A Day on the Island by: Mike

It's Tuesday morning and Johnny has been out of the hospital for almost a week, but he hasn't been out much at all. I was starting to get a little stir crazy too so I asked if he was up for a drive. He immediately lit up and asked if we could go to Galveston. At first I wasn't sure if it was a great idea, but he seemed to be feeling better so I thought we would give it a try. I needed to take one of my spare bikes down to Marci so I thought if we made it all the way to the island we could take care of some errands. As we left the house Johnny was quiet, but seemed very interested in everything going on outside. It was really sunny out so I made him wear a pair of dark glasses. Because I couldn't see his eyes I couldn't say exactly when he fell asleep. I don't think it was too long after we hit the freeway.

When we got to the island our first stop was Ohana Surfshop to see the owner, Booger. Booger's shop is on the seawall, and as soon as we pulled up to park Johnny popped up. He jumped out of the truck as quickly as he could and took a big wiff. The first words out of his mouth were "Man, I miss that smell." I think he was talking about the water, but I still thought the comment was a little funny because all I could smell were the mounds of rotting seaweed on the beach (it smells like fish, only worse). Booger and I have been talking for a while about the possibility of moving the skateboard ramp from our backyard to his shop in Galveston. That's still up in the air, but it was really nice catching up. He had already heard about Johnny's illness, and had a lot of questions about treatment and what he can and can't do. He gave Johnny some gum and stickers, and a really nice girl named Andi (very good surfer by the way) who works for Booger helped Johnny pick out a new necklace and a surf movie.

It was getting time for lunch so we had Marci meet us up at the shop so we could go together. I told Johnny we could go anywhere he wanted to eat on the island. I was sure he would want a pizza from Mario's, but he shocked me when he asked for french fries from The Spot. Booger overheard this and told Johnny to make sure he ordered them extra crispy. He said otherwise they come out too soft and mushy. Johnny's answer was "Hmmm." I think he likes his fries mushy. We had a really nice lunch at The Spot, and Johnny did a good job on his grilled cheese sandwich (which has the thickest bread I've ever seen), and his mushy fries. He also tried one of my onion rings, but seemed horrified when he discovered there was an onion in it.

After lunch we drove back to the shop to pick up Marci's car. I asked Johnny if he wanted to take a walk to the Flagship to watch the kids surf for awhile. He seemed pretty excited about this and we headed out on foot. It's only a couple of blocks from Ohana to the Flagship, but about half way Johnny decided it was time to have a seat and watch from where we were. It was pretty obvious that he had hit a wall so we watched for a few minutes and then headed back to the car. I still had Marci's bike in the truck so we made a quick stop by her apartment to drop it off and headed back home. Just like on the way down, Johnny slept almost the whole way home.

It wasn't a long stay, and the whole time I was a little concerned that we were pushing it, but I think Johnny had a really good time. When I asked him if the trip had worn him out too much he said "Hey, I was awake for the good parts." Very cool kid.
-Mike