Countdown!!!

Hard to believe this day would ever come (well, actually, we knew it would....) - our last full day in Hawaii. We've certainly had five weeks-plus of interesting experiences here in "Paradise".

We started today out with a walk down and up The Hill. We made it in just under an hour without trying particularly hard.

Stopped at the "waste transfer facility" to dump our household garbage and recyclables. Unfortunately, the owners of the house don't compost their kitchen waste, so it ends up in the garbage. At home, we hardly have any real "garbage", because we compost most of the kitchen scraps. At least Hawaii does provide recycling. Also, no garbage trucks - you have to take everything yourself to the transfer station. I believe everyone on the island does this. By the way, even at the waste transfer station, they have a million-dollar ocean view!

Then we headed north to the Thursday morning kanikapila at Akule Supply Company. This is the first kanikapila we heard about and attended just three weeks ago. Our new friends, Richard and Karen, were there. Richard plays a homemade washtub bass with lots of innovations. Richard is the one who loaned Mari the guitar for her gig yesterday. We returned the guitar and said our goodbyes. We also saw Daryl, who loaned Mari a stool for her gig. He plays amazing fingerstyle guitar and is an avid Beatles fan.

After that, we had lunch down on Ali'i Drive - at Splashers, filled up the rental car with gas at Costco (at least 30 cents cheaper than gas anywhere else on the island).

Then, all our errands run, we had the afternoon free, and were headed straight for Kealekekua Bay for a snorkel along the rocky shore. It is not as well-known or used area as some of the other places we have gone. The first time we were there, Ron saw a (Manta?) Ray and Mari saw some small sharks. And, yes, Mari did take some videos.

Mari:
I took a bunch of short videos, to make sure that if the camera died in the middle of taping, at least I will have saved some of it. Today the camera battery did not die, the card did not fill up, the water wasn't cloudy for the most part, and I saw some neat things: a crown-of-thorns starfish feeding on coral (they are considered invasive); a regular starfish on a rock; a long-nosed, narrow fish that is translucent; bottom-feeding catfish-like fish; lots of coral - different kinds; lots of different-colored fish. Here is a link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5a6t7pYOaI
Snorkel at Kealekekua rocky shore

Now, the sun is beginning to set, and it looks like it is going to be a pretty display. Here are some photos:

Many days the sunset begins with a reflection of sunlight through the "vog", leaving splotches of light on the ocean water below.

Clouds enhance the red glow of sunset