My brother Dan says that when you move somewhere new, as long as it's a welcome move, you get what he calls "the glow". The glow can last from a few weeks to a few months if you're lucky. Moving to a new place has a similar effect as, say, falling in love. I'm sure there's a chemical explanation (endorphins, dopamine, I don't know), but the result is a constant feeling of elation, or at least a slight buzz. Everything is new and good.
(insert beautiful palm tree pic here)
I had a great weekend. I went to Walmart Friday night. No, that wasn't part of the greatness, but I went to Walmart to buy a snorkel, mask, and fins set. After about a half hour of deliberation amongst the various styles and sizes, I settled on the very first set I looked at, the cheapie set for $30. I figured, I'll start with the cheap stuff and if it doesn't work I'll take it back. After all, it IS Walmart.
(insert florescent lighted shelf with cheap snorkel set here)
So, my big plan was to get up early (5am) on Saturday and drive over to the west side of the Island (about 2 hours) and go hang out at the beach at a resort called Mauna Kea (also the name of the tallest peak/volcano on the island, almost 14 thousand feet above sea level). I found a website that said the snorkeling at Mauna Kea resort is some of the best in the Hawaiian Islands, but to get there early because they only allow 25 parking passes for non-guests of the resort. So, I was determined to reach my tropical paradise cove and spend the day frolicking amongst the friendly sea creatures and colorful coral reefs.
Nothing ever goes as planned. I did indeed get up early and took the Saddle Road between the two Volcanoes (Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa), which was an incredible experience in itself, passing through several different climate zones along the way. The east side of the mountains was rainy and lush; crossing over to the west side almost immediately yielded a desert-like climate with blue skies, cacti, and dry, cool mountain air. The Big Island has 11 of the 13 possible climate zones on Earth. When I reached my destination I was totally bummed to see a sign that said "Beach Closed due to High Surf". "What??!!", I said. "No! NO NO NO!! Ok, deal with it." I used to check surf conditions on a daily basis in California, because I surfed. I never thought to check the surf conditions before snorkeling. I've added it to my pre-snorkel checklist.
(insert sad-face emoticon here) :(
Change of plans. Well, I'm on the west side of the island so I might as well make the best of it. I drove south through Kona and checked out the cute, touristy downtown on the beach and then took the coastal road down toward a town called Captain Cook. Now, I had read that Kealakekua Bay (Kay-all-uh-kay-koo-uh) near Captain Cook is the infamous place where Captain Cook met his end at the hands of some pissed off Hawaiians. I had never known this, but it seemed kind of humorous to me that in all of Captain Cooks sea travels, it was the Hawaiians he finally pissed off to the point of no return. I've heard many times that I should not get on the bad side of the locals, and I guess history reinforces this premise.
(insert pencil-drawn illustration of Cap'n Cook being bludgeoned to death by Hawaiians here)
Kealakekua Bay is incredibly beautiful and the surf coming in was BIG. 10-15 footers on this day. I won't go out in that, but there were plenty of crazies out there riding the giants. I met a guy named Nate Cintas who was hanging out with his son Paul and asked him a few questions about the area. He said the snorkeling and diving is world-class, that is, when the surf's not huge. However, he did tell me to throw on my board shorts and he and his son would show me a cool place to jump off a concrete ledge and out into the blue-green, foamy, warm ocean water. We did this several times and it was a blast. I took a picture of Nate and Paul as they launched off the wall, with Nate's camera. I think that pic will be a "keeper" for them. Visiting Kealakekua Bay and the sight where Captain Cook was offed made everything worth it, even though I didn't get to go snorkeling. On my way back I stopped in Kona again and parked my butt out on a beach to watch the crazy surfers again, and I fell asleep for about an hour. Great nap.
Note about Big Island beaches: My guess is that most people (who haven't been here) think that because this is Hawaii, there are big white sand beaches everywhere you look. Not true, especially on the Hilo side where I live. We have small, black sand beaches. Most of the coast is rocky though, and inaccessible because of the cliffs. It's beautiful, but it's a different kind of beautiful. The west side over by Kona has more of the normal sand we're used to seeing, but still no vast expanses of beach, mostly rock. It's due to the fact that this island is still relatively young compared to the other islands, and there just hasn't been enough time gone by for the accumulation of big sandy beaches. That and the constant erosion from being out in the middle of the Pacific and being pounded by waves. I think that's the reason, could be wrong.
(insert page from Geography textbook on how beaches are formed on volcanic atolls, or is it archipelagos? It's archipelagos, atolls are formed from coral reefs... here)
Sunday (today), I decided to go for a little hike down on the coast in Hilo at the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens. It was the second time I've been to this place since I moved here and I really love it there. It's a short hike and you get to walk along the rocky coast, watch the waves pound the rocks, and then walk through a majestic alley way, for lack of a better term, of the greenest palm trees you've ever seen. I still haven't actually been inside the botanical gardens because it costs like $15 or something, but they let you walk by them for free to get to the coast. Oh, there's a couple of little waterfalls to see as well. Waterfalls are everywhere on this side of the island.
After that, I decided there was still time to drive by Richardson's Beach and check out the snorkeling potential. I expected the beach to be packed but was pleasantly surprised to find that there were several parking spots and I could see several snorkels poking out of the water as I drove by. My blood started pumping. I'm going to get to snorkel after all! I took out my $30 Walmart snorkel set and after consulting some locals I waded into the warm water in the partially protected rocky cove. Snorkeling is amazing. I never expected it to be so much fun until I got to go last year when my friend Chris and I went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay on Oahu. It was awesome and just like that day, Richardson's was awesome too! I swam with at least 5 green sea turtles. The green sea turtles here are protected since they almost went extinct 30 years ago. They're back big time, and they're everywhere. They're docile creatures and a lot of fun to watch. One was probably as long as me from head to tail(the turtle's head and tail, not mine), the others were smaller, but still large for turtles; nothing like the little ones I remember catching in Michigan, or the big old nasty snapping turtles in Red Run Creek! The colorful corals and all the colorful and strangely shaped fish were amazing to watch too. I will be back soon...
At one point, a woman told me not to go too far out because a Tiger Shark had been spotted there recently. That was enough for me to stay close to the shore. I guess they don't come in that close typically, but the theory was that because the whales are migrating and passing by fairly close to the shore, the sharks are nearby looking for a nice whale-meat dinner. No thanks, I'll stay clear of the open water, and to be sure I asked the Lifeguard if there were any rip-currents I needed to watch out for before going out as well.
(insert picture of shark repellent here)
Note: I finally figured out how to add pictures but my internet connection is too slow to upload them. Hence, the "insert picture...here" comments. Maybe I'll go back and add the pics, maybe I won't.
You're not in Warren anymore :)
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