Our First Week - Hiking, Snorkeling, and Shopping

 As we try to get the lay of the land, we also want to enjoy the surroundings. 

Shopping

Even though we are in a furnished apartment, we can't seem to escape visiting Walmart every day to buy something, whether it be food, supplies or the lightbulb we thought we needed, but instead just needed to flip a switch. Oh the challenges of moving into an apartment that is already furnished, has lots of stuff, and you have no idea what is where.

But that isn't the fun part.  We are planning on hiking, snorkeling, golfing, pickle balling, kayaking, and scuba diving every day.  OK, not everything every day, but one thing each day.  OK, golfing, and kayaking may be out for me until my hand fully heals, but you get my drift.

Hiking

So far, we have done two hikes:

1. Puialoa Point, an easier 2 mile round trip trail as we get accustomed to the terrain and I get comfortable hiking with a lame hand. We ended at a nice lava rich coast line at the water. Along the way we saw a number of abandoned vehicles, which seems to be the landscape of the big island. You start at the Makalawena Trailhead and walk down a gravel road.




2. Pu,uwa'awa'a Cone Trail. This is essentially a 2 mile hike on a rocky road up hill to a cinder cone and downhill back.  The instructions to get there are essentially wrong.  Follow the path to the Ohia Trail and drive as far as you can - otherwise it is a 4 mile hike. I'll be honest, given the shape we are in, we only made it about 3 miles. But the views are great and the sheep and cows are imminently entertaining. Supposedly at the top you have a view of Mauna Kea which I am sure are grand. On the way down, the loose rocks can get slippery.  Yes, I fell twice.  But I tested my lame hand when I fell on it and it survived, so that is good.  I did end up with a divot (not a scrape, a divot) from some sharp rock. I'll be fine. Just another bump and bruise along the way.

A dead cow skull?

When the uphill got easier as it was on grass

Nice view of the ocean

I love the crevices and depth of the hill. King Kong up there?

What are you looking at?

Baaa

This is where we parked because we went the wrong way. It added 2 miles to our journey

We seem to go through a lot of trial and error finding our way.

Snorkeling

We snorkeled in Kealekekua Bay, a common destination for snorkel cruises. We parked at the end of the road at a boat launch and walked to Manini Beach where a walk-in shore entry was possible. The snorkeling was nice. Earlier or later we might have seen dolphins, but we saw a lot of fish and one barracuda. I hear we should have gone to the middle where the dolphins just hang out resting on the bottom.

Swimming

One thing I can do with my lame hand is swim. So I have gone a couple times to the Kona Community Aquatic Center. Out of three visits I've been able to swim one and a half times. One time they were closed. This last time they closed two hours early due to a shortage of lifeguards so I only got 15 minutes in. So although I love swimming in their pool, and it is free, it has been quite frustrating. I am going to keep on trying.


Tomorrow it will be a full week that we have been here.  Bob has lost weight, his blood sugar is approaching normal and we haven't been cold once.  I've seen my dad a few times and he is coming over for dinner tonight. We haven't really met anyone yet, but that will come. Not too shabby!

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