Warning: Construction Zone. God at Work.

I've been itching to get down to volcano since March when a huge steam vent opened in Halemaumau Crater. I finally drove down there last Saturday to see the spectacular steam pouring out of the vent. I also drove to Kalapana to watch lava flow into the sea. It's pretty incredible, heat from the lava hitting the cool water causes explosions that was throwing lava at least 50 feet into the air. Occasionally, the heat would create a small waterspout that would twirl over the ocean for a minute or so before dispersing. Lava travels from Pu`u O`o vent through a lava tube down to the ocean, but some surface lava was visible up on the pali (cliff) after dark.

Earlier that day, I visited the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo and watched a movie in the planetarium about black holes. I learned about a huge vacuum in the center of a galaxy that something like 15 billion suns could fit in. (I may be off a bit on that- the point is, it's big) I stood back, watching God build the island I call home and I was amazed at his power. He can simply pull a solar system out of his pocket and toss it out into the sky, yet he cares for each one of us.

Lava from Pu`u `O`o enters the ocean. Notice the red glow in the cloud.

Steam started pouring from Halemaumau Crater in March. We've had few blue sky days in Kona since.

Score!

Chris and I have friends in high places, literally. Cal and Stacey own Paradise Helicopters. When the phone rang one Friday night with the news of a last minute cancellation on their delux tour, you can bet we were ready to make ourselves available for an early morning tour of the island.

We left from Kona and flew between the largest mountains in the world (in volume from sea floor to summit) Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, then over to Kilauea where lava is flowing. We saw steampouring out of Halema`uma`u and Pu`u `o`o vents that's creating Kona's vog. We could also see lava breakouts on the surface. One of these flows destroyed one of the last remaining Hawaiian Gardens homes the next day.

We also flew over Hilo and into the amazing valleys along the Hamakua Coast, and landed in the incredible Honokane Nui Valley. I've always wanted to hike into all of these valleys, but the 2004 earthquake has destroyed the trail into many of them. I've now been in four of the seven valleys and I think Chris has a kayak trip in mind that will get us into the others.

Next, we checked out the crystal blue waters of the Kohala Coast with its resorts and white sand beaches. We also flew over triathletes competing in the Ironman.

What a day! I am reminded that we're blessed to live in such a beautiful place and to have many amazing friends. God is surely blessing us.

The incredible and remote Honokane Nui Valley:

Steam pouring from Pu`u `o`o Vent. So that's where all this vog is coming from!

The best helicopter tour company ever. Paradise Helicopters


Hamakua:

Funky Fruit

Karen gave us a sugar apple to try. The inside is really sweet, you suck the mushy stuff out of the fruit and spit out the seeds. The outside is lumpy and gritty and not good to eat. The flavor was a little like a lychee but overall, the fruit was unlike anything I've had before. And it was yummy. Also on the plate is a starfruit from my folk's tree.

The next day, Karen gave us a Naranjia. It reminded me of a bitter kiwi.

You go, girl!

Chrissie Wellington, the female winner of Ironman, leads the race as she passes our subdivision on Alii Drive. She completed the 2.1 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26 mile run in 9 hours and 6 minutes. She also set a record for the run course in Kona.

Preparing for Ironman

It was the day before Ironman and the excitement sucked us in. Chris made a last minute decision to throw his hat in the ring and started training in the pool pictured below. He was all set to for the 2.1 mile swim, but when he found out he couldn't use his dirtbike for 112 mile bike portion of the race he changed his mind.

We did have fun at the Ironman village where they let us try their Endless Pools and even gave us a few pointers on our stroke and they gave us a an underwater video of us swimming. We were sold on the pool, but it's hard to justify spending $10,000 on a "treadmill for swimmers" when you live a block from the ocean.

I love Ironman time. Big Islanders complain about the traffic and rude triathlets, but it brings business to the island and it's exciting. Thousands flock from all around the world for the annual event and I'm proud to live on the island that hosts it.


Setting up for the big day. The swim starts from the bay pictured here, and the 26 mile ends at the finish line to the right.

Chris gets some tips on his stroke while testing an Endless Pool.

Night Light Delight


Four of us went snorkeling with the manta rays last week. The Sheraton in Keauhou shines lights on the water to attract plankton which draw the filter-feeding mantas. These seemingly alien creatures hoover in the water like space crafts, gracefully gliding through the dark ocean and playfully performing backwards somersaults in effort to scoop as much food as they can into their giant mouths. Some mantas have a wing span of over 15 feet, but the largest we saw of the five mantas was about 6 feet across. The mantas are harmless but I have heard their skin can be abrasive. I'm glad I was wearing a wetsuit. As you can see from these videos, mantas aren't shy.

E Komo Mai - Welcome to Any Town, USA

Petco Kailua-Kona opened yesterday and residents flocked to get a taste of this mainland chain store. Coming soon are Office Max, Sports Authority, Circuit City and Target. When I moved to the island eight years ago we didn't even have a hardware store. (Kailua Ace had just burned down, which made moving into a new house pretty frustrating- you couldn't buy ANYTHING)

Kona is changing and I can't decide whether I should celebrate or mourn. I admit I'll make full use of Sports Authority. As it is now, there is nowhere to purchase sporting goods, outdoor clothing or camping equipment, and the only place on the island that stocks fuel for my camp stove is an Army surplus store 90 miles away. Many of these new stores will provide products and services not yet offered here.

I do worry about small businesses such as Kona Coast Office Supply and Stockley's, my beloved fish supply store down the street. Bill has been serving Kona for than 25 years (I think) and he and his staff have been delighted to help the customers they have come to know on a first name basis. I sure hope they continue to thrive with Petco down the street. But the situation is too familiar to me, my mom owned a video store in a small town in Indiana. Despite her better service, larger selection of titles and cheaper and less confusing pricing, residents chose to drive across town to visit the polo shirt clad employees at Blockbuster.

Here's what else I hate about chain stores. Standing outside our new strip mall today felt like I could be anywhere in America. There is no personality and nothing unique about these box stores. They are not a part of the community and they don't strive to meet their customers' needs. Circuit City on Oahu had a whole rack of lock de-icers last year. WalMart discounts their patio furniture each fall because summer has ended. They don't know much about Hawaii's seasons, do they?

On the other hand, I have noticed customer service is ridiculously poor in Kona and many shops charge exuberant prices. When Lowe's and Home Depot came in, HPM shaped up. Before competition arrived they often discriminated against my dad's white skin, and they once tried to sell him a garden hose to hook up a refrigerator. I used to refer to the store as Haoles Pay More. Maybe this town could use some healthy competition. I just hate to see the little guys get clobbered. And I hate to see the town I love slowly morphing into Anytown, USA.

(category: before & after)

V_NN_ W_ITE _K_




answer: VANNA WHITE SKY


Wheel of Fortune is in town, taping 20 episodes of the well-known game show at the Hilton Waikoloa Village over the next four days. Chris and I had no interest in watching the taping- we don't even have TV for crying out loud. Sticking to our usual outdoor itinerary, we went camping near Waikoloa where lights from Wheel of Fortune light up the sky better than the nearly full moon. Other than the artificial lighting, our camp spot felt remote. We didn't see another person during our stay. The highlight of the evening was poking around in tide pools- we saw several shrimp, mempachi, cowreys, brittle stars and a giant seven-eleven crab. I never realized how different tide pools are at night.

Bring Your Wife to Work Day

I recently volunteered with the US Department of Agriculture's soil survey team to help map the soil composition of Hakalau, a National Wildlife Refuge. That's the fancy way of saying Chris took me to work with him last week.

We hiked all day through thick, muddy jungle searching for the place where the soil type changes. Don't ask me to explain because I really don't know what we were looking for. We almost turned around just before the magic spot was discovered. But in a desperate attempt to save the day's mission, Patrick ran ahead of the group and found what we were looking for. Joy, celebration, and digging followed. It was pretty interesting to see what my husband does- he knows lots of big words and I can see he takes his job seriously. I can't remember the last time I saw three grown men, one with a Ph.D. in wet soils, dig in the dirt and get so excited about it. I was stoked to be there for the hike, it was a day well spent.

Three soil scientists in the field:

Mauna Kea light by the rising sun:

How to Spend an Economic Stimulus Check

I got my first speargun last week so, of course, we tried it out this weekend. Sunday we took it to Lymans and used a tennis racket as target practice to get a feel for how the gun shoots. Today we went to the harbor and did some fishing. It shoots accurately and the two bands I have to pull back to cock the weapon are not too hard of a tug for me. I'm pretty happy with the new piece of gear and hope to have hours of fishing pleasure.

Weke: the first fish I speared with my new gun.

Proudly posing with my teak Riffe competitor 2X and a driveway full of fish. Please note, only two of these fish are mine. Chris claims the rest.

Caving Adventures Continued


I felt like Indiana Jones in my new hiking hat. Chris and I went on another cave hunt, this time on an older lava flow than our previous trips. We found plenty of leads that didn't go very far. Other lava tube skylights dropped down too deep and we could not climb into them. We came across a honey bee hive in one entrance, and woke up two owls sleeping in other holes. Crawling over goat bones and through spider webs made the day feel a bit like Halloween. Finally, we found a winner. The cave had unusually steep sides and we imagined lava flowing through it like a luge. The cave gradually narrowed, and one doorway we climbed through felt like an Alive in Wonderland set where the characters shrink as they step through the door. When we neared the cave's end we discovered two human skeletons. It was not uncommon for ancient Hawaiians to bury the deceased in caves. Their culture is very respectful of iwi (bones) so we did not disturb the scene and headed out.

A Great Start

The three-day weekend got off to a great start. Lorelei, Ken and I went diving at the Harbor Saturday morning. We saw schools of fish, a giant eel that was free swimming, dolphins and the highlight, a giant sea turtle that I am convinced I've seen before on a nearby beach. We left thoroughly satisfied, with 2.5 days of the weekend left to enjoy.

Lorelei poses near the most massive green sea turtle I've ever seen.

A school of Helen's Baracuda.

Weke

A Great Gift

Duane took us fishing Friday night- he said it was our wedding present. We were stoked! We left Keauhou at 5:30 p.m. and trolled until dark. We choose a spot near 'C' buoy about 4 miles offshore and put down lures baited with opelu and squid. Duane wanted ahi and he worked hard all night chumming and re-baiting the hooks. We didn't get any tuna but we did land two ulua and well over one hunderd squid. It's calamari time! These creatures are fascinating. They change color and light up when you squeeze them and their tentacles are creepy when they grab unto your skin. They can swim super fast, and when you throw them in the cooler you have to shut the lid before they start spraying ink all over.

The only mishap was a rain shower that lasted over two hours. My raingear is old and didn't cut it, and Duane had water pouring into his jacket, too. He tried wearing the package the rain suite came in over his head until he realized the jacked had a hood. Chris hunkered down in the cabin, but it leaked, too.

A cooler of squid floating in their ink:

Fun in the rain:

Nice hat!

Bath Time

Chris and I went on a hike and found these refreshing Queen's baths. We hope to backpack to the spot soon so we can spend the night.

New Digs is a Success

We moved into a new house a month ago and we recently had a new digs party. Folks seemed to have a good time, there was plenty of food and a good mix of neighbors and friends from work and church. Once the main crowd left, a few faithful party goers hung out in the back yard and played with fireballs that Melinda and Daniel brought. I finally light my sticks on fire and did an improvised fire knife routine. This is something I've wanted to do for years. Chris made a hot air balloon out of newspapers and we also played pin the tail on the donkey.

I'm settling into the second new house I've lived in this summer. We're pretty much unpacked and the light switches are starting to make sense. I have a lot of new things going on right now- new house, new husband, new name, and I also started a new job. Sort of. I still work at the paper but I am no longer a sales person. Instead, I'll be writing for the advertising department and helping with advertising-related web content. I just finished writing the advertorials for our annual Best of West Hawaii awards. It was fun to talk to people about their businesses and meet successful business owners who love their jobs (at least they say they do) And at the end of the interview I didn't have to sell them anything.

My firestick routine from Carolyn's iphone:

Looks like Joe needs a little practice at this game:

New Digs Party

We're inviting folks to our new digs party Friday, Aug 8th at 6PM. We'll cook up some chicken on the grill and people are welcome to bring drinks or pupus to share if they wish. A new house is a good excuse to throw a party, it's not a housewarming party, we don't need any gifts, plants or knick-knacks, unless you want to bring something flammable and we can have fun with it at the party. Email me for directions.

Back at it

We're finally getting back to our recreational weekend schedule after the wedding, honeymoon and move. We've finished unpacking except for the garage. Chris hung 94 brackets for shelves so there's progress. We took the day off from chores to attend church, surf Pine Trees and eat dinner at my folk's house. Chris took this surf photo using a film camera on a previous surf excursion. It took him forever to use up the roll of film, remember those days?

Crabby Food, Happy Day


I know the honeymoon is old news, but I want to post this one last picture. Stuart took us crabbing in Tillamook Bay and we had a fantastic time. Stuart pulled the boat unto the beach and boiled up our catch. It was one of the best things I have eaten in my whole life. Definately a memorable day.


I'm not short on blog material, I've just been too busy to post it. Chris sold the house so we had to move. All the carrying furniture and packing boxes has cut into our recreation and blog time. Don't worry- it's temporary.

News flash

Jen and Ron are now engaged. He proposed to her during a riverside picnic at Zion National Park. Jen's response to the big question was, "seriously?"

I've known Ron since I moved to Hawaii eight years ago, and Jen is a good friend, too. I couldn't be happier for them. Jen caught the bouquet at my wedding so I guess the silly thing worked.

Stuck in the sand

We rented four-wheelers in Florence and went driving around in the dunes. The machines were pretty lame...not enough power, automatic, the rear brakes had been disabled and they could have used better tires for sand because they sure like to get stuck a lot. But we still had a good time and the dunes were beautiful. Time well spent!

Abort Mission

Not everything has to work out to make a successful vacation. We tried to do an overnight backpack trip and failed miserably. The forest had recently burned, so we were greeted by relentless hot sun instead of shade trees. We carried a tent, food, water filter, sleeping bags, beer, etc. for two miles uphill when we hit unmaintained trail. Poison Oak grew to eye level, and we could not continue to our destination. The steep terrain provided no alternative camp spots.

We hiked back to the car and spotted a nice beach across the river for camping. But Chris' brave river crossing attempt was also unsuccessful. Now with one spouse wet and cold, one spouse hot and sweaty, and both hungry we started making poor decisions like wasting 20 minutes driving the rental car through 50 feet of boulders instead of walking and packing and repacking our suitcases in attempt to find clothes, and trying to wash away old, greasy chili. It's a long, hilarious story. We looked like two bafoons who have never been outdoors.

So we chose to eat at a redneck RV park restaurant and drove for miles down winding dirt roads, finally coming to a magnificant camping spot. We were pretty over the backpacking at that point, so we opted to drive poor rental car down a steep, dirt road over a pretty mean drop off to access our riverside camp site.

A highlight of the day was our turn-around point at Buzzard's Roost. Quite a view:

Knock another one off the list

I have an unwritten and unofficial list of things I want to do before I die. Some have a bit of significance, some border on the absurd, many I know I'll never do. Drive in a demolition derby, attend the Indy 500, travel to Israel, live to see the Cubs win the world series, attend a concert at Red Rocks... you get the idea. Sometime in high school I imagined going to see the giant redwood trees. Now I can cross that one off the list.

And I wasn't dissapointed by the trees. They're just amazing. After snowboarding we headed south to Crescent City, Calif., where we did an afternoon hike through the forest to the beach to watch a sunset.

Winter time!

Chris and I always talked about snowboarding on our honeymoon. When we decided to get married in June we figured that was out of the question. But freak weather dumped fresh snow on Mount Hood during our first night in Oregon and we had powder ski conditions. Chris had never ridden a snowboard before but he picked it up pretty quickly and we both and a fabulous time. It snowed the entire first day we were on the mountain and they were even requiring chains to drive down the road. Finally, we made it back to our hotel room to soak in the hot tub and sip porter beside the fireplace. The next day the clouds lifted, revealing a magnificant view of Mt. Hood's summit.

A lovely day for a honeymoon:

Mt. Hood Summit:

Rain turned to snow as we climbed the mountian road:

A Few More Wedding Pics

Our parents:

Chris shows off his new ring:

Our first dance as husband and wife:


More pics available on my Facebook page.

The Big Day

We couldn't have asked for a better wedding. The rain held out and the surf was beautiful. Family and friends arrived. The fragrance of flowers and salty sea air drifted through the garden. The orchestra added a touch of class.

But weddings are so much more than pretty dresses bouquets. Rather, they are occasions where two promise their lives to each other and God joins them and makes them one. It took weeks of planning for the half-hour event and that's all fine and dandy, but I can see the real signficance is in the lasting marriage and in what God is doing in our lives.

And it's clear to Chris and I that God is blessing us. We're so thankful.

The wedding party cracking up:

Chris proudly walks his mom down the aisle:

My dad:

(Thanks to Baron and Phil for the photos!)

Juneuary

The locals are calling it Juneuary. Chris and I are in Oregon on our honeymoon and we spent the last two days snowboarding Mount Hood in powder conditions. Chris and I even made the Portland news. They were doing a story about the storm that delivered 6" of fresh snow- I guess they thought a couple vacationing from Hawaii snowboarding in June was newsworthy.

Today we're heading south to see the giant redwoods. I've always wanted to do that.

Ohana

This just blows my mind. I have a brand new, extra large family. Chris has five siblings who have many children and they are all coming for the wedding. Many of them are already here. How many? I'm actually not sure, I can't keep track of them all.

We met them at the airport Friday and they all showed up in matching shirts with the wedding dates of all the family members. Each family's shirts were color coded to help me sort out the mass of kids and spouses. Chris and I got pink because Chris has been telling some tall tales to his family that I carry a foo-foo dog and wear pink shoes. When they started reading this blog I think they found out otherwise.


My new father-in-law, David, likes to paint. Here he is with his painting from Pu`u Honua O Honaunau Nat'l Park.


Here's a group shot on the front steps of their rental house. I think a few folks are missing from the picture.

Rec Day

Last weekend was spent cleaning and packing, preparing to move and preparing for the wedding. But Memorial Day was a free bonus day the Chris and I took advantage of. We took the dirt bikes up Mana Road but got rained out about 20 miles into the ride. So we drove up to Hawi and did a little dirt biking there and hiked into Pololu Valley.

Chris and I on the trail into Pololu Valley:



Chris jumps his dirt bike near Hawi with Maui in the background:

Dinner Time

We went to Chris' favorite dive spot yesterday. We did OK, but didn't bring home enough food to feed the Jasper clan, and that was our goal.

Chris hold up the floats with our catch:

My best fish was this Palani, and Chris's was this nenue:

Buku Bananas

The local term would be "choke" or "shoots, brah, get plenny." We recently picked a 55 lb. hand of bananas that's been growing in the back yard.