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JnR in Hawaii

/ Ryan / Leave a comment

We finally made it to Hawaii!  We’ve wanted to go to Hawaii for years but have never made the time until now.  It was great!  Getting there was convoluted since Jenn had to work at the beginning of the week, so we went from SFO to LAX to HNL.  We stayed one night in Honolulu before flying to Kona because flights didn’t work out.

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We picked up the rental car after landing in Kona and drove to the condo we rented off VRBO.  The place we got was pretty nice.  The location was fantastic, and toward the end of the trip we enjoyed just sitting by the ocean in the grass.  We got some groceries, got set up in the apartment, then walked into town (Kailua-Kona).  We drove to a few snorkel sites to reconnoiter, but it was getting late and we decided we’d get in the water tomorrow.

The next morning, we got right to it bright and early at two step.  It was about a twenty minute drive south.  Two step was  great because it was very easy to enter the water from the tiered lava.  We brought our shorties and wore them the first day (and off and on through the trip).  The water seemed a little chilly but maybe that’s just because we hadn’t been snorkeling in a while.  The water was super clear and maybe 15′ deep with a gradual slope.

We went to Kahaluu Beach after stopping at Super J’s for lunch.  We tried kalua and laulau pork.  Both were excellent, though I favored the kalua pork.   After lunch we headed to Kahaluu beach.  The water was probably 4′ or 5′ deep!  There were a lot of smaller coral patches (probably due to the popularity of the beach) but the tons of (rather tame) wildlife.  It was easy to get very close to the fish.  Because it was so shallow, many people at this beach don’t even use fins and just enter the water with reef shoes- and end up standing on coral heads.  It was a bit of a bummer to see so many people treat the reef this way.  There were people from the education center at the water’s edge trying to keep people from standing on coral, as well as pointing out the names of fish.  It was a cool program.

The next day we headed back south to Kealakekua.  We saw that many snorkel trips go to the Captain Cook monument, but Jenn and I thought we could easily swim it, so we gave that a go.  That was a mistake.  We got there pretty early and for the whole swim it felt like the water was pushing us back to shore.  It took forever to get there.  We had not worn our shorties in the past year or two, and during the long swim Jenn found hers to be very uncomfortable.  We had hoped the guide books spoke true when they said we would find dolphins and all sorts of magical sea creatures as we crossed the bay.  Sadly, the bay was devoid of interest on the swim across.  When we finally got to the Captain Cook monument, we were supposed to find the best snorkeling on the island, though I think the guide books missed here again.  The reef at the monument was very nice but it was very similar to that which we found at two step or Kahaluu.  After swimming back we ate our packed lunch and went back to Kahaluu.

We swam at Kahaluu early the next morning before heading back to Kona for lunch in a restaurant.  That evening, we went out on a night snorkel with manta rays at Keauhou Bay near the Sheraton hotel.  It was outstanding!  There were a handful of do not miss activities on the Big Island and this was one of them.  Sadly, the photos do no justice.

The next morning we took another snorkel trip, this time to snorkel with dolphins.  Another amazing experience!  We picked up the tour from the same bay as the day before, but this time the boat went north, past the airport.  We probably saw a hundred or more dolphins over the course of the trip.  We hopped in the water and swam by the dolphins as they headed on their way.  Unlike when we snorkeled with dolphins in NZ, these dolphins had a mission and were really not interested in us at all- even when Jenn used her ‘dolphin magnet’ skills.

After several big days in a row, we were pretty beat so we got out of bed late. Eventually we went to Hodl beach, which was immediately beside our condo.  It was quite rough, so getting in and out of the water was a little ugly.  Further, the water wasn’t very clear so there wasn’t much to see at this beach.  I happen to snap a pic of a turtle about ten feet from shore while I was on my way out.  Later, we went to Mauna Kea.  Very near sunset a manta ray swam with us for a moment. This time we didn’t have the tour group or their powerful lights, so we were pretty lucky to spot one.

The next morning we got up super early and drove to the Hilo side of the island.  I did a hike out to the lava flow and Jenn took a helicopter flight over the flow and crater.  The hike wasn’t as bad as it could have been- the week before when I set up the tour it was believed we would have to hike out 4 miles with 1500′ of elevation.  In the end, the lava had picked up speed and the hike was only about 4-5 miles total with very little elevation change.  Hiking out across the lava field was rough enough, though.  The old flows were very uneven and since the lava is half silica, nearly everything had a glass like edge.  I picked up a few stones and they sliced my fingers.  I roasted a marshmallow over molten lava!  I don’t think I was smiling… it was painfully hot.

Jenn took an open door helicopter ride over the crater and past the lava flows.  She saw some pretty neat stuff that I wasn’t able to from the ground.  She saw skylights (open windows in lava tubes), an overview of the flow, peeked into the crater, and even flew by some of the beautiful waterfalls.

The hike to Akaka falls was beautiful even though it rained on us.  Soon, it got dark and it was a long drive back- making it pretty late when we finally went to bed.  The next day we went to the seahorse farm.  This tour was really interesting.  I thought it would be cool to ‘hold’ a seahorse, but it was also very informative.

After the seahorse farm, we stopped for shave ice for one last time.  Gotta love hawaiian shave ice!  We headed back to the mainland the following day.

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Muir Woods

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Jenn and I are taking a trip to Hawaii but she had to work, so I spent a few days with her in San Francisco.  Yesterday, I went to Muir Woods even though we’ve been before.

It was chilly in San Francisco so I brought a jacket but never did need it in the woods.  It was just about perfect weather, though the Golden Gate Bridge was completely obscured by fog.  Not that I could have snapped a photo anyway, traffic wasn’t slow enough.  The park was pretty busy (I thought) for a Tuesday and I had to park in a gravel overflow lot.  I just got a new phone (iphone se) with a much better camera and purchased a set of lenses (from photojojo) for it in the hopes I could take some nice pictures.

I decided to hike the Panoramic Trail since I hadn’t before.  It starts with the Canopy View Trail which was fantastic.  I really enjoyed viewing the redwoods as I climbed.  Muir Woods is a beautiful place and it was pretty tranquil in spite of the crowds.

Once the Canopy Trail ends, the Panoramic Trail begins.  At this point, the trees have thinned and the trail has reached peak elevation.  It was sunny and pleasantly warm.  A sign in the woods said you could see the ocean (later I was told the trees are too tall) but I couldn’t see through the fog between the mountains.  It’s interesting to see the forest stretch out in the valley before you.  IMG_0070

The Panoramic Trail and the Sun Trail are higher elevation and the trail cuts through dry, brown grasses.  It reminded me of the vegetation atop San Bruno.  It started getting warm and the trail goes near the road.  I really just wanted to get back into the trees.  I forgot to take a picture of the map BEFORE I hiked up the trail.  I got a little confused by the signs when I reached the end of the Sun Trail.IMG_0098

Once I got back to the park, I followed the Redwood Creek Trail and the Hillside Trail.  This route really is my favorite here.

There’s something special about a hike through the redwoods.  The faint scent of pine, the lush green carpet of clovers and ferns, the babbling of Redwood Creek and the relative quiet of the groves make Muir Woods a rare and calming place.

JnR’s Pacific Coast Highway Drive

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Jenn and I wanted to make the Pacific Coast Highway drive from San Francisco to San Diego.  We started planning the trip and began adding other California sites to it.  In the end, we put 2000 miles on our rented mustang convertible over the course of ten days.  It was a blast driving that car in the beautiful California weather.

We had never been to Yosemite before and wanted to see giant sequoias, so that was the first site on the list.  Yosemite was lovely but as it was Memorial Day Weekend, there were a lot of cars on the small road winding through the park.  In fact, there were programmable to let you know how long you would sit in line to drive through the park and the times listed grew to more than three hours.  We stopped at a few lookouts but had been informed that Mariposa Grove (where the giant sequoias were) was closed.  We were disheartened and saw that we could also see sequoias at Sequoia National Park.

Sequoia National Park was deserted compared to Yosemite.  It was fantastic.  It was tranquil walking between the trees, and everywhere we went had a slight smell of pine.  I would love to be able to be able to take a walk through that park every day with Walnut.  (he didn’t get to join us on this trip)  The huge trees are humbling- you feel small in their presence.

After Sequoia National Park we drove back to San Francisco so we could follow the PCH south.  Though it was a bit of a drive, the weather and the convertible made it pleasant.  We got to route 1 at Half Moon Bay.  Of course, there was no parking but we drove slowly through the park and nearby neighborhoods to get a sense of the beach.  It’s massive, and very popular.

We continued south through Santa Cruz and on to Monterrey.  The aquarium in Monterrey was fantastic.  The weather was touch cool, and we didn’t really pack jackets so we found the Goodwill in Monterrey and bought jackets to stay warm before our whale watching trip.  We saw sunfish, humpback whales and dolphins.  The 17 mile drive was beautiful.  The scenery, the ocean, the cliffs, the rocks, the houses were pretty amazing.

We continued south across the Bixby Bridge and through Big Sur to Cambria where we stayed at the Bluebird Inn.  Nearby Hearst castle was like a history museum full of artifacts purchased from all over the world.  It is an incredible collection.  Somewhere near here, we saw an elephant seal nesting site.  It was crazy (and loud)!  It was getting late so we were running out of light but we watched the seals jockey for a spot on the beach to sleep.  Several fights broke out and some of them just stayed in the water.  There must have been 200 or more of them.

We kept on driving south through Santa Barbara, Malibu, Santa Monica, Los Angeles.  We stayed in LA and went to the Getty Villa.  The Villa was fantastic and is filled with artifacts from Greece and Rome.   At the Getty Center, we saw their Cave Temples installation which was fascinating.

It was a beautiful drive on route 1.  We frequently stopped by the road side and looked out over the cliffs and to the ocean.  The weather was great (we were thankful for the convertible).  We went through a lot of sunscreen!

Lowden State Park In the Rialta

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IMG_1640  Jenn and I had been talking about it for awhile and finally did it; we bought an RV.  We had been looking at conversion vans like a Roadtrek but found them rather expensive.  In our searches we came across the Rialta, which is a tiny Winnebago.  We got a ‘98 RD, so it has four chairs up front and a dinette in back.  It can seat 8 with seat belts.  It has an expandable bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower.  There is a 2 burner stove and a small refrigerator.  The dinette folds down into a double bed and 2 of the seats up front fold into a smaller than double bed.  For an RV, it has rather small waste tanks- a 13 gallon black tank and a 6 gallon grey tank (the shower drains to the black tank).  It can hold 20 gallons of fresh water.  I’ve done a bit of work to it, and I’m afraid I failed in my pre-purchase examinations; finding many water leaks (a week after purchase) during a storm.  I’ve started trying to find and repair them but so far they aren’t going away.

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This weekend, Walnut and I took the Rialta on it’s maiden (camping) voyage! (I drove it back home from Connecticut, about 800 miles)  We went to Lowden State park, near Oregon, Illinois.  We stayed in the White Oak campgrounds.  It was lovely.  Though the ground was a bit soft from recent rains, Walnut and I did a few miles of trail from our site to the Black Hawk Statue.  The statue is about 50 feet tall and it’s supposed to be one of the tallest monolothic statues in the world.  It was a feat of engineering at the time to create it.  They are doing repairs to it so we didn’t actually get to look at it….

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The main camping area was pretty full and had rather little space between sites.  We opted for the more private area with no hook-ups.  There are facilities here but part of the point of this adventure was to use the RV’s facilities so I get the practice in preparation for next weekend’s trip to Michigan where we hope to meet other Rialta owners from around the country.  I’m not sure if we will head home today or move to another park.

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Shabbona State Park in Illinois

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  We decided to head to another park.  While at Lowden we met a lady that refurbished a ‘73 VW campervan.  It looked pretty snazzy.  I guess it doesn’t handle interstate speeds real well so she has been keeping to the highways and side roads.  She felt she was seeing the ‘real’ Illinois that way.  It convinced me to take one of those highways down to another park and see some of it, too.  I think I didn’t take a particularly scenic route, though and we saw mostly corn.  We took it slow, and that made it a more relaxing drive than the one out to Lowden.

  Even though we got into Shabbona around 3, we couldn’t find the camp host to register a site until almost 5 so we got set up kinda late.  We went for a hike that would have been a 5+ mile loop but since we got started late and I forgot the Walnut bag, we turned around at 1.8 miles.  (the Walnut bag in this context is our orange Kelty hiking pack that I put Walnut in when he gets too tired to keep hiking)

  Shabbona is nice enough, but the rate for a site on Sunday night kinda turned me off (we do have electricity tonight though).  The sites where I am, Teal Bay, feel fairly private.  Of course, the whole place feels that way tonight.  I think there are 6 other sites in use out of 60.  I’m gonna go see if I scrounged enough dry wood to make smores.

JnR’s trip to St. John’s, USVI

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We flew to St. John’s to spend a week over the fourth of July.  We love to snorkel and hadn’t yet been to the Virgin Islands so we thought we’d check it out.  I had some trouble getting out of Chicago and ended up losing a day and flying through Puerto Rico instead of Miami, but Jenn’s flight from San Fran went ok.  It did mean that she had to navigate the ferries and find our rented apartment alone.

St. John’s reminded me of Ecuador and Belize; except the main buildings in town looked like they adhered to an american building code.  The town felt underfunded.  I found prices for food and groceries on the high side.  We walked/taxied the first couple days then rented a jeep for the remainder, and stayed in a place we found on VRBO.com.  It was a good way to save a few bucks, making this a relatively inexpensive trip.

There were peacocks on the island!

For the first snorkeling site we went out at Trunk Bay.  There was an underwater snorkeling trail that was slightly informative but over-touristed.  To the west there was a less crowded area where we saw a shark, some rays and a turtle.

The next place we went was Frank Bay.  It was very close to where we were staying and we hoped to do a night dive there one evening. We saw flamingo tongue, rays and a pretty good-sized octopus.  Our whole goal for night diving is to see octopus, but here at Frank Bay, Jenn find one right away!

Waterlemon Cay was a fantastic snorkel.  The island had a ton of large, beautiful coral.  The hike back to the car from the site however, was much less fun.

We went in at Haulover North but it was too rough, so we walked back to Haulover South.  It was much calmer but there wasn’t as much to see here.

Next we visited Salt Pond.  It was quite a swim out to the reef here but it was another healthy reef.

After Salt Pond we rested then went out for a night snorkel at Frank Bay.  It was spooky but a great spot for evening dip!  Jenn found 5 octopus on this trip.  Most of the time we are lucky to have seen one!

At Cinnamon Bay we snorkeled a wrecked plane.  In the nearby rocks, Jenn found another octopus.  The guidebook said to hike to certain spot to snorkel the wreckage but we both thought it would have been easier to swim it.  I offered to hike our stuff out while Jenn swam back.

On our last snorkel we went to Little Lameshur Bay and swam around Yawzi Point to Great Lameshur Bay.  It was really rough out there but we were amazed at the water clarity and quality/health of the reef.  It was fantastic to see so much life on the reef.

The USVI was a great place to snorkel.  Overall there was little coral rubble and a great deal of fish, rays and turtles.  We also saw more octopus here than any other place we’ve been.  Of course, we are more experienced now and that may be a factor.