…and two for tea! Post-Hawaii, we started our third leg of the trip in Comfort, Texas, the home of Charlie’s sweet cousins, Dali and Owen. These two little gals didn’t miss a beat!!

The other amazing thing we did together was to take surf lessons! It was crazy…I was the one who wanted to do it in the first place, but when we actually had to paddle out to the waves and look back and see all the water between us and the shore…well…I was a little nervous!!!

Our teacher was Clyde Aikau, who is a famous “big wave” rider in Hawaii. He was so great, and his team of guys made us feel completely comfortable out there. They paddled with us out to the waves, and then let go of our boards as the waves carried us in the the direction of the shore.

The first time it happened, it felt a little bit like a rollercoaster…that moment right after you start to go downhill and your stomach is up in your throat…but then you hear all this yelling to stand up on the board and it’s a suspended moment of animation when all gets quiet. If you can stand up on the board, it is definitely a feeling like no other.

I wiped out a few times, but Vann managed to stay up about 5 or 6 times, and did so without much effort!! He was a natural!! Clyde made discs for all of us (he had one of his guys out there with an underwater camera), but unfortunately, we ended up with a disc from a different group. As soon as we can locate our group’s pics, I will be sure to post them. It’s something I really don’t want to miss seeing.

For more info on Clyde and his family (including Eddie, his brother, a legendary surfer who passed away in 1978) visit:

http://live.quiksilver.com/2008/bigwave/index.php

*Sigh*…It was definitely hard to leave Hawaii, but Vann and I were both anxious to get back to real life. Off to recover from jetlag….

Saturday night we were all invited to the “best house party ever” at a private estate in Diamond Head, which incidentally, has a view of Shangri-La from it’s balcony!!

Greetings from Texas!! One of the major highlights of our trip was a visit to the Shangri-La estate in Diamond Head. Built and owned by Doris Duke, the famous tobacco heiress and socialite, it is now a museum of her amazing collection of Islamic art. In fact, the only way you can tour the house is to schedule one through the Honolulu Academy of Art, and we had to sign up months in advance!!

It is breathtaking. Most of her living spaces were built to be indoor/outdoor, and the house is equipped with sliding screens and even an elevator-like glass window that disappears into the floor with the touch of a button. Doris Duke had no air conditioning, and you can feel the amazing breeze coming off the ocean in almost every corner of the house. The estate was built from the ground up in 1937, and still remains in impeccable shape. Here are some pics from the grounds…