On the Open Ocean

On Sunday, Miike, my friend and a photographer from the newspaper, took us out on his boat. I've been out on it three or four times, but it was Peggy's first time out on the water. Mike grew up in San Diego and spent years in the Navy, so he's knowledgeable about the ocean. We met at Honokohau Harbor to start the day. It's just a few minutes from town. Here we fueled up and bought sandwiches and drinks. Then it was out to sea! The missions were to look for humpback whales, troll for fish and maybe find a spot to jump out and snorkel.



This is Mike's boat. It's about 17 feet long, so it's not particularly big, but it handles fine in the ocean. We probably wouldn't want to be out on a day with huge waves and wind. One time I went out with Mike there were good size waves coming in, and we had to time the space between waves just right to even make it out of the harbor.



Here's Captain Mike and Peggy talking as we cruise along.



This is a shot of the coast just north of Kailua Bay, the heart of town. We spent about five hours out on the boat. First we headed north toward the section of coast where whales are commonly seen. It's such a cool perspective on the island from out on a boat. You pass all the places you have been before. But as we reached Keahole Point, a part of the island that sticks out, the winds strengthened and waves grew larger, so we turned around to head another direction.



This is a shot of Kailua Bay. You are looking at the heart of Kona, the town of Kailua. The church in the picture is the oldest Christian church in the Hawaiian Islands. The long red building is the Kona Inn, which used to be a hotel but is now converted to shops and restaurants. You can probably see Lowe's in the background — not a premier tourist attraction.



This is a couple miles south of the previous photo. This is still the Kona coast. The town of Holualoa, where we live, is located on the top of the hill in the background. That's about 1,500 feet in elevation making it nice and cool, with great views of the town and ocean below. And it's just a 10 minute drive.



Here we are pulling back into the harbor. After we cruised south to work on the fishing mission, we headed all the way back north again. This time the ocean had settled down and we were able to reach the area where whales usually can be found. But no luck on this day. We'd have to settle for a relaxing day on a boat off the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. Not bad.

The Evening View

This is view from the apartment. Absolutely amazing, isn't it? The apartment is the bottom floor of a house in Holualoa, a small town above Kailua-Kona on the side of Hualalai mountain. The elevation is about 1,500 feet above sea level. During the day the view out the windows is of the vast, expansive, deep blue Pacific Ocean. You can see the motion of the water, an almost breathing, hypnotic force. Since Kona faces west, the sun sets over the ocean every evening, providing an endless array of color and light. Some days there is more orange, or purple, or pink. And the colors are so vibrant, reflecting off the ocean and clouds. Holualoa is also very quiet and country, making the scene serene. I am struck by the beauty and tranquility everytime. I just can't believe this is my view. Enjoy...

Chinese New Year Party

Chinese New Year was February 9. Given Hawaii's location halfway to Asia, there is a significant Chinese population on the Big Island. And more of an Asian culture influence overall. Which is great with me because I love the philosophies, architecture, history and food of the Far East. Anyway, Chinese New Year is celebrated here with a giant block party. The main street along the bay with all the restaurants, bars and shops is blocked off and vendors set up booths with food and products they are selling along the street. Bands play at several locations also. To me the coolest atraction is the lion and dragon. A 100-foot long golden dragon parades through the street, winding through the crowd. Of course, it's numerous people undernearth the giant costume that bring it to life. There are also several lions that work their way through the crowd, blessing businesses and collecting donations through their mouth. It's good luck to give money on Chinese New Year. The idea is that during the next year the fortune will be repaid to you tenfold. My favorite part of the lion and dragon dance is the drumming. A cart follows the dancing creatures that has a couple drums and cymbals on it, and several people play this infectious driving beat.

The Chinese calendar is based on the moon. This Chinese year, which is 4073, is the Year of the Rooster. So anyone born in these years is a rooster: 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005. The sign of the Rooster indicates a person who is hard-working and definite about their decisions. Roosters are not afraid to speak their minds and can therefore sometimes come across as boastful. They make good restaurant owners and world travellers.



Here we have a lady "feeding" the lion money.



This is a young girl playing the drums, following after the lion and setting the celebratory mood.



Here's the drum crew dragging the cart through the street.



And this is one of the guys in the lion gear. I guess he was looking ahead at the street to see where the other lions were, or he got hot, or something else.

Last Fall's Colors

Last fall the colors of the mid-Atlantic were definitely missed. The changing of the leaves to red, yellow and orange, and the crisp, cool air of Maryland and Virginia seemed so far away. So we took a trip down to the southern part of the Big Island. There is a neighborhood down there called Hawaiian Ocean View Estates. It's actually a pretty sketchy place. I mean, there are some nice houses and it's one of the last affordable places on the island, but there are a lot of dilapitated structures that barely pass for houses and some seedy characters living there. Some property has tarps rigged to provide shelter and junk all over the yard. I kind of felt more worried there than in bad parts of Washington, D.C. But at the top of H.O.V.E. there was a cabin to rent on someone's property. It was fenced and took dogs, plus we saw photos online, so we went. The cabin was immaculate, well-decorated with wood and tile, had a wood burning stove and full kitchen and bathroom, all for like $90. Malley and Sam came along. The cabin was at about 4,000 feet in elevation, so the temps were cool, just like fall. The landscape up there is full of lava rock with scraggly trees growing out of it. The area is on the side of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano on Earth, and lava had flowed through about 150 year ago. So anyway, we had the fall weather and a spooky element from the neighborhood and scenery, which was very appropriate since it was Halloween. Since we couldn't hike in the Appalachains, we drove to the top of H.O.V.E. and hiked into a section of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Here some trails cross moon-like topography with cinder cones, old lava flows and rocks all colors of the rainbow. Our Big Island-style fall foliage! Some people may think it looks barren or even ugly, but I think the desolation has an eerie, rugged beauty.







This is one of my favorite photos of Malley because of the juxtaposition of her black hair with the orange cinder rocks.



And here's the whole gang (minus me). It's perfect that Mr. Always In Motion, aka Samson, is playing the foreground while everyone else poses.



Here's a close up of the ground and the multi-colored rocks. This is only place I have ever seen purple stone.



This is the last house in H.O.V.E. before you enter the National Park. Notice how it's just built with lava flows around it. Not much of a yard if you ask me. This person is also an amateur astronomer — that's what the white thing is...a telescope.

Fat Tuesday

On Fat Tuesday it was time to celebrate Mardi Gras in Hawaii. It also happened to be my friend Baron's birthday -- he's a photographer at the newspaper. Peggy and I started the evening with a hurricane, the red rum drink populaized in New Orleans. I also played some zydeco, a music from the deep, deep in the bayou South. Anyway, we met a group of about 12 people at a bar called Durty Jake's, which is right on Alii Drive, the main street along the bay in Kailua-Kona. The following photos are some select scenes from the shinanigans.



Here we have Brian, Baron, Jim and Carly. Brian is originally from southwestern Virginia and has the accent to boot. He's the city editor at West Hawaii Today. Baron is the birthday man. You might see pirate-themed things in some photos and that was part of his birthday celebration and the Mardi Gras thing. Jim is my friend Ron's roommate and a teacher of high school English. Carly is a page designer at the paper and a Maryland native!



In disguise is Peggy, wearing a Mardi Gras mask that belonged to a friend of ours. The peacock feathers wouldn't stand up their own though so she had to hold them back for the photo.



This is me and a guy named Christian who is visiting Hawaii, lives in Beijing, China, but is actually from Copenhagen, Denmark. He works for Volvo and travels all over Asia for the company. He came to visit a friend of mine who is from Kona but left almost a year ago to work in Beijing.



Uh, this is how a pitcher of beer dresses on Mardi Gras.



Here we have Brian from the paper "talking about real estate in Arizona" as he so claims. And those big red lips on her shirt must be her business card...ha ha ha.



This is my friend Mike, another photographer from the newspaper. He has a boat that I've been out on and he is also into diving. He looks like a Captain Mike in this photo. His old Navy days seem to be coming back.



A tradition in my house for Fat Tuesday...my mom and dad would always make pancakes and eggs, supposedly to use up the fat and sweet ingredients before Lent. So I have continued the tradition. It made for a needed meal when we got back home later that evening.

Whale Tale

One of the craziest but simultaneously most amazing things that has happened to me in my life involved a humpback whale. Sounds strange, I know. But from January through March, humpback whales are in Hawaii as part of their annual migration. They come here to the warm, shallow waters to breed and raise their young. Along the northwestern coastline of the Big Island is prime whale territory because of a shelf that makes the water less than 500 feet deep. There are lots of whale watching trips and you can often see them from the shore in different locations.

My friend Mike, who is a photographer at the newspaper, has a boat that he takes out often. As a photographer, he will sit around in the boat, waiting for whales to randomly surface. One day we were out there for about 5 hours and two humpback whales suddenly surfaced — breeched — close to the boat and then hung around. Mike jumped in the water with his camera gear and the whales stayed about 100 feet below him for 15 minutes, just singing whale song. He dove down a few times to get photos. When he got back to the boat and as he was climbing in, I saw huge white formations pass right by and under the boat — the whales returned. We were a few miles off shore in at least 1,000 feet of water, but I threw on my mask, snorkel and fins, and jumped in.

There they were. Right in front of me. Maybe 25 feet away. Two 40-foot long humpback whales. All around us was a vast blue ocean. The whales slowly swam about, kind of hanging there. One of them turned toward me. Even though I knew they didn't attack people, I held my breath for a moment, wondering if it would inadvertently crash into me or what. But it was just turning to get a better look at me. With an eye the size of my head, it stared into my soul. I just tried to look back with reverence and respect...this was a highly intelligent creature.

The two whales swam off and then returned three more times. Each time I jumped back in to be in the water with these massive mammals. Once a whale was under me and it exhaled through its blowhole, sending a stream of bubbles up around me. The whole thing was an incredible experience, but each time they would disappear, the endless blue of the open ocean kind of freaked me out a bit and I'd quickly climb back in the boat.

I haven't really been out whale watching yet this season. I don't know if I'll ever be that close to one again. But even if that was a once in a lifetime experience, I am forever awestruck by that memory.

I wrote an article for West Hawaii Today about a whale research project called SPLASH. Or you can check out an article by another reporter on whale season. Plus there is the official website of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

Home Away From Home

I'd say the main reason I moved to Hawaii was for the ocean. The year round 80 degree, clear blue water. Since I arrived I have been surfing as much as possible. Usually I will go 4 days a week for a couple hours. Surfing has really become a part of me, and it is sometimes hard for people who haven't surfed to truly understand that, but just think of something you are passionate about, that you totally enjoy and have to do as often as you can. If I go more than two days without surfing I basically freak out. Surfing provides so many things — harmony with nature, serious exercise, socialization with friends and strangers, time outside getting vitamin D and a tan, etc. etc.

So the photos below are of my favorite surf spot. It's in a area called Kohanaiki and is nicknamed Pine Trees for a huge cluster of trees visable from up and down the coast. The trees are actually mangroves, not pine trees, but oh well. To reach Pine Trees you have to drive to the coastline by the Natural Energy Lab and then follow a sand and rock 4 wheel drive road for a mile. It's a bumpy ride but I love how it's rugged and inaccessible, with the ocean just 50 feet away. At Pine Trees, everyone parks on the beach, sometimes lining up side by side at the bay or pulling under a tree away from other people. There are four different waves here: the bay, sidewalks, the rocks and elevators. The bay is where I surf most of the time. Sidewalks is super shallow, pretty much for body borders. The rock and elevators break faster and steeper, and are usually surfed by the shortboarders that rip.

Anyway, I have learned many lessons about surfing at this place including riding too far into a shallow area and getting cuts on my feet and hands as a result, taking a surfboard off the head and getting stitches in my ear, having my leash break in overhead surf and having to swim parallel to the shore while diving under waves to get out of the water, how to be patient and wait to resurface when a wave holds you under after wiping out. Of course, those were just the tough times. Everyday is a blast talking to friends on the beach and catching nice waves.

It's amazing sitting out in the water off the Kona coast because it's so clear, probably the clearest water in the state. So you see yellow tangs and other fish swimming around you. The rocks and reef are totally visible while sitting and surfing. Sometimes you have to dodge a sea turtle too. Probably the best part of surfing is being home later that day and feeling the rhythm of the ocean in your body, the waves still passing by. Close your eyes and you can see the waves swelling up in front of you.

The photos below are of a couple waves, my car parked at the beach, signs reminding everyone to keep it clean with Hualalai mountain in the background and a look toward the beach at the bay where people park.