Saturday, November 19, 2005

I had my Spam musubi for supper, and it was good! Like a giant piece of Spam sushi. And I looked up pitaya. It's dragonfruit, but mine are yellow pitayas, which are more delicious than the regular (pretty magenta) kind. They are also smaller. They come from a cactus. We also got some starfruit jelly at Hilo Farmer's Market. It tastes like quince jelly! And another 10,000 oranges. I got 3 blood oranges.

"Sumi's Sweets & Snacks" li hing mui = "Enjoy" li hing mui = not enough li hing mui.

Posted at 8:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Kilauea. It's cold up here. And super-misty. Like we're inside a cloud. The sulphur-filled air smells like matches.

Posted at 4:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Only a couple drops of rain in Hilo! Bought 2 pitayas. And a Spam musubi! Dean told his Gs I was only having "ice" for lunch. Groanster! I had a li hing mui shave ice w/dulce de leche Tropical Dreams ice cream on the bottom!

Posted at 1:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Moana Ôlapa. Ocean Dancer. [I told Dean it meant "sea sick."]

Jeff: "Your wife is drawing marijuana on the board in my classroom."
Dean: "I think it's a red pencil urchin."

Dean: 16 lbs [of dive weights] [edit: by our last dive, ended up switching down to 14 lbs] -- men's small BCD -- men's size small wetsuit
Laura: 12 lbs -- xtra-small women's BCD -- keiki size large wetsuit

Only us + one 12-year-old girl today (going for her 1st open water dives), plus the skipper, divemaster and instructors. No real divers! Almost like a private charter just for us!

Dive 1 - Mermaid's Rock

I saw & watched a small free swimming eel while Dean was doing his CESA [Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent] up above with Jeff

Also saw 2 crown-of-thorns! When I spotted the first one [actually, I think Dean showed it to me], I got all excited and pointed it out to Jeff. He wrote on his dive slate: "DANGER - DO NOT TOUCH" and I grabbed his slate and wrote back "I KNOW!" [I think he thought I thought it was a weird and scary looking thing and was asking him what was. Laugh LAUGH. I massively wished there was a scuba symbol for "I know all about them! I love crowns of thorns! They're my favourite!" When I saw the second one, while we were swimming back to the the mooring line, I excitedly pointed it out again (tapped Jeff's arm and made him come with me and see it) and he wrote,] "CROWN OF THORNS SEA STAR". I wrote back, "I KNOW! I LIKE" (I wanted to write THEM but ran out of slate). Jeff wrote, "TIME 4 U 2 GO HOME". (I was almost out of air.)

I used my breath to control my buoyancy and picked things up! (uni shells, sea cuke) Improved drastically!

Dove to 77' (secretly) [we're only allowed to write down 60' in our dive logs]

The girl on the boat dressed up as a sea urchin for Halloween! Coolest costume ever!!!

Everyone thought I was crazy for liking crown-of-thorns and kept telling me about people who ended up in the hospital after being pricked. The divemaster dude said he'd been pricked twice too (he's over 60), and showed me this huge permanent bump on his finger and said stuff about bleeding green blood. What the heck!

the guys on the boat sure like to talk story about growlers

[Jim, the skipper, kept talking about Ka Manu nonstop both today and Wednesday, and I was secretly all delighted every time he mentioned it, because I know what it means, since "Ka Manu" is one of my favourite Hawaiian songs. It means The Bird. The dive site was called Ka Manu because we moored at the boat Ka Manu's private mooring. (Other people can use it when they're not there.)]

Dive 2 - Ka Manu

[Jeff wrote on his dive slate, "WANT TO SEE SHARKS?" I nodded really enthusiastically, so he brought us to the entrance to a narrower, rocky semi-gushy area and signaled for Dean to stay where he was and for me to follow him. It was somewhat enclosed/rough and I didn't know where we were going (plus I was a little concerned about my buoyancy still, since I have a tendency to unintentially float up if I'm excited), so I asked if we could hold hands. (I think I did the "hold hands" signal.) We swam holding hands and Jeff brought me to the mouth of a small cave. We couldn't see Dean anymore and he couldn't see us. I wondered if he was worried, since we were in there for a while and he didn't know how long we'd be gone or exactly where we'd gone. Jeff pointed into the cave (it had a low, flat, ledge-ular ceiling) and even though it was dark in there and you could just barely make them out, I saw the sharks right away! Jeff shined his dive light into the cave to show me but I saw them even before that. I signaled to him with my fingers, "Two?" and he signaled back, "Three!" There were two adults and a baby. It was really hard to see the second adult because he was behind the other one, sort of lined up with her, but you tell because they were whitetip reef sharks and you could count the white tips on their fins. They were all sort of snoozing together in the cave. I don't think they were actually asleep asleep, but more like resting. It was really cool. Then we swam back out and Jeff took Dean in to see them while I waited outside. Later I found out that Dean didn't know we were going to see sharks and had no idea what Jeff and I were looking at (he just thought we were going into a narrow area and there wasn't room for three people) or what Jeff was taking him to see!! He only showed me the question on his dive slate, not Dean! I thought he showed it to both of us. When Jeff brought Dean to the cave he had no clue what he was supposed to be seeing, and at first he couldn't see anything at all, until Jeff pointed with his dive light and traced the sharks a bunch and then finally all the sudden he saw them!]

As we were swimming back, Jeff teased snorkelers with his octopus and Dean did the special scuba symbol we'd discussed: twirly finger near ear.

I had more air left than Dean at the end of dive #2 (!!) (used a normal-sized tank today, since the skipper [Jim] does all the lifting for me anyway!) [And I stayed down for 54 minutes! Only stayed down 28 minutes on my first dive before getting too low on air.]

Leg cramp ascending from the 2nd drive & I did the cramp-removal maneuver. [I was really pleased and bragged to Jeff afterwards. He said something like, "That's why you learn it, [silly]..."] (It still hurts a little.)

Dean made a scuba joke afterwards when Jeff was signing our final paperwork: "Yeah! We finished early! We have time to drive up to Mauna Kea this afternoon!"

Went to Longs to celebrate getting my C-card! [That means I now officially have my Open Water Diver certification! You can't rent air tanks or have them filled without your card. I have a temp card for now, though. But Jeff took my photo for the real card and I should get it in the mail one of these weeks.]

Posted at 8:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

"Surfer Girl"! On the way to my final dive lessons. (Lava 105.3 is the greatest.)

Posted at 7:55:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Roy's is so un-Hawaii-ish. It feels like we're back in CT or NYC. It's so popular and happenin' (trendy & hot), not laid back and relaxing. Loud and packed, at only 6:00! Our waiter says "enjoy" practically every other word. Why would someone want to come to a place like this while in Hawaii?? We'll see if the food is good. It's the best restaurant on the Big Island, according to Honolulu Mag. (Why??) No vegetarian items on the menu, but they're making something up. The waiter thought I was the vegetarian, even though Dean was the one who asked about it. Typical.

Dean's iced tea is like East Coast iced tea. This place is blowing my mind. The waiters are scurrying around like New York taxicabs.

I forgot to write, we saw dolphins yesterday (for real, not like the supposed ones at Kealakekua Bay). The wacky guy pointed them out. Two pairs, up pretty close to the dive boat, too.

My duck lemongrass-coconut risotto is really good, but Dean's salad looks a little zzzz.

My butterfish (as an entree) is really good, too. Dean got the duck risotto minus the duck as his entree. Slightly boring without the duck, but still good.

Okay, the chocolate lava souffle was quite ono. I wonder why souffles are so ubiquitous in Hawaii and so rare at home?

Posted at 6:11:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

I wore the core for the first time while snorkeling (wore it yesterday scuba-ing, too). I like it. It was really surgy and wave-crashy at The Pelagic, but we figured out the safest spot to get in ("planned our dive, then dived our plan") and waited for a calm-ish opportunity, and did it. Same thing getting out. No new injuries! Except I stepped on a mean thorn, but that wasn't in the water.

It's really overcast and the water was much colder than normal, but I didn't get all cold thanks to the core! (And the rest of my layer suit.) I also wore my cut-off neoprene socks that I wear to get to entry points when the terrain is really rough or burning hot, but I kept them on while snorkeling since they'd be washed away by the giant waves, and my fins fit with them on, and my feet stayed warm, too! Good option.

Dean tried his new dive computer for the first time (bought it yesterday afternoon after our lesson), and I practiced buoyancy wearing his weight belt. I dove down 14 ft. w/the weight belt on--it was hard to make it back up! (It's a little too much weight for me--6lbs.) And I practiced breathing slow like Jeff said. It's hard. I looked at my watch, and I think I normally breathe at a rate of about 2 seconds in, 2 seconds out. I practiced 5 second intervals, like Jeff said to for my homework. He also said to then work up to 10, but I can barely do five. Dean said the scuba guy at Red Sail said really good scuba divers can breathe at a rate of 30 sec out, 30 sec in (1 minute for a full breath). !!! That's while swimming along.

Near the beginning, I saw a porcupine fish down deep and I couldn't tell if it was a porky or a rock, so I dove down to look at it. It was cute!! I showed Dean, but it swam away two seconds after he got there, so he didn't get to see it much. We rarely see porcupines. Otherwise, it was kind of cloudy so mostly I dove around and stuff and didn't look at too many fish. The Pelagic has an outdoor shower now, and it's nice! Warm, even.

Posted at 3:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Ka-pow was a neat town! The Rainbow Cafe's ice cream & kope aren't as good as the ones at the kope place in Hawi, but it's cute and Dean massively wanted to order everything on the menu (but he couldn't, since we have rezzes at Roy's). He got a 3-bean chili frito and a smoothie and liked them, and meanwhile I browsed all the Hawaii/ocean-related books at the Kohala Book Shop and bought a really nice book on tropical fruit (it has mangosteen!). Pelagic, now!

Posted at 1:41:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Kapa`au Town!

Posted at 12:20:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Dean: Yuck! Your leg's all slimy!
Laura: No it isn't! It's just Neosporin. I put it on all my scrapes.
Dean: That's everywhere!

I slept in until 9:00 this morning. It was real fun. I was tired. The cleaning person put the fish/crab/starfish pillowcase and ocean creatures sheets on my bed and they are the best. I want my own set!

(redux:)
Laura: Ow!! You're hurting my ankle! I have a big scrape there.
Dean: You have one everywhere!

Posted at 10:06:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Tim: "I remember that [Dean's speedo search]--and [to me] I remember your smile."

Jeff quote: "That's gonna fit you like socks on a rooster."

[Jeff also taught me all about "righty tighty, lefty loosey" yesterday!]

Wacky guy on boat who told me I should read Shadow Divers: "Who's the guy with the [goofy] woven hat?"
Skipper: "Jeff Jones--he's their instructor."
Wacky guy: "He looks a lot more stressed out than the students do."

When we were down on the bottom of the ocean during our first dive, Jeff picked up a couple things off the bottom to show me (to try to distract me from breathing too fast and show me how cool it is down there, I guess), and the first thing he picked up was an uni spine. :-)

I saw some peacock groupers up close, and they looked much smaller. (Things look 25%-33% larger and closer under water, from a distance, like how you see them while snorkeling.) And I saw some pyramid butterfly fish. I've never seen that kind before because they like it down at 40 ft. or so. And we saw one small eel. I don't like scuba diving very much so far. My new name is "Bob" because I had a lot of trouble controlling my buoyancy on our first dive and I kept bobbing up and down. I even accidentally rose to the top unintentionally when I tried slowing down my breathing and taking deeper breaths. I tried to empty my BCD but I just kept rising. Jeff gave me more weights after that. I had 14 lbs. And I used up almost all my air in only 28 minutes. (I had a 63ft³ scuba tank, smaller than everyone else [I think the regular size is 80ft³], because the tank + weights are so heavy and I could barely stand up last time.) I breathe really shallow and fast all the time normally, so it was hard for me to do it slow and deep.

I didn't get scared or anything but I just didn't like it that much. I felt a lot more under control on the second drive but I still wasn't too crazy about it. Dean really really likes it and he's really good at breathing and buoyancy, just naturally--and he has lots of practice from free diving. My lungs are so shallow. I didn't get cold at all though. (Except on the boat, just a little.) I wore a full wetsuit on top of all my other gear. I like how the full wetsuit feels. I cut my foot and hand a little bit and I don't even know how. And my hands got a little sunburnt from not wearing my gloves. [I didn't wear them because I had to demonstrate a lot of skills, and I didn't want to be fumbling around.]

Maybe I'll get to like it more. I'm not really a big fan so far, though. It's sort of a combination of stressful (because you have to do everything just right, or it's dangerous) and boring (because you have to do everything really slow and it's not fun and free and gush-y like snorkeling). I want to like it more so Dean won't be disappointed.

Yesterday I had a pumpkin scone at the Kona SBUX and today I had a cranberry-orange one. They were good. I was really thirsty at the Royal Thai Cafe last night from breathing all that dry air. I kept drinking lots and lots of the my-fav-soup soup. I think my lungs are normally filled with about 99% carbon dioxide most of the time.

[We went to Wawaloli after class, but both the tide and the surf were up (there were even "danger -- do not cross" tapes strung around, down toward the building) so there weren't any lolis around. I took this picture as we were leaving.]

Posted at 5:15:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

We met at Jack's Dive Locker (they have a super-cool heated salty pool with a giant dropoff cliff to the deep end) at 2:00 (after a one hour break--the classroom session in the morning was from 8 AM to 1 PM) and learned to dive in the pool. Finished about 5:30. Jeff said we both did "awesome" jobs and were great students. First we had to show we could stay afloat for 10 minutes (with no gear, in just our swimming suits), then we had to swim either 200 meters (Dean did that) or 300 meters with a mask, snorkel and fins (I did that). Mine was 12 laps around the pool. The floating part was easy, and the laps were easy w/my gear, although my legs got a little sore (they felt better right afterward). Then we started our training.

Right after we practiced what it feels like if your air runs out (the instructor turns off your tank and when you can't get any more air, you do the out of air signal, and he turns it back on right away), my air really did run out!! It's not supposed to do that. It must be because I breathe really fast, or something (???). I didn't know if he was just doing another test, or what (he was doing Dean's test at the time, so it seemed kind of weird that he'd do it again to me)--I guess I thought maybe he hadn't switched my air back on properly or something. But I did the out of air signal and we went up. I breathed out like I was supposed to. Jeff tried to inflate my BCD at the surface but I didn't have enough air left to inflate it even a tiny bit. [I guess that proved to him that I really, truly was out of air! I think he was a little shocked.] I didn't panic at all though. I wasn't scared one bit during the whole time. We also had to take off our masks underwater (at the bottom of the deep part) and breathe with them off then put them back on again (and clear them), always breathing. [You can never hold your breath in scuba, or you could "hurt yourself really bad," as Jeff puts it.] I had to do mine with my eyes closed because of my contacts. Dean thought I'd be scared, but I was good at it! I am not very good at hovering, though. That takes a lot of practice to get perfectly neutrally buoyant. When we had to get out of the pool to practice stepping in with all our gear on, it was so heavy, I could barely stand up. Literally--my knees were almost buckling. I can hardly lift my gear--tank, BCD with weights, regulator, etc.) But it doesn't feel heavy in the water.

Posted at 9:47:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

I liked Jeff. He was a good teacher. I got 100% on all 5 of my quizzes except one, which I got a 90% on (one question wrong). And I got a 96% on the final exam. (2 questions wrong.) Dean got 100% on everything. (Of course.) Jeff said only 3 other dudes he taught ever got 100% on all the tests (out of a few hundred students). The two I missed were tables questions that I am completely incapable of thinking linearly enough to figure out, so I just guessed randomly instead of driving myself insane trying to solve them. I knew I knew the non-tables stuff well enough so it didn't matter. There were a lot of tables questions! Six, I think.

Posted at 5:41:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

It was dark when I got up (at six), and then the sun shot up and it got all light out. Now I'm blinded. Scuba class today. Studied for about 5 hours last night. I feel okay. Jeff is going to be our teacher. (Wacked-out!!)

Posted at 7:00:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.

Monday, November 14, 2005

[Edit: We brought Dean's Gs to Honaunau to show them the Place of Refuge and take them snorkeling. (We gave them a trip to Hawaii as a retirement present, and they are here for the next two weeks. We met them at the airport Friday night.) I didn't write in my notebook when they were around, so Monday's entry is really sketchy. It just says:]

legs
[Couldn't figure out what the heck this meant at first. Then I remembered--there was an older gentleman at Honaunau with a million huge cameras around his neck and a tripod all set up and everything, taking photos of the historical/scenic stuff, and, not really noticing, I stepped in front of his camera to take a photo of Dean and his dad looking out over the ocean. It was hard because of the contrast between the sky and the lava, so I was standing there for a while trying to get the camera to focus properly, until Dean's mom said to me, "Oh, I think he's trying to take a picture." I realized I was blocking the guy's shot, so I apologised and moved out of the way, and he said something like, "I would have said something, but you have such nice legs, I didn't mind at all." !!! No one has ever complimented my legs before! Kind of bizarre, since they're covered with bruises and scrapes.]

showing M
[I really enjoyed showing Dean's mom how to snorkel. She was very uncertain and I held her hand and guided her. After a while she felt sick/dizzy and her mask was all fogged up, so I reassured her and brought her back in nice and slow (we had to go a long way back around, because there's really only one place to safely get in and out) and got out of the water and stayed with her, even though we hadn't been in that long (Dean and his dad stayed in and swam around a lot more). She thought I was ultra nice, but I just wanted her to have a positive experience and only did what I would have wanted someone to do for me if I wasn't feeling good. Even though she got sick, she loved snorkeling and kept exclaiming about how amazing it was seeing all the fish. It was really neat seeing how thrilled she was by something I love but have done a million times.]

South Kona Fruit Stand [owner] lady greeted me like a long-lost sister!
[She did!!! I don't know how/why she even remembered me, but the second she saw me, she recognized me from last year and got all excited and acted like she was my best pal and had been waiting all year to see me again. Wow.]

peanut butter & jelly sandwich on luau bread w/SKFS banana
[Best peanut butter & jelly sandwich ever. At Coffee Shack, natch. Smuggled in the banana.]

Posted at 5:36:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

All my muscles hurt, esp. my back muscles. I wonder what I did that was so back muscle-ular? New injuries: huge bruise on knee (light blue & purple) in exact location of wind bruise, 2 smallish bashes on other (right) knee (were bleeding when I got out from snorkeling), scrapes down/across side of right calf and lower thigh (these kind of hurt), a slight sunburn (pink, not red, on back, from hours of climbing around on the lava rocks & in tidepools w/just my bikini top on). It was overcast. I am too exhausted to write an entry but there's so much to write! Must sleep. Just notes for now:

Tidepools at Hilton:
- helmets (match bathing suit)
- anemones (w/long necks, tons, filling pools in some spots)
- in some pools w/them, brittles hiding in crevices, just tips of arms sticking out, curious, reach out to feel my finger, shake hand
- tiny details, focus eyes differently and see
- looks like there's nothing in it, but there's so much
- slimy friend (very slimy), put back in exact same pool among zillions, after showing Dean
- tiny eel, skinnier than my little finger; tried to lure him out of his crevice by offering him an uni

Snorkeling in my discovered area:
- Dean was impressed
- how to get there: [cut across edge of golf course - it is past the Buddha - walk to the left of sunken lava bowl and enter at smoother rocks - snorkel to right - water to left is cloudy from springs]
- really interesting topography
- deep, caves
- surprisingly calm for that type of area
- great visibility
- did get washed away, but didn't whale
- used scuba signals to tell Dean I was okay and to stay where he was and not try to reach me (I didn't want him to get caught, too); stayed still and then found an op. and swam out
- found uni on bottom that was broken open & had worm guy in it
- got stuck by its stinger spines (hurt, like thin needles) through glove!
- Dean heard humu (lei) grunting
- tiny tiny delicate baby brittles (about 3/8" wide!), white; could roll up into ball the size of a big roundy pinhead !!!
- cloudy area (C & C) (cold & cloudy) (freshwater spring) to left
- cave in lava

Posted at 11:59:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Batik hasn't changed its menu at all! Dean's having his artichoke leaf salad w/finner bowl and liquid-sugared lemon-squeezered iced tea. I tried a new thing: tempuraed asparagus spears & prawns (gigantic), and it is ono. The sauces are wonderful. I ordered mac nut-encrusted ono for my entree. I think it's practically identical to what I got at the Coast Grille (choy, etc.) but I bet it will be better. Dean just put in an order for lilokoi souffle! I want to get the Kona coffee tort w/orange & chocolate, because choc & orange is the best combo. I think I got a souffle last year. [Edit, 8:20: The tort was not a tort. It was a scoop of ice creamular substance on a thin chocolate crust. What the heck?]

Posted at 7:28:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.