amazing thing of the day

I drove over to Kona (the other side of the island) today. [If you aren't familiar with Hawai'i, it's about 50-60 miles across, but it takes at least 2, probably 3, hours to drive that. There's no speedy and efficient way across this island. There might not be anything speedy or efficient about this island, come to think of it. That's part of what it does best.]

Anyhow. I drove over here to SNORKEL WITH MANTA RAYS. It was amazing. There were probably 20 mantas out. The way it works is every boat takes out their divers and snorkelers. All the divers hang out on the bottom, and the snorkelers hang out up top. Everyone shines lights. It's otherworldly. Seriously. Amazing. Did I say amazing? I'm not sure you grasp how amazing I'm really talking about here. It's like every day I get to do something bizarre and fantastic. Today's wasn't even physically hard.

I'm staying overnight since the snorkel didn't end till 9. Aaaand. Apparently I need to skip my lazy, slow return back to Hilo and get up early in the morning - there's some crazy weather hitting all the islands that might mean flooding in the afternoon. Did I mention the lack of speedy and efficient ways to get back to Hilo? I like Kona okay (they have tacos!), but I don't feel a need to stay here for the next couple of days. Not even if Kona still has sun while Hilo is submerged; Kona reminds me too much of California suburbs.