Day 10 - Golf, Football, and Kayaking

Shin got an early morning start this morning by taking his clubs out to the course this morning. He was out the door early for his 7:40 AM tee time at the Makai golf course. The Makai golf course that has 27 holes of golf comprised of 3 9-hole courses, the woods, the ocean, and the lakes. The Princeville resort is undergoing a major renovation, so only the 9-hole woods course is open. Because of the renovation and the off-season, Shin was able to pay only $35 for a round at the woods course. He was paired up with a retired man from San Diego who happened to be a seasoned golfer. The retired man seemed a little disappointed to be paired up with a beginner golfer, but he was still nice and gave Shin some nice tips throughout the day. Unfortunately, the range wasn't open, so Shin wasn't able to get any practice swings in before playing. It was a pretty tough day, and Shin scored a 68. Hopefully, he'll eventually become a decent golfer.

Shin got home just in time to watch most of the Cal game. When he got back to the condo, Cal was down 6-0 after only about 2 minutes of game time, but they got it going and ended up winning 26-16.

After the game, we drove to Hanalei and rented a two-person kayak. The kayaks we rented were unlike the kayaks we used two months ago in Sausalito. Instead of sitting inside the kayak, we sat on top of the kayaks with a back rest. In addition, the kayaks we used did not have a rudder so we had to depend on our paddling skills to turn and to go straight. We started our trip by going up stream on the Hanalei river to a bird sanctuary. As we paddled up stream, we observed many bamboo trees and taro plants alongside the river bank. We also saw a number of small and colorful birds. After paddling about a mile up stream, we got to a very swampy area and it started to smell. We turned around and paddled downstream until it started sprinkling. We got back to the dock just in time before it really started to rain. We were quite wet and filthy when we returned to the dock, so we went back to the condo to shower.

After freshening up, we drove back to Hanalei for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Hanalei Gourmet. We ordered a fried artichoke appetizer and Alexis got a stir fry with udon noodles and Shin ordered a grilled ahi tuna sandwich.

It was a tiring day, especially for Shin...