calories) and an Endurolyte Fizz tab.  I also ate part of a Cliff Bar when we stopped for restroom breaks.

I told Les to start off a little slow so my legs could warm up.  One of the things I've struggled with on the bike is "drafting."  Drafting behind another rider can save about 25% of energy.  My fear is riding too close, then tapping the wheel in front of me causing a crash.  When drafting it's a fine balance of riding too close or not close enough.  I really worked on that yesterday and felt like I made a lot of progress!

 

Les had created a route that was fairly flat.  Almost all of our climbing happened in the first half.  By the time we got to Santa Barbara I was still feeling really good and my confidence was climbing.  We decided to ride back to Summerland and take a break.  We were 40 miles in when we had our Bodacious cinnamon roll.  We ate the cinnamon roll, drank water and topped off our water bottles.  I also took a Hammer Enduroltyes Extreme tab and a couple of other things Les had in his bag of goodness.

 

Not long after we left Summerland, we were back on the coast.  There is a beautiful stretch that is right along the beach.  It is also a dedicated bike lane that is protected by a wall from traffic.  Vehicles were flying by us on the US 101, but I never felt afraid.  

My drafting skills were improving and at one point I even told Les he could speed up a little!  Our average speed at the 40 mile mark was 11.8 mph.  Our final average was 12.5, so we definitely picked up the pace.  When we got back to Ventura we were about a mile short, so we took a little detour up the bike path to make sure we got all our miles in.

The final stats:

63.03 miles in 5:03:29 (moving time.)  12.5 mph average, maximum speed 30 mph.  2,066 feet of climbing.  Average heart rate 115, max 146.  1,743 calories burned.

The final analysis:

I had a blast!  My knees felt really good the entire day (and I'm still feeling good this morning.)  We saw a lot of smiling people throughout the day, including a little girl at the cafe who was celebrating her 5th birthday.  We saw lots of people who were camping along the beach.  There was a family who rented bikes and Les heard the mom say, "I haven't ridden in so long, I forgot how fun this is."  I couldn't agree more - riding is so fun and riding with the one I love to celebrate his day made it perfect!