The Family Arrives

It's been busy the last few days. On Wednesday we went diving again, and this time I had quite a few problems equalizing the pressure in my ears during the first dive. The second dive went a lot more smoothly and it was very relaxing and fun.


Quasimodo the turtle heading up for a breath



Sleeping goby



Safety stop



Dive guide creating authentic shark attack video





On Wednesday night, my brother Eric and my sister-in-law Alice and their kids, Karla and Nate, arrived. They were delayed as well, though not quite as badly as we were. Still, they didn't get here until midnight, so we didn't see them until the next morning. After a breakfast of malasadas (hawaiian doughnuts) and spam musubi Kevin and I headed into Kona for some shopping. That afternoon we got the Coffmans set up with snorkel rentals, then we did some practicing in the pool. The kids took to it right away, I swear they have gills. There was a fair amount of horsing around too, of course.




Thursday night my parents arrived, on time for once. And today we finally were able to go across the street for some snorkeling. It was great sunny weather and tons of fish. The fish are obviously not concerned about people; it actually seemed like they were mooching.

Karla and Alice surrounded



Today is my mom's birthday, so we will have a BBQ by the pool by her request. And enjoy that fabulous Hawaiian sunset, of course.




And remember, it's good luck to have a gecko in the condo.

Water and Sand

We are on the evening of our third full day here in Kona. Man, I could really get used to this life. Yesterday we did our first 2 dives of 10 on this trip. We went with Jack's again, a first-rate outfit. We were a little nervous at first, but it's like riding a bike, we got right back into it. We saw quite a few eels, including a monster one about 10 inches thick. One of the guides, Ron, is a great guy and we had fun talking to him during the surface interval and on the way back to the harbor. He guides for Jack's every summer.... sounds like a good gig to me.






Today was a beach day. Hapuna Beach, one of the best on the Big Island. Huge stretch of silky white sand and water so clear you can almost snorkel without sticking your head in the water. We came to do some boogie boarding, and while the forecast promised "extreme" surf, we found it was fairly tame. 3 or 4 big waves, then a stretch of 10 or 15 minutes of nothing. But the big waves delivered. I wiped out a few times, and I brought half of the beach back to the condo with me. You know it's a good day if you're cleaning sand out of your ears in the shower. And other unmentionable places.






Oh, and can I just say that LASIK rules. Finally no worries about contacts in the surf. So, I tried to post some video but Blogger is pissing me off and not functioning, so I'll have to try again tomorrow. Night night!

EDIT: OK I finally figured out the video.

ok, here we go...

All right, I'm taking the plunge into the blogosphere. As I get older, I can rely less and less on my capacity to remember the significant things in my life (or is it from too many glasses of wine?). At any rate, I will attempt to record here things that for whatever reason stick out in my life. We are leaving for Kona for two weeks on Saturday, so I figure that's a good place to start.