First Saturday

83 degrees, mostly sunny - not quite as warm, thank God.

Moonrise from our lanai......


Had another set of beautiful dives this morning.  Our first dive was to Pyramid which was out on the point north of town.  A fairly surgy dive as were right up against the rocks.  A few octos out and about playing which was fun to watch.  Dive time:  78 minutes, max depth 68 feet.  

Our second dive was right by the harbor as we had a lady diver who had ear issues so we had to take her back to the marina.  It was an exciting dive as we saw a Tiger Shark while leaving the harbor so there was a good chance to see her under water!!!!!!!!  The one thing I want to see while diving in Kona is a Tiger!  Lots of fish - like we were in an aquarium on this dive.  But I was on the hunt for the tiger shark so I didn't see much in the way of small stuff.  We did spot a pod of dolphins out in the channel which was fun.  First time ever seeing dolphins under water.  And, no tiger.  :-( Dive time:  79 minutes, max depth 66 feet.  Others on our boat did see the tiger though - one guy was taking photos of something small and swam ahead to rejoin his group and she swam right in front of him.  Thrilling!   He estimated size to be 15 feet long so take off the customary 25% and you get about 12 feet.  Still huge! I guess we did see her from the boat - so I did see a tiger shark.  I'm sure she saw me under water anyway.

We came back to the condo and Carrie wanted to go to the little market in downtown Kona.  I showered and fell asleep upright in the chair on the lanai while she got ready.  We headed down there and she bought a dress each for her and Hannah and also a couple for Reyhna and Aria.  I loaded up on papaya, mango and some veggies.  I then went to the store to get some fresh Ahi.  Yummy Willamette Valley pinot noir with seared ahi, fresh papaya, avacado, grilled zucchini and grilled chiabata bread.  What a meal!  Best meal we've had yet!

Sunset.........


In bed at 8:30.  Sheesh!  Spending the day with Kanoe, Danny and Nevaeh tomorrow.  Going to Volcano and other stops along the way.  Should be fun.

Diving!

89 degrees, mostly sunny - hot!

Woke up to cloudless skies - beautiful morning!  I went for a short 1.5 mile walk into and back from town.  Kona is really growing on me - it is like a large Lahaina town.

Today was our first day of diving and we had a lot of fun with Kona Diving Company and crew.  Captain Paul from Tacoma, DM Billy from Issaauah, Katie, LIT (Lindsey in Training), Kerry (owner).  Other guests were Michael from Seattle (wearing a Sounders shirt - his first boat dive), a couple from SF, Indiana and a young couple doing Discover Scuba from Calgary.  Boat Name:  Haile Kai. our first dive site - Golden Arches.  Dive time:  71 minutes, max depth 52 feet.  A nice starter dive for Carrie (and I) to get our fins back under us.  She and her back did great!  Our dive master Billie wore an orange mohawk thing on his head so that we could identify him under water.  We saw a few junvenile yellowtail coris wrasse that are beautiful.  About 3-4 inches long and bright orange and white.  Also saw tucked under some coral a dragon moray eel which is a rare find, an adult frog fish and two bright yellow juveniles.  Wore my new 3mm Henderson wetsuit with 12 pounds of weight - perfect.  Second dive was called High Rock.  It almost reminded me of Kosrae with lots of hard coral heads and beautiful fish.

We saw dolphins on the way out and back in to the harbor - such majestically beautiful animals.  I hope we see some under water!

Came back to the condo and crashed on the couch for an hour before a walk to town that including a new pair of sandals for me and a hat and swim suit for Carrie.  We went to dinner at Quinns and had a couple of mai tai's which were actually quite good.  The food was ok - I had a grilled Ono salad and Carrie had fish and shrimp combo with Ono.

A nice walk back to the condo for some much needed sleep.  In bed at 10PM

5/18/16 First Day

Alaska Flight 843 Departed Seattle at 10:37, arrived Kona 1:30

Hot and Muggy!  Wasn't expecting that as when we were in Maui a few years back it wasn't muggy. But it is nice!

Got talked into an upgrade to a convertible mustang for our trip.  Didn't factor in the trunk space but I was able to CRAM everything in.  We sure looked like tourists rolling down the road with our huge suitcases (as we had all our scuba gear) piled in the backseat.  We hit Costco - fairly non-eventful and made our way to Kona.

Found D16 at the Kona Reef quite easily.  The location is AMAZING!



The unit is pretty run down but again, the view is ridiculous.  Had a lazy afternoon unpacking and exploring the place.  Went to Huggo's for a cocktail which is right on the water - cool spot.  We were then going to eat across the street at Bongo Ben's but our seats were right on the boardwalk and there was a guy doing tai chi or something right in front of us.  So, we moved to Huggo's On The Rocks across the street where some dude was jamming on his acoustic guitar and set the mood right.  We had some very average fish tacos while shooing palmetto roaches away from the wall next to our table.

Short walk back to the condo, to bed and ready for our first full day...............

first FULL day

86 degrees, everything from drizzle to pure sunshine.  Yep, we are in the tropics.

What a fun but tiring day.  First off - I was too excited to sleep.  I woke up at 1AM, is it time to get up yet?  No.  2AM, is it time?  No.  230, is it time?  NO!  I finally just got up at 4AM and glad I did and vowed to get up that early each and every day while here.

I went to Safeway to get some supplies (coffee) and came back and enjoyed the lanai with a cup.  I then went down to the beach and found a nice sitting rock and did a nice 20 minute meditation.  We then headed to the dive shop and checked in, sorted out our schedule (Carrie bought a wetsuit) and then we were off for a nice drive with the top down to Waimea town which is inland and up the mountain a bit.  It started to drizzle a bit so we pulled off to the Big Island Brewhaus for some excellent food (bean dip to die for, chimicunga for Carrie and some incredible fried fish bites for me).  The overboard IPA was my favorite (we did a sampler).



We then drive up and over the Kolala mountains to Polulu Valley for a nice hike to a beautiful black sand beach.
















After our hike - we drive to Hawi where we were going to have dinner at Sushi Rock (a place that came highly recommended by Dax and Tim Lee).  But, they were closed for another hour.  We were tired and hungry so decided to drive the coast line back to Kona.

We saw a food truck on the side of the road for Malasadas (incredibly yummy Hawaiian donut) made to order.  I got mine with bavarian cream filling while Carrie got the coconut.  SO GOOD!  There was also another vendor there selling Pork Lau Lau and avacados.  I bought two avacados and 5 of the yummy pork wrapped in leaves.  We enjoyed them.  The leaves almost tasted like artichoke to me.

Carrie unfortunately stumbled and fell here and jarred her shoulder and has a nice huge bruise on her hip.  Poor Carrie!

We made our way back to Kona and were too bushed to do much else.  I took a quick dip in the pool and watched a nice sunset.  The sun was HUGE!

In bed at 9PM, ready for our first dives in the morning!  Yeah!