16 September

We awoke early in the morning - not yet accustomed to Hawai'i time - and heard the strange clucking of a flock of wild turkeys running past the back porch. That was the first of many critters we found just outside the condo and, all too often, inside the condo!

After a few hours of reading previous visitors' journal entries and the blue bible and determining that there was no phone line and therefore no internet (Tony's DT shakes subsided mid-week), we decided to spend the day at "one of the best beaches" on the big Island. The only hitch is that to get there we had to drive an "unimproved" road. Recall that Tony did not want to get the 4x4. He rued that decision a bit while chatting with another traveler who had managed to get his similarly unsuitable sedan stuck on a particularly poor down side of a hill. Our little Jetta managed to make it, oil pan intact (unlike others as the stained dirt attested). The blue bible described a 15 - 20 minute walk to the "best beach." After five minutes of walking, we found a beach that looked good to us and stayed there for the day. Monica took a photo of Tony laying on his stomach squinting in the sun, back burning to a nice shade of red. Tony had covered his tender machine room pallor skin with SPF 50 sunblock, but neglected to apply it to his back despite Monica's gentle suggestions otherwise. Even so, the water was warm, the beach beautiful and the day a wonderful respite from our daily routines.

We left the beach and drove on towards dinner. Along the way we stopped to take in the sunset on the northern coast where it is rumored that we could see the "green flash" as the sun set (equal parts optical illusion and earth's atmosphere). Monica thinks she saw the green flash, but maybe she stared at the sun too long (ouch!). We settled on dinner in the central island town of Waimea, after we discovered our first choice for dinner, Bamboo Restaurant, was closed for renovations. We enjoyed a delicious and overpriced French meal at Daniel Thibaut, located inside a charming restored dry goods store.

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