The Spirit of Aloha

Aloha Spirit State Law: "Aloha Spirit" is the coordination of mind and heart within each person. It brings each person to the self. Each person must think and emote good feelings to others. For more on this incredible state law, check out www.to-hawaii.com/aloha.php

Today, and every day we live our lives with much Aloha. This helps us along the path to having a life that is Pono (Righteous).

Today we headed over to the west side or Leeward side of the island. Despite our desire to try something new, we went with our tried and true location, Puako Bay.

We had attempted to take Saddle Rd, but due to an accident of sorts, we had to turn around and head all the way around, going through Waimea. My mother who is great at being a mother and planning, had packed items to make sandwiches. Despite my desire to get a burger at Parker Ranch, we all at sandwiches in the mini as we made our way to the beach.

Puako is one of our favorite locations. I will admit the sand is not soft here, rather course in fact. However the protected bay, and lazy lapping waves is enticing. Rarely do we share the bay with anyone. So it is nice to find a little slice of heaven and have it to yourself.

Today, there was a younger couple with kids, and two other friends there. This is quite literally the most people I have ever seen here. I will admit, I was a bit miffed, we were not alone. But as they say "sharing is caring" and I am in fact the visitor.

The weather was typically warm, sun was shining, and vog was looming up the hillside. The clouds however grew darker and that is when we realized that it was a storm. It was amazing to sit there in the sun, perfect weather.. yet look at the storm and hear the thunder rumbling. I felt very satisfied.

Per my usual, I went out to snorkel and after a satisfactory swim I moved on the beach coming for shells. At the house I have started a shell garden, and Puako is a great place to find shells. Seeing that the reason the beach is so coarse is due to all of the shell fragments. Every once in awhile you find a real good treasure. But for the most part the shells are just normal ol nothing special shells. Yet I am enticed by them just the same.

Following a good sunning on the beach, we notice the clouds becoming slightly darker and decide we should probably head into Kona to Coscto and then home. Driving across Saddle is fine when the weather is nice and during the day. However, it is less than ideal and night and even more so when it is stormy. Saddle Rd has been closed for various storms due to the elevation being so high. You are basically driving THROUGH the storm clouds at 6,632 feet. Anyway, visibility can essentially be zero when you are up there, as the fog becomes VERY dense.

We arrive to Costco and make headway to pick out all needed items for the rest of our stay. I see a sarong display and fawn over all the various sarongs and how cheap they are. I toss two into the cart. I simply can not resist these things!

As I am still obsessing over sarongs and if I can justify buying another, its like the whole store freezes as alarms are going off on everyones phone. All but mine, because mine was still on airplane mode. I pop mine on to see whats going on. This was my first experience with the hazardous weather alert system. It is amazing what phones can do these days!

The notification shows a massive storm heading for Saddle Rd from Hilo and then once it crests, it will start creating flash floods. Well that is just neato! Mini is pretty awesome, but I dont think she can hang in a flash flood, and I really dont want to find out.

With food, snacks and a mocha freeze in hand, we beat feet to mini. Ice down everything in the ice chest and head for the hills. Before we even reach Saddle the rain starts, and it is relatively moderate. Tho the higher we go, the more intense it becomes. We look around and not a car to be seen. Its like we are the only idiots dumb enough to cross Saddle when these alerts go off.

I doubt it was because we beat everyone to the punch. Anyway, we proceed and nothing pivotal happened, thankfully. We make it home, and the storm is clearly is increasing. Around 8 pm as we are wrapping up an intense game of monopoly, our sirens alert us once again. This time its an advisory for flash foods in our area, and thunder and lightening. Like I said, I dont mind storms and for me this is exhilarating.

(Intense, right?)

Anyway, after the notification, the predicted time of arrival for the storm was promptly on time.

With a HUGE boom and rattle, the house shook. The boys at this point are freaked out, and the idea of bed time with such noises taking place seems like an impossible feat. But with luck, and expectation, my husband was ready for bed. So, we put two fans in our room and closed all the windows in hope to filter out some of the noise. The boys were not willing to sleep in their own room, so they had makeshift beds on the floor in our room.

After all my men are tucked in to bed, I make my way outside to watch in all its splendor. I think I was outside watching for a good 4 hours. I took various impressive videos, and ohhh and awed with each lightening strike and ground rumbling thunder clap! Naturally in Oregon I am not as impressed with storms. But yet again, it doesn't seem to matter what Hawaii does, I am always impressed and exhilarated by it. I swear it is solely due to the fact it is warm. I am pretty patient with just about anything, as long as it is warm outside.

The amount of rain that came down was impressive. Tho I have no formal gauge, we did sit out a cup (16 oz), to see how quickly it would fill. It filled up easily within 5 minutes. How that references the downpour.. I have no idea. But we were impressed. Eventually Dave went off to bed, leaving me and my mom. We would go from one side of the house to the other to find the best and most impressive views of the storm.

One am has rolled around and here I am thinking that it is most certainly time to get to sleep. So perhaps we will see what adventures we can have tomorrow!