A swim fit for a king

I had such a great time with Tara Brown competing in the 1.2-mile King's Swim in Kailua Bay on the Fourth of July. It seems like every year when the race come around I tell myself, "Next year you should enter." This year Tara and I encouraged each other to give it a try.

I've been swimming in Kailua Bay for years and started swimming regularly with Sarah Jasper after work. She would drag me out there in pouring rain or ridiculous surf or chop, which is usually when we had the most fun. Eventually, I started swimming with fins on and making it all the way to the 1.2 mile buoy, but I had never tried swimming that far without fins until a couple of weeks before the race. About a year ago, Chris and I also took a swim lesson, which improved our stroke, made us faster, and made it feel more comfortable and effortless to move though the water.

 I had hoped to be able to do the race in less than 50 minutes. My time was 46:06 and I came in 184 out of 262, which I was really happy with for my first time around. It was really exciting being in the water with all of those people thrashing around and it was hard to get my heart rate relaxed at first. I know I could improve my time with cardio training because I was pretty out of breath.

I was very impressed with how well organized the event was, and everyone received a nifty King's Swim bag and there were tons of really great door prizes given away at the awards ceremony, too. Well done, Kona Aquatics, I am super excited to do the race again next year to see if I can beat my time.

Swimming is something our town does really well. There are a lot of athletes here and dozens of people swimming for exercise first thing in the morning. The race, and my morning swims take place at the same spot where Ironman World Triathlon begins with a 2.4-mile swim. Conditions are usually fantastic, especially first thing in the morning. I usually go a couple days a week before work and sometimes see the akule baitball or dolphins. What a great way to start the day.

My mom took this photo of the start of the race.

Thank you, Kona Aquatics, for posting photos of the race on Facebook I hope you don't mind me using this one of me at the finish of the race.

A photo I took of dolphins during a recent swim in Kailua Bay.

White Road Wonderland

One of my favorite hikes was officially "closed" after the earthquake of 2006. We're generally compliant and we don't condone trespassing or breaking the law so I hadn't done the hike since it closed and Chris has never done it. But we kept hearing of friends taking the White Road hike and we needed a cool place to go that wasn't too far to drive, so we finally broke down and headed to Waimea. The trail is clearly being used, we passed several people that day and the rules are obviously not being enforced. I also did not see any landslides or damage the earthquake may have caused that would make the hike more dangerous. There is a small strip of land that is leased by a private family from the state that one must cross to get to the forest reserve where the trail begins. They do not want trespassers, so I don't feel entirely right about doing this hike, but we did, and it didn't disappoint. What good is a forest reserve if it is inaccessible, anyway?

The hike winds through incredibly thick jungle beside the Hamakua ditch, which irrigates farms in the area. After about an hour, hikers find themselves standing on the top of the 2,000-foot high cliffs of Waipio Valley. We hiked at least one more hour to the very back of the valley through mud and thick kahili ginger. On our way, we saw several teens swimming in the concrete ditch and sliding down a crazy steep, slippery section of the ditch.

The jungle is green and gorgeous, and the misty clouds obscuring rugged ohia trees are downright enchanting. There really is no other hike like this, and it brought back lot of fond memories of hiking here with my dad years ago. It's truly amazing, and I just might be willing to break the law again someday.

For the birds

The federal government continued this week their efforts to eradicate or at least control the feral sheep population on Mauna Kea. The sheep eat native mamane trees, which the endemic and endangered palila bird rely on for food.

Hunters don't like this destruction of their game, so as a consolation, the government makes the meat available to those who sign up in advance and take the trek up the mountain to salvage the carcasses. Chris and I went up Thursday and got three nice sheep! We could have had at least one or two more, but we knew three would max out our freezer space.

Fifteen trucks showed up Thursday to receive the free sheep and I counted that at least 60 sheep were given out, but we left early, so the number may have been even higher. They shot 44 sheep the previous day. A helicopter rounds up the sheep and shoots them, then drops them off in a sling in batches of 10-15. Then people take turns choosing a sheep.

Chris has done this before, and our fabulous meat grinder was featured in this previous blog post. For the first time I went with Chris just for the experience. I learned a few things about butchering an animal, different cuts of meat and criteria for choosing a good sheep.

If anything struck me, it was how comfortable all the attendees were in the presence of animal carcasses and how they knew just what to do. Some folks I know probably thought it was strange I would take the day off to skin dead animals, but the people there saw the practicality of not letting this perfectly good meat go to waste. After all, it's organic, local, free-range, grass-fed meat. People were planning to make smoke meat, jerky, and one lady saved all of the hoofs to make musical rattles and drumsticks. We packaged ours into steaks, roasts and ground meat. We've enjoyed the meat in the past, and two of the animals we got were young ewes so we're hoping for some good, tender eating.




The helicopter brings a sling of sheep.

These guys brought a wheelbarrow.

Leg of lamb and some sheep steaks.

We are blessed with a full freezer!

This temporary life

Chris and I recently listened to an excellent sermon by our favorite Bible teacher, Jack Crabtree, in which he discussed this parable from the 12th chapter of Luke:

     "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'
     But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
     "This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Jack's sermon said the man's mistake was not in storing up grain, but in making the things of this world important instead on focusing on God and life in His eternal kingdom. When the man's life ends unexpectedly, he is prepared to live many years on earth in comfort, but he is not ready for heaven. Scripture also reminds us to be ready to meet our maker because he will come unexpectedly, "like a thief in the night."

Last week, Chris and I sat behind Willy at church. This week we attended his memorial service. No one knew he would die suddenly from a heart attack, but we all know he believed in the promises of God and was sold out for Jesus. He was ready to die at any time. Chris also lost his aunt, Mary, this week. She died after a short battle with cancer. And yesterday, we rode our dirtbikes up Mauna Kea and explored wreckage of a military fighter jet that, years ago, crashed into the mountain. I doubt the pilot expected the plane to crash before take off. We need to be ready. Everyone dies so this seems pretty obvious, yet it's easy, at least for me, to get distracted by the here and now instead of laying up treasure in heaven. The Bible says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. God has so many awesome things in store for those who belong to Christ, I hope this post encourages you to chase after God and His kingdom.

Chris inspects wreckage of some sort of military fighter jet we found at approx. 11,500 feet elevation on Mauna Kea.

Chris and Christoph examine the evidence and try to piece together what happened when the plane went down.

Livin' it up at the Bay Club

The Jaspers have a timeshare they did not use so we were able to trade their timeshare for a week at the Bay Club at Waikoloa Beach Resort. We totally scored! The place was really nice. We walked all over the resort and the expansive grounds at the Hilton, ate free ice cream and also did some odd things we never do- like browsing the Tiffany store and watching TV.

Highlights were watching the sunset on Anaehoomalu Bay and diving the bay the next day. We borrowed a kayak and paddled out to the drop off and anchored the 'yak, which was an adventure in itself because the trade winds were howling. It was like paddling into a hurricane. The reef was healthy and gorgeous out there, but there were no fish. I took one shot at an uhu and I don't know if Chris ever pulled the trigger on his spear gun. We came back empty handed, but it sure was fun.

I used to think it odd that people pay money for a hotel that's a half-hour from home, but it sure felt good to relax at the condo with no chores to be done. On nights we couldn't stay in Waikoloa, a few of our friends went up and got a taste of the resort lifestyle, too.

My sweetheart checks out the sunset at A-Bay.

Parked in front of the Bay Club.

Free Groceries

With the price of groceries and especially steak constantly rising I am really learning to work the grocery sales - thanks to inspiration and training from my mother. I scored some rib eyes for $5.99 a pound at Sack n Save Friday, but the best deal I have found in a while was in Honaunau Saturday - in the ocean.

We hiked into a spot we like for spearfishing because the reef drops off fast and sometimes blue water fish come in. Chris saw several pelagic fish on our dive Saturday and when a fish headed his way he hoped it would be an ono. It turned out to be a barracuda, but he decided to shoot it anyway and we got two nice big fillets out of it. I don't have a photo of the whole fish because we already had 40 pounds of wet wetsuits, weight belts and misc. gear to haul back to the truck so we only brought the fillets home. The barracuda was as long as my leg, from my hip to my toes. With the barracuda, three nenue and uhu we we filled a whole pot with fish.

Barracuda fillet.

Summer Camping Trip

I had a few days of vacation time from work that had to be used so I took last week off. Besides lots of chores and working around the house, Chris and I camped on the beach one night, and another night my dad and I camped at Volcano. We cooked brats on his grill and right around sunset 12 endangered nene geese flew overhead. After that, we stayed to watch the steam plume from Halemaumau crater glow red from the lava lake below.
The next day we decided we had explored the park many times, but one place my dad had never been was to Lake Waiau on Mauna Kea so we drove through Hilo and headed up the mountain.

I thought there was a bear at our campsite but it turned out to be my dad hiding behind a chair.

Halemaumau at night. It's a spectacular sight, but living downwind from an active volcano has its drawbacks, the pollution has taken away Kona's bright blue skies and it's probably not healthy to breathe.

A view of Mauna Loa from the 13,000 foot elevation of Mauna Kea.



Sunlight streams through the forest and shines on this Ohia branch.

My dad and I at Lake Waiau on Mauna Kea.

Camp Break

We decided to take a break from our work so we did a one-night backpack along the Kohala Coast. My dad has been talking about camping lately, and he hadn't been in a really long time, so he came, too. We had a nice time and cloudy weather made for a cool hike back across the lava field.

Clouds were welcomed for the hike home.

Cooking oatmeal on the Pocket Rocket.

As blind as a snake

Chris found a Blind Snake in our pile of yard waste today and he placed it in the wheelbarrow until I could come have a look. It is common belief there are no snakes in Hawaii, and, well, that's almost true. This tiny snake resembles a skinny earthworm but it obviously slithers like a snake should. It is believed blind snakes came to the islands in potting soil in the 1980s, but unlike many other invasive species, they pose no threat to the ecosystem. That's according to this website that looks reliable enough to me.

Underwater Views

I haven't posted any underwater pictures for a long time, so here are a few I took last weekend at Makalawena.



A honu floats near above the reef.


Squid are pelagic and nocturnal but I have seen them close to shore a few times in daylight. They are strange creatures but they are also very quick- especially when being hunted by pods of dolphins.




A quick dive under an arch at Makalawena. Listen closely for the singing Humpback Whales.

Apple of Sodom

I am not familiar with this poisonous plant that is native to Sodom and the Dead Sea area in Israel. Chris, Kory and I hiked Puu Waa Waa this morning. After a week of desk work we were ready to stretch our legs and the three miles up hill and three miles back down really did the trick.


The yellow dots are Sodom's apples which are growing near the top of the Puu Waa Waa cinder cone with the Kohala Mountains in the background.

It's a girl!

Eight months ago I planted papaya trees from seed and I've obsessively watched the trees grow inch by inch. A couple of the trees are now taller than I am and the flowers are finally opening up. This is a big deal, at least in my little papaya excited mind, because papaya trees have gender and the male trees do not bear fruit. At my husband's advice, I planted seven groups of five trees. Two or three trees sprouted in each group. We'll keep the best tree in each group and cut the others down.

From what I can tell, about half my trees are female and half are hermaphrodite. I am pretty sure none are male, but one might be. So my long wait is paying off, I will end up with about seven fruit bearing trees.

The Hermaphrodite trees are actually preferred because they self-pollinate. Female trees must be pollinated by other papaya trees nearby, which means they can cross-pollinate with other trees that may be inferior. And their fruit is shaped funny. Either way, I am stoked that soon we'll have fresh, delicious papayas to eat and to share.


Hermaphrodite papaya flowers. Yes!


A blossom from a female papaya tree.

A South Point Ride

There aren't many places to legally ride dirt bikes on the Big Island. South Point isn't really a riding area, but riding there is not prohibited, either. So we occasionally make the trek to the southern most part of our island, and the southern most point of the country, to ride. Chris, Ben, Christoph and I took in the sights of the ocean, the dry, grassy plains and the famous Green Sands Beach while we navigated the road's rocks and red dust. The weather was typical - dry, windy and ridiculously hot. But we had a great time.

Our Strange and Incredible Ocean

Duane took us on an overnight deep sea fishing trip last weekend and we had an amazing time. Duane is energetic and optimistic at every opportunity and he loves to fish. We trolled until just after sunset and had two good strikes but no hook-ups. Then we headed a couple of miles off shore and set out our parachute which drags in the water to slow the boat down so the current and breeze don't push us too far. Next, we sent two lines down with small fish as bait, and Duane put out one floater line near the surface.

Not long after dark the squid started biting and we filled up a cooler with squid to use as live bait. The rest came home for calamari. I get so caught up with the squid that I forget about the potential of getting a bite on the big reels. Squid are one of the strangest animals I have encountered. Their tentacles grab you while you're trying to place them in the cooler, when you reel them out of the water they spit ink everywhere, and in the water they are amazingly fast, stealthy and they can even light up in a fluorescent green color. Dolphins show up frequently to hunt the squid. It's a thrill to hear them breathing heavily as they cut through the water, chasing squid and hunting as a team. One dolphin swam just under our boat and snapped up a squid right in front of my eyes.

When the dolphins show up the squid scatter and quit biting. A couple of squid tried a different approach and came right up to the boat and held perfectly still to avoid dolphin detection. Always a hunter, I reached over the edge of the boat and snatched up one a squid with my hand before it knew what happened.

Strange, strange creatures swim around the ocean at night and all kinds of crazy, indescribable animals were attracted to our underwater light: long, needle-like fish, various blobs, a small flying fish, tiny crabs that float around. When it comes to ocean animals, fact is stranger than any fiction of science fiction humankind can imagine.

We caught a really nice mahi mahi (about 30 pounds) on a live squid, and later they let me reel in a small ahi. The fish are beautiful- so brightly colored, strong and streamlined. Really amazing creatures! I was even more impressed the next evening when we enjoyed seared ahi for dinner.

Duane shows off our 30-pound mahi mahi.


We found this bizarre creature stuck in our parachute the next day. I'm telling you, there is weird stuff out there.

A chance to stretch my legs

I've always wanted to hike into Honokane Nui Valley, which is the next valley past Pololu Valley in Hawi. After a week of constant sitting at my desk at work my legs were happy to make the trek down into Pololu, up the other side, then back down into Honokane Nui. Chris and I took our time and made a whole day of it. The view from the ridge between the two valleys is incredible! And the drop down into Honokane Nui is pretty fun because the 2006 earthquake wiped out part of the trail, making the descent super steep. Someone put a lot of work into stringing ropes between the trees. With those to hang on to, the descent wasn't too difficult. We also enjoyed walking through a small bamboo forest in the bottom of the valley that gave way to a babbling brook. Very peaceful.



A view of Honokane Nui Valley from the top of the ridge.



Chris demonstrates the steep section of trail dropping down into Honokane Nui.

A view of the beach from the top of the ridge.

The beach. We've arrived.

Eli Eli Kau Mai

Let awe possess me. That's what the sign said at the edge of Kilauea Crater. As the sun set and the sky darkened, a towering steam plume and the walls of Halemaumau Crater took on a bright orange glow, reflecting the lake of lava that pooled inside. It's hard not to be in awe of the Creator when you see such a sight. He makes stuff like this. The sign at the overlook went on to talk about the significance of this site to Hawaiians who still come to pay homage to Pele, and it compared the spot to significant religious sites like Mount Sinai, which got me thinking. Seeing the glory and fanfare and firey fury of God revealing his presence on Mount Sinai must have paled in comparison to the melted rock that thousands of visitors flock to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see. When I think about the one true God, may my prayer be, "Let awe possess me."

No Wonder Tourists Love Volcano Nat'l Park

What a spectacular time I had camping at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Thursday night. I was prepared for typical blowing rain and was surprised by sunshine and a peaceful calm.



While in the park I racked up a few more miles on my terribly worn hiking boots and realized I have often underestimated the beauty of this park. Highlights included driving out to the Hilina Pali overlook first thing in the morning before the vog settled along the coast. I could see all the way to Na`alehu. For dinner, I fired up my pocket rocket stove and just as I finished eating pasta I heard the honk, honk of geese. Sure enough, I looked up just in time to see a flock of rare nene flying overhead. These unique birds are thought to be descendants of Canadian Geese, and this species is endemic to Hawaii, only on two islands, I think. Once the sun set, I was treated to a view of lava lighting up a towering steam plume and the walls of Halemaumau Crater. Still feeling the stoke, I returned to my campsite at Kulanaokuaiki Campground only to be greeted by an unbelievable sky- the Milky Way had so many stars it appeared as a long cloud, stretching across the sky.

Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea set the back drop for this vista of Kilauea Crater.


Three nene browse the area near Devastation Trail for Ohelu Berries.


A view of the park's back country from the end of Hilina Pali Road.

Circle Island Tour

I have accumulated extra vacation time at work, requiring me to take 7.5 days off before mid-July. So I took this whole week off and didn't leave the island, which is something I have never done before. I've been getting a lot accomplished around here, but after five straight days of working on the house I decided to take a little holoholo around the island. I've never properly explored Boiling Pots in Hilo, so I spent some time climbing on the rocks and poking around the waterfalls, then it was off to camping in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I think I put 250 miles on the Jeep in less than two days. No wonder they call it the Big Island.

The View is Tremendous

Chris and I have had a couple of memorable hikes to our "red rock canyon" near Oniuka Center at the 9,000 foot level of Mauna Kea. If John Glenn had been on our hike with us he would have said, "the view is tremendous." Instead I shared the day with my two favorite guys, my dad and my sweetheart. The cool, dry mountain air was perfect for hiking. When we finished we stopped by the Onizuka visitor's center where we were treated to a view of the sun through their super fancy telescope. We could make out a couple of solar flares on the edge of the sun. Awesome!

Friends in High Places

We have a friend named Christoph who is here from Germany training to become a helicopter pilot. He will take his test to obtain a commercial license in just a couple of weeks.

He recently had instrumentation training which required a four-seat helicopter so Chris and I were invited to ride around the island for two hours while he practiced flying by instruments only. For the exercise, he wore blinders so that he could not navigate by landmark. So we climbed into a helicopter with our blinded student driver who - no joke - had to ask his instructor how to start the chopper.

All kidding aside, we could see that Christoph is already a skilled pilot and I was completely comfortable flying with him. I've seen our island from the air before, but I was just as stunned as ever by the beauty. Incredible!

Christoph works his way through his preflight checklist before we leave Kona.

Christoph prepares to land in Hilo with his blinders removed.

The entire flight offered views like this one of the Kohala Coast with Hualalai peaking up through the clouds.