Since it seems more or less like the VeloNews.com setup, I thought I’d test-drive the free-version WordPress gallery tool with a few more shots from our Big Island getaway. Click a thumbnail and you get a larger photo with caption, plus the ability to navigate fore and aft throughout the gallery.
So in case you feel the need for a getaway from whatever’s crawling up your butt — airstrikes in Libya, dope fiends on bicycles or eejits in DeeCee — pull on your grass skirt, add a coconut brassiere and prepare to get lei’d.
Punalu’u is a black-sand beach on the southeast side of the island. We met a dingbat with a six-pack of puppies who told us that the tsunami was the government’s attempt to take our minds off 911.
Ho’okena Bay is the closest beach to our rental house. It was a tad misty post-tsunami; we went back a few days later and saw a huge pod of porpoises.
Your Humble Narrator at Pu’uhonua O Honaunau (“Place of Refuge”), mentioned in Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Curse of Lono.”
A long shot of the lava, beach and palms at Place of Refuge.
Big water and little water available at Ho’okena beach.
Herself livin’ large at Punalu’u.
Herself peeks over a fence en route to the volcano for a glimpse of the ocean.
Allegedly the southernmost point in the United States. Suck it, Texas. Stoners were leaping off its cliffs into the sea the day after the tsunami.
One of the many stellar sunsets we saw from the lanai at our rental house in Captain Cook.
I had Herself send this to various friends and relatives who heard about the tsunami and didn’t realize that we were 1,500 feet above sea level.
I don’t even want to think what you have to pay to get this view from the Sheraton. We got it for free, if you don’t count the pricey shiatsu massage.
Thank you for smoking … instead of blowing up. We got up close and personal with Kilauea a few days after Pele got cranky, walking from the steam vents to the museum and back.
Hey, K … even though we were bracketed by a volcanic eruption and a tsunami it was pretty damn’ nice. We never made it to Roy’s, though. Tried the afternoon we got in, but they didn’t open until 5 and we were famished, so we grabbed a bite at some lesser joint and then basically never got back there again.
We did, however, find a ton of other good eats: The Coffee Shack (killer breakfasts and local java); Keei Café (excellent dinner, reasonable prices, big portions); Annie’s (grass-fed, island-raised beef, organic goodies and local beer); and The Fish Hopper on Alii Drive, overlooking Kailua Bay.
There was a certain grim amusement to be had watching tourists photograph the slightly damaged sidewalk and road outside The Fish Hopper after seeing NHK English-language coverage of the destruction in Japan. Our rental had a satellite dish, and man … NHK has it all over the round-eyes when it comes to giving you the real deal. I hate TV news, and even I was impressed.
Glad you enjoyed your vacation! Add the sudden popularity of geiger-counters and iodide tablets to the “people are stupid” category in response to the nuke mess in Japan. We had our semi-annual ravioli-making party last night. Details here http://cycleitalia.blogspot.com/2011/03/milano-san-remo-and-homemade-ravioli.html
if anyone wants to read more.
Larry, I recently heard some massively irritated expert excoriating us Yankees for being dipshits on this very topic; BBC America, I think it was. With so many pinheads Stateside gobbling up iodide tablets, they are in short supply for the folks who actually need them. Duh.
The way things are going you’d think someone was offering a prize for the dumbest person ever.
Mad Blog Media 
Big Island, no ka oi.
Hey, K … even though we were bracketed by a volcanic eruption and a tsunami it was pretty damn’ nice. We never made it to Roy’s, though. Tried the afternoon we got in, but they didn’t open until 5 and we were famished, so we grabbed a bite at some lesser joint and then basically never got back there again.
We did, however, find a ton of other good eats: The Coffee Shack (killer breakfasts and local java); Keei Café (excellent dinner, reasonable prices, big portions); Annie’s (grass-fed, island-raised beef, organic goodies and local beer); and The Fish Hopper on Alii Drive, overlooking Kailua Bay.
There was a certain grim amusement to be had watching tourists photograph the slightly damaged sidewalk and road outside The Fish Hopper after seeing NHK English-language coverage of the destruction in Japan. Our rental had a satellite dish, and man … NHK has it all over the round-eyes when it comes to giving you the real deal. I hate TV news, and even I was impressed.
Glad you enjoyed your vacation! Add the sudden popularity of geiger-counters and iodide tablets to the “people are stupid” category in response to the nuke mess in Japan. We had our semi-annual ravioli-making party last night. Details here http://cycleitalia.blogspot.com/2011/03/milano-san-remo-and-homemade-ravioli.html
if anyone wants to read more.
Larry, I recently heard some massively irritated expert excoriating us Yankees for being dipshits on this very topic; BBC America, I think it was. With so many pinheads Stateside gobbling up iodide tablets, they are in short supply for the folks who actually need them. Duh.
The way things are going you’d think someone was offering a prize for the dumbest person ever.
Now THAT would be a really tough competition….
What? You mean the tsunami was not created by the “trilaterial commission on government affairs with page boys/girls?” Darn…..
Awesome photos and it sure beats the weather here in ‘sunny’ NoCal.