Hawaii, pt. 2

So, our first order of business after checking in at the hotel in Kona was to drive to the black sand beaches we’d heard so much about. They’re only 65 miles away from Kona so, we thought, we’d pop right over to check them out. Wrong. That 65 miles took us a little over two hours to reach. No freeways here, kids. Just a two lane road with lots of switchbacks and numerous elevation shifts. On the upside, the scenery was more beautiful than you can imagine…lush fields of coffee trees buttressed by gnarly fluid rock frozen mid-pour.

When we finally arrived at the beach, we realized that the long drive was totally worth it. The short bit of black sand beach was bookended by more swells of lava flows. It was like being on another planet…you half expected the water to be purple and the people sunbathing to be little and green. It was amazing. Here's a picture that doesn't begin to do it justice.

The rest of the day was mostly the ride home, a quick dinner and an early bed time. Our hotel was right on the water and, with the giant sliding glass door open, the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks below was almost deafening. We initially left the door open to let the swells put us to sleep but Brooke got up at some point that night to close the door since the crashing waves kept waking her up. That’s how loud they were. Me, I’ll sleep through anything…

Then this morning we were up at our typical “Island 5” a.m. Hawaii is six hours behind Boston and we just can’t seem to shake the jet lag. With any luck, we’ll get sorted just in time to leave. We decided to go catch some sun and do a little swimming so we drove down to a beach with a lot of Hs and vowels in its name. We’d been told that it was a nice beach to body surf and lay out. We were told correctly.

The beach was very small but there were probably twenty kids and adults in the water with body boards or funny hand-fins for body surfing. The waves were rarely above 4 feet but they were strong and there was a sand bar a little way out that caused them to curl and break nicely. After catching some sun, we decided to wade out a bit. The water was perfect and it was fun to hop up over the waves and generally get tossed about by the sea. Then I got stupid.

I decided to kick the tires on a little body surfing without any gear. Not really a big deal, just hard without fins to help you get in front of the wave before it starts to break. It also means you have to wait for a relatively big wave so you can get a good head start. Such a wave, I did find.

At first, I thought I was about to miss the break like all the others before but at the last second, I caught it (or it caught me, rather). I was propelled forward for, say, half a second and then got tumbled in the shallows. Caught off guard and under water, I immediately struggled to pop up for air. In doing so, I some how popped my right arm out of the socket at the shoulder. I could feel that it was out of socket as I stood up and, without even thinking, I just grabbed it with my left hand and shrugged it back into place. I’m unstoppable!

In actuality, it hurt like hell. It was a little sore right after it happened but the pain seemed to diminish after a couple of hours…now it just hurts when I make certain motions. I’m sure it’s fine, just a little internal bruising, but I hope it doesn’t ruin any of the other activities we have planned for the trip. Luckily, tonight we’re taking a tour to the top of Mauna Kea so no heavy lifting will be required…I’ll report back on that later.