The Campfire to End All Campfires

As most of you know, I am a bird of the odd variety. If I enjoy doing something I want to do it for as long as possible and have as much fun as is humanly possible. Enter the Hawaii Beach Campfire. The Hawaii Beach Campfire is without question, one of my favorite activities on the island. For one, it involves fire. I am a man which means that I like a campfire. For two, it involves copious amounts of beer. What's not to like?

If you have ever been around a man and a campfire, you've probably noticed that the guy will not leave the fire alone, even if it's in perfect working order. I squire, am no exception to the rule. Neither are Derek or Chris, who fooled around with the fire just as much as I did. Every time we have visitors, Jessica and I bring our friends out to Hanalei Bay and get a good fire going. The bay is half a mile wide and on a clear night, the stars look close enough to touch.

Enter my best friend Rob. He was my best man and I'm his best man when he marries Alissa next February. Weeks before he even arrived, I told Jessica that I was planning to have the Woodstock of fires. Guys typically want to stay at the fire much longer than the girls do so I had to strike a preemptive attack. I also spoke with Rob on a secure phone and told him to do the same with his better half.

The day of the fire, we purchased 2 firelogs and some beer. We got there at 10:15PM and had a decent amount of firewood from a trip earlier in the day. The last two times we had visitors, we found a lot of wood and kindling with relative ease. This time, we weren't so lucky. Our best find was a root that Rob found about 200 yards away. I might have found 3 or 4 damp twigs.

We had a blast hanging out as a group but after 2 1/2 hours, the women wanted to go home. They asked us to "Come home soon" and I tried to mask my laughter. After they left, we drank more beer and tried to keep the fire going. It started to rain a few times so we jumped under the beach umbrella (I told you that I planned this well). We threw some more wood on to the fire and watched it burn. It started to rain again and the fire was almost out completely. We had no new firewood so things got a little sticky. We tried to make some moves and suddenly, there was no flame. I freaked out and started huffing and puffing with all of my might. By the grace of God, the fire came back to life.

The fire proceeded to go out two more times. One time I saved it with an old book of matches and Rob saved it the other time with the root. We felt like we were invincible and all we could talk about was the incredible job that we were doing in keeping the fire going. Eventually we were down to almost nothing but the fire was still going strong. I had to get up in a few hours for work and Rob had an early morning activity planned. I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open. If it was a Friday night, I seriously would have laid down on the sand and driven back home in the morning.

This is how I must have looked to Rob after hour #6

The fire never did die on its own so I need to give it a name. How does "Never Surrender" sound? Never Surrender was eventually extinguished by smothering it in sand and dousing it with water. We sleep-walked back and got home at 4:15AM. That's right ladies and gents, our fire lasted almost 6 hours and it could have gone longer. I know that I shouldn't feel like a cool guy because of this but hey, it's my blog.