Things I Love About the Big Island

• Hitchhiking! It's easy, fast and safer than at home. Free as well!
  
• Coconuts and many wonderful fruits grow in abundance everywhere. Lilikoi! Avocado! Also free!
  
• Rainbows and moonbows make my day or night!
• Domestic animals gone wild! Hawaii features feral pigs, goats, horses, turkeys, and even donkeys! (Sadly, also cats and dogs who are less able to fend for themselves.)
• The Hawaiian language is beautiful and fun to get the hang of as it is written phonetically. Humuhumunukunukuapua'a! Also, the locals speak Pidgin which is a lot of fun to listen to and incorporate into your speaking. Shoots Brah! Mo Bettah!
  
• Big dudes playing ukulele. It is just the tiniest guitar being played by a giant man and I love it! I also enjoy when anyone plays uke on the bus or in public.
• Honu (turtles), dolphins, manta rays, sharks and whales and all the beautiful creatures of the sea.
• Mauna Kea Observatory and the clear nights for star viewing.
• Black sand, white sand, and green sand!? Kick ass beaches!
  
• Fresh seafood! Poke, mahi mahi, ahi, it's all tasty.
• Pakalolo! The green grows here like back at home except outdoor, year-round. Comparable prices too.
  
• The bus is free even if it is infrequent.
• Shaka it to me! The shaka or "hang loose" hand signal is good fun to give and receive.
  
• Aloha Spirit. The people here are giving, friendly and generally helpful. Aloha is in the air.

Chasing Summer

I feel like there were a lot of moments between the ranch and getting here to the resort that I wanted to convey through this here 'blog but are slipping through my memory to that place where smells and images will pull them back out but I might not be able to locate the file all by myself.

San Francisco was a real treat. It's been high on my list of cities to visit for a long time and was made even more memorable by having a really great time with a really great host. Thank you again and again, Jess! You are so sweet and funny and you really made us feel welcome. Your roommates are awesome too.

It's been great to be back on the road, chasing summer and seeing more of the Pacific Coast. We figured it was a good idea to take the coast highway from San Francisco to Escondido instead of the Interstate because who knows when we'll be back out this way again... And our return journey will take us to the Grand Canyon, Utah and Wyoming but not back to the coast.

The California coast is so insanely beautiful. The highway is just a tiny shelf on the side of massive mountains that descend directly into the ocean. The remnants of previously possible islands jutting out of the surf like monuments to the sea's powerful caress and the passage of time. Nothing compares. Nothing that I've seen yet anyway.

We've also been so lucky to see amazing wildlife at close quarters. We were driving along and I (being on the west side of the car) was watching some tourists take photos of what looked like a beached whale or a sea lion corpse but then there was a parking lot with "Friends of the Northern Elephant Seal" signs everywhere. These huge beasts everywhere, thousands of them, roaring and yelping and stinking to high heaven. This particular species had been hunted to near extinction in the 18oo's and only recently have they been found anywhere other than Guadalupe Island, Mexico.



On the pier at Oceanside, California we were visited by a pair of brown pelicans, most likely a mating couple judging by their colourings. It was so foggy you couldn't see more than a few feet in front of you and all of a sudden, there they were, just sitting on the railing awaiting our admiration. Now I love pelicans.



I hope to do some catching up on reporting our adventures while we're here at Welk Resort in Escondido. Yes, Welk as in the Lawrence Welk Show, champagne music and "A-one and A-two"! Thanks again Terri and Doug, this is amazing!

What's brown and red and rhymes with cute?

For the last few days we've been pruning chestnut trees on a hill overlooking the valley. It's very misty in the mornings and the sun eventually burns it off but the grass stays moist for most of these shortening days.
Look what we found!

Red-bellied newts! So many of them and I want to hug them all.