within striking distance..

Good evening. I have been meaning to update this since last weekend but haven't had a chance, so here goes the catch-up.

Last Monday Brooke and I both had the day off again and decided to go on a hike around the lava fields. The weather was perfect, days like this remind me of why I moved here in the first place. We hiked over several miles of lava field along the coast line. Saw the most amazing, and huge, waves out there. Which of course means surfers. They must either be extremely good or just plain stupid because the waves were enormous and the ride shot you right out in front of a lava jetty. Anyhow, as we continued our trek we discovered what I believe to be a homeless fisherman's hide out- about 2 miles from any trails, quite literally in the middle of nothing. Fully equip ed with a small section of junk carpet, fishing lines rigged up on metal tubing that had been planted in crevices around the cliff side, and a small fire pit in the rock. Very bizarre. I kept expecting to find some scruffy bearded old codger chopping up his dinner around the next rock. As we continued we found several tide pools and a big clay plateau that shot out over the ocean. It was really quite incredible. Ive included some pictures below.

After our hike we were very hot and sticky so a jump in the ocean sounded great. We drove to a place called 'Sidewalks' which is a beach in the area with big waves to play in. On this occasion one of many 'Brooke-isms' occurred which as I am finding out from living with her, are more frequent that I could have imagined. We were about to cross a road to get back to our car and Brooke decides to just walk right out in front of an oncoming car, which I thought was a bit bold. So of course the driver of the car was waving his hands at her to wait. And once we crossed the street Brooke said to me, sounding very irritated... "I don't know why that guy was waving his hands at me like that... I'm a Samaritan! I had the right-of-way!! Gees!" A bit confused I just followed behind trying to figure out what in the world she meant by that. When I caught on I asked her if she meant 'Pedestrian'. She agreed and asked what the difference was. Apparently she had always thought the account of the 'Good Samaritan' was referring to a guy who was 'walking down the road' which is what Samaritan means, equivalent to 'Pedestrian'.

Well I'm never short of entertainment that's for sure.

Here are the pictures... click on the pictures to see a larger view.

Here is a look up at the volcano. You cant see it in this picture, but the lava flow left a trail down the hillside so you can see the path the lava took all the way from the top to the ocean.

Some nerd with a big chunk of corral.

The cliffsides. You could feel the waves hit the cliffs below you which was followed by a rather menacing low 'THUD'.

Its never easy to tell the size of waves by the pictures from shore. But these were double overhead. (Or in lamens terms about as high as you and another adult standing on your shoulders) Waves so nice it makes you sick.

Tide pools. There was a strange rust colored substance on the floor of the pools and other odd things about them, which I attribute to the lava's chemical makeup mixing with the standing water.

Here is a guy surfing one of the waves. It looked like a lot of fun... but Im pretty sure I'd be peeing my pants the whole time.

Ah yes, prime example of why I would be peeing my pants... the other half of this board was about 100 ft. away and lodged vertically in the rocks.

Walking the trails. If you look closely you can spot an illusive Brookimusapian in the distance.

We came across a heard of wild goats that live on the beach along side the lava field. They had lots of weee little baby goats, and we nearly got in the middle of a goat brawl by accident. Not to worry I broke it up.

Wild goats sewing wild oats.

And here is a look back towards the way we came along the cliffs. I have heard rumors that dolphins frequent this area in the early mornings. So we intend on returning some morning with PB&J sandwiches to lure in the dolphins. (Im pretty sure they love those)