Thursday, February 26, 2009

Okay, real entry time. Except that it's 12:32 AM at home (only 7:32 here), and I'm starting to get sleepy. Yesterday's travel day was really smooth, and I didn't get all exhausted, or a hurt back, or anything, even though I got up at 6:30 AM and didn't get to bed until the equivalent of 6 AM (1 AM here). It's a looooong travel day, but it's worth it. Each flight is about six hours, plus there's all the surrounding airport time, travelling two hours to JFK in the first place, etc. Wow, I'm tired now. It's kicking in. But I felt great today, up until now!

Our first flight yesterday (from New York to Los Angeles) had in-flight wireless Internet! Dean watched a CNET episode off our TiVo via our Slingbox. And I read Television Without Pity.

Today I kept saying, "We already did so much and it's only ____ o'clock!" Aloha Angel for breakfast (they have ideal hours: both breakfast and lunch until 2:30!) "Come On Over" was playing when we walked in the door (but not the Dennis Pavao version!). I got a fresh fish sandwich (made out of ono) and Dean got the breakfast burrito. Of course x 2. My sandwich was really good on focaccia bread, even though it's a nonstandard ingredient for a Fresh Catch Sandwich. It was really soft and they grilled it on the inside like how a Dano's style bun is grilled. It was as good as a Dano's, although Dano's sauce is better, of course. Speaking of Dano's, I spotted Tante's Restaurant when we drove down Ali'i Drive later. (That's where Mrs. Dano told me they were moving the last time we went to Dano's.) It's in a premium location (for them; not really for us). I wonder what moved into the former Dano's spot? We also drove by the International Marketplace, and I could see Dano's old back door and that there was something there. They finished the new construction at Kona Commons and there's a Sports Authority, Petco, Office Max and a whole bunch of other stuff (but the intended-Circuit City building is empty since they're going bankrupt). There's also a big building across the street that's obviously the future Target!

After Aloha, we stopped at Oshima Surf for two seconds just as a teaser, then the P.O. to pick up our boxes. General Delivery is great! Then, sittin' in the parking lot of Tesoro slurping down Melona bars. Strawberry and melon. Oh yeah: we finally found the RARE fourth flavor (mango), at KTA this evening!!!! SNAGGED it, but haven't tried it yet).

Kailua Candy Co. for my first Kona coffee of the visit, with a macadamia turtle on the side. Perfect combo. Then Na Hale o Storage--all our stuff barely fit in the Jeep (with the boxes from the P.O.)! The Na Hale is great. It's so fantastic to have all our stuff. Especially my Oshima slippers and my Longs bag and my soap dish. Well, there are other much more important items but I was especially missing those before we picked them up.

Two lanes on Queen K--who would've thought?? Black, smooth, shiny.

Got three papayas for Dean at the Ali'i Gardens Market to tide him over 'til the Farmer's Market on Saturday (he had to stay in the Jeep because all our stuff was in it). When I asked the stand guy for ones that would be ready to eat soon, he suggested, "Leave 'em in your car--they'll ripen faster."

I was really hungry when it was grocery store time, so we went to Peaberry & Galette (suggested by me, shockingly!) and had salads. Dean got the tofu salad and I had Nicoise. They were good, but Dean's looked a little wimpy to me. Then I had Diamond brand ("Baked Fresh in Hawaii") Lightly Salted Tops Soda Crackers ("formerly 'Salty Crackers'," which is clearly a way better name!) from the grocery store, with Justin's Natural almond butter (from home) on top! ("Caution: may cause you to hug nearest tree.") Superbness! Dean thinks the Diamond crackers are better than Premium Saltines, but I don't know. It's hard to beat Premium. But they're both good. We also got Oroweat (aka "Orwell") English muffins and Dean had one. Orwell are so the best English muffins ever!!! And I tried a bizarro drink that was advertised on the package as "Japan's Favorite Drink since 1919". It's called Calpico concentrate (you mix it with water or other stuff). I tried it and it's a little strange (milky/yogurty, with a slight citrusness), but not too bad. It's the kind of thing that could grow on one.

It's warm. And it's not voggy! The skies are pretty clear. I mean, in the daytime. It's dark now. I think Lava 105.3 has improved. There's a BROWN TREE SNAKE (which is actually green) on the cover of Big Island Weekly and I keep accidentally looking at it and going, "Aaah!" This entry is so anti-linear mixed with linear. I'm still hungry. The week leading up to coming here, I kept remembering one thing about this place, in a vivid, fond and looking-forward-to-it kind of way: running out the front door (which we don't usually use) and across the front walk and parking lot in my bare feet with some garbage to throw in the dumpster. (Papaya shells!) That's so nutsy. There are so many colorful flowers. I LOVE THE AIR!

P.S. Tried the mango Melona bar just now, and it's inferior! It's not as intense as the others. Maybe that's why it's hard to find; it's not as popular.

P.P.S. There's a fifth flavor I didn't know about and I bet it's good!! Red bean! Tease!!

Posted at 7:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

This is a test of a super long blog entry about all the fun things we did today! First we snuggled a whale and dialed 1-888-55-WHALE to report it in the whale count. Then ten crown-of-thorns crawled on me at the same time and gave me a back massage. Then I snoozed in the extra-tall Princess-and-the-Pea bed with one grain of black sand hidden under the bottom layer. It made me get black-and-blue, so I had to go back and get another crown-of-thorns feet massage, which cured me.

This is great except I think the angle hurts my wrists for typing.

It's 8:02 PM at home.

AirPort is now connected! Signal Strength: Low.

Note: This is only a test. This post was a huge lie, except for the ending part. But we're heeeeeeere and I'm online and everything is GREAT! Real entry later.

Posted at 3:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I looked up into the black sky and right above was my pal Orion.

Soft breeze, air. We're here. Rustle rustle. Sparkling diamond belt. Golden palm leaves against the darkdark skies. It always feels so good to arrive. There's nothing like it. Climbing down the metal stairs from the plane, smiling, smiling.

Posted at 9:45:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

We're leaving tomorrow, and I'll try to post soon from Hawaii, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this. It's my final Hawaii entry from last year, which I slackishly never wrote, so I'm writing it now. Better late than never. This entry belongs with this page, and it's about our shark dive at the Maui Ocean Center on April 4th, 2008. As you will recall (or, probably not, since it was ages ago), we checked out Maui for a week at the end of our last visit to the Big Island. We weren't huge Maui fans, but we did really like the Maui Ocean Center and our shark dive.

The first part of the video is from our dive inside the 750,000 gallon Open Ocean Exhibit tank with 22 sharks (6 species, including hammerheads, a BIG tiger, gray reef, sandbar, and blacktip and whitetip reef sharks), stingrays, a spotted eagle ray, my crown-of-thorns pal and thousands of fish. It was just the two of us and the marine biologist guide diver. First we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Ocean Center by the marine biologist who went in the tank with us and his Scottish colleague. It was very interesting, although the only part I remember now is the tanks where they were breeding baby jellyfish, since that was my fav part!

We changed into our wetsuits and gear, and descended into the tank through an entrance which was above the 54 foot long acrylic tunnel that visitors can walk through to see inside the tank and watch the sharks swimming around and above them. (From the outside, the tunnel looks like this.) Once in the tank (I went first, and got my bearings while Dean came in), the guide gave us shellfish to feed the friendly eagle ray. It slurped them right out of our hands, shell and all, then crunched them down and spit out the shells. The guide had a mesh bag with the shellfish in it (I can't remember what they were... big clams or something) and he'd dole out a few at a time because whenever the ray smelled them it would mob you.

After and while we fed the ray, we got to look for shark's teeth in the sand on the bottom and keep all the ones we found. (The sharks shed them all the time.) They were really hard to see because they were white and blended in with the sand, so most of the ones we picked up were actually pointed out to us by the guide! I tucked them up the sleeve of my wetsuit. After the dive was over, I asked the guide what the different types were and scribbled down a diagram in my notebook. Here's a scan of the ones I still have... I also sent a bunch to Hunter, but I think most (if not all) of the ones I sent him were repeats.

The guide also told us to put our hand under the snout of the stingray and wiggle it around to see a cool reaction. (There were two stingrays, and we were warned not to approach them from above.) That's what I'm attempting to elicit in the beginning of the video. And of course I had to make friends with the resident crown-of-thorns. I warned the guide ahead of time about my affinity for crown-of-thorns, so he didn't freak out when I handled it, although I think he was probably a little nervous... I am impressed by how he calmly keeps his distance and watches the whole interaction with his hands folded, then flashes an OK when it's over! :-) My crown-of-thorns petting session was actually quite long, and I cut a bunch out of the video so it wouldn't be too boring!

The sharks were beautiful, and the dive was very relaxing! The rays were friendly and seemed to enjoy being touched, but the sharks mostly swam around in the center of the tank and ignored us. It was cool, and wasn't scary at all. Sorry the video from inside the tank is a little dark... the lighting was weird because the top was covered to keep out ash from the nearby sugarcane fields!

The dive lasted 40 minutes, and when we climbed out of the tank, the first thing the guide said was how impressed he was by my buoyancy control!! :-) I was really proud. Dean told me later that later on when I was at the gift shop he talked to him more and he told Dean that our control was really amazing and was tons better than other far more experienced divers he'd dived with. He knew that we'd only been diving for a few years because of the date on our C-cards, but was really impressed by how comfortable we were. Wow!!! It was so wow getting such a huge compliment from someone I respect like that!

After the dive, we also got to tour the aquarium as much as we wanted, and in the later part of the video I have some snaps from outside the tank and around the Ocean Center after we dried off, including some cool garden eel and jellyfish closeups. Maui Ocean Center had fantastic exhibits, most done to be very natural, like in the real ocean. If you're ever in Maui, it's definitely worth the visit, whether you can do the shark dive or not! My fav part part other than the shark dive was the big glass column of jellies. It was also really cool seeing the garden eels because they always slurp into the sand when you see them while diving and you can never get up close enough to see the details of their supercute faces.

Here's a YouTube video put out by Maui Ocean Center that tells about some of the cool stuff we saw, including good footage of some of the sharks we swam with.

Posted at 9:27:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

There's a snowdrop in bloom under the dogwood tree. At least, I think it's in bloom. It's closed right now, but it's white.

Posted at 4:24:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.

Monday, February 23, 2009

I finished packing everything, and we're not even leaving 'til Wednesday! I listened to 60s on 6 on XM radio (on my computer) while packing. They even played a Bob song! I think it was Positively 4th Street, but I'm not positive.

My pal the wind was around today. Cringecringecringe = hurt shoulders. Good, since it makes me think we picked the right time to Get Out of Town.

Posted at 9:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.