Thais and family in July

Thais and family visit Mom almost every Sunday.

Avery is now 9 months old, crawling and climbing everywhere:

 Sophia at William Land Park:

Lahaina Noon

Just look at that tiny shadow. Today and tomorrow, it's the smallest it can possibly be.  Why?

This is the only state in the USA which experiences a phenomenon known as Lahaina Noon.  The sun is passes directly overhead sometime between 12:15 and 12:45 pm on the Big Island today and tomorrow therefore shadows are the smallest possible.  An object like a flag pole or telephone pole will appear to cast no shadow at all.  This happens once before and once after the solstice.  In Hawaiian, la haina  means "cruel sun."

New experience: kayaking

Thanks to Dave and Susan for bringing their tandem kayak to the beach today so Dick and I could try out a new sport.

Photo by Cindy:

View from the front seat while taking a rest from paddling.  Yikes! it's all arms and we went all the way around Coconut Island.

Photo by Cindy:

Photo by Cindy:

I think we need one of these, Dick.

This week in Reed's Bay

"Portagy horseshoes" is what they called this game.  The metal ring inside the box = 3 points, closest to hole = 2, leaning on the back rail = 1, on top of the rail = automatic win.  At least I think this is how the scoring goes.

Dick gave these kids a short dinghy ride because they politely asked and called him “uncle” - a very common term here - instead of calling him “old man.”

Kathy and Danny:

 "Hey lady, watch me do the dolphin."  Splash! 

 Sometimes, I let this guy use my SUP (stand-up paddleboard): 

Rescue in Reed's Bay

I heard a woman's voice call out several times, "Are you ok?" I had to go look. Her husband had fallen out of his kayak. He tried to reboard from the side, then from the stern, but was repeatedly unsuccessful. I told Dick to launch the dinghy in case they needed help.  Dick called out asking if they needed help and the woman said, "No" but said later she knew immediately she'd said the wrong thing.  They did need help.  She was trying to tow her husband and the kayak back to shore. 

They're from Santa Fe, New Mexico, in Hawaii on vacation.  As it turned out, the guy and Dick knew some of the same people from St John's University where Dick went to college.

They'd rented the SUP and kayak from a local company. Back on shore, they discovered there was a hole in the kayak and it had filled with water and the rental company had not provided PFDs for either of them, as required by local authorities. 

Bartering skills

We visit with Cindy and Roie almost every weekday when we row to shore or I paddleboard by.

Cindy asked if I would do a little sewing project with two beach towels. Sure! When finished, it makes a great discreet way to change your clothes at the beach. This one is actually Roie’s - it matches the color of his new stand-up paddleboard. Cindy’s is dark green.

In return, they gave me some of Roie’s wood lathe creations. I think I got the better end of this deal! Thanks, Roie and Cindy!

Roie joined a local club just one year ago. At each meeting, a challenge is given to all members to create something using the wood provided. Example: two big spheres of wood. Roie created a ball and chain. The links are made of wood, so is the lock and key, AND the key works in the lock! Roie won this challenge. In fact he’s won every challenge since he joined and is now a “master.”

Here are more examples of Roie’s creations.

Sightseeing: beach parks on Kalaniana'ole Avenue

We needed an excuse to have ice cream so we took a little bicycle tour of the beach parks east of Hilo, which are supposed to be some of the most popular in the area. We also wanted to see if we agreed with the comments in the book, Hawaii Revealed.

1-Keaukaha. Was it a “tent and tarp city” to be avoided? Yup.

The upside-down state flag indicates distress or dissatisfaction with the government. There are people here who would like their independence from the USA and return to a Hawaiian monarchy.

2-Onekahakaha Beach Park. Boulder-lined, sand bottom, well-protected from ocean waves, lots of kids. And no wonder, a perfect place for families. Since it was Saturday, almost all of the pavilions were having birthday parties.

This little girl maintained this pose for the longest time, not quite ready to “dive” in. Finally her sister took her hand and they stepped down into ankle-deep water.

This park is also home to several horseshoe pitching clubs: beautifully well-maintained.

3-Kealoha. Would we get the “stink eye” from “young toughs“? No. Access was climbing over rocks, the swimming was challenging in my opinion, but I’m a chicken.

4- Carlsmith Beach Park. We missed this one, there is no apparent sign out at the road. In fact we only knew it was there after we saw this sign in the parking lot on the other side (to the right on the sign) of Mauna Loa Shores condos.

Hawaii Revealed says this is another way to get to Carlsmith Beach Park. Since there was no place to lock up our bikes, we didn’t venture down the jungly paths.

5-Wai’olena. Not crowded at all and totally picturesque. To the west, a rocky shore.

These guys carried spear guns into the water. 

To the east, the inviting grassy areas reach into the clear water.  See the guy in the background to the right? 

A happy water Buddha.

6-Wai’uli. Equally beautiful and very busy, but we were able to find a table to have our picnic. Richardson Ocean Park/Center is also here, but we didn’t explore - eating lunch and heading for ice cream motivated us.

This is the end of the Kalaniani’ole Avenue and the end of the official beach parks although there’s a very rutted dirt road that continued on but didn’t look especially inviting to us.

Time for our reward - yippee! We’ve been on an ice cream kick lately and have tried three nearby places, but that will be another blog post.

Whew!  This was a long blog post.  Maybe too long?