Fastballs and Slow Lava.
Our local newspaper in Bath, Maine landed with a quiet thud on my porch last Thursday, the day we began our trip here to Hawaii. On the front page was a story about how the crater on Mt. Kilauea was filling with lava and how this is expected to continue for some time. SwimVacation has a history of conjuring natural disasters, so this was no surprise to me. The story also included a quote from a park ranger who encouraged us to drive up to see the lava lake that had been created. The last time we did that, the four hour drive ended with a park ranger (perhaps the same one) greeting us at the gate and telling us that the entire lake had just drained back into the volcano two hours earlier. Glug glug glug. Fool me once……
Maui rising on approach to Kona.
In the time between my return from the Grenada trip and my departure for Hawaii, a little league baseball team found me. I’ve been coaching youth baseball for the past seven years, and I’ve loved every minute of it. This season I am grateful to have 11 boys who are eager, attentive, focused, and driven. They practice with intent and the skills they are developing in those practices have been translating to the games, and there is nothing more a coach can ask for. I miss those kids and my fellow coaches, but will return home before we begin playoffs. Stay crispy, Otis Landscape!
Our trip out here was pretty smooth, though Heather and I found ourselves without a decent meal for 30 hours. Cinco de Mayo revelers shut us out of the Mexican restaurant at the airport hotel, and American Airlines has reduced snacks on even a 5 hour flight from BOS to PHX or a 6 hour flight from PHX to KOA to a cookie and one cup of warm water. In the Phoenix airport, I was served cold scrambled eggs with a warm beer. The golden age of travel is indeed over, but we are grateful to be traveling at all. Join us, but pack a snack!
After finding a good meal in Kona, we hit the pier, ready for a swim. A group of four swimmers were also getting ready for their swim, and they recognized the SwimVacation logo on our caps. Stan and his wife Merry had sailed on Promenade and had connections to a few SwimVacation alums, so we hit it right off. They and their friends Jeff and Diane, also open water swimmers, were about to jump in for their last swim before returning to the mainland. Stan mentioned that they were going to swim north, along the rugged part of the Kona coast, rather than along the Ironman course. Intrigued, we invited ourselves along, and our new friends graciously showed us a delightful new 2K swim to add to our list. We hope to swim with them again someday soon. Stan and Merry are competing in a one mile swim race in the morning! Good luck and strong strokes you two!
Jeff, Hopper, Heather, Merry and Stan became fast friends over a great swim.
Our pre-trip prep here involves picking up rental cars, purchasing odds and ends for and setting up the Hale (house), getting over jet lag, and meeting up with guide Ryan and caterer/chef Clare and Dan. It’s a tad easier than our yacht-based trips, where our crew has to do all the provisioning once we hit the ground, and we all do a lot more lugging. Having crew that lives here on the Big Island eases the pace for us all in the days before trip start.
The drive through the lava beds up to Puako is one of my favorites every year.
The Hale I mentioned up there is the Treadwell House, located on Beach 69 (they are numbered South to North), Waialea Bay, Puako, Big Island, Hawaii. It’s a fusion of Scandinavian and Polynesian architecture, pods on a platform lifted high enough for the rare tsunami wave to roll under. Kiawe trees form a canopy over the property, breezes keep it cool, birds sing and mongoose play in the yard. It’s perfect. It’s home.
Claire and Dan brought over a hearty dinner of Caesar salad and lasagna, which we attacked with gusto as we reconnected with our Ohana, our island family. Local lifeguard Ryan shared a few war stories from the tower with us, and told us more about our new guide joining us this year, Kekau. We have facetimed with him from Maine, but in the morning we will finally meet in person. Tomorrow we will greet our guests, 4 new to us and 3 old friends.
Often in our first few hours here, we walk the short distance to the shore of Beach 69 and say Aloha to the Pacific. Tonight, as the sun sets into the waves, I wonder with anticipation of what it will teach us this week.
Hopper