Our morning started off with some math work. What????? You heard me, and so did my very unhappy kids, because I made them do a math lesson. I know it's vacation, but we are going to be gone a long time and I'd hate for their little brains to forget what they've been working on, so with as much enthusiasm as one would expect had they been asked to take a spoonful of cod liver oil, they tackled their work. Once they completed their math, we headed over to the pool area for an island briefing offered by the staff of our condo resort. Debra, the concierge, gave us an overview of the whole island and the different activities that are offered. Everything sounded like a "must do"....riding atv's along the rim of of a rainforest mountain and into the valley filled with waterfalls; soaring in a fixed-wing airplane around the 200+ miles of coastline and over oozing volcanoes and waterfalls; helicoptering over lava flows; snorkeling boat tours; sunset dinner cruises; luau's; manta ray dives; a sunset dinner at Kahua Ranch that includes: dinner, music, cowboy activites like roping and branding, stargazing with the telescope, and smores; ziplining across 3,000 foot valleys.....the list was bottomless and frankly, so must be one's wallet. The average cost for each activity was about $100 per person. Uh, I guess we are just going to have to live on the memories we created listening to the talk. We partook (is that a word) of the complimentary banana bread and dreamed. I couldn't take it anymore and decided to ask about the Sunset Dinner at the Kahua Ranch, it sounded so fun. I was talking to the manager, Sue, who had a very unique accent acquired from life in New England, New Zealand, and Hawaii. She was a tall red-headed, firecracker of a woman in her mid-fifties with her wrangler jeans, big ol' belt buckle, cowboy boots and hat and western shirt. She asked if the kids were all mine and I said yes. We talked abit about the island and I told her we would like to come to the ranch and she gave me the time and day (Wednesday's only). I thanked her and went back for more free banana bread, I was drowning my disappointment in living on a real world budget, when she came right over to me and said go book the dinner and tell 'em you have 3 free kids! Did I just hear her right? We only have to pay for 3 people???? I made Paul go back and ask her if what I heard was right and she reaffirmed her offer. I think she really did that because the other guests were complaining about the woman who was wolfing down the free banana bread and they had to do something to stop the carnage. Pretty exciting...and there is more to this story, but I will finish it later....
With skip in our step we loaded up the minivan and headed out to find a snorkeling hole. As we headed north on the Queen K Hwy, we saw several Ironman participants training on their bikes for the big race. Wow, that hwy is something....it's a ribbon of black, asphalt laid down throught the center of acres and acres of lava fields...the heat just radiates off it. These athletes are really amazing. Anyway, as we traveled the road the last thing I expected to see was a big ol' wild goat sunning itself on a lava rock.
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Did someone say Rodeo? Yeah, I could take 'em
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It had a beard like a band member of ZZTop and some big, honkin' horns. The first thing I thought was how I'd like to see those cowgirls from the rodeo the other day try to hog-tie this fella. Now that would've evened things out a bit. A ways up the road, we saw the turn for Puako. We took it and followed the road down past some amazing homes (not too big or ostentatious), an old church, and public access lanes to the ocean. The old church was established in 1856 and is called Hoku Loa.
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| Hoku Loa est 1856 |
It was a quaint building with an old, wooden, bell tower and surrounded by lush vegetation. I could just imagine attending a service there. I bet it has old wooden pews and a wood beamed ceiling and the ghosts of past sung hymns hanging in the air. We found a public access lane and followed it to see if we could find a good spot for some snorkeling. This one looked more like a one lane boat launch. It was situated between two residences. We parked and walked down to the water for a look. There really was no beach to speak of and alot of lava outcroppings and very shallow...not that good for snorkeling. About the time I was going to head back something stuck it's head up and looked at me, it was a sea turtle! I yelled for the kids and then we noticed about 4 or 5 just swimming around. Then I turned and on this small strip of sand lay another turtle just sunning himself.
I'm sure, by the expression on his face, he was not pleased that I found his stretch of beach. Tourists! They always mess things up! We hung out there and Paul got some underwater footage. That was a really exciting surprise! After awhile we decided to go on our way and headed on down the road. We found this beautiful spot called Puako Bay. It was a light sand beach (the kind of sand that you can make sand castles with) with a small grove of trees running behind the beach. It was perfect, like a picturesque slice of paradise. There were large, lava out croppings that created a cove to swim in. Those
out croppings were perfect for cliff diving as well. The kids had a blast jumping off into the sea. We set up under the trees, which were the most amazing trees I've ever seen (the pictures don't do it justice). They were not terribly tall but very sculptured, all gnarled and twisted by wind and time. They had feathery, fern-like leaves and their branches spread out like a fan or umbrella offering shade, but also peeks of sunlight. Just a perfect and magical place. We swam and did quite a bit of snorkeling and saw lots of see life, fish, brain coral, and sea urchins to name a few. It was a very special day. This place is the Hawaii I imagined and I could actually see myself living here. Such a refreshing breath of fresh air, because honestly, I was not that impressed with Oahu and 4 days there was more than enough. I think that may be the general consensus of alot of people though, because I talked to a couple people today who live here and when I said we spent some time on Oahu they said the same thing....4 days there once a year is more than enough. One woman told me she came here in 1978 and Oahu today is unrecognizable from then. After a day of great fun, we packed up and headed back to the condo.
The management of our condo was offering a reception with complimentary (I love that word) appetizers (read....dinner, our frugality knows no shame) and music. We arrived in time for the last half hour and had some great food and heard the end of a performance by Aunty Tutu and her brother. They play traditional Hawaiian music and so we felt like we had a mini luau right there on the pool deck. The only thing missing was the fire dancing, but I put a little extra hot thai sauce on John's spring roll and he started hoppin' around like a frog on the fire...and he looks Hawaiian, so it was all good. Ok, remember I told you that we signed up for a Sunset dinner at Kahua Ranch? Well, at this reception they handed out raffle tickets and at the end of the show they gave out prizes. One of the prizes was a Sunset dinner at the ranch. August won that prize! We told the manager that we had already bought our tickets and made our reservations and he said to take our winning coupon and have them update our account....now we only have to pay for two admissions! How's that for a sweet little surprise. My cup runneth over.
Well, tomorrow is going to be more excitement. We are heading to Kona for some Ironman events and we have a special adventure planned but I'm not going to say what that is just yet. It will be another great day for sure.
