It has been a pretty humid summer here in the islands. Even up here on top of the mountain it’s hit 90 many days–most days–and we’ve run the AC often. Running is painful after 8 AM and frankly the heat is sucking the life out of me but there is a respite: the ocean. Yes we have a beach or two around these parts…
Now on Sunday evenings Chad and I usually go paddleboarding while the keiki party hearty (with Mini Schnauzer Lucy of course)… Actually I’m not sure what they do but the house is intact and I haven’t gotten any ER bills so we’ll call it good. So last Sunday evening we went to our usual spot where the Anahulu River meets the Ocean and we had a lovely day of turtles. Green Sea Turtles are one of the most adorable creatures ever and if you don’t know how in love with them I am then this must be the first blog post by me that you’ve ever read! They swim along under the surface–most with algae on their backs and even some with barnacles and then they break through–pop their cute little heads up and breathe in a very distinct way and submerge again. It can be startling if you don’t realize one is near you and you don’t know what it is. Once I ran into the water and a turtle was very close to me and it did kind of stun me til my brain interpreted what it was and then I was pretty stoked. It’s hard to beat a trek with turtles…
But this time we went out a tad further than our usual perimeter of the bay and were preparing to watch sunset when along came a turtle swimming really strangely–almost like a human. And then we realized it wasn’t a turtle at all–it was a ray! We thought it was a manta ray but it wasn’t large enough. One thing was sure–it was fast and it was coming toward us and wait– there was more than one!! Chad took off like a shot to get a better view but I was far more cautious…after all, rays are not turtles! At one point he got within a board’s length and then he must have startled them and they submerged but not for long. They swam and swam–like lap swimming almost and at one point when Chad came back over by me we thought, well I though, one was directly behind me which kind of freaked me out a bit because I thought if it got too close to me it might knock me off my board… I was bracing myself.
And then, up popped a sweet little turtle head right between the two of us. Well okay he was pretty enormous and I think he rolled his eyes as if to say, “I hate when I come up between two paddle boarders.” Chad laughed because he thought it was a shark. Well there is a lovely thought I wish he’d kept to himself! We had kind of forgotten about sunset because we figured we could see the sunset any day but the rays! We found out later they are called eagle rays and they do have stingers on their very long tails. Never heard of them? Plan a movie night and watch Finding Nemo–yep that’s them. Chad probably won’t follow quite so close next time but it was a very memorable experience. I wouldn’t say they are cute but they are pretty amazing!
Then yesterday I decided I really wanted to get down to Kaimana Beach to see the monk seal that was born the end of June before the mother took off for the sea and the baby a couple weeks later. Monk seals are not quite as exciting as turtles, but pretty close. And they are harder to see. Usually I have had to hike 3.5 miles in the hot sun to catch a view of these not so cuddly creatures so to be able to walk right up to them (within 20 feet) is pretty sweet. But there are no guarantees that they will be there–you just have to come at the right time. Well about 2 pm the kids and I show up and we are not disappointed except my resident photographer’s camera battery was dead and my camera doesn’t get as good close-ups as hers does. She’s going to try again today. Now just for the record, don’t ever approach a monk seal. They can be very aggressive and the mother, who is named Rocky was just chasing someone off the other day in the water for getting too close. I hear she’s a force to be reckoned with. I’ve also heard that getting bit by a monk seal is bad news for humans–very bad. So be forewarned!
So yes the pup, Kaimana (named after the beach if you are observant) is really sweet and it will be sad in a few days when Rocky returns to the ocean and leaves her baby girl to cry after her for two weeks before she makes the ocean her home. I didn’t know that monk seals must be taught to swim but so I’m told by my daughter, who is our resident animal expert. Rocky on the other hand looks like she is worn out from all the constant feeding of her baby and ready to return to her ocean home. She. is.done. I guess she usually has her pups on Kauai which is much less inhabited than O’ahu but perhaps she has been visiting a sister on the Big Island and went in to labor early… in any case it has caused quite the stir around here!
Now as if this weren’t enough animal amusement, upon our return to the parking meters we noticed some fairy terns or as some unimaginatively call them, white terns. They are beautiful snow white birds with very black eyes and beaks (see header photo) and they have a very interesting habit of depositing eggs on bare tree branches with no nest. I’ve seen them flying around in town, which is the only place I know of in the inhabited Hawaiian Islands that they frequent but I’ve never seen them up in close. Well yesterday in a shower tree we saw a couple and it was just magnificent. L. managed to get some good pictures and I learned that I really need to work on my eye hand coordination because all I got was the tree and the bottom of the birds if I was lucky. They sat there for at least ten minutes before flying off and then another pair came in the tree across the street! Yeah, I didn’t get a picture of them either but hey, try, try again!
While the critters around me have me admittedly mesmerized, I’m more in awe of the Father’s superb skill in creating such incredible creatures of the sea and lovely feathered friends of the air. It’s really difficult to put into words but I feel like when I appreciate His handiwork, I am acknowledging how unfathomably wonderful He is. It’s like when our kids bring us their art work to admire… not that God craves or wants our approval but you know how when you do something really nice for your kids–you go to a lot of trouble just relishing the expression you know will be on their faces and then in reality it’s no big deal to them? How that crushes you? Just because you wanted to show your love for them and they didn’t even acknowledge it or worse they didn’t even notice? That’s what I imagine God must feel like when we ignore sunsets or never give our avian friends a simple glance or admire a beautiful shower tree in bloom or drink in the fragrance of the Plumeria tree. When we appreciate the lavish beauty all around us, and acknowledge who is responsible for such remarkable beauty we are worshiping the One who made it all.
What blessings have you seen this summer? Which ones might you have overlooked? It’s never too late for every season brings its own delights with it. Don’t forget to show your appreciation by creating a new habit. The habit of observation. You will be surprised at how much it will enrich your everyday life! Aloha…
Decidedly Different 