today was definitely a very long day. although it was the mark of the beginning of my sprink break, it was definitely a tiring way to begin it. last night, jon and i decided to stay home and watch videos instead of going out. unfortunately, we rented two videos, the ring and windtalkers, and didn't go to sleep until 3:00am. we had planned to get up very early. jon wanted to get up at 5:00 to wash and polish his car and i needed to get ready and finish packing for myself and sumi. we ended up not getting up until 7:00am.

we had to meet up with everybody at 9:00 in the uh-hilo parking lot for the speedhawaii car cruise. jon and i didn't get there until almost 9:30. we had so much to do before then. i needed to go to iris's house to help make spam musubi. while i was there, jon went to get some papers that he needed from his ex-boss and he also needed to stop at wal*mart to pick up film for me. after i was done at iris's house, jon and i went to pick up breakfast from mcdonald's and then realized that we had forgotten to drop off the videos and had to backtrack. i swear. i felt like a chicken running around without its head.

i wasn't able to take pictures at the uh-hilo parking lot, but i did get a shot of rob's nsx as we were leaving.

in hilo, the cruise took was a right out of the parking lot on to west kawili street, then a left on to puainako street at the kawili-puainako intersection and another left on to kanoelehua avenue at the puainako-kanoelehua intersection. at the kanoelehua-kamehameha intersection, we turned left on to kamehameha avenue and then a right onto the bayfront highway. we stayed on mamalahoa highway, stopping at the waimea town center. from there the cruise turned on to the queen ka'ahumanu highway, where most of the hotels, like the hapuna prince and hilton waikoloa, are on. because jon and i had sumi with us, we took the upper road (the mamalahoa highway) rather than taking the lower road (the queen ka'ahumanu highway) like everyone else. that way we didn't have stay behind such a long line of cars. after we dropped everything off at jon's apartment in kona, we met up with everyone at old a's (the old kona airport).

iris, as the speedhawaii model coordinator, had us models in the back of rayboy's truck throwing free shirts, stickers, and other promotional products. we were about to walk the strip to take pictures of the cars when a few law enforcement people came down and told us that we all had to leave because we didn't have a permit to hold such an event. with the threat of locking the gates, everyone slowly left. though the cruise was cut short, ending at about 2:30, i think we were still successful, an estimate of 350 cars participated.

after the cruise, jon and i, iris and digga, brent, bryce, seth, macintyre, zak, and a couple of other people went to eat at kona mixed plate. jon, brent, bryce and i went back to jon's house to take a nap. we woke up at about 8:00pm and went to burger king for dinner. afterwards, we went to costco's to wait for the races to start. at about 10:00, iris, digga, seth, and macintyre joined us. and soon after, more cars showed up, including jon c., don, jeremy, and xave, and the races started.

since we were riding on only four hours of sleep, jon and i went home earlier than usual, at 11:30pm.

*note: photo update (03 april 2003)

more photos of the car cruise and costco's. and speedhawaii should have it's article on the cruise up too.

owari.