Sunsets and Goats

Monday night we gathered on Holly & Lary's lanai for drinks, snacks, and to watch the sunset. Shane went across to the patio by the tennis courts with his macbook and went online with his friends.

Although we did not see whales this time (Check out Lary's FB video of whales frolicking at sunset), we did see a spectacular sunset, both at the start of the sinking through the marine layer (below), and the end as it emerged from the marine layer and sank while canoes zipped past (above).

The next day, Tuesday, we headed south along the belt road, stopping again at the black sand turtle beach, where it was raining.  Helen wore her plastic poncho, and looked like a pink bubble:

Apparently, turtles have never seen pink bubbles, because the one on the beach turned his head and followed Helen with his eyes wherever she moved:

We continued on through the driving rain toward Hilo, stopping just west of Hilo in the Puna region to visit friends.  Rich & Lisa have a lovely round house, and gave us a fabulous Hawaiian (poke salad and Mochi dessert) lunch as we sat in their dining room overlooking the water a few feet away.

Afterwards, we had an update on the recent Chilean earthquake and possible Tsunami from Liz, followed by a flash flood warning on my phone--all of this prompted us to take the new saddle highway (Daniel K. Inouye Highway) across the top between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Although both volcanoes were shrouded by clouds, it was still a lovely drive,

On the way home, a suicidal wild goat darted in front of me, but fortunately she was fast and I braked quickly.  This isn't her, but she looked like this:

We made it back, pretty much exhausted, to our condo and followed the news of the possible tsunami--but it did not materialize, thank goodness.