Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Kimball was great, even though they didn't have any veggie burgers for Dean yet. (He had to get a grilled cheese & tomato instead.) I was moaning nonstop while eating my lobster roll. Opening day was really busy and the line was longer than we'd ever seen it, but it went pretty fast. We did forgo our peppermint stick ice cream, though, because the ice cream line was equally as long (plus, it was getting chilly by then). There was still a little snow on the ground in New Hampshire, but it was sunny and warm (mid 60s) when we landed. After we walked back from Kimball, we had a huge chat with Harvey and he recommended that we fly to Baaa Haabor, Maine because the BHB airport has three or four lobster roll places near it! The farthest away one, Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, makes lobster sandwiches (not rolls), on plain white bread, and he said it was the best ever. It's only about a mile from the airport. I also want to go to the Gateway Lobster Pound, which is two inches from the airport and cooks the lobsters up using a wood fire (he recommended that one, too). Bar Harbor is about as far away as visiting David in Maryland (2½ hours-ish). Oh yeah, and he told me that Kimball Farm's lobster comes from Canada and it's frozen! But he admitted it's really good anyway.
Posted at 10:31:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Opening day at Kimball and we're flying to Jaff right now!!!
Posted at 5:36:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, April 14, 2008
I love how every single day in April, things change. The bare brown branches look a little redder, a little fluffier. The willows hang heavier, sneaking from yellow to chartreuse to that color you can only call spring green. Early dogwoods surprise me with their whiteness, and the sky is so blue, laden with huge soft clouds. It makes me want to visit the Dino State Park and see the magnolias, and I keep checking the mags near the post office to see if they're almost ready yet. The swollen Connecticut River makes me want shad, and driving around Glastonbury makes me long for blueberries. But I know blueberries are still a long way off. Shad come first, and rhubarb and fiddleheads and spargle and summer squash. I also can't wait for lobster rolls!
Posted at 7:57:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Driving around this past week, things have seemed very New Englandy, in a very very fondness-inducing way. I don't know if it's just because I was away in Hawaii, or something about the season. The old brown of winter mixed with all the new beginnings of life. It's a lot different than when it's green and flowery constantly.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
This post is from Saturday March 22nd (I wrote most of it then, but didn't finish the photos until now):
Posted at 11:13:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Excellent dive at Makole`a Beach yesterday! Uniquely Big Island. To get there, we drove over about 2.5 miles of rough lava road, then turned off of that and drove directly over the lava field the rest of the way to the beach. [It was a lot bumpier than it looks in this video.] There's sort of a non-distinct path marked with pieces of coral (the white contrasts well with the black lava) that you use as a guide, but mostly you just go slow and use your best judgement about how to make it through on the flattest stretches and not rip out the bottom of your vehicle. You definitely need a Jeep for the 4WD and ground clearance. Along the way, there are all different neat lava textures to look at--brittle, sharp, shattery lava; creamy flowy cake batter lava; broken lava like charcoal cinders; porous lava full of tiny air bubbles; vast plates that are almost parking-lot flat, but with rifts between them; random fragments as smooth and glossy as ceramic; and a few large sections where there's unusual orange-colored lava mixed in with the black, sometimes in high concentrations and sometimes in thin cracks that almost look like writing.
When you make it there, there's a true black sand beach to the left and lava lava lava all around. We entered through this cool big lava tide pool that's open to the ocean (we snorkeled in it on our first trip to Hawaii, but part of it has since collapsed so it's not the big calm pool that it was). First we carried all our gear down (the descent is steep and rough, so we couldn't have climbed down wearing our tanks) and set it up, then put on our BCDs and tanks in the water and swam out through the pool into the ocean. It was COOL. Here's what our entry pool looked like from above, and here's our view of the Jeep while down in the setup area. And here's me fooling around with the camera. :-)
After exiting the north (right) side of the pool, we surface-swam straight out on a 270 heading, dropped down at 35' and then slowly swam back underwater. Slow & slower all the way. The underwater topography was so cool: first black sand with deep ridges (I loved lying between ridges, just sifting through the sand with my hands, marvelling at its composition: black lava sand, urchin spine fragments of all sizes, tiny pieces of shells...), then huge coral heads like a village of little mushroom-shaped cottages. Amazing, awe-inspiring dive.
