Monday, November 18, 2013

Wailea - November 9, 2013

Our last day in Hawaii! We considered trying to have an adventure on our last day, but we'd done everything we wanted to do already, and after our mega-relaxing resort stay we were feeling especially lazy. The one thing we were considering doing was a scenic drive called "Hana Highway," but it turned out that we wouldn't have had the time. We ended our resort stay with a delicious breakfast, quickly stuffed everything into our suitcase, and high-tailed it to the part of Maui where the airport was located.

Once we got there we stopped in at a grocery and bought nine pineapples for stuffing in our second suitcase we'd bought a couple days previous. We had investigated the rules on taking fruit out of Hawaii and while they have some fairly strict rules about most fruits, pineapples are too acidic to be a bug problem. Our suitcase might have been able to hold more than nine, but we knew we were cutting it pretty close to the max weight limit. We then went to a Starbucks to post blog and photos, as well as chop the leaves off the pineapples so they'd fit well in our suitcase. We spent some time at Starbucks catching up on Internet stuff, then went to an Italian place for a quick lunch.

Nothing left to do! So though we had hours left before our flight we headed to the airport early to get security out of the way. Security was an absolute breeze. We had to check our bags through agricultural checks, but because we had nothing but pineapples it was no problem. We found a couple of comfy chairs near an outlet in the vicinity of our gate and spent the next few hours watching shows on Netflix.

As the time came near to board the plane Elly and I tried to negotiate a seat change. We somehow wound up seated in the same aisle, but Elly was in the aisle seat to the right of the aisle and I was in the window to the left of the aisle. The people at the gate did their best but weren't able to Tetris us into seating together. After we boarded, though, I was able to trade my window seat for the aisle (thanks to a nice, friendly couple I was seated with) so Elly and I wound up seated together.

The plane took off at 11:05 PM, so Elly and I mostly just slept. It was crappy airplane sleep, but better than nothing. We touched down in Denver 8:45 AM. Safe and sound and home!

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5947725467901143569

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Wailea - November 8, 2013

Our last full day in Hawaii, and we were set to max relax! We ate chocolate muffins at the hotel cafe, and then it was off to our spa day. Though the couples spa thing was my idea, I was still very nervous about doing it. I'd never done anything like it before, except for a couple short chair massages back in the good old days, when money was flowing a bit more freely at my office. On the agenda for the day was the following string of (to me) nonsense syllables: Natural Sugar Cane Body Polish, 'Ala Lani Signature Body Wrap, and Kea Lani Customized Facial. It all sounded girly and weird to me, but I've always had the policy that you should try (almost) everything once. You can try something and decide you don't like it, but if you don't try it you can only regret not doing it.

We were greeted at the temporary "spa", which was two rooms at the end of the hall that had been converted into a massage room while their new digs were under construction. We were offered water and fresh fruit, and then we received (gasp) another orientation. We were shown into a dimly lit room with soft island music playing. We instructed to strip down as far as we were comfortable, then given privacy. I did a bit of research on massage etiquette before going in (in classic nervous-Branden fashion, lol -E), and apparently it is normal and even recommended (though not required) that you are fully nude for a full body massage. If you're going to do something at all, you may as well do it right! So Elly and I ditched our skivvies and laid on the message tables, face down, sandwiched between two towels. We told our masseuses that we were ready and they came into the room.

The sugar scrub was exactly what it sounded like. They had scented sugar that they used to exfoliate our whole bodies (minus bathing suit areas, of course). Initially I found this quite unpleasant, but once I got over the initial shock it was actually kind of nice. My masseuse kept me mostly covered by the towel the whole time, tucking and folding the towel strategically as she individually exposed all my limbs, and rolled me around to get the other side. When the sugar scrub part came to an end she even swapped the moist drapery towel for a fresh one in a ninja move I didn't quite follow. Somehow, without ever being exposed, both the towel underneath me and the one above me were swapped for fresh ones. It was kind of awesome.

With the top layer of my skin now flayed away (I kid) it was time for the 'Ala Lani. This was a full massage, using a rich body butter. It was pretty awesome! 80 minutes of rub down! (For the record, the whole thing - scrub and all - was 80 mins. But who's dividing? -E) At the end of it, with my skin positively greasy from the body butter, we were cocooned in heavy blankets to allow the body butter to soak in. With that, the masseuses excused themselves, leaving Elly and I alone for a while until the facial specialists arrived. We both pretty blissed out and looked so silly cocooned in our wraps that we basically spent the whole time just smiling and laughing at each other.

Still wrapped in our wraps, the facial girls arrived to do their thing. Apparently the facial thing is customized to treat our specific skin type. My masseuse explained each step as she went, but I basically spent the whole time on the verge of napping, so I couldn't begin to tell you what all I went through. It was pretty similar to the body massage, though: exfoliate, moisturize, and then wrap. The wrap, in this case, was a clay mask. So there I lay, wrapped in a big blanket, with circle pads on my eyes, wearing a clay mask. This was the pinnacle moment of girly stereotype in the whole experience. At the time it didn't make me at all uncomfortable, though. The whole spa thing was executed with such professionalism that it felt much more like a medical treatment than a girly pampering. Not that I didn't feel relaxed and awesome! And not that they weren't friendly! It just never felt uncomfortable or emasculating. I don't think I'd probably do this kind of thing alone, but I'd definitely be interested in doing a spa day again with Elly at some point in the future.

My mask was wiped away, and I had a few more goops applied. All the while, I was receiving a pressure point massage on my face, neck, shoulders, and scalp. It was pretty awesome. When the whole thing wrapped up I felt like I was made entirely of jello. I don't know that I've ever felt so relaxed! We were granted privacy again, enrobed, and settled our bill. By then, we were starting to get hungry.

We didn't feel like doing a big ordeal for lunch, so we headed to the most casual restaurant in the place (except for the deli/bakery): The Polo Bar and Grille. This bar has tables on one side of the bar, and a swimming pool on the other. We had a sit-down lunch on the table side of things. Elly had a bento box that was really delicious, and I had a teriyaki burger topped with a pineapple ring. I was in heaven! I'd been craving this specific burger since we landed on The Big Island, and it hit the spot perfectly!

We had absolutely nothing planned for the rest of the day until our dinner reservation. We wandered around the resort grounds, laid in a hammock for a while, and watched a show on Netflix from the comfort of our room. I also swam up to the pool-facing side of The Polo Bar, sat down on a fully submerged bar stool, and ordered a beer. I drank a Maui Mana Wheat and snacked on the mixed crackers and nuts cup the bartender gave each customer. The beer was pretty good, but in that context I think it was the best beer experience I've ever had.

As the sky began to darken a horn sounded, and a fit, grinning Hawaiian guy with a long, burning torch ran around the resort yelling "Aloha!" to everyone he passed. Soon this torch-lighter had a long procession of giggling children following him and aloha-ing their heads off. I scrambled out of the pool and snatched up my camera. I got a few blurry shots as he ran towards us, but as he was about to pass me he stopped, Aloha-ed, and gave me enough time to snap off a picture. Then he was off down the path again to complete his circuit. In the distance we could hear that this torch-lighting ceremony had some kind of a finale, but from the comfort of The Polo I missed it.

Elly and I capped our night with an excellent dinner at Nick's Fish Market. We didn't realize this beforehand, but the restaurant was participating in the local Restaurant Week, which meant you could get a 3 course meal from a reduced menu for a little less than half what it was normally priced at. This was a pleasant surprise for us, but it did mean that the place was absolutely packed! We made our dinner reservation before noon but the best time we were able to get was 8:30. This wasn't a problem, though, because our day was running late anyway. At Nick's we each ordered an appetizer, a fish entree, and dessert, all of which was quite delicious. We had told the resort when we checked in that we were there celebrating our anniversary: we had originally planned this vacation for May, but due to some scheduling problems we had to bump it to October. Apparently this tidbit of information got filed away somewhere, and when our two desserts came out, they were accompanied by a third with "Happy Anniversary" written on the plate in chocolate drizzle. This unexpected third dessert definitely put our already large dinner into the realm of over-eating, but it was still very appreciated.

By the time we were out of the restaurant, it was almost 10:30, so we changed into our swimsuits and went to take advantage of the 24 hour pool. Despite our full day of relaxing we were both feeling too lazy for much of a swim, but we spent 10 minutes soaking in the jacuzzi before bed. Back at the room we watched another show on Netflix, and then fell immediately asleep.

I knew in advance that our lazy day would not produce many photos, so I made it my job of the day to snap a picture of any statuary we passed. In the course of my quest I came across a horse statue that looked enough like Paralyzed Horse from the show Bravest Warriors to elicit a chuckle.


Photos:
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5944367235887247873

Friday, November 8, 2013

Wailea - November 7, 2013

We were so excited about parasailing we couldn't get checked out of the condo fast enough! Our packing the night before meant that getting out the door was mostly just a matter of carrying the bags to the car. We dropped off our pool key and it was Aloha Kihei Akahi! We crossed to the west side of the Maui where our parasailing trip was scheduled and got there almost 30 minutes early. We used the extra time to walk along the beach to a nearby Starbucks and get our dose of caffeine for the day. Then it was time!

We took a small motor boat from the beach to the awaiting speedboat. There were 8 of us total: Elly and I, a pair of college-age boys (who were flying) and their parents (who weren't flying), and another couple. The transition boat couldn't hold more than 6, so it had to take two trips. Once we were all loaded up on the speedboat we were given an orientation (I'm noticing that an adventurous vacation has almost as many orientations as first semester in college) and then we were ready to fly! Elly and I were the last of the three groups that flew that day, which was awesome. We got to speed around in the boat and watch the other people parasail. I found out today that I love boats. Speed boats, at least. I love zipping around the ocean, leaving long foamy trails, wind whipping through my hair. It's such a great feeling.

Finally it was our turn to fly! Elly and I were strapped into harnesses that were basically strappy chairs and then those harnesses were locked side-by-side underneath the parachute. They had us sit on the back of the boat gripping the straps of our harnesses. Then the boat gunned it, and as they went faster and faster the wind took our chute; they let out the line and we lurched into the air. The boat sped along, slowly letting out the cord connecting our chute like we were a kite. We quickly reached the peak of our flight (1200 feet) and then the boat turned lazy-ish laps in the water, giving us a 12 minute flight to enjoy the sky. It was so peaceful up there! All you could hear was the far off purr of the boat, the breeze, and the occasional flutter of our parachute. The ocean had an amazing shattered-glass texture below us. I snapped some pictures of Elly and I, and lots of pictures of the islands around us, but none of the pictures did it justice. I didn't even bother to post any of the island pictures; they just look like pictures of islands. But from up there! Everything looks different from high up, almost magical. Ah well. There is one picture of our legs dangling 1200 feet above the wake of the boat that I'm really happy with.

Our ride came to an end and they slowly pulled us back in. While we were still a few hundred feet out they slowed way down and let us gracefully glide down to touch the ocean. Then they gunned the boat, keeping it so that just our feet were skimming the water as they continued to reel us in. It was absolutely awesome. Before you go up they ask how badly you want to get wet; I opted for just our feet because I took our camera up with us. The parents of the two younger guys insisted that the captain give them a full dunking, and dunk them he did! He let them drop until they were about chest deep, then he dragged them around for awhile. When they finally reeled them all the way in they were sputtering, and complaining about water up their noses, but clearly quite happy with the experience. Apparently things like parasailing are still "awesome" and "cool."

We left parasailing quite hungry, plus we needed to get our parking validated, so we ate at the nearby Maui Fish and Pasta. Elly got a blackened fish fettucini and I got a blackened fish greek salad. Both were very good. Our server was very attentive and nice, but was pushing us to come back for dinner way too hard. (She definitely seemed like a walking commercial. -E) I guess she must be under a lot of pressure to drum up repeat customers? The area around Whaler's Village (the shopping center where our morning was taking place) has a lot of hotels, so I guess the majority of their customers come from there. Still, every time she stopped by our table she was really pushy about coming back in later, to the detriment of our current meal. She stopped by to ask for our drink orders, then before we could respond she went on a big tirade about all the cocktails and appetizers that would be available during happy hour (two hours away) and then ran off again without even waiting for us to tell her what we wanted! After we put in our lunch orders she told us all about the dinner entrees that would be on special later in the week. So weird. But! We didn't let the weird management of the restaurant ruin what was otherwise a very enjoyable lunch. I got the maui onion soup with my salad and it was beyond compare the best onion soup I've ever had. I doubt I will ever be able to enjoy onion soup again, it was seriously that delicious. I'm drooling now as I blog and I am so far from hungry (we just got back from a large dinner).

After lunch we went to go buy a second suitcase. Our second suitcase at home is falling apart literally, and we intend to fill a suitcase with pineapples to take home with us to Colorado. We Googled a luggage store and the closest was adjacent to Lahaina Banyan Court Park which turned out to be really cool. Once we'd purchased a suitcase and wrangled it into the car we bought a shave ice from Local Boys and walked through the park. Local Boys is the best shave ice we've had in Hawaii. They serve it with a scoop of ice cream underneath and then top it with a cream sauce that is really good. I got coconut ice cream underneath a kiwi passion fruit shave ice. It was really really good. The banyan park was really cool. The park is built under and around the largest banyan tree in Hawaii. This single tree covers ⅔rds of an acre! Seeing this tree it became clear that the branch tentacles become other trunks. Other than the main central trunk the tree had probably a dozen other sub-trunks growing out of its branches. It really was quite amazing to see.

After finishing our shave ice we drove to the Fairmont Kea Lani and checked in. The resort here is really quite awesome. It doesn't have quite the same equally-spaced-trees-in-a-line kind of fakey vibe the other Fairmont had. It has well tended gardens, to be sure, but the whole situation here is much more organic. Walking from the front of the building through the lobby is breathtaking. Everything is really open and big and beautiful and opulent. At the check in they gave us a traditional Hawaiian greeting complete with leis. Elly got a fresh-flowers lei and they gave me a kukui nut lei. We were feeling a bit overwhelmed at first, so when it came time to unload the car we felt weird and vulnerable about letting someone take our bags. Then we felt like total yokels taking our own bags through the lobby. At first we weren't quite ready for resort life! As we walked through the grounds, though, it started really sinking in that this is a place to go to be pampered to the max! There are three large, main swimming pools (open 24 hours!) including an adults-only pool if you just want to bob around and relax. Everywhere you look are servers and sun chairs and couches. There are even complimentary sunscreen dispensers near every pool. One of the pools even has a full-service bar you can swim right up to to order! And quite a bit of it is complimentary. There is a shuttle that can take you to anywhere local you want to go, bikes, boats, and the like that you can borrow, fitness classes and cultural activities, all included somewhere in the price of your room. So if we're going to do this right we have to do things like call up people to take our bags to the car. That room didn't come cheap, after all. Growing up blue-collar middle-class, this is all very new and strange to me, but I think I like it. At least as a rare treat, I think I might hate it if I had this kind of luxury all the time. Well... maybe not.

We had dinner at Kō, one of the three restaurants on the resort. We started with a spicy tuna poke which was really good. I got a martini that was gin, blueberry, sage, and honey. It was interesting and really delicious; I think tomorrow I'll have several more! For dinner I got the special, a fish dish I don't remember the details of. It had fish, and mashed potatoes, and left me kind of blissed out. Elly had the wok-seared opah with black bean sauce, and was very happy with it. She let me have a taste and it was so good it felt like my brain melted. For dessert we split two desserts between us: baked chocolate custard with strawberry gelato and a pineapple cake that brought a tear to Elly's eye.  It sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. We were extremely happy with our food. Our server was also really good. She was nice and attentive, and really friendly. She was very conversational, and put us both quite at ease.

Tomorrow we're going to have to focus on taking full advantage of our opulent luxury. I think we're going to do all right though: we're starting things off with a couples' spa treatment.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5943810330150437441

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Kihei - November 6, 2013

Though we came to Maui for the beaches, our day of play yesterday pretty much beached us out. We decided to consult the guidebook for other things to do in Maui and it turned out there were a couple of interesting-sounding hikes we could go on. So we filled our Camelbaks, tightened our hiking boots and set off.

First on our list was 'Iao Valley. It used to be forbidden for anyone but Hawaiian royalty to enter the valley, but the kapu has been lifted and the site is now a state park. There are all sorts of mythologies and histories behind the place which I'll leave to you to Google.

The hike was more of a paved walk, but it was quite beautiful. Lush green mountains lined every side and multiple streams flowed through the site. There was a zen botanical garden you could walk through that was very beautiful. The highlight of the walk, though, is the 'Iao Needle, a giant spire of rock climbing into the clouds. I took probably 20 pictures of the Needle but restrained myself to only posting two or three.

It was pretty clear that the locals considered the place to still be restricted to tourists, and only to tourists. We passed many groups of natives wearing swim trunks, walking back from behind signs that clearly say to stay on the trail. At one point we even came across a couple of girls lounging in a stream and I felt like a bit of a voyeur zooming in to snap a picture.

'Iao was nice, but we were definitely ready for something a bit more challenging. Waihe'e Ridge Trail definitely delivered. We drove past a gate that was very clear on the fact that it would be shut at 5:00, and we'd better be on the correct side of it when that happened. After a short paved incline we reached a gate. To one side of the gate was a zig-zag path that Elly and I had to carefully squeeze through to keep from tearing our packs. I'm glad I lost that extra weight, otherwise Elly might have had to leave me behind!

The trail then zig-zagged up and along the ridge at a pretty steep climb. Sometimes the trail was deep in the forest offering excellent shade, and other times it wound along the top, exposed to the sun but also to a cooling breeze. We weren't too hot, but the extra humidity and the steepness of the climb meant we were both sweating buckets. On and on the trail climbed. We'd see something ahead and say "Surely this is the top, I can't even see anything further up. We couldn't possibly go any higher" yet on we climbed. At one point after passing a sign that said "Stay on trail" Elly joked "I know the sign is meant to say 'Don't take shortcuts.' but to me means something else. To me it says 'Don't give up! You can make it.'"

We kept climbing until we broke through into the clouds. Finally, after climbing a bit further, we reached the summit! We were drenched from sweat (drenched is not an exaggeration here. It was sincerely gross. -E) and cloud condensation and completely exhausted, but we were rewarded with an incredible view! In one direction we could see down into a beautiful valley, and across the valley we could just barely see the mountains across through the fog of the cloud. Turn 90 degrees and we're looking at the ocean, and a beautiful neighborhood built on the top of a mountain overlooking it. Turn again and we can see a city below, built along the coast line. Everywhere we looked was cloud just barely obscuring a beautiful view below. It felt very mystical, like it should somehow be the end of an epic journey, where we'd talk to a wise yogi or something, and learn the secret of the future.

The trip back down was much faster, but we were definitely stressing the time a little bit. We joked that we'd only barely make it into the car, Elly peeling out in the gravel and zooming away even before I'd had a chance to shut my door. Ahead the gate would be closing, and we'd gun it, barely making it through, losing a layer of paint as the closing gate scraped across our side. Inexplicably, half-naked dark-skinned warriors in elaborate face-paint would shake spears at us, cursing us in a language we didn't understand. But, in reality, we made it through the gate driving a normal speed, and with almost 10 minutes to spare. I like the other version better, though.

We finally made it home, utterly exhausted. We fried up the rest of the fish and had a repeat of the previous night's dinner. I blogged while Elly packed. Then, due to a miscalculation on my part, we have to each eat most of a pint of ice cream or resign ourselves to throwing it away. There are several hours of hot car between check-out tomorrow and check-in at the resort, so we can't keep it. Bon appetite!

Hikes
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwn0Nhn0wkPTN2V0azRDMnY3ZE0/preview

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5943403874258174401

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Kihei - November 5, 2013

After a quick cereal breakfast and a short, lazy lay-around we headed to Starbucks to write our blog post (because the condo doesn't have internet). I felt very modern bohemian sitting at a Starbucks, blogging my island vacation and sipping an iced latte.

Blog posted, we headed to Snorkel Bob's for snorkel gear. While we were there, we also booked a parasailing expedition for Thursday. Fun! A quick stop at the local Foodland (that's like Foodworld, only for the Gameboy, heheh) for sandwiches, and we were off to the beach!

The guidebook promised that Malu'aka Beach in a stretch of Maui called Turtle Town had the best snorkeling on the island. So off to Turtle Town! At the far end of the beach was a shoulder-height, naturally occurring lava rock wall which segmented off a narrow stretch of the beach from the rest. This would be Conley Cove, our "secret" snorkeling hideout. We applied sunscreen then sat on the beach and ate our sandwiches.

Fed and ready to swim, we headed out into the ocean. The reef was a lot further out here than it was on The Big Island. That meant more swimming to get to the action, but it also meant that we never felt like we were in any danger of accidentally kicking the reef. We snorkeled for probably an hour and a half, covering most of the reef up-and-down the beach. We even swam all the way out until the reef ended (at least the portion of reef in the swimming section of the beach). We saw many fish, even a couple of large schools, but the snorkeling here wasn't even half as good as it was on the Big Island. Another point against Maui.

We weren't seeing much, and Elly's gear was misbehaving, so we decided to ditch the equipment and just play around for awhile. We swam, and made a sand castle (more like sand egg lol -E), and splashed around. All told we spent about 3 hours on the beach. The sun was hanging low in the sky and we were both pretty tired, so we decided to call it a day.

We went back home for a quick shower, then back out to Foodland for dinner supplies. Tonight we had lilikoi-ginger sweet-and-sour red snapper with ginger-spiced starfruit honey wine and the last of the pineapple mac-nut pilaf. It was quite good.

A brief aside about lilikoi. Lilikoi (a.k.a. passion fruit) is a small, hard fruit about half-again as big as a golf ball. When you crack them open they are filled with pips similar to a pomegranate, except yellow, soft, and a bit slimy. It doesn't have the pithy fascia separating it into sections. If you're eating a lilikoi straight you use a spoon (or your tongue) to scoop the pips out of the 1/2 inch thick shell and eat them, seeds and all. Our recipe called for lilikoi juice, so following a guide on the internet we made homemade lilikoi juice by blendering the pips of 5 fruits slightly to break up all the pips. We then strained out the seeds and mixed it with some water (straight lilikoi is pretty strong).

This homemade lilikoi juice was then the base for the sauce, which also included ginger, garlic, onion, and bell pepper. The fish was then breaded, deep fried, and served covered in the sauce. Delicious!

I had black sesame ice cream and Elly had lychee sorbet. The sesame ice cream took a bit of getting used to, but it was quite good. We had a hike planned for the next day, so we went to bed early.

Photos:
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5943253149307995569

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Kihei - November 4, 2013

Today we flew to Maui!

We'd done a bunch of packing the night before, but the morning before was still a frantic scramble to pack last minute things and to pack or eat all we could of our leftover food. Elly's breakfast was the last bowl of Cheerios, chased with a tall glass of OJ, a tall glass of milk, an apple, and 1/4 pineapple. My breakfast was a mozzarella braid dipped in hummus, 2 tall glasses of OJ, and 1/4 pineapple. Then we stopped at the post office to mail home our accumulation of souvenirs as well as a large portion of our clothes... Who needs socks in Hawaii? Or a second pair of long pants?

We dropped off the rental car (stay strong, Zack Fusion!) and then checking in to the flight was quick and painless. This flight was pretty funny. From runway to runway was a bit over 20 minutes. We took off, got to cruising altitude, they served everyone a juice box (12% juice, oh boy!) and then we were descending again before they'd even collected the garbage. They never even turned off the seatbelt sign.

Initially the transition to Maui was pretty shocking. The airport was a regular, boring, indoor airport, situated in a busy, congested city. As we drove our new rental car (Chevy Sonic: RRF-202. Any suggestions for names?) to the condo we passed massive smokestacks spewing something into the air. At first we'd felt like we'd make a mistake coming here. But after a couple minutes drive it began to look a lot more like the Hawaii we'd come to expect.

The condo wouldn't be ready for another hour and a half, so we consulted our guidebook for a lunch recommendation and wound up eating at Cafe O'lei. The cafe was situated in a strip mall, but was decorated so nicely that it was pretty easy to forget that fact. I think neither of us was feeling particularly adventurous after our disappointment: Elly got a pulled pork sandwich and I'd been craving a burger for days, so I got the Cafe O'lei's burger topped with grilled Maui onions. It was pretty damn good. We still had a bit of time to kill so we stopped by the store for milk and cereal, as well as some pesto and ravioli for dinner that night.

When we checked in to our new condo we were a bit disappointed again. While our Kona condo felt immediately like our island home away from home, the new condo (on the fifth floor!) was a cross between a budget hotel room and a cheap studio apartment. It threw Elly into a bit of a funk, and though I was doing my best to keep both our spirits up I was getting a bit down as well. We both had a short bout of laying around feeling sorry for ourselves. We never should have left Kona.

Eventually we snapped out of our funk enough to decide to check out the beach across the street from our condo. We were still a bit gloomy, but Elly donned her new bikini for the first time, and we both slumped out of the condo, sandals flip-flop-stomping against the sidewalk.

The beaches in Kona weren't very good. The coastline was great for cafes and short walks, but the best beach we visited was the one we snorkeled at, and I don't think it had more than maybe 200 square feet of sand. The beach outside the condo would be considered tiny by west-coast standards, but for us it was like a vast expanse of perfect sand. Unlike the course, volcanic sand on Kona beaches this was perfect, infinitesimally fine, white sand that spread far to either side and gradually sloped down into the ocean. It was then that I remembered that we went to Maui because it has the best beaches in Hawaii. The whole point of this leg of our vacation is to spend as much of it on the beach as possible. Who cares if the condo is bit crappy, we don't intend to spend any time there!

We kicked off our sandals and ran into the ocean. It was chilly at first, but we quickly grew accustomed to it. We spent quite a while just splashing around out past standing depth. Eventually we grew tired and Elly decided she'd just relax and let the waves take her back to the beach. As I frolicked in neck-deep water, she was eventually beached on the sand, where she continued to submit to the whimsy of the waves. The wave would come in, pushing her up the beach a few inches, then as the wave went back out she'd allow it to roller her back down the beach. She rolled up and down the beach for another 5-10 minutes, giggling and splashing. She said later that she was worried that she looked like a person with a mental disability, and I can't in good conscience say she didn't. I found her uninhibited enjoyment quite endearing, though.

From the beach you could clearly see the nearby islands of Kaho'Olawe and Lanai. I took a pano photo of the view from the beach. They seem close enough to swim to, but I'm pretty sure if I attempted it the funeral would ruin Elly's vacation.

By the time the sun was touching the water we decided we'd had enough, at least for today. As we walked back we were excitedly debating whether we should go snorkeling the next day, or if we should do the scenic Hana drive the guidebook raved about. We got back to the condo and, though the quality of the accommodations hadn't changed at all (it turns out that 2 of the 7 lightbulbs in the place needed changing) it felt a lot more like home upon our return. It really was just a place to shower off and sleep. A place we could kick off our sandals, and never have to worry about cleaning the sand up afterward. Maui was very different from The Big Island, but as long as we kept our perspective and focused on the good parts we'd have a great time. How spoiled we'd become! We were still in an island paradise, just a slightly more populated one. We could still see a beautiful ocean view from our condo balcony. Elly and I realized how on day 1 of Kona we were frustrated at how slow everyone drove, but here in Maui she was getting a bit stressed about how fast and reckless everyone around us was driving. At some point while we weren't paying attention Island Time had taken root deep into our bones. I have a feeling we're in for another shock when we get back home and find out that Maui was also on Island Time, just keeping a slightly faster tempo. Maybe this gradual easing through Maui would turn out to be a good thing.

We enjoyed a dinner of pesto ravioli and watched a couple episodes of the original Law and Order before bed. The condo has no Wi-Fi, so we had to watch on Elly's phone. The next day we'd need to go to a Starbucks to post photos and write the blog. Wah, wah.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5942896710570592097

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Kona - November 3, 2013

The alarm clock started ringing at 3:15. We dragged ourselves out of bed around 3:40. After doing some things I don't remember doing (presumably putting on clothes), we were on the road by 4:05. Elly drove while I wrote the blog post and captioned photos from the day before. We were parked at Hilo about 15 minutes before the sun began to rise, still in full dark.

We got ourselves oriented toward east and walked until we could see the ocean. Our quest was to find a beach described to us by Shad where crabs scuttled out to the rocks and performed Sun Salutation to the dawn. We didn't find his crab beach, but we did watch an excellent sunrise.

We walked down Banyan Drive, admiring the strange, awesome, almost horrific trees. Their branches spread high and wide, then long tentacles of vines grow downward. As far as I can tell, they then grow back into the ground, forming massive clusters of trunks. I could google it, but for now I'm entertaining my unlikely story of ouroboros-like trees.

By the time we got back to the car the sun was pretty high in the sky. We wandered through the massive japanese Lili'uokalani Gardens. Bridges and stepping-stone paths connected plazas and pagodas and arches. Massive banzai-like trees, and interesting asian structures made from lava stone, and ponds. It was really quite amazing, I'll let the photos do most of the talking for me. At the Gardens Elly found a pack of semi-domesicated cats. She was able to coax one to play with her using a tattered palm frond.

Pretty tired, we took a break for coffee at Surf Break Cafe, and used their Wi-Fi to consult the guidebook for more Hilo-based activities while we killed time waiting for our helicopter ride. Did I forget to mention? Today we get to ride a helicopter over active volcano sites! The guide recommended checking out Coconut Island and Big Island Candies.

Coconut Island was a beautiful park built on an island a short ways from the shore and connected by a man-made walking bridge. We spent a while wading across to other smaller islands, looking for crabs and rocks. On the return trip from one of these outer islands Elly slipped and went butt-first into the ocean, drenching herself up to her waist.

By the time we got back to the car we had just enough time for a short visit to Big Island Candies, a chocolate shop known for their macadamias. Elly, still soaked through but no longer dripping, and I roamed the store looking at all the awesome sounding (but quite expensive!) chocolates. We decided to get a small box of passion fruit filled chocolates for ourselves. Then it was off to the airport!

After a short orientation we joined two other couples in the helicopter. We had our seats buckled, our inflatable life vests strapped on, and our headphones clamped over our ears, pumping island music (and later the pilot's narration) directly into our brains. Then it was take time for take off! Taking off in a helicopter is much different from a jet. Instead of the forward motion eventually becoming lift, in a helicopter there is a sudden, unsteady feeling lurch and then you're airborne! We watched the airport fall away, and soon the town of Hilo looked like a toy model.

We flew over Hilo, then huge macadamia nut fields, miles of untamed jungle, and then eventually the lava fields. We got to see active lava cones glowing red hot just under a thin crust of rock. We saw thin streams of lava breaking through the crust and igniting the nearby forest. We saw a town that has been rebuilt directly on top of the now cooled lava directly over the site where a town used to exist before it was covered in rock. We flew through clouds, and we flew lazy figure eights over the Akaka Falls (which Elly and I would hike later that day). The pilot narrated the flight, telling us facts about the various sites we were seeing. It was really incredible.

We landed safe and sound but hungry. We'd pinned down an asian/Hawaiian greasy spoon the guidebook recommended before the flight so we made a beeline straight to it as soon as we hit the ground. Elly got a patty melt (I think she'd had enough adventure since breakfast) but I decided to try the Loco Moco. This dish, originating in Hilo, is a scoop of rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg, and brown gravy. There are many variations, but that one is the original. It was quite good, but clearly not something you should eat on a regular basis!

After lunch we drove to the site of the Akaka Falls, which we had seen from the air. When we got there Elly found more kitties, so we took another break from our regular adventure to play with cats. This group of cats contained several young kittens, clearly only a few months old. A lady eating her lunch at the park gave them an avocado rind that they eagerly scraped clean. Who knew cats liked avocado?

You could park right at the start of the hike, which was a paved loop around the valley. The walk was just under half a mile, but the views were incredible. The pièce de résistance is a 442 foot waterfall, but the rest of the walk features beautiful, vibrant plants growing along the river, vines dangling over the water bearing beautiful flowers, and several other smaller waterfalls. Unfortunately, just after we began the walk it began to pour down rain. Did I say it didn't really rain in Hawaii? Boy, was I wrong. This was a monsoon. In just a couple of minutes Elly and I were completely drenched to the core. We were worried about the camera getting wet (we couldn't afford another replacement camera!), but we took what pictures we could, while Elly ingeniously sheltered the camera using a large leaf she found on the ground. Completely soaked to the core but still in good spirits we returned to the car to find that the heater in the rental car didn't work. We wrapped ourselves in towels for the drive home. While we never really got dry (my shirt is still soaked through nearly 6 hours later) we were warm enough in the 80 degree weather. In Colorado this time of year that drive would have been a death sentence!

As we pulled in to Kona I was snapping a frenzy of pictures out the car window. This had been the first clear-skied night during sunset that we'd had the whole trip! The second the car pulled to a stop I leapt out, scrambled into the condo, exchanged my sopping clothes for my dry swim trunks, and continued snapping pictures of the sunset from the beach. When I felt I'd gotten enough pictures I joined Elly in the jacuzzi. Every few minutes as the sky turned another shade I'd leap out, dry off my hands, and snap several more pictures. I continued to do this (jacuzzi, pictures, jacuzzi, pictures) until the camera had run out of batteries (we just charged it that morning!) then I switched to taking pictures from my phone until the sun was down below the horizon. Then we splashed around in the pool until full dark.

As I write this blog post Elly is preparing for the flight to Maui in the morning. She's packing the bag, making sure we eat all the remaining food in the condo, and trying to figure out what can be mailed home now so we have less to take on the plane. I'm going to go help her out now.

Tomorrow: Maui!

(I gotta do a little bragging here - B's photosphere of Lili'uokalani was accepted by Google Maps to appear on its [google maps'] official page when people search for/look at Lili'uokalani Gardens. Mah Man! -E)

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5942283175706286385

Kona - November 2, 2013

In spite of what I said in the previous post, we did not wind up seeing the Hilo sunrise. It turns out, one should not plan a sunrise viewing to follow the morning after star-gazing. There are some logistics there involving sleep patterns. Complicated stuff. Also, we realized that our helicopter trip leaves from Hilo, so we could save gas by doing both trips on the same day.

So instead of Hilo by sunrise, today was devoted primarily to catching up on our souvenir shopping. After breakfast we headed into town. One of the parking lots had been converted to a pseudo-permanent tent-city of souvenir shops and fruit stands. Some of the stands sold the made-in-china flea-market stuff, like plastic sandal keychains, etc. Multiple produce stands sold fresh fruits and vegetables. One shop featured genuine tiki woodcarvings, and you could watch the shopkeeper make more with a wood chisel and a hammer. We found many good souvenirs today.

For some reason Elly woke up irrationally grumpy. She knew she was being irrationally grumpy, which helps a lot. Everything we did sounded terrible, and the gifts we were buying probably weren't good, and it was too hot, and she didn't like the new car, and those pineapples were too fluffy. Nothing I could do was cheering her up. Some days you just have to have a good grumping, I guess.

Speaking of the new car: Elly came back from the rental place with a red Ford Fusion, with license plate beginning in ZAK. I like the name "Zack Fusion" because it sounds like the protagonist from a dumb kids cartoon on Fox. Elly hates the name "Zack Fusion" because it sounds like the protagonist from a dumb kids cartoon on Fox. So far we've just agreed on "Zack" something (but really, its obviously short for "Zack Fusion". Right? I know. Totally dumb and awesome).

We spent much longer at the tent city than it seemed, and by the time we wandered out of there with our overflowing bag we were quite hungry. We stopped at Seiji Brew Garden and Sushi for lunch. They had a sign on the street advertising teriyaki that had my mouth watering. I got the teriyaki ono, Elly had the tuna don. Both were very delicious! But Elly's was also dumb, and the sun was in her eyes, and the water had too much condensation on it, and we took too long shopping, and we probably should have spent more time shopping, and... I could have sworn some lunch would help, but sadly the grumping was still at full strength.

We wound up going in to a clothes shop that we could see from the sushi place because Elly liked one of the dresses she could see from the street. We went inside and Elly began browsing. We were immediately assaulted by an extremely helpful shopkeep who wouldn't take no for an answer... but somehow in a good way. She sent Elly into the dressing room with 5 dresses, including 2 that she knew she didn't like, but the shop keeper insisted that she try them on and see what she thought. This seemed like exactly the sort of thing that Elly would normally hate, but for some reason today it was okay. Somehow instead of being pushy, she was just friendly and helpful. Elly did come out of the dressing room with at least one victory, a purple, backless dress perfect for our Luau that night. She also came out with a big grin on her face; somehow, just like that, the grumps were gone!

After that we went to a swim suit shop that we had looked through on one of the first days we were in Kona, but we'd opted that day not to buy anything. Elly had a swim suit that had caught her eye that day and over the course of the following days she decided that it was the swimsuit that she wanted. While she was trying it on the shopkeeper and I chatted, mostly about Colorado. He'd heard about the flooding and Lyons and was interested in stories about it. In the end Elly found a suit that fit well, and we left with another successful purchase. We also left with a bag of tangerines and star-fruits fresh from the tree at his house. "Organic, pesticide free" he insisted. Oh, Hawaii, you so crazy. Star-fruits don't have a lot to offer in terms of taste: they're kind of sweet but bland. The texture is awesome, though. You eat the whole thing, seeds and all, after buffing off the waxy texture on the outside. I don't know how to describe the texture... but its very fun to eat.

We'd also been keeping an eye out for good, but not too expensive, Kona coffee for gifts. I'd been sampling coffee and keeping an eye on prices, and there was one place I'd selected as having great coffee, but being reasonably priced. They also did free shipping over a certain amount. We picked up several pounds of ground coffee, as well as a small bag of chocolate macadamias as a treat for ourselves.

On the way back to the car we were kind of overwhelmed by a man with parrots. As we were passing him on the street he began displaying his parrots, and talking quite quickly in broken English and an accent I couldn't place. Elly and I wound up both with a parrot on our arms, wearing prop leis, and grinning into a camera. See, the parrot guy ropes you in and gets you set up, then he calls over another guy to take your picture, then they charge you if you want to get them printed. The pictures turned out very good, especially one of just Elly with both parrots, so we were happy to take them home. It was a little bit of shady fast-talk, but the camera man was clearly quite professional. And its not every day you get to get your picture taken with a parrot.

After the parrot incident we stopped and watched the ocean for a bit, and we saw that in the mini bay down below the rocks were covered in palm-sized crabs! We wound up snapping several good pictures, but we weren't feeling brave enough to climb down the wall for a closer look. The rocks were positively covered in them, and the tide was at a level where it would splash the rocks but not take the crabs back out to sea. We spent awhile counting crabs and snapping pictures.

Finally back to the car, and it was time to leave again for the luau. The luau was at the Fairmont Orchid, the same resort where we had dinner at Brown's Beach House, which was a 40 minute drive away. Not much to report, except that we noticed something we hadn't seen before, though it must surely have been there. For a stretch of a few miles the lava rock on the side of the road was covered in signatures and symbols created by piling white stones against the black. There was stuff like "Bob was here" or "Bazinga" or "Class of 2009". There was also symbols like peace signs and hearts and the Hawaiian hand sign, "Shaka." I snapped pictures like crazy as we passed, but we didn't have time to stop, so most of them didn't turn out. I got at least 1 good one, though. Looking back through what I frantically snapped, I even got the symbol from the video game Half Life!

We arrived at the luau, were given a shell lei necklace, and placed at our table with a couple who was from Michigan. The bar was an open bar (included in price of admission) so Elly and I started with a Mai Tai each. She was driving, so I followed that with a couple more Mai Tais, then a beer at the end of the night. We didn't have a lot in common with the people we were sat with, but they were friendly enough. He told us a story of his octopus-phobic friend and the pranks they pulled on him during his bachelor days. Elly was on a roll, embellishing his story off-the-cuff octopus puns that had us all laughing. I think my favorite was "preoctopied."

There was an arts-and-crafts demonstration where four different groups of young people in Hawaiian garb would offer to teach you how to weave palm leaves, or how to do fire dancing, or how to do poi dancing, or you could get a traditional body-paint. Elly and I opted to learn to weave leaves, and after a short fun bit of weavery we each had a palm-tree angel fish on a pole.

Then it was time for dinner! The dinner was a buffet of food from four different polynesian islands: Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Samoa. There was also the traditional barbecue pig. There was poke, poi, many different kinds of seafood salads, and roast duck and chicken, and fruit salads, and on and on. Elly and I had just a tiny little bit of each dish, but it took us two full trays each to sample it all. Not everything was awesome, but most of it was really good. We were both very satisfied and VERY full by the time dessert came around.

Last call on drinks (I wound up ending the night with a local beer) and then it was time for the show to start! It began with a bang, with dancers moving between tables carrying torches and chanting. One guy was walking around on stilts. It was kind of a circus initially. After dancing amongst the diners they made their way to the stage, and over the course of the evening we were told a history of how the polynesians followed migratory birds into the sunrise, looking for paradise. And of how they eventually found New Zealand and thought "gee, it's actually getting kind of cold" and stopped. As they told the discovery of each island the dancers would come out in costumes appropriate to that island and perform a dance appropriate to the island. The luau, entitled "The Gathering of Kings" was focused on telling of the kings of each of the four isles. While the dancers performed, a King and his aide would stand at a separate platform, statue-still and spotlit, through the entire dance. Elly and I joked that it must be a pretty cushy job, except on nights where you have an itch.

The show was closed with a fire dancer, and a finale music number where all four kings came together... to stand statue-still while other people did all the work. The fire dancer was quite good, and several pictures turned out awesome!

Tired, and (in my case) a bit buzzed, we made the drive back to Kona and crawled immediately into bed. Tomorrow we really would make the drive to Hilo to see the sunrise. Really! I know this because I'm writing this post from the car at 4:30 the next morning.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5941933379584030513

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Kona - November 1, 2013

Between Elly still being sick (but getting better!) and needing to sleep in a bit, and the blog post and photos from yesterday taking an extra long time, and breakfast, we had a late start. We finally rolled out of Kona at 2:00 with an itinerary: more hiking at Volcanoes National Park, followed by some night-time stargazing at the Mauna Kea observatory.

Somewhere along the drive to Volcanoes we realized that the USB port in the car console let us play music from our phones on the car stereo system. We'd brought the cord to charge our phones but when Elly plugged hers in it started playing tracks from her phone automatically! We listened to music for awhile before Elly remembered that on my phone I had a John Scalzi audiobook, METAtropolis. The drive seemed to go much quicker after that!

We took a different route to Volcanoes this time than we did last time, cutting a route across the middle of the state and passing through Hilo. Instead of the fruit and coffee farms we saw going along the coast it was mostly wide highway going through grassy fields and desolate lava flats. Suddenly, though, we were out of the lava flats and into the jungle. We've heard people refer to Hawaii's dry side, or wet side, and the transition was kind of stunning. We were driving along at 55mph, and in the course of 30 seconds our scenery went from sparse grasses amongst the lava to dense, rainforest foliage.

Oh, and today was the first day of "bad" weather we've experienced in Hawaii.  Today it was... "rainy." Everywhere else I've been rainy means clouds in the sky, dripping down on you. Its weird: Today it was not so much that it was rainy as that the clouds had come down from the sky and settled on the ground. Most of our drive was through moderately dense fog, and occasionally for short bursts the mist would get thick enough it would fall out of the air around you. Very cool, but strange enough to be a bit unsettling. (And other infrequent rain bursts that puts all but the 100-year flood in Colorado to shame. -E)

When we arrived at the Park we were prepared for the inclement weather: Elly and her mom had gone shopping for rain suits before our trip. So while the other tourists were running for cover (literally) we were suiting up to begin a day of hiking. Enrobed in our rainsuits and camelbaks full, we headed out on the 'Iliahi Trail. This trail left directly from the visitor's center ran along the Caldera. Mostly it was just a pretty jungle walk in the rain, but occasionally there would be an overlook where you could just see the volcano and the surrounding lava flats peeking through the mist. And we were the only ones on the trail! It felt like our own secret hike, like we got to see a face of the volcano other people didn't get to see. It was very fun, and full of bird song. (We were the obnoxious nosey neighbors to a pair of Nene! They ran from us for a while before realizing they'd have to leave the trail to shake us. -E)

'Iliahi Trail met up with the Sulfur Banks Boardwalk. This started out as a gorgeous nature walk, winding through fields of orchids, following along steam vents, but eventually becoming a long boardwalk across the Sulfur Banks, large steam vents puffing out sulfuric gas, staining the surrounding rocks a bright, lurid green with sulfuric crystals. Another stretch through the jungle and then we were back at the visitors center. The entire hike was just under 2 miles.

It was dusky by then, so our hiking was over. On the way home we took a detour out to the Mauna Kea Observatory. We didn't go all the way to the observatory, but we stopped at the visitor's center and did some stargazing. At 9200 feet above sea level and a chilly 50 degrees above zero it felt like home! But we'd neglected to pack appropriate clothes for this leg of the journey, so we were a bit cold. Elly bought a pair of souvenir sweat pants from the gift shop. The gift shop had a lot of the typical observatory swag, but the enterprising Mauna Kea scientists thought to stock the place with Mauna Kea branded sweat pants, fleece jackets, hoodies, and blankets. They had nearly-boiling hot water freely available, but if you wanted to flavor it with powdered cider, coffee, or hot chocolate they were charging opportunity prices for the privilege. That gave me a chuckle, and it gave Elly a pair of comfy sweat pants with a story behind them.

The air was crystal clear high above the mountains and nearly an hour and a half from the nearest civilization. The view was breathtaking! Knowledgable staff configured telescopes to see specific stars or constellations. We observed the star Vega. They were also pointing out constellations with an amazingly powerful laser pointer with a beam as wide as your thumb that seemed to touch the stars themselves... which, I guess, technically it will many years from now. We stayed for maybe 15 minutes. It was cold, and once you've seen a sky that beautiful there isn't much to do but say "Dems some stars" if you don't have a specific goal in mind. So we did exactly that: signed the guest book with the comment "lookit dem stars" and headed back to Kona.

One final story before bed, though. Starting a day or two ago, the car began warning us "Change Oil Soon" every time we started it up. Just as we were pulling in to Kona it told us "Oil Life 0%" so we decided we'd better do something about it. Elly called Budget, and they said we should exchange the car for a new one, so she's doing that now. They said they could get someone to bring a car out to us, but that it would be a few hours before they could do that. We would like to get an early start tomorrow, so Elly is handling that herself now while I type the post. Goodbye Lucy Cruise! I wonder who our new traveling partner will be?

If everything goes according to plan, we'll be watching the sunrise over Hilo tomorrow.

Hikes
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwn0Nhn0wkPTalJnT0hZamVwTnM/edit?usp=sharing

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5941600114972341729

Friday, November 1, 2013

Kona - October 31, 2013

When we woke up it turned out that Elly's cold was even worse. So another day of mostly taking it easy. After a breakfast of cereal and passion fruits, we decided to visit the foodie mecca (according to our guidebook) of Waimea.

The drive out to Waimea was about an hour and a half of very beautiful countryside. About half way through the drive we started passing Hawaiian ranches, rolling hills covered in grasses. We also started being passed by pickup trucks. It looked and felt a lot more like Colorado than Hawaii.

We made one significant mistake on this day-trip: we left the guidebook at home! When we arrived at Waimea we were completely at a loss for what to do. Waimea is a tiny town. When we asked for directions they were given relative to the town's only stop light. And despite the guidebook's praise, this town was clearly not expecting much tourism. Google to the rescue! Some searching revealed Merriman's as the highest rated restaurant in town, and I recognized Brown's Beach House as something I had highlighted in the guidebook. So we now knew where we were eating, now we just had to figure out how to kill some time.

We found what we figured was the most dense population of interesting storefronts and got out of the car to stroll. We peeked in on gift/novelty shops, and a souvenir shop / art gallery called The Gallery of Great Things. The Gallery was fun and had some interesting things on display but was way out of our price range. There was a hand-carved frog-man about 3 inches high that I thought might be a good gift but the price tag ran over $2,000. So... Sorry Woggy, no frog-man for you.

We had an amusing encounter at one of the gift shops. We were looking around for things that we could bring back home, and Elly was coughing into her elbow occasionally. The gift shop lady became very nosy suddenly, wanting to know where Elly got her cough from, and how long she'd had it, etc. "We take these things very seriously here." she explained. I guess they don't have colds around here? I dunno. Anyway, once the interrogation was over she took a large glass jar off the shelf, reached in, and began sawing off a thumb-sized hunk of the tar-black goop contained within. "This ginger should help with your cold" she explained. Ginger? I'm used to ginger root, powdered ginger, candied or crystalized ginger, but we'd never before encountered this primordial, voodoo gooey lump. It tasted good though, (Elly let me try some) and it did have an immediate (but short) positive impact on Elly's congestion. After that we got iced coffee at The Waimea Coffee Company, which was very good.

1:00 finally rolled around, so we headed back to our car, and then to Merriman's. Everyone at the restaurant was dressed up for Halloween, which was really fun. Our server was Shieldmaiden Éowyn of the Horse Tribe (Lord of the Rings). We started with a pineapple iced tea and a Tahitian limeade ("Tahitian" means "with coconut" in this context) which were both very good. For lunch I had the Ahi poke (poh-KAY) bowl and Elly had a Chinese chicken wrap. They were both very delicious. Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish that is basically a salad made from seaweed and other vegetables, and cubes of raw, seasoned fish. I highly recommend it, if you ever have the chance to try it. My poke was served with macadamia rice, kim chee (essentially fermented, spicy cole-slaw), and a side salad. For dessert we had a crispy molten chocolate purse. It was a flourless chocolate cake, wrapped in phyllo-dough and baked. It was served with Tahitian vanilla ice cream (Tahitian in this context means "from Tahiti" not "with coconut") and drizzled with sea-salt caramel syrup. Absolutely fantastic!

At the end of our lunch we asked Éowyn what we might be able to do to kill time until dinner. The short answer was "not much," but she recommended we drive 30 minutes to see the Waipi'o Valley Overlook. So onward to Waipi'o Valley! A short way out of Waimea the drive went from ranch country to a dense, towering, seemly ancient forest. The trees lining the road almost completely shut out all sunlight, and they were easily the tallest trees I'd ever seen. We had to stop and get pictures. If you look in the photo you can see how tiny the cars are compared to the narrow, gigantically tall trees. Eventually the road broke through the trees and began following the coastline. Towering trees to our left, and the expansive blue ocean to our right... this was the drive to the overlook, not the overlook itself! We began to suspect that Waimi'o Valley was going to be well worth the trip.

We arrived at the overlook, and it was incredible! We stood near the top of an amazingly tall cliff, looking down into the beautiful, lush farmland below. A river (or stream, had to tell from this height) flowed through the valley and deposited into the ocean. The beach there was an expanse of sand that looked perfect for barefoot walks. There were only two ways into the valley: Four-wheel drive ("All-wheel drive NOT permitted," warned several signs) or on foot. Our little commuter car, Lucy Cruise, was definitely not equipped for the trip. So we began to stomp our way down the incredibly steep road, not so much a walk as a weary-kneed controlled fall. But beautiful! Every few hundred feet into the valley we'd get a completely different view, more beautiful than the last. We are sad to report that we didn't make the entire hike. About half-way down to the bottom we realized 1) this was a much deeper valley than we assumed from the top 2) The trail was going to deposit us deep into the valley, far from the beach 3) We weren't expecting this hike, and so we packed no water 4) Keen sandals, nice as they are, are not entirely appropriate footwear for a hike this challenging. So... we took one last batch of photos and began the uphill climb. Whew! Oh, man, we've been on plenty of hikes in our time, but this was one of the steepest! Certainly not actually the steepest hike I've been on (I think the Eldorado Canyon takes that honor. Its basically ALL steps, straight up the mountain!), but it didn't have any of the steps you'd expect on a climb that steep. It was a road, intended for cars, so we were walking on the balls of our feet walk the entire way.

When we finally arrived back at the car we were hot, and sweaty, and thirsty (so thirsty!). About 9 miles previous to the overlook we had driven through a little town. Our next destination: Gatorade. We enjoyed an air-conditioned drive back to this town, bought something to drink, and looked in on the little shops there. We found several good souvenirs to bring back home. It was nearing sunset as we left town, and the children were turning out in costume to trick-or-treat. It was very cute! If I ever get boring I'll think I'll move back there to die. It seems like a very peaceful place to live.

6:00 reservation at Brown's Beach House. Nothing to report about the drive back, except that it was as beautiful the second time as the first. Brown's Beach House was about 20 minutes outside Waimea, at the Fairmont Orchid resort. The Fairmont was super fakey. Instead of the lush, untamed folliage we've seen everywhere else (even in the hotel and restaurant districts of Kona) it was all watered lawns dotted with evenly-spaced palm trees. Very Walmart/Disney/McDonalds. Yuck. But also wow. The grounds were gorgeous and utterly perfect. I'm glad we're staying in a resort for the last couple days. They seem intensely relaxing, and pampering, and possibly a good transition back to our Regional Transportation Department, Starbucks, King Soopers, Netflix, 9-to-5-at-a-desk lives we'll be returning to.  But that's for a later day!

Brown's Beach House was an open-air restaurant overlooking the ocean. Our table was maybe 20 yards from the surf. The food was great! It was definitely in the world of tiny portions and massive tabs, but it was exquisite. We started with an Ahi poke appetizer that was really good, better than Merriman's. The server warned us that the seaweed was a strong flavor, and that several other tables had sent it back because it was overwhelming when you aren't expecting it. We said we were feeling adventurous, bring it on! It wasn't an issue at all. In fact, I'm not really sure what is wrong with those stuffy people. You could definitely taste it, but it wasn't any stronger than your typical sushi. Whiny, stuffy resort people. Sheesh. For entree I had the wild boar rack (amazing!) and Elly had the citrus lavender scented ono. For dessert, I had the tropical fruit ceviche, and Elly had lemongrass pot de creme. They were both very delicious! Mine was a bit weird, but very good. It was a 1/4 inch thick sheet of rich jello-y custard, served with fresh fruit. Dessert came with pineapple short-bread cookies. If you want a fancy meal in Hawaii, I can't imagine anywhere is going to top Brown's. The service was attentive, the view and atmosphere was incredible, the food was delicious, and the cocktails were strong. I can never quite relax at a restaurant that fancy, though. The staff is pristinely polite and attentive, but never friendly. I don't know. Elly and I left very satisfied, but both feeling a bit odd. Maybe it was just the Disney-tamed Resort atmosphere. I dunno. A bit creepy.

One thing that was interesting and cool about the resort was that many cats (we saw at least 5, just between the parking lot and Brown's) roamed the resort freely. One cat, a scrawny gray cat with a torn ear, repeatedly visited our table. This may be in part because Elly let him have several licks of pot de creme from her finger. They seemed accustomed to people, but not entirely socialized like you would expect from a pet. I wonder what the story is there? (But not, apparently, enough to Google it.)

It was an hour or so night-drive back to Kona, then immediately to bed.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5941417399390459825

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Kona - October 30, 2013

Elly's bug from yesterday, contrary to our hope that it'd dissipate quickly, took a more solid foothold today. Elly's really bad about drinking water at the best of times, and with the tap water here tasting a bit off she's even less likely. So in an effort to drink more fluids she took her barely-dented camelbak pouch filled with store-bought filtered water to bed with her last night and snuggled it like a teddy bear, periodically nursing from it... very much unlike a teddy bear. However, she didn't show any improvement upon waking up, so we decided today we'd take it easy.

To start things off we had cereal for breakfast and caught up on internet comics and such. Nothing really to report there. In fact, we have so little to report, that nothing at all happened between breakfast and when we started getting hungry for lunch. We consulted our guidebook and decided on Rapanui Island Cafe. Apparently they have really good curry. We drove most of the way, found some rare free parking on the street and opted to walk the rest of the way. When we got there, however, it was closed. Lunch ended at 2, and dinner didn't start until 5 (another hour away). So... No curry for us. We walked a while, bought some post cards along the way, and eventually settled on The Fish Hopper as a spontaneous alternative lunch site. This turned out to be a really good choice. Elly had the seafood pasta Monterey, and I had the fish trio. Oh man. So freaking delicious. I also had a cocktail called "Bright and Shiny": gin and ginger beer. This is a variant on the rum drink "Dark and Stormy." I think this might be my new favorite cocktail. Though, that may well be because a cocktail at The Fish Hopper is served in a pint glass. Yowza.

After lunch we had a leisurely stroll back to the car, stopping in some shops along the way looking for possible gifts. There is a coffee shop we're probably going to return to for some Kona coffee. We also stopped for some shaved ice. I had lime, coconut, guava and Elly had lychee, passion fruit, pineapple. We also stopped at an open-air produce market and bought some passion fruit, and some supplies for dinner that night. We took a short drive out to Safeway and KTA and bought more diner supplies.

Nothing except shopping happened between lunch and dinner. I said we were taking it easy, right? Yeah. We were taking it really easy.

Dinner was fantastic! We had a grass-fed, Hawaiian beef steak with a cabernet garlic reduction, and a pineapple macadamia pilaf. The steak may well be the most flavorful I've ever had, and the pilaf is definitely going to become a regular dinner recipe at home.

We capped things off some dessert and another episode of The Fringe watched in bed.

Ah, vacation! Hopefully Elly is feeling better tomorrow, I'd hate to have to have such a laid-back, relaxing day again! That would just about be the worst thing ever!

Photos
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5940824836799143281

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Kona - October 29th, 2013

Elly woke up sick. It seems she's caught my cold. Its not very bad, just sniffles and such, we're hoping it stays that way.

We'd mostly packed for our hike the night before, so all we had to do was put our store-bought sandwiches from the fridge into our bags and go have breakfast. On our first day, the guy at the car rental place gave us a coupon for Daylight Mind Coffee Company, and said they had great waffles. That sounded like a pretty good place for our pre-hike breakfast.  I had a vanilla bean waffle with strawberries and Elly had the stuffed french toast. They were both pretty good, but nothing to write home about. (Ironic sentence.) Elly's hot chocolate came with milk-foam art, which is always fun. My coffee was 100% Kona, and brewed by the cup. Very delicious. The thing that made breakfast awesome was eating right on the ocean. The sound of the surf and the breeze was very invigorating; it made me want to get straight to the hike!

On the walk back to the car we got stopped by a jewelry booth. The saleswoman said "Good morning! How was your breakfast?" as we passed, and somehow we magically got sucked right in. Her shop was called Blue Water Fantasies, and she had a lot of beautiful stuff made from Hawaiian stones and woods. We browsed a bit and picked up a couple of pieces that we think will make good gifts. I cool looking worry-stone for my desk.

Breakfast and surprise shopping out of the way, we began the drive toward Volcanoes National Park. The drive was very scenic. I was beginning to suspect that the beautiful plants and flowers along the streets of Kona were just a cultivated city thing (which of course they are) and that when we got out of town things would be a lot less pretty. Boy was I wrong. If anything, the streets of Kona are only barely taming the wild rainforest they are encroaching upon. All along the 2 hour drive to the park was beautiful trees and flowers, interrupted occasionally by the tiny fruit and coffee farms that dotted the coast.

At one point we crested a hill and the beauty of the ocean unfolding before us became too much and we had to stop at a well placed lookout to take a panorama. It was during this stop that Elly noticed we had some kind of a leak under our car. A fair-sized puddle had accumulated under the car and begun running down the hill. She got on her hands and knees and could see that there was a regular drip coming down from somewhere. My sleuthing determined that the fluid didn't have any distinct texture, color, or odor/flavor, so I deduced that it was likely water. Still... it was dripping pretty fast. We elected to drive on, but to keep a close eye on our gauges.

Soon we arrived at the Kilauea Visitor's Center. We headed in and explained to a park ranger that we were looking for a long, challenging hike that we could complete before dark, and did she have any she could recommend? She told us that what she recommended initially was a 1 mile ranger-guided hike that would be leaving in 3 minutes. We dashed to the car, traded our horrible, flip-floppy devil-shoes for some hiking boots and joined the group just in time. The hike was basically a nature walk along a paved trail, but it gave the ranger an opportunity to point out some of the more common plants, and to orient us to the park. We learned about some of the hazards we might find on the more challenging hikes, and we learned about some park history, and we learned about pig gates. This is probably the most interesting, and eye opening, thing I learned about on the walk. Early on in the western-civilization habitation of the island, the settlers brought pigs with them. Occasionally a pig would escape and become feral. Feral pigs would breed more feral pigs, and now the island has a bit of a feral pig problem. The pigs LOVE the roots of a certain kind of fern, and they'll dig holes in the ground and eat up the root. These cup-shaped holes will fill with water, which will then become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The mosquitoes become a vector for the rapid spread of avian malaria, and because of that (and other factors) several species of Hawaiian birds are now extinct. People → Pigs → Ferns → Mosquitoes → Malaria → No more birds. Very sad. So, along many of the trails you will encounter gates that are meant to keep pigs out. Large sections of the park are gated off, and in these gated off sections they corner the pigs and remove them.

Anyway, orientation now over we seek out a real hike. After chatting with a ranger we settled on Kīlauea Iki followed by the Thurston Lava Tube. This required us to go back to the car, because the trail head was a short drive away. When we got back to the car, there was another large puddle under our car. After a second inspection Elly determined that whatever was leaking we were now out of, because the drip had stopped completely. So, with fears that our hiking day was now ruined, I called Budget's roadside assistance while Elly and I ate the first of our packed sandwiches. A short conversation with them concluded that it was probably nothing to worry about. When you run the AC in your car it can get very cold, and here in the tropics there is so much humidity that you can get large buildups of condensed ice around these parts. When you stop running the AC it begins to melt off immediately. So, probably nothing to worry about, but we should keep an eye on things. Now that I know about it, I'm seeing these AC puddles everywhere in covered parking garages.

Whew! Crisis averted. To the trail! Kīlauea Iki trail begins at the rim of a volcanic crater. You descend via switchbacks through 400 feet of rainforest to the surface of the crater where you cross volcanic lake which is still steaming 54 years after its spontaneous creation. Then you hike back up 400 feet to the trailhead.

Wow.

The initial hike down was pretty incredible. Everywhere we looked was lush, green foliage punctuated by spiky, red flowers or purple and white orchids. Sink-holes and cracks regularly dot the trail, plunging deep into the earth but still filled with new life. Birdsong filled the air. Eventually we got to the bottom to the volcanic lake. That was a whole other experience. A vast, desolate, gray-black pit in the earth, with vents of steam wafting into the air all around. One does not simply hike into Mordor. On first impression the crater was very bleak. We headed out across the surface of the lake, connecting the dots from Ahu to Ahu (stacks of rocks that act as trail guides). When we got out far enough that we were surrounded by lake on all sides, we could see the surface was made of a tessellation of large, car-sized bulges in the lava, kind of like the surface of a pineapple. In the valleys between these bubbles the lava would often split apart, and in the shade of these splits new life was taking root. Lots of little plants and flowers were springing up everywhere, if you knew where to look.

At the end of a long, unsheltered trek we were back to the shade of the rainforest. (I was actually surprised that this part of the hike wasn't hot at all, actually. I'd anticipated sweltering and being utterly (comparatively) miserable, but turns out that while the color black may collect heat, the altitude and cloud cover that day had resulted in a very manageable temperature for our hike. -E) We'd figured out part way through that we were actually doing the hike backwards, and on the uphill we found out why. This side was much steeper than the way we took in. Hooo! But we're no strangers to an uphill hike, and we tackled it with a minimum of resting. I gotta say, though, when it comes to exertion I prefer Colorado hikes: A difficult uphill hike rewarded with an easy downhill to get back home. Hawaii has that all backwards.

Next was an extremely short hike through the Thurston Lava Tube. This large cave was formed as lava flowed through, cooling around the outside, but leaving fast enough to not cool in the center. This left a natural tunnel of lava rock you can easily walk through without ducking. The pictures are really not going to do this justice. (Branden made the comment on the way to the tube, "The birds sound so Disney; this sorta seems like a ride in Disneyland, like 'small world' or whatever." Once we got to the tube, that feeling got stronger. It actually feels a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean, but if you can keep the authentic-ness in mind, it's... just stunning. -E) If you are in Hawaii and you don't have time for a hike, the two things you absolutely MUST see is the Thurston Lava Tube, and the Kīlauea Caldera. Both of these can be seen only a couple minutes walk from your car, and they are truly awesome: both in the "whoa, cool" sense and the "awe-inspiring, kind of scary" sense.

The entirety of our hiking that day was about 5 miles. We didn't bother recording the visitor's center hike, but we recorded the rest of the hike via GPS. You can check out our route under "Hikes" below. Turn on satellite view to see actual pictures of the surface we saw, its pretty awesome.

Elly's phone battery ran out just as we ended our hike, because she was GPS recording. Our camera battery was on its very last tick, after nearly 3 full days of photos. My phone had enough juice to navigate us home, but only just. Our human-batteries were pretty close to empty as well. On the route home we ate our second sandwich and nearly a full bag of Maui Onion potato chips. Oh man, are those things tasty! They're very similar to sour-cream and onion chips, but kind of sweet. (They taste like caramelized onions, IMHO. -E) Very delicious, especially in context. We decided that our sandwiches and chips probably counted as dinner, so when we got home we had a bit of ice cream, watched an episode of The Fringe on Elly's laptop, and went straight to bed.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Hikes
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwn0Nhn0wkPTWS1NVUVaby1IbFE/edit?usp=drivesdk

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5940694298431429841?authkey=CL2j-fb2uo_M0QE

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Kona - October 28th, 2013

My day started (technically) at 6:15 am when Elly's mom decided she really wanted to talk to us. Simple mathematical mistake on her part (she thought we were a few hours later than we were) with a simple solution on my part: slap the phone until it STFU.

In reality, our day began closer to 7:30 when Elly and I both woke up naturally. We really do intend to sleep in a bit, but I think we're still on Colorado sleep schedules. This is particularly weird for me, because I'd been up until 1:30 the previous night getting our photos uploaded via our ancient, finicky SD card reader. But 7:30 came, and apparently we'd slept enough.

Before breakfast Pat called back, which conversation became a "Premium Members Only" version of the previous day's blog post. After that I decided to give my Gramma a call, because she's basically the expert on Hawaii, having vacationed here for many years. And my long-time (kind of long-lost) friend Nate initiated a random text conversation. So our morning wound up being a leisurely and social.

Breakfast was another scramble, this time more Italian themed. We didn't get out the door until after noon!

The adventure of the day was snorkeling at Kahalu'u Beach: "The best beach in Kona" according to our guide book. After driving about 10 minutes down a mostly rocky coastline its very easy to believe that the tiny patch of course sand is the best beach in Kona. Kona's rocky shores are nothing like the endless miles of soft, sandy beach I'm used to on the west coast. The Kona beach has its rewards though, as we'll soon see.

We set up a base camp with our towels and sought out rental equipment. The snorkle rental is run by a non-profit focused on preserving the coral reef in the area. After a brief orientation explain all the do's and don'ts, the nature of coral, and the environmental impact of its destruction, we were ready to go.

Following the instructions we were given, we waded out into the ocean until we were about waist deep, then donned our fins. Then we lay flat on our bellies, masks in the water, and flippered our way west toward the Phillipines. We didn't have to go more than about 20 feet out before we were directly above a living coral reef!

We held hands and swam shoulder to shoulder so that we could point particularly interesting fish out to each other, and "mfff mrr muh margle!" exclamations of appreciation. It was fun and romantic, and I betcha we looked pretty cute. The scene unfolding below us was truly incredible, like visiting another world. Despite the fact that we could still quite clearly see shore (you could almost make out the lettering on the Shaved Ice kart) it was like watching an oceanographic documentary. Schools of dozens of large, yellow fish cut their way through the water a foot or two away from us, unconcerned with our presence. We saw twos and threes of at least a dozen other kinds of fish: tiny white-with-black-spots fish, larger ebony-with-electric-blue-trim fish,  a nearly translucent pale blue fish, and on and on. We even saw a massive moray eel that must have been at least five feet. Elly went chasing him around the reef a bit. We must have spooked him because he made direct eye contact with us, chomped in our direction a few times, and then swam right for us! Under and behind (I wonder what an eel bite feels like) but it was still pretty intimidating.

Mostly we just swam around following interesting fish, but we had to be very mindful of the coral. We couldn't go to shallow or we'd risk "finning" the reef and hurting it, and if you ever got tired you had to be very careful to only stand on rocky/sandy bottoms. Following all these rules definitely got a bit challenging when a wave would suddenly take us many feet in a direction you weren't intending and we'd wind up deposited directly over a hunk of live coral the size of a car. We were never in any danger of rubbing against the coral with our bodies (we weren't cutting it that close!) but there were definitely times when we didn't feel comfortable kicking our fins or paddling our arms to swim away. In these cases we'd just wait for the next wave to send us away again.

After a long snorkel we decided to head back to the beach for a snack. The Shaved Ice booth had a wide variety of beach snacks, but they were cash only, and I was lucky to be carrying any at all (but I was able to dig an emergency fiver out of the back of my wallet). So Elly and I split a small pineapple/raspberry shaved ice with enough left over to leave a tip. Rehydrated and a little sugar buzzed we decided to go for another circuit around the reef. We didn't see anything new we hadn't scene on the first trip, but the second time around was almost as good as the first.

Tired, sun-soaked, and salty, we made our way back home for lunch. Today we had the other two Ahi steaks with leftover papaya basil sauce. I decided to cook the steaks rare today, which wound up being a good choice I think. Quite delicious.

Our tired limbs and heavy bellies threatened to drag us deep into the couch (or the bed!) but we fought the urge; we had a mission. Our snorkel adventure had taught us an important lesson about beach footwear: our haole Keen sandals weren't going to cut it on the beach. As great as they were poolside, or on the Boulder Creek Trail, they trapped course volcanic sand tight against your foot, and they were absolutely MISERABLE to try to slide on-and-off as you transition back-and-forth between fins and sandals. So: The order of the day was flip flops. The guidebook had clearly told us we needed to pack 'em, but for some reason we didn't believe. (I'd always planned on buying them once we got here. -E)

Our quest sent us on foot from the condo back to the shopping centers. Today in the full afternoon sun it was very easy to appreciate how beautiful the walk is. Flowers and lush green plants line both sides of the street. One of the hedges had three different colors of flowers all on the same plant. Elly caught a glimpse of a spiderweb as we passed a large hedge and we both nearly jumped when we saw a large, bad ass looking spider tending the web. We took a bunch of pictures as we walked.

Flip flops were readily available from a wide variety of stores, but we spent a while wandering around trying to find the proper blend of comfort, quality, and thrift. We settled on some mid-range, two-tone flip flops made of Crocs-like material. I think they'll suit our needs just fine. We gave them a test run on the walk back and neither of us were gushing blood by the end of it. We both HATE the feel of flip flops, but we're hoping that regular but limited use will build up the appropriate callous, or whatever has to happen to make those devil-shoes comfortable.

Before the walk back, though, we also picked up a couple of other spontaneous accessories to treat ourselves. I picked up a straw fedora with a blue hat band, and Elly acquired a pink plastic flower on a clip for her hair.

After a pleasant walk home we drove out to Target. The finicky card reader we were using had gotten obnoxious enough that it was worth paying $8 for a new one (I don't want to be staying up until 1:30am again) and the additional megapixels of the replacement camera were eating up our ancient 1GB SD card in the course of a single outing.

From there we went to Safeway for some hiking food: sandwiches, trail mix, etc. We also opted to pick up a couple gallons of drinking water, because we're finding that the island water (and a fair amount of island food) all tastes a bit sulfury. I guess that makes sense, right? Colorado is world renowned for our glacier-fresh drinking water, and Hawaii is known for volcanos. The water isn't nasty (it doesn't bug me that much) but Elly figured it was worth picking up some fresh water for our hike tomorrow.

Without bothering to take our groceries home (in the evening dark we're down to a positively chilly 83 farenheit) we headed to Jackie Rey's for dinner. The restaurant was recommended in our guidebook as being the "top pick" restaurant in Kona, and Jackie's made good on their promise. We had a crab cake appetizer that was easily the best I've ever had. Elly had a saffron seafood risotto that was incredibly good, and I had the special: blackened ono with purple mashed potatoes, sauteed veggies, served on a Jackson Pollock painting of three different sauces. Dessert was a liliko'i (Hawaiian for passion fruit) cheesecake that was fantastically fluffy and creamy.

Getting pretty tired now, we head home to ready our pack's for the morrow's hike. Elly is doing research on the trail while I type this post. Goodnight, friends and family. Tomorrow: Volcano!

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5940024252414621217?authkey=CJDR7vDJw-jj3AE

Monday, October 28, 2013

Kona - October 27th, 2013

We slept for a little over 10 hours, which had us waking up at the wholly inappropriate (for a Sunday) hour of 7:30. So, despite being extremely well rested, we got an early start on the day. And my cold was mostly over! No Day-Quil Zombie Branden in Hawaii! Things were looking up.

For breakfast I scrambled up some eggs, cream cheese, chicken-apple sausage, and onions, topped with avocado and mozzarella. We didn't have cooking spray or butter, but somehow I didn't burn it permanently onto the pan. A side of orange-mango juice and Kona coffee rounded out the breakfast. Quite a delicious way to start the day, if I do say so myself.

We retook our "Lol, Colorado clothes" picture from the day before because the first one was pretty badly washed out. We met our neighbors again, but this time I was with-it enough to exchange names. Hi and Judy, a friendly retired couple. Apparently they come here and stay in Castle Kona Reef every year. Apparently the ground-floor units are the nicest, because they were all wiped out by the tsunami from a few years ago (the same one that hit Japan) and had to be remodeled. I had to explain why we were dressed in Colorado chic again... They probably think the snow has addled our brains.

We got back into Island clothes and went for a walk on the "beach" outside our patio. It had ZERO sand, just bare black volcanic rock leading to the ocean. There were cool little tide pools in the rocks filled with tiny shell-fish, hermit crabs, and other ocean cuties. I was remembering the Oregon coast from my childhood: "Never turn your back to The Ocean." That was something I was taught while living there, but despite many verbal warnings I still nearly drowned when a sudden wave took me out to sea. The wave's lesson stuck with me a bit better than my parents' lesson did, so 20+ years later I was still wary. So while Elly scuttled around snapping photos, I kept an eye on the waves.

The water wasn't even brushing our sandals initially, but I saw a larger wave coming. I warned Elly, and we both braced for impact. Elly clutched the camera tight to her body, both hands enveloping it to protect it from spray. The wave hit really low, just over ankle deep, but as it crashed against the surrounding rock it was throwing spray well over head height. And, of course, despite Elly's vigilant protection, it totally wiped out the camera. The screen flashed a countdown timer and some psychedelic colors, then gasped its last.

That put us in a slightly bad mood, but we would not be deterred from enjoying paradise! We slathered on sunscreen and left the house in Lucy Cruise with several shopping goals in mind: 1) Replacement Canon PowerShot. 2) Fresh local fruit. 3) Ahi tuna for a lunch recipe. 4) A sundress for Elly, and an "authentic" Hawaiian shirt for me. The camera was easily (and somewhat inexpensively) replaced. It is a slightly better model (more megapixels, and terra-flops, and gewgaws) than the one we lost to the sea. The only fault is that it only came in blue, and Elly preferred black; people don't notice you taking their picture with a black camera, which helps with candid shots.

From Target we went to the Kona International Marketplace. It contained a tiny, japanese grocery, where we bought a pineapple, some papayas, another avocado, a bag of small tomatoes, and a red pepper. We also bought a couple of delicious asian beverages. Elly had lychee-coconut (it had floaty chunks in) and I had a milk-tea. As we sipped our beverages we wandered the market. It seemed like most of the stores were clothing, or gifts, or antiques. We found a clothes store we liked and bought Elly a pretty blue-green-brown sundress with metallic-silver patterns, and I got a blue Hawaiian shirt that Elly accuses of being exactly like all my other shirts. She's right, of course, but I love blue, what can I say?

All our objectives accomplished, except for fish. We went to KTA Superstore, a local grocery that our guidebook recommended. There we picked up the tuna, basil, and a few other essential lasties that had been neglected up to that point. We also got chocolate-toffee macadamia nuts, which were AMAZING. We will definitely be picking up a bunch more as gifts, and probably keeping some for ourselves.

An interesting quirk of Hawaii: everywhere charges for grocery bags, and many places give a rebate for using reusable bags. So we picked up a couple reusable bags. It feels just like home! Now we just have to forget them every time we go anywhere, lol.

Back home to begin lunch preparation. Today's lunch: Grilled ahi with papaya-basil sauce. We bought a bottle of pineapple wine (not pineapple flavored... made from 100% pineapples!) which we used in the sauce. The wine was combined with papaya, shallots, mushrooms, cream, and butter. After reducing the sauce until thick it was supposed to be blendered, but it turns out our blender was broken. We made due by just chopping it to mush. We grilled the tuna then served it on a bed of pineapple rings, and topped it with the sauce. The lunch was then served with glasses of the aforementioned pineapple wine. Quite delicious!

After lunch we cleaned up the mess that had accumulated in the 24 hours since we moved in and wrote our first blog post (yesterday's).

Then... onto the main event! We had scheduled a night snorkeling with manta rays. Meetup was at 5:00, but Elly and I got there about 20 minutes early. So did the other couple that was scheduled for that night, which meant we got to leave a bit early (and ultimately, to swim a bit longer). The other couple (whose names I forget!) were from Ontario. More friendly Canadians!

Everyone loaded up onto the boat, and after a short orientation we set sail! Er... set motor. Whatever a speed boat does. Once we got out of the harbor, the boat went "wiki-wiki" (Hawaiian for fast!) to the reef where we would be having our swim. I think this MIGHT be the first time I've ever been on a boat. Sitting at the front of the boat, with ocean spray in my face and wind in my hair... it was incredible. Elly kept chuckling at the giant grin plastered on my face.

We got out to the reef where several other boats where "anchored", and received some more orientation while we awaited nightfall. I say "anchored", because you don't anchor to the reef, because of the damage you could do to the habitat there by dropping anchor. Instead there are several underwater buoys that are permanently chained to the bottom that a boat can anchor to, by sending a diver down to tie the boat to (about 30 feet down). Other boats (often from competing companies) will then tie themselves to those boats. Despite all being in business against each other, the various boats all work together in a friendly way, calling out to each other by first name and asking about the conditions. It reminded me of the coyote and sheepdog cartoons, except in reverse; friendly after they clock into the job, but at each other's throats when they're on land.

Anyway, we got dressed up in our swim-ninja suits and slid into the water. The four of us bobbed on our stomachs with our masks under water, and gripped the sides of a modified surf-board. The board had a tube frame around the outside and holes drilled into it that were mounted with 8 ultra-bright led flashlights facing down into the water. This downward-facing light (which included UV spectrum) would summon plankton, which would in turn summon mantas. Below us in the water were scuba divers, who had upward facing "campfire" lamps they would sit around, which summoned more plankton, which summoned more mantas.

It was quite an experience. The light show summoned and illuminated snowy clouds of plankton, which summoned massive manta rays that did rolls and summersaults inches from us. In fact, Elly was brushed against by mantas several times: at one point, a manta somersaulted so close by that his long, skinny tail brushed against her goggles; on the following twirl his mouth fin nudged her goggles as well. Then, two manta rays almost ran into each other; one came very very close to bumping Elly's face and the other ran right into her. She kinda freaked. It was incredible! For some reason they didn't seem as interested in bumping and grinding on me. There were also many large schools of smaller fish that would feed on the plankton whenever the mantas weren't hogging it all. Its kind of hard to describe. It was amazing. Elly and I returned from the trip abuzz, but I can't capture the experience in my description here.

If you're ever in Hawaii, I highly recommend this trip. We went with Coral Reef Adventures, and they were GREAT. They were very attentive to us newbies, and they were very fun, but also very professional.

On the return trip we chatted with our Canadian friends about the trip, and about ourselves. It turns out that he was a D&D nerd back in the day, so we had some amusing common ground.

After a quick rinse and a change of clothes, Elly and I left the condo on foot to get a bite to eat. After wandering a bit we settled on a tiny, kind of crazy place called Kanaka Kava. They were highly reviewed in the guide book we're reading; I don't think we would have tried it otherwise. Kanaka is basically a short bar, with a couple of nearby tables, and the entire restaurant revolves around the kava bowl. Kava is a beverage made from a Hawaiian root of the same name, and it is a mild muscle relaxant. It was also touted as having other powers, such as "opening the mind". I think we probably would have declined to try it, but the guide book recommended it, so we figure it can't be TOO severe. And anyway, we're on vacation, right?

Kava is a suspension: the powered root is mixed in water, but it doesn't dissolve. It is served out of a large bowl, which is stirred to get the suspension evenly distributed, then ladled into coconut shells. You are then supposed to chug the drink quickly before the suspension settles, and on an empty stomach for best effect. Elly and I each had a shell-full. The taste was weird, and a little unpleasant, and it immediately numbed our lips and tongue. The numbing faded quickly, but Elly decided that she'd had enough. I had a second shell in the hopes of feeling a bit more of a kick, but I don't think anything other than my tongue was significantly more relaxed than when I came in. Then again, we came here after bobbing on our stomachs in the ocean for an hour, so maybe we were about as relaxed as you can get.

Kava may have been so-so, but the food there was incredible! I had the fish plate, with sides of Kalua pork and Squid luau. Elly had the same, but instead of squid she had breadfruit. All the food was absolutely wonderful! If you ever go, definitely don't skip the pork; its probably the best pork I've ever had. I doused mine in some of the homemade chili-water, but Elly ate hers as-served. We both enjoyed our meals quite a bit.

On the return walk home I stopped at "Huggo's On the Rocks" for a Mai Tai. Huggo's is a bar right on the edge of the water that has fine sand instead of an actual floor. We got there right at last call (10:00pm... And I thought Durango rolled up its streets early!), but still in enough time to enjoy a drink and the last Johnny Cash cover song from the live band. I definitely want to go there a bit earlier next time, that place seems pretty awesome.

Back at the condo I spent a little time crouched on the rocks watching the waves roll in. The lava-rock beach was now coated in about 3 layers of fine white sand. Apparently that beach has a completely different personality depending on what time of day you go out there. Along with the sand was lots of palm-sized hunks of white rock in organic-looking shapes that I assume is/was coral. I grabbed a couple of the more interesting looking pieces as souvenirs.

Elly crashed out pretty much immediately, but I stayed up long enough to write this post.

Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5939763222745067393?authkey=CNLMiOi1z-zwbg