more on Hawai'i
May. 24th, 2004 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaeclecticBetter late than never, more details on the trip, which (in case I didn't make it clear) was fabulous. Quasi-chronological, high points:
My native guide for the trip was Jeff (AKA![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeffmcneill), with whom I have always enjoyed walking, talking, and eating -- and this trip was no exception. Considering we had never spent more than a few hours in each other's company, we got along very well. Lots of geeky conversations, including the definitive analysis of multi-modal stupidity. Only missed one flight, the car was only towed once. And I kept up with him, almost :) Thank goodness he's smoking again, if he were really in good shape I would have been sunk. Oh, and I won at Scrabble! the most horrible game ever, except that I got a bingo...
Lots of food, much of it very good (even leaving aside the appetite worked up by activity, see below), esp. seafood. Ahi Poke, yum -- the Polynesian answer to sashimi, I would crave this a lot more often than I tend to want sushi, but I doubt I will find marinated raw tuna by the half-pound anywhere local. Mahi mahi on green salad with papaya curry sauce and coconut. Shrimp scampi from a road side stand, enough fat to subsist on for a month, with two scoop rice, of course. Yum, yum. Fresh papaya, lychee, coconut, pineapple. Not to mention french toast made with homemade macademia nut bread, covered with bananas and coconut.
Went snorkling 4 times, twice on Oahu, twice on Big Island, each time better than the one before. What can I say? clear warm blue water, coral, beautiful fish of many colors, tortoises, dolphins, clear warm blue water...
First day on Big Island, hiked down to a series of pools called Boiling Pots below a waterfall called Pe'epe'e. I had my worst moment of non-physical-fitness frustration when I couldn't make it up the steep trail to get to the pool directly under the waterfall -- but we backed up, and then swam upstream instead -- in itself, a bit of a challenge, with a strong current and many opportunities to bruise myself on submerged rocks. Especially hard when Jeff made me laugh by saying "c'mon puppy" when I was losing ground against the current.
Unquestionably the highlight of the trip, Volcano National Park. In the afternoon, we hiked through a caldera scattered with small steam vents, drove around the main crater rim to see larger steam vents and views of other craters. Then in the evening, hiked over lava to the current eruption and watched the molten lava ooze and flow as dark fell. Totally wore myself out, and was limping badly and in fairly serious pain by the time I made it back to the car -- but it was absolutely worth it -- and I was OK the next day, so I skirted the edge of really overdoing it.
Next day, we drove across the Saddle Road and went up Mauna Kea. During the first part of the ascent, I felt semi-queasy, but after acclimating at the visitor center (9000 ft), I enjoyed the rest of the drive. At the summit, it was 32 degrees F, very windy (we were told 60 mph, I don't know if that's true but it was pretty intense), and completely socked in with clouds. We stumbled around trying to take pictures during the momentary breaks in the fog, and the combination of high wind and low oxygen made me very giggly.
Next to last day on Big Island, we kayaked across the bay at Captain Cook. High points: spinner dolphins, more amazing snorkling, the kayaking itself. Low points: scraping my leg when first getting onto the kayak, getting minor heat stroke on the way back because neither of us paid enough attention to what the kayak launch point looked like from off shore (therefore we rowed three times as far on the way back as on the way out, and in the mid-day sun). But hey, a 7-inch gash on your leg is a great conversation starter, and after all that exertion, I really enjoyed the mahi mahi salad (and the kava later).
Jeff had to head back to Oahu early, so I had a pleasant day to myself on Big Island, driving around South Point and back through Volcano National Park for a little more hiking and picture-taking. Back on Oahu, he had to work, so I entertained myself at a couple of museums, and we went for one last swim before I headed to the airport for the red-eye flight home.
All in all, a really great trip. And I guess it makes some sense that I've been a little tired since...
My native guide for the trip was Jeff (AKA
jeffmcneill), with whom I have always enjoyed walking, talking, and eating -- and this trip was no exception. Considering we had never spent more than a few hours in each other's company, we got along very well. Lots of geeky conversations, including the definitive analysis of multi-modal stupidity. Only missed one flight, the car was only towed once. And I kept up with him, almost :) Thank goodness he's smoking again, if he were really in good shape I would have been sunk. Oh, and I won at Scrabble! the most horrible game ever, except that I got a bingo...Lots of food, much of it very good (even leaving aside the appetite worked up by activity, see below), esp. seafood. Ahi Poke, yum -- the Polynesian answer to sashimi, I would crave this a lot more often than I tend to want sushi, but I doubt I will find marinated raw tuna by the half-pound anywhere local. Mahi mahi on green salad with papaya curry sauce and coconut. Shrimp scampi from a road side stand, enough fat to subsist on for a month, with two scoop rice, of course. Yum, yum. Fresh papaya, lychee, coconut, pineapple. Not to mention french toast made with homemade macademia nut bread, covered with bananas and coconut.
Went snorkling 4 times, twice on Oahu, twice on Big Island, each time better than the one before. What can I say? clear warm blue water, coral, beautiful fish of many colors, tortoises, dolphins, clear warm blue water...
First day on Big Island, hiked down to a series of pools called Boiling Pots below a waterfall called Pe'epe'e. I had my worst moment of non-physical-fitness frustration when I couldn't make it up the steep trail to get to the pool directly under the waterfall -- but we backed up, and then swam upstream instead -- in itself, a bit of a challenge, with a strong current and many opportunities to bruise myself on submerged rocks. Especially hard when Jeff made me laugh by saying "c'mon puppy" when I was losing ground against the current.
Unquestionably the highlight of the trip, Volcano National Park. In the afternoon, we hiked through a caldera scattered with small steam vents, drove around the main crater rim to see larger steam vents and views of other craters. Then in the evening, hiked over lava to the current eruption and watched the molten lava ooze and flow as dark fell. Totally wore myself out, and was limping badly and in fairly serious pain by the time I made it back to the car -- but it was absolutely worth it -- and I was OK the next day, so I skirted the edge of really overdoing it.
Next day, we drove across the Saddle Road and went up Mauna Kea. During the first part of the ascent, I felt semi-queasy, but after acclimating at the visitor center (9000 ft), I enjoyed the rest of the drive. At the summit, it was 32 degrees F, very windy (we were told 60 mph, I don't know if that's true but it was pretty intense), and completely socked in with clouds. We stumbled around trying to take pictures during the momentary breaks in the fog, and the combination of high wind and low oxygen made me very giggly.
Next to last day on Big Island, we kayaked across the bay at Captain Cook. High points: spinner dolphins, more amazing snorkling, the kayaking itself. Low points: scraping my leg when first getting onto the kayak, getting minor heat stroke on the way back because neither of us paid enough attention to what the kayak launch point looked like from off shore (therefore we rowed three times as far on the way back as on the way out, and in the mid-day sun). But hey, a 7-inch gash on your leg is a great conversation starter, and after all that exertion, I really enjoyed the mahi mahi salad (and the kava later).
Jeff had to head back to Oahu early, so I had a pleasant day to myself on Big Island, driving around South Point and back through Volcano National Park for a little more hiking and picture-taking. Back on Oahu, he had to work, so I entertained myself at a couple of museums, and we went for one last swim before I headed to the airport for the red-eye flight home.
All in all, a really great trip. And I guess it makes some sense that I've been a little tired since...