weekend hoo-ha

I've survived my first week in Hawaii! It already feels like I've been here for months. I'm mildly amused that half of the hot-weather clothes I brought with me probably won't ever be used :) Sometimes a bathing suit feels like too much clothing. Note that I am NOT complaining. I love hot and humid, I just forgot how to dress for it :)

I cooked breakfast for the house on Saturday morning. Shakshouka, goat cheese bruscetta & oven-baked bacon. Damn tasty. I also cooked up a half-pound of bacon & popped a batch of bacon vodka in the freezer. We all piled into Daniel's monster old-school Suburban & headed out to Champagne ponds. It's actually one subdivision over, so a short walk, but we chose to drive around the back way over the Kaphoho lava fields since we had boogie boards, snorkel gear and a cooler full of beer in tow. What a trip..the lava fields are gorgeous and the scenery is stunning!

The Champagne Ponds are more open water than the tide pools next to the house. I found one quiet pool & dinked around with the new H2O digital camera while Jen, Rob & Daniel played football in the shallow spots. At one point Rob swam up right behind me and roared - scared the piss out of me. Rob has a date with a stealth wedgie - damn shit disturber Aussie :P Anyway, the camera works great... the fish, however, wouldn't hold still long enough to get stills. Daniel suggested I shoot video instead & pull stills but I couldn't figure out how to change the setting...grrr. RTFM! After a beer & snack break, Rob and Daniel headed out into open break to spearfish so I tagged along to see if I could handle rougher current. We ran into three turtles & I got some fuzzy shots. Thankfully they are a lot slower and easier to photograph :) The swim out there was definitely a lot tougher. It makes the tide pool current seem like a cake walk. I turned back when I got 'half-way-tired' & thank god I did...the swim back in took every bot of energy I had left. I think we stayed at Champagne until 2pm or so, then we decided to hit the hot ponds, so back into the Suburban we went, with a hot bumpy ride back over the lava. The hot ponds were fantastic, nice and warm. I love having natural hot tubs right down the road! Some local kids were jumping out of a tree into the pond so the boys had to try too. First Daniel and Rob jumped, then Robert hauled up into the tree too. Needless to say the girls were all fretting over who'd hit rocks & kill themself first. I was relieved every time a live head would pop up after each jump. We stuck around the Hot Ponds until dark then headed home. I promptly took my beer-saturated self to bed.

Sunday morning Jen and I were up early & went to the Pahoa Farmer's Market. Lots of great stuff and I got a blooming magnolia for $8 ! Hopefully I will have a fresh magnolia for my hair every day. Now I need a Plumeria tree & I'm set. We came back to a delicious dose of Cat's bisquits & gravy. YUM. Cody and Jen headed over to Kona for the day. Rob, Daniel, Corrine & I sat out the heat in the living room watching movies. We made the mistake of trying out the vodka. It was really good, even better with martini olives - yikes. Next thing you know we'd emptied 2/3 of the bottle. Ooops. Well, Monday's a state holiday anyway, so what the hell. (Monday is King Kamehameha Day). Daniel and I decided to go for a swim at the tide pools & well, that third of a bottle looked lonely so we took it with us & finished it off. Everything tastes better in front of a Kapoho Sunset anyway!

Oh Monday morning how you hate me! Actually, I woke up feeling great. No hangover, no tired, nuthin. I went into Pahoa with Corinned & Jen to hit Malama Market (grocery store). We stopped off at Jungle Love to shop for swim suits & whammo! my hangover hit me like a brick wall. I crawled out to the car & curled up in the back seat while to gals finished shopping. I spent the rest of the day sleeping and feeling generally crappy. Bacon Vodka you are the spawn of satan! Thankfully someone woke me up for dinner. Rob and Corrine made an incredible Aussie Meat Pies served in split pea soup. THey also made a few shepard's pies but I was too stuffed with meat pie to try it. We tied up the evening parked on the porch shooting the breeze, per the usual.

It's now 6:30am on Tuesday. I get my car today, woot! Something very large and black just sauntered into the yard. I think it was a wild pig! I'm off to Hilo in a few minutes to take Jen to the airport. Then back here for breakfast, a nap & then some work in the garden!