hello, hilo

this summer, Clara moved to Hilo, Hawaii. If you read one of my recent posts, you would also know her address, if you'd like to visit her. I'm sure she'd love it.

The trip came about when Clara sent us a picture of the stars on top of Mauna Kea, a volcano on the big island. They were so clear and beautiful, and like nothing I'd ever seen before. I immediately texted Naomi and asked when we were going to Hawaii.

Fast-forward a few months, and there we were, stretching at the Kona airport, waiting for Clara to pick us up. Our drive back consisted of a stop at one of the most wonderful beaches I've ever been to (and my first time with my toes in the ocean), some sushi for lunch, and picking plums at a rest stop, much to the surprise and delight of another park visitor. At the same stop, we also picked up a man whose car wouldn't start to take him to find an iPhone that he didn't know the password for he'd left on a volcano because he was afraid someone was following him. We got home rather late.

After the very first night, things started to mellow out. Clara needed to work the first morning we were there, so Naomi and I had some free time to hang out. If you're an avid reader of my poetry, you probably know this, but I care for Clara deeply, and her leaving Sioux Falls and no longer living with me was an emotional change. It wasn't necessarily difficult, because I knew she was where she needed to be and we both believe in the abundance of God in the times that we are doubting. But to finally see her again after the year of living with her, and the summer spent apart, was at first hard to do.

I remember sitting in the community house on the her nanny family's farm on the first full day we were there and feeling overwhelmed. After all, she was going off to see the world on her mission trip soon, and was making all kinds of new friends. And there I would be, in school in Sioux Falls. Call it envy, fear, or anxiousness, I had it. So after sitting on the floor in the house, reading her bible, writing a poem in it, and turning the buddha statue in the corner backwards, I went for a walk in the rain around where she lived. I brought my phone with me and played some worship music while I prayed. I came back feeling so grateful to even know her and be there with Naomi. I was afraid that my attitude of loss was going to ruin the trip for me, but after that morning it faded away. Jealousy of her new adventures and fear of being left behind melted into the beauty of being with her and Naomi and sharing experiences with them. The world is wide after all.

Naomi and I went shopping and planned our meals that night. We bought a watermelon and hid it in the microwave to surprise Clara later. We picked up Clara's boys from school, visited a park, and messed around in the waterfall on the property.

the poem

The second day we decided to spend out and about at as many waterfalls and hiking spots as we could. I can't remember the names of all of them, but there were at least three or four different sites. The first few were clearly tourist destinations, but the third one was a place Clara knew. We parked on the side of the road, just past a bridge, and climbed up the rocks into a jungle-like, mud covered pathway. The way up wasn't easy in our matching plastic walmart brand birkenstocks, and we were covered in mud after a little while. On the way up, Clara noted like a true local that the water level was high. At one landing in the path, we noticed to our right that there was a valley with four waterfalls, where Clara hadn't seen them. We wanted to descend into them, but the nonexistent path looked a little too steep.

We kept climbing and eventually made it to the top of the falls, where we shed our clothes and hopped in. It was cold, but wonderful to sit beside and in a small waterfall and float in a lagoon-like pool. After swimming, we continued to hike a new path, only to find ourselves on an overlook by the four waterfalls we'd espied on the way up. We had an idea we were getting close, but I didn't know we were that close. Discovering the falls made us all screech with excitement.

After the falls we drove back into town to get some food. We found ourselves at a large outdoor market with food, jewelry, scarves, clothing, and other goods. Seth bought a bracelet, and Clara, Naomi and I all bought some rings. Lunch was sushi, rainbow bread, and an acai bowl for the vegetarian. We took it to go to Queen Liliuokalani park, a favorite of Clara's. The hanging trees are beautiful there. After doing some yoga in the grass and attracting some fire ants, we walked along the beach, hopped in the car, and went off in search of a swimming spot.

Clara took us to one of my favorite places on the whole trip: a swimming spot under a bridge. There was a big rock that we took turns jumping off of and swimming around in the cool water. We sat on the rocks for a while and Naomi and I attracted more fire ants and were very uncomfortable in the car. I also made the executive decision to use the bathroom at the location since there wouldn't be an indoor bathroom available for quite some time. Don't worry, it just looked like animal scat.

Since Naomi and I's legs were burning up, we decided to head to the ocean, and stopped at Richardson Beach, a black sand beach. There was a beach with access to the ocean, but there was also a more rocky, cliff like area available for exploration. We made plans to come back. We fell asleep that night watching La La Land, tucked into the top bunk of Clara's cabin.

The next morning we got up around 6 and headed back to Richardson's Beach in hopes of catching the sunrise and maybe doing some partner yoga on the beach with the sunrise in the back. What we ended up finding was remarkably more than what we'd expected. The sunrise was pretty from the beach, but hidden by all the palm trees. We were originally afraid we'd missed it, but when we climbed past the black sand and onto the rocky cliffs, we were able to sit in the rising sun for an hour. Naomi played some worship music, I stretched, and we all sat next to each other with our eyes close, praying. For the first few minutes I was so distracted by the cinematography of it all, and I walked around to get some wonderful shots of the sun and Naomi signing to How Great Is Our God. I felt a little odd about videoing someone worshipping, which I should have understood as foreshadowing, so I put my camera away and worshipped.

After the sun had risen a little higher, we got up and walked around the rocks. To our surprise, we found 7 turtles stuck in a pool right next to us. We sat and watched them in wonder for a while, before exploring the cliffs and watching the waves crash into the rocks. We took some photos and I did a headstand. We also attempted some partner yoga on the black sand.

After we got back from Richardson Beach, we headed out to brunch, and then back to the house. From there we visited another waterfall site as well as a beautiful park that contained a botanical garden. It cost money to get into the garden, but the walk around it was free, so that's what we chose. When we got back to the house, we decided to take a dip in the farm waterfall. We splashed in and walked under the fall a few times, until Naomi dove under it and bashed her head on the rocks. It bled a lot, but it wasn't too serious.

It was Sunday, so that afternoon we stopped for shakes and went to church with Clara. Afterwards, we talked with some of the people that also went to the church and went to dinner. After that we drove to Walmart and stocked up on hi-chews for our stargazing adventure that night and the drive to the Kona airport the next day. Clara and I also fought a battle against our better selves when we were leaving walmart and a one of the doors from the store to the parking lot had a big DO NOT ENTER sign on it. She won the battle while I lost, to Naomi's head shaking dismay.

From walmart, and with hi-chews, we headed to Clara's stargazing spot: Mauna Kea. Technically still an active volcano, we took a dirt road up towards the summit and stopped when we found a nice spot. Naomi, Clara, Seth and I sat down in the grass and watched the stars. I tried a little too hard to get a long exposure photo, and that's when it happened. I formatted the SD card in my camera, actively deleting everything I'd taken videos and pictures of up until that point. Like I said, I should have seen it coming. The whole trip I'd been thinking of the video I would make after the trip and how wonderful it would be. And when we were looking at the stars that had inspired the trip in the first place, I deleted everything. I almost cried. But Clara and Naomi told me repeatedly that it was okay, that they were happy with the memories we'd made. And of course, we still had photos.

The next morning, after Naomi woke up and hit her head on the cabin roof (and here it should be noted that we danced to Yeah! by Usher every morning while laying in bed), we made burritos, packed up our things and went downtown to meet Seth. We grabbed some chais and kombuchas and headed out. Our plan was to drive to the Kona side, stopping as we might, and hit the airport in time for the flights. Our stops consisted of a boat launch on the side of the road and two beaches.

We stopped at the first beach only to use the bathroom. The second beach was the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. The water was a bright teal and the sand was the perfect tan shade. Visually, it was stunning, and we walked to the shore, giddy. Out in the middle of the water was a rock that we climbed and jumped off of. Naomi and I went first, and elected to not tell Clara when Naomi cut her foot on the rock. After jumping and swimming some more, Seth, Clara and I sat on the shore while Naomi went snorkeling. Clara and I drank her cold coffee and we let the tide crash into us. Soon Naomi came back and I jumped at the chance to snorkel. It was breathtaking. So many fish of different colors and sizes. I could have stayed in the water forever.

After we were all out and dried off, we attempted more beach yoga. We were getting pretty good at it by this point. On some of the poses, we tried not to fall, but the tide lapping in and erasing the sand made it difficult. We got plenty of footage and even made a highlight reel of our wins and losses. Props to Seth for being our videographer.

And that was all we had time for. Naomi and I left Seth at Kona's outdoor airport and we flew back to Chicago. Naomi's mom picked us up from MSP and we headed home.

travel log: hilo, hawaii

clara, naomi, greta, and seth

august 5-9, 2021