The sun was shining, the vog was faint and we cruised to South Point for a day's diversion. En-route, we stopped for malasadas at the Pahala Town Cafe. My dad abstained. While Ron and I chowed down on cream-filled sugary fried dough, dad had a cigarette. I guess we all have our vices.We cruised down to the southern most point on the island. This is an historic location; the place where the first polynesians voyagers, those who would become the first Hawaiians, landed their sailing conoes and started a new civilization after crossing some 2700 miles of open ocean. It's a bleak and barren place, so it's no wonder they fanned out quickly and settled everywhere but here. Still, it's beautiful in it windswept way. On our way to South Point, we stopped at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. My dad said he really didn't care so much about seeing a black sand beach, nor did he really care if we say a turtle. OK, so he'd been there before. Once. Truth be told, he just didn't want to exert himself getting out of the car. He'd done that once already. But shoots, I've been to Punalu'u a dozen times and I still think it's a cool place. Not only do I enjoy any excuse to get out and walk around there, but to hang out for as long as possible. There were folks gathered under one of the park shelters listening to a local man strum his guitar and sing. He had a nice voice and, given the splendor of the day, I could have stayed all afternoon just listening to the music and gawking at the spectalar shoreline.
On the way home, we stopped for a quick bite at Shaka, in Na'alehu; the southernmost restaurant in the U.S.A.
Once home, it was nap time, followed by lots of sitting around and doing as close to nothing as possible. Somehow, when my dad's here, I find myself doing less than I thought was possible and feeling absolutely exhausted as a result. Go figure.
Ron actually got him on the tractor twice last week. That's something. He seemed to enjoy demonstrating his bucket-handling prowess. He's pretty good with the thing, even after adding so much "sweetner" to his coffee all morning.
A hui hou. Aloha!
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