The final chapter of the Kauai sneak attack blog
Hey blog fans! It’s the final chapter of the sneak attack blog because I am sitting in the Honolulu airport waiting for the flight to Portland to board. Let’s all hope that this flight goes slightly better than the one out here.
Before relating the fun and excitement of the past couple of days, some housecleaning and a little pimping are in order.
I was asked “what is a 3 tank dive and how long does it last”. Diving, in general, is categorized by the number of tanks you are going to dive in a day. The number of tanks equates to the number of dives you actually do. So a 2 tank dive has you diving twice while a 3 tank dive has you diving 3 times. To make matters more fun and exciting, when diving on compressed air, nitrogen gets absorbed by your body and does not leave easily until you get out of the water. Getting too much nitrogen debt leads to the bends…and that is bad, m’kay? When you do a dive, you have a “surface interval” where you need to stay on the surface before diving again. When you are doing a 2 tank dive, for the most part, the surface interval is around 45 minutes. There is a chart/tool you learn when getting certified that lets you calculate what you need based off the time down and the depth and a dive computer actually keeps track of that for you based off what you did during the dive.
But let’s go with around 45 minutes for a 2 tank dive. When doing those, you usually leave around 7 or 8 in the morning and get back by noon depending on how far the boat needs to go. Really it’s about 40-50 minutes dive, 45 surface, and another 40-50 minute dive plus the travel time. They often do afternoon 2 tank dives too. Anyway, the cool thing about 2 tank dives is you do that in the morning and it leaves the afternoon free for other fun and excitement…like going to Waimea.
A 3 tank dive adds a little degree of difficulty. In reality, that 45 minute surface interval between dive 1 and 2 doesn’t really get rid of all the nitrogen in your body…it just gets rid of enough that you are safe. But you start dive 2 with a little debt already and that second dive adds onto that debt. So when doing a 3rd dive, the surface interval is longer before that last dive. For most dive trips, that provides the opportunity to have lunch and just hang out and enjoy the weather. I think it’s usually around an hour and a half to 2 hours just to be good. For any 3 tank dive you will leave in the morning and not be done until the afternoon. So you kill a whole day for about 2 and a half to 3 hours of dive time. But it’s worth it. Really.
Pimping: Kalapaki Joes has a killer beer selection and happy hour. Plus their fish tacos and seared ahi tacos are killer. They have locations in Lehue and Poipu and maybe others..but if you are on Kauai, its some good stuff.
Okay…back to the action. Btw, I am now on the flight to Portland about 3 hours from landing, which should be on time, so happiness is here and all that.
Marci wanted to take surf lessons. She tried on Wednesday while I was out gallivanting around at Niihau but the surf and current were bad so they didn’t do any surf lessons. Thursday, then was the day o’ surf. The initial plan was I would ride with her to the lessons, hang for a bit to get action photos so she could cherish the memories, and then take off to do whatever for the couple of hours the lessons would be. I heard “they start at 10” even though we were leaving at 9:10 and the town was only about 15 minutes away. What I didn’t hear, because I was getting the last blog ready for YOU, dear friends, was she needed to go to another place to pay, then head to the lessons which were 10 minutes from the pay area. I caused us to be a bit late. In the end, she got there around 10:07 but late is late. Fun times seeing Marci frazzled about being late AND not completely oriented on where she needs to go. We did donuts on a traffic circle for about 5 minutes. Normally not a bad thing, but I was trying to look up the surf shop to get directions on my not-so-smart phone and spinning in a car while reading is never a fun time. Oh well…it was my fault and all was okay in the end. Marci frazzled was AWESOME!
She caught on pretty quickly. Looked like she was having a blast and, really, it was a ton of fun watching her wipe out time and again. I ended up staying the entire lesson watching and taking pictures. Plus I saw my potential retirement plan. Dude was metal detectoring all over the beach and had a sieve scoop he was digging into the sand with. Granted, I would provide some competition for him, but realistically, I am probably not going to retire for another 15-20 years so I am sure I will be able to probably just take over his racquet.
Marci hanging 10
If I start now...I might be able to grow my hair out on the side to that length...
Not a whole lot happened Thursday other than some much needed relaxation. Did some pool time back at the resort and Marci hit the beach. It was a nicely enjoyable lazy day.
Yesterday we went hiking. The original plan was to hit “sleeping giant” which is supposed to provide awesome views of the ocean and inland. It was super overcast though so instead we tried to hunt down the road to the reservoir that hinted of a potential waterfall close by. We ended up on a pretty raggedy semi-paved road when a dirt road to the left called out to be driven upon. Marci being Marci was totally hip to the idea of 4 wheeling out Nissan Versa in the back of beyond Kauai. There was a stray dog at the beginning of the dirt road who decided he wanted to lead us for a while and continued to run in front of the car, occasionally looking back to make sure we were following, for about a mile or so. After that mile, I think he was too pooped to pop and scurried into the growth on one side of the road.
Road to hiking...back of the beyond...there were no street signs here.
Friends, you can see this road was AWESOME! It was barely wide enough for the car and full of pot holes and other fun-filled obstacles. We drove on the road until we hit a yellow gate across it. Pulling back to an area where we could park, we started hiking down another branch of the road that led away from the gate. Marci being Marci, turned off the road to follow a smaller trail into the jungle which was not quite SJoD worthy, but for sure much more off the beaten track than the SJoD. We were for sure the only people out there that day. We followed this trail making turns and taking forks for about 45 minutes until we hit upon another road that was tree lined and sort of awe inspiring.
Flowers seen in the jungle
The sight we saw after slogging through some jungle....
Based on how we had gone through the jungle, I was pretty sure if we turned left, on that road we would come to the other side of the yellow gate. So we turned right and strolled for a while. At about the hour mark, we turned back thinking if the road didn’t hit the yellow gate, we were going to be slogging back through the jungle the long way. Luckily(?) we did hit the yellow gate and our car. Looking back, we are pretty sure that road was the road to the fabled reservoir and we have a riddle to solve should we ever find ourselves back on Kauai.
Rest and relaxation was the order of the day yesterday afternoon. We were both lamenting the fact the week flew by too quickly. Not a lot to report other than that.
Roosters are everywhere in Kauai. These were running around out back of our villa.
This morning did a little run and hit the fitness center for a little lifting. Showered and packed and headed to the airport for a fairly standard trip back (so far). The only “highlight” was I got to be randomly selected for the pat down. Oh boy! Not entirely sure what they expect to find that the metal detector couldn’t. Dude definitely came close to cupping my balls there too. For sure its more invasive than I think it needs to be…but that’s me.
Anyway, fun times in Hawaii! Can’t wait to go back some day and am totally looking forward to the next adventure.
Love to all!
Jim
Hey blog fans! It’s the final chapter of the sneak attack blog because I am sitting in the Honolulu airport waiting for the flight to Portland to board. Let’s all hope that this flight goes slightly better than the one out here.
Before relating the fun and excitement of the past couple of days, some housecleaning and a little pimping are in order.
I was asked “what is a 3 tank dive and how long does it last”. Diving, in general, is categorized by the number of tanks you are going to dive in a day. The number of tanks equates to the number of dives you actually do. So a 2 tank dive has you diving twice while a 3 tank dive has you diving 3 times. To make matters more fun and exciting, when diving on compressed air, nitrogen gets absorbed by your body and does not leave easily until you get out of the water. Getting too much nitrogen debt leads to the bends…and that is bad, m’kay? When you do a dive, you have a “surface interval” where you need to stay on the surface before diving again. When you are doing a 2 tank dive, for the most part, the surface interval is around 45 minutes. There is a chart/tool you learn when getting certified that lets you calculate what you need based off the time down and the depth and a dive computer actually keeps track of that for you based off what you did during the dive.
But let’s go with around 45 minutes for a 2 tank dive. When doing those, you usually leave around 7 or 8 in the morning and get back by noon depending on how far the boat needs to go. Really it’s about 40-50 minutes dive, 45 surface, and another 40-50 minute dive plus the travel time. They often do afternoon 2 tank dives too. Anyway, the cool thing about 2 tank dives is you do that in the morning and it leaves the afternoon free for other fun and excitement…like going to Waimea.
A 3 tank dive adds a little degree of difficulty. In reality, that 45 minute surface interval between dive 1 and 2 doesn’t really get rid of all the nitrogen in your body…it just gets rid of enough that you are safe. But you start dive 2 with a little debt already and that second dive adds onto that debt. So when doing a 3rd dive, the surface interval is longer before that last dive. For most dive trips, that provides the opportunity to have lunch and just hang out and enjoy the weather. I think it’s usually around an hour and a half to 2 hours just to be good. For any 3 tank dive you will leave in the morning and not be done until the afternoon. So you kill a whole day for about 2 and a half to 3 hours of dive time. But it’s worth it. Really.
Pimping: Kalapaki Joes has a killer beer selection and happy hour. Plus their fish tacos and seared ahi tacos are killer. They have locations in Lehue and Poipu and maybe others..but if you are on Kauai, its some good stuff.
Okay…back to the action. Btw, I am now on the flight to Portland about 3 hours from landing, which should be on time, so happiness is here and all that.
Marci wanted to take surf lessons. She tried on Wednesday while I was out gallivanting around at Niihau but the surf and current were bad so they didn’t do any surf lessons. Thursday, then was the day o’ surf. The initial plan was I would ride with her to the lessons, hang for a bit to get action photos so she could cherish the memories, and then take off to do whatever for the couple of hours the lessons would be. I heard “they start at 10” even though we were leaving at 9:10 and the town was only about 15 minutes away. What I didn’t hear, because I was getting the last blog ready for YOU, dear friends, was she needed to go to another place to pay, then head to the lessons which were 10 minutes from the pay area. I caused us to be a bit late. In the end, she got there around 10:07 but late is late. Fun times seeing Marci frazzled about being late AND not completely oriented on where she needs to go. We did donuts on a traffic circle for about 5 minutes. Normally not a bad thing, but I was trying to look up the surf shop to get directions on my not-so-smart phone and spinning in a car while reading is never a fun time. Oh well…it was my fault and all was okay in the end. Marci frazzled was AWESOME!
She caught on pretty quickly. Looked like she was having a blast and, really, it was a ton of fun watching her wipe out time and again. I ended up staying the entire lesson watching and taking pictures. Plus I saw my potential retirement plan. Dude was metal detectoring all over the beach and had a sieve scoop he was digging into the sand with. Granted, I would provide some competition for him, but realistically, I am probably not going to retire for another 15-20 years so I am sure I will be able to probably just take over his racquet.
Marci hanging 10
If I start now...I might be able to grow my hair out on the side to that length...
Not a whole lot happened Thursday other than some much needed relaxation. Did some pool time back at the resort and Marci hit the beach. It was a nicely enjoyable lazy day.
Yesterday we went hiking. The original plan was to hit “sleeping giant” which is supposed to provide awesome views of the ocean and inland. It was super overcast though so instead we tried to hunt down the road to the reservoir that hinted of a potential waterfall close by. We ended up on a pretty raggedy semi-paved road when a dirt road to the left called out to be driven upon. Marci being Marci was totally hip to the idea of 4 wheeling out Nissan Versa in the back of beyond Kauai. There was a stray dog at the beginning of the dirt road who decided he wanted to lead us for a while and continued to run in front of the car, occasionally looking back to make sure we were following, for about a mile or so. After that mile, I think he was too pooped to pop and scurried into the growth on one side of the road.
Road to hiking...back of the beyond...there were no street signs here.
Friends, you can see this road was AWESOME! It was barely wide enough for the car and full of pot holes and other fun-filled obstacles. We drove on the road until we hit a yellow gate across it. Pulling back to an area where we could park, we started hiking down another branch of the road that led away from the gate. Marci being Marci, turned off the road to follow a smaller trail into the jungle which was not quite SJoD worthy, but for sure much more off the beaten track than the SJoD. We were for sure the only people out there that day. We followed this trail making turns and taking forks for about 45 minutes until we hit upon another road that was tree lined and sort of awe inspiring.
Flowers seen in the jungle
The sight we saw after slogging through some jungle....
Based on how we had gone through the jungle, I was pretty sure if we turned left, on that road we would come to the other side of the yellow gate. So we turned right and strolled for a while. At about the hour mark, we turned back thinking if the road didn’t hit the yellow gate, we were going to be slogging back through the jungle the long way. Luckily(?) we did hit the yellow gate and our car. Looking back, we are pretty sure that road was the road to the fabled reservoir and we have a riddle to solve should we ever find ourselves back on Kauai.
Rest and relaxation was the order of the day yesterday afternoon. We were both lamenting the fact the week flew by too quickly. Not a lot to report other than that.
Roosters are everywhere in Kauai. These were running around out back of our villa.
This morning did a little run and hit the fitness center for a little lifting. Showered and packed and headed to the airport for a fairly standard trip back (so far). The only “highlight” was I got to be randomly selected for the pat down. Oh boy! Not entirely sure what they expect to find that the metal detector couldn’t. Dude definitely came close to cupping my balls there too. For sure its more invasive than I think it needs to be…but that’s me.
Anyway, fun times in Hawaii! Can’t wait to go back some day and am totally looking forward to the next adventure.
Love to all!
Jim
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