vacation – Memos for Me

Night prowl

August 1, 2013

I’m finally back from vacation. I’m exhausted, but I had a great time. We basically took it semi-easy — slept in and then got going until we would arrive home just in time to pass out again.

One thing that kept us out late early in the week was a walk on the beach to find crabs. Yep, I said crabs. My brother-in-law decided he wanted to crab for part of the week and we spent one night walking the beach to see what we could find. Below’s our find, plus deer we saw on the way home. Enjoy!

DSCN0097 — We were trying to let this crab go, but he didn’t seem to want to let go of our bag. Eventually, we won.

DSCN0102 — My sister and her husband were able to save this jellyfish. Unfortunately, two days later I was slightly stung by one on the opposite side of the island.

DSCN0109 — We weren’t in time to save this little shark.

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 3/3

June 27, 2012

My list of the top 12 activities I enjoyed the most continues down with my top four favorite activities:

4. The Catholic faith
I attempted to attend mass at St. Peter’s of the Sea Catholic Church, located just down the road from my townhouse in Kailua Kona. However, I ended up going a bit further down the road to St. Michael the Archangel Church.

The parish is known as the “The Church in the Tent” since their church was torn down because of age deterioration and damage from a 2006 earthquake. They are presently working to rebuild it, which once built, will resemble the former building that stood on the site for more than 150 years. It’s the first mass I’ve attended where the pastor competed with a nearby rooster for my attention. The pastor’s sermon won, which says how great of a job he did.

However, my interaction with the local Catholics didn’t end here. Another neat feature was the Painted Church in Captain Cook, an active parish whose church was erected in 1899. It’s absolutely gorgeous with funds raised through visitor donations and the sale of handcrafts, such as rosaries made out of wood native to the island.

I attend mass at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Arkansas so I was also excited to find a similarly-named church in Hawaii.

3. Beaches 
The Big Island’s beaches were probably bumped up to the No. 3 position simply because I was finally able to see not one, but two sea turtles resting on a beach. I absolutely love turtles. The island’s beaches are made up of four different types of sand: Ili Ili (beach pebbles); green (Olivine Crystals); black (ground lava); and white (crushed shells, corals). I experienced all but the green sands — which I now truly regret.

2. Hawaii Volcano National Parks 
Who doesn’t want to see an active volcano? While there, I saw the Thurston Lava Tube, the Steaming Bluff Overlook, steam vents as well as Halema’uma’u Crater (where lava boiled for 100 years in this crater within a crater). I hate that I didn’t get to the see the live lava flow — I now wish I had completed the hike there or taken a helicopter over.

1. Coral Reef Adventures
I loved our morning boat ride that had us swimming in 300-foot deep water with spinner dolphins. I am not a great swimmer so the initial plunge into the ocean freaked me out until my aunts joined me (I was one of the first off the boat). It took several tries to find pods of dolphins to swim with — we first discovered a floating white bottle and a coconut — but when we did find the dolphins it was absolutely amazing.

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 2/3

June 27, 2012

My list of the top 12 activities I enjoyed the most continues down from No. 8 to No.5.

8. Underwater
I’m not a big water person so I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed snorkeling. It was fun and, each time I went out, I was excited to see what new fish I would discover. My pictures are of fish, but I also saw a turtle and possibly a manta ray.

7. Scenery
The landscape was gorgeous whether you were in the air or on the ground.

6. Farmer’s Market
I love farmer’s markets so we had to visit the local ones while in Kona. We ended up purchasing a ton of fresh produce and hand-crafted items as well as listened to local musicians. My favorite find was a small vial of perfume that my aunt bought me. She said she knew I wouldn’t even though I loved it (she was correct).

5. Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park
I didn’t spend enough time here: I wanted to snorkel and kayak here. It’s the home of the Captain Cook Monument and is 12 miles south of Kailua-Kona. The park is also a marine life conservation district that’s pretty much perfect looking as well as great for snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking. While there, we saw dolphins, crabs and a man carving wood. I also fell in love with the place.

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 1/3

June 27, 2012

Spinner dolphins. Swimming with these fabulous guys was probably the best activity I did on the big island of Hawaii. I’ve meant to publish this last Hawaii post for a while, but here goes my top 12 activities I enjoyed the most:

12. Manta Rays
My grandmother (GiGi) and I spent an evening dining out at the Sheridan so we could view their gardens and eventually watch the manta rays feed after dark.

11. Luau
It wasn’t a traditional luau, but a Hawaii teacher who travels internationally to teach students to dance traditional Hawaiian steps. The sole guy (last picture in this section) was the instructor.

10. Coffee Plantation
You have to visit a coffee plantation while in Kona and we chose Holualoa Kona Coffee Company, which offers a self-guided tour. I was interesting and the chocolate covered coffee balls were yummy. It was interesting to learn that they roast 600-900 pounds of beans per day, up to 40 pounds of beans per roast. I also enjoyed the stop because of the chickens hanging around and because we got to try sweet bananas — so good!

9. Parker Ranch/Anna’s Ranch
It was interesting to see the ranching side of the island. My aunt and uncle raise cattle so I traveled with her to tour two ranches: Parker Ranch and Anna’s Ranch. Both are pretty cool just for the history alone although the views are nice as well. The drive was split between pastures filled with cows and goats. Some parts allow open grazing. Parker Ranch is also the site of Camp Tarawa from 1943 to 1945 where the 2nd and 5th Marine Divisions actually trained. The 5th Marine Division trained for the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima there since the terrain was similar.

Coffee and bottles

May 15, 2012

So, while I sit here wishing I was back in Hawaii, I’ll recap my how I spent Thursday on the Big Island: touring a coffee plantation and shopping.

So, we planned to head to Parker Ranch in Waimea but somehow we took a wrong turn and went in the exact opposite direction.

Happily unaware of this, we first stopped to tour the Holualoa Kona Coffee Company in Holualoa. It allowed us to take a self-guided tour before meeting back with staff in the area where they package the coffee. It was pretty cool, although I hate coffee. The chocolate covered coffee beans were good though (side note: don’t try these until off the windy road.)

After the tour, we had to try some of the plantation’s apple bananas which were fabulous.

Finally, we made it eight miles south of Kona to Kainaliu, home of Donkey Balls. The store sells chocolates, candies, and coffee with coffee-related artifacts thrown about all over the store.

The aunts had to load up on coffee and other cutesy supplies before we trekked down the road to look around at the town’s other stores where I purchased awesome bottles made locally and saw other items I would have purchased if I could have gotten them home in one location.

We finally ended our trip with the discovery that, yes, we were traveling very slowly in the wrong direction. Less than 20 miles covered in about three hours. So we wrapped up our trip with a quick stop at Greenwell Farms To purchase coffee bags and headed on back.

A pearl of a day

May 10, 2012

100 feet deep. I did my first – and probably last – trip in the submarine Atlantis Wednesday. We mostly stayed around 40-70 feet deep looking at various fish and coral before going to 100 feet.

Personally, it was my least favorite activity. It was $105 and I don’t think it was any where near being worthy of that cost. Maybe half. It was just too crowded and the fish we saw we’ve seen scuba diving.

The water was choppy, and at times, I thought we would capsize in the boat that took us to and from the submarine. I was glad to get back on dry land.

Afterwards, Aunt Lynda and I picked an oyster for a jewelry store employee to open and check for pearls. I got a decent sized black pearl while she got twin black pearls.

I ended up turning my pearl into a necklace while Aunt Lynda decided on earrings. The pearls were mounted and we were given instructions not to wear them for 24 hours – a hard thing to accomplish. I love my necklace.

Finally, we had to end our shopping to head home. Aunt Jo’s conference for International Interpreters Association kicked off yesterday with a luau that night and we all got to attend. More on that later.

Beach day

May 8, 2012

A beach day was needed after Sunday’s travels. We went the opposite way this time and checked out the white sanded beaches along the way.

We stopped at Mauna Lea to snorkel and boogie board. We were there for hours.

Later, we stopped to check out tons of beaches including Hapuna Beach, which had more cats in one area than I have ever seen. Some of the cats blended in with the lava rock.

Our last stop was Waikoloa beach-one of my favorite places. It was in Anaeho’omalu Bay and is the home of the Waikoloa Canoe Club.11

We took the night easy stopping along the way home to watch the sunset.

This morning we are at the Harbor for a Four hour boat ride to sightsee, swim with dolphins and snorkel. More later.

Lazy Saturday night

May 7, 2012

We’ve spent the past day and a half on the go. On Saturday afternoon we took in some shopping. I found the above little guy and immediately bought him for my best friend-isn’t he cute?

Afterwards, GiGi and I went to the Sheraton hotel for drinks and to watch the manta ray feeding. We also found a gorgeous walk to the beach where I stepped in the only dog poop we’ve found.

It was a gorgeous view from the hotel: boats in the harbor, a setting sun and the coastline stretching on for miles. Later we got to see about 10 manta rays feed.

While we watched the Maya rays, my aunts swam with them for two hours before picking us back up for dinner at the only place open: Dennys.

Almost there

May 4, 2012

An active volcano, perfect beaches as well as plenty of sea turtles and manta rays.

Sounds good, right? Well, my journey to viewing all of the above is nearly finished.

I began my trip to the Big Island, Hawaii, last night. My parents and I exchanged my dog for my grandmother (GiGi) so GiGi and I could to Little Rock.

Today, my first flight left at 6 a.m. I feel like I have never caught up. I’ve barely made it to my Little Rock gate and I went to the wrong gate in Houston. Luckily, I found the new gate just at boarding.

The highlight so far was the family of five who traveled from Houston to LA with me. Peru missionaries, the couple were bringing their 4 year old son Moses and three year old twin sons to their grandparents for an extended visit. The mother was pregnant, the twins were sick at first and Moses couldn’t keep quiet for anything.

He kept me entertained throughout the flight with his plans to become a soldier like the guy in front of us or a pilot, his animals at home – so far a polar bear, squirrel and rabbit – and his fascination with the plane’s safety instructions.

My Aunts Cindy and Lynda have now joined me in LA and we are finally boarding for our last leg of the trip. Already we almost witnessed a couple nearly get into a knock down fight.

Still all I can say is- I’m by the window! Woohoo!

Memos for Me

Rediscovering Arkansas with a few detours.

Tag: vacation

Night prowl

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 3/3

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 2/3

Top 12: Hawaii Pt. 1/3

Coffee and bottles

A pearl of a day

Beach day

Lazy Saturday night

Almost there