Aloha, Hawaii

Well Great Big World, we made it.

Four months are up and we are DONE

Co-managing the Kona Tiki Hotel,

As of about 4:00 PM HST yesterday.

Right now I still mostly feel "numb".

We met a lot of people who thought

That this job must be a really great gig.

I can say I'm not sorry I did this,

I can say what an accomplishment,

What a unique, amazing thing to do...

But I will never say how "great" it was,

Or how "fun" or any other cheerful, 

Breezy adjective...

And I will never, ever say

That I'm coming back to do it again!!

Honestly, you'd have to experience it

To understand what it's all about.

(Ok, I deleted more whining...)

I feel like I've been deeply conditioned

To deal with this type of lifestyle;

I had to place all of my normal "things"

from my regular life on hold, 

In a mental holding tank...

And right now they're still there

Cause I am still here...

Getting back to "normal"

Will take some time...

How long, I have no idea.

But I do know, I won't start the

Deprogramming

Until I'm back on our

Precious mainland!

We fly out tomorrow evening...

Our final two days.....

This is part of the view from our current room on the top, third floor as we chill out for a couple days...we finally have a lanai and a better view of the wide open ocean after 4 months in the ground floor office/food prep area/bedroom/living quarters that doesn't have a lanai... since that space was used to expand the indoor living space...

Up here we can see the yellow tang fish, and the black fish I forget the name of....which we saw up close and personal the few times we went snorkeling...

...And we can see that there are java sparrows up in the eaves of the roof, making nests somewhere out of sight...we can see them come and go with pieces of grass...and ok we shouldn't but we put some chips out on the railing for a little snack for their hard work.

And always, the roaring sea crashes into the sea wall nearby.....



Will I miss Hawaii?  No, but I can say I'll miss pieces...like feeding the java sparrows and the one family of saffron finches and No. cardinals every morning.  They'll miss me too cause I can see that the current mgr. is barely putting any seeds in the coconut shell feeders....

I will miss a couple people, too...Mike H. the maintenance dude w/ his one-liner tees, great laugh, and good heart...and Meriam, the gentle Micronesian woman who was a housekeeper for a few weeks, and who shared her family with us one night over a bbq that they prepared for us, to thank us for hiring Meriam...her daughters played the ukelele and sang and danced for us, it was magical....thanks to "Bloody Meriam" we got to see someone chewing beetle nut for the first time, too! Yowza!

And, I can say that it's cool that we were able to see Kilauea Volcano, the world's most active volcano...countless beautiful, tropical flowers...sea turtles! ... and I snorkeled for the first time and subsequently saw many tropical fish for the first time...and even a red pencil urchin...and eels!
They really do exist!

And we did meet some pretty awesome, creative people (musicians, artists, writers)...Michael and Barbara, Tom and Rebecca, Tom and Catherine, all great inspirations for me to get re-acquainted with my creative side, so long over-due...this is what I believe was the true purpose for experiencing this crazy adventure...that, and the chance for Ruben and I to strengthen our bond as a couple...not that we thought we needed it but BOY did we get it!


So, aloha, Hawaii.  And aloha great Pele, Volcano Goddess and fierce ruler of the island.  You are a force to be feared and revered.  May you find peace some day from all that fury over a love that was not to be.

And finally...aloha, Kona Tiki. 

So quaint and serene on the outside,

A haven to so many who seek escape.
(But that just wasn't my own perspective.)

I will remember you well.

It is time to climb back into "the box".
And I am so ready.

(Edited: 10-2-12)

Well we are just about at the 2 week mark...

Two weeks (as of Sat.) until our last full day as managers...

We switch the new/returning managers over Sept. 30.

We'll have Oct. 1st free and clear,

And most of Oct. 2 until we fly out that evening,

Landing in Phoenix, AZ on my 52nd birthday.

What a gift!  Yay!  I can almost smell the freedom!

Ru and I go separate ways from Phoenix...

He goes on to Orlando and home,

I'm going to San Francisco, 

And then on to my hometown,

For a six-day visit.

I haven't seen my folks

In 1 1/2 years.  It's time!

Anyway, back to the here and now...

I don't think we'll be going out to any distance

At this point due to an issue w/ the hotel vehicle,

So I doubt I'll see any new sights, 

No new birds...

Oh well...to be honest, I am beyond anxious

To get back to the mainland, see my folks,

And then get home to Florida

Where a new-to-me house awaits

Paint, furniture, and homey touches...

We were only in our new house

For 4 weeks 

Before we came to Hawaii

For what turned out to be 4 months

(Instead of 3 as 1st planned)....

So, to put the focus

Back on feathers, new or not....

Besides seeing No. cardinals here in Hawaii,

(I was surprised too!)

There are also plenty of house finches

And house sparrows, as on the mainland...

Case in point, this male house sparrow, looking quite sinister

With his dark mask and goatee....

As he eyeballs me from straight above my spot in the shade at a beach...

The sparrows get fairly close, looking for crumbs...

The lone ruddy turnstone appeared again a couple days ago,

Strolling down the seawall past the back of our hotel room...

Getting decent shots of the java sparrows

Is no easy task for some strange reason...

Probably due to the poor light below the tree canopy,

And the fact that the birds and feeders are always in motion....

I did get a better shot of the Pacific golden-plover recently, 

The same day as the leering house sparrow incident at the same beach...

This plover was fairly close compared to the last one I tried to photograph.

Kalapana & Lava Tree State Park

I get some interesting, 

Strange,

Annoying,

And downright ridiculous

Phone calls

In the hotel reservations / inquiries

Department...

But recently an extremely cheerful,

laughing (at his own cuteness, for one),

and downright colorful guy called...

And eventually he put me on

Speaker phone so he could

Sing and play the Ukelele...

He sang a really nice tune

About Kalapana,

A town that no longer exists

Thanks to a lava flow...

I found this esp. touching

Cause Ruben and I had taken a quick look

At Kalapana pretty recently..... 

...Or more like, what was left of it.....

This is pretty much it.

Pretty eerie.

We drove on to Lava Tree State Park, 

South of Hilo at the far east side of Hawaii.

The park has a loop trail...

This cool tree wasn't labeled but you can see it has the fluffy, lacy type "needles" ...

The lava trees, like this one that resembles a goofy face,

Are formed when hot lava pours over a tree,

Creating a mold of the tree.

The park had some of these pretty leaves...

Here's a better perspective w/ the leaves growing up this tree...

That's hubby posing...

Last but not least,

There are some Jurassic Park sized ferns growing in the park...

Ok, how's this for a better perspective?!

The park was eerily quiet and I kept looking over my shoulder,

Wondering if I would come face-to-ankle w/ T-rex...
But only the mosquitos were chomping that day.

The Hotel is Becoming a Zoo

It's beginning to look as though the local critters

Are trying to move in on us here...

This mongoose was sighted slinking around the front garden a couple days ago...

(Ruben's photo)

We've had a No. cardinal pair at the front feeders,

I think this is their offspring...either that or a rebellious, mohawked female...

Ok so maybe she's molting...

The java sparrows are always dining at the coconut shell feeders all morning,

I feed them around 6:30 AM daily...they get pretty restless by then...

We do have occasional, brief visits from a ruddy turnstone...

(Besides the wandering tattler)...

And the black crabs appear fairly often, 

patrolling the sea wall...

Then there's Smokey...

The neighborhood cat...

We feed him ea. morning and evening...

It was a part of our training,

Feeding the birds and Smokey that is...

We only see him those 2 times a day...

The geckos continue to scout bugs in the front office area...

This one is filling in my position for me,

Looking to check a new guest in....

And now we have a duck.  Yep, a duck!  This fella (or gal) appeared a couple days ago,
And is currently residing at Room 101's lanai...
When it isn't waddling around the back lawn or along the seawall.

The Art of Ocean Ogling

It occurs to me that I've been in Hawai'i for 3 months now....

And I haven't posted very many photos of the beaches/ocean at all!

What's with that?!

A really serious blonde moment?

Well whatever the reason, despite our lack of time away from the hotel, we do get away weekly and it usually does involve a beach...where else to try to just chill for awhile...?!

Recently, we headed back towards Hilo,

And stopped to see Black Sands Beach,

a.k.a. Punalu'u Beach...

Where visitors are greeted cheerfully...

...And yes, the sand is black...lava rock turned into countless tiny grains...

...Or not!  A lovely tide pool created on 3 sides by lava...

And very black sand in the foreground...

This type of lava (below) is called pillow lava,

for the way it flows into a pillowy shape...

...Last week we chilled at Pauoa Bay...

Where there isn't much sand... 

but plenty of white coral and black lava rocks....

A sunset just a couple miles from the hotel,

From the shore at the Outrigger Hotel...

The small beach where we saw the sea turtles...

We've been here twice now...

...But not matter how many beaches we visit,

We'll never master the art of ocean ogling

Quite like this lone 'ulili

a.k.a. wandering tattler...

Gotta love either name.

The pensive tattler was photographed on the sea wall at the hotel.
They arrive by August and leave for Alaska breeding grounds
In late April or early May.

Kolea, Waxbill, Francolin

The kolea, aka the Pacific golden-plover...the adults have arrived in Hawai'i from their Arctic nesting grounds...an August visitor...the immatures arrive in late Sept.  We just saw a few of these on Thurs. at Holoholokai Beach.

This neat little bird is a common waxbill, a native of Africa...they showed up a week or so ago, feeding on the grass seeds just outside our front door...I haven't seen them for a few days, was their visit that fleeting?!  Before seeing these guys, I saw a small flock of lavender waxbills just outside the front office area in a flowered bush...no camera available and haven't seen them since...they have pale gray bodies (prob look lavender in sunlight) with dark red tails and a black band across the eyes...

The gray francolin...introduced from India in 1958.  Saw this in a parking lot near a beach...the black francolin is more striking, maybe I'll get to see one of those too...no offense, gray!

Royal Poinciana...these tall flaming red-orange blossomed trees are sprinkled everywhere in Kailua on the Big Island.  I'm just throwing this in cause the trees are amazing and deserve mentioning.

Hualalai

Looking at the local map, Hualalai appears to be the name of the small beach surrounded by the Four Seasons Resort...open to the public, however.  We went there recently on the advice of hotel guests Tom and Perla, didn't stay long but had the beach to ourselves...

This lone black-necked stilt was wading in a small pond near the beach...

I've seen one in Florida but this is my 1st photo...it was too far to get a better shot...

Finally, sea turtles!  We came to this beach hoping to find sea turtles, and found about 5-6 resting on lava rocks near the shore...this one turtle was on the sand.  Isn't it the sweetest thing?!  Maybe it's Nemo's pal Crush! Or a distant cousin...

A Japanese white-eye!  It wasn't easy to get a shot of, moving around as it did.  The head is yellow.