Snorkel at Two-Step

Here is the rest of our snorkel from today...

https://youtu.be/6lJ6DTph1ZY
Snorkel at Two Step.

Enjoy!

This just in!!!!

On our last day of this wonderful Hawaii-leg of our journey, we decided our highest priority would be to snorkel one last time. We wanted to go back to a place that has been a real highlight for us - two-step bay. This is the place Mari briefly caught a glimpse of the spinner dolphins. It is also a place that came highly recommended over and over from various people.

If you go in where the little beach is, there is a lot of freshwater (cold!) mixing with the warmer ocean water. Turtles like it here. Every time we have gone Mari has seen turtles. But Ron didn't see any. Until today! We consider this s nice going away present (even though the turtles truly seem oblivious to our presence).

Mari captured a brief few moments before her memory card was filled! The other videos will be posted later. But, for now, here is Honu Swimming at Two Step.

Honu swimming at Two-Step

If this video doesn't work, you can view it on You Tube:

https://youtu.be/-Dy8MUIO1No

Honu Swimming

Now - back to doing the laundry and packing!

(We have to leave the house at 3AM to catch our flight out of here. Will be back on the mainland around 3:30PM, California time).

Aloha,

Ron and Mari

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

What? Another snorkel video?

Okay, I don't know if anyone is still interested in seeing what we see when we snorkel - and it is truly hard to convey the experience through a video. And, even though I (Mari) brought my Go Pro Hero3 camera with the waterproof casing, there are limitations. For example, either the card fills up before I feel like I've captured everything I wanted to, or the battery dies, or maybe the water is too cloudy, or the camera isn't aimed at what I'm looking at...etcetera!

But anyway, we went snorkeling at a different bay yesterday. Kahalu'u Beach Park is right on Ali'i Drive. This Drive is probably 15 miles long, and the first six or so miles are anchored on the ends by major hotels, and in between that are coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, touristy shopping malls, a lot of condominiums, walking/bike paths along the narrow two-lane drive itself, and of course, the beach/rocky coast on the west side.

There is a small-ish parking lot of about 100 spaces, and we got the only space available when we arrived. The beach was divided into two areas - one for snorkelers and one for surfers. (The surfers don't look out for snorkelers, we were told. They probably couldn't steer clear of them any way.)

There is a reef educational unit there, which is staffed by volunteers who go around informing people as they prepare to get into the water - about safety, the fish you will see, the coral, and so on. There was also a life guard at this beach. One of the people we met at a kanikapila is a volunteer there, and she is the one who recommended this beach for snorkeling.

Here is a link to the video I took. We saw a few different fish than we had before. We did not see any turtles, but were told they are around.

https://youtu.be/9ySGDO9NXLY
Snorkel at Kahalu'u Beach

I DID get to swim with a turtle a day or so earlier, when we went back to Two-Step Beach. The water was really clear, and we had already gone out a ways, and were heading back in. I looked to my right, and there is was! I followed it a little way, then realized it was heading in the same direction as we were. I tried to show Ron where it was, but he never got the chance to see it.

It is our last week in Hawaii, and we are sad to see it end. The weather back in California does not sound that inviting - El Nino is beginning to strike, with lots of rain in the forecast. We had hoped to take our kayaks out in Mission Bay, but it may not happen.

We are still having lots of fun with the kanikapilas. And I am very excited about my upcoming gig on Wednesday.

We hope you are all well and good.

Mari and Ron

Kahalu'u Beach

A Gig for Mari

I am excited today because I was asked yesterday if I could fill in for a cancellation at a gig next Wednesday. I said yes, knowing that I would need to borrow or rent a guitar.

Not sure whom to ask, I started out with one of our new friends from a Kanikapila we attended named Karen. I knew she didn't play guitar, but she might know someone who did. Less than five minutes later, she said her husband, Richard (who plays bass), would loan me one he had. Yay!!! He brought it over with a set of new strings, which I put on this morning. It looks and sounds great!

Richard loaned me this guitar, which was stored in a recording studio he used to operate - he is retired from that now. Too bad, because I would love to record in it - it is a top notch studio. His label was called Grass Shack Records. Richard and Karen have a beautiful house looking out on Kealekekua Bay.

My gig is at an afternoon Farmer's Market, and will be three hours long! I will take my mandolin and play some stuff on that, in addition to the singing. They provide a canopy and sound system.

We are doing a lot of things musically. Ron is having a lot of chances to play his uke, and has been watching YouTube video instructions, as well as getting some tips from other players. We've met quite a few people this way, and have been invited to a couple bigger groups over the New Years' weekend. Saturday is a once-a-month bluegrass group - this is a common musical form in Illinois, but much rarer in Hawaii. I've heard there are some really good players there, so we're looking forward to that.

Tonight we will hear slack-key guitarist, John Keawe in Waikoloa Village, to the north of here. I'm sure it'll be good. He lives on the island - further north in Hawe.

We'll keep you posted!

Aloha,
Mari

P.S. Here are a few photos from John Keawe's performance at the Kings' Shops:

John's wife, Hope, plays ukulele and sings beautifully

Hope is also a hula dance instructor - seen here with two of her granddaughters

A Couple of Whales and a Couple of Trails

Yesterday morning we decided to get an early start on our walk down the hill. Early would be around 6:00 or so when the sky starts lighting up. The sun comes over the ridge of the mountain around 8:00. So, I guess we didn't get as early a start as possible, because it was around 7:30. We wanted to get a head start on our usual because we had plans for later in the afternoon, and because we wanted to do a little extra exploring along the coast and to the north. Someone had described an area there that we wanted to see.

On the way down the hill, I was looking out toward the lone house sitting over the shore, and I saw what looked like a whale - I got a really good look at its tail, which seemed to have white tips.

We continued on to the bottom of the road, then took a right at the beach. We wandered through the "People's Trail" that we had discovered a couple weeks ago, and passed through the "Secret Beach" - we were the first ones there today, for the first time. But we didn't stop there. We walked past the green house that is so close to the rocky shore. We were told that a dentist owns it and is hardly ever there. What a shame, because it is in such a wonderful location - no neighbors in the vicinity, and overlooking the ocean.

All the while, I was keeping an eye out for the whale (?) that I had seen earlier. As we reached a rocky outcropping overlooking the ocean, Ron was the next to see it...or, rather them. There appeared to be two of them.

Here is a video:
https://youtu.be/au5s0KiPzAA
Two whales

The coast there was gorgeous, and I took a short video of the area, including Mauna Kea, which you can see in the distance:

https://youtu.be/PM_-GnVALPI
Lava Cove on the Kona Coast

I called it Lava Cove because I haven't looked to see what the actual name of the place is. There are names for every bay and point along the coast, so I'm sure this place has a better name than Lava Cove, after all, there is lava all over this place, and it all runs right down to the ocean! On the other hand, why not!

After consulting a map, it appears we were near Kau Loa Point - but not exactly sure where, in relation.

TRAIL TWO:
The next trail we took was this morning's hike. We had been told about the cinder cone to the south along the coast from here. The trail we took was the King's Trail - turning left at the bottom of the hill.

Cinder cone - about a mile south of where we are staying - near Auau Point

The first feature we saw was the "hole" where water fills and empties each time a wave comes and goes. Here is a video of that:
https://youtu.be/3cgT3cm2JFY
"Hole"

The walk to the cinder cone was on a trail of loose lava rocks of varying sizes. This has to be one of the most difficult surfaces I've ever hiked on. Every step is a new chance to twist your ankle. The hiking poles were much appreciated!

Here are some photos of the hike and the cinder cone:

The rugged Kona Coast

A "sofa" made from pallets ?! Nice view of the ocean from here!

Almost to our destination for the morning - the cinder cone on the Kona coast

Resting at the top edge of the cinder cone

View to the north from the cinder cone

Cinder Cone

Yesterday, after our hike, we decided to drive back down and do a little snorkeling. This little Hawaiian "snowman" was there to greet us:

Much Aloha!
Mari and Ron

Christmas Greeting!

Its great to have time away from my usual projects at home so I can practice my Uke! The Kanikapilas really help  encourage me to get better, and Mari says she can see my improvement. Today Mari and i are practicing together. We're working on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQrs7nPAKS4

Great to Skype with Megan and Becca and their families today! They are all so great!

We walked down our hill to snorkel this morning, and I made up a little song:

Snorkeling In Hawaii’s Wonderland

Snorkeling, can you dig it?

Snorkeling, can you dig it?

On the beach we don our flippers.

We’ll snorkel away this Christmas Day.

Playing In Hawaii’s Wonderland.

Needs some work, I know.

Christmas love to all our families and friends!

Ron and Mari