The Sun Sets on Our Hawaiian Adventure

We finished our vacation with a sunset sail on a catamaran sailing from Anaehoomalu Bay. We had a perfect sunset, just enough clouds to make it interesting, but a clear horizon line for the sun to sink through.

The boat, the Sea Smoke, was formerly a speed-sailing catamaran owned by James Arness of the TV show Gunsmoke. It has been reconfigured for whale-watching, snorkel cruises, and sunset cruises. It had a crew of four, Shane at the helm and three others hoisting sales, handing out drinks, popping champagne corks and generally acting the gracious hosts.

Heading out, we had great views of Mauna Kea, including a segment of rainbow. As we got further out, we could see Maui in the distance, surrounded by clouds.

We ate, drank, chatted and enjoyed the ocean air. Shane took my picture at the helm, and we had a family picture taken at the rail.

And then the sun hit the horizon and, 180 seconds later, it was gone. The crew had popped champagne; we toasted the sky and headed back to shore.

We were watching carefully for the green flash. I didn't see it, but Christina thinks she did, just as the last of the sun went down.

Fourteenth Golf Game of 2009

Well, of course I played golf while we were in Hawaii.

I played the beach course at Waikoloa one morning with an older gent and his son-in-law. They were from California. The starter matched me with them. It was that or play with a trio of Japanese tourists and I don't think they had any English.

It's a challenging course. The holes are surrounded by mounds and hillocks of lava. There are lava traps in place of sand traps. If you're not hitting over water, you are hitting over fields of broken volcanic rock. I was wondering what happens if you hit one into that lava.

I had a pretty good round, all things -- rented clubs, playing in sneakers, etc. -- considered. I finished with a 109. My play was up and down. I had a par on the sixth, for example, but followed that with a triple bogey on the a par-5 seventh.

The seventh was also where I learned what happens when you hit it into the lava field. I had had a good drive and second shot and had just a 9-iron shot left to the green. Instead of hitting it clean and getting on in regulation, I hit it low and slicing into the lava on the right. It bounced almost back to where I was standing but on the other side of the fairway. I was lucky to make an eight.

On the other hand, the scenery is great. On some holes you are looking at a mountain. On others, you overlook the Pacific Ocean. The sun is bright, the foliage is rich and green, and the trade winds blow steadily and keep you a bit cool.

I liked it.

And Then We Went to the Big Island

The thing that surprised me when we arrived at Kona International airport on the Big Island, was the vastly different landscape.

The coast there is arid, lacking the rich foliage of places like Honolulu. And the coast includes wide swaths of dark brown and black, broken and crumbling lava.

It looked to me, as we drove north from the airport, like the lava had flowed sometime in the last 10 to 20 years. I learned, though, that the lava we drove through -- imagine a two-lane ribbon through broken black rocks -- flowed down the mountain and into the sea in the middle of the 19th century. It was in 1850 or some time around then.

But we stayed in a created oasis amid all that lava. Someone had ground up acres of the ineral-rich rock, added topsoil, and created a lovely green spot at Waikoloa. We were in the huge Hilton portion of Waikoloa, which includes at least two other hotels, two shopping malls, two golf courses, condos and villas.

Later in the week, we drove around the Big Island and found other landscapes, volcanoes, tropical forest, and mountains.

We had an active time. We swam, we saw sea turtles, we snorkeled, we hiked, we ate well and I got to play some golf. But those are future blog posts...