Swells and Shave Ice.

Tuesday

There are some groups of SwimVacationers that just soak it all up, and can take everything you throw at them. This week’s group of is one of those. We started with a 2-mile swim here at Waialea bay. Turtles were spotted. A random swell came up and receded. The sun shone brightly. Bliss.

Next up was yoga. Several months ago, we reached out to a local yoga studio to see if any of their instructors were interested in teaching a session for us at our Hale. Amanda replied to us, and seemed to be a good fit. She gathered demographic data from us and kept in touch. This morning, she asked us a lot of questions about our physical activity this week, sore spots, etc. She gave a brilliant session, with waves crashing in the background and a sea breeze cooling us off. She had us stretching all the right parts, and calmed us down with some great breathing exercises.  We’ll have her back next year.

We jumped right into a lunch of bok choy salad that Clare tossed with lots of yummy ingredients and it all disappeared in minutes. Which is great, because we had to jump in the van to make a 1:00 outrigger canoe tour in Kona.  The swell was building, so the outrigger canoe guide had to limit us to one boat tour, so Ryan, Heather and I put all of the guests on the one boat and went to get some Hawaiian shave ice after Ryan and Heather kayaked out to get some photos of our rowers. Feeling guilty about eating shave ice while the guests were paddling over the big swell, we bought them a round of the icy treat upon their return. Smiles all around.

Back at the Hale, we jumped in for a day-capping ¾ mile swim to our favorite reef. Mai tais followed, then braised short rib, asparagus, and Jasmine rice. An Italian red wine whose name escapes me paired nicely. Everyone hit the hay pretty early, we leave at 6am for a boat trip to Kealakekua, one of the best places in the world for a swim.
 

- Hopper