The Painted Church (or Paint it Black on Day III)

The day starts like any other. Get up before sunrise, wait for dawn and the first surfers, take the bike for a ride, maybe even up the hill to the grocery store that opens at 7am.

Plumeria bushes/trees (?) drop their leaves not when they are all dried up and shrivelly, but when they are still quite nice.  Riding the bike along a road lined with Plumeria of different shapes and colours, I can not resist picking some off the ground and putting them on the bike.

 Back at the hotel, the waves seem higher than normal.

 This little guy makes a hell of a noise !

After buying some piece of mind (also known as car insurance), we head off to the town of Captain Cook and 'The Painted Church'.  The plan was to attend a church service there tomorrow and today is supposed to be a scouting trip to figure out how long it would take us to get there. After climbing from sea level quite high to Captain Cook, we have to get down again to the coast. Nice vistas:

Then we get to the St Benedict, the 'painted church'.

WTF?  It is famous because they 'painted it white'?

fabulous view for everyone

I still only see WHITE

OH!  I SEE !!!!  It is the "painted on the inside church" !

Please note how the geometric palm tree patterns transform into the classical cathedral architectural pattern ;-)

 And if the service is not to one's liking: There is always the view to save the day ;-)

Is that a palm tree behind Jesus casting the devil (with coins dropping out of pockets) into the abyss?

All I could do after that was have a nap, and when I woke up it was the perfect time to take the bicycle to the grocery store again and observe the sunset on the ride back (Traditions/habits are easily formed here ;-)

See the dog in the bottom right?  Waiting for his surfer master. Seems to be very common around here.

Another old man and the sea

Sunset from the grocery store

on the way back

Yes. I am sweating. I am biking and it is 27 degrees and muggy ;-)

Then it is 'sunset time' again ;-)

until tomorrow !

Read the small print and SAVE BIG (A car rental story)

The background:

Au! O!   (not my pic)

The German word for car is Auto. Germans like to say that it starts with Au! and ends with Oh!.  Lots of money is spent on anything to do with cars and lots of money is made. Car dealers didn't get their reputation without a reason.  Some may say that car rental people are just as bad.

The history:

When we were here in Hawaii last December, we rented a car through Expedia for 8 days for $300.  When we arrived here and tried to pick up the car, we were told that we had to get insurance for the car. Another $300.  Total for 8 days: US$600.

The steal:

not my pic

This time I tried to do it different and went to the website of that car rental firm with the name borrowed from that beleaguered but doomed little fort in Texas (Stars with A and ends with O ;-). I rented a car on their website for $275 for 13 days (Wow, you start thinking, is that how Expedia makes its money?). When we got here, the truly friendly sales rep pushed a laminated sheet with insurance options in front of me.  When the answer to my question "Which of these are required by law?" was "none", I just pushed the sheet aside and said "Next".  The people in front of me had used their Roadstar status with ICBC in Canada, to apply that insurance to the rental car here in HI.  So I did the same.
Total for 13 days of car: US$275.

not my pic

The catch:

My ICBC car insurance of my car in Vancouver expires today. When still in Vancouver, I had seen this as brilliant financial timing (why have a car insured in Vancouver if I'm not there to drive it?), but now I wish my ICBC insurance would continue a bit longer.  There probably is no way that the US police or even the car rental people here would find out about it, but I will drive to the airport today and buy some car insurance (even though the car is already insured ;-(.

The conclusion:

definitely not my pic

Listen up, all you cheap bastard good drivers: You DO NOT have to buy insurance for rental cars in the US.  Even if your ICBC insurance expires.  Accidents are at your own risk, but the car is already insured by the rental company to be on the road, and YOU DO NOT have to buy insurance from the rental company.  Grandma is along and we decided to get some insurance anyway. Not for damage to the rental car; but third party liability, just in case we hit a doctor and he can't work for a year. That would mean lifetime indebtedness & servitude :-(

Next time I'll make sure my ICBC car insurance does not expire while on a holiday !

A day in the life. (Kona Day II)

This day starts like any other. As soon as there is enough light to distinguish between sky and water, they are out there, trying to catch that perfect wave.

As soon as there is enough light to easily spot pot holes in the road, I am out there too.

For some reason, the morning air here is always crisp and clear, giving rise to an orgy of colours. (As soon as the afternoon arrives, glare starts to dominates the land and seascape.)

Critters just in front of the balcony

Only hours after this did Grandma tell me that they can JUMP!

The following two pictures might be misleading:

Then all of a sudden the colours change again.  Sunset must be near !

That perfect wave might come just after sunset !

Too tired to write any more. I went for 4 bike rides today.

Never give up; never surrender ;-)

The long march, the big sleep, and the turtle head (11:45 am to 6pm)

27 degrees Celsius that feel like 34 degrees (Hawaiian wind chill ;-).  But I have to pick up my rental bicycle, so I start my 45 minute walk into town.  5 minutes into the walk I just want to cover my eyes.  A snowman in this temperature?












Then it's just the road, the heat, and the bulging flowers. The ever-present plumeria:

Hibiscus flowers (Thank you, Denise !)

Fishy tail-fins being grown on trees?

Gorgeous water in which I cool my overheating feet:

Then this butterfly entices me to take pictures of it by hopping about 3 feet in front of me.  When he decides to land only one picture out of 4 turns out sharp (too excited; shaking all over the place ;-)

Then I reach town and get the bike:



What took 45 minutes to walk one way takes at most 10 minutes the other way.









When I get home I throw some Marlin in the pan (The old man and the sea ;-), eat, try to read, and fall asleep on the bed.  After that I decide to have a 'real' cigarette (NO real SMOKING inside the building) outside and hang out on the water side of the hotel.

First discovery: These Darth Vader Crabs are at least as large as my outstretched hands and move over these rocks like wind-hounds.  These side-walkers of darkness are FAST !

When I peruse the rocks close to my feet for any more of these critters, I discover Mr. Turtle frolicking (laying eggs?) a few feet in front of me.

He doesn't look too pleased about me taking pictures:

After that it's just boring sunsets until dark ;-)

The early bird .... (Day I: 5 am to 8 am)

At 4:30 am (6:30 am in Vancouver) sleep no longer is possible.  The ocean is making a heck of a ruckus and I can see white-capped swells coming out of the darkness and crashing onto black lava boulders about 15 meters from my bed.  I grab my Nic-stick and sit on the dark Lanai.  OMG!  Are those all stars up there?  After staring at the sky’s twinkling canopy for a while it ‘dawns’ on me how much Vancouverites really paid for cars and personal transportation.

Not a city; A cruise ship bringing shoppers to Kona 

Dawn MUST come SOON now, I keep thinking.  At 5:30 am, the horizon is still as pitch dark as one hour earlier.  5 minutes later I seem to detect that here is a tiny difference in the degree of pitch-blackness close to where the horizon should be. Could it be that the sea is slightly more pitch-black than the sky?

At 5:50 am I am showered, ready to go shopping for breakfast materials, and some hesitant sign of dawn has arrived.  The shoreline appears out of the darkness to the left and the right.

At 6:20 am I am at the supermarket in the mall.  It opens at 7 am, time for another drive and more pictures.

from the supermarket parking lot

From a rock in front of the hotel

that ship again

Back at the mall: grocery shopping accomplished

Then: FINALLY breakfast:

Hawaiian sweetbread, pineapple, and Octopus Poke ;-o

Can't really complain about the view

The great escape

And it's about time.  I need a break from the LOOK AT ME! / ME FIRST! lifestyle of Vancouver BADLY.  Getting a break from Vancouver weather does not hurt either.  When I check out of my motel at 11 am it is 0 degrees Celsius. Some driving school in Vancouver must teach its students that the drivers in front of the student's car are most happy if they see nothing but the student's radiator grill in their rear-view mirrors.  And after the students have been inhaling full concentration exhaust for a while by driving that close to the car in front, they might even believe it once the exhaust has carbon-monoxided their brain ;-)

I also note that downtown Vancouver looks like on one of those first colour photographs taken in the 60s or 70s, with that slight brownish patina superimposed over the natural colours. The only problem is, I'm not looking at a photograph, I'm looking at the real thing.  All those new car dealerships have changed the face of the city in more ways than one!

Goofy Airport !

Vancouver Airport is ALL NONSENSE as usual.

Ever since we figured out that a wheelchair lets you skip the long line-ups at security and customs, Grandma is happy to be wheeled around. This year I noticed that the standard wheelchair is MUCH WIDER than last year.  When I mention this to a WestJet employee, he blames the ever increasing width of the passengers' rear ends.
When Grandma orders a steak in the Canucks Bar & Grill (the only 'decent' restaurant available in the secure zone, unless one wants to 'dine' at Tim Hortons), she is informed that it is 'airport policy' not to give steak knives to the guests.  Grandma assures me that the regular knives are sharp enough even for non-food-related purposes.  I guess we have to be happy that we don't have to drink our wine out of plastic glasses and don't have to use plastic knives to cut our food.

 

Grandma can't make sense of that knife-nonsense either !

While my grandmother is happy with her steak, my Fish & Chips comes in close to the bottom of all F&Cs I have ever eaten. Too bad the price comes in at the very top of all those F&Cs. $18 for an order of Fish and Chips that tastes something like fish sticks. When I mention to the waitress that this was probably the most expensive and worst Fish & Chips I ever had, the manager does the honourable thing and takes it off the bill. Thank you Canucks.

Then, mercifully, it's time to board the WestJet plane.