Finally back from what seems like an eternity away from the real world as I spent the last 7 days in Hanalei on the island of Kaua'i, a pretty nice and relaxing place but definitely a town that can make you feel a long, long way from the mainland.  

Prior to my trip to Kaua'i, I had planned on popping into a coffee shop or an internet cafe to check up on what was happening with the outside world but unfortunately the Hanalei coffee shop/internet cafe was all out of internet.  The sign on the door said "Check the courtyard of the brown building to the right for wireless internet".  So I walked over to the brown building on the right and found that while there was a wireless internet signal it was something akin to internet connections in 1990...except wireless.  

Hawai'i is a non-parimutuel state so no OTBs and no Daily Racing Form at the newsstands, so if you find yourself without a reliable internet connection (like me) it's pretty impossible to follow the racing action.  Of course, you are in Hawai'i so there is probably better things for you to do than betting on horses on your computer (like evacuating to higher ground because of tsunami warning).

If you've never been to Hanalei, or even Kaua'i, I highly recommend it, especially if you want to vacation somewhere with a little less of a "tourist crunch".  Hanalei might be the only town in America without a Starbucks, which is truly a great thing.  Okay, I'm sure there are towns out there without Starbucks but I rarely end up vacationing in them.  Even Mexico is pretty Americanized, depending on where you are at.  Hanalei has everything you need it's just very small and local as opposed to the big name brands of Starbucks and McDonalds.  Plus, if you are willing to hike a little bit you can find some stunning beaches containing only a handful of people.  Great, great place to relax but at the same time don't expect to maintain a whole lot of great contact with the outside world unless you really want to know what's going on.

Anyway, so I come home thinking that I really want to check out what happened in the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and much to my shocking surprise!!! I find out that the glorious All Weather Track in Arcadia was once again "rained out".  Nice.  At least the will make my Road to Kentucky Derby 136 post tomorrow a lot easier to compose.

At this point I've got about a million replay shows from Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Oaklawn, and the Fair Grounds on my DVR to watch over the next day and a ton of races to get ready for this coming weekend, including three Grade 1 races at Santa Anita this Saturday (Santa Anita Handicap, Kilroe Mile, and Santa Anita Oaks).  Plus we are about a month away from the beginning of the Keeneland spring meet, my favorite race meet of the entire season.  

I haven't played a race in a week so I'll probably be betting on $2,500 trotters tonight just to feed the beast...or perhaps there's a race in Australia somewhere.