Sports or Beach?

I just got back from a week in Maui. There's beautiful beaches and mountains, and countless places for great swimming, snorkeling, surfing and windsurfing, hiking, etc. I'll have the pictures available sometime in the near future.

Anyway, being in Maui and all, I didn't pay as much attention to the sports world as I usually would. As in, I didn't completely ignore the fact that Carolina was playing in the CWS, or that the NBA draft was taking place, or that there was some good tennis being played at Wimbledon, but I didn't sit glued to my TV, either. Now, there wasn't a ton of nightlife in the area where I was staying (which was perfectly fine due to the fact that my husband and I were usually dead tired by the end of our daily adventures), so had the CWS games started at 7:00 p.m. Hawaii time, I might have actually watched as opposed to checking the score in a bar on the wharf in Lahaina. And I might have learned that the Bobcats traded Brandan Wright to the Warriors hours earlier than I actually did. But you know, when you're in Hawaii for one week only and it's the middle of the afternoon, the beach somehow becomes waaaay more interesting. And to tell you the truth, it was nice not to have anyone in my face reminding me that UNC had lost to Oregon State once again, although we did meet quite a few people from Oregon. (Note: Whereas West Coasters apparently go to Hawaii all the time, it seems somewhat of a novelty to meet East Coasters there. I'm basing this statement on the fact that every time we mentioned that we were from North Carolina, people always responded, "oooh...that's far away. We're from L.A./Portland/Seattle, etc.)

Now, people who actually live in Hawaii must get used to all of the tropical attractions, because there does appear to be a market for viewing sporting events. ESPN is on at every bar (which is how we kept up with the CWS). One of the bellhops at our resort was even quite knowledgeable about UNC basketball and the Carolina Panthers. I assumed that Hawaiians had the luxury of watching Sunday NFL games on tape delay, but my understanding is that fans actually get up at 7:00 in the morning to watch. I'm not really all that surprised, because the sun rises at 4:00 and the birds will wake you up well before 7:00 anyway. Which, again, is why I didn't mind staying in nightlife-less South Maui.

Now if we could just figure out a good way to watch the NFL while sitting on the beach...