Our Hawaiian Get-away (from the Tsunami) in review

It was to be a relaxing long weekend in Hawaii, but we had a little more excitement than we wanted.  To read about our evacuation and the fact that I high-tailed it to the nearest 24 Hour Fitness to work out while awaiting disaster, click here.

After the event, Derek and I talked about whether we learned anything from this experience.  Yes, I’d say we learned some interesting things…

Yellow is the Go-To Color for your emergency-kit purchasing needs:

This was our purchased-last-minute Emergency Supply. Is it me, or is there a HUGE amount of yellow in this part of the kit?

Let’s look at a SMALL portion of our little last minute / we-might-be-stuck-in-a-field-or-parking-lot-for-a-week shopping spree...

Protein Sources:  Tuna, Spam Light (I know, I should have splurged and got the full-fat version), Derek’s little wieners (hee), Tofu, and Three flavors of Beef Jerky- heaven forbid I should get bored of ONE flavor during a natural disaster.

The “essentials”:  First aid items, Flashlight and batteries, (more) plastic sacks, (more) hand sanitizer, (more) Wet wipes.  I say ‘more’ because I already had these items thanks to my over-packing habits.  Notice the Advil for when you consume too many Mai Tais.

Essential Hawaiian-themed Eats, because it’s highly unfair to have “Themes” for fun events and not for disasters:  Spam Singles (nommity-nom-nom!), Macademia nuts with Spam, White Chocolate Macademia Nut Cllf Bar, MacaMania energy bars (they have enough “energy” to power you through a bicycle century.  Well not really… but gasp on the 330 calories for one small bar). 
Please note that I have been far too scared to eat any of the spam products.  I bought them just in case I might be dying and I really felt that I should not leave this earth without trying Spam even the once.  

Edited to add:  I found many of these items at home in my nearby grocery store in Los Angeles.  I didn’t need to go to Hawaii and be faced with DEATH to find the need to buy Spam products.  And one more thing:  a year later, I just yesterday (one year later) threw away the Spam Macademias that I just couldn't bring myself to eat.  Hoard much?

This was Derek’s purchase on the right.  Apparently, he didn’t want dragon-breath during a catastrophe. The Splenda was stolen from McDonalds while we were evacuated. 

Lemon Lunas.

While yellow was the dominant Emergency-kit color, it also seemed to be everywhere even before the Pseudo-nami:

Beautiful Stained Glass Window made by our land-lady’s Mom. Spot the cute  yellow tea kettle and the blender (lucky me)

We slept upstairs but the bathroom was downstairs.  I'm pretty sure that's not 'to code.' 

Sooo yummy, yet a lot grams of sugar per  “The Daily Plate”. 

Edited to add:  Ironically, after a long hiatus from calorie counting, I went back to the DP almost a year to the day after I first tried (and loved) it in Hawaii.  And I'm loving it again.

Butterfly

What else did we learn?
Home-made Filet-o-Fish sandwiches are very yummy.

Evacuating sure works up an appetite!  Just ask fellow Evacuee Allie, at Pimp my Protein Shake:  She admits to consuming enough high-glycemic tropical fruit to fuel a few Iron Man Triathlons while awaiting the Tsunami on neighboring Maui.  I must share some of our texts during this time:

• Allie:  Are u really at 24 hour fitness?
• Deb: Yes, it’s how I cope with disaster.
• Allie:  I eat chips during natural disasters.

And::

• Allie:  So many blog titles: In case of emergency.  Appetite of tsunami proportions.  Appetite for destruction.  When sirens blare, it’s time for ice cream.
• Deb:  Stop stop you have so many good ones and mine is boring
• Allie: Tsunamis are “swell”
• Deb: hahahahahha

Life is short:  One really should drink Mai Tais more often:
Deb Before the Mai Tai:

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a Habitual Modifier.  You know I even modified this Mai Tai: I didn’t want the “prepackaged mix”  full of sugar and calories.  Instead, this creation was light and dark rum, soda water and a splash of pineapple juice.  And it was soo good.

Deb, After the Mai Tai:

Actually, the Mai Tai had nothing to do with my actions above.  This “behavior” has persisted for a few decades:

Old habits die hard.
 
What else did we learn?

Life is short:  Eat only spectacular dessert:
 
One night we didn't care for any of the restaurant desserts on offer, so Derek announced that he was going to go home and create an amazing dessert from the remnants of food we still had back at the cottage:

You have to hand it to Derek- he's resourceful and creative.


Derek’s Temple of the Sissy Tsunami:

• Half of an Ice cream Sandwich
• Half of a slice of lemon cake plucked from the emergency food stash
• Expertly decorated with japanese Pocky Men’s biscuits (why dark chocolate makes them “men’s” I’m not entirely sure).

 When faced with a disaster, proper footwear is imperative.


To take my functional flip-flops, or my dressy flip flops?

Reefs are so practical:  they have a beer-bottle opener on the bottom. 

“Reef”…Where fashion meets function.

Which brings me to the next lesson we learned:. 
Near-death experiences make island boys thirsty… 

This Bud’s for you, Bruh.

Walks on the beach and biking to picnics are just ‘that’ much more precious:

The Ocean is mysterious and beautiful.  Even Wimpy Waves deserve our respect…

Now, here’s my PSA:  Get your kit together:  Check out the following sites that I just stumbled upon.  There are hundreds more:

• Homeland Security preparedness list
• Hurricane list
• Earthquake survival

Q:  Do you live in an area that could be hit with a disaster of some sort?  Are you a chronic modifier? Over packer?  Hoarder?