Kona, Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Today we drove from Lee's house to the green sand beach near South Point, the southernmost point in the United States. It's a 45 minute hike from the parking lot to the beach along a four- wheel-drive road. Along the road we saw beautiful orange sand with black basalt boulders next to the turquoise ocean.
The beach is in a cove surrounded by high cliffs. The sand is wonderful. Very soft, olive green from the olivene crystals that weathered out of the basalt. Some black pyroxene crystals are mixed with it, giving the color a nice texture.
The water is really clear, and the ocean floor is as sandy soft as the beach. I tried body surfing, but Steve urged me to stop because the waves were breaking so close to shore, he thought I'd get hurt. We all enjoyed bobbing up and down in the surf.
A local who looks like Santa Claus passed us on his dirt bike when we were hiking to the beach. He sat down by our stuff and offered us some water. He said he really wasn't interested in going to heaven, because he didn't think it could be any better than this, and there was the risk that there would be no beer in heaven.
We drove on to Kona, listening to some CDs that neighbor Lori lent to us. Some blues and Hawai'ian reggae made the night drive along the winding coastal road special. We felt grateful to be living this grand life on this astonishing planet.
Lori said there was an earthquake near our houses last night, but unfortunately, we didn't notice. I want to experience a noticeable but not destructive earthquake. I guess it rained pretty hard last night, but I am sleeping so well in the tent, I didn't notice. What little rain we've seen has not slowed us down a bit.
Now we're staying at King Kamehameha in Kona, a six story hotel that has seen better days, maybe in the 1960s. But we didn't come here to sleep, right?
