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
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