Saturday, November 11, 2006
I got a French press of Rooster Farms Kona coffee and it's good. Very rich and intense. All we've eaten so far is the bread and butter, and it's already great.
Posted at 5:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Kampachi sashimi (Hawaiian yellowtail/amberjack) is good. With tiny starfruit and cuke salad = insanely yum. Superb service. Merriman's needs to be on our top favs list. My Big Island Beast (small size) meal was amazing, and nice and little. The steak was insanely tender. But the best part's the corn. Get a side of corn!!! (We just did!) The corn is whimper-worthy. Dean added corn (and Rooster sauce) to his veg. curry, and he just said, "This is the best curry ever."
Current yummyness ranking = Dean: Merriman's, Pahu I`a, Imari; Laura: Imari, Merriman's, Pahu I`a.
Got the choc. purse for dessert. I think maybe we got the choc. mac nut lava java thing last year and liked it better.
[Dive slate notes walking back after Ke-awa-iki snorkel:]
Posted at 4:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
That was the BEST spot!
Ran out of TIME!
I saved a fish at Iki! It was trapped in one of the lava tidepools, flopping all around, and was all slimy. It seemed like it'd been stuck there for a while. I don't know what kind of fish it was, but it was way too big for a tidepool--8-12", flat shaped (2D) like a reef fish. At first I tried to grab it w/my bare hands but it was way too slippery and thrashy. So Dean suggested grabbing it w/the goodie bag (which we found at depth at Puako the other day) to get a better grip, so I ran back to our stuff and fetched the bag while Dean kept an eye on the fish. I slowly lowered the bag (not open--just the side of it) over the fish's whole body, and it got really calm when I covered its head, so I was able to pick it up easily and carefully carry it, talking to it as I walked with it, telling it to stay calm and not flip around. I made my way over to the open ocean and let it go. It swam under a rock to rest and recover. Poor fish!! There are some Hawaiian dudes here fishing (further down the beach--we can't see another soul from our spot)--maybe it's the kind of fish they fish for. It looked kind of edible.
Posted at 2:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We also found a dried trigger fish while walking down the beach (a little one, 5" or so), in the Unitown Massacre section, and are going to keep it. It's not even smelly. It has its trigger (exposed) and bitey teeth and everything. No eyes, though.
And I found twenty zillion shrimp guys (1-2") all along the edges of the tidepools and let them clean my hands and feet. It tickles! They liked it. At one point, I had about 10 guys on each foot. They have see-through bodies. Even Dean let them clean his hand! I LOVE Iki. It's my fav.
Friday, November 10, 2006
The South Kona Fruit Stand lady (Beth) was there today and greeted me like a long-lost sister again! She hugged me. (She told us they'll have a smoothie stand addition by this time next year and Dean keeps chanting "Smoothie! Smoothie!") She even said she was thinking about us just last week (just like Jeff did). (!!)
Posted at 3:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Dive slate from Honaunau aka "Two Step"]
Posted at 12:34:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Sign on the side of the road: Silent White Rooster Kona coffee brand. SWR = me! I want to go to Bong Brothers (fruit/Kona coffee stand) but Dean only rolls his eyes. I bet they have good mac nuts there!
Posted at 11:22:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
[Edit, 1/10: "Tom Bong custom roasts all of the coffee himself in small 20-pound batches. Linda Bong who runs the store and café is renowned for her vegetarian cooking and her fruit smoothies. The shelves are always well stocked with a wide variety of health foods, organic local produce, cards and gifts items." !!! SEE!!! We massively should've gone! I just told Dean, and he (very reluctantly) concedes that we should go next year. I am WRITING THIS DOWN because I know he will try to deny it later.]
The Asian girl at Big Island Divers kept staring at us while everyone was gathered around analyzing the nitrox and blurted out, "You're such a cute couple! Iconic." She blushed and added, "Sort of... French-y." :-) She was sweet. BID only had nitrox 36, even though it claimed it was 32 on the label (shows how important analyzing it is!). So we just got air. Honaunau = DEEP. But the guys all said you prob. wouldn't want to hang around in the super deep part that long anyway.
Posted at 10:54:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
I found a big village of extra-fancy sea cukes! The black kind w/the ruffly tentacles. There are at least 10-12 of them.
Posted at 2:05:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
They hide clinging under the lava ledge where they get crashed by the ocean, letting their tentacles extend to grab stuff that washes by. Some are even hanging upsidedown. I touched one. (He was squishy and he closed his tentacles, but he reached them out again a minute later.)
[Edit: Found more! There were at least 10-20+.]
[Edit, 1/10: Here's a distance shot of the area where I found them. And one of our premium spot at The Herb.]
We got a premium spot at The Herb. Our usual spot was snagged, but this may be even better. It's under an ironwood tree (natch), which is filled with chirping yellow birds, and there's a nice big log to rest our backs on. We're taking it easy today because I was really tired this morning. I slept really badly last night (kept waking up at 4AM and such times, ages before it was time to get up). When I finally caught a few snoozes toward morning, I had an extremely surreal dream. It was cool. Yesterday we didn't get a good sleep either, thanks to the resort's security alarm going off for nearly an hour at 3:50AM-ish. I finally put on my noise-reduction earphones to escape. Maybe I woke up at the same time last night because my internal clock thought it was an alarm clock.
Posted at 1:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
It's seriously nice relaxing at the The Herb. (We timed the Long Hot Walk to get here and it was 40 minutes. I like walking on lava--it's fun.) Perfect temperature, slight breeze, aquablue ocean crashing (there are about 10 surfers here, around the corner). We had our Hawaiian animal crackers and Dean ate all the humpback whales and sharks (because they are tongue-shaped), while I had the moonfish (very fat), dolphins and octopus. The octopus are my fav, but they are rare.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
My back hurts a little from the 80 cu. ft. tanks from Big Island Divers. (Kohala Divers gave us 72s.) I walked from the parking lot at the Old Airport to our dive entry spot (and back) wearing all my gear. It was hard, but I did it! I like the 72s better--they're lighter and 8 lbs. of weights work perfectly with them. And they hold a perfectly fine amount of air. The 80s weigh on me more while in the water, too. But I can do it! I think all my weight-lifting helped, because I remember my knees nearly buckling when I stood up in my tank the first time we dived, at the pool. [Edit: Of course, I do use less weight now, too...] But anyway, the Old Airport was great! The sections we went in today had lots of variety. I took notes on my dive slate with my velcroed pencil. (The eraser even works underwater!) As we were de-gearing in the parking lot, someone ran over Dean's reg, though. Good thing it was a rental. Not sure how much it'll cost (it's still To Be Determined). The BID owner was nice about it and gave us a replacement to use for the remainder of the rental. [Edit by Dean: It cost about $100, exactly what I guessed.]
Posted at 7:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Eel-on-the-top / sour plum and shiso / uni (comes w/2) / salmon roe (2).
Posted at 6:49:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Every one is so phenomenally good. I want to cry. I don't know which thing I like the best, because they're all beyond the brain's comprehension.
The best food in the world.
DWP: Hilo Garden Roll (tastes really fresh) / Avo / plum and shiso / tamago = all good.
W/veg tempura appetizer, the perfect amount. All past claims are true. Dean says the Pahu food is best of all, but for me it's Imari.
Posted at 12:49:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Dive slate from Old Airport, Pt. 2]
Jeff Jones (aka Jonesey)!! He gave us a grand tour of Bottom Time and acted like we were his long-lost best pals! He even said he got all my postcards and was thinking about us just a few days ago and gave me a big hug. He seems totally happy at his new place. Good old Jeff! It was great to see him. He massively wanted to dive together and even said we should shore dive while he's off-duty if our schedule doesn't work out for a Bottom Time dive. And he doesn't even like shore dives! (He likes everything about shore dives except the shore.)
Posted at 11:50:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
This is always the way--the snorkel/scuba experiences I want to record the most end up getting the short shrift because I just want to FEEL right afterward, not scribble down notes, and then that night I'm extra worn out and don't want to write either.
Posted at 10:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Well, what I want to say most is 1) Puako is GREAT (loved the wavy entry and return, the lava, the snorkeling through the surf; love the looking-under-rocks spot at depth; love the garden eel flat [filled with hundreds of ultra-cute garden eels sticking out of the sand and waving around, but shy so they sluuurp down in their holes as you approach!]; just love the environment... the Whale is a real kind of ocean experience, of the sort that previously made me dislike scuba compared to snorkeling [edit: I mean because I thought you could only have that type of experience snorkeling, and that diving had to be slow and tame in comparison], 2) having a loose #2 pencil to easily record notes on the dive slate whenever I want to is fantastic! I love it. 3) I CAN walk with my tank and weights on!!!! I felt so proud and strong. I didn't think I could! But I only just can't stand up; if I'm already up (or Dean helps me up) I can do it! I can crawl in my gear (out of the water), too. 4) Those new sea cukes [the Keferstein's] are my favorite cucumber, after the Loli Longs kind. Because they are friendly. They don't just blob on the bottom, they DO stuff. All kinds of amazing, interactive stuff. Clinging on my hand, crawling all around, stretching out to astonishing lengths, expanding their tentactles and grabbing. They are such fascinating, weird, alien creatures. I found two more today and it was cool x 1,000. See it in my brain when I close my eyes at night level of cool.
I drove the Jeep to Waikoloa Village Market all by myself, and it was great! I love driving the Jeep. The silly slacky post office closes at 4:30, though, so I just missed it. W.V.M. is such a cute and friendly grocery store. And I got some highly delicious ahi poke for dinner, plus sticky velcro and pencils for my fantastic new dive slate rig, since I lost my original pencil getting pounded at Puako. Sad thing, since it was a red pencil. If I ever find more red #2s I'll have to snag them so I can blend in with the urchins. I can feel the aftereffects of the ocean-bashing we took, now. It's great. Shore dives rule!! My right wrist hurts some, and all my muscles. [Edit: I think my hurt wrist is from holding hands with Dean while getting all gushed around so we wouldn't be lost from each other. I was using my other hand/arm to protect my head, in case the ocean bashed me into rocks or sea urchins, since I couldn't see anything at all in all the stirred up bubbles. My new full wetsuit is great--I didn't get cut up at ALL.]
Posted at 7:51:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Solar-powered temporary traffic light! (Road single lane-ified because the bridge was damaged in the quake.)
Posted at 3:50:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I like Hawi town. And Persimmon is great. Got some gifts. Did not buy their Christmas cards even though I love them, because they are too expensive. The Tropical Dreams place had green tea ice cream today, so I got some even though I said to only get pure mac nut. (Got mac too, of course.) It was good, but mac's the best by far. My friend the wind is here today. But it's also nice and sunny and clear.
Must write ALL about Puako but I'm relaxing first. (It was a true whale experience!) I hope I don't forget anything.
[Dive slate notes from Puako:]
Posted at 11:38:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, November 06, 2006
[Dive slate notes from N. end of the Old Airport:]
Posted at 9:14:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The pretty eel was a snowflake moray, and we saw it in very shallow water coming in. Most of the body was visible. Also saw a bunch of nice eels including two smallish ones w/very white mouths (roar, roar) and some big eels too. Dean said this site should be called Eel City.
We never found the arc (it's supposed to have tons of unis and flatworms/nudibranches) and Dean wants to go back for an Old Airport pt. 2. As we were de-gearing, a nice guy offered to help us carry our tanks and told us a zillion dive site tips. Divers are nice.
It was a little hard to properly enjoy the wall section because it was too surgy/current-y to look at details closely. (Although swimming in the surges/current was kind of fun.) I've been wearing my mask lower on my face and it's hardly leaking at all now. Dean thinks my prominent cheekbones affect the seal a lot. (And also when I'm anxious and my face gets worried.) Love LOVE my new loose pencil for writing on the slate-y part of the slate. (And me carrying the slate.) I can take notes on creatures and remember what I saw! It's like an underwater Zi. I need to set up a velcro rig for my pencil so I won't lose it.
We went to the Kailua Candy Co.'s new location and it is nice. Their Kona coffee is the best!! The store guy said he grows it himself. They even have chai for Dean. And they had mac nuts again!! But they aren't as good as the Ali`i Gardens Market guy's.
Get the li hing mui margarita (Paradise Passion) at Cafe Pesto. No matter what. I badly never recorded my pizza toppings in previous years, so here's what I ordered this time: mushrooms and fresh tomato slices on the whole thing, and half prosciutto (Lucard's pizza topping), half bay shrimp. It was good. Maybe get the shrimp again next time and try something dif. for the pro. The mushrooms were kind of inconspicuous. Dean loved his Four Seasons, - prosciutto + olives. Each slice was different, the ingreds transitioned. P.S. the best part of the pizza was the fennel (?) sprouts!
Posted at 8:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Unimproved Road. D: "Even better with those tanks in the back. It adds to the sound effects." The U.R. always seems much longer on the way out. Dean was complaining that they actually improved it this year, though. Now the whole thing is traversable by cars. What the heck.
Posted at 6:00:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I love the sand at the Tree Beach. It's really comfortable to lie in and easy to brush off. Dean said my hair was all full of stuff (twigs and sand and scraps) and called it a "big nest." Or a "big mess"--I'm not sure which one. I walked all down the lava barefooted, almost to where we snorkeled last year (at the spot I discovered). I startled two creatures: a snoozing sea turtle (he looked at me warily with one eye and went back to sleep) and a blendy-inny salt & pepper sand colored flounder that was in one of the tidepools. It scooted away, ray-like. Can't see to write any more.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Puako (aka "the whale") is the best. For the first time ever, I felt 100% comfortable scuba-ing and did not secretly wish I was snorkeling instead. I liked it better than snorkeling (!!!) (for the time and place). (It was enjoyable.) I said to Dean afterwards that it felt like a snorkel-style dive, which he didn't fully understand, but I did. Shore dives are 1,000 times better than boats (at least, better than following a dive master with a boat--maybe a boat could be good if you went off w/your buddy and ignored the rest of the group). The key is being your own guide, being able to explore and go at your own pace--to be able to hang around for 10 minutes looking under rocks, without being hopelessly lost from the group who meanwhile kept on kicking, missing all the tiny details. I also really enjoy the process of entering and exiting from shore--it feels more real, more in touch with the ocean.
Posted at 5:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Swam out using snorkels, then descended. Felt good in my gear, almost as comfortable as snorkeling. I like my Jr.-sized BCD (BID person gave it to me by mistake, but I tried it on and decided it fit better than my usual XS women's). I don't feel all swallowed and engulfed by the BCD like I always have--it's my size my gear feels useful, not encumbering. Even my mask behaved at depth (I was relaxed). Wanted to stay in that rock/coral rubble area the whole time (Echinoderm Canyon!). I want to scuba again tomorrow. We're going to try the old airport.
