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
Thursday, October 31, 2013
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
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
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
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
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Aloha Colorado, Aloha Hawaii: Kona - October 26, 2013
The plan was to catch the 8:43am AB from Westminster to DIA. There was no 8:43 bus, it being a Saturday. I was also battling a monster cold, and that wasn't in the plan either. But fortunately Elly's Mom was in town to visit us and see us off, so she was able to give us a ride to the airport. She was herself battling a migraine, so things were off to a rocky start all around. We made it onto our flight on time, and with enough time left over to buy an airport breakfast burrito and some OJ, so we weren't complaining.
The flight was pleasant enough despite (or possibly because of) the fact that I was a Day-Quil zombie. Elly tells me one of the restrooms went out-of-order half-way through the flight. I also remember her showing me how our window cover was extremely hot to the touch. I remember eating an $9 sandwich that tasted like a $2 sandwich. Mostly I remember that our aisle had an empty seat, so Elly and I were able to stretch out a bit, which was very nice. The flight went quickly (for me, Day-Quil Zombie, but also for Elly) and we arrived 15 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to.
As our flight descended to the Kona Airport, the view we saw initially was pretty desolate. As far as we could see was craggy fields of black volcanic rock. I didn't know quite what to expect, but this was definitely not it. We touched down at Kona Airport, and as we exited the jet the humid, hot Hawaiian air slapped us in the face like a giant fish. We left Colorado dressed appropriately, and landed in HI dressed extremely inappropriately. 85 degrees and humid, and we haoles (HAH-oo-leh: foreigner) are dressed in multiple layers underneath our jackets, with the sun beating directly on us from the moment we exited the jet. The Kona airport is entirely outdoor, and really awesome. All of the usual airport stuff (baggage claim, information, etc) was basically just little booths, or underneath canopies. We were exhausted and not taking any pictures, but we'll remedy that as we fly out.
Fortunately, baggage claim and car rental went smoothly and relatively quickly. We drove off in a dark-gray Chevy Cruze, which we promptly nick-named "Lucy Cruise" because the license began in "LCY". Lucy Cruise turned out to be a manual-transmission hybrid, something I didn't even know existed. As we waited for Lucy to get driven out to us we made friends with a Canadian yoga instructor. We neglected to exchange names somehow; I think we all expected our meeting to be a lot shorter than it was. We wound up waiting for probably 15-20 minutes for them to bring the car around. This was when I began to suspect that Island Time is a bit slower than Colorado Time.
The drive to the condo took about 15 minutes. It would have been a lot shorter, but the speed limit was 30mph for most of it, slowing to 15m on Ali'i street, the main drag that takes us to the condo. Apparently the speed limits are on Island Time as well.
We got to the condo, and there was a "Be back soon" sign on the manager's office. "Soon" turned out to be another 20 minutes, with Elly and I sweltering in our Colorado layers. When the manager finally showed, though, he turned out to be very professional and friendly. Ironically, one of the reasons he wasn't in the office is because he was putting a key in a lock box on our room.
The condo turned out to be worth the wait! The room is absolutely beautiful. All the furniture is pale bamboo and dark polished wood. The floors are flagstone that feels really good on bare feet. The kitchen is well stocked with pots and pans, full sets of dishes, an 8-spice rack. The ceiling fans in the living-room and bedroom are really cool: they are woven fan blades made of some kind of dark lacquered reeds. The kitchen island has an attached bar for breakfast or whatever, but its clear that the main eating area is intended to be the porch outside. The condo also has a dishwasher, and clothes washer and dryer, so we're not even sacrificing any of the comforts of home. We're RIGHT on the ocean: As I write this post from the living-room I could easily frisbee this laptop through our sliding glass door, over the porch, and directly into the ocean surf. Don't test me, I'll do it!
Once we got unpacked, the first thing we did was go out past our porch and get a picture of ourselves still in our Colorado clothes, just to demonstrate the absurdity of it. While we were out there we met our next-door neighbor. We chatted a bit (I felt the need to explain that we weren't crazy) but I was so exhausted I neglected to introduce myself.
We went out to Target to buy some bare-minimum supplies: eggs, sausage and veggies for a scramble breakfast, shampoo and other bathroom essentials, and some garbage comfort food (Oreos, potato chips, and hummus.) We bought "Maui-style onion-flavored potato chips" something we THOUGHT was us being cool and local, but it turns out they're just Frito-lay. Quite delicious though.
The neighborhood immediately nearby our condo is teeming with shops and restaurants. Despite our absolute exhaustion (dinner time here is 10pm where we left!) we braved the outside to get some food. We drove to the busiest section of Ali'i Street, parked, and walked to the nearest restaurant we could find. It turned out to be "Wasabi's", a Hawaiian-Japanese fusion sushi place. I remember almost nothing about it except that our sushi and drinks were delicious and the service was SUPER slow. Island Time again, I think.
Stocked for the next day and fed, we went back to the condo. We soaked in the jacuzzi for a few minutes, rinsed off, then went directly to bed at 9:00. I dosed myself with Ny-Quil and fell immediately to sleep. Elly had high-hopes of seeing the other side of 10:00 (to put herself on a regular sleep schedule) but she was only about 10 minutes behind me.
And thus ended our first day on The Big Island.
Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5939762704691749649?authkey=CMmd-s7Dqo2ciQE
The flight was pleasant enough despite (or possibly because of) the fact that I was a Day-Quil zombie. Elly tells me one of the restrooms went out-of-order half-way through the flight. I also remember her showing me how our window cover was extremely hot to the touch. I remember eating an $9 sandwich that tasted like a $2 sandwich. Mostly I remember that our aisle had an empty seat, so Elly and I were able to stretch out a bit, which was very nice. The flight went quickly (for me, Day-Quil Zombie, but also for Elly) and we arrived 15 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to.
As our flight descended to the Kona Airport, the view we saw initially was pretty desolate. As far as we could see was craggy fields of black volcanic rock. I didn't know quite what to expect, but this was definitely not it. We touched down at Kona Airport, and as we exited the jet the humid, hot Hawaiian air slapped us in the face like a giant fish. We left Colorado dressed appropriately, and landed in HI dressed extremely inappropriately. 85 degrees and humid, and we haoles (HAH-oo-leh: foreigner) are dressed in multiple layers underneath our jackets, with the sun beating directly on us from the moment we exited the jet. The Kona airport is entirely outdoor, and really awesome. All of the usual airport stuff (baggage claim, information, etc) was basically just little booths, or underneath canopies. We were exhausted and not taking any pictures, but we'll remedy that as we fly out.
Fortunately, baggage claim and car rental went smoothly and relatively quickly. We drove off in a dark-gray Chevy Cruze, which we promptly nick-named "Lucy Cruise" because the license began in "LCY". Lucy Cruise turned out to be a manual-transmission hybrid, something I didn't even know existed. As we waited for Lucy to get driven out to us we made friends with a Canadian yoga instructor. We neglected to exchange names somehow; I think we all expected our meeting to be a lot shorter than it was. We wound up waiting for probably 15-20 minutes for them to bring the car around. This was when I began to suspect that Island Time is a bit slower than Colorado Time.
The drive to the condo took about 15 minutes. It would have been a lot shorter, but the speed limit was 30mph for most of it, slowing to 15m on Ali'i street, the main drag that takes us to the condo. Apparently the speed limits are on Island Time as well.
We got to the condo, and there was a "Be back soon" sign on the manager's office. "Soon" turned out to be another 20 minutes, with Elly and I sweltering in our Colorado layers. When the manager finally showed, though, he turned out to be very professional and friendly. Ironically, one of the reasons he wasn't in the office is because he was putting a key in a lock box on our room.
The condo turned out to be worth the wait! The room is absolutely beautiful. All the furniture is pale bamboo and dark polished wood. The floors are flagstone that feels really good on bare feet. The kitchen is well stocked with pots and pans, full sets of dishes, an 8-spice rack. The ceiling fans in the living-room and bedroom are really cool: they are woven fan blades made of some kind of dark lacquered reeds. The kitchen island has an attached bar for breakfast or whatever, but its clear that the main eating area is intended to be the porch outside. The condo also has a dishwasher, and clothes washer and dryer, so we're not even sacrificing any of the comforts of home. We're RIGHT on the ocean: As I write this post from the living-room I could easily frisbee this laptop through our sliding glass door, over the porch, and directly into the ocean surf. Don't test me, I'll do it!
Once we got unpacked, the first thing we did was go out past our porch and get a picture of ourselves still in our Colorado clothes, just to demonstrate the absurdity of it. While we were out there we met our next-door neighbor. We chatted a bit (I felt the need to explain that we weren't crazy) but I was so exhausted I neglected to introduce myself.
We went out to Target to buy some bare-minimum supplies: eggs, sausage and veggies for a scramble breakfast, shampoo and other bathroom essentials, and some garbage comfort food (Oreos, potato chips, and hummus.) We bought "Maui-style onion-flavored potato chips" something we THOUGHT was us being cool and local, but it turns out they're just Frito-lay. Quite delicious though.
The neighborhood immediately nearby our condo is teeming with shops and restaurants. Despite our absolute exhaustion (dinner time here is 10pm where we left!) we braved the outside to get some food. We drove to the busiest section of Ali'i Street, parked, and walked to the nearest restaurant we could find. It turned out to be "Wasabi's", a Hawaiian-Japanese fusion sushi place. I remember almost nothing about it except that our sushi and drinks were delicious and the service was SUPER slow. Island Time again, I think.
Stocked for the next day and fed, we went back to the condo. We soaked in the jacuzzi for a few minutes, rinsed off, then went directly to bed at 9:00. I dosed myself with Ny-Quil and fell immediately to sleep. Elly had high-hopes of seeing the other side of 10:00 (to put herself on a regular sleep schedule) but she was only about 10 minutes behind me.
And thus ended our first day on The Big Island.
Photos
https://plus.google.com/photos/105719328153023565846/albums/5939762704691749649?authkey=CMmd-s7Dqo2ciQE
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