Tag Archives: honu

Kona aloha, 2024

Posted on December 30, 2024 | 4 comments

We spent a week in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii earlier this month. This is a favorite place of ours. The west coast is on the dry side of the island, and we see more rocky lava than beach. We stayed in a different condo complex this year, the Keauhou Kona Surf and Racquet Club. Still oceanfront overlooking lava rock and the ocean.

two wine glasses and a hawaiian sunset overlooking the pacific ocean

We made it in time for sunset. I woke the next morning at 5 am, after moonset and before sunrise, so I had the joy of watching the Geminid meteor shower around the setting Orion constellation. I saw 12 meteors in the 45 minutes before the sky began to lighten. This was the only morning the Geminids were visible; on subsequent days there was too much light from either the setting moon or the rising sun.

Rainbow over the Pacific Ocean as seen from Keauhou/Kona, Hawaii

I love hanging out on the lanai. I saw kayakers, canoers, dolphins, waves, and this beautiful rainbow.

Our complex was just south of Mākole’ā Beach. It has tide pools, black and tan sand, and Ke’eku Heiau, a restored temple.

Ke’eku Heiau at Makole’a Beach, Kona Hawaii — West end of Ke’eku Heiau

carved statues at the end of ke’eku heiau — Statues at the east end of Ke’eku Heiau

Looking past Ke’eku Heiau towards Kahalu’u Beach — Looking north past Ke’eku Heiau towards Kahalu’u

One morning I saw schools of yellow tang in the waves!

Sunset at Makole’a Beach — Sunset over tidepools at Mākole’ā Beach

It was a great place to watch the sunset, but I think I like sunset on the lanai even more.

Kaloko Honokohau lava field — Aloha Costco!

We explored more of Kaloko Honokōhau National Historic Park. The park ranger advised starting the loop with the lava field and ending with the more pleasant beach and petroglyphs. Good advice; a mile over lava rock trail wasn’t very pleasant. Glad to have my hiking poles.

The next feature was Kaloko Fish Pond. This was built by native Hawaiians for raising fish. The ocean is to your left. The rock wall has been rebuilt; it’s impressively level.

The trail continues along part of the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, which follows the coast. It eventually comes to Honokōhau Beach, which is my favorite place to look for honu (green turtles).

Four Hawaiian green turtles basking in the sun

I wasn’t that close; this is zoomed *and* cropped!

The trail continues on to Ai’opio Beach, which has a fish trap and heiau, another favorite place for turtle spotting. The trail then heads back up towards the welcome center and lava fields, while passing a petroglyph field.

Petroglyphs at Kaloko Honokohau National Historic Park

I see people, a long gun, a fish hook…what do you see?

A piece of knitting being held in the air with the ocean in the background

Of course there was knitting on the lanai. Heres a sneak peek at my latest design project.

It was a lovely relaxing week, and we came back ready to tackle Christmas and Hanukkah prep. Which was good, because I hadn’t done any beforehand!

I hope your holidays are merry and bright. Looking forward to new adventures in 2025!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, travel

Tagged big island, hawaii, honu, kona, petroglyphs, travel

Christmas aloha

Posted on December 23, 2021 | 18 comments

It’s been a minute or two, hasn’t it? I came home from Minnesota on a Friday, did a book signing and taught on the weekend, and left for Hawaii on Monday…two and a half weeks ago?!

We had planned for the kids to be with us, but after traveling at Thanksgiving and then learning of the omicron variant, they decided to opt out this year. That left us with the usual 3 BR condo, and lots of room to spread out. We worked *and* played.

Not a bad place to knit! I decided that I wanted the Dotty Bed Socks to have the dot pattern on the top of the instep, instead of an all striped instep, but some of my test knitters loved that wrap around stripe. Which do you like?

Knitter’s choice! Instructions for both insteps will be in the pattern. I’ll publish it next week, or the week after, along with the Slip Away Cowl. If you’re interested in a combo deal, make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter!

Now I’m home, and scrambling to catch up. (More aloha pictures at the end of this post.) I put up new Christmas lights on the house on Tuesday. I still need to put the knitted fairy lights on my wreath, hopefully today.

The tiny tree is up, and both Biscuit…

…and Calvin have investigated. One of my Korknisse was missing, but I found him under the piano, and all is well.

I just made a batch of Irish Cream for gifts. The recipe is in this post, and the picture is a re-run because it’s biz (Bisquee?) as usual around here! Onto the next thing! But I’ll leave you with a little more aloha…

Mele Kalikimaka to you!

18 Comments

Posted in cat, Knit, pattern design, travel

Tagged Aloha, birds, christmas, hawaii, honu

Aloha and brioche to ring out 2019

Posted on January 3, 2020 | 7 comments

We had our annual getaway to Hawaii in December; it was warm, wonderful, and relaxing. As one son said, it was vacation, not travel. Reading, knitting, long walks, watching the waves, the birds, the sunsets…and one day of turtle spotting.

You know I have a thing about moonsets. Our first morning coincided with the full moon, and this is what I saw at 5 a.m.

The next morning I saw the sunrise chasing the moonset. Tap the picture to embiggen. Gorgeous. I want these colors in gradient yarn!

Speaking of gradient, I finished my Aspen Leaf scarf; I love the gradient and brioche together. More on this later.

We loved the birds that visited our lanai. Mostly Java finches (Java sparrows) and yellow billed cardinals.

I learned that if you push the white still photo button while taking a video, you can get hilarious pictures of birds in action.

We spent one day at our favorite beaches, Ai’opio and Honokohau (they’re right next to each other and perfect for a walk to both). There’s a cool old stone fish trap in the water; fish would come in on the tide, and then be stuck in the pool when the tide went out. Passive fishing at its finest!

There are lots of honu, green sea turtles, lounging in the water.

And at least one petroglyph!

I love spending time with the family.

Aloha!

7 Comments

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged birds, hawaii, honu, kona, moonset, sunset

Kilauea Iki volcano hike, beaches

Posted on January 5, 2015 | 7 comments

A little more aloha: On our trip to the Big Island last month, we made a day trip to Kilauea to hike the Kilauea Iki (small Kilauea) crater. This was the site of a huge 1959 eruption. All is calm now.

The 4 mile hike starts off at the edge of the crater, going though a beautiful forest with glimpses of the crater below.

CollegeKid noted that the floor of the crater looks like “a giant brownie pan.” Why yes it does.

But it’s not as smooth as it looks when you get down in the crater. These brownies are cracked!

You can see the steam rising from Halema’uma’u, the crater inside the larger Kilauea caldera, on the other side of the Byron Ledge. You definitely know that you’re standing on an active volcano. Science rocks!

The blown out cinder cone between Kilauea Iki and the larger Kilauea caldera is Pu’u Pua’i (gushing hill). It doesn’t look that big from the edge of the crater, but when you get down into the crater, it’s a different story.

The kids decided to see what it looked like up top.

The second half of the hike crosses the crater floor. It was pretty windy the day we were there. The floor is mostly barren, but little bits of vegetation are making their way back. Steam rises from vents in the floor. After crossing the floor, there’s a climb back up to the crater’s rim. The trail is forested again, and the birds do a great job of singing but keeping out of sight. This is a great hike! I liked it even more than the one we did last year, and that was good, too.

On our way back from Kilauea, we stopped at Punalu’u, a black sand beach. Yes, the volcanic sand really is black! And the water looks very blue by comparison.

Hawaiian green turtles (honu) come hang out here. It was pretty late in the afternoon, so we didn’t stay long. We wanted to get poké from Da Poké Shack on the way home, and watch the sunset from our lanai.

We made it with 15 minutes to spare.

We spent time on two other beaches on this trip. We visited Kahalu’u in Kailua-Kona, twice (second time because it beat sitting in traffic trying to go somewhere else). This is very civilized with a parking lot, concessions, and the easiest snorkeling ever.

convict tang

urchins

pencil urchin

You can even just walk around on the rocks and see fish in the water, but that was so tempting that we had to get in and snorkel anyway.

Apparently this year they’ve started numbering the honu. I’m curious if it’s always the same one up on the beach. Guess I’ll have to go back to find out.

The other very fun beach is Manini’owali at Kua Bay. The water is spectacularly pretty here, as is the white sand beach. The waves are pretty strong in the winter, and the ocean pulls the sand offshore. Next month there will be a lot less beach. It all comes back in the summer.