Forecast for the week, increasing bouts of freaking out, with flurries of out right panic

About 6 weeks ago, in a weak moment, I agreed to host a May the Forth Be With You meetup.  If you're not a Star Wars geek-a-zoid, its a play on the saying "may the force be with you", and is held every year on the 4 of May. 

I did have enough common sense to hold the number to 6, including myself.  Out of that 6, three will be complete strangers. 

In.  My.  House!  

My safe zone. 

My batcave. 

My fortress of solitude. 

Ok I've finished with the comic book references, sorry.

I hate cooking for others now.  When you cant taste what you're cooking it becomes super stressful.  I can't cook only things that I can eat as one of the people coming is allergic to soy, my go to replace dairy.  So, now I'm trying to come up with things that everyone can eat. 

At this point in time I've decided on build your own hoagies.  I'll have my gf bun, and will buy some for Miss Soy Allergy (MSA).  They can have cheese and egg mayo, meat and shredded veggies. 
MSA is a sometimes veggie, so that gives me some worry.  Tortilla chips with guac and salsa.  I was thinking about raw veggies, but am stumped as for a dip.  What I can eat for a dip, MSA cant.  What I can serve for the others, neither one of us can have. 

I need to clean the house, tis a messy home at the present.  Lay in party supplies, like paper plates, as I only have a service for 4 dinnerware. 

Oh dear Pasta, what have I done.....

Wow Gee Golly Gosh!

Sorry for the long delay in my travelog, but I became sad from missing TH.  It was FABULOUS to be together for 11 wonderful, thrilling, quietly together days.

I don't have any of my own pictures of this beach due to us going to swim and not wanting to leave cameras or phones unwatched. 

Ok, remember Pu'uhonua o Hounaunau from the last post?  Right across the bay is a "beach" called Two Step. The building in the distance is the temple in the Pu'uhonua (refuge) area.  There is no sand at this beach and only the very edge where the waves wash it are smooth enough not to hurt tender feet.  This lava is like walking on brillo pads, very sharp!  See that wee bit of sand up against the greenery?  That is a shallow sand lined cove that green turtles come and bask and rest in.  Its roped off from the rest of Pu'uhonua and anyone that comes snorkeling in is chased off as the turtles are a protected species.

 Two Step is named for the naturally occurring two steps from the lava to the water.  These two steps are the only area to get into the water.  Here are the Two Steps in action.  Luckily the top step is coated in a soft layer of ocean plant that makes getting up and down comfortable.  If you time it right, the waves help push you up on the step from the water!  Lovely for tired legs after snorkeling for a long while.

See how close to the surface the coral is?  There is a goodly portion of the bay that is fairly shallow, but it does drop off rather quickly to depths of around 100 ft, give or take.

Now TH being the totes adorbs fella that he is, goes snorkeling with me.  Even though he is afraid of the ocean, and can't get a good seal on his mask due to his mustache.  He rents a boogie board and motors out with his flippers on and if I see something amazing, I come and show him, he dons his mask and looks about quickly before it fills with water.

So this day the weather was perfect.  No wind, lovely calm flat seas.  The beaches fill up quickly so we arrived about 9 am.  There were already beach goers, but not at all crowded.  So, into the water we go, and are amazed at all the fish!  As we slowly made our way further from shore, the bottom began dropping off and TH became a bit nervous.  Until he looked up, him of the perfect vision and shouted DOLPHINS!!!

There was a pod of about 20-30 dolphins!  They swam and fed and there were two with babies who nursed their young!  While I was under watching them do this, TH saw them do flips and spins out of the water!  We swam around them for over an hour.  At first I have to admit I was terrified of them.  But then calmed down and really enjoyed watching them.









A video of what the reef is like.




I sure wish I have pictures and video of my own.  Hopefully, next time will have an underwater camera and goggles for TH so he can see more underwater without trying hard not to drown every time he puts his face in the water.

P'uhonua o Honaunau

In ancient Hawaii only Ali'i Nui (royal chiefs) owned property.  Ali'i land was pie or wedge shaped so each chief received rights to the ocean, beach, and so on up into the mountains/volcano cone, allotting equal access to all needed resources.  There was no form of currency, the only thing a common person actually owned was his own life.

Polynesian culture was ordered with laws that were sacred rules, known popularly as taboo, in Hawaii as kapu.  While modern usage of kapu throughout the Hawaiian isles is keep out, or no trespassing, that is only a portion of what it used to mean.  Kapu rules codified what was acceptable in their society.  Like any society kapu covered all aspects of life: gender roles, politics, religion, areas open for fishing, when to harvest trees and so forth.

With no currency, no ownership of property, how would you punish someone for large and serious transgressions, by taking the only thing they owned, their life.  Now, there was this very tiny loophole to escape death, a loophole that wasn't easy to wiggle through, but was available, pu'uhonua, a place of refuge.  If you could make it to pu'uhonua, then after religious rites and purification all was forgiven, and were free to regain society once again.

The pu'uhonua on Hawaii is wedged between the ocean and the Ali'i Nui (royal) compound at Honaunau.  It was not meant to be an easy thing to get to, many were supposed to fail on their journey, so only the bravest, strongest and most determined managed to save their lives.  Weeding out the weak in a very Darwin way, yeah?

The building behind the wall is the pu'uhonua compound.  During times of war, women and children, elders and defeated warriors took refuge from the battles, no chief would breach the kapu of killing someone within the walls.  If the chief of the area lost the battle, the chief took ownership of the land and had a ready supply of people to get back to work.  A much better way of waging war if you ask me.

This is the reconstructed temple or heiau that also served as a mausoleum for the Ali'i bones. (royal chief)

Ki'i or more widely known using the Maori word, tiki.

Greetings from Hawaii!

Where everyone is ready for whatever!

Volcano!

We are really enjoying the Big Island, it's nearly the size of Connecticut! There is so much to see and do, we're only scratching the surface.

The reason you've been only getting pictures and no text is I left my computer at home, and tapping out posts on my phone takes to freaking long.

Yesterday we drove over to the volcano park. Took an interesting hike filled with information on Hawaiian myths and native plants and birds. Turns out, that I'm very sensitive to the volcanic fumes, and have stuck close to home today.

The Flora Dora Show!

Forest for the trees

Lava fields

Vacation Mystery, part 2

Hello there duckies!

Tomorrow, before it qualifies as 0 dark 30, I'll be on my way to see TH!  Our rendezvous is Seattle before we jet off for 10 fabulous days together.  We haven't seen each other since Christmas, its been much much to long.  So where are TH and I headed?

 It's time for a new game of Where's Biki on Vacation! 

I promise to not let it string out as long as I did last time.  I'll just leave the clues here today, guess if you'd like to, and Monday will post a picture and let you in on the secret.

 sandwich

coffee

A Queen

 Good luck!