kayaking
Today we had some parental babysitting time, so chloe and I headed out to Kealakekua for some kayaking. The guide recommended a guy name Kai, so we called ahead and rented a 'yak (yakking is what usually happens to me on kayaks, so it is an apropos nickname, I think), stuffed our things into a dry bag, and set off. Despite my being useless with a paddle, we made it most of the way across the bay and all of a sudden saw spinner dolphins doing their eponymous trick fifty feet off our starboard bow (Arrrrr, matey). We paddled towards them to get a closer look and sat there for a while observing their antics. I have to say that watching dolphins on TV does not prepare you for seeing a dog size animal jump out of the water while spinning in front of you.
We beached the yak to the left of the Captain Cook obelisk. Earlier, the guy who we rented our boat from seemed to me to take a little bit of delight in telling us where Cap'n Cook was actually killed (twenty or so feet to the West of the monument). He also told us about a nice beach further to the West of the put-in (Arrrrr), which both of us misheard the directions to. As a result, we ended up taking a very long walk over lava and through prickly bushes before we gave up and returned to the mooring (arrr!). Within a minute or so of returning, we discovered the actual trail, and were at the beach in five minutes. Ever since I tasted the sweet milk of victory from a coconut that I had personally harvested and then "opened" with a series of rocks, I have been wanting a repeat experience. Unfortunately, I only had flip flops on, and the coconut trees were tall, so a potentially leg breaking climbing session was out. Instead I opted for the much tried, but seldom successful "throw rocks at coconut" method. After three trees and at least fifty shots on goal, during which time Chloe started mockingly calling me "Coconut Max", I hit the jackpot: I hit the little feeder vine to a cluster of three, yes THREE (in your face, CZ!) nuts, which all dropped to the ground simultaneously, and was accompanied by what was in retrospect a slightly monkey-like dance of victory and joy. Next came the coconut opening, which involved a lot of rock banging.
The milk was way sweeter than the sour milk we got at Punalu'u (not the dude's fault -- I'm just sayin!), and we ate all of the coconut rind. Excellent. I would crush on Survivor.
We headed back to the anchorage (arrrrrr) for a little ghetto skin diving (using swim goggles instead of a mask and fins) and checked out the truly incredible variety of marine life. Unfortunately, I managed to put a big gash in my foot and was subsequently tracking blood everywhere like an old sea dog wounded in a skirmish with buccaneers. Also, I discovered that what I thought were particularly stubborn rocks in my flip flops were actually 2 cm long sharp as a m#$%#$ucker thorns that were stabbing me in the soles of my feet. And there were at least twenty of them -- I have no idea what kind of crazy plant makes them, or why they end up poking perfectly normal to the plane of the shoe, but there you go.
We successfully got the yak out into the open ocean (ok, into the protected bay) without flipping it or us over, and then started the journey back to the harbor. I showed more of my 100%-on-full-speed-ahead-you-dogs-for-five-minutes-then-ten-minute-rest technique, and we eventually made it back to the dock. There was a traffic jam there, but hey -- my policy is to politely obey the dock hands. This is especially true when they are like 250 pounds and covered in tats. After a quick fruit stand stop, we drove up the road and stopped at an awesome display of exotic fruit trees. They had all kinds of trees-- most of which were fruiting. Some examples were many unusual looking bananas, Cape Gooseberries, A HUGE soursop tree with football sized soursops, A gigantic cherimoya, Durian, etc etc. Very cool. I also learned the name of the tree I have been seeing everywhere on the island -- Noni! The fruit look pretty disgusting, and it turns out that they have an unpleasant odor when ripe. In fact, they are sometimes called "vomit fruit". I think I'll pass on this one. I am adventurous with fruit, but I draw the line at vomit fruit.
We had an excellent sushi meal at Sushi Shiono, and then collapsed at home. I got chloe to try to superglue my foot gash shut, but unfortunately ended up with her finger superglued together and to my toe. In case you are wondering, yes, you can use superglue to repair wounds, and it works amazingly well in some cases.
