Sunday, 4 August 2019
Good morning, rainbow.
Good morning, ocean.
Good morning, fisherman. Best of luck.
Good morning, surfer and lighthouse.
Good morning, tunnels.
Good morning, working fishing boat. Hope you’re not tired, hahaha.
Hello, lei stands.
Aloha, loves.
Wednesday, 31 July 2019
We now know that periodic short sprinkles or perhaps “real” rain is typical. Multiple times a day.
This was our second rainbow of the morning. At 7:45am. There’s another sprinkle right now, maybe the third? so far…. Cycle of weather-life.
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
We snorkeled here in Shark’s Cove. Which lacks sharks. Thankfully. We poked around for about 1hr 15 mins, which for me was quite a while; I wasn’t exhausted when we quit, but I was ready. Much of that time was floating and looking down. By the time we headed in, the waves were kicking up just a tad, and I was glad to paddle assisted by the incoming tide.
We watched this dog placidly riding a surfboard for quite a while. “Quite a while” is the time it takes to do all the cleaning required when doing water sports in the ocean, or anything in/on the ocean. Thankfully, all the public parks on the ocean with parking that I have seen have flush toilets and fresh-water showers, so it’s not a struggle, but it does take time. Time to spot and watch a dog on a surfboard enjoying the same places we’d been snorkeling. Since I don’t have corrective lenses I can see shapes and colors, to some degree, so I get a sense of critters. Easiest are the green Hawaiian sea turtles. One even checked me out! I couldn’t keep 30 feet away (I think that’s the stat) like you’re supposed to, but I didn’t touch him/her (G forbid), and didn’t hang around at all, just slowly moved on. With a smile around my snorkel-mouthpiece. Yes, it can be done.
Continuing with the surfboard theme, here’s how you get home with one when you live near, but not on the beach.
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
Adventure clue number one. Salient points: 1) water view, no beach in sight; 2) not a drone shot.
Adventure clue number two.
Adventure clue number three. Salient point: the Guru and I did not do this.
Instead, the Guru and I snorkeled. Twice. Once at each dive spot. We saw sea urchins thirty feet below us, clear water (ahem, SALT water). Fish came far closer. We saw several Hawaiian green sea turtles, only from the boat. The boat is named Hapa, which means half; the lovely captain did not know why it is named that. He’s the fellow cleaning up after our trip. Note clouds on the jagged eroding crater rim; it’s raining there, ¿no?
Saturday, 27 July 2019
There’s the ocean; there’s the infrastructure (foreground).
Banana orchard. Wind farm infrastructure, far distance.
I relent. Ocean, no infrastructure.
No ocean; repurposed sugar mill/factory, now a mini-mall.
Dive boat returning to dock; fisherfolk; distant wind farm.
Ocean, left; infrastructure mending, right.
Ocean! Offshore islands! Minimal infrastructure.
No ocean. Language lesson: cone as a verb. We documented multiple usages, and all to do with orange ones, not ice cream ones.
Friday, 26 July 2019
And your tomorrow is my today. The promised palm trees!
We’re on the leeward side of the island. We found these grazing horses under steep volcanic slopes that were greener than I expected.
Oh great omen, the rainbow. Stubby but still a bow!
And the leeward side is the sunset side. And the sun’s getting low. This is the end of the road on the west coast.
And full sunset! A stunner! Another wonderful omen?
Totally slipped my mind on the last post: when we left the airport, we rode in a rental car. So yesterday: trains, a plane, a car, and several walks.
Monday, 22 July 2019
The grass has to know how the canna got downed. Has. To.
I’ve got a bit more data on this one. This yard sports new-this-season sod, and it’s supporting a sprinkle of these little ’shrooms, perhaps inky caps. No other yard has them. Mushrooms d’sod? The grass has to know.
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
I’m glossing over myriad details to note there were many during our now-completed northern trip. We swept back into town less than an hour ago with reasonably light traffic, made a few extra [green] lights, the truck is now empty, and the thermostat readjusted to blast the temp downward more than when the house was empty. Home in the summer.
Last night’s sunset. I like the flag and the glow, but had no time for a second shot with the other poles edited out. Such is life. [I have no doubt editing software could readily remove them, but not me.]
Sunday, 14 July 2019
Last relaxed morning. Here. For a while.
The peonies are winding up. The dominant blooms on the branches with double buds have finished, and the B-team is putting on a meager, but still lovely scented, show. This is one of the largest of the final crop.
We made a small Sunday-drive outing on this last day, up to Eagle’s Nest, or Eagles Nest, or Dad’s version: Eagle Nest. This is the pond-and-marsh to the south. I found the poofy clouds in the blue sky very compelling, with the green belt of vegetation separating the heavens from its reflection.
Friday, 12 July 2019
We went on the wildlife walk, and, as I expected, we saw far more plants than critters. Joe-pye weed.
Did not look very hard in the wildflower ID book for this one…variant joe-pye weed.
Fragrant water lilies and yellow pond lily.
Didn’t ID this; didn’t browse for long.
Mullien.
Then we took the wildlife drive. We still saw many more plants, but they were farther away. And the bugs were so desperate to find us the were slamming into the windows. I was glad we were inside. Painted? turtle. We saw the usual complement of mid-summer loons, swans, Canada geese, seagulls, and a few ducks. No grebes; no coots. No mammals.
Gotta go apply anti-itch cream to the bug bites I got on the wildlife walk.