Day 25 & 26 - "Living" in Hawaii

Yesterday we began our experiment to see what it might be like to "live" in Hawaii for several weeks without gallivanting around everyday.  It was a nice day.  We stayed inside and worked on our sewing projects, watched TV, and spent an hour or so at the pool.  I think I could manage to live like that.  We will continue this experiment for the final week of our trip, but we'll undoubtedly go out and about a little bit.

Just about the time we went to bed last night it started to rain and it POURED.  I don't think I've ever seen or heard rain like that before.  The downspouts are angled pipes from the roof that stick out about a foot from the roof line.  There is one right above our lanai.  The water pouring through it was about 10 times the water pressure in our shower!  It rained like that until about 1am.  This place has a flat roof and I was thankful for those downspouts; otherwise, I think the roof might have caved in from the weight of the water.  It must have rained 5-8 inches in that length of time though I haven't been able to find an official measurement.

Other than a little standing water in places, there was little evidence this morning of last night's storm. Woke up to sunshine as usual, which is something I could definitely get used to.

After breakfast, I went to the market in Kailua for enough papayas and bananas to last until we leave.  It was hot and I remembered how nice it was to stay in yesterday without having a sweat bath.  Some of the vendors were still dumping the water off their tarps.  I don't know why they haven't put up permanent structures at that market.  It is a rabbit warren of tarps and is pretty tacky, but good prices on fruit and other produce.  Some of the "craft" vendors sell cheap stuff made in China and the Philippines, but there are also some excellent crafts people selling their wares.

I enjoyed snorkeling on the Fairwind II so much a couple of weeks ago that I booked another afternoon trip for today.  Mom went for the ride, but didn't snorkel.  She's afraid that she wouldn't be able to get back on the boat, though the crew assured her that they would help her "no problem."  This time I rented a digital camera with pretty good results.  The yellow tangs are the most photogenic.  I got one or two good shots, but the darn things won't hold still!  This was our 4th trip on the Fairwind.  The crew is so great.  All the guys are nicer than nice and so accommodating to Mom's needs. A couple of the crew even remembered us from two years ago.

The boat got back to port at 5:30, so went home to shower and then went to the Kona Brewing Company for dinner.  I figured it wouldn't be as busy tonight as it would be tomorrow night (Friday). Wrong! 45 minute wait.  We had hefewiesen and a Kohala pizza with macadamia nuts.  Really, really good.  Turns out that macadamia nuts are good on just about anything.  Imagine that!

After dinner we drove down to the Sheraton at Keauhou Bay to watch the manta rays.  We saw several of them and there were some divers shining their lights and the mantas were putting on quite a show for them.  At least we didn't get wet this time.  Two years ago a huge wave came over the railing and soaked us!