Saturday, February 27, 2010
We're at a concert! This is only the 3rd concert I've ever been to. (Real, famous singer concerts, I mean.) If you know what the other two were, pat yourself on the back. :-)
Posted at 11:16:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We brought low lawn chairs from the garage, Hawaiian animal crackers (for a snack), and canned foods to give to the guys with shopping carts collecting them for charity at the entrance to the roped-off part of the parking lot. (Two vegetables, an Amy's Soup, and my Jack Mackerel.) Most of the people here look like they are 50-70! It's nice and quiet, and there's a full moon. Perfect temperature. Our chairs and my Ocean Minded shoes are comfortable!
The local guy opening act band was all right (the best part was the last song, when he brought out his daughter to sing along on "Spooky"... she was about 10 and was great!), but Brother Noland was fantastic! I had never heard of him before and never heard any of his songs (but he's a pretty important Hawaiian singer, some of his songs have been used in movies, and you can buy his albums on iTunes) but I really liked him!! He was very spunky and charming, with a great personality, long white hair worn in a cute topknot, bright yellow and black boardshorts with a giant flower pattern, and a really coool blue guitar. He had a bass player, an awesome woodwinds guy, and a drummer. They opened with Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" ("put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em bot' up...") done Brother Noland style, then a bunch of his own songs, including (not positive about the titles...) "Bad Things Come Back,""Big Ship" hold on ship shailing on the ocean (♥), "Moloka'i" (he is from Moloka'i), "Sassy" (not in the key of G because he was having a lot of trouble with his voice because of the vog and kept taking about it, laughing at himself super-endearingly!), "Rosy Cheeks" (naughty!) and "Coconut Girl" (his big hit). He even took requests from the audience, and people shouted out their favourites of his songs! There was a guy sitting near us who knew all of his songs, and he and his wife went over on the side to dance during "Coconut Girl." After the big ending of "Coconut Girl," Brother Noland came back with a cover of "Night Magic" as the final song. Whenever he talked about how the vog was messing up his voice (which was really hoarse, but I loved that!) I'd whisper to Dean that he needed a lemon honey drink.
Afterwards, we went to Longs, and they had "Vog Tea." Someone should have run in and bought some for Brother Noland! My throat hurt a little too, so when we got back I had some lemon tea with my special macadamia nut honey. It really isn't that voggy, though, at least compared to two years ago. I guess it seems super-voggy if you're from Moloka'i.
[Edit: I looked up some Brother Noland songs on iTunes, and I like his voice better all voggy! ♥ He was great the way he was tonight. They were filming the concert for a DVD of his tour, and I want it! I bet they'll put in the part when he talked about it being tsunami day. I wish I could remember some of his great pidgin quotes, but I can't.]
Everything's fine here and we are back at our condo. I wrote a bunch of notes while we were out, and will backpost them soon. Just wanted to update so no one would worry. :-) Planning to go to a concert (!) up at Keauhou Shopping Center tonight, so I can't post for real until later. Very cool and unusual day!! :-)
Posted at 5:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We're "snacking along"! It was my idea, and Dean was skeptical, but now he likes it! First stop was South Kona Fruit Stand, and Beth was there! She gave me a big hug. We had a giant Beth chat and heard all the latest news (she sold the smoothie truck that was operating at Honaunau, and hopes to reopen the cafe soon... the paperwork is being snailed along now). The SKFS pickings weren't very good because there's been a drought (no papayas at all--poor Dean!), but we bought some apple-bananas and got a lilikoi lemonade with organic cane sugar. It was fantastic, and Beth seemed extremely pleased to hear our enthusiastic evaluation. Yum. Nice and tart and refreshing. I love lilikoi so much. It made up for missing the Lotus Guy's amazing lilikoi juice at the Farmers' Market. Beth said mangoes will be arriving soon, which is unusual for when we are here. The mango trees are all mixed up because of the drought. She also said whale activity has been extreme this year... they're jumping all over the place, really close to shore, and she sees them nonstop. When we mentioned hearing the whales underwater while diving, she thought that was the coolest thing ever, so I told her about my YouTube video and gave her some search words to find it.
Posted at 1:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Next location returning back northward was Coffee & Epicurea, and I told Dean we should stop for a Larry's Famous (chai) and piece of best-ever banana bread to begin our Snacking Along. He was actually uncertain about it (?!) but once he listened to me and did it, he was raving about how great it was. Of course. We shared the b. bread (I'd forgotten just how good it is! sooooooo good) and a piece of quiche (I held out for a better Kona coffee, so I didn't get a drink).
After that we stopped at Discovery Antiques (home of Noni, my Hawaiian girl Christmas ornament, handmade in the 1970s) to kill time and get hungry for more food, and had a hilarious time. There was a crazily great item out on the porch that Dean actually told me I should get after I said how perfect it is, even though it is, in his words, "horrible." We looked around at the bizarre inside stuff while giggling about the idea of actually buying it, then I went back out to get it. The deal was that I can't tell the person who it's for about it ahead of time, though. It has to be a huge What the heck???!! when they get it. Dean is awesome. So I can't say anything else. But it was giddily bizarre and so fun. A discovery, all right. The Discovery guy took us out to the side porch for a box and gave us this wacky-looking beat up one that adds to the greatness. It looks awful but the item fit in it perfectly, and it even included old crunched up newspaper. On the top, it says "Mom's Mushrooms" in magic marker. So great! 
Directly across the street, we moved on to Patz' Pies, a new place in the former location of Chris' Bakery (a scary place where I once bravely procured malasadas while on a solo mission). I'd read on konaweb that it was really good, and it was! We each got a slice--Dean had cheese (boring) (but he likes it) and I had pepperoni (!). Pat was super enthusiastic and there was one cute tiny table to eat out in front. We want to go back and get a whole pizza next time!!!
I pointed out that it was great we ate all these items right at the beginning of our visit, so we'd remember how fantastic everything was and have lots of opportunities to have them again instead of trying them right near the end and crying because it would be our only instance. Thanks, tsunami!
The last two stops were Island Naturals (Dean had a salad) and Surfin' Hilary, where I got my Kona coffee. Theirs really is quite good! As usual, I had a giant chat (about the tsunami) with the woman behind the counter, while Dean waited in the Jeep. Very very successful mission, and the roadblocks in front of our place were all gone by the time we got back. I had fun wrapping up the unnamed item with lots and lots of tape and bubble wrap when we got back, and then it was time to go to the Brother Noland concert at Keauhou Shopping Center!
Posted at 12:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We went back up to Keauhou Shopping Center to evacuate, and managed to find a parking spot! Climbed down to a premium shady spot on the retaining wall to sit and watch (ocean and people). No wave in sight.
Guy above us on the wall, listening to a portable radio for news about the tsunami: "They're even laid back when there's an emergency!" Hee hee. So true. He was astonished that they were playing music instead of jabbering constantly about the evacuation, etc. We couldn't hear the radio itself; I was just eavesdropping on the guy. I'm good at that. The parking lot was nice and mellow. Even though it was filled with people, it was very quiet and peaceful... everyone was just hanging out, watching and waiting. There was a guy with a ukulele above us on the wall, strumming 
Hawaiian tunes as we waited. We all looked out at the ocean (everyone with a good enough view did, at least), even though there was nothing to see. It just looked normal. Couldn't tell if the waves were any bigger or not. At about 11:30 the person near us with a radio said the radio had said the tsunami had arrived at Hilo, but the wave was only three feet or so. We decided there wasn't going to be anything to see, and our spot was starting to get sunny, so we left. We'd been there a little less than half an hour, since we waited until nearly 11:00 to go up. Other people were starting to leave then, too, although most were still there.
I told Dean the beaches were going to be closed (and I was right), so we couldn't go to the beach (or, obviously, diving), so I suggested we go on up to South Kona Fruit Stand and get some fruit, since we'd missed the Farmers' Market, then work our way back down Mamalohoa Highway and stop at any and all cool/weird places that struck our fancy. Sort of like a slackyman's road trip. It turned out to be a great plan, as there was no traffic in South Kona and it's 1,000 feet+ up there, after all! As we drove out of the shopping center, I recorded a video on the camera to show all the people (although you only get a tiny bit of the idea of how many were there) and that the part of Alil'i Drive leading down toward our condo was roadblocked off with two cops standing there at the sign that indicates you're entering a tsunami evacuation area.
Got woken up at about 6:45 this morning by a tsunami warning siren! At first I didn't know what it was (especially since I was half asleep) but then I figured it out. It was pretty loud and persistent. I pictured a huge wave chasing me down, then thought, "Nah, I'm on the second floor..." and tried to go back to sleep. :) We are in the tsunami evacuation area (just barely inside it... the sign is pretty close to our place) so we are going to go to higher ground soon. The first wave is supposed to hit a little after 11 o'clock. We went up to the Keauhou Shopping Center around 9:15 and there were tons of people (and their kayaks!) up there, but no Keauhou Farmers' Market. :-( So we came back to our place for some breakfast before we evacuate back out. (Great leftovers from Lotus + edamame from Kenichi!) Not sure where we're going to go. We want to go to the Keauhou Shopping Center because there's a great view of the ocean, and it would be a great place to watch all the people and how they're reacting and stuff, but there might not be anywhere left to park. I'll post again later to report that we're safe, but don't worry... the waves are unlikely to be that huge here (Hilo is at much greater risk).
Posted at 10:20:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
BTW, I am posting this out of order... there are a couple posts that come first that I haven't finished yet, so don't miss them when I do post them! [finished them, sans the pictures!]
??! It sounds like the tsunami sirens are going off...
Posted at 7:00:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Friday, February 26, 2010
I just tried one of the home-grown bananas the Yoganics lady gave me. I don't know if I've ever had a non-apple banana (which are a different, smaller variety) Hawaiian banana before. It's good! It's more intense tasting than a banana you'd get at home. Sweeter and better (but in a fruity way, not in a too-sweet banana flavor way); less bland... sort of in the same way as a local tomato vs. a grocery store tomato (but not that extreme). And, it looked all marked up and ugly on the outside, but it wasn't smushy or bruised at all.
Posted at 10:07:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Lotus' Thai iced tea is very chai-ish tasting (in a very delicious way) (even I like it!). Banana-cinnamon lassi is such a comfort food! YUM. So good. What is in it?
Posted at 7:31:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
both are great! everything was great
Why's all the food in Hawaii so good??
Sunset whump is at 7:00
Posted at 7:28:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
not blowa at Waikoloa today! shocking!
Perfect temp. First we went to Kings' Shops and checked out the new coffee place that's in the location where the good ol' Kings' Starbucks used to be. Very nostalgic... I used to walk there when we'd stay at Fairway Villas. The new place is called Jungle's Edge, and it was okay, but I really think they need a broader range of drinks to appeal to the customer base. All they have are medium roast coffee (from their own Jungle's Edge coffee farm in South Kona, so that's good), prepared your choice of four different ways: drip, french press, pour over, or siphon. (And, the worker there didn't even drink coffee herself! What the heck.) I picked siphon since it was the most unusual. It was very cool to watch it being prepared. The bottom part is like a Bunsen burner (with a neato blue flame!) and it boils the water and slowly sucks it all up into the top part where the grounds are. Then when you turn off the flame, it drains back down in a very dramatic fashion! The finished product was OK, but kind of weak (not robust)... not sure if that was due to the medium roast, the coffee itself, or the brewing method, though. We drank our drinks (Dean got an iced green tea... they didn't have chai) outside overlooking the pond between Kings' and Fairway Villas, watching this large bird preening up in the coconut tree above us. I don't know what kind of bird it was, but it was about the size of a duck and didn't look like it would hang out up in a tree! It had a very pointy beak, very soft and fluffy looking feathers, and very good balance. I did a special bird call to get its attention so it would turn its head so Dean could take pictures. I don't know how I came up with the bird call (it was a penetrating high pitched whistle, not at all like the low whistle I used to use to call my ducks) but it was very bird-like and effective. I had to do it a billion times. But I'm pretty sure no one saw me and thought I was crazy.
After the bird session, Dean herded me into Honolua Wahine (home of my fav skirts that I modelled my homemade knit skirts after) and helped me pick out THREE things to try on, and I loved them all and he told me to buy all of them! Why do I always find so many great pieces of clothing in Hawaii??? Two are skirts and one's a great t-shirt that Dean picked out. I need to shorten it with my sewing machine, but I'm going to wear the skirts immediately. (Actually, I put on the patterned one after we paid for it, and wore it for the rest of the day!)
Post Kings', we checked out Queens', and visited the very down the well Queens' Persimmon. As I suspected from their website, the original Persimmon in Hawi has closed down now, so R.I.P. Persimmon. The Queens' one is boring and only has a few token cards and they aren't even very good ones, unlike the great cards and wrapping paper the Hawi branch used to have. It was also the home of the special box our special lava rock lives in when it's in the Na Hale o Storage. The Queens' gourmet market is also kind of boring... it's like a giant fancy version of Whaler's, like it's just trying to outdo poor old Kings' in every way. There was one super cool thing at Queens', though: an ALB-colored hibiscus plant!!! I had no idea hibiscus even came in that color scheme. All the currently in bloom flowers were a little bit past their prime, but we took pictures anyway. If we go back to Queens' we will have to check it again. It was awesome.
Since it was kind of late for going to the Tree Beach, Dean suggested going to A Bay (our classic Thanksgiving picnic beach), and it was really nice there. We hung out on the lava rocks, right above a group of six sea turtles that were basking on the rocky beach. We didn't choose the spot because of the turtles... we picked the spot when we saw how nice and flat it was--it was probably our Thanksgiving spot--and once we got close enough we suddenly unexpectedly came across the big gang of turtles. We were careful not to disturb them or wake them up! One was napping with his chin resting on the back of the guy in front of him. It was super cute. Such a perfect temperature at A, no wind, so nice nice sitting in our lava chairs on the lava, at the edge of the ocean.
Will post photos to go with this entry soon. Must go to bed now, though.
Dinner at Lotus Cafe!
Posted at 7:24:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
For me: mahimahi sate, chicken mango tango & banana cinnamon lassi
For Dean: tofu summer roll, rad na noodles & thai iced tea with coconut milk
the Lotus Guy is here! (he didn't see us though)
Josh told us about a shore dive spot we didn't know about, and we just checked it out for future ref. It's at the Old Airport, but not at the usual Old A spot at the end of the former runway. Instead it's near the hockey rink (roller, not ice) near the beginning of the runway, so we named it Roller Rink. It looks like a good entry spot! We checked out Four Mile on the way to Big, and surf was way too rough to go in, but the Roller Rink area is protected and has a deeper dropoff, so it might be a good alternative. Josh said surge has been continous recently, unlike how it usually comes and goes around here. It might be a challenge finding good shore dive spots! Too bad we're not surfers.
Posted at 2:34:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Writing this at lunch @ the new Taco Del Mar near Office Max. It's Fish Friday so I got the 2 fish taco special. It was good! (Poor Killer Taco.) The new Taco Del Mar is much littler than the one near Kona Mountain, and I like it better (less overwhelming!).
Now we're going on a road trip to check out Queens'.
My first Jeep solo mission was great! Even the Hulk was fine. I parked in the Oshima parking lot, and walked to the Yoganics store across from Oshima Store, where I chatted with the owner and bought a beautiful organic bamboo knit skirt. I predict I'm going to wear it nonstop. I tried on a bamboo velour skirt like the ones that I coveted so much last year (when they didn't have my size), but I didn't like the fit, so it's great that I got my own bamboo velour on Etsy and can make my own instead. Bamboo fabric is so soft. Love LOVE. The owner told me to take some of the home-grown organic bananas she had near the door, so I thanked her and snagged two. Excellent, since we don't have any fruit yet. Then I got half and half (forgot it at the grocery store, for my Kona Mountain!), a nice heavy papaya and Rooster sauce for Dean, and some Island Soap & Candle Works coconut body wash at Oshima Store. ♥ And, since it smelled insanely good walking around, after I put the stuff in the car I walked by the bakery... and went in and asked if they had malasadas. YES!! I bought one plain one and one jelly filled (never seen jelly malasadas before!), with guava jelly (they also had raspberry). We're going to EAT them after Dean's meeting is over. :-)
Posted at 11:45:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
I am already fully aclimated to Hawaii time. This is crazy.
Posted at 11:48:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Limp strawberry Melona bar = perfect dessert to follow a perfect dinner at Kenichi. I just checked an old ALB entry to make sure I was spelling Melona right, and it said something about Melona pops melting in about two minutes. So true. We even got them last at the grocery store, and put them in our new brown Hawaiian-patterned (Dean insisted I get them) insulated shopping bags. With the new insulated bags, we had exactly the right number of bags (six) for all our groceries. They fit quite well in backseat of the Hulk. That's what I'm calling the Jeep Hertz gave us this time, because the licence plate letters are HLK and it's a STRETCH Jeep instead of a normal one, so it's like a regular David Banner sized Jeep hulked out and turned into our Jeep. Too bad it's red and not green. Dean likes the gigantic Jeep (he claims it's not much bigger than a normal one, but I do not agree at ALL) but I don't. I think it will be hard to park and feel weird to drive, since I'm used to my Beag and a normal Jeep is about the same size. I guess I'll find out tomorrow, if I go on a solo mission. I have to admit having four doors is pretty convenient, and it was nice that our Na Hale stuff all easily fit in there, plus the boxes from the post office, but, still, I do not approve.
Posted at 10:10:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Anyway, that was the best first day grocery store-ing ever! Dean didn't even growl at me. He said I "behaved myself" and wasn't naughty constantly snailing around looking at weird stuff, but I'm pretty sure I looked at plenty of weird stuff, because I bought some of it! (Must photograph some cans later.) It was like one of those fun, semi-giddy nighttime grocery store visits. You know what I mean, and if you don't, I feel sorry for you. I'm surprised we weren't super tired, but we weren't, and aren't even tired now, although it's 10:30! Normally exhaustion sets in at about 8:00 on the first full day here. This is mind-blowing. We even got some cans in case we want to go to the concert at the Keauhou Shopping Center on Saturday (!!) (admission is two cans per person, for charity). Oh yeah and my Ocean Minded shoes are great for the (freezing cold) grocery store.
Octo suno - mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Posted at 6:04:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I should have brought my camera
uni - CRYfully good!!!!!!
I AM SO RAVENOUS
That was the slooooooowest meal ever, and they brought out all the smallest things first (sunomono salad, which consists of four gorgeous little yummy octopus arms and tons of tasty vinegared cucumber with shredded carrots and sesame seeds, followed by my two little incredibly insanely unmentionably delicious pieces of uni sushi), so I remained so hungry until 90% through the meal when my slightly more substantial items finally emerged. It was a torture but I kind of loved it because things taste extra-delicious when you're hungry, so that experience was prolonged and sustained through the entire dinner! And since the sunomono, uni, and miso black cod (moan!!!!) are three of the most delicious food items ever, it was pretty extreme. So good.
my order at Kenichi:
Posted at 5:49:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Ty Nant with lemon (Ty Nant makes me think of Jim Profit, and Luxembourg)
octopus sunomono
saikyo miso black cod
pineapple shrimp summer rolls
uni (the best uni ever)
Finished all our first-day errands except the grocery store! Rearranged garage, breakfasted at Aloha Theatre Cafe (formerly Aloha Angel Cafe), picked up our boxes at Kona post office, fetched our stuff from Na Hale o Storage, and got an insanely good dark roast Kona Mountain. Mmmmmmm. Also picked up my Aeropress at Kona Mountain (so I'll have one that can live here) and got some decaf dark roast so I can drink Kona Mountain while outdoorsing in the evening if so desired. The Kona Mountain lady recognized us and welcomed us back. Note: Kona Mountain's small coffee is 12 oz! Even though it was the best coffee ever, I refrained from finishing the whole thing. That's a lot of coffee! Small should be 8 oz. (or even 6 oz. if you really want small). I make 8 oz. at home in my Aeropress and it fills a mug, and standard measurement size is 6 oz. (teacup sized). Anyway, I'm not complaining... just an observation, although it does seem like a shame to waste such excellent coffee.
Posted at 3:10:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Perfect weather today. Around 80°, overcast/slightly hazy (so, nice soft sky, not bright and glary), very slight pleasant breeze. It's so nice to be back in Kona.
They took down the sign on the Ushijima Store! (And I don't mean the "Closed" sign, I mean the "Ushijuma Store" sign.) Good thing I took a picture.
Posted at 11:58:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Aloha Cafe new hours: 7:30 - 2:30 (no more dinner)
Posted at 11:53:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean: I hate the Aloha Cafe! You know why.
Posted at 11:08:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Laura: Yeah.
(Because the menu has so much great veggie stuff that he doesn't know what to order!)
Switching my Blogger time zone to Hawaii time, as of this post! Woke up at 7:30 AM but I feeted until 9:00 (which was kind of hard because today's Thursday, which is Insanely Noisy Lawn & Garden Machinery Operating Right Underneath Your Window morning here at Na Hale o Keauhou. :) Mmmmm, it feels nice to be here, though. Familiar. Niiiiiice air. We have lots to do today: pick up boxes at Kona P.O., get stuff out of our Na Hale o Storage, set up garage, get food, eat food, maybe go to Kona Mountain Coffee...! Not in that order, I hope, because I'm really hungry right now, and there's nothing to eat here but chocolate covered mac nuts that the housekeeper left.
Posted at 10:56:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Bed. Tired. Almost 24 hours. But that was the easiest ever, I think.
Posted at 5:19:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Warm island welcome wind, black sky & blowing palms, yellow lights mysteriousizing everything grey. The Jeep looks brown... What color is it really? Need the flashlight... RED!
Posted at 3:30:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Sam Choy salad and wasabi salmon on the flight from LA to Hawaii is sooooooo good.
Posted at 10:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 7:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Oh and my Netbook was fantastic on the plane! We watched the two final episodes of Kings. Great screen even from an angle!
This is the best jet travel outfit EVER. 1) New Ocean Minded shoes (so comfortable for walking, & warm... I even left them on on the plane and it was like wearing slippers!), 2) black sweater tights (super comfortable & warm, and I can take them off when we get to Hawaii), 3) solid black knit skirt (sooooo comfortable & looks good!), 4) tank & mauve Big Island t-shirt, 5) tongue-colored cashmere zippy sweater & ocean sweater on top. No improvements! LOVE my new shoes.
Posted at 6:59:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Super-smooth so far! Just rain, no snow, between Berlin & JFK (14" elsewhere in CT!) and there was NO ONE at the airport.
Posted at 11:38:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Wow. Today's forecast says "Snow and rain. Total snow accumulation of 6 to 10 inches. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent." But there's nothing... just rain. We got lucky. (And there's a chance for more snow every day through Saturday!) We're leaving 1/2 hour early for the airport just in case. Yep, I'm up at 6 AM!
Posted at 6:15:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Soooooooo tired. Which is good, because I'll be able to fall asleep early. Just got back from the car wash. Listened to "One Too Many Mornings" inside. ♥
Posted at 7:29:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Listening to "Visions of Johanna" (Festival Hall, Melbourne, April 20, 1966 version) while giving the trees their final water. So beautiful.
Posted at 2:54:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
This cup of coffee tastes so good. Kona Mountain Aeropress, so, natch, but even more so than usual, I mean...
Posted at 12:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
That version of "One Two Many Mornings" is just the best thing ever. It's painful how great it is. Definitely still my #1 all-time favorite-ever song.
The train song. So perfect today. I haven't listened to it in a while, and Disc 5 (the Bob CD-R that always lives in my 5th CD slot in my car, that is) was playing, and it came on, and, just... wow.
Posted at 11:55:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
And then "One Too Many Mornings," right after, so magnificent, quivering, reverberating in the damp snowy rainy chilly air. I'm really sleepy today (got up at 9:15, so I only got about 6 hours of sleep), but it feels nice. Sort of drugged, very relaxed, but very balanced. (My mind is going into a weird loop, thinking about "balanced"... I'm picturing a teeter-totter, the beautiful word "equilibrium," and the still part of the pilates exercise "rolling like a ball"...)
Michelle is the best. It was nice today--no one there but the two of us, until John came in right at the end. She wouldn't let me pay full price, but I gave her a GIANT tip and she didn't see how much it was until after I left. Heh heh.
Stew's had warm donut holes. Mmmmmm.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Ha. Before I brought in my GPS Guy to pack him up (I need him for solo Jeep missions!), I looked at my favorites menu, and the condo where we stay in Keauhou is 4,997 miles away. That's pretty far.
Posted at 5:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Yes, it's true: I finally posted my Puako entries! Such as they are, at this point. :)
Posted at 3:01:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
[This dive took place on Wednesday, March 17th, 2009. Here I reproduce my dive slate notes, plus illustrations and as many additional details as I can remember!]
Posted at 2:04:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Puako #2
overcast
waves
buoy
whales while descending! (but not after)
viz fair but good up close
gave a dirty long-spined uni a bath
wall
spotlight for eel
[This was a beautiful whitemouth moray, and Dean was able to get up nice and close to film it opening and closing its mouth to breathe, while I held the flashlight from above. It was impossible to keep the camera completely still, hovering mid-water with nothing to rest it on, but he did well, considering! You can see the moray's spectacular white mouth at the end as Dean begins to back away!]
nice crown with a few stubby legs
thought I got a little pricked, but nope, it didn't break the skin
[I love these photos Dean took of me with the crown-of-thorns! 1) Posing like pals, 2) Aw, friends (I love how it's reaching out its feet toward me), 3) "Ahhh... where are you going???" as it started to crawl down my hand. LOL at the expression on my face. :) And here are two closeups of the COT: top (with me touching the thorns) and bottom. So beautiful. Love LOVE.]
easy to move/hover
WOW! devil scorpionfish... mother AND baby!!!
baby swam a few feet, and displayed beautiful bright yellow/orange colors underneath dirt!
[Gosh, I forgot how incredible this was... devil scorpionfish are very rare to find, especially since they pretend to be rocks! Unfortunately, I didn't write down any more details, so I have no memory of how on earth we did notice them, or who was the first to spot them, or anything like that. (Edit: Dean says he noticed at least one of them first, and that it was probably because I was looking at something else, like an uni, for a billion years, two inches away from where they were.) But this was how they looked when we first saw them, together. Look at the picture for a minute if you can't see both of them right away. The mother is in the back, and the baby is closer. They are each facing a different direction. Here's a closeup of the mother, and here's how she looked head on. So so cool.
After the baby swam a few feet away, he settled on the sand and still pretended he was camouflaged while Dean took a zillion photos and videos, even though it was perfectly easy to see him! I guess his mom taught him well. I still can't believe these photos.]
lots of fine-spined unis ♥ near octy window
cave = dark!
[This dive took place on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009. Here I reproduce my dive slate notes, plus illustrations. I don't remember enough about it to add more than the sparest additional details!]
Posted at 12:01:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Puako #1
singing whales
garden eels - "they're coming up tall"
grassy knoll! [good whale listening spot]
dive & hide fish [had fun sneaking up on one!]
nonstop whale!
I was cryin' during long surface swim to eel garden, but it was worth it
feather duster! pretty
[I didn't write about this on my slate, but Dean took a good picture of me in front of a huge Puako coral head]
longspined flexible
nice big dark trigger with trig up
turtle
octopus through octopus window
big fat spotty puffer!
shared air
octy #2
Sunday, February 21, 2010
What the heck, I thought we were bringing way too much stuff, but there's actually tooooons of extra room in the suitcase!
Posted at 6:16:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Wow, my eyes are a blurry mess. I can barely see, even though I've been up for half an hour! I think it's because I had a really intense dream where Dean and I were stuck at an inn or something in this little Maine town and we talked to all these old locals, and they told us about the big annual public celebration that was going on outside for the historical Jack Whipple house. (I can't remember what the celebration consisted of, but it probably included fire trucks.) That night (in the dream), I woke up sobbing with the emotional intensity of thinking about all the events that the historical house had witnessed. I stumbled out of bed and over to my bookshelf to look at my Arm in Arm book (the original, beat up, faded, falling apart one, not the new copy with the nice cover jacket) and read the thing about the pink house. ("George Washington slept here... Walt Whitman wrote "Leaves of Grass" here... Queen Mary had tea and crumpets here... Abraham Lincoln died here... Isadora Duncan danced here... "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was composed here... Peanut butter was invented here..." etc.) Weird. For some reason Arm in Arm was in the room even though I was at an inn in Maine. But I woke up before I actually read it. Anyway, I just looked at the page in the real book, and it never says anything about it being called the Jack Whipple house! But apparently my dream self knows. :) Hmm, I can see slightly better now.
Posted at 12:35:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I like lying on my bed and gazing up at my crown-of-thorns.
Posted at 12:56:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
