White Christmas in Greenville

First one in 40 years, apparently. Doesn't look like it'll stay white for too long, though; by the time I got around to taking this photo at 11AM this morning, a fair amount of the almost 2 inches was gone already.

Back up in the mountains, though, it was a different story. We cut our Franklin visit short once we saw 3 inches fall in 3 hours (Mamaw reported 7 total inches this morning, plus some powdery snow still blowing around). Thanks to the road conditions and various idiot drivers falling victim to them, a normal 2 hour trip home took a little short of 4.

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 6 (11/18/10)

After breakfast, we headed up the hills from Kailua-Kona to the sleepy and artsy village of Holualoa to find something for the house. We decided upon a couple of tapa paintings that we ended up framing and hanging over our bed back at home.

Small World Moment # 2 of the trip: We popped into the small coffee shop in Holualoa and the barista was wearing a shirt from Powell's City of Books , AKA the baddest bookstore around, one of my favorite spots in Portland.

Next up was hauling our picnic cooler packed by KVR up to Hapuna Beach State Park to lay around for a couple of hours. This is one of the 2 excellent white sand beaches that locals and tourists flock to. It features a huge flat beach and a gentle slope far out into the water. making it ideal for sunbathing and swimming. (Note the distinct lack of crowding in the picture below; the week before a major holiday is a great time to hit Hawaii.)

Next, back to the KVR for some more R&R and a trip around the extensive grounds. Perhaps the most interesting part of the property is a huge group of petroglyphs in a certain lava field. They've got a walkway set up to go see them up close.

KVR ain't the cheapest place in the world, but is certainly a great escape.

Not a whole lot to report about Day 7 (the trip home), other than it was a loooooong blur of plane rides, mediocre and overpriced airport food, and lack of sleep. A small price to pay for a great trip, though.

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 5 (11/17/10)

Big breakfast this morning to fuel up for our helicopter tour, something we'd been looking forward to for months. It didn't disappoint, and may in fact have exceeded expectations. The helicopter had 2 passenger seats with the pilot up front, and 4 passenger seats in the back. We sprung for an extra hundred bucks to sit up front, which was money well spent, as the views were pretty spectacular (the pics below don't do them justice).

Here we are shortly after liftoff.

Luckily the weather down by Volcanoes National Park was much better this time around, although there was a fair amount of "vog" (steamy haze caused by volcanic gasses) like there always.

Here, we're circling around the point where the lava pours into the sea, very slowly but steadily increasing the size of the island.

Heading up the coast toward the Waipio Valley.

And in the valley.

Countless waterfalls appear seemingly out of nowhere and carve deep into the impossibly steep hillsides.

Flying over paniolo country. (Paniolos are Hawaiian cowboys. After horses were brought to the Big Island in 1804, Spanish cowboys- vaqueros- were recruited to help contain the wild cattle and train the local cowboys. The Hawaiians called the vaqueros "paniolos", a corruption of "Española".)

And back safely on the ground, which never should have been in doubt considering our pilot was a former Green Beret who flew in Vietnam, among other locales. (And the first Small World Moment of the trip: he's Oregonian).

Back to KVR for a little R&R before the Wednesday evening manager's reception (free cocktails, ka-CHING!) and then the luau. The luau is something else we'd been looking forward to, as it's
regarded as the most "Hawaiian" luau on the Big Island.

Here were are knocking back a couple of top-shelf tequilas, on the house. My favorite bartender gave us the inside scoop on just how long we could hang out at the reception before heading over to the luau (where high-dollar drinks are the order of the day).

Another bit of good forture saw an ancient couple sitting beside us at the bar who required a ride to the luau, so we were able to hitch a ride on the back of their cart.

Getting ready for the show.

Piggy coming out of the ground.

Piggy just about ready for my plate.

No decent pictures to share from the luau itself, as the dark conditions didn't cooperate, but it was a great show. Plumped full of mai tais and kahlua pork, we slept like logs after this evening.

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 4 (11/16/10)

I slept all the way til 6:30 this morning- finally adjusting to Island Time???

This was the one day we took to relax around the resort; a little pool time, a little beach time, caught up on some reading. Had some great tuna shashimi for lunch (the Japanese influence on the menus was very much appreciated).

The most 'exciting' part of this day was a trip back into town for a beer run. Speaking of which, since this was a slow day, now's a good as any to recap the Hawaiian brews we had on the trip:
* Kona Lavaman Red Ale- Amber ales are frequently pretty boring, but toasted and chocolate notes and an earthy bite in the finish make this worth a shot.
* Kona Big Wave Golden Ale- A rather flavorful version of an often bland/girlie style. Good stuff.
* Mehana Brewing Mauna Kea Pale Ale- Decent, but forgettable (and actually less flavorful than the golden ale).
* Mehana Brewing Volcano Red Ale- Luckily I only had one of these at the Shipwreck Bar at KVR. Potentially a bad bottle; it was a week old but tasted cardboardish/potentially oxidized.
* Maui Brewing CoCoNut Porter- Very hearty porter with loads of espresso, dark chocolate and toasted coconut. Unique and definitely worth seeking out.
* Maui Brewing Big Swell IPA- My favorite of the bunch. Textbook West Coast IPA, with a steady stream of bitterness and a very modest malt backbone that let the plentiful citrus and pine be the stars of the show. (Side note- I've found that most East Coast IPAs pale in comparison to their left coast counterparts, primarily because they tend to be too heavyhanded with caramel malts.)

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 3 (11/15/10)

My day started around 4:30, back on the deck to stargaze and watch the island wake up. Saw a couple of shooting stars. Rhonda 'slept in' til 6:30. After a quick breakfast and a stop at a local coffee shop (the local java's mighty potent), we headed down around the southern tip of the island and over to Volcanoes National Park. The eastern side of the island is exceedingly wet, and the southeastern part (where the park is) gets a fair amount of the wet stuff, too. Luckily we trained extensively in Oregon for 'webfoot tourism', so a little rain wasn't such a big deal (although it did put the kibosh on hiking plans).

The Big Island is formed from 5 volcanoes, the newest of which, Kilauea is the centerpiece of the park. The few areas within the park that aren't covered in lava have lush rainforest vegetation. Check out the size of these ferns.

Here are a couple of craters.

Much of the landscape looks like this; folded, crumpled, piled and stacked lava with scattered trees and shrubbery.

Although the lava's a different color, I was somewhat reminded of Mount St. Helens, which also has an otherworldy feel.

After fueling up the car with gas and ourselves with some dangerously delicious chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, we headed back around the island, stopping in for lunch at the Kona Brewing Company in Kailua-Kona. Kona Brewing has 2 pubs; this is the original and home of the brewery. Here I am enjoying some local suds and sporting what may well be the ugliest shirt on the Big Island.This is a spot that seems to be popular with locals and tourists alike, the draws being a huge lanai for outdoor dining, good food and, of course, fresh beer from the source. They typically feature a number of tap brews that are exclusive to the pubs.

After lunch, we headed up to our home base for the rest of the trip, Kona Village Resort (henceforth to be referred to as KVR). This was once the site of an ancient Hawaiian fishing village, long since wiped away by one of the many rivers of lava that have flowed over the island. Here, on one end of the property, is one of the black sand (crushed up lava) beaches that are scattered around the island.

The whole 82-acre property was once covered with lava, and the resort (intended to be a recreation of the original village) was built largely from scratch, including trucking in all the white sand and tons of plants, plus of course the construction of all the hales (houses).

Here's a peek at what KVR looks like now. It's situated along a small bay.

A fair amount of privacy is provided by the trees and bushes between the hales.

There are a bunch of sea turtles that come to sunbathe on the sand every afternoon.

Heading inland, there is a big lagoon with more hales. Very quiet back here.

The first order of business was of course a refreshing beverage. We hit the Shipwreck Bar (which is in fact the shipwrecked sailboat of the original owner of KVR) and chatted with Sid the bartended, KVR's second longest tenured employee. He started way back in 1972 (with an office like this, I guess he's in no rush to retire).

Sunset view from the deck of our hale.

We made dinner reservations for 7:30 to force us to stay up a little later and hopefully sleep til a more decent hour. Had a couple of nice dry-aged steaks for dinner, then a nightcap of macadamia ice cream. (Note: If you want to put on 5 pounds in a week, delicious half-pound burgers, huge steaks, plentiful suds and macadamia ice cream are a good start. Trust me when I say it's not as hard as it sounds.)

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 2 (11/14/10)

Pretty sweet sunrise view from our deck, huh? Unfortunately, I'd already been awake for a couple of hours at this point. After such an early turn-in the night before, I found myself wide awake at 3:43 AM (slept like a rock for almost 8 hours). This turned out to be not such a bad thing; infact, I was rewarded with some incredible stargazing out on the deck. Captain Cook is such a small and isolated place that there's very little in the way of manmade light to get in the way of this pursuit. A quick audible led me briefly back inside to fumble toward the fridge and grab a brew, the only thing I could think of that might possibly make the situation more enjoyable. (Yes, a beer at 4AM. Am I ashamed? No, I am not.)

After settling back into my chair and propping my feet up, it didn't take long to settle into a state of near hypnosis, lulled into complete relaxation by the twinkling of the impossibly bright stars, set to a soundtrack of light breezes, the lapping of waves down in the bay, plus crickets, frogs and assorted other critters with more legs than I. By 4:45, joining the mix were some roosters whose services were entirely unnecessary on this particular morning. At 5:30 the stars began to fade and the sky over the hill began to lighten. 6AM appears to be the designated wakeup time for every bird in the general vicinity, and the start of an uninterrupted chorus of mostly unfamiliar chirps, shrieks, whistles and warbles that lasted well over an hour. At 6:30, the sunlight began to pour over the hill (as pictured above), and shades of grey turned to brilliant greens. Just a wonderfully relaxing and recharging start to the day.

After breakfast on the deck, we loaded up our snorkel gear, rented a sea kayak and headed down the hill to Kealakekua Bay. A half hour paddle over calm waters brought us to the Captain Cook monument, where the captain met his unfortunate demise. There's a huge underwater state park surrounding the monument with the best snorkeling we've experienced. Very clear waters, plenty of sunlight, loads of colorful fish, coral, anemones and whatnot. The view from the kayak as we're approaching the monument.

And here's the view on the way back across the bay. The cliffs are called Pali Kapu O Keōua (forbidden cliffs of Keōua), and were once the burial place of ancient Hawaiian royalty.

We worked up quite an appetite with all that swimming and paddling, so after a brief stop back at the B&B, we headed north 20 minutes to Kailua-Kona, the main tourist hub of the Big Island. We ate lunch at Humpy's Big Island Alehouse , whose bar manager, Bill, I made contact with through the Beer Advocate website. Not a bad spot at all. Tasty (and gut-bustingly proportioned) food with a nice selection of Hawaiian and mainland brews. Friendly and informed service, nice waterside location, sunny and breezy lanai. Plus Bill hooked us up with a couple of complimentary drafts and tips on what stores to find the best selection of local beers (we soon took advantage of these tips). Good times all around.

We got back to Captain Cook in time to sneak in a trip to Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. This was the site of a pu'huhonua, place of refuge, where defeated warriors and those individuals who had broken a kapu (sacred law) could escape certain death. The National Park Service is really doing a nice job with the restoration and reconstruction of the complex.

This is the Hale o Keawe, a rebuilt version of a temple and mausoleum where ali'i (noble chiefs) were laid to rest. Ki'i (carved wooden images) guard the outside.

Rhonda getting chummy with another couple of ki'i.

The foundations of many buildings are visible.

Got back just before dark and briefly chatted with a young German couple (drinking Bud Light, naturally) before enjoying a couple of fine local brews out on the deck. Turned in early again.

Hawaii Trip Recap: Day 1 (11/13/10)

Much of this day was spent on planes, as it's a long trip from the east coast. A reeeeeallly long trip. Had a bit of a close call with our connection in Phoenix, as we got there half an hour early, but then there was a broken down plane at our gate. By the time we waited that situation out, we were pressed for time and had to undertake one of those frantic, bob and weave jogs through the airport (luckily our only luggage was backpacks). Made the connection and actually got into the Kona International Airport early, arriving mid-afternoon.

Our rental rig for the week was a soft top Jeep Wrangler. I've always kinda wanted one of those, so this was like a weeklong test drive. A fun vehicle once I finally figured out how to get the top down (it's not hard, you just need a little practice).

Our first order of business was to find the bed and breakfast where we'd spend the first couple of nights. A scenic 40-minute drive brought us to Captain Cook. This charming little town is situated high on the hills overlooking Kealakekua Bay. Our B&B, the Belle Vue did indeed have a beautiful view. Really a nice little place. Our host Viviane was warm and friendly without being intrusive, and was full of helpful hints about things to do in the area.

The driveway down to the B&B (much steeper than it looks here).

Not much in the way of picture-taking from the first day; we just wanted to relax, begin to soak in the atmosphere and get ready for the rest of the trip. But first, a hearty meal was in order. My never-ending search for culinary delights led us to little joint called Annie's Island Fresh Burgers. Great choice! ~Pats self on back~ These were without a doubt some of the best burgers that have gone down the ol' gullet. The (Big Island-raised) hand pressed patties were advertised as half pounders, but they seemed even larger. Juicy, succulent, perfectly cooked to medium rare (the only way to eat a burger) and not shy with the salt and pepper. The buns were appropriately sized to contain the monsters, and sturdy to boot, with a pleasant but unintrusive flavor, leaving the meat to be the rightful star of the show. The accompanying produce was very fresh. Decent fries, great tempura onion rings, and our first pints of fresh Kona Brewing Company beer rounded out the mail. A destination-worthy burger joint.

On the way back to Belle Vue, we stopped at the local supermarket for some more beer. Home cookin' (Deschutes Inversion IPA) for me, the surprisingly excellent Kona Big Swell Golden Ale for Rhonda. The day ended with a couple of brews on the deck and going to bed with the chickens when we couldn't make it any longer (6:30 for Rhonda, 8:00 for me).