Hawaii

The "Fam"

Verne and I are a couple of homebodies. Until recently I’d never been outside the continental United States and Verne’s travel experiences were limited to his four years in the Navy, which took him to Hawaii and Japan. To celebrate my 70^th birthday a few months ago, Jana decided to take the family to Hawaii. She had enjoyed a week on the big island last fall when she and Andy traveled there for a case she was working. In between depositions they explored the island and she used the opportunity to complete her scuba diving certification. Andy was already a certified and experienced diver. Their enthusiasm for diving led them to give this same experience to Lauren as a birthday/Christmas gift. It included an online scuba course, confined water training in a swimming pool, and the four open water dives with a certified trainer. She completed the pool work and ocean dives on our trip.

View from Kona condo where we stayed

We stayed on the Kona side, or western part of the Big Island, about 100 miles from Kilauea, which has been in the news since the day following our return home from vacation when the volcano erupted. It has continued to erupt for the past several weeks with the lava flow recently crossing a major highway on the eastern side of the island making its way to the ocean. It happens to be the highway we took on our first outing when we travelled from Kona to the eastern side of the island to visit a couple of waterfalls and the Jaggar Museum in the Volcanoes National Park, Mt. Kilauea. While at the Museum, we viewed the crater and Kilauea (then tame) through a telescope that showed a small, pulsing flame spouting lava. Interesting, but nothing quite as impressive as the pictures and videos dominating the recent news. We hiked the footpaths around the park, which offered a varying landscape of lush rain forests to desolate fields of fissures spewing steam and gases. We finished our day with a walk through a lava tube, which is a cave-like formation created from hot lava. Amazing!

Walking to Kahuna Falls and Akaka Falls

The following day we toured a coffee plantation. Actually, plantation suggests something much more sizeable than what we found at Rooster Farms. And, what we found when we arrived, pictured below, was really no indication of the quality of the coffee, which in 2016 won 3^rd place amongst over 650 coffee farms in Kona. Also, it is one of the few certified organic coffee growers in the area. Our tour began with tastings of their medium and dark brews and a discussion of the owners and operation. The tour guide was a member of WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). I first learned about this program from the owner of the Amador County farm, Abbondanza, I visited in March. The owner also uses exchange students to work and learn organic farming. I’m sure this proves to be an inexpensive source of enthusiastic labor. Our tasting took place in the open-air residence used for the exchange students. It was open to the air as well as all the local critters. A local gecko lizard joined our group for the tour. Following our lecture, we walked the farm to view the coffee bushes and a large open structure with a wood floor where the beans are dried. We concluded the tour at the roasting room, where the current owners still use the roaster and formula used many years ago by the original owner. This was an excellent tour of a hands-on operation (no automation) with lots of local flavor. I’ve not been a coffee drinker for over 20 years, but I’d take this tour again.

Rooster Farms

Jandy at Rooster Farms

WOOFer guide discussing coffee bushes

Jana and Verne looking for coffee beans

Verne and I had a few mornings to entertain ourselves while the kids spent their mornings diving and communing with the fish. One of the mornings we visited a chocolate plantation for a short tour. Interestingly, cacao trees have a year-round season offering a perpetual harvest for the farmers. From pod to my favorite dark chocolate requires several steps, including a period of fermentation. Since making my first fermented food, sauerkraut, in the Master Food Preserver program back in 2014, and learning of the beneficial bacteria fermentation offers, I’ve had a keen interest in all things fermented. It was a happy day I learned that chocolate is one of those special foods that is healthy to eat!

The five of us joined for a tour of Big Island Bees. My exposure to bees prior to this tour was limited to one sting the first and only year we had a garden, the dozens of boxes in the fields along Jackson Highway going towards Sacramento, and the bee display at the Amador County Fair each year. This tour was exceptional, presented by an educated and experienced bee keeper and ending with a tasting of Hawaiian honey, such flavors as Macadamia Blossom and Wilelaiki Blossom.

Our guide, Joe

Our final Hawaiian experience was to be a night swim with the Manta Rays. Lauren had done it when she and her college roommates spent two weeks in Hawaii following graduation. She’d even come home with a video of the Manta Rays rubbing bellies with her. She loved it! The plan was for the three kids to scuba dive to the ocean floor (about 60 feet down) to view the Mantas and for Verne and I to snorkel for a top view of them. Neither of us had ever snorkeled. Nor am I a strong swimmer (actually, the most I do in the water is to doggy paddle in an effort to stay afloat). And, the water was choppy. And, it was at night – dark and ominous. Did I say the water was choppy? There were large waves (whitecaps) that would fill our snorkels, causing us to swallow the salt water, clear the snorkel, and do it all again. To sum it up, it was terrifying! We were in the water no more than 20 or 30 minutes. Back on the boat may have been worse as it was now listing at about 30 to 35 degrees. Sea sickness! While I kept my eyes on the horizon to avoid getting sick (and it worked), Verne hung his head over the side of the boat until his stomach was emptied of all food and salt water. The next few hours were spent feeling very, very old (I had turned 70, after all) and wishing for land. It was a 3-hour swim and we had 2+ hours to go. In hindsight, it’s laughable. I can still visualize us trying to get into our wet suits (the first big hurdle) and can imagine the stories the captain and our baby sitter, Marc, tell of that night. Mother Nature certainly worked against us, but she did give us a funny story. On a positive note, the kids swam with a Manta Ray.

The scuba divers

It was a great trip and we thank you, Jana, for making it happen!

Kona sunset