HAWAII ON2 - Day 2 | Salsa Festival - First Impressions

Day 2 --- Heading to the Salsa Festival

8:20p - LA could really take some lessons from Honolulu's amazing public transit system. You really don't need a car here.

8:50p - where's the #20?! We've been waiting here almost 30 minutes!

8:57p - Uh Oh... I'm starting to develop a cough. F#%$ing post-nasal drip!!! Bah!!! :(

8:59p - Finally saw "5-oh" drive by. Was just telling Ruth earlier that we haven't seen Hawaii Police anywhere. Weird.

9:04p - The bus we've been waiting for stopped running at 6pm. DUH!!

9:30p - We're finally at the Congress. Time to register, get our shirts, and go in!

This is my very first out-of-state Salsa Festival/Congress. I haven't been to the LA one in quite some, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a little intimidating to walk into a room full of dancers you've never seen before - not knowing who the "big fishes" were, who the instructors were, — all levels and styles of dancers intermingling....but at the same time, it was also refreshing not to know who was who. I simply enjoyed watching all of the dancers...how they moved...gauging how well the guys lead the ladies, etc. There was a whole new mix of personalities to figure out and it was kind of cool to be the "newbie".

Some of the highlights and main points for me:

• The ratio of ON2 dancers to ON1 was probably around 4 to 1. Awesome!!
• Clearly the caliber of instructors in Hawaii is much greater! Everyone dances really well here. Scary. LOL
• The performances were surprisingly great...Most notably, ReKreation from Houston, TX and Serena Cuevas. (Note to self: I need to blog about these performers later.)

Good salsa buddy, David Solivan flew out at the last minute for the Festival. I only danced a few times --- twice with him...dealing with these allergies and congestion the few dances I had nearly did me in --- lungs on fire and everything. It was warm in there and I was sweating, but I think it was more of a cold sweat since I was sick. I felt like I had to really pace myself, otherwise I'd be down for the rest of the week. All in all, I was perfectly happy to sit and watch all the dancers. Ruth and I ended up staying longer than we intended. We almost closed the place down.

Not too shabby for our first night at the Festival.