A Pacific Tuesday
There’s a lawless piece of land adjacent to our hale, the kind of place I can just barely remember when I was a young kid in the 70s: no rules, no signs, dirt roads crisscrossing everywhere, a nude beach, a few abandoned vehicles, broken bottles, beer cans, camping, campfires, underwear in trees. That sort of place. Anyway, there’s a hiking trail that cuts right across all of that fun on a bed of lava, leading to Hapuna State Park and its stunning white beach. Several of us hiked this morning, and joined the rest for a swim we call Two Caves.
The water was glassy and gin clear, with an onshore breeze that only served to keep things calm. Ryan led us to cave #1, where we scraped around for seashells. A smooth swim across the bay brought us to a little reef with a very tame turtle as so many are here in Hawaii, then to the opposite shore and yet another cave. The long traverse through smooth water was a great opportunity to work on our strokes.
A zippy hike back to the hale, and a yoga session with our friend Amanda. Over the years, she has learned a lot about what swimmers need in regards to stretching and healing. The session broke me wide open, and I laid on the grass for a long time afterwards, spent but grateful. Amanda has been such a great addition to these trips. She stayed for lunch and we talked for a while.
Naps, books, and beach time filled the afternoon, the kind of day that seems endless and free, like a summer vacation day when you were in 5th grade.
Big-wave surfers get held underwater for long periods of time, but they train for this. One of their methods is to run rocks. They dive under the water, pick up a big rock, then run across the ocean floor for as long as they can, then drop the rock and re-surface. Our little Waialea Bay has the perfect bottom and the right size lava rocks for this, so we love to have our guests run rocks with us. We even made an underwater train of sorts today. Watch the video below for proof of fun. We visited another little cave and looked for (and found) more cool shells. The collection on the table at the hale is getting bigger each day.
A spectacular sight seen by Kekau and Bridget only - a manta ray. Large and docile and right out at the point of land where things get wild. We were all thrilled and jealous. And in case anyone hadn’t had enough turtles, our local shelled celebs were feeding reliably in their little corner of our bay.
Some people say that the green flash at sunset is a myth, but I am here to tell you that it is real. We had a good one tonight. It’s not so much a flash, but the very tippy top of the sun turns bright green just before it slips below the horizon. You gotta be looking, and you gotta have faith. We celebrated with green flash cocktails, made from juiced cucumbers, mint, lime, and locally distilled vodka, if one preferred.
Thank you to Ryan for this lovely time lapse of our gang watching the sun set (and green flash, elusive to video but we promise was there).
Dinner was Ono on yukon potatoes, a local vegetable medley, and a sauce that I would literally bathe in if they let me. It all ended with personal coconut cakes. Uncle. Everyone hit the hay early. We have an early start to a big boat day tomorrow. Mahalo, Pacific Ocean for being, well, pacific today.
Hopper