DFR Travels: I have turned into a vegetable...

Saturday, January 22. Hot.

An early am swim was in order again today. It is light out then, around 7:15, but any photos taken are somewhat dim as there is no real sunlight, just ambient light from old sol, poking up over the volcano at 7:47.

There was a couple on the beach waiting for the sun to come over so I approached them. I told then that he makes his appearance at 7:47 plus or minus a minute this time of the year. They thanked me because they had been waiting there since 7:10. [It was now 7:40.] He asked if I knew how long it took the same sun to go below the horizon after it first touches the horizon. I guessed 1:30 seconds, the answer: 2:20 seconds. Of course depending how far the horizon is from your position. They waved as they strolled off at 7:55. Such are things that really matter here.

After a shower, breakfast and a bit of nothing, we went to try and catch up with a friend we met about 25 years ago on a ship sailing between Athens and Mombassa. He was a doctor and her a nurse in San Francisco. He was an emergency room doctor the last several years of his working life and a was a great photographer and we did many shore excursions with them. He was using a gigantic wooden box camera that took unbelievable panorama picture long before their time. I carried his wooden tripod that weighed maybe 20 pounds.

We kept in touch all those years, we visited them in California and they came up here, once. He passed away some three years ago and she moved to Maui to be near one of her sons. It so happens that she lives about 300 yards from here in a very nice detached home in a new subdivision. We had a short chat this morning and made arrangement to take her and her visiting bridesmaid, [from 55 years ago], to the church at Mackena tomorrow morning: pickup at 7:00!

After that, a run to get some BBQ chicken that they were selling from a street vendor, they had fired up their wood BBQ at 7:00 this morning and we checked them out on our walk back from the swim. Then to the drug store for some foot ointment and then zero, nada, I have turned into a vegetable and just want to sit and enjoy the vitamin D, read and play sudoka or scrabble. It is too hot to do much else.

We ventured to the poolside in the afternoon for a couple of games of scrabble and then a light dinner, [more chicken], then to bed for another fabulous sleep. Speaking of sleep, we only have two more and then a night on the red-eye: my favourite place in the whole wide world. NOT!

The top of the crater as we walk down to the beach.

The beach beckons.

My mermaid, just out of the briny deep.

Some Hawaiian family was down early staking out tables and setting up for a large family party today. The bouncy castles and other inflated things for kids arrived at 8:00.

This vagrant was not up yet. There are a few permanent residents here. I often wonder about their life and what series of events led them to this lifestyle.