October 2001 Part 2
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October 2001 Part 2
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Then we were to snorkel in the Kealakekua Bay after we reached our next B&B called Hale Aloha. The directions to the B&B were a bit vague, and we were in for an unpleasant surprise. The road was in terrible condition, and us in the Mustang kept scraping bottom. Not good. We didn't even know if we were on the right road. We stopped and asked some workers if there was a B&B here. They looked at us like we just grew horns or something. They didn't know of any B&B down this road. So I tried calling the place and no one answered. So we turned around, not an easy thing to do, and head on out, SLOWLY. I got a call back from the host, and he said we were heading in the right direction. We were half way there and we should just continue on. So we turned around again, and headed back until the road (and I hesitate to call it that) was blocked by people cutting down trees. GREAT. They were going to be another hour or so. Did I mention that it was freakin' HOT. So we just gave up and turned around again and decided that this was it. The car was damaged and hopefully the car company won't notice, so we decided to check out some of the more accessible B&Bs.
So we went in search of a small bite to eat. Many miles down the road, we finally saw a Mexican Restaurant "Senior Billy's and Momma's" The food was passable, and cheap. Glenn found and advertisement for diving with the Manta Rays. I called up to get more info and it just so happened that they were going out that very night. So I made a quick decision and booked us both for the dive w/ the "Manta Ray Dives of Hawaii". Glenn was apprehensive about the boat ride, especially when he found out it may be an hour long. So they told us that we could get picked up elsewhere and it'll only be a 5 minute boat ride. We we decided to go ahead. In the meantime, we went back to the B&B and took a nap so that Glenn could rest up and digest his food before he fed the fish again. After we woke up and got ready for our night dive, we drove over to Keauhou Pier. It took us 20 minutes to get there, and we arrived a half hour early just in case they were there early, too. We walked to the boat launch area and waited for no more that a couple of minutes before we saw a boat coming our way. We tried to make out the name of the boat, looking for the Rainbow Diver II. It was her, and we greeted the crew. We still had to wait for another group that decided to meet us at this same pier. So we waited. When the group finally arrived, we were informed that there will be 2 snorkelers and 5 inexperienced night divers with the dive master. We were instructed on what to expect and how to do things. One of the guys on the boat had these super long fins. I thought that mine were almost too long, but his were ridiculous. We later learned that they are used in free diving. A little much for a normal dive. We were informed on how to use the night flashlights, placing them on full beam at eye level. Also, NO TOUCHING THE MANTA RAY. It has a protective "slime" coating like other fish to help protect it from bacterial infections amongst other things. We signed our life away, and got onto the boat. All our equipment was there, the water was a warm 78 degrees but we still put on protective suits and Kevlar gloves. Kevlar gloves? What the heck are we going to be handling down there? A short 5 minute boat ride later right in front of a closed down resort, we started to suit up. There was one spot light shining on the water. We were all hoping and praying that we'll actually get to see a manta ray. We heard one of the divers yell out that he sees the manta ray doing belly flops around the light. The night looks good so far. We dove into the water and headed down. This was Glenn's and my first night dive. We didn't know how we would handle going down, without lights on. The lights were turned off b/c it would attract the manta ray and it or us may get injured while we are trying to hit bottom. It was a very loud silence. Very peaceful. Feeling suspended in dark waters, hearing the night creatures coming out to feed. We were also warned that other marine life will be attracted to the plankton that is attracted to our lights. Eels especially. Yikes! We all swam and were placed around a huge round rock table. Glenn and I were next to each other, the dive master was a short distance to our left, and the other 3 divers were a short distance away on the right. We turned on our lights at full beam and held it eyelevel. It was a bit tricky not to get whisked away by the surge and hold onto the flashlight. I propped my knees against some rock, holding me in place. The first sight of the 12 foot manta ray was awe-inspiring. It came in so quickly but smoothly that I had no time to be scared. Just frozen like a deer in headlights. Glenn was rapidly taking pix before it decided to leave or get spooked off. He was having a hard time standing still, holding the light, and taking pix. So I grabbed his flashlight, and held both. The plankton was definitely attracted to the double beam light that I was holding. So was the manta ray. His wingspan was 12 feet long, his mouth as large as 3 human heads, and he had these little scooper-like things on the side of his mouth. The top of him was a beautiful marbled black/blue/gray with a white underbelly. The light from the other divers would highlight his gills as it filtered out the water from his food. Beautiful. Laura, Lourdes you guys would have loved this. Laura, with your love of BIG docile animals, this definitely would become your next collectable animal. Our depth was 25 feet and we stayed down there for 45 minutes. The manta ray came so close that it looked like he was going to eat your head. He just managed to skim the top of your head before he turn around and came in from behind. This is where he usually ended up doinking my head. I may be biased, but Glenn agrees, that the manta ray liked us and the dive master the best. He always came by us, even stopping right in front of our faces for a few seconds before continuing his flight above our heads. We saw a parasite sucking on one of its wings, and the bubbles from our respirators tickling the underbelly of the manta. He had a bit of an accident, crashing into the dive master and then the rock. I think that was my fault. I tried to illuminate the top of the manta and maybe on accident I blinded him. I'm not sure. It felt like we were down there for ever. It was getting a bit chilly just staying in one place in water colder than body temp. As I was watching the manta ray, a big bright green with some spotting EEL came slithering by to get some action. Well, of course he slithered by the divers on my right and then came right in front of me. The surge was pushing him towards me. BLURPFSFTPDLLBBBBLLLLL is what I said through the regulator. He ended up hitting my hands and slithered over Glenn's hands. I hate snakes!!! Even water ones!!! I know, I know, an eel is not a snake, but it looks damn close to one. The eel fell off the rock and went somewhere on the other side of Glenn. We both tried to see where it went so we wouldn't accidentally kneel on it. But it was gone. Poof, disappeared. We went back to watching the manta ray. Did I mention that it was beautiful? Well after another 10-15 minutes or so, the eel decided to slither between my arm and chest, swimming over my hands and onto the rock again. BASTARD!! The nerve of the MotherF@*$!!!! He has to come and get the one person who didn't want it. Everyone else thought it was cool! Well, I admit that he was pretty neato looking, but I didn't need it surprising me half to death. All to soon, we had to go back. We saw the snorkelers on top, and they were warned that sometimes the manta ray will go up and scoop some food from their flashlight area, rubbing their bellies up against yours. This didn't happen this time. But they were glad it didn't come up, it was enough for them to just see it below. We popped up, got onto the boat, Glenn got sick, and we headed towards the pier.
This experience just added to how perfect my gift for Glenn was for our anniversary. I bought him the "Ray" ink drawing, and now Glenn got to spend time with a Manta Ray and he saw an Eagle Ray in Honolulu. The gift has more meaning now. Plus, I found out that if Glenn did have a choice of Wyland drawings, he liked the "Ray." Yippie! I chose well. I couldn't wait to give Glenn the gift, but I needed to wait a couple days more. We were so excited and overwhelmed by our adventures here on The Big Island. We wished that the rest of the group was here also. We took a couple of lemon flavored cookies and hot chocolate offered to us after the dive to the car (Glenn needed some nourishment after his "gift giving" to Neptune, and headed on to HALE HO'OLA (our B&B). I think I could do this for a living, being a professional adventurer.
10/10/01: Back to the Mainland We woke up to sunshine and a beautiful view of the Honaunau Bay. We got everything packed up and headed up for breakfast. The breakfast was very good, similar to the previous ones. We started with coffee and the papaya drizzled with lime and filled with pineapple. We also had pancakes. We were sitting on a deck that was overlooking the bay also. We gossiped with the owner who used to own restaurants on the mainland, and she retired to the islands of Hawaii. She, Betty Sherman, first lived on Kauai for a couple of years and she agrees that it is the most beautiful of the islands, but small. Oahu is to busy, so she came to Hawaii, and has been running a B&B here ever since. She gave us some info on the locals, and the politics around here. We bade her farewell, and headed towards the airport. We needed to stop by the Big K (Kmart) in order to develop the precious film we took. We didn't know if the film would get ruined by the X-ray machines the way some of our honeymoon photos were. While we were waiting for the 1 hour photos to be done, we shopped around Kmart for some pure Kona coffee and macadamia nuts. Afterwards we headed toward the airport. Yesterday, I called to check on our flight, and they told us it was booked and we should attempt the earlier one. So we did. The only problem was that we then had a 9 hour lay over in LAX before we took the next flight to San Diego. What can we do?, we can't stay in Hawaii forever. Toooo Damn Expensive!!! The airport was an outdoor one, and it was very humid and hot. We had to get dressed up in our nice clothes just in case we got first class seating. But this flight was packed also, so no first class. We had to check in our baggage b/c of the new FAA ordinance on 1 carry-on per person. This was bad b/c we couldn't change out of our clothes and Glenn didn't have his contact stuff. Our bad luck continues...we had to go through 2 scanning checkpoints, and then we were chosen to be the representative full body search candidates. Nothing like getting felt up by strangers in front of everyone. The flight was uneventful, they showed an edited version of Cats and Dogs, and we made it to LAX. Glenn and I found our gate and decided to sleep as much as possible on the chairs. This made for a long and uncomfortable night, but we were back on the mainland, finally.
We went to get breakfast and coffee at the Burger King, and then went looking for some books and duty free cigarettes. Sorry mom, no cartons of cigarettes at the Los Angeles International Airport. We waited until our flight. Everything looked good so far, and Glenn's Aunt Ming will be picking us up. We get chosen to be the full body search candidates again, and then get on the plane. We at least were in first class this time. Then, we find out that the fog was so bad at San Diego that we had to wait on the runway until we get the A-okay. That was 2-3 hours later. We could have driven and gotten there faster. We finally made it to San Diego, and we got picked up by Aunt Ming. We're home!!!!! We took showers, took a nap, and had an excellent dinner of enchiladas and adobo chicken. We gave them our gifts of thanks and appreciation for having them host us for so long. I'm sure it was rough for them to disrupt their work and school schedules for us. We showed them some pix and the video of the lava and the dive. They were all enthralled. After that nap, we weren't to tired so Glenn worked on the computer while I read. Then sleep beckoned us. 10/12/01 We slept in late. It felt good after that night spent in LAX. We primarily spent the day catching up on bills and other errands. We were suppose to make dinner, but Uncle Dan and Aunt Ming wanted to take us to a Lobster place in Mexico. No complaints here. Uncle Dan came home early and did some lawn work before we took off to Mexico. We grabbed our passports and all our cameras, and headed out. Puerto Nuevo (New Port), the place we were going to was about 1 hour south of Tijuana. We saw the border cops and the wall/fence between Mexico and US. Too bad the US didn't grab Baja California from Mexico too. It is a beautiful piece of land and is about 1000 mile long. Uncle Dan regaled us with stories of how corrupt things could be there. I was just hoping all will be well with us. We made it to Puerto Nuevo, and it was a town of all Lobster restaurants. We parked, and as we were walking down the streets, people tried to solicit us going into their restaurants. We let ourselves be talked into one specific restaurant, I don't remember the name, but we got seated on the deck overlooking the ocean. Uncle Dan ordered for us, selecting 5 small lobsters at $10.00 each, later ordering more. We had margaritas, and a typical Mexican spread of fresh hand made tortillas, beans, guacamole, and rice. Glenn also ordered garlic shrimp just in case we didn't like the lobster. Glenn and I love seafood, but lobster is not one of our favorites. It usually was rubbery and not to flavorful. But these were fresh, and tasted fantastic. They were made "Estilo Puerto Nuevo" or New Port Style. The lobster were cracked in half, and sautéed in butter. Delicious. The best Glenn and I ever had. We're drooling about it right now, just typing it up.
10/13/01: "...standn' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona..." Today, we sadly must leave our relatives in San Diego and go visit my cousin Lisa in Arizona. It took us a while to pack things up and get the car prepared again for a long haul. We said our goodbyes and left around noon. We first needed to clean off the car, so we went in search of a manual/automatic car wash. Not many places have the self-car wash capabilities. But with the cargo box on top, we need to do it ourselves b/c the fully automatic ones bump it and turn off. It took us a while to find it. It was hidden behind a building so we were driving around in circles before we hit it accidentally. Then we went to go find the Moosewood Cookbook that contains the Honey Mousse Recipe that I made for the family a couple of weeks ago. We stopped by a book store and found the book, but it was updated and this version didn't contain the recipe. I'm sorry Uncle Dan, I'll attempt to find the book amongst the millions of boxes we have packed up and send you the recipe. We started towards Arizona on Hwy 8 to Hwy 10. Lisa actually lives in Chandler, near Phoenix. We made it there late, and met Kevin and Aaron. Aaron is the newest member of the family, on my mother's side. He is the cutest kid around, watch out girls he looks like he's gonna be a heartbreaker. B/c of our late arrival, and Lisa keeping him busy all day, he was a bit overtired. We were all bit tired so we stayed up talking for a bit and then hit the sack. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we also met Wells and I forgot the other cat's name. It'll come to me later on. Seeing the cats made us miss our guys even more.
10/14/01 Happy Anniversary to Us!!!!!!!! Since it is Kevin's vacation, we decided to go to Flagstaff for the a couple of days and one night. We packed up and headed north to do some hiking at a park in Flagstaff. The ride was interesting in that the elevation change and the flora change was astounding. It was hot in Phoenix and you saw tons of the saguaro cactus and the closer we got to Flagstaff, the cooler it got and the more alpine flora is seen. Before we entered Flagstaff, we decided to see Montezuma's Castle, a cliff dwelling. It was interesting to those who saw a cliff dwelling for the first time, however, I've been to the cliff dwelling capitol... Mesa Verde and I wasn't as impressed especially how much you had to pay to see it. But Glenn and Kevin were impressed with seeing it. We got into town, got some hotel info, and headed out for a mild couple mile hike with Aaron in a backpack. CUTE!
On the way to dinner at Oregano's, I did some calling around for prices on hotels. Most of them had good deals b/c of the lack of tourism due to the economy, terrorism, and season. Oregano's was crowded, we had about an hour wait, so Lisa and Kevin went to go check out the Embassy Suites while Glenn and I waited. The restaurant is suppose to be one of the best in Flagstaff, and we liked it well enough to come back the next day for dinner. Lisa and Kevin got a great deal on a suite, and came back just in time for us to sit down for dinner. They helped us celebrate our anniversary. We didn't have top of our wedding cake to eat, but at least we had PIZZA. After excellent food and great conversation we headed back to our room for some more conversation and for Aaron to sleep. We went to bed exhausted again, mom Lisa and dad Kevin needed their rest. Oh, I forgot to mention how cute Glenn has been with Aaron, too. I think Glenn was testing out fatherhood. I think he handled it well, and Aaron found him an interesting subject to study. 10/15/01 The next morning we went down to an excellent breakfast. We had a chef make almost anything we wanted with fresh juice and stuff. It was amusing seeing how people are so attracted to babies. I felt like we were in the company of a superstar or something. Everyone was giggling and talking baby talk with Aaron. I told you he is a heartbreaker. We decided to go see the "Meteor Crater" which is... a meteor crater. Glenn and I wanted to see this, but we didn't know exactly where it was until Kevin mentioned that he really wanted to see it. So we drove out there after Aaron got his feeding, and took a walking tour around part of the crater. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Glenn and I love anything dealing with astronomy. We had a great time checking out the museum and taking a walking tour around part of the crater ridge. The only negative thing about the experience is that the crater is privately owned and they charged a little more money than I think they should. It was $10.00 a person to get in, and you can't even walk into the crater. But it was a great experience nonetheless.
We headed back towards Flagstaff for a final dinner with Lisa, Kevin, and Aaron. I feel like we didn't have enough time with them. I haven't seen Lisa in a while, and who knows when the next time will be. Maybe when we have kids we could get together and have our kids play together. Lisa, Kevin, and Aaron headed back towards Chandler, while Glenn and I stayed at a really cheap local hotel. We did some more work on our website, and searched for more info on the Grand Canyon, our next stop. We went to sleep with the sound of trains passing by, how annoying. 10/16/01 We awoke with the train whistling in our ears. We packed up and made the brief trip to the Grand Canyon. I wasn't feeling to well, and Glenn wanted to catch up on stuff so we decided to stay in a hotel just outside of the South Entrance of the Grand Canyon. The price was right, so we stayed there for 3 nights. The rest of the day we read, watched movies, and worked on the computer. It was a much needed rest. 10/17/01 Today was a bum day for us also. We just hung around, read, and watched some more movies. We started feeling better by the late afternoon so we walked around the very small town. Not much happened. We just did more vacation route preparation and stuff. We got all our park info organized and headed towards the massive crack in the Earth. Our National Parks Pass has saved us a lot of money. The Grand Canyon cost $20 to get in. Yeowch! But with our N.P. Pass we drove right in. Half the park is only accessible by a tram run by the park. So we first went to the driving areas and then did the tram to the other points. The trams run till a little past sunset, so we decided to hit a view point on the tram trail for our sunset pix. The view of the Grand Canyon was... what else... awe-inspiring. It is about 10 miles across and about 1 mile deep. It's huge, and colorful. The problem I have with it is that it is toooo big. It feels like a painted picture, it isn't tangible. The view was obstructed by a controlled forest fire, and our pix were showing some haze. The colors and the definition was a bit muted by the smoke. No matter where we go the fires follow us. Coincidence?!? Hmmm, I beginning to wonder. The scenery changed at every point we went stopped at. The tram was actually a neat idea. You don't have to worry about people stopping their cars in the middle of the road just to take pix or to see the view. We jump on the tram, take it to the next stop, get off, and walk around the viewing area. Then hope right back on, the buses run every 10-15 minutes. If you want to hike, then you could hike the 8 mile rim trail, and when you get tired you could always catch a bus at the next stop. The sunset was beautiful, the scenery and the colors kept changing as the sun was setting. Laura, it was definitely worth it. We saw a quarter moon rising above the canyon while the sun descended. It was quiet, except for the sound the wind made as it ripped through the canyons. Beautiful and serene. When the show was over, we headed towards the bus stop in the dark. A large group of people were sitting at the bus stop talking animatedly about all that they have seen and experienced. We all loaded onto the bus, and headed for home. The night sky was clear and with only a quarter moon the stars were showing all they've got. We meandered over to our car and headed home for food and sleep. We kept thinking how right we were to make the decision to do this while we were young and unencumbered by major responsibilities. Most of the tourists we see are from other countries and it makes us sad to realized that the American work ethic doesn't allow for us to enjoy our own backyard and travel around. We are one of the lucky few that went against American social norms and toured this beautiful country before it is to late or we are too old to do it. Our country truly has wonderful things to see and experience. This tour deepened our feelings of patriotism.
10/19/01 We checked out of the Red Feather Inn in Tusayan, the town just south of the South Entrance. We went back into the park and drove along the rim towards the east entrance. We stopped frequently to see the views on this end. We also stopped to see the visitor center that looks like a tower. It was constructed like this with Native American design inside. Very interesting.
We continued on our way towards Cortez, Colorado. We
decided with our ever decreasing budget and our worries about finding a place to
live and work that we would zip through this later half and head on over to
Glenn's parents place in Florida in order to start our job hunt and house hunt.
Otherwise we would have checked out Page, Arizona. There are wonderful
things to see and do here: Canyon river floats on the Colorado River, Lake
Powell, more canyon hikes, etc. It was already night time by the time we
hit the Four Corner's area. Too bad. There was good shopping there
and it is kind of neat to stand in 4 states at once. Instead we continued
onward. Here's something new, a casino. We'll have to check that out
while we are here in Cortez. We finally arrived in Cortez, and started
looking for friend's of the family's motel, Travelodge. It's just as I
remembered it, and thank God that the Krupy are still the owners. My mom
and I couldn't contact them via phone, and later we found out it was b/c the 800
number didn't work in Illinois. So Glenn and I were hoping that they were
still there, otherwise we'd have to continue our search for a cheap hotel.
Maybe even stay at the casino all night. Hey, they have free pop. As
we pulled up by the lobby/office I felt relief that Mrs. Krupa was taking care
of business as usual. I jumped out of the car and surprised her. I
introduced Glenn, we all gossiped for a bit, and then we went to our room to
freshen up. We later joined Mrs. Krupa for a cup of tea and more catching
up. It was nice to see family again. We headed up to our rooms again
and worked on what else? the internet.
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