Tsunami

Last Thursday night was interesting for us. Chad and I had a wonderful dinner (which I'll talk more about later) and then the family met in our room for an evening of fun and games. My dad, an avid cable network news watcher, was watching TV and immediately told us about the earthquake in Japan. We all watched in real-time as the tsunami took over a bridge, pushing cars and boats around like they were toys. We stared knowing it was a tragic event but had no idea how devastating it would turn out to be. A couple hours after the quake we were notified by hotel staff that we needed to evacuate our ocean-level resort and head to the local high school. The school was located on a hill and safe from a possible tsunami that may or may not be headed our way. Kauai would be the first Hawaiian island hit so it was important that we follow orders. We packed up the car with necessities and eventually found the evacuation spot where we were supposed to be. Initially the wave was going to hit our island at 2ish. Then 3ish. At 6:30am we were still waiting and shortly after that they said we were safe to head back to our rooms. We slept off and on in the car and hung out with the crowd in the school cafeteria watching the news for updates. It wasn't a fun experience but it was a neat experience. As uncomfortable and tired as we were, we were lucky compared to those in Japan and we couldn't complain (even though we did).

Chad found his 15 minutes and captured photos and videos at the shelter for TV news stations on the mainland. He did nine phone interviews for news programs all over the US. I was proud.

Here I am in the middle of the night looking all kinds of cool:

And here's a snap of us hanging out in our van:

Years from now I will still remember where I was when that devastating quake hit Japan.

I'd like to thank those super rad friends of ours who contacted us to make sure we were safe that night. It meant a lot so thank you!