Less Than Wowed By The Luau

I’ve been to…. probably 6 or 7 luau (feasts) in the more than 20 years that I’ve been going to Hawaii. The first time I ever went was in 86 or so… it was a travel agent fam and amongst all the salesy-markety stuff events that were arranged for us was at least one luau. I’ve always had a good time and had a good experience, although some luau productions and settings are better than others.

I’ve never walked out of a luau feeling depressed and sad for the performers until now. David and I just got back from an evening at the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, taking in the “Island Breeze” luau.

Don’t get me wrong, during the Polynesian revue, I whooped and hollered and clapped. The dancers were good, worked hard, and gave a good show. It was pretty enjoyable, once the lights went down and you couldn’t see how run-down the luau grounds were, or see how tacky the little buildings were.

The following review is a pretty accurate statement, as are some of the other less flattering reviews on the same page. We had decided to book this luau because we were at the end of our trip and there weren’t many choices for either a Thursday or a Friday. In retrospect, we should have popped for the Kona Village Resort’s more expensive luau – it’s reportedly the best on the Big Island, in beautiful grounds.

Kailua-Kona: Island Breeze Luau – Traveler Reviews – Just another touristy luau – TripAdvisor

We selected this luau because the description seemed to indicate a bit more pagentry – wrong. The ‘royal’ court did not arrive by canoe as advertised, but walked down the sidewalk from the hotel. For the price, you should be expected to pay extra for a cheap lei. The food was okay, but nothing extra. Wife enjoyed it which is the only thing that counts.

First of all, the King Kam (as it’s locally known) is sadly run down. It’s supposed to be undergoing a big renovation, but they’re starting in the hotel rooms tower by tower, and the public areas (including the scarily empty lobby) won’t be scheduled for an update until at least April of this year. I’ve been walking into Hawaiian hotels for 2 decades now, sometimes as a guest and sometimes as a travel agent on an inspection tour. I’ve never gotten the creeps just by walking into a lobby before… the interior spaces are huge, but devoid of plants, fountains, and the kind of indoor-outdoor landscaping that the better island hostelries install in order to give the arriving guest that “wow!” moment. There are portraits of Hawaiian royalty lining the walls – some of them badly faded and a couple hanging seriously askew. Gigantic record-breaking marlin are proudly displayed – looking quite fake, actually. And all the little curio, jewelry, and Alohawear shops are completely empty. Maybe that’s a function of the impending remodel, but it gives a very uncomfortable impression of neglect and failure.

You enter the luau grounds through the lobby because the initial check-in is at a concierge desk across from the hotel’s front desk. The royal standards are displayed there (two large yellow cylinders made of satin and feathers) which are probably grabbed before the “royal procession” and put to use.

Though billed in the “Hawaii Revealed” guidebook as an arrival by canoe, the “royal procession” assembled at the same door we had come through to walk through the grounds. Maybe there was a leak in the canoe, maybe there was some other reason why they no longer use it for the big arrival.

Meanwhile, before the procession, David and I had a few disconcerting experiences.

I did manage to get the “travel agent discount” that has become so rare in the industry… only in Hawaii, apparently, does it still mean something to say “I’m a travel agent” and get a deal. Since I’d gotten the discount when I booked by phone yesterday, I’d talked David into upgrading for an extra $15 bucks each, which meant we could arrive later, have premium seating, and first crack at the buffet line. So I felt like it was worth it (and it was).

But when we arrived, we pulled into the hotel parking lot and were greeted with “Aloha-are-you-going-to-the-luau-here-is-your-parking-ticket-which-you-will-need-to-get-validated-at-checkin-so-your-parking-fee-will-be-$5-if-you-do-not-get-the-validation-your-parking-fee-will-be-MORE-Mahalo.”

Okay, so we went with it because we’d gotten stuck in traffic and didn’t want to pull out of the line and find a free spot. So we went in to the checkin-desk and got validated, then got handed a coupon for $5 off our commemorative photo (an expected perk at luaus, I usually don’t go for the photo). And off we went through the vast, echoing 70’s era spaces of the lobby and the corridor leading to the luau grounds (which was wide enough to host a decent-sized trade show and probably had in its heydey).

We get to the grounds and there’s a big long line, but we’d been told to go around to the right, so we did. And there was a sign that indicated “Hanohano Guests” all right (premium seating). The welcoming guy waved us over, indicated a pile of plumeria lei and kukui nut necklaces, and said something to David like, “you-wanna-buy-a-lei-for-your-lovely-wife, right? Right?”

Well, truth be told, I did want a lei, so I nodded and smiled.

“$7” he said. And then added “you-wanna-necklace-for-your-hubby, right?” Damn, not wishing to look like pikers in front of a long line of people who were waiting to check in while the host guy messed with us, I nodded dumbly, and the guy smiled and said “Okay, that’s another six dollah, so $13. Here, lady, you hold the change for him, lots of other things to buy.”

We smiled for the camera, the photog checked his digital display (caveat: David’s camera was better than his) and we sailed in to meet the luau manager, who would escort us to our table. I muttered to David that I’d never been so efficiently stripped of cash. It was kind of like being encountering a very genial and well-spoken mugger.

We were seated. A few minutes later, a nice lady named Kim sat down across from us, and we started chatting; she had just arrived from Switzerland, her son was a performer in the show. We were just starting to warm up to her when the luau manager came up to her and said, very genially, “I’m sorry, I need two seats here. May I see your Hanohano bracelet?” And that was that, as he turfed her gently out to the cheap seats after seating a very nice Australian couple across from us. It turns out that Kim hadn’t known that she needed to pay extra to get a good seat to see her son perform… I was astounded as I’d assumed either that she’d been comped as a family member, or she’d upgraded like we had (but of course I didn’t check for the blue party bracelet, either). Still, it’s odd that she didn’t wait to be seated by the guy, as we were all told to do on entry.

She was escorted back to another table where there was an odd number of patrons. As someone who’s attended a luau before as a singleton, I sympathized – usually they stick all the odd-numbered parties together, and the singletons all end up in a bunch at the same table when they don’t have an open seat elsewhere. I didn’t see her later in the evening to catch up with her. I’m still stumped as to why she wasn’t comped a premium seat. Jeez.

Speaking of Jesus, He was everywhere.

It took a long time for the show to get started, as first everyone had to be taught a simple Hawaiian craft, the Hukilau hula, or shown how to open a coconut. David and I didn’t want to stay at the premium tables for this, so we wandered back to the “ohana” activities area out by the imu (pit oven).

Soon enough, I was learning how to make a little angelfish on a fishing pole. It will make an admirable cat toy for about two seconds if it makes it home.

The guy doing the demo was funny, but he was wearing a lava-lava (male version of the sarong) with a Christian verse on it – one of the “tract” ones that’s specifically for evangelizing. Later on, we noticed another performer also had a Bible verse on his lava-lava. And one of the dancers (probably Kim’s son) had “Christ is Lord” tattooed on his inner arm. And when we were formally welcomed, we were told there would be a prayer, in Hawaiian, but of course it was in the name of Iesu Cristo. And then there was the history of the Hawaiian islands told in song and dance, with the dancers playing the “click-clack” sticks rhythmically… and at the end they formed crosses with the sticks to illustrate the coming of Christianity to the islands… after a long story about the first Hawaiian convert to Christianity, who apparently went to Yale but died before he could return and evangelize, though his friends all came in his place… and after that the song host kind of preached the power of Aloha and the power of mana at us and enjoined us to go out and spread aloha to the world… and… and then there was the “Freedom’s Never Free” country song performed in ASL that was all about crosses at the military cemetery, during which I thought of men and women of the US Military who were not Christian and who still fought and died, but they didn’t count enough for their religious symbols to be mentioned in the stupid song… and there was some pointing to the sky when the male dancers concluded anything really strenuous, and more crosses formed with flaming torches… and… and… and.

Yeah. It wasn’t overt, but it sure wasn’t covert.

Meanwhile, we turned down the photo when we saw that it was overexposed, and I had a highly visible bruise on my arm from hauling luggage around, and we wouldn’t be able to get the digital file and “fix it in post.” So we passed on that, but meanwhile there was other crap they were trying to sell in the “gift hut,” like painted ukuleles (not a one was used in the performance, it was all electric guitar, bass, and miked singers). Also, they had twirling batons that had “flames” printed on the soft fabric covers, plus DVDs and CDs, which they were also pushing during the musical portion of the show.

It lasted for about 2 hours or more, all told. There were only about 7 or 8 dancers and for each costume change, the song leader guy had to do some patter and sing something, or the band would play (they also sang) so there was a real start-and-stop feel to the action. The food itself was pretty good – better than the buffet we had up at Volcano House anyway, but there were some glaring differences in quality as to how everything was presented – food, music, Hawaiian culture – compared to other luaus David and I have attended.

I think I had premium seating at a couple of other luaus before, though not necessarily with David, and I think they had a separate person or checkin desk, so that premium people wouldn’t hold up the entire line.

Imu ceremony: the pit area consisted of several lava-stone and concrete pits, with 7 or 8 weathered pieces of plywood laid over the top or lying in front, covering up unused pits. There was a corrugated tin roof, much battered and rusty. All in all, not picturesque. Three guys from the hotel kitchen were introduced, wearing aprons, hats, and industrial grade latex gloves. The “imu ceremony” consisted of them throwing some coco-fiber mats and ti leaves aside, uncovering the wire basket holding the roast pig, and holding it for a couple of minutes while people took pictures. Then they placed it in a big stainless steel tray.

Compare that mental image (I didn’t bother to take a picture, neither did David) to these guys, from the Maui Marriot luau we attended in 2005:

Luau Boys

These guys actually made it ceremonial, plus they were extremely decorative. Not like kitchen guys at all. This is generally how other luaus do the imu ceremony; the guys are big locals in lava-lavas, not little guys in dingy kitchen whites. And they actually make it seem like a solemn occasion… before posing for pictures.

Firedance: David took pictures of the firedancer at the last luau we went to on Maui... that would have been in September 2007 at the Sheraton Ka’anapali. They had a big stage and plenty of room, and it was spectacular.

At the King Kam/Island Breezes luau, it’s a very small, rather shabby stage, and they raise (as noted in the linked reviews) a big thick safety net in front of the stage on a rope-and-pulley affair that’s really distracting and really makes it hard to see (and photograph) the firedance. Which was really a shame, as the guy worked his ‘okole off, getting the crowd riled up so he’d dance some more. But with that big net in the way it was harder to see him perform… that tiny stage probably forced them to do it or lose their insurance coverage.

Music: Not what we’ve come to expect from a luau band. Although slightly cheesy, Vegas-y singers are almost de rigeur, the songlist doesn’t usually start out with wheezers like “Tiny Bubbles” and “hapa haole” stuff like “Little Grass Shack.” The guitarist seemed to really be off his game, although the drummers were outstanding. I’d never heard some of the other songs before at any other luau, and I’ve heard a LOT of Hawaiian music in my time. There wasn’t anything more contemporary than the country music song that was more of a flag-waver than anything, and a rehash of an Iz Kamakawiwo’ole song that was played at a faster tempo for the dancers. Man, we’re spoiled by all the great slack-key guitar players and singers we’ve heard. too. It got better when the program changed to the full-on Polynesian show for the after-dinner entertainment. Before and during dinner, it’s music-only and didn’t really get my juices flowing, so to speak.

Dancing: Very good, some great looking people, and some funny characters, too. I did like the performers a lot (although the singing host, not so much). Not a big enough troupe to cover things like costume changes, though. It was almost always all for one, not one or two for all.

Costumes: Not bad, but halfway between totally modern artificial materials and totally authentic natural materials. Up close as we were, you could see how worn and faded some of the fabrics were.

Drinks: they had either watery Mai Tais in a canoe-shaped service thing, or hand-poured Mai Tais in the “Tiny Bubbles” hut, with a more generous “pour.” Always go for the hand-poured when you can… but at other luaus, Lava Flows, Chi-Chis, and Blue Hawaii foo-foo type drinks are also available (sometimes free, sometimes cash bar). Again, not an impressive showing against Old Lahaina, Feast at Lele, Sheraton Kaanapali, Maui Wailea Beach Marriott, or Maui Prince luaus. I also went to something called Paradise Cove on Oahu 20 years ago, but don’t think I had more than one drink.

Table setting and presentation: Yuck. Worn red tablecloths, worn yellow napkins, and plastic buckets on the tables that had originally held the napkin-wrapped tableware and additional paper napkins that looked… previously used. No centerpieces or candles or flower arrangements of any kind, just salt, pepper, and those ratty little buckets. The buffet line was nothing special – no floral arrangements or other decoration, just arranged on a permanent counter with steam pans, and at one side there were stacks of plastic “fake wood” platters with compartments for us guests to use.

Production, lights, sound: “Front of house” needed some work, as already noted. The stage was small, the musical performers were crammed into a tiny hut leaving an area smaller than the typical grade-school auditorium stage for the dancers. Lighting consisted of a couple of arrays hanging from palm trees that were adjusted with a stick. The first half, none of the red lights were working, and the second-string singer was quite a lizardy shade of green. They somehow got that figured out for the Polynesian revue, thank goodness. The sound was fine, if a little over-loud. It wasn’t that big a crowd, so they didn’t need to have it cranked up to eleven. But they did.

So. I enjoyed the show, but was totally turned off by the shabby grounds, nickel-and-dime extras we ended up paying for or being graciously manipulated into buying, and the general air of neglect at the King Kam itself. I walked out feeling sad and not a little depressed about how the whole production is trying really hard to live up to the hotel’s glory days of the 70’s.

I really hope that the renovation includes the luau grounds, although there may be some issue with the National Historic Site designation of the adjacent heiau, where Kamehameha I spent his final years. It really needs a serious makeover and attractive landscaping to be a truly great luau spot, as the historic setting is undeniably significant. Island Breezes also needs to get on the stick and freshen up their production, because the tacky little huts and unattractive table settings, added to the tired costumes and the religious injections add up to a turnoff for many repeat guests. I was glad of the travel agent’s discount, because it reminds of the good old days of the industry when vendors and agents built relationships and bookings on the goodwill gained by giving the traditional “agent rate.”

But now I wish we’d made plans much farther in advance so we could book one of the better quality, more expensive luaus. Sorry, King Kam/Island Breeze, that’s how I felt when the lights went off: sad, disappointed, and not a little depressed. I hope you get your acts together.

Jindal: Scientists Need To Study Volcanoes, Sir

Yesterday, the day after Bobby Jindal’s woefully inadequate “response to the Presidential Address,” we decided to go visit a volcano to see how our tax dollars are being spent in research. This is one of the things Jindal derided in his prepared remarks.

HVO Kilauea Status Page

Activity Summary for past 24 hours: The ongoing DI event began the inflation phase yesterday, which continues this morning. Sulfur dioxide emission rates remain elevated from the Halema`uma`u vent. Sulfur dioxide emissions continue to be elevated from the Pu`u `O`o vent. Lava from east rift zone vents appears to have resumed flow through tubes to the ocean.

Past 24 hours at Kilauea summit: Overnight, no glow was observed from the vent. A white plume is moving low and southwest over the Ka`u Desert this morning.

Sulfur dioxide emission rates remain elevated and variable. The high value noted in yesterday’s report was due to a sensor problem, so we note the most recent reliable value of 600 tonnes/day on February 13, compared to the 2003-2007 average rate of 140 tonnes/day.

Seismic tremor levels remain elevated. Earthquake activity has been generally low: located earthquakes include two beneath the summit, three beneath the south flank and two off of the south coast. The number of RB2S2BL earthquakes is within background values.

The network of tiltmeters within the caldera recorded the onset of DI inflation at about 10:15 am yesterday, and inflation continues this morning. The GPS network (less sensitive than the tiltmeter network) recorded about 1.5 cm of contraction across the caldera over the past 3 months with little contraction since mid-January.

When we arrived at the National Park entrance yesterday, we were greeted by a friendly ranger and given brochures and things. Our usual habit is to buy a yearly National Park Pass now and then because it generally turns out that we can use it several times within the year, and also we feel pretty strongly about supporting the National Parks when we can.

We stopped off at the Visitors Center, which was packed with the usual displays, racks of DVDs, books, gifts, and tourists just off the bus asking questions. As a fairly frequent museum patron, I couldn’t help but notice that the scientific displays were looking pretty worn, although they were quiet serviceable. They had the chunks of lava that you could touch and the free-standing and wall-mounted displays, but nothing looked “new” except for a couple of flat-screen displays.

Since we were hungry, we went for the buffet lunch at Volcano House, the official park lodge.

This is a building that’s definitely seen better days, as it shows the signs of a truly horrific 70’s remodel job overlaid on the bones of a building that had been rebuilt so many times that it’s lost all sense of character, time, or place. There’s a nice porte-cochere but the lobby is swathed in bad rec-room paneling, there’s a nice fireplace/seating area with beautiful koa-wood rockers and nice art, but an extremely tacky dining room. And so on – the interpretive display that was on the wall opposite the ugly and inconvenient front desk consisted of some former staffer’s snapshots Scotch-taped to mounting boards, with captions in shaky calligraphy directly on the mounting board. An amateur effort, gallantly done because there was probably no money in the budget after the horrible remodel to put up attractive, professionally produced photographic displays.

Lunch (an overpriced mishmosh of luau food in steam tables except for the lack of poi and haupia) was soon dispensed with; the dining room has an amazing view of the main Kilauea caldera and the Halema’uma’u inner caldera, complete with steaming, vaporous vent. We knew from the displays and daily report that some roads were closed, so we set off to see what could be seen.

Our first stop was the Jaggar Museum, which acts as a scientific visitors center on the rim of the caldera. More tired looking displays inside, being looked over by a lot of tourists from Japan and the US. We happened upon a ranger talk that was just starting, so we went outside to hear a pretty good overview of what was currently happening, what trends researchers were noticing over time, and some personal observations by a female ranger who had been giving talks there for 20 years. She was a pistol; a small, crinkly-eyed woman whose years in the sun and wind gave her a suitably credible appearance. She had an armful of colorful illustrations that she’d probably put together on her own time, out of pocket, to illustrate the legends, lore, and history of the Kilauea volcano and eruptions. Again, not a lot of government funds appeared to be wasted.

Most of the money appears to be going to the science; we didn’t visit the official science station, of course, but I’d be willing to bet that the instruments they’re using were pretty decent… though probably they could use some funding to improve those.

As it was an intermittently misty day, I regret that I didn’t take any pictures of the caldera. I should have done that when we first got up to Volcano House, before the mist came overhead and made photography a dodgy business (you never know when that vapor stuff coming at you is water mist, or “vog,” and sometimes the sulfur dioxide or “acid rain” type content can be bad for electronics and lenses, according to some of the brochures and displays we saw.

We found that indeed the famous crater rim drive that circles the caldera was closed on the far side, due to the prodigious amounts of sulfurous vapor the mountain was pumping out. There were frequent warning signs and people with breathing problems were discouraged from driving through the stuff, and in fact the instructions in the brochure said to set the AC in the car to “recirculate” if we had to pass through any drifting vapor.

So we went around to the other side where the “Chain of Craters” road could be accessed; this is the one that goes down to the sea and used to run along the coast and out of the park before it was covered over by a big lava flow a few years back. We’d been down there on our last visit and decided to see what might have changed.

Well, it’s a lunar landscape in some areas. I did take some pictures down there of a very weird, low-lying rainbow that was sitting in front of the vapor cloud (there was also heavy mist coming down from the “wet” side that kept blowing over our way). We went to the end, parked, and walked up the last stretch of closed road, which looked much as it did 5 or more years ago on our last visit. At that time, lava was flowing only about a couple of miles from the end of the road, but it’s shifted farther to the west since then, and it was about 7 miles away across lumpy, trackless piles of pahoe’oe and a’a lava (the first kind is the smooth, ropy stuff and the second is the sharp, broken looking sort). There were trail markers stuck to the lava, little plastic reflectors for people using flashlights after dark, but we didn’t venture far because it was late in the afternooon already.

We’re kind of hoping to return tomorrow and go around to the other side to try to see the steam plume where the lava enters the ocean; it’s kind of tricky to actually see the lava unless it’s around sunset or after dark. We have today and tomorrow left in the Islands and return home Saturday afternoon.

And there are a number of really, really good reasons why volcano monitoring matters; aside from some of the other examples I’ve seen like tsunami and earthquake warnings, there are a number of American cities near volcanoes. Gov. Jindal might not feel the money was unjustified if he were the chief executive of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii… or Alaska.

Would he rather stint on hurricane research? No? Then he should do his homework next time before babbling condescendingly as if to a nation of simpletons.

Pure Evil

Flickr

These little nori-wrapped snacks are so tasty, and so evil. I think I
can’t tolerate the seaweed or one of the food colors, there are always
mild, yet horribly aromatic consequences.

They’re slightly sweet and savory. We have another bagful sans nori,
and we’ll see if they present any problems later.

Ginny
I can has iPhone?

Via: Flickr
Title: Pure Evil
By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 25 Feb ’09, 11.46am CST PST

Drop Shadow Redux

Just fooling around testing drop shadows – will try using them floated to the right now and then. The theme of this post is drop shadows via CSS and cute cat photos are obligatory for examples. So, with any luck, wa-la!

Why? Well, some bloggers like to use small thumbnails floated to the right instead of to the left, especially if there’s some theme or product information they are discussing in the body of the post. And ***Dave is having some display problems with right-floated images in IE7, although his blog looks great in Firefox and fine in IE7. Blogula doesn’t look so good in IE6, but that doesn’t matter so much to me.

So here is a first attempt at right-floated drop shadows, using my own CSS as a template.

UPDATE: Working, but really does need a bit more margin between the text and the left edge of the image. Also, really helps to use correctly formatted HTML – this is why I put that stuff into quicktags. And OOH, YUCK: when viewed in IE7, the shadow image is part of the entry, and the actual image is floating on TOP of the entry but attached to the right margin, which probably is the reason for the scrollbars. This doesn’t happen when floated to the left in the normal way. I wonder if it is because of the PNG image, which is replaced by a GIF for older versions of IE? IE7 still doesn’t recognize the

display:inline-table;

attribute… a little Googling is called for.

This thread describes the exact problem ***Dave and I are having. Further hacking with IE7 may be called for, but since it only messes up with right-floated images, I may apply a completely different, non-shadowed right float method there. After browsing a lot of sites and help fora, I’m even more convinced that there’s a hell of a lot I don’t know or understand about how CSS works and how things can get messed up in IE6 and IE7.

UPDATE II: Going back to the archives for the “old” way I used to float images left and right to see how they might look in IE7.

I won’t be able to check how they look in IE6 until I get back to work next week… yes, we’re still using IE6 at work, I don’t know if or when our IT people will get around to updating the system. And yes, I’m doing this while on vacation, we’re taking a Geek Break day here and we’re currently watching a rerun of CSI: NY. Because that’s how we roll. So this is the right-floated image version.

Hangin’ Out

img_5728

Yesterday we went on a snorkel trip from Keauhou Harbor, which is within walking distance of our condo here at Kanaloa, with an outfit called Sea Paradise. It was a really, really nice day for it, sunny and calm. Keauhou Harbor is famous as the birthplace of Kamehameha III, and there’s a heiau down there. Two roads lead in, one from each side, and we stumbled on the closer one by dumb luck, as the driving directions actually indicated the other access road. When we got there, we found the storm-battered hut that several adventure companies work out of; most of the people there were going out on a boat called Fair Wind that frankly didn’t look that good, being an older boat with a kind of DIY air about some of the modifications to its cabin and mast. It sported a faded looking “sail” that was raised while it motored, but was non-functional other than maybe as advertisement.

Our boat was called the Hokuhele, and was a smaller power catamaran. We were mildly disappointed to find that they had removed their mast and thus we would not attempt to sail, but we were told that the mast was undergoing yearly inspection and repair. Good enough, and we were given the additional information that it was one of the only wooden masts in the Hawaiian Islands, most sailing boats having gone over to aluminum.

Our crew was friendly and affable, and all about 15 years younger than me. There was a captain whose name I didn’t catch, a divemaster (we had one person diving with us yesterday) and a crew guy named Ron who covered the lunch/snorkel gear/tying up/comedy bases. We were a group of only 15, as opposed to the mob that waited to board the Fair Wind – we beat them out of the harbor and beat them to the snorkeling location, too.

Although whales had been sighted breaching outside the cove before we took off, we didn’t see much of anybody other than a couple of distant cetaceans that clearly had someplace else to be. We went first to Kealakekua Bay, of “little grass shack” fame.

We had been on the other side of the bay at Honaunau/Place of Refuge the afternoon that we snorkeled at the beach park, but didn’t snorkel on that side as the crowds were too big (there was a big party luau going on at the canoe club shelter there). So on that day, we contented ourselves with wandering around the place of refuge and picking our way across the lava to explore the little tide pools.

But on our snorkel trip, the Place of Refuge was a distant sight, and we were on the more inaccessible side of the bay near the Captain Cook monument, where the English explorer met his fate at the hands of a crowd of enraged Hawaiian warriors, who had dropped to the fact that he wasn’t the incarnation of the god Lono after all, and had previously outstayed his welcome.

The Sea Paradise is a front-entry type of excursion cat, so you head down a stair-ladder that the crew lower into the water. I’m using a rented corrective vision mask since breaking one of my contact lenses on the second day, but swapped my own breathing tube onto it so had fewer problems sucking large amounts of seawater in with my breaths. David and I both have shortie wetsuits, and were glad we had them as the water wasn’t very warm at either snorkeling location. The area around the Cook monument was crowded with people who had either hiked down or kayaked over, and shortly after we arrived the Fair Wind showed up and moored at the mauka (landward) end of the bay. We stayed at the makai (seaward) end.

These two guys were hanging out and taking it easy, and that’s what David and I are doing today, as our exertions yesterday are telling on us (I’ve got minor aches due to frequently popping my head above water to check my location, using back and abs muscles). Although yesterday was gorgeous and cloudless, today started out overcast, so we’re taking the day at home.

Anyway, yesterday’s excursion took us to places where there were plenty of fish, especially at the Cook location, where there were lots of shallower “coral garden” areas of the reef. The second location was deeper and the water was colder, at a place the boat crew called Red Hill. The fish there were smaller and not as numerous as at the first location, and I suspect it was really more interesting for the divers, who had a nice deep ledge to explore. While motoring around we enjoyed chatting with the other people on the boat, including a Dutch family, another couple from Illinois, and a UPS driver from Montana who was the lone diver. He lost his hat to the wind at one point and the crew made a game of swinging around to retrieve it; the divemaster got out the boat hook and tried to snag it and missed, and ran forward to try to get it from a position on the bow, commenting on how the other guys were never going to let him live it down. Ronnie, the crewman, stayed at the stern and hung over the edge while the captain moved the boat. A shout went up from the stern:

“Got it barehanded! ARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

The entire boat responded with a hearty “ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

The divemaster dejectedly stowed the boathook, knowing he’d been bested and would be razzed.

At one point we tried to deliver an apple to the pretty girl leading one of the zodiac tours, who steered her craft up next to us, but she missed Ronnie’s throw and the apple went into the water. Somewhere below, a turtle smacked its beak and said “Yum!”

A nice thing about the Sea Paradise experience was that the music was a nice mix of current hits, “island style” reggae, oldies, and jazz. So there was something for everyone, and none of it was the kind of stuff that’s been overplayed. They don’t currently serve liquor or beer, though, and have a “BYOB” notice posted at their little hut, when it’s a bit too late to run out to the store. This was fine with us, though, as neither of us are big drinkers when on the water.

Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed

Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed

Dinners the last couple of nights have been fairly casual – day before yesterday we grilled our tuna steaks and asparagus, with only a bit of margarine and sea salt for seasoning and a dipping sauce I made with our old friends, thick teriyaki cut with tropical juice and with fresh ginger added. We counted “one mippipippi, two mippippippi” and did about 45 mippippippis per side, but I think we could have gone for 60 mippippippis per side for just a tiny bit more donenness (we both like our tuna steaks medium rare, these were rare). Last night, after a post-snorkel period of serious relaxation, we went to a nearby sushi restaurant called Kenichi that was favorably mentioned in the guidebook we’re carrying, Hawaii: The Big Island Revealed.

The food was very good, and I even had something called a Passiontini that was a vodka martini with a bit of passionfruit juice and a spritz of soda. However, the service was spotty: our waiter was a bit brusque about how ordering both from the sushi menu and from the dinner menu meant the food might not arrive at the same time, and in fact another server brought out the non-sushi stuff and omitted one of David’s side items. Our own waiter’s response was “She didn’t bring… okay, I’ll bring it out.” Meanwhile, David had seen the girl wandering around with his order of hijiki rice, unsure of which table had ordered it. The owner spoke to us and thanked us for coming, but some of the waitstaff and the hostess were a bit off their game, not sure why. Also, I’m always uneasy when the waiter looks like a young Gary Busey, about 15 years pre-Point Break. Strange, it must be some kind of weird psycho typecasting on my part.

Today: easy day hangin’ out, like a coupla fish. We may stay in for the day and watch waves; there’s a primitive hiking path that goes along in front of the property that I may explore later. Accessed by a gate by the family pool (we overlook the area), if you go to the right it leads to the nearby golfcourse. If you go to the left, it leads in the direction of Keauhou Bay (we saw the Hokulele heading out for their evening Manta Ray dive, which takes place nightly just off the point in front of the Sheraton). We saw surfers yesterday evening and may go back that way with cameras.

We’ve got coffee, beer, wine, sandwich stuff, burger stuff. We’re good for the day.

Post-Snorkel Post On Hawaii in Hawaii

Hey! Lookit all mai new fishfrenz!

Kahaluu Beach Park Snorkeling Secrets! The Complete Guide to Big Island Snorkeling!

Kahaluu Beach Park is a tiny sheltered cove on the west side of the Big Island right in the town of Kailua Kona. It’s one of only a handful of beaches in Hawaii with such a large tame fish population. Kahaluu Beach is not a marine preserve, yet for having no fishing limitations, it rivals and sometimes surpasses the quantity of fish you’ll see at a dedicated marine sanctuary.

We’re on the Big Island, so we’re now On Hawaii In Hawaii.

We got in to our condo yesterday evening after what seemed like a long day of slogging through airport car rental return, security, waiting, and flying in a noisy Dash-8 prop from Kaua’i to Maui and finally to Kona-Kailua. After a couple of false starts we found the big, well-stocked Safeway’s, which was well hidden up the hill from the Borders bookstore on the main highway, and loaded up with what we hope is a week’s worth of food, drink, and snacks.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the complex and got really lost. We also got lost just getting out of here this morning, and lost again trying to find our way back to our building. I think this is going to be a recurring theme, as the property here is quite large, with many identical looking two and three story buildings, lush landscaping, and covered parking structures scattered all over. We’ll probably get the hang of it just before returning home.

We arrived just as the sun was setting – lovely, but we missed the best part of it while getting checked in. The complex here at Kanaloa seems aimed more at the golf and tennis set than anything else, and after specifying something “not ground floor” we ended up with a large two-bedroom, two-level unit that is itself up two flights of stairs from the ground floor. And the master bedroom is up another flight of stairs, so you can imagine how knackered we were after dragging all the luggage up from the car and then getting it up 2 flights to the living room. This time, unlike on Kaua’i, we had our traditional “cold luau” supper, with two kinds of poke (tuna and smoked aku along with lomi salmon and poi) and enjoyed a bottle of cold Kona Brewing Company beer (I think it’s Longboard Ale, could be wrong). We’ve also got stuff to do burgers again, and some nice tuna to grill, along with stuff for a couple of lunches plus at least one cooked breakfast. We’re set – and if we get stuck for breakfast or lunch, there’s a poolside restaurant here that’s got good coffee (and even seem to be set up for cocktails in the afternoon, although they’re only open until 3pm).

We actually, finally, got wet this morning, after not going in the water at all in Kaua’i. We went to a nearby beach park and I tried out the rented, vision-correcting mask, which worked all right (although the snorkel tube literally sucks). I’m using the older small digital camera with the underwater housing David used to use, as he has a newer small camera and housing. I took a few pictures just to try it out, and will be interested to see how images come out. David’s got my camera pre-set for underwater use when the seletion wheel is set to “SCENE.” It even comes up and says “Underwater” when I thumb the menu button to get it the LCD screen to show the current image.

We had a reasonably-priced breakfast (a first for Hawaii) at the poolside restaurant here at the complex, because when we were done with snorkeling back at the beach park, I asked the lifeguard and some older guy that was talking to him about breakfast spots, and they all answered “Denny’s!” Meh with that, we came back here to shower properly, with soap and all nekky, and then had a decent meal.

Earlier, before departing for the snorkel site, we had a call from our friend Steve, who very very kindly shoveled our drive (partly) and the front walk up to the door to make our house look lived in. While he was there, we could hear Riley meowing vociferously and told Steve where the webcam was. Sure enough, when we went to the webcam link there were Steve’s feet and the bottom of his long winter parka, and Riley’s image showed he was twining around Steve’s legs. This is heroic of Steve, because he’s actually allergic to cats, although he’s always willing to come in and check on David’s computers. Steve reports all well with tech stuff, and the basement is dry, and the cat is reasonably happy. So it’s all good.

After a short amount of relax time, we’ll head back out to snork a bit more, this time at the Place of Refuge (Honaunau) where there’s reportedly more clearance. Where we were (Kahaulepu?) it was easy entry, but very shallow although there were plenty of fish.

Our unit has a deep soaking tub with Jacuzzi jets and I might avail myself of that later for our second relax session, timed for after this next snorkel. For dinner, not sure if we’ll go out or grill the tuna; we might be eating in more this week than we did last week.

With all the stairs in this place, I expect to be in great shape by the end of the week!

Here’s a link to an article that explains the name of this place a little more.

Kanaloa – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kanaloa is one of the four great gods of Hawaiian mythology, along with Kāne, Kū, and Lono. He is the local form of a Polynesian deity generally connected with the sea. Roughly equivalent deities are known as Tangaroa in Aotearoa, Tagaloa in Sāmoa, Tangaloa in Tonga, and Taʻaroa in Tahiti.

Trouble in Paradise

Trouble in paradise: Cash-strapped tourists avoid Hawaii – USATODAY.com

LAHAINA, Maui — Every winter, scores of humpback whales trade the Gulf of Alaska for a few months of breeding, birthing and basking in Hawaii — a follow-the-sun migration that fuels much of the tourism industry in this former 19th-century whaling town.

But while the marine giants are returning right on schedule this year, their cash-strapped human admirers are not. And the effect of that absence is, “in a four-letter word, ugly,” says Bill Seidl, a boat captain who peddles whale-watch trips on the Lahaina waterfront.

We seem to have fallen into a fair deal at our condo in the Poipu Beach area, and there are certainly empty storefronts in tourist-ready towns like Hanapepe, the “home of Lilo and Stitch.” We went there to do a little geocaching today and have lunch after browsing the galleries. The business loop that goes through “Historic Hanapepe” had a distinctly sad air, although there were some wonderful things to see and buy in a number of charming galleries. We were greeted by owners warmly, if rather wistfully; one thing we haven’t seen is a lot of tour buses full of retirees and travelers from Japan and other countries. We’ve seen a couple of small vans, but that’s about it.

It seems like Hanapepe would be an ideal place for a bus tour to stop for lunch; we had delicious sandwiches at the Hanapepe Cafe’ and Bakery, a lovely large lunchroom that had local art and crafts for sale, a small stage for the occasional musical performance, and really nice ambiance. The owner there also spoke warmly to us and I hope that she and her staff continue to do well feeding tasty, healthy food to travelers. They seemed to be doing a pretty good business when we left. The waiter, on seeing how much we liked the hibiscus herbal iced tea, put some in “to-go” cups for us unasked, which was wonderful to have along as we went to the geocache site near the Swinging Bridge, though not so wonderful to try to hang on to while crossing said bridge. Still, it was a short but hot hike to the spot, as the red dirt of the trail seems to really hang on to heat and pump it out as you walk along.

Time to figure out something to eat. More, much more, later.