sushi time!!

With all the family in town and all of the wedding preparations going on, we haven't had much time to blog. I thought I would put up some pics of the fishing trip Brian and I had last week. We have being making a serious effort to learn this style of fishing, and it is starting to pay off. We landed the first fish at around 10pm, and shortly after putting the fish on ice and congratulating ourselves, we get another strike. The second fish was a bit smaller, but still a solid fish. We also had several run ins with a large oceanic whitetip shark, which we caught twice. We also caught a much larger blue shark (12ft) twice. These sharks would come into the chum line and take our baits. We would fight them to the boat and cut them off, only to have them return 30 minutes later and take another bait. It was very exciting.

The next morning we trolled around after the sun came up and caught a small mahimahi (15lbs)and a small bigeye tuna (25lbs) which tasted great. Sashimi from bigeye tuna is even better than yellowfin!

The largest ahi went 137lb on the scale, with the smaller one right at 80lbs. We cut up the small one to divy up amongst friends and family, but the big one went straight to the market and fetched us a nice check of $360! Cant beat getting paid to fish. More to come soon.

The Harbor

River's new favorite spot is a beach right next to Honokahau Harbor. It is one of the only beaches that allows dogs, and everyone is super tolerant of her stealing toys, shaking off on them, scratching them in the water, etc.. We have been trying to take her as often as possible.

This litte guy is called a Red Pencil Urchin. The fish next to it is a Saddle Wrasse, and in the background you can see a Collector Urchin. Collector Urchins are cool because they stick pieces of shell and coral on the outside of their bodies to help them blend in with the reef.

River retrieving a ball, and Stacey snorkeling in the background. The snorkeling at this spot is really great as well.

I got some video with our underwater camera. Hope you like it!

The Aloha Life

Believe it or not, Carl and I have collectively lost a little over 30 pounds since we moved here in February. Our eating habits have definitely improved, but the biggest factor in the loss has got to be our extreme increase in activity. We just go, go, go non-stop, and we're having the time of our lives. Just as an example, here is what I did today:

7:30 - 11:30 work at the coffee shop
11:30-1:00 volunteer at Kahalu'u Beach for Reef Teach
1:00-2:00 Carl's Surf Camp at Kahalu'u (I paddled into my first wave today, by the way)
2:00-3:00 Lunch with Carl
3:30-4:30 swimming in the swim channel at the pier with a friend
5:30 head to girlfriend's house to hang out/work on wedding stuff

and carl:
today was his day off-
surfed in the morning
paddled out with me again in the afternoon
left at 3 pm to go fishing. won't return home until 7 am.
he's going ika shibi fishing, and I'll let him tell you all about it on a future post.

And this is pretty much a typical day in our lives. We're so unbelievably happy here, and I give thanks to God multiple times each day.