While it finally snowed in Estonia, we celebrated independence day with clear skies and sunny weather. It’s been very different to spend the winter in a warm and sunny place, but I love it.
I’ve been helping Malle out with lights on photoshoots and learning a lot. We did a wedding, two maternity shoots and a family shoot in the last two weeks (I think). I’ve also been learning how to edit the pictures, which might not show on the ones I post here, but I’m getting better, honest!
I love doing photoshoots with Malle, because I get to meet so many interesting people. They are usually visiting from a different place, different backgrounds and it is fun that we all meet here in Hawai’i. We get together for a couple of hours and all have pictures to remember them by later.
I finally got to swim with manta rays! As they say – third time is the charm. I saw them on the observation platform at first and when I noticed groups of snorkelers going in I ran in after them. I didn’t want to be in the way so I stayed further away, but I still saw the giant fish up close and I’ll be honest, their giant mouths are a little scary.
We also decided to go camping for a night in South Kona. I took the bus to Kona in the morning and Malle picked me up in the afternoon with the kids. We stopped for coffee and delicious cheesecake at Kona Joe Coffee, which has an amazing view of the green mountainside and vast ocean. Sometimes I forget that we’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
We drove down to Ho’okena Beach, where we had decided to camp for the night and got settled in. I have to say I had never before gotten instructions to “put the tent behind the palm tree line” before, but when in Hawai’i. Of course, used to the great weather in Hawai’i, none of us had checked the weather and right as we started to eat dinner it started raining.
We saw some lightning, heard thunder, and huddled up in the tent. Malle finally checked the weather, as I didn’t have any service, and we found out it was going to rain the entire night. We decided to eat and wait to see how the tent would hold up and whether the weather would get any better. It did not get better, and the tent started leaking pretty soon.
At one point I needed to use the restroom, so I took off into the dark in the thunderstorm in search of it. After a bit of exploring, an encounter with a mute and seeing the gate get locked, I finally found it. I also realized that we were stuck there, because I saw the gate get locked. So we tucked ourselves in with the many blankets we had brought and made it through the night.
I woke up a couple of times during the night – around 1am it stopped raining, started up again around 3am and when we all woke up around 7am it was a beautiful clear morning. Malle and I attempted yoga on the beach, the kids played in the sand and water and I went snorkeling. Our true camping adventure was over, when we had to head back for another photoshoot.
Kaimana turned four this week, so we celebrated his birthday. He is very happy about all his new Legos. Thomas had a gig at the ukulele festival that we all went to see and later on was Kaimana’s and Papa’s birthday celebration. I finally met everyone in the family and we played a Hawai’ian version of Cards Against Humanity.
Last but not least, we went on a boat on a whale watching expedition. It was a fundraiser with the West Hawai’i Mediation Center and they took a bunch of people out on a catamaran. We saw a lot of dolphins who came to say hello and three humpback whales – a mom with her calf and their escort. It was so cool to see them close by and they are truly giant.
After our eventful morning with the marine life, I fell asleep in a hammock, which is also a very normal thing to do. I always realize these things are out of the ordinary when I tell my friends. Anyway, I’m going to Maui next weekend and the weather forecast says it’s going to rain the entire time, so let’s hope it’s wrong, but if it’s not, I’ll be sure to have more adventures.
adventures in... 