If the rest of my year is like New Years, I've got it made

So, as far as I can tell, Hilo is not a party town. But that is quite ok because I am no longer a party animal. New Years Eve was spent running a few errands in town at the vet and the Walmart, and then once again we headed for the beach. I wanted to get as much sun in as I could on this trip since I found out that it was 44 degrees back home. Ugh.

I have also noted that island time works differently here. Or perhaps it is the tourists that kind of blow it. Or maybe it is the Haole population that sets it off kilter. What ever it is, when people make a date to meet up at a certain time, they tend to do it. This is rather different than the other islands I've been on. I mean, in Greece they would say "show up at 6" and we wouldn't get there until 8 and it was ok because that was just how it was. Here, we were on an "island time table"--which means if you make a date, keep it but otherwise, just go with the flow.

J&C's friends Lawrie and Janno were planning a New Years Eve party at their house Monday night, and had said to the there around 4. My island time kicked in. I had been on the beach and needed a nap, so I took to the couch. Candance joined in on the bed. I figured I needed a nap if they wanted me to stay up past 9. As it turns out, my napping lasted until 4, so we didn't make it until 5. As it turns out, neither did anyone else. Chalk one up for island time, Yay!

Well, Janno and Lawrie can do up a great party! Food, drink, and we even watched the ball drop in New York--5 hours later and on a rerun. We watched some movies, played some games and toasted in the New Year. And that was it. Come 12:30, we were all ready to go home. Sound sad? It wasn't. We were tired. We had planned to stay all night (due to extremely dark roads and drunk drivers and fireworks--the dogs get a bit nervous around them). But we decided it would be best for our dogs to be back home where they feel safe and in the luxury of our own beds which just sounded so good.

So that was New Years on the island. Slow and steady just like life here in general. I gotta tell ya, my clock likes it this way.

New Years Day, we were supposed to meet our party mates for brunch, but something didn't quite sync up. They contacted us about lunch time to see if we were interested in a movie, but I wanted to once again take advantage of the sun, so off to Richardson's we went. The sun was warm, the park wasn't too crowded and the water was fine once you got in and moved around. I finally took the opportunity to put on the snorkel gear and check out the underwater flora and fauna and was quite impressed. I wish I had tried it earlier.

We also were greeted with a special treat about 5 minutes after our arrival. A Hawaiian Monk seal decided to take a rest out on our beach. He swam up to where everyone was entering the water and realized that there were lots of people there, so he hung a hard left and headed up the beach toward the point of Richardson's, swam through the rocks and beached himself in the sun. The life guard came down to check it out and report the sighting. He also roped off part of the beach so that no one would attempt to make contact with the seal. Of course, all of us lined up for pictures. An expert of some sort arrived later to check him out and assure us that this happens all the time. He had probably been out feeding all night and needed a rest and would be back out there shortly. He stuck around longer than we did.

A few friends decided to join us for about an hour or so, but then we had to head in--mainly because we were hungry and needed to prepare dinner. We honored our southern roots with pork, collard greens and potatoes for our New Year's Day dinner. There were no beans, but the potatoes were blessed with luck. It was almost like being back home. New Year's Day on the beach with a beer on the lanai was a great way to begin 2013.

Shameless Plug Section:

If you would like to know more about the people I am meeting, check out Sun and Sea and Hairy Monkey Books. Both of these businesses are owned by Lawrie and Janno.

There is also Hilo Bay Books and Kona Bay Books (owned by Kris) and
Pineapples Restaurant (owned by Pam) whose amazing website was done by Kala Creative (Julie and Candance).

Volcanoes are HOT HOT HOT

When we awoke on Sunday morning, the mysterious illness that afflicted us the night before was still lingering a little. The original plan was to go to Volcano to the Volcanoes National Park and hike the Iki trail, which is a trail through the crater of the volcano. Ever since last April when I saw people down on it, I have wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, we were still a bit weak and that is a trail that can take 3 hours to hike. So we decided to take it a little easier.

We started off at the top of the  crater. Last time, we didn't make it to the Kilauea Crater for some odd reason. This time, I actually got to see the gaping hole in the middle of the earth. It was like being on Mars....if I were to imagine what that would be like. Up at the top, Julie noticed that the smoke was blowing in the opposite direction than usual and that hiking may be strenuous because of the vog. We also noticed that it was much warmer in Volcano than usual. As a matter of fact, it was HOT.

After shopping at 3 different museum stores (I was looking for something specific) we started out on the rim trail. This trail used to be a road, but an earthquake took care of it, so now it's for us to walk upon. We walked about a mile in and to the trail head for the Iki so I could at least see it. At that point, Julie decided to head back to the truck while Candance and I hiked another mile up to Thurston's Lava Tube. Julie agreed to come pick us up, so the hike was the same in distance for both of us; I just got to spend some more time in the woods. Unfortunately, there were tourists. Lots of tourists.

When we came out, I was famished. But, we needed to make a pit stop first. We went to see two friends, Lois and Earl, and dropped off some gifts of plants and spices they had asked for. Julie and Candance met this couple on their first trip to the Big Island when they introduced Julie to the world of Zentangle, and it has been a loving relationship ever since.

After our visit, we headed to the popular Lava Rock Cafe to find that they closed at 4 pm. Pouting ensued. Then they recommended the Thai Thai Resaurant, which was an excellent idea. A thai iced tea to start and finish the meal was quite lovely. I had a version of the popular drunken noodles, but Candance had this green curry burger that was "ono" (that's damn good in Hawaiian).

It was a rainy evening in Hilo when we returned from our adventures. It was a good night for a warm shower and a good book.

Poke+sun+surf=ugh

Saturday morning, like most mornings here, started off slow. Did a little reading, did a little writing, drank a little coffee, greeted the day with the sun on my face. Ahhh. I do love this place.

Since Candance has been here, she has taken massage classes and what better way to practice than with your friends, right? She set up her table outside on the ohana lanai and we listened to the sounds of nature while we got a massage.

That took a couple of hours out of our day. I wanted some beach time, but we had some errands to run because we were to have dinner at another friends house that night and we were in charge of the dessert. So Candance, being the awesome person that she is, volunteered to make dessert and do the grocery shopping that went with it while Julie and I spent a few hours down on the beach.

But first, let's eat! Ever since I saw the poke bar in Costco on Hilo, I had wanted some. So we consulted our trusty Yelp app and found one called Poke to Your Taste. It got really great reviews and was down close to the beaches, so we decided to give it go. It was a small little shack owned by an old Japanese man. He had several choices of starters--like ahi plain, ahi with shoyu sauce, a crab salad, and something else I just can't remember. We chose the ahi with the shoyu sauce (which is soy sauce, and we recommend Aloha Shoyu Sauce). Then, there is a table of various condiments where you prepare your poke "to your taste." We settled on green onions, some sort of garlic mixture, and the mayo sauce. It was heavenly.

Our friend, Melissa, had suggested that we try Carl Smith's beach because the floors were less rocky and it was easy access. Unfortunately, it was Saturday and the beaches were packed. We ended up at Richardson's beach at the end and sat on a wet, grassy knoll to have our poke and take in the sun and to watch the locals fish. We then moved down to the cool pools to go for a swim. Hanging out down there with us were about 4 sea turtles beached to take a nap. And beached they should have been because the water was FREEZING!

We did venture out a ways and I will even be willing to say we stayed in for about 20 minutes. I decided to go in when I was shaking. I asked Julie how in the world they could stand the water this cold. Julie's answer: "It's almost January and you're in the water. What's your problem?" Point taken.

We hung out in the sun for about an hour before we headed back up the hill to get ready for our evening festivities. Unfortunately, either the swimming, sun, or poke did not agree with either of us and we were house ridden for the remainder of the evening. That's ok because in the course of reading books about Hawaii, we discovered a real gem, The Secrets and Mysteries of Hawaii by Pila of Hawaii. This nifty little book covers all the freaky stuff that goes on here and I, of course, became enthralled with this book. I haven't put it down since.

As for the evening, we all went to bed early. We were going to need our strength when meeting Pele tomorrow.