Catching up

Hello everyone;
I wrote an extremely short blog yesterday and then didn't post the link.  Oh well; you can see it if you look back one from this one.

Here's what I started yesterday until my bluetooth keyboard was driving me so crazy that I had to give up:

7 November - I got up this morning (Saturday) at 5, packed and got everything into the car, drove over to the hotel, and walked along the sidewalk between the building and the beach just before sunrise.  I met up with a lady who was taking a photo of her hotel room, and commented that I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes a photo of the place I'm staying.  We got into a conversation and I asked if she and her husband would mind if I sat with them at breakfast.  They agreed to meet me at the restaurant after they took a short walk.  I walked the other way to give them some privacy and ended up sitting on the end of a cabana chair right on the shore, near the hotel restaurant.  It was a fine morning, and very windy, so I watched the surf pound the shore.  The waves are such a lovely color; I can never seem to capture it with my camera.  I stared at the waves for a few minutes, then noticed something moving about 20 feet to my right.  At first I thought it was a person, lying on the beach, wrapped in a black coat.  Then I saw that it was a monk seal, and I started.  They are endangered and apparently fairly rare.  Nobody from the hotel had shown up to position the "do not approach" signs around the seal yet.  I didn't get too close, but I got a few photos using my zoom lens.  I hadn't expected it to be so big - it was at least 6 feet long, with proportional seal belly.  :)

My new friends showed up just as I was deciding I was hungry enough to go to breakfast without them, so we sat together.  They were from Idaho, and he is a family doctor in a rural area.  We had a nice talk (and the breakfast buffet was just as good as the other day's) and then it was time to get to lecture.  Not much to say about the lectures - they were good, but I had to peel out a bit early in order to make it to the Koloa post office to mail a package home.  I had to buy a new camera because mine went belly-up after unexpectedly encountering an open water bottle in my backpack.  I hope it can be saved, but since I was going to the Waimea Canyon the following day (Friday), I wanted to have an operational camera.  So the new camera (purchased at the handy island Costco) came in a huge box, with two lenses I didn't need, and a carry bag I also didn't need.  I put the body of the old camera in the box, and also put in several things I had purchased for my family, as well as the huge syllabus from the conference, which I didn't really want to schlep home in my luggage.  It was cheaper to mail that big box than it would have been to buy a cheap suitcase and then check a bag three more times.  (I try to travel with only carryons when I travel alone.)  

I made it to the post office and then back, only having missed one lecture.  I was a little early for the next lecture, so I stood outside and chatted with the conference coordinator, Maria (who turns out to be the COO of the company) and her friend John (who is reading Brene Brown's Daring Greatly).  Maria really liked my necklace, and then realized, "Oh, were you the one sitting there making those necklaces?"  John responded enthusiastically because he was responsible for taking up the audience questions to the speakers, and had walked by me many times.  Maria seemed so very interested in my work that she took my e-mail and gave me her card as well, and plans to "be in touch" about a custom chain maille order.  :)

I attended my last lecture, then went back to dip my feet in the ocean for a little bit before I had to return my rental car.  The seal was still there, snoozing on the beach, cordoned off now.  I got a video of it stretching and rolling over (which was about all the action I was likely to see, so I hear), and then it was time to leave.  I returned my rental car in time (but forgot to fill up with gas) so that was a small extra charge, but I didn't mind that too much.  The man from the rental place took me to the airport in my own rental, which I thought was kind of funny.

I went through the TSA line, and my larger carryon was selected to be searched.  I sometimes wonder if they pull my bags aside to see what all the rings are for, since that was the one I had my ringweaving things in.  It always seems to be a female agent who looks in the bag, too.    The TSA agent was very nice, and I got my bag back and went to the gate.

I was going to grab some food, but looked at the prices in the cafe and decided against it.   Though I looked longingly at a pint of chocolate milk, when the cashier apologetically told me that it would cost "almost 5 dollars," I gave up.  Just before I left the cafe, I remembered I had a packet of tuna in my bag, so I grabbed a plastic fork and went back to the gate.

We boarded in good time (why am I always in Zone 3?), and I was seated next to a veterinarian who lives on Maui.  He was very talkative (informatively so) and he pointed out things on the islands over which we flew - because we did fly over all the islands between Kauai and Maui, rather than going around.  This apparently surprised him, but I was glad for it, because it was a mostly clear day and the views were excellent.

I was a little concerned that I might not make my connection to Kona (on the big island) because I only had a 30-minute layover.  We left early and were to arrive a bit early, which eased my mind a bit, but I was still fretting about it.  I sensed the Lion saying, "Don't worry."  So I took a deep breath, and then they announced overhead that "anyone on Flight 270 to Kona, this will be your aircraft."  I could almost hear the cosmic chuckle.

I have never been on a plane so early, even before the preboarders.  I felt so special (even though I had to move back several rows to my new seat).  I was without a seat companion this time for the 30-minute flight.  That was OK with me.

What a difference in the airport at Kona from pretty much every other Hawaiian airport I've seen.  I had not been prepared for the black volcanic soil and rock.  We landed and had to exit onto the tarmac.  I passed through the (largely) open air airport and out, where I saw my friend L and her #2 son.  I called her name (she was just texting me to see where I was) and she looked up and smiled.  #2 came over and put a lei around my neck - a yarn one, which was fuzzy and tickled a bit.  I was so touched that they thought of that.  L said, "I thought you might like a yarn one, so that you can keep it."  I did.  I do.  :)  We hopped in the car and it turned out that there was no parking fee, because she had been in the lot fewer than 15 minutes.  Sweet.

So she drove us up, and up, and up, winding around and down, until we finally got to their place, almost at the end of a dead-end street.  What a magnificent, rambling house.  There are 5 people in their family - L and her husband A, and their 3 boys (all of whose names start with A, so I'll call them 1, 2, and 3).  1 was born when L and I were in residency together; I hadn't seen him since he was a baby, and now he's 13 and taller than both L and I.  2 (who had come to the airport with us, and had provided me with a lot if interesting information along the drive home) is 10, the same age as my younger daughter, and 3 is 8 years old.  They also have a dog named Frodo.  :)

It was a lovely thing to be among friends (even some new ones) and in a house instead of a condo or cottage.  There were Star Wars things all over the place, and Lord of the Rings figurines - I felt right at home.  Their guest room is in the downstairs portion of the house (kind of a walk-out basement) and is accessible only through 3's room, or by walking out onto the lanai by the pool and back into the house through a family room.

We had Kahlua pork and salad and fresh pineapple and rice for dinner, and we had a lively conversation about all kinds of things, including the differences between life in Michigan and on the big island - for instance, their school day starts at 7:45 and gets done at 1:45, but they started back to school in July.  The boys all swim for their sport - that makes a lot of sense - and their dad just finished the Iron Man triathlon in October.  When I asked if he would train for another one, he said, "In about 10 years."

I got my rings out and made some bracelets for the boys, and 2 peppered me with questions, and seemed quite interested and amazed in the ringweaving process.  He reminds me of my younger daughter.  :)  I let him try to close some rings, and after a few tries he got it, but kept saying, "I don't know how you DO that."

I went to bed rather later than usual.  And now it's 9 PM and I still have to catch up on today...  I think there's no hope for other days last week.

aloha,
w