Sunday in Hawaii

After a late night waiting for the tsunami that never appeared, we had an easy morning at the resort. We decided to explore what is seriously a compound with three different hotels and an indoor boat that takes you from place to place. Yes, a boat.

We started at the easternmost part of the resort that was closest to us, navigating rocks and coral so we could, as one local told us,“trip over turtles” on that part of the island. No turtles, but we came across a tide pool and that created the most fun up to that point. We saw lots of fish, including pipe fish, and several sea anemones and sea urchins. I navigated the rocks barefoot to pick up a sea urchin shell and ended up stepping on something that MOVED, which sent me into a screech.
The beaches aren't sandy at all but covered with lava rocks and white coral. Makes for impromptu sculpture:

 

The "x" is actually two pipefish:

We walked back across the resort and stopped for awhile at the dolphin lagoon to watch the feeding. I decided that’s where I would later Skype the kids from so they could see the dolphins.

 Hotel scenes:

 

 

Mauna Kea: highest mountain in the world

Our first Big Island adventure involved going to Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the world at 13,800 feet above sea level, to visit the Keck Observatory.

 

We had to acclimate for an hour at 9,000 feet and I walked among the proliferation of mullein on the volcano. I love mullein and it was used by the Cherokee for smoking, among other things. Also tried some deep yoga breathing because I was already feeling dizzy.

 

The place was eat up with Army soldiers training on the volcano to be deployed to Afghanistan since the region is mountainous there and oxygen low. The poor guys had to run and hike up to the top. One guy said the half mile marker on the volcano is a whole lot different than the half mile mark he’s used to at sea level!

We crammed into our guide’s Explorer for the 8 mile rutted road drive up to the observatory and when we got there, I think all of us kind of went, ”Uh oh” because you felt pretty loopy when you got out there. And it was chilly up there on the top of the world!

I filled out waivers for us and it was a hard to concentrate so when I asked why the astronomers didn’t actually come up to the observatory to do their science, I was told how hard it would be to do “something cerebral” as I had a difficult time just filling out a form with information I knew. So the astronomers stay in their comfy offices wherever and watch everything on the computer.

So we got the grand tour of the telescope and how it works. My uncle Dean, an optical scientist at the University of Arizona and an ace photographer, probably would have kept us there all day but we could only stay for a little while due to oxygen deprivation.

When we got outside to take pictures, it was COLD and we were told that it had been snowing on a few days before, and often chunks of ice weighting about 10 lbs come flying off the telescope. We were happy to be heading down the volcano at that point, I think.

My aunt Melinda's panorama:

To read the ins and outs of the observatory, please visit Dean and Melinda's blog at http://theketelsens.blogspot.com

A tsunami? For real?!

So while we were at dinner, a National Weather Service warning comes across: tsunami is going to hit all of Hawaii because of a significant earthquake in Canada earlier.

 

 Are you joking me? We headed back to the hotel where our room was on the third floor maybe half a block from the ocean on the southern side of the island. I was tired, had a headache and just reasoned that since we were on the other side of the island, I wasn’t too worried about any dadgum tsunami and went to bed.

My aunt Susan stayed up watching the news when hotel security came banging at the door, trying to get us to evacuate to the floor above. We refused.

Susan and I then sat out on the balcony when the tsunami was supposed to hit so we could watch it. Again, security came banging at the door wanting us to evacuate even higher and we said no.

See, our South Carolina back ground was coming out: it’s a 6 foot wave, how high can it reach? We said we really wanted to go stand on the seawall to watch it but figured when the water sucked out to sea that we would about pee in our pants at the realization of just how fast we were going to have to run!

So we watched and watched and watched, and Susan and I made wagers on how close we thought the water would get and … nothing. They called off the warning and we went to bed.

And that was all the next day's paper had about the tsunami - just a headline.

Hitting Hawaii

I knew the flight would be long but no one told me that planes no longer serve food. Anyone who knows me knows that I have to eat like every two hours or I get a little …. crabby (and that’s putting it mildly). When I set foot in Kona, the first thing I said was I needed a large pizza all to myself, well, that was after “Where are the hula girls giving the leis?”

So my Uncle Dean greeted me with a lei!

First leg of the flight I sat next to this woman going to say goodbye to her sister in Portland who is dying from Hepatitus C from a blood transfusion in the 80s. She and I had a great conversation and I’m hoping I made a new friend in Atlanta.

Second leg had me read about half my book, “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, on the six hour flight, trying to keep my mind off of really wanting to start chewing the headrest in front of me. Then my seatmates kept the window shade down so I didn’t even get to see the island as we flew in.

I got my pizza with an absolute FRESH tomato and basil. Wow. Loved the food already. My uncle Dean and aunt Melinda and I walked to the beach and looked in the tide pools to see a baby barracuda, crabs and other fish. A sign at the beach said green sea turtles come up to the beach to lie in the sun and rest and not to bother them. Um, define “bother”?

So excited to be here with my family!

Slamarama races at Keeneland

Continuing with all things horses, the kids and I went to Keeneland to see our friend Charlie Pigg's horse, Slamarama, race. Charlie took us into the paddock to see his trainer's horse and Hayes was over the top happy!

I mean, she just would not stop smiling. Who knew standing on a green patch of grass at a racetrack could make a girl so happy?

Here's Charlie with his trainer, Dallas Stewart:

And here are my babies in the stands at Keeneland:

Hayes made a narrative of her entire visit on her video camera:

Here is Slamarama in the paddock:

And getting saddled by trainer Todd Pletcher:

And going to the track with Rosie Napravnik aboard. Rosie is one of the best jockeys in the country at present.

Slamarama was in a good position during most of the race then another horse bolted, causing a chain reaction that could've gone disastrously. Slamarama ended up finishing far back and we all felt sad for Charlie. Had Slam won, he would've automatically been entered in November's Breeder's Cup. Sigh, that's horse racing for you.

Meeting Lou Brissie at Old Friends

Since my friend Charlie Pigg's horse, Lou Brissie, has been retired to Old Friends rescue in Kentucky, I took the kids to see him. They were big supporters of L.B. but had never seen him or met him before. We actually waked Lou from his nap:

So here is that handsome boy:

Everytime I've seen Lou, he's tried taking a nip and this time wasn't any different! Charlie told me Lou bit his niece, Ruth, later that day too. That actually made me feel better in a weird way.

Here's my cutie-patootie with Little Silver Charm:

We headed to Creator's paddock. This is where Charlie says he remembers meeting Hayes - that she walked right up and began feeding this stallion, who likes to BITE. He doesn't mess with her.

And as a reward for not trying to bite, Creator was rewarded with getting his itchy spot attended to.

Apple pickin' at Reed Orchards

The kids and I took a jaunt back to one of our stomping grounds: Reed Valley Orchard. I wanted apples to make apple butter and the kids wanted some to take to school. So Cort got one Cortlynd apple and, after we'd tried it, we all determined we wished we'd had a bunch of these!

Hayes wanted to go see about the blackberries and I didn't want to haul all the apples so she threw them over her shoulder and began walking to the back:

Usually I would have foregone the petting zoo but I had to remember that we no longer have a petting zoo of our own. So the kids enjoyed the cotton candy painted pony -

Hayes and chickens ... I don't know where she gets this fascination to carry around a bird.

Melts my heart, this one does: