The snorkel was followed by the world’s best fish tacos, some napping, and a second snorkel during which Aaron and I worked on our sunburns and Skip finally found some turtles and spent some quality alone time with them. Aaron is returning to the mainland tomorrow, so it’s the final day for any Holliday family adventures.

To start the trip Aaron and I continued our long-running series of romantic getaways by booking two nights in a nice resort on Poipu Beach on the south side of Kauai. Upon arrival we found a lovely card addressed to “Mr. & Mrs. William Holliday”; Aaron was none too happy about having to be “Mrs.”, but he’ll survive. Still running on mainland time (three hours ahead) we went to bed at 8:30 last night and awoke at 5:30 this morning. A walk on the beach turned up a playful Hawaiian monk seal, one of only 1500 left in the world. He’s apparently a regular in these parts and there were “marine mammal protection” warnings lying further up the beach and waiting to be deployed, but I managed to keep Aaron off of seal-roping duty and he settled for just making boisterous announcements to the non-existent crowds to “step away from the seal”.

The chicken chasing started slightly after our seal visit. An anomaly of this island is that there are chickens everywhere – by the road, on the golf course, on the beach, and even in line at the car rental place. Following the morning’s seal encounter, and inspired by Rocky 2, I set off to chase one down; they are elusive, and a partial video of the debacle will probably be posted soon. Following that we hopped in the car, took a tour around the island, saw some impressive bird colonies, hiked along some impressive cliffs, and are now hopefully heading off to an impressive dinner. Vacation is a good thing, and I’m very glad to once again be on one.

For those not familiar with the great moment in cinematic history referenced above:

Mickey: Now here’s what I want you to do… I want you to chase this little chicken.
Rocky Balboa: Hey yo, Mick, what do I got to chase a chicken for?
Mickey: First, because I said so. And second, is because chicken-chasing is how we used to train back in the old days. If you can catch this thing, you can catch greased lighting.
Rocky Balboa: Well, I’ll do it if you say so, but it ain’t very mature.
Mickey: Yeah, well neither are you very mature!

Following lunch, and after a long and losing battle with LA rush-hour traffic, we limped into Laguna Beach for the evening’s entertainment. Every summer Laguna Beach holds the Pageant of the Masters Festival, which is one of those you-really-need-to-see-it-to-understand type of events. The high-level description is that it’s a presentation of several dozen famous works of art, reproduced on stage with live actors as models, which sounds like complete yawnsville. However, being there in person with 2700 spectators while an orchestra plays, a narrator explains the artwork, and the curtain goes up on what appear to be huge, 2-D reproductions of famous works of art, all the while knowing that through some magic of lighting, make-up, and perspective it’s actually 3-D canvases with real people on them, is a pretty surreal experience. Even Pa, who can be notoriously stingy with his praise, admitted that it was “pretty cool”. Ma was more effusive, stating “I love it I love it I love it” on more than one occasion. From a slightly different perspective, the two old ladies in heavy costume jewelry that were sitting behind us frequently chimed in to let their neighbors know “that’s not people, it’s just a painting”; one might suggest they bring binoculars to next year’s performance so that they can see the “paintings” blink from time-to-time.

When the journal started, and still to this day, the idea of putting these updates online seemed a bit presumptuous – why should anyone care about day-to-day details of what I’m up to? – but in retrospect it’s nice to have a personal chronicle that records the path that I’ve followed, and it’s also kind of cathartic to sit down and go through the exercise of putting together entries whose goals are to give a status of where things stand and how they got there. Eight years ago I wouldn’t have guessed that this journal would last as long as it has, but today I’m glad it did and hope it’s still going strong for many years to come.

While I’m still a fan of sleeping in the Subaru and living the grungy backpacker lifestyle, the passage of time has made a few additional options possible, and a night at the Ritz clearly has its appeal. Audrey and I had a ridiculous dinner of crab and dim sum on the 24th floor overlooking downtown, and the following day I enjoyed my second-ever massage from a masseuse who looked like Britney Spears (circa 2001) and would have made a lesser man cry as she attacked any trace of non-relaxation in my back and shoulders. After the short drive home we hosted my brother, who arrived late in the evening, and the next day turned into a Fourth of July grill-fest and wine-drinking event highlighted by New Zealand’s finest $10 wine and a cornucopia of seared veggies.

While these events may not end up as epic memories in the way that a trip to Antarctica or the Galapagos might, they’re nevertheless one more page in the future autobiography (“Ryan Holliday: A Cautionary Tale”) to be released at some point 40-70 years hence.

One item of note from the past month that likely no one but me will find interesting is that JAMWiki 0.9.0 was released on June 21 after over seven months of development. While those in my immediate circle tend to stare blankly back at me when I introduce JAMWiki as something I spend my free time on, it’s still been a really rewarding side project, and with more than 36,000 downloads since the project started it’s actually been something that has been of use to a number of individuals and (increasingly larger) organizations. Although some of the more ambitious plans for the project have been slowed due to working full-time, I’ll make the prediction that before the end of the year there will be news to report that will be of interest even to those folks who typically see JAMWiki and enthusiastically state “It looks really cool! What’s it for?”