A Pig Hunter and Fireworks

Well, go figure that they sell fireworks at the grocery store here! Haha!  We can’t even buy them in Chico and they are illegal to set off in Butte county.  Yet, on such a lush island where there are SOOOO many things that can catch on fire, of course they allow them!

I have hated loud, startling noises ever since I can remember.  As a kid I remember trying to partake in the fireworks festivities with our family but I just couldn't stand the noise.  I ended up watching from the front window still plugging my ears.  Needless to say, I still am very jumpy around fireworks.  But we couldn't miss out on the festivities.  We heard that everyone on the north shore heads out to the bay, which is a 2 mile long stretch of white sand and with an unreal backdrop of rugged mountains.  We decided to grab a pizza (which was deee-lish as the crust is made with coconut water!) and head down to check it out.

We watched a beautiful sunset and then, before it even was fully dark, the fireworks begun!  It was kind of like a desensitizing therapeutic experience for me (kinda) because we were, literally, surrounded by people shooting off fireworks.  Some were a little close to us for my comfort.  And the drunk dad next to us wasn't setting a good example as he would run back and check on the fireworks that hadn't gone off yet- I was seriously fearful that his arm or his eye would become part of the show!  We stayed at long as I could tolerate it- that was until some dumbos started setting off fireworks WAAAAY too close to us for my comfort.  I was done then-bye bye crazy piros!

Round two was to head down to another, more calm beach to enjoy the stars and have fun with some sparklers (that is about my caliber of firework comfort).  It was a beautiful clear night and we had a great time enjoying the evening.  It was truly a celebration of independence and freedom!

Well we went on our second ‘practice trek this past weekend.  A little more arduous and technically difficult than our last trail.  We loaded up our packs- mine was 20 pounds this time and Ryan’s was 25 pounds.  It’s nice to figure out all of the little details, such as properly adjusting the pack weigh, learning how to use the trekking poles without having them collapse underneath you (they are not so helpful then!) and getting used to the slippery terrain and humidity like none other.  I think I might need to wear a sweatband for the real trek-seriously!

We went out for about 2 hours and had a beautiful little trek and only ran across 3 groups of people on the trail.  One of them was a local pig hunter who we could hear from a distance calling and whistling for his dogs.  On our way back we met him and his three very cute scruffy dogs (one not so friendly though- good thing they were in a crate!).  He was waiting for his fourth dog to return.  We talked to him for a while about what pig hunting entails.  It sounds quite barbaric!  Essentially, his dogs hunt down the pig (and I assume kill it- yikes) and then he runs around after them.

He didn't’ have any luck that morning as he said the pigs often escape.  He said that when he does catch one he just takes the meat and leaves the carcass.  But he said many pig hunters will take the whole pig, put a stick in its mouth to prop it open and then parade around town with it tied in the back of their truck on display.  Huh?!  No thank you-I’ll pass.

Personally, the wild pig or ‘wild boar’ scares me due to some childhood traumatization!  We had a family friend who had an older son that had a real stuffed boar head.  He used to put it under his arm and squeal and snort like a pig and chase us around the house with the ferocious looking creature!  It still sends a chill down my spine thinking about it.  It also didn't help that last time we were here a local told us to watch out for the wild boars as they are mean and can be aggressive.  I thought he was teasing us but upon doing a little research I found out he was serious. I do have the right to be a little fearful of them.  They have been known to attack humans a times.  So, hey, maybe those hiking poles will come in handy for protection as well-haha!

Well, just so you’re clear, I will never be pig hunting, thank you very much.

Back to the trek planning.  We have one more week to practice-wowsers, how time flies.  So this coming weekend we will set trek on the first leg of the Kalalau to get a real taste of what we have in store the following week.

We finally made it out for one of our favorite water sports here- paddle boarding.  You do have to time it right if you want to make it into the ocean, because it’s really hard if the waves are too choppy.  We ended up getting two beautiful days in a row to paddle board.  We decided to try sharing a board.  A little more economical and also, I thought it would be fun.  I had seen other people do it where one of them sits on the front of the board while the other is paddling from the middle.  Hrmm...I guess I didn’t realize that it was really just kids who ride on the front of the boards until the rental gal pointed that out.  Hey, we were still up for the challenge and she said it might work for us.  So she gave us her biggest, widest board that is intended for the ‘big boys’ and we gave it a go.  Combined we still weigh in under 300 pounds, so why not give it a shot!  We ended up having to adjust some and have the person not paddling sit closer to the middle of the board.  But we had success and the person paddling got a really good upper body workout!  We got several comments from passersby on the river and in the ocean.  Such things as ‘lucky you’ and ‘that’s got to be a workout (to which I countered- ‘I’m not that hard to haul!’) to ‘wow-what a good idea’.  I think we might have started a new trend!  It’s called the romantic paddle board for two excursion with a dose of relationship building and trust that the other person won’t dump you.

Ryan ended up giving me a nice ride up the river and I felt like a Hawaiian princess going along for the ride. That is, until we got to our destination.  Usually Hawaiian princesses don’t have to scramble their way up a steep embankment in their swimsuit then put on their soaking clothes (yes, our idea of a ‘drybag’ failed) to go order their amazing BBQ ono fish sandwich lunch.  With only a few scratches between us and some cheering bystanders that offered a helping hand to us crazy river warriors, we made it! Mission -or should I say ‘fishin’- accomplished!  I would gladly scale that embankment every time for an amazing fish sandwich.