Hawaii, Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax
VANCOUVER
It was very early in the morning, so early that I was writing in the past tense…another red eye flight Eastward, second one in 2 days. Jessica and I are sitting on the tarmac in Toronto after a 20 minute excursion to the Maple Leaf for espresso and granola. Only a few hours ago we where on Robson street in Vancouver having dinner with our old friends Miller and Erika (aka the models), as well as super old friend Sarah Hedar, one of the best editors West of the East. Sarah goes way back with Jessica and me to early high school days, but even more interesting, Sarah and I used to live in a $500 class C Ford El Dorado motor home for a year in a half whilst attending film school in the Niagara region. We first lived in the leaky excuse for shelter (that just happened to have a 454 under the hood), on a vineyard in the lush Jordan Valley. We where about 45 minutes away from school, so we had to hitch practically every morning, I had just sold my little green 62 VW Fastback to purchase the motorhome, and there was no way we where going to drive the ole beast the distance every day…she wasn’t even insured, let alone registered in my name or road worthy! This motorhome was named Ethel, and Sarah and I lived a life of trash for sometime on that vineyard. Hipple Farms let us plug into one of their harvester houses reserved for Mexican workers typically, but now utilized as a place to park, plug in, and eat grapes and peaches. The saga of the motorhome ended abruptly one year when someone pretty much stole our home and used to as collateral for unpaid drug debts (see earlier blog posts…for the REST of the story!)
Why were we in Vancouver? Finally I had the chance to film the very last bits for what we are calling the “educational component” of the Airplane Journals. After the ICF conference in Montreal, we took some of the feedback and decided to make another cut of the documentary and edit it in a very point formed, educational manner. Earlier in the day Alison Hendren met with me and we went up to an amazing condo that overlooked the city and the Rocky Mountains great setting! We filmed for a few hours and I am pleased to announce that we are completely finished filming the documentary, over 2 years later! It’s been a helluva trip that’s for sure.
HAWAII
It was convenient for me to stop in Vancouver as Jessica and I where flying back from our 1 year anniversary to Hawaii, Kauai to be exact. Honestly, after one of the most intense, grey-matter-oozing weeks of my life in Banff, the week in Hawaii was welcomed with open arms for me to shut down completely and enjoy Eden. Jessica needed this trip even more than I, the medical system is completely backwards in its philosophies on work ethic and employee care. 30 hour shift work days, 21 day - no weekend runs…not to mention the pressure on pregnant residents to work all night call shifts beyond 28 weeks…it is surprising to me that they put their training doctors through this hell…trust me, if there is one thing that I know about work as an employer and an employee is that a tired worker is not an efficient or happy one.
Jess and I met in the Vancouver airport after my day of snowboarding at Lake Louise. We flew into Honolulu to spend our first night in the big city. We stayed at cheap hotel a block down from Waikiki Beach, just a few buildings down from the Grand Hyatt, the hotel that I have such vivid memories of when I was in grade three. My folks to us to Hawaii back then because my father won the trip through his wood stove business, he was one of the manufacturer’s top sellers. I have crystal clear memories of that trip, in fact I actually wrote my first journal on that trip at such a young age, I would love to find that journal! The next morning we flew to our favorite island in the world, Kauai. This will be my fourth time to this island, and Jessica’s third. I can’t believe it was two years ago that I asked Jessica to marry me on the cliffs of the Waimea Canyon….and here we are now, so much has gone down in that period of time!
This was the first time that we didn’t stay on the Hanalei / Princeville side of the island, we found ourselves this time renting a small, self contained cabin in Poi-pu, a minute’s walk from the Grand Hyatt Kauai. The Grand Hyatt is the closest place to walking in the Garden of Eden that I have ever experienced in a non natural environment, what luxury! Jess and I of course pretended we where guests and used the hot tubs, hammocks and beach!
Every morning we watched the sunrise, and every evening the sun set…what away to re connect with creation and value the light of day. Watching the cycle of the sun really humbles you and puts you into a place of better understanding, what the hell do I have my blackberry on? I just twittered as the sun rose a post saying, “The sun is rising over the Kauai skyline, it is a new day, in two minutes Obama will sign his inauguration papers, it is truly a new day and age in the world’s political scene, hope has been reborn”
Ok, so I am now using Twitter, It took me forever to get onto Facebook, but now I am completely seeing the communications advantages of using things like Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, YouTube etc. Like the new day of sunrises and Obama, we are living in a new day, a new age of digital media, and digital mania. I guess I should jump in? As am independent filmmaker I am learning it is crucial to market yourself on a grass roots level, this is the tool, if you have content, they will come. Web Guru Gavin McGarry inspired me last week at Banff to let down the pride and join the ride, so here we are, I’m a full fledge Tweeter now. My Twitter name is greghemmings, same for my LinkedIN and Skype.
Vacation for my mind is difficult, the Blackberry has made it possible to bring work with you anywhere in the world, which is great because without it I wouldn’t be able to run a business and travel as much as I do, but sadly, with it I find it impossible for me to truly relax and enjoy the peace of mind that non-communication affords you maybe only once a year on vacation. The next morning sunrise I found myself on the phone on a conference call to LA and the UK to discuss an upcoming TV series idea we have in development involving the legendary Cannonball Run in Europe, more to come on that series at a later time. It does sound pathetic that I used…
oh….looks like I am hard typer, ha, the lady in front of me on the plane just turned around and asked me to be more gentle, I guess the speed of my typing has vibrated from my keys through the computer base, through the flip down table, through the plastic lining of her seat, through the cushion of her seat, and into her delicate over sensitized body…eeek. …anyhow, you get the point about the Blackberry, its annoying and extremely efficient, reminded me of when I first negotiated the Fight Network Deal for Wrestling Reality on the gondola of Kicking Horse in Golden BC, we are living in the future (as Andrew Tidby always says www.tidby.com).
Speaking of Wrestling Reality, Jess and I went to watch Mickey Rourke’s latest feature “The Wrestler”, WOW. What a great movie, so inspiring, very sad, very REAL. The timing of the movie is brilliant for our shows Wrestling Reality and Kardinal Sinners…I am heading to Washington next week to Real Screen to try to pimp these shows out a bit, the wrestling buzz is out as we speak, hot cakes.
Another sunrise took Jessica and I to a very remote beach down a maze of dirt roads through sugar cane fields, the beach was amazing, some squatters living in tents cooking their breakfast, a few hikers, a few early birds. The tents reminded us of last time when we came and tenting the island, such a beautiful think to tent besides crashing waves, a truly holy experience. We met a couple on the beach who like us where enjoying a week away from reality, we walked the beach together and found some Hawaiian Monk Seals, in fact, we saw these seals basking on most of the beaches we visited! They are endangered, so it was a real honor to see them. Our new friends, Tate and Mike where from Oregon and we became quick friends, in fact we decided to meet up two days later to hike the Napali Coast together (well at least part of it).
No vacation of mine is complete unless I have a business meeting or two, again pathetic I know but it’s the life of a salesman right? We went to visit the Princeville Resort, our favorite hotel on earth. They shut down a few months ago to renovate the whole luxurious estate one tile at a time. The place was a skeleton, completely stripped to the bare bones, we had to wear hard hats. Jess and I where the 2nd “civilians” to be given a tour of the work in progress, again quite an honor. I want Hemmings House to help the Princeville for their video needs, anything to get back to Kauai! It was a real positive meeting, we will see where that leads us. Every step we make in our life leads to doors, the more doors that are opened, the more opportunities for adventure are presented. This opportunity was rooted a few years ago at the beginning of this blog whilst filming Planet Luxury, the episode about the world’s most expensive acoustic guitar, the Martin D-100! A cat named Jon who lives on the island owns a wicked collection of Martins, including pre war editions. His friend, now my friend, Ken Emerson (Google search this slack-keyed guitarist, he is an amazing player) played Jon’s D-100 for us on the luxurious beach of the Princeville Resort overlooking Hanalei Bay, looked and sounded wonderful! In fact I emailed Ken a few days ago to see if he was to be around, and as it turns out he is now living in California collaborating with some of the Cowboy Junkies! Looks like I’ not the only Canadian interested in the Hawaii connections!
RELAX. That’s what we did, on the beach all day, playing in the waves, drinking local beers, strumming the 6 string, playing in the waves, Hanalei (see Puff the Magic Dragon). I hooked up with Mitch Alapa and the Hawaiian Surf Adventures crew again for another surf lesson, I managed to get into the groove this time, the trick? Bigger waves are easier!!! Surfing is a part of my life that I haven’t lived yet, stay tuned!
We met up with our new friends on our last full day to see the sunrise over the Napali Coast, is you don’t know what the Napali Coast is, go check it out, look at the pictures online, they are stunning! A few days earlier Jess and I drove to the top of the Waimea Canyon to see the Napali Coast from the other side, today we will see it from within! We hiked a couple miles up the mountain, down the valley to the first beach with crashing 6 foot waves that could be heard throughout the jungle. We watched the season premier of LOST the night before, Jess and I felt we where living the experience! Because Jess is prego and I am, well, a real slow hiker, we said goodbye to our new friends and let them hike on ahead of us. Good thing for us to slow down because the trail was muddy, rocky, and STEEP! When we got to the bottom of the valley to the first beach, we realized that we had to get across a river, there was no bridge, just strategic jumping rocks, pregnant wife and all, we made it across, it took a while to make it safely mind you. On the other side a tanned and shirtless guy named Grey clapped at our success traversing the river, he told us that he calls this “Hippy TV”, watching tourist try to perform such strategies! We hung out with Grey for a while, he was just finishing his breakfast, he was on his way beck from the mysterious hippy commune at the end of the 11 mile hike. Grey has been living off the grid in the commune for 4 years now, living off the land, hunting wild pig, goats, fish. Him and his “brothers and sisters” live a life VERY similar to that depicted on the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DeCaprio, in fact the scene where they jump off the waterfall and one of the local residence clapped at their successful entry into the secret paradise was brought to mind when our new friend encouraged our river traverse! Grey invited us back to the commune next time we visited, I hope to be back to Kauai within the year, so I will be travelling with backpack and tent again for sure to make the Jungle hike to the “REAL” beach…I just hope that I don’t start seeing in Nintendo-vision!
On our way back to reality, (i.e. the main land North America) we had a chance to stop over in Honolulu again for a few hours. As it turns out my real good friend Todd Monroe is crewing on a sailing cargo ship, picking up from where Captain Paul left off! The owner of the boat is an old friend from the days when I was sailing on he Avontuur in Suriname, Brad Ives. Brad is one of the most interesting cats I have ever met. Jess and I went to have dinner with them and the crew on the docks of Honolulu in the port. I hadn’t seen Brad in 8 or 9 years! I really want to a documentary on him and the crew of the Kwai (that’s the ship’s name). The last time I saw Toddy, him, Chris Gorman and I did a cruise for 10 bucks a day on Celebrity cruises to Bermuda, all with long hair, beards, powder blue tuxedos, and a never ending supply of a strange lemonade and dark spiced rum mixer in tall Nalgene bottles that made us the super champions of shuffleboard, kicking the butts of even the most agile white haired shuffler on such a cruise. My days of getting stellar deals like that are long gone, but one for the memories for sure.
Jessica and I had a wicked time with Todd, Brad and the rest of the crew, had a great meal on the water, then said goodbye and hopped on the ole airplane for a red eye trip eastward towards Vancouver…goodbye Hawaii, hope to see you again very soon.
(This post is dedicated to the memory of my sister in law Sue’s father Ron who past away yesterday as he and his wife Gail were visiting their son - and my old film school roommate –Jeff and family in Japan. Ron had a stroke and passed on in the presence of his whole family. Rest in peace Ron.)
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