Hunting for a hole

Chris and I have spent two afternoons hunting around a lava field for a hole in the ground. We found it Saturday.

We had heard about a lava tube filled with fresh water from a spring and that sounded like something we'd like to check out. Boards cover the hole and a homemade ladder extends down inside. Without the ladder, there would be no way out. You'd be treading water until someone brought you a rope- and I have a feeling you'd be waiting a while for that to happen.

The water is cold and clear, and very little light enters the cave from the tiny entrance. The darkness inside the swimming hole seemed to swallow up the beams from our flashlights. We checked out all of the walls in the cave to see if it continued on and it did not. It was just one big, cold, dark, wet, fun room.


We poked around for a while before we found this hole in the woods.

Here's me, climbing up the ladder, out of the darkness and into the light.

Chris enjoys the refreshing water inside the cave.

A Fond Farewell

WHT employees and ex-staffers came out to the Kona Brew Pub in droves Friday night to celebrate Baron's "graduation" from West Hawaii Today and North Hawaii News. He faithfully served the company for 18 years and he will surely be missed. I sure am glad he'll be sticking around the island so I can see him in real life, and I'll continue to follow his blog as well. In fact, I started this blog with encouragement from Baron back in 2005. Thanks for the great idea, Baron.

Baron has an almost identical photo posted on his blog, but I am posting this anyway because I like it a lot.

We counted over 30 in attendance:

Resort Retreat

Chris and I spent the night at a fancy resort on the Kohala Coast. Our room had an amazing view and we enjoyed our own private beach. But we didn't actually pay to stay at the hotel. Instead, we backpacked from Spencer Beach into the Mauna Kea Beach Resort and camped at this beautiful spot. The moon was directly overhead and we watched it set over the ocean and then thousands of stars emerged. The evening was calm, but the wind picked up late at night and blew sand and dirt all over us. That's what you get for being too lazy to set up the tent. It sounds stupid to camp at a resort, but it felt somewhat remote. We only saw one other person. That may change now that the resort has reopened. (It has been closed due to 2006 earthquake damage and it just opened this week)

The next morning we had a hot breakfast on the beach and we tried a little fishing. Later on, we frolicked on Maumae beach. Chris took a strap from my backpack and the shoe laces from his combat boots and made a rope so he could pull me in the water while I layed on my camping mat. Cheap entertainment. There was one other family on that beach and I am pretty sure we scared them away.

A view from our breakfast spot:

So close to the resort, yet this beach was all ours:

Oh, yeah!

I'm pretty stoked with the election results. All of my candidates won. I'm not expecting any miracles, but I know we'll benefit from new leadership for the country and for Hawaii County.

77 days to go

Here's a patriotic photo just for election day. Tracey dressed these dogs up for Halloween.

Has this election season been the longest ever? I'm excited and relieved the big day has finally arrived. There's only one countdown left as far as I'm concerned, that's to inauguration day, January 20, 2009. It's been a long time coming!