Kent's Viewfinder: January 2021

Well this trip is over. Sadly, it's back to Virginia.

My wife and I have been thinking about where to live when we retire. Neither of us wants to go back to the place where we grew up (Louisiana for me, Massachusetts for her). Neither of us wants to stay in Virginia. Hawaii is looking good...

There's a lot to worry about in a move to Hawaii: it's expensive, there are earthquakes and tsunamis, it's remote so we won't get many visits from relatives, health care options are limited except for Oahu. The Big Island has its own issues. Most of the island is susceptible to lava flows and the associated destruction of anything it its path. Recent volcanic activity has been on the east side of the island in the eastern rift zone, but there have been active lava flows on the western side of the island in the last 100 years. During the Kilauea eruptions of the last 50 years, volcanic gases (vog) can hang around and create bad air quality on the eastern coast.

There's a lot to like about Hawaii: great weather, beaches, mountains, jungle, desert, and active volcanoes. Yes, the active volcanoes are dangerous and fascinating. They give and they take away.

It's good that we came here this time: we got to see vog. We got to see weather that we hadn't seen on our previous 3 trips to the island. We explored roads and neighborhoods to get to know the island better. In short, we're more convinced than ever that the Big Island will be our retirement home, if we meet our savings targets and stay healthy.

Now about visiting the island during the pandemic...

We had to have negative COVID-19 tests prior to boarding the flight to Hawaii. Then we got tested again at the arrival airport. Then we had to present our negative COVID tests to rent a car. Then we had to present our negative COVID tests to check in to the hotel. And for the most part, that was it. We were able to travel the whole island without restriction. The beaches were open (with a group size limitation). The restaurants were open. Most people were wearing masks, except when swimming or exercising. Only one restaurant (in Hilo) cared about our COVID tests. We had to wear our masks in restaurants, except when seated at our table. The trip back was uneventful. We wore our masks, social-distanced, and got home jet-lagged and glad to have made the trip.

Some trip highlights:

We saw a monk seal. Four times. On two different beaches. I'm not sure if all four sightings were the same animal. I previously thought that monk seal sightings on the Big Island were rare, in the single digits per several years. I now know from talking to the volunteer monitors on the beaches that a small number of individuals have been hauling out regularly.
We saw lots of green sea turtles. Like the monk seals, they are protected by law. We kept our distance from seals and turtles as required.
We made a deliberate decision to try more local food. The Seafood Bar and Grill in Kawaihae and Cafe Pesto in Hilo both served excellent meals. My favorite is seared poke in Kawaihae.
We wanted to see how things are in Pahoa, two years post-eruption. Some of the roads have been rebuilt. It was weird to see the end of Pohoiki Road near the Lava Tree State Park. The road is buried under a solidified river of lava that must be 30 feet thick. We also drove some of highway 137 along the coast. It's still remote, beautiful, and in danger of more lava. Living there is an exercise in having a beautiful place that could be destroyed in the next eruption.
Speaking of eruption, we were able to visit the Kilauea summit just as the Halema'uma'u crater was filling up with a new lava lake.

I didn't do a lot of photography this trip. Some of my favorites are...