| Saturday, March 07, 2009 |
| A rocky road |
Today was another gray and rainy day, but you can't sit indoors and sulk when you have limited time to spend in a place, so we drove about an hour down the coast to Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. We had stopped in Kailua Kona for lunch, and I finally broke down and bought a Big Island guidebook. The park sounded interesting and was reasonably close by.
The parklands are divided into royal grounds and the pu'uhonua, a place of refuge where people sentenced to death for breaking sacred laws could go to receive a pardon -- if they could reach it. The shores are rocky, to say the least. In fact, it reminded me a little bit of the pyramid at Chichen Itza, where I couldn't believe people were allowed to climb around on it because it seemed so dangerous. (Indeed, since I was there, climbing is no longer permitted.) The park's web site notes that "walking along the rocky coast line or accessing the tidepools can be physically challenging. The lava rocks are uneven, loose and are sometimes wet and slippery." Still, if you're feeling nimble, it's tough to resist the urge to walk out there and take a closer look at the sea:
There is a reconstructed temple on the royal grounds surrounded by some cool wooden carvings:
We were lucky, I suppose, in that it started raining as soon as we got back to our car, and not when we were way out on the lava rocks. Anyway, it was a fun and scenic little hike.
Joe had loco moco for lunch, which is a local specialty involving rice, an egg, a hamburger patty and gravy. Cholesterol-licious!
Tomorrow we won't have much time for gallivanting around the island, since the convention begins in earnest. Reading is such a solitary activity, it strikes me as a little odd that we have these communal gatherings to celebrate our love of books. And as someone who has a touch of social phobia, it's challenging for me to get out there and mingle. That's the main reason why I haven't gone to one of these in five years. Wish me pomaika'i (luck). |
posted by 125records @ 10:49 PM  |
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| About Me |
Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
About Me: Email me: talk at interbridge dot com
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