Back in business!

Hiya hiya!
We got the internet up and running at our new house!  I'll be posting frequently again-- if staring at the computer doing resumes and job applications doesn't drive me nuts.

Happy thanksgiving, and goodbye to November.
Beth and I are pretty well moved in here now.  I think Beth is going to do something with some photos she took of our place...  I'm trying to figure out what to do with the comment that the blog is "very domestic."  I think I'll embrace it, but stop short of posting home pics right off the bat.
Here is our address, in case you were wondering to send all that stuff you've been getting for us:

75-192 Alakai St. Rear Apt.
Kailua-Kona, HI, 96740

Best parts of the last week or two we've been floating anchorless without the net:

College buddy Laura came to visit with her man Nick for thanksgiving!  We bumped and rattled their little Hyundai over the 1801 lava field near the airport, then hoofed it over the last section into the remote beach of Makalwena.  It was a holiday weekend, so it was pretty busy for how remote it was.  Still, though, "a little slice of paradise," as Laura said. 

Thanksgiving, of course.  We had two: one with Beth's coworkers, one just the two of us.  I have to report, sadly, that the (in)famous Bevis Green Jello Salad didn't go over well with the locals.  It does, happily, keep well.  It's pretty good with coffee.  Must be the pint of heavy whipping cream.  Now how could anyone not like something with that in the ingredients?

Note: 1) the awesome mugs Beth found us! 2) one of the 4 green coconuts Beth harvested from our front yard.  Them things are hard to get into.  Here she is showing appropriate strain:

Here she is working on other kitchen goodies:

Another highlight: my first taste of the legendary Hawaiian culinary creation Spam Musubi.  Basically, about a cup of white rice and a quarter-inch thick slab of spam wrapped in nori.  It's that simple.  But the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, right?

This is Spam Musubi in its native environment.  And that, dashboard, cellophane and all, is exactly how it looked when I ate it.  Us bike commuters got to keep our calories up!

I hope to kick off a new aspect to the blog later today or tomorrow:  more posts about plants and animals I see here in Hawaii.  Something to supplement the raw shock value of the spiders.   I hope it interests you as much as it does me. There is some pretty cool stuff here, and I want to document it as much for myself as I want to show you.  Perhaps I will start off with the ubiquitous and cute house gecko, as most people seem to think these are pretty cool!  Stay tuned!

Beach!

Yesterday I went to a beautiful beach with some of Beth's coworkers (she was working...)

Guess who forgot their camera!  I do have to say that the Cellana folks are all really friendly.  Most are about our age, very fun and welcoming.  It is a good community to fall into.

A day off!

Today is Monday for Beth: she had the last three days off, and will work for the next six.  Cellana is on a nine day week.  I took a break from blogmastering so that Beth and I could do the requisite house and furniture searching together, but we also got our first good taste of the scenic Hawaii people vacation here for.

We drove south down the highway for a cluster of Kona attractions: snorkeling and spinner dolphins in Kealakekua Bay, and down farther, the historic Hawaiian religious site and royal grounds of Pu'uhona o Honaunau.

Kealakekua Bay is a sheltered bay formed when a huge chunk of Mauna Loa fractured off of the mountain and slumped into the ocean.  It is now a shallow (40'?) bay, flanked by the huge landslide scarp (cliff), a safe place for spinner dolphins to rest, and a sheltered place with a great snorkeling reef.  It is also where the infamous Captain Cook first landed on Hawaii, putting it on European maps.  He also died here, not long after his first landing.  It's a pretty interesting story.  Here is, once again, a Wikipedia link.  Man, they sure do a good job.  A monument across the bay from the access marks the place of his death and also the best snorkeling spot.

Beth and I rented a kayak and made the 30 minute paddle across, stopping to find the local dolphins on the way.  I jumped in with my fins and snorkel, and watched them swimming around, but they weren't interested in me.  Still cool to see them underwater.  I suppose I saw 15-20 of them, the closest about 30' away.    The guy we rented the kayak from said it was like swimming in an aquarium.  True.  This is where my novice blogger status really comes through, though; I haven't trained myself to take enough pictures to make a truly lively blog. You'll have to use your imagination (or come see for yourself).

The snorkeling was great, but we (that's us on the right) had to get out after only about 40 minutes, because the water was so cold!  Most locals here wear thin wetsuits while diving to stay warm.  We don't have an underwater camera, but this was another aquarium scene: lots of lobate and finger coral, lots of jackfish, parrotfish, eels, sergeant fish, pipefish, groupers, and fish I don't know the names of.

Well I've got to head out to do some moving-related work for our New Apartment!  More about that, and Pu'uhona o Honaunau later.

bicycle commuter!

This morning, Beth and I skipped sunrise at Honul's beach to ride our bikes out to Cellana.  Once we snuck out of town, avoiding the major streets, we got up onto Queen Kahumanu Highway, and it was a quick little ride along the relatively flat road.  There is a very wide shoulder, but it is a little scary riding next to the 50 mph traffic. It was a quick 40 minute ride, door to door.  Little did we realize that our journey was eased, like so many before us, by strong SE trade winds!  I'm sure that by the time she has to ride home, the wind will have switched to her favor... grumble grumble.

I stopped by Wawaloli Beach Park on the way home.  It is situated on the same 1801 lava flow as the airport and Cellana, and has lots of rocky shoreline.  A little reminiscent of the North Shore of Lake Superior.  Only a little.  The rocks are both basalt, yes, but they are way younger and more rugged here.  Also, the waves are a lot bigger.  Pretty impressive to this flatlander.  I was impressed with the power and size of the waves and the amount of water they pushed up onto the rocks.

The big peach rock in the middle is covered by about 6 feet more water in the bottom picture than the top!  (sorry no scale).

One place, the waves would slam into the porous, fissured rock, and force air and water through the spaces.  The rocks would hiss and sputter with each wave crest.  Almost like they were alive.  It was very cool.  I was spooked the first time I heard it, until I figured out what was going on.  I even saw one little geyser that would shoot 3 feet in the air! neat.

Here is some of the pahoehoe (ropey lava) I saw.  groovy.

 Rainbow! Wavebow?

 The lil geyser.  Ok, maybe not 3 feet.

One of the funny parts about walking on the rocks was that the little rock crabs would go scurrying away like crazy, usually before I even saw them.  Often with so much vigor that they would fling themselves off the 6' cliffs and go spinning into the sea.  I suppose it is so they wouldn't end up like this:

Here is a Honul's Beach crab, so you can see what the living ones look like: well camouflaged.

sunrise at Ali'i cove!

Nice sunrise this morning.  This place is called Houl's Beach, just minutes from Cellana's condo.

Here is a picture of the condo complex from Ali'i Drive (map).

On the map, you can see Honul's beach in between the vacation rentals and the clairvoyant center. Kind of a metaphor for my life? Anyway, the condo is in the wedge of undeveloped (at photo time) land just inland of the clairvoyant center.  Ali'i is the Hawaiian word for the historic noble class, believed to have had divine origins!

Our unit is on the ground floor, facing the pool, which in this picture is behind the hedge. 

You can see Mt Hoalalai in the background of this picture.

There it is on the map the Easternmost mountain on the big island.
Hualalai is considered dormant, but is responsible for the 1801 flow that the Kona Airport is on.  It has also been a part of 3 seismic/eruptive events since then, most recently in 1929.  It is the 3rd most active Hawaiian volcano, after Kilauea and  Manu Loa.  Doesn't sound dormant to me! Here is a good Wikipedia page on Hualalai.

But all the really active lava flows, the ones famous for flowing continuously into the ocean, are on the coast south of Kilauea.  There is a lot of cool Volcanology here.  More to come to be sure.  But while this picture is here, check out Lo'ihi, in the ocean south of Kilauea.  It is currently the volcano most directly over the hot spot and will be the next volcanic Hawaiian island.    Here's a graphic illustrating the idea:  see how the hot spot is stationary and the Pacific plate moves NW, creating the island chain?  Good.

DST and daylight in Hawaii

So all my friends back on the mainland will be celebrating daylight savings time tonight by gaining one hour of sleep.  Not so here on Hawaii.  Tomorrow, I will be only 4 hours behind my Minnesota friends.  What's an hour on island time?

The real difference with daylight between here and the mainland is its length.  The sun rises about 6:30 and sets about 5:45.  There's about the same amount of daylight in Minnesota right now, but the weather here is more like Minnesota in July-- when there is about 15 hours of daylight.  It's weird to have such pleasant weather with such a short amount of daylight; so much nice weather when it is dark out.

It's pretty nice, weather-wise here. It gets cloudy everyday around 10 AM, which means the sun is not as intense.  Sometimes there is a drizzle around 4 in the afternoon-- then the sun starts going down.*  Cool mornings, with fresh air from the ocean.  Beth and I have been getting up pretty early (5:30-6), partially because we are still adjusting to the time change, partially to take advantage of the weather.  We have been walking down to the beach to watch the sunrise. There wasn't a spectacular sunrise today, because it was cloudy.  Now it is raining.  Apparently, this is one of the 12 statistical rain days in Kailua Kona.  So we'll appreciate it.  But hard for a guy who has to ride his bike around to look at apartments.

Here is a beach picture from this morning:

If you'd like to see something less blurry, you can mail your requests on the box of a Cannon PowerShot SX30 IS

*This is all different for the folks who live up the mountain-- a lot of people here live around 1000' elevation, where it is cooler and cloudier and wetter all the time.  These mountainsides are a new thing for da flatlander, too.