This morning we got up early and scavenged together a breakfast of leftovers in the kitchen. I had anticipated a bagel but as we learned bagels, plastic bags, and tropical humidity do not go well together. It looked like a science experiment up in there.
After breakfast we drove to Tunnels Beach for some early morning snorkeling. We find that the snorkeling is better in the early hours before the winds kick up and the crowds descend. We managed to find a parking spot that didn't require us to pay for parking with the enterprising locals that have turned their giant front yard into a Tunnels parking lot. It was here that I noticed that I wan't feeling all that great. I couldn't get comfortable, I was a bit headachy, and just very, very lethargic. I'm sure an infant could have walked quicker than me across the sand. Alan thought I was being mopey but I seriously could not give it any more effort because I had none to give. With my Graves Disease this sometimes happens when I get too hot. I just lose all energy.
We managed to get two really good snorkeling sessions in, seeing a few new things on the second round. First, there's a part of Tunnels that just goes from shallow reefs to the great abyss. It happens almost instantly and you don't expect to see it until the ocean floor just drops out from under you. Out here there were several big colorful fish. And at one point a school of thousands of tiny silver and blue fish started swimming in circles around me. It was unlike any snorkeling experience I'd ever had before. Alan also found an eel that was popping its head out of its cave and that was a great new experience. Unfortunately there was a pretty strong current so I got exhausted pretty quickly.
We dried off and then made our way in to Hanalei for lunch. Ever since having an amazing moco loco at Kihei Caffe in February I'm obsessed with this dish. This one, while tasty, was nowhere as good as what we had in Maui, but it did hit the spot since I'd been craving it.
On our way to the fish market to buy some grub for dinner tonight Alan made a quick left when he saw that Crazy Lady Shave Ice was finally open. I'd been craving this damn shave ice since we got here but everyday when we went by she was closed. Now it's not actually called Crazy Lady Shave Ice. You probably figured that out. But damn, she is nuts. In 2008 we watched her go all Soup Nazi on a family and tell them to leave when the 10(ish) year old son in a family of four kept harassing his mom about what he wanted, and changing his mind. She seriously told that poor mom that she wasn't going to serve them and they had to leave. Alan was so frazzled when he went to order - you do not want to make her mad.
After lunch we decided to take what I had been told was a moderate hike down a cliff to a beach that not many people visit. I can understand why. It's not a long hike by any means, but it is down the side of a cliff. There's a sign telling you that it is steep and dangerous but we decided to forge on anyhow. To be fair, most of it wasn't terrible. There was a part where the ground had eroded and you had to carefully cross a muddy little stream with very little bank available for your footing. Then as you descend there are areas that are slightly muddier than others, with a ton of leaves from the trees overhead. I slipped and my first thoughts were "save my sunglasses and save my iPhone!" This did not translate so well to "save my knee & save my thigh." I pulled my thigh muscle and twisted my knee just a bit, but I was still able to walk. In fact, my knee stopped hurting almost immediately but it was really hard to put weight on my right leg for the remainder of the walk down to the beach and back up. After you get down the cliff you then have to climb over rocks and boulders and hug the edge of a "trail" that is only about a foot wide. If you slip, you're going down because there is nothing there to save you. I held on to a lot of exposed roots. We finally made it to the beach and had it all to ourselves for awhile before three or four other couples joined us. We were both being eaten by bugs and the sun was pretty hot so we decided to hike back up the mountain to our car. Going back was much less difficult than going down. Maybe because I knew where all the hard parts were. Maybe because I'm right handed and having my right side toward land I felt safer if I needed to grab on to anything? At any rate, we made it back to our car in about twenty minutes.
We finished up our day at the Foodland up the road from our condo (my favorite island grocery store), spent some time at the pool until it rained, and then spend the evening at the condo. Alan grilled up some amazing opah that we served over a mixed greens salad. It was the best fish we'd had the entire trip - that's what access to fresh ingredients and simple preparation can do, I suppose. The fish was not cheap, but you get what you pay for and in this instance we had a stellar piece of insanely fresh fish. Alan watched Obama's speech while I got sucked into a site called Dog Shaming. And then I crashed at 9 p.m. I'm such an old lady.
