Both of us were awake before 6 a.m., having gotten at least 8 hours of sleep. Then we sat in the dark and waited for the sun to rise. Of course, we’re on the western side of the island so the sunset is the view we have right from the room’s balcony; the best we could do was wait for the dark to get lighter, which it did by 6:30.
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Before I went to bed last night at 9 p.m., I
glanced out the window and realized there were no glaring street or house lights
up and down the hilly neighborhood that’s our home for the next few
nights. It was dark and quiet except for
the birds, crickets and whatever other creatures were making noise. And as it turns out, they didn’t interfere
with my ability to fall asleep. 😴 Woke sometime in the night to the sound of a rainstorm…just sounded like white
noise and I had no problem getting back to sleep.
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The 40 Days of Lent Challenge started
yesterday on Ash Wednesday; it was a long, busy travel day and I forgot to do
it. So I added yesterday’s challenge to today’s. The theme this year is “Letting Go…”
Wednesday’s challenge: Look up 3
synonyms for the phrase “letting go” and write down how that influences who you
want to be over this season of Lent. Three synonyms I found for ‘let go’: Release…relinquish…part-with.
Now for the 2nd part of the challenge: write down how that influences
who I want to be. Well, freedom comes
from letting go of either whatever I’m holding onto or whatever has a hold on
me. So, letting go of whatever is holding me back allows me to move ahead. And
I do want to be freer to become the person God intended me to be.
Thursday’s challenge: Connect
with someone by sharing a meal. This one will be easy, given our current
reality. Because it’s a given that Kim and I would be sharing a meal today, we
decided to not bring our phones to the table in order to focus on the ‘connect’
part.
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The smell of plumeria in the early morning out on the balcony was
intoxicating…it’s one of my favorite smells.
Papaya trees bracket our view of the ocean from the balcony. Reminds me of San Francisco area, with roads
zig-zagging up the hills to accommodate the homes built up the hillside. Makes me wonder if there are any homes up
above us.
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Left about 9 a.m. in search of some breakfast. The first two cafes we bypassed because of long
wait times so we ended up at a little place called Tea:licious Café. It was quaint, the staff was very friendly
and they served very tasty pastries but overall, we decided that we didn’t
quite fit in with the other customers. However,
we did get a couple of recommendations for tattoo venues.
When we decided to go to Hawaii to finish our list, Kim mentioned
getting matching tattoos to commemorate the occasion. I agreed but was stumped
on exactly what to get that would symbolize our achievement so my enthusiasm
kind of waned. Well, today we checked out a tattoo studio that was 3 doors down
from Tea:licious and met with Lex, the owner.
She heard our story, Kim told her his design idea, and she started
sketching ideas on paper. My enthusiasm
for a commemorative tattoo has been renewed.
We have an appointment for Saturday at noon.
She also gave us some great sightseeing ideas and directions: Take
Kuakini Hwy to Palani Rd, which will turn into Hwy 190. Take 190 all the way to Saddle Road which
will take you up in the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea area. You’ll see a variety of
landscapes…there’s a desert area, farmlands, and lots of lava rock. Not only is
it a nice drive, but it’s also the island shortcut to the other side of the
island. Takes you right into Hilo. We followed her advice and went all
the way to Hilo where we had a delicious lunch at Pineapples Island Fresh
Cuisine.
Kim was curious about the elevation of Saddle Road because it took us up
and over a mountain, running between two volcanoes: Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. I checked Google and found this on Wikipedia:
Route 200, known locally as Saddle Road, traverses the width of the Island
of Hawaiʻi, from downtown Hilo to its junction with Hawaii
Route 190 near Waimea. The road was once considered one of the most dangerous
paved roads in the state, with many one-lane bridges and areas of marginally
maintained pavement. Most of the road has now been repaved, and major parts
have new re-alignments to modern standards. The highway is mostly one-lane in
each direction, but there are two lanes on the uphill portions. The highway
reaches a maximum elevation of 6,632 feet (2,021 m) and is subject to fog
and low visibility. Many rental
car companies used to prohibit use of their cars
on Saddle Road, but now allow use of the road. The highway
experiences heavy use as it provides the shortest driving route from Hilo to Kailua-Kona and access to the slopes of Mauna
Loa and the Mauna Kea Observatories.
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When we left Kona, the sun was out so we took the time to figure out the convertible top on the car.
Decided to take Route 11 back to Kona instead of retracing our earlier
route. That allowed us to visit Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park. Drove to the
Kilauea Overlook…didn’t see any pooled or flowing lava but due to the weather I’m
glad we were able to anything. The 3-mile
lake of lava had steam rising around its perimeter. Glad we took the time to investigate despite
the rain.
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Upon leaving the park, we intended to continue along Route 11
approaching Kona from the south. That didn’t
happen because Rapunzel updated the route to include a road closure on Route 11 at
Naalehu. She advised that the shortest
route was now back the way we came. Drat! On Route 200 we again
experienced the rain on the Hilo side of the mountain and dryness when we
started down the other side. Got back to
our room at about 8 p.m., much later than we had intended. Despite the rain and the turnaround, it was a
good day.
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list. Saw lots of goats today and three llamas. Or at least I thought they were llamas when I saw them but I was not so sure when I looked at the picture on the computer. Now I'm not sure what they were...sort of like a sheep, sort of like a llama. But not a goat.
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This morning Kim texted John to inquire about staying in the same room, indicating that we’d be willing to pay extra if it was reasonable. John eventually replied that it was a done deal…we could stay in the same room and the security code was the same. And we didn’t have to pay any extra…maybe he likes us. 😎
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