Dan's Space

I am now the world’s newest “convert” to paddle boarding.  Paddle boarding is done on a large surfboard, standing up, with a single oar.  And I love it.

It’s a great workout.  Unlike surfing, you can “keep moving”… you’re not always waiting for “the next wave”, but you can catch waves on a paddleboard, too!  Plus, it’s a great “core” workout—the muscles used to balance on a board get a lot of exercise.

Most importantly, it’s a blast.  Yesterday, my first day, I went with three friends: Keith, Joe, and Brian.  We had a great time chatting and paddling, and the sun was out, the whales were jumping, the emerald slopes of Haleakala were gleaming, and the sea was crystal clear—you could see all the way to the coral heads on the ocean floor, 30 feet below.  Fantastic.  I can’t wait to take snorkel gear and paddle to some remote reef and just “jump in.”

Keith and I also went snorkeling around Makena Landing, and saw what is one of the biggest honu (green sea turtles) I’ve ever seen.  Also a very cool, huge crab (haven’t id’d it yet) that looked like a robot from The Empire Strikes Back, replete with armor and an algae-covered “rock” for camouflage on its back.

I also got to spend a few hours at Little Beach, where I had the beautiful cove called the “toilet bowl” (for its current) all to myself and eight honu who were chowing down on algae in the unusually calm sea while whales breached a few hundred yards off shore.

This is the kind of day that makes life worth living, friends worth having, and work (the next day) worth doing!

Last weekend, the sun was unusually strong and the waves unusually large, coming in from an unusual direction… The result was an unusually fun day of surfer-watching at Little Beach!

I’ve spent this week in Colorado with my family for Christmas, and it’s been absolutely spectacular weather—all that is glorious about Denver this time of year.  Crisp, sunny, dry, cheery… Wow!

Today I saw something I’ve never seen before, and for good reason: sunset Alpenglow.  Alpenglow is a phenomenon where the sun isn’t “up”, but from below the horizon it hits the peaks of tall mountains.  Because the front range faces West, you can get alpenglow in the morning, but not in the evening… until today.  At sunset tonight, there was a bank of gorgeous clouds sitting just in front (east) of the front range.  They were unusually tall clouds for this time of year, and had a very shear ‘face’ on the western edge.  The sunset hit the western edge of the cloud bank, which reflected the orange rays of the sun onto the front range like a mirror, and all the fresh snow on the mountains reflected it back.  So with a fiery sunset hitting the clouds, and the glittery glow on the snow, Mother Nature was putting on QUITE a show!!  Wish I’d had a good camera to capture it, but at least it’s in my memory!

I wanted to blog about this so that I wouldn’t forget where to find these in the future… these amazing string/net reusable shopping bags are phenomenal. The ‘net’ structure means they expand to carry anything and ‘wrap’ around the contents to keep things in place, thus protecting your produce and fragile items.  They’re awesome—I have several in each car so I’m always “armed” for a quick trip to the market.

http://www.amazon.com/EcoSac-Natural-String-Bags-EuroSac/dp/B000E8UYMC