Thursday, November 19, 2009

Photo Shoot and Renewing of Vows or The Cyclist goes 7 Days Without a Bike Ride and Contracts an STD

Last week Megan and i were luck enough to have been invited to go to Kauai while Cousin Long John Leather Couch and his wife Lindsey renewed their wedding vows. He only invited the people he really, really likes.
It was a simple and elegant service performed on the beach.
John works at the Hyatt at Lake Tahoe, so it made sense for us to stay at the Hyatt in Hawaii.
We had all of the employee benefits without having to do any work while we were there.
We were there for a week and the service only took 10 minutes so we had lots of time to kill laying around drinking Lava Flows.

This time of year it can be rainy and on the north end of the island, one of the days, they got 23 inches of rain in one day. I guess that is a lot. We tried to go for a hike to a beach and then up to a pretty waterfall. Lindsey was quite literally a wet blanket and had the trail not been so muddy, at mile 3, she would have sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to go any further. Since the trail was muddy, she eventually stopped and just stood there until she convinced everybody else that the waterfall wasn't really that pretty and we should just turn around. See how happy she is once we decided to turn around. I can't figure out why John wanted to renew his vows to her.

Instead we went and found some surfboards and hung out on the beach for a while. See, Lindsay can't even surf. What does he see in her?
Here is a picture of me jumping out of a tasty barrel.

Megan Paddle surfing in a hurricane Luke being a jerk and making fun of Bunny because she is pregnant.
Megan had a great time doing the ziplines.

The other thing John wanted to accomplish while we were there was to get a few pictures for his portfolio. He is looking to do some more male modeling and was looking for some swimsuit shots.
We tried to fly home sunday night at 9:50 but the plane broke. At 2 AM, we finally checked in to a hotel. We set an alarm to wake up at 4 AM hawaii time so we could call megans mom at 7 AM Utah time and let her know that we would not be coming home and she would have the kids for another day. I guess being stuck another day in Hawaii is better than being stuck for and extra day in North Carolina.Megan taking it easy on our extra day

When we finally got home, i had some inflammation, irritation and infection in a very sensitive part of the body. I was examined by a doctor and told that i have a very painful case of Otitis Externa. Thanks Hawaii, I owe you one.

And now for some interesting educational facts about Kauai:

Years ago, polynesians came to pick sugarcane and brought chickens with them as a food source and for fighting. A hurricane hit the islands in 1992 knocking over cages and freeing many of the chickens and roosters. On kauai, there are no natural predators so these fighting cocks roam the island at will and start crowing at 4 AM. It takes an average of 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch so you can see that in a short time with no predators and only one KFC, there are a lot of chickens.

All but one company producing sugarcane on the islands has stopped and there is no more commercial pineapple growing being done in Hawaii anymore. They can both be grown cheaper in South America. Now the land is either being built on or being used for GMO corn. The locals are very excited about all of the chemicals being pumped into the land and water. THere are still a few small pineapple fields that sell their fruit at farmers markets, but most of the pineapple that you buy in stores today is grown in Ecuador.

A picture of an old sugarcane processing factory that is now converting to corn production.

8 comments:

megan said...

Holy Crap. This is all true. Either the lava flows acted as a truth serum or the ear ache has robbed you of the energy to make up lies.

I'm proud of you.

Lindsey Jaye Parry said...

The dirty ocean water is getting to Megan like it got to Seth. He totally lied when he retold the hiking story and why we were even there.

He lies so much you don't even recognize them anymore.

I'm sad for both of you.

megan said...

I obviously grade Seth on a curve

skullcandyracingadmin said...

I'd like to grade your curves...if you know what i mean...wink, wink

Erin Bradley said...

I was really hoping the std part was made up. However, I don't feel bad for you considering the fact that I called Megan to see how the kids were recovering from your previous post and to find it was all lie.

If the whole family shows up at your house for an intervetion, just remember, it's because we love you!

Alisha Joy said...

Looks like a fabulous trip! And no bike . . . I am shocked! fyi, if you would have told us you were going to Kauai we could have totally hooked you up! You know that zip line deal, well we know the owners . . you could have done it for free . . or did you listen to a time share to get a deal?? anyway, next time let us know. Kauai is our favorite place and that waterfall. . . breathtaking! but VERY slippery this time of year. you could have died.

Miss Amanda Jones said...

HEY! What exactly did North Carolina do to you other than bring you an awesome employee??

EE said...

Dear @fatguyonalittlebike,

I’m working on Archival footage for Collective Eye films, a non-profit documentary film production company. We’ve produced and directed films such as Queen of the Sun; What are the Bees telling us? (concerning colony collapse disorder) and are in the midst of producing the film SEED: The Untold Story (about the history and anthropology of seed cultivation).

While perusing the internet for high resolution shots of factories in Hawai’i, we came across this shot on your blog:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uLQFm3h9_dk/SwV82FxvPGI/AAAAAAAABZk/005mXBvHYC0/s1600/sugar+cane+factory.jpg
We love the image quality and the angle at which it’s shot (coming out of the grass, in sepia tone). We’re wondering if we can use the image as an archival piece in our upcoming film SEED: The Untold Story. It fits very well between the other images and lends a lot of support to our narrating character as they explain the history of agriculture in Hawai’i.

Thank you for your time! We look forward to hearing from you.

Erin McAllester
Archival Research Assistant | Collective Eye Films