Since we had some time between packout and the beginning of our road trip out east, we decided to spend some time in our favorite place on Earth, Hawaii. This time we visited the Kona-Kailua side of the Big Island.
The first night we arrived we sat next to the pool and just stared at the ocean for what seemed like hours. Or at least I did. The past weeks had been so intense and exhausting that I really needed the space out time to renew my energy and process what had happened over the summer. Also, I had been reading for the last ten hours without pause. The girl with the dragon tattoo series had finally sunk it's titillating claws into me and I couldn't get enough. The staring paid off though: not only did I feel regenerated in thirty minutes, we were also able to watch a pod of dolphins just off shore in front of our hotel playing in the waves.
Because the island is so humid, the sheets, carpet and matching drapes were all musty. This is hell for my allergies and for whatever reason, nowadays they just bypass the sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose phase and go straight for dry coughing and asthma. We didn't sleep at all that night so the next day we begged to be put in another room. We checked out many rooms and they all were the same with heavy, dank air. Finally, they sent us to the newly renovated section of the hotel and put us up in an ocean view, beautifully new, non musty room that we could relax (and breath) in.
It was in this room that I sat reading and eating fruit on the deck for hours on while Cyn caught up on sleep. The time change is great for me in Hawaii cause I crash early and wake up at 6am leaving me plenty of time to go to the gym, eat breakfast and read on the deck before Cyn even wakes up. We had found a farmers market in town the previous day and bought fresh, warm mango, papaya, pineapple and grapefruit. The pineapple was chopped up for us by the stand owner in under five seconds, a sweet Thai woman we had befriended. I had to come back the next day to get another one since the first one had been furiously consumed in the car before we even got back to the hotel and also to learn how to massacre a piece of fruit so expertly. I decided I could survive on warm tropical fruit for months alone.
When visiting Hawaii, it's impossible not to notice how fit the locals are. Let me take that back, the real locals, ie the Polynesian people, can be very large and also very small, but the later locals are more often than not insanely fit. You couldn't drive the five miles to town without seeing at least ten people running with nothing more than the equivalent of a bikini on. We wondered if to join the running club one would need to be under 3% body fat. Any higher would surely be considered gluttonous and obese. We decided we would never really fit in and went for a pina colada.
The rest of our glorious time was spent snorkeling and swimming. We even joined a night snorkel boat and stalked the benign, beastly manta ray. I also talked Cyn into renting a kayak for 24 hours so we could kayak out to the Captain Cook monument. We unfortunately saved this for the last day which was a little stormy, but the shop owner assured me that we need not fear. In hind sight this was a little naive. We kayak often in a slow moving river, but never in the open ocean. The entire ordeal was pretty stressful: from getting the kayak off the car, loaded up and subsequently loaded into the water off the dock to kayaking one mile in disruptive waves (they even prompted Cyn to put on her life jacket) to snorkeling while pulling the kayak behind us with a rope that I tied to the front of the boat to trying to get back in the kayak (stupidly pulled to shore on dead coral and lava rocks). This was by far some of the most beautiful coral we had ever seen and was well worth it but also proved to be a harrowing, learning experience.
The first night we arrived we sat next to the pool and just stared at the ocean for what seemed like hours. Or at least I did. The past weeks had been so intense and exhausting that I really needed the space out time to renew my energy and process what had happened over the summer. Also, I had been reading for the last ten hours without pause. The girl with the dragon tattoo series had finally sunk it's titillating claws into me and I couldn't get enough. The staring paid off though: not only did I feel regenerated in thirty minutes, we were also able to watch a pod of dolphins just off shore in front of our hotel playing in the waves.
Because the island is so humid, the sheets, carpet and matching drapes were all musty. This is hell for my allergies and for whatever reason, nowadays they just bypass the sneezing, itchy eyes and runny nose phase and go straight for dry coughing and asthma. We didn't sleep at all that night so the next day we begged to be put in another room. We checked out many rooms and they all were the same with heavy, dank air. Finally, they sent us to the newly renovated section of the hotel and put us up in an ocean view, beautifully new, non musty room that we could relax (and breath) in.
It was in this room that I sat reading and eating fruit on the deck for hours on while Cyn caught up on sleep. The time change is great for me in Hawaii cause I crash early and wake up at 6am leaving me plenty of time to go to the gym, eat breakfast and read on the deck before Cyn even wakes up. We had found a farmers market in town the previous day and bought fresh, warm mango, papaya, pineapple and grapefruit. The pineapple was chopped up for us by the stand owner in under five seconds, a sweet Thai woman we had befriended. I had to come back the next day to get another one since the first one had been furiously consumed in the car before we even got back to the hotel and also to learn how to massacre a piece of fruit so expertly. I decided I could survive on warm tropical fruit for months alone.
When visiting Hawaii, it's impossible not to notice how fit the locals are. Let me take that back, the real locals, ie the Polynesian people, can be very large and also very small, but the later locals are more often than not insanely fit. You couldn't drive the five miles to town without seeing at least ten people running with nothing more than the equivalent of a bikini on. We wondered if to join the running club one would need to be under 3% body fat. Any higher would surely be considered gluttonous and obese. We decided we would never really fit in and went for a pina colada.
The rest of our glorious time was spent snorkeling and swimming. We even joined a night snorkel boat and stalked the benign, beastly manta ray. I also talked Cyn into renting a kayak for 24 hours so we could kayak out to the Captain Cook monument. We unfortunately saved this for the last day which was a little stormy, but the shop owner assured me that we need not fear. In hind sight this was a little naive. We kayak often in a slow moving river, but never in the open ocean. The entire ordeal was pretty stressful: from getting the kayak off the car, loaded up and subsequently loaded into the water off the dock to kayaking one mile in disruptive waves (they even prompted Cyn to put on her life jacket) to snorkeling while pulling the kayak behind us with a rope that I tied to the front of the boat to trying to get back in the kayak (stupidly pulled to shore on dead coral and lava rocks). This was by far some of the most beautiful coral we had ever seen and was well worth it but also proved to be a harrowing, learning experience.
There was a strange Brazilian dude that helped us get our kayak out of the water once we safely made it back to the dock (thank goodness). He kept telling us we were beautiful, he was looking for more friends, and would we like to keep in touch on Facebook. Cyn and I looked at each other, pretending to be bewildered, and told him we had never heard of such a book. LOLz. We thanked him for his help and gave him $10. We were dirty, bloodied, exhausted and triumphant and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking.
