It's a Girl! A.K.A. The Greek Lady is Stupid and the Pencil Test Sucks

Lots of news from the Pacific this week. Well, we found out that Gary is almost definitely Garyetta yesterday. The way this came about is long and involved. First off - everything is fine. Last Thursday at Em's OB appointment, the obstetrician detected an irregular heartbeat while listening to fetal heart tones. Probably nothing, but we needed to go to Honolulu for a fetal echocardiogram to rule out cardiac abnormalities. All of this happened while I was in Colorado. Thankfully, their first appointment was yesterday, so I was back in time to accompany Em to Honolulu. We found out during the fetal echocardiogram that Garyetta's heart is anatomically normal, but has occasional PACs or premature atrial contractions - it must run in the family because I had them too when I was nervous about getting into med school and residency. They went away after things got settled as Garyetta's should when she is born. I imagine Garyetta was upset because Dad was in Colorado hiking in 2 feet of snow to the top of a 14,000 foot mountain while his life insurance policy was sitting at home unsigned. Nothing to worry about now since I made it home in one piece and the life insurance is signed and paid for.

The doctor told Em she has to completely cut out caffeine because it can increase PACs - this never helped me, but it couldn't hurt. I suggested a few adult beverages to help soothe Garyetta's nerves - this always helps me. It's never too early to start building a tolerance. On the other hand, it may be better to wait so I can teach her to like Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Orval Trappist Ale and Stone Ruination IPA rather than Green Apple Smirnoff Ice and amaretto sours.

They performed a 3D ultrasound on Garyetta to confirm that she does, in fact, look like an alien, just like every other baby until about 4 weeks post-partum.

Brian and Em: Is it a boy or girl?
OB: Well, it looks like you're going to have a baby girl alien. Congratulations!
Brian and Em: Aaaawwwhhh! That's soooo cute!

Pictures and Colorado updates forthcoming...

Greetings from Colorado

Just a quick update from Colorado with much more to follow. Sorry the pictures are funky I'm working on a Mac instead of a PC. I've been having a good time cruising all over the state visiting friends, but primarily staying with my friend Jeb who's working in Frisco, just north of Breckenridge.

So far, we did an overnight backpacking trip in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. That night we got about 5 inches of snow so the trip out was beautiful.

From there, Jeb dropped me at Joe and Jennifer Gould's house in Granby, CO. They are affectionately known as the Johnsons and were our neighbors in TN. We spent the evening together and talked about all the things that have happened over the past 3 months. They showed me their beautiful 7 acre tract of land on which they will build their house over the next few years.

Back to the park to take a few pictures (below) and then to Breckenridge to meet Jeb for dinner and delicious Colorado microbrews. More microbrews. We attempted a late night sled ride down the slopes of Breck, but not enough snow yet.

Today we hiked up Shrine Mountain despite the two feet of snow in some places. We had unbelievable views from the summit (12,000 ft.), but got a little scorched by the sun reflecting off the snow. I live in Hawaii, but get sunburnt in Colorado - sounds weird but the UV radiation is probably more intense at 12,000 feet when surrounded by snow, than on the beaches in HI.



Jeb's at work now so I thought I'd shoot you an update. Snowshoeing tomorrow. More later...

Haleakala MTB Ride

I flew to Maui on Friday afternoon, Sept. 28. Taryn and Matt met me at the airport and we went back to the condo. They had adjusted to HST (Hawaii Standard Time) by then so we hung out during the evening and made some plans for the ride in the morning.

By 11:15 AM we had driven to the summit of Haleakala and weather was stunning, about 55 and sunny. We were pleasantly surprised at the gate when they told us it was National Parks and Lands Day and it was the one day of the year that there was no admission fee to the parks. We enjoyed the views on the way up the volcano and marveled at the quick temperature change as we gained elevation. From the summit, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea (each near 14,ooo feet) are visible on the Big Island.
We geared up for our descent of the Skyline trail, but with weather like that, Matt and I were on the bikes quickly and headed down the volcano. The first section looks like Mars with space stations scattered around the summit area. What follows is a lava desert with tennis to golf ball-sized lava rock which loves to scatter from bike wheels and leave you in an uncontrolled skid down the volcano.

The views are unbeatable when you're about 4000 feet above the clouds. If you don't pay attention to the trail, vertigo grips you because riding a mountain bike DOWNWARD toward the clouds is just not something you experience too often.

After finishing the nasty lava rock section, the surface improves to the equivalent of a dirt road so 25-30 mph was not out of the question. We cruised down at a pretty good clip, stopping occasionally for pictures. We tried the helmet-cam, but the results weren't great.

At about halfway, the trail continues as singletrack into Polipoli State Park forest that was beautiful two years ago, but was now a blackened mess, the trees scarred and uprooted by fire, underbrush all but destroyed. The trail was much tougher than I remembered, probably because erosion had taken its toll and the root system began to die from the fire. We passed a large cinder cone and snapped some pictures in this surreal world. Fog crept in as we continued to descend, but the forest improved as the fire had not reached this far. Below is a picture of me by one of the lava vents on the trail.

Soon we reached improved dirt road and continued our ride. At times visiblity was less than 10 feet (due to the fog/clouds) and this continued even when we reached paved road.

We still felt it was prudent to pass slow-moving cars on a winding 1 1/2 lane road in the fog with poor visibility...well maybe not. Matt lit up his tires once when a truck surprised us around a bend. I could actually smell the burning rubber from the tread he left on the road. I wasn't without fault on the ride as I took a controlled spill on the obnoxious lava rock, but no blood loss. We made it to the bottom safely where me met Taryn and Monica with the Jeep. All told, it was 7000 ft. of descent over 16 miles!

We headed to Pai'a and stopped at the wine/beer store so I could pick up a few goodies to take back to Kauai. The selection was about 3-4 times as large as any place on Kauai, so I was excited and purchased a case and some 22s. Thanks to the Dreyer/Elliot families for taking me to the beer store on their vacation time.

Big bonus: for dinner, we settled on Maui Brewing Company, so we got to sample a variety of their excellent brews including a seasonal imperial IPA. Delicious.

The next day, the flight back was very pleasant, although we got to the airport only 40 min. before departure. Thank God for kiosk check-in and the the airport porters. 10 min. later I was getting coffee and an hour later I was finishing it in my exit row seat as we landed. All in all, it was a pretty sweet weekend excursion.

Michael Dreyer and Family Visit

Em's aunt, uncle and cousins arrived late on Mon. Oct. 22. We spent the remaining part of the evening talking over a couple drinks. Of course, they were exhausted because it was 4 AM EST even though Emily and I still had plenty of energy. They definitely earned their room and board at our house by bringing gifts of beer. Three Floyds Pride and Joy, Arrogant Bastard and Stone Ruination IPA - even better than gold, frankincence and myrrh.

The following day, Emily and I worked while the Dreyer family enjoyed a day of snorkeling, hiking and sunbathing on the north shore. We had a few drinks and then headed to Roy's for an outstanding delicious dinner. If you've never been to Roy's and you enjoy Pacific Rim cuisine, you've got to give it a try. Uncle Mike generously picked up the tab which we truly appreciate. All the visitors were pretty cashed out by the time we got home so we went to bed for an early start in the morning.

We headed to Waimea Canyon for the morning and the Dreyers family was unlucky enough to get a misty cool day in the canyon with limited views. Unfortunately, the weather is like that about half of the time, especially in winter further up the road toward Koke'e. At the Kalalau lookout, the clouds cleared for a few minutes so a few people got some views.

Most of the family headed to Brick Oven Pizza for lunch, but Matt Elliot and I had a hankerin' for something a little more exotic. We went to Ishihara Market and picked up some poke - raw seafood salad. We got wasabi ahi, scallop salad and idako, which is basically raw, whole, baby octupi in a sweet and sour sesame sauce. As Matt so eloquently put it "it's the veal of the sea", but without the guilt because nobody cares about baby octupi. Hopefully, they keep the octupi in a tiny box and force-feed it just like delicious, tender veal. We enjoyed our lunch intensely.

After lunch we headed to the Maha'ulepu beaches (which I think, is best set of beaches on the island - beautiful water, sea cliffs, no crowds and nearby hiking) and everybody did their own thing after arriving. Anyone who rode in the minivan rental waited half an hour until their guts settled and thanked God for their safe arrival after riding the dirt roads. Em and Taryn talked on the beach, Mike, Kevin and Jen walked the beach awhile, Monica took some photos. Matt and I hiked to several of the other beaches and onto some of the sea cliffs, cooler in tow.

We had an enjoyable dinner with VIP treatment at Kalaheo Cafe and then said our goodbyes since Emily and I had to work the next day. Em said goodbye for a week since she was heading to Cincy in a few days, I said goodbye for two days since I was flying to Maui for the weekend to go mountain biking with Matt. That sounds awesome so I'll type it again...I was flying to Maui for the weekend to go mountain biking!

Check back for the Haleakala biking pictures and story.

Ha'upu Tunnel Ride

I know it's been awhile since I posted, but we've had guests in town, I've been working a lot and traveling some too.

We went to the beach, but had to dodge the crowds at Hau'la, where it was packed as full as I've seen it.

Some pictures of Em about to get crushed by some 6-8 footers at Ha'ula beach

A couple weeks ago, I went for a MTB ride a little east of Kalaheo on some of the sugar cane roads. My goal was to find and ride through the tunnel in the mountain range visible from our deck. As usual, the land is private property, but typically the no trespassing signs are for liability reasons rather than truly restricting people from using the roads.

The ride was probably the best I've had here on the island with good terrain, excellent pasture and mountain views as well as a 2/3 mile long tunnel.

It starts with a couple miles of relatively flat riding, a couple turns and then you arrive at the tunnel. It was surprisingly large, easily large enough for a dumptruck to pass through (probably the original purpose for transporting sugar cane).

I brought a headlamp, but figured I wouldn't need it since the the bore of the tunnel was so large and I could see the other end easily. About a third of a mile into the tunnel when I couldn't see anything and the light on the other end had moved only imperceptibly closer, I realized something...I need that light...NOW! I put the light around my helmet and at least now I could see for a few feet ahead of the bike. Luckily, the riding surface inside the tunnel was actually very nice so I didn't take any spills in the dark.

I continued on the cane roads all the way to the base of Ha'upu (Hoary Head in English-which sounds much cooler) near the Maha'ulepu beaches. I encountered a couple bulls on the open range, but they didn't give me any trouble. I even managed to get a picture of the place that processes your sugar. Mmmmmmmmm, I'll have TWO teaspoons.

Once on the other side, I was excited to go through on the way back.

Back through the tunnel with the light on the whole time made the trip much easier.

On the way back I encountered a couple ATV tours. I was a little concerned since I was trespassing, but they gave me the Shaka (which is very different from the Shocker) and I returned the expression, so everything was cool.

There are a lot of options for this bike trip, so I'm sure I'll do another version soon. I headed back home and worked on my recipe for Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Actually, that is a knee-high stocking filled with Li'li'koi that I was squeezing for juice to perfect my recipe for fresh, ultra-premium passionfruit margaritas. C'mon out and have one sometime!