Finishing Hawaii in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Oooooooooookay beautiful boys and girls. We have returned to the Land Locked State of Iowa and I’m playing a spot of catch up with Work, Prosebox, Grocery Shopping, and Life Not On Vacation, lol. This will be a preamble for the next THREE ENTRIES as I will break them up. They can be found (when complete) as
FINISHING HAWAII
STARTING THE CON
RETURNING TO WORK

So… back to Hawaii:

Tuesday, Wife and I decided to do an intentional Hilo Day. The last one, we kind of just got in the air conditioned car, drove out to Hilo, drove around a bit, had lunch at Cronie’s, and drove back. Not too terribly much. So Tuesday, we wanted to make sure that we absolutely saw the waterfalls we had intended to see!

The first one we went to was Rainbow Falls. Fairly touristy but not bad, all things considered. There was a big trail, a really open view of the waterfall, a nice quick summary of the local tribal legend as to its formation, and then another long trail. We took a bunch of photos and continued down the trail to a gigantic tree. Wife, of course, had to climb it and we have photos of that. All of my individual Phone Camera Photos will show up in an entry when I get the time to do so. Wife, the true photographer between us, and Cousin’s Wife, with the underwater camera, should have photos and videos to view at some point and if I figure out how, I’ll go ahead and throw them up here as well.

After the waterfall, we were hungry and headed to the recommended restaurant. It was PACKED. But it was good food, good drinks, and the staff were actually super friendly. I can see why it came so highly recommended. There was a pair of twin sisters who were enjoying Happy Hour before we got there and were still going hard after we left!!

After that, Wife and I went to Boiling Pots Waterfall. It was a bit less awesome, but still pretty cool to see. You could see the Boiling Pots Waterfall and Hidden Waterfall (named so for many reasons but one being: we couldn’t get to it, lol). Then we actually walked around some of the neighborhoods. That itself was strange (just walking around a neighborhood) but it is always cool to see the ways in which humans are both similar and different. After all of that, we jumped back in the Charger and drove back to Blue Moon (the official name of the house where we stayed).

What was really cool about that night? Cousin and Cousin’s Wife had to leave to fly to the mainland Tuesday Afternoon, so Tuesday Night was the first night of just Wife and I. Of course, no romance or sex or cuddling or making out. But we did cook together. That was nice. I like cooking with her (when I can) and I like cooking (when I’m allowed and not just back from work). It is one of those things where… if I didn’t work and Wife did… I’d cook every night. Since it is the other way ‘round, whenever I have to cook it is… a significant annoyance. But we cooked a home cooked meal of spinach, poke, and spices. It was good!

Then, as it must, Wednesday arrived. In Hawaii, all flights out to the mainland leave after the evening hour. So that means Wife and I still had a full day to enjoy before flying out.

Morning Activity? Wife got up early because she was excited to go snorkeling again! GOOD! This is that life lesson you need to internalize and take into every aspect of your bloody life! Fear exists. Panic exists. These are things that keep you from enjoying your life. When you can conquer them, move past them… you might find something you love, something you enjoy! We did NOT see Sea Turtles, sadly. Either it was still too late in the day or the abundant plethora of SCUBA Divers had scared them off. But Wife enjoyed it still. All the fish, the coral, the very act of swimming in the ocean that she watches so much television about. She honestly didn’t want to come back in! GOOD!

After that, we showered and ate and got in the car. The Noon and early afternoon plans were to go to NELHA. NELHA is an area by Kona and it stands for Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. In the 1960s and 1970s, two water pipelines were built.... one shallow, one deep (deep deep). This system was used to create energy. It was… not efficient or profitable. The speaker said that for an investment of 10 cents per hour, they generated 11 cents per hour. Penny Profit doesn’t cut it. However, the aquatic pipe system was efficient and useful to aqua-culture. So NELHA is now a massive research and sustainable farming area for all sorts of sea life!

At Noon, we went to the Seahorse Farm. This is a farm that specifically raises domestic seahorses for use in tanks, restaurants, and other purposes. The whole purpose of the farm is to engage in sustainable Seahorse Aqua-Culture so that Sea Horses, a creature for whom all members are threatened or endangered, are not removed from the wild and may be allowed to survive. Destruction of Habitat is one of the biggest things killing Sea Horses, but perhaps having a Domestic Farm for them will help them survive in one way or another. We toured the facility examining the hatchery, the teeny tiny little baby sea horses, the spawning pools, the Full Grown tanks… we saw every stage of the farming process. THEN, we got to interact with the sea horses. Not just “throw food at them” but actually put our hands into the water so that the seahorse curls its tail around your fingers. That was pretty cool. Wife and I both did that.

At Two, we went to the Octopus Research Facility. This is a research station that wants to be a sustainability farm for Octopi but aren’t quite to that level yet. They are a MUCH smaller operation and significantly more “science and research” than “farming and growing.” BUT there is a good reason for that. They have Octopi of every age from the dying to the very young. AND they are trying to encourage breeding. BUT, at present, they can’t get the paralarvae to grow to where they can be self-sustaining. The Octopus out of the egg needs to grow for 30 days before the Researchers can say that it will eat/live like a real Octopus. Until then, it is paralarvae and acts more like a floater that eats what it can get… as opposed to a mover that hunts. Their record currently is 12 days. Far short of the 30 required. They are hoping to break that number at some point, but it really is quite difficult.

After reviewing the research area a bit, the tour is broken into three parts.
Play
Hatch
Feed.

The play portion is when you take the tour group and invite them to play with the octopuses in their little areas. Each Octo has an individual tank (as they ARE a territorial creature) but if you play with the water a little, the Octopus is a very curious creature and will come out and grab your hand and play with you. I totally did this. Wife was, in her words, “too chicken to try.” In an instance like this? I’m not going to push her. She can see everything and experience the whole thing minus “direct contact with a wild animal” without losing a whole lot of the experience.

Then we went to the Hatch portion. That is where we go into the “Octopus Nursery” area and review the eggs and hatchlings as they are in their development. We didn’t get to spend too much time here because about halfway through, a little girl screamed… then we heard a high pitched noise that sounded like… something else screamed. Story as I understand it… the octopus named Wall-E likes to escape from his tank. This little girl was playing with Wall-E when she was supposed to be with the tour group in the nursery portion. EITHER she panicked when Wall-E grabbed her hand, pulled too hard, and Wall-E came out of the tank or Wall-E escaped the tank, the little girl panicked. Either way… little girl scream at Land Octopus, Octopus scream because he doesn’t have lungs and realized SHIT, I need water to breath! The marine biologist just flew to Wall-E, grabbed him, threw him into the large tank, and pulled her arms out of the water RIGHT as Wall-E was inking. That… kind of put a stop to the part of the tour where the Marine Biologist wasn’t in the same room as the octopi.

Soooo… feeding! Each Octopus Individual Tank had a cup with crab in it. Some had many crab, some had fewer crab. The more social octopi, you could hand feed. You could play with the octopus, let its tentacle grab the food, you let go of the food, and watch the Octopus pull it under his body for his beak to grab. I did not have a social Octopus. I was wearing my brother’s “Veterinary Sciences” shirt and the Marine Biologist asked if I would have trouble feeding an End of Life Octopus. No, I’d love to give it a try. The old guy was blind and demented… rarely left his little cave hole, and only ate once or twice a week. So she wanted me to know that if I dropped it in front of his hole and he didn’t come out, not to worry. WELL… I dropped it in front of his hole, he came out… you could tell he was blind because he did not see the food nor did he react to the sudden sunlight he was experiencing… and he grabbed the food, and pulled it under his body for his beak to grab. YAY! I was so happy he ate if for no other reason than because… I always support an animal fighting against death. It may be cliche as hell, but when I die, you can bet I’ll be thinking both “Thank you. It’s finally over” as well as “Do not go gentle into that good night!”

After NELHA was finished, we drove back to Blue Moon and packed, and ate lunch, and cleaned up the house. Then it was time to leave Hawaii :( We got to the airport and, of course, they don’t have our seat assignment. I go to talk to the lady at the checkout counter and she is super relieved to talk to someone who isn’t being a pushy dick. Even asked me to stand by the counter as she took care of some stuff first because she didn’t want me to walk off and for her to forget about me. And while I stood there? Honey child, I get what she meant!! You’ve got tired, angry, grouchy people for whom “the vacation is over” is sinking in. Everyone was being such an unnecessary dick to this lady who doesn’t even work for the airline! I’ll never forget it. There was one lady who walked up to the Counter Assistant and said, “My daughter has food allergies, can we get on the plane first?” Like… how’s that going to help? If there’s a peanut in the metal tube she’ll be trapped in for 8 hours… getting on first isn’t going to protect her from it. But the Counter Assistant was nice and understanding. She said, “Yes. You and your daughter can get on first when the plane arrives.” The lady, appallingly, said “Yeah, but there’s six of us, so can we all get on?” Counter Assistant said no. One person with a disability, one person to help that person. That’s how that works. The lady was indignant, walked off in a huff, bitched loudly to her family, and then.... NONE OF THEM got on early when the plane finally did arrive!! SO.. yeah. Counter Assistant was glad when my answer to all of her questions was “Whatever you can accommodate.” After asking if I could stay, honestly… she’s like “Can you just stay here in Hawaii?” (Would love to!)… she said, “I’ve got a window seat next to a middle seat or an aisle seat next to a middle seat. You’ve been so nice, I’m gonna make sure you get the window. You or your wife should be able to sleep that way, I hope.” Seriously… nice lady… putting up with too many tourist’s bullshit. Of course… 8 hour flight.... again, I’m in the middle seat… so grr, dammit, sonofabitch, fuck FUCK FUCK! That was painful. Seriously, SUPER painful. Fuck! I used to love flying but these days? I mean… I’m going to need to buy Business Class seats or better from now on because “coach” has just gotten worse and worse! I try to sleep as sleep might help the pain but there’s the catch 22! PAIN, Can’t Sleep. Sleep would help the pain, Can’t Sleep. The more tired I am, the more pain I feel. PAIN, Can’t Sleep. UGH!

After catching our connecting flight from Phoenix, we landed in Des Moines at about 1:30. My mom was there to greet us. She drove us to Parents Place and was telling us how good Nala was. She grabbed my phone and filmed us reuniting with Nala. I’ll try and post sometime. Nala’s reaction? First, she ran to Mom in a “Are they really here?!” kind of way. Then her whole body began to wag as she smelled me, licked my knee, smelled Wife, licked Wife’s face, then jumped up to just assault my face with her tongue, lol. Dad came in a little later and started mixing up Banana Flatts for us (Cream de Cacao, Cream de Banana, and Cream) and they are SO good SO SO SO GOOD… and I drank a little too much… I was exhausted, I fell asleep quickly after dinner… and woke up with a puppy on my lap in bed.

Last updated July 16, 2019