072 – The Big Island, Hawai’i – Mis-Guided

With a few days to kill between the departure of Grandma and Poppa and the arrival of Nana and G-Dad we turned to our trusty LP (Lonely Planet) Guidebook to direct us to some nearby attractions.

As it turns out, I think the authors may have been padding their page quotas with this one.

In the spirit of aloha, I let Britt convince me to check out the  “Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary”.

Which was actually just some eccentric lady’s backyard.  The “shrines and meditation nooks” consisted largely of arbitrarily piled rocks adorned with trinkets and statues from the goodwill store and church bazaar, that had been given ingenious names like, “The Christian Shrine”, “The Islamic Shrine”,  “The Jewish Shrine”, “The Hindu Shrine”…

(Impressive, I know.)

The shrines weren’t the only random attraction; Britt and Ciel found the “Labyrinth” to be a real challenge.

Okay, granted, the place wasn’t a total bust. It was a BIG backyard, with a nice view,

And gorgeous flowers.

The jade was in bloom,

A few Saffron Finches flitted merrily about,

And the pièce de résistance,  the Milky Way representation, “Galaxy Garden”,

Was oddly impressive.

Although, the highlight was getting to crack our own macadamia nuts on the way out.

(Primarily, because it meant we were on the way out.)

Ciel found it all a little airy-fairy.

Next the LP tipped us off to the Ho’okena Beach Potluck, held from “noon-4pm”  every Wednesday.

Greek salad in hand, we arrived fashionably late at 12:15, to a sea of dreadlocks, tie-dyed shirts, rice paddy pants and pot smoke, only to have the guy at the grill tell Britt, “Hey, that's great, we usually get the food going at around 4pm”, before proceeding to offer her and Taz a toke of his spliff.

Feeling committed, we set up camp amidst the haze,

Only to watch the crowd get progressively more drunk, stoned and apathetic about the organization of the event.   

Meanwhile, our little “Sky”,

Was fitting right in with “Rainbow” and “Crimson”.

And his dog “Clover” (not shown). 

That's right, "Crimson and Clover..." Priceless.

After subsisting on goldfish crackers and (not enough) beer for over five hours, guess who was first in line when the food finally rolled out at 5:30pm.

Never get in the way of a hungry momma bear and her cubs...

After that, Ciel and Taz figured we’d be better off to stay close to home,

 And stick with what we know.

Tomorrow brings the dawn of a new day,

And the arrival of unsuspecting serfs, Nana and G-Dad.

The royals await.