Kohala Day 7 and back to E-ville on Day 8

 Day 7

THB and DB have pastries and coffee in the room for breakfast. Going to the in-house market is amazingly convenient. Down the elevator, walk around the corner, order, pick-up, back to the room in less than 5 minutes, sometimes less than 3 minutes. Coffee is excellent, pastries are very good. 

Today at 8 is our re-scheduled outrigger snorkel. What a difference a few days make. Different crew, different fellow snorkelers (5, very experienced), calm seas, visibility to 40 feet. Snorkel as a loosed knit group of 9, one the guides is down below us and is buzzed by a shark, nobody even notices. One small turtle, much unbleached, bright coral, finally schools of small fish. A few items are plucked off the seabed and brought up for examination and gently replaced. Paddling is quite easy, nobody stressed. Not quite as good as Black Sand Beach and in a different way not quite as good as Kaelakakua Bay (not near as many fish in quantity or variety, way fewer snorkelers). Overall, a very nice outing with guides helpful and knowledgeable. $300 (with tip) for two people...and no driving involved!

Lunch at nearby Four Seasons. Much smaller than Mauna Lani, doesn't look conducive to swimming in ocean, and very pretty. Another disappointing lunch. THB is still feeling punk so for dinner we decide to take in the view from our room and dine on the deck. Cheese, jamon serrano, crackers ($23 from  local Foodland) and some of the many bottles of wine and sake. 

Beach Tree Restaurant namesake at Four Seasons

Ahi sandwich

Sort of a Philly cheesesteak

Four Seasons beach

Groundskeeper support team

 Day 8: THB and DB make it back with no problems, Sandy seems very happy to see us, and we are well on our way to normalcy. Well, not quite. Once again the twins have been exposed at daycare (one teacher caught Covid) and we will be staying away for a week or two. We try a new pizza place in the Emeryville Public Market and, lo and behold, the Mauna Lani pizza and salad are way better. Shocking...

Department of Progress: THB is going to a baseball game using tix on his smart-phone, ending 65 years of using a paper ticket

Department of Entertainment: 

Department of Epiphanies: No announcements about needing to close those window shades on airplanes anymore because the new screens can all be seen easily and movies are no longer projected on one screen at the front of a cabin section. 

Book Review

The Cellist, Daniel Silva (thriller): Reco'd by a thriller connoisseur blog follower (BB), this is the current entry in a long series centered around a restorer of paintings who just happens to be the head of Israeli Intelligence. There's the usual disclaimer about "any resemblance to actual persons...blah, blah, blah...a work of fiction...blah...blah...blah". Set in 2019 and 2020 and right up to Biden's ....OOOPS....some US politician is inaugurated, it is basically an attempt to infiltrate Putin's....OOOPS....some Russian president's inner circle while swindling the Russian guy out of a lot of money. A great illustration about using "faction" to tell the story giving the book a lot of credibility. Can anyone guess who Putin's mole is in the top of the US government (hint, first initial is D last initial is T and the middle initial is J...the guy wants credit, right?). Recommended

and a companion reco: streaming, The American Sector. A couple tours the US visiting sites where pieces of the Berlin Wall are on display. Highly Recommended (if idiosyncratic)