Looking back: Summer 08 "Hawaii"

Two weeks before I left for Alaska the Iverson family headed out to the big island in Hawaii to stay for a week in a small town area called Puako outside of the big town of Kona. We rented a condo across the street from the beach and basically went to a different beach everyday to swim, play paddle ball, sun tan and relax (see pics of me and my bro hal lounging).

We went to five different beaches altogether. I wish I could remember the names but there were too many mooka lakka leekees and what not. It all sounded the same to me but I do remeber Hapuna Beach, Koa Bay, 69 Beach (don't ask), and some other ones!

We would go out to dinner at night and come home and relax on our little lanai porch and watch the big dipper dive toward the sky. If it wasn't clear enough on the porch we would go down to the beach and sit late into the night watching the shooting stars and big dipper disappear.

We spent one day in Hilo. We went to the farmers market and later that day we ate tropical Hawaii infused Thai food that made me wish I lived there. I bought a baratone ukulele that I've recently named Gertrude and then later that night we hung out with real surfer kids that were friends of my brothers high school friend. They were so laid back and chill until the sushi and sake got busted out. After some spring rolls and rolling laughter we headed to the most bizarre karaoke bar I've ever been to. You had to stay seated in high backed booths and the sight of our big group definitely annoyed some locals. I talked philosophy and books in the middle of this mess and it was a riotous time for all. We went home and stayed up half the night playing ukulele and telling dirty jokes.

We visited some cool jungle falls outside of Hilo the next day in the rain, it was still cool.

We were also able to connect with a high school friend of my dad's named Steve and his wife Laura. He took us out on his charter size ocean boat to fish for mahi and ahi ahi and a bunch of other crazy fish and we struck out. It was awesome to see the island from the ocean view though and not catching fish wasn't the worst thing in the world.

The last day of the trip we returned to the first beach we went to, Hapuna. As we sat absorbing out last day at the beach before returning to the cold reality of Washington my brother exclaimed aloud, "That's Natalie Portman!"
I looked over and sure enough there she was! The actress Natalie Portman. But to add to that I noticed she was with her folk rock star boyfriend Devendra Banhart. They were on a private lovers get a way and hanging out at the same beach as us! I couldn't believe it. They went swimming in the ocean and me and Hal ran in and swam nearby. As Natalie Portman came in she waded past me and I blurted out awkwardly "Hey what's up?"
She said "Heeeey," back but implied "Hey bearded creep don't drown me."
I was heartbroken. She's my number one all time favorite hottest most beautiful celebrity female and she thought I was creepy. Oh well.

As we left I waved to Devendra Banhart (who I've mentioned on this blog multiple times) and he gave me the old "You know who I am" salute.

My mom got photos of them making out, I thought about selling them to People magazine to help pay off my 40+ thousand dollars of student loans (thanks to the overpriced UPS MAT program), but my respect for both of them artistically prevented me from following through (and the photos were blurry hehe).

So Hawaii, um, yeah, good tan, big turtles, good times, I'm a creep to Natalie Portman, and a Devendra Banhart salute.