hawaii, part (ummm?)

Alrighty. Let me wrap up this Hawaii sightseeing stuff before it drags on so long that neither one of us cares anymore. Oh. That's already happened. *sigh* Ok, well let's just file this in the Memoirs-of-My-Life-For-Me-To-Read-When-I-Get-Senile category. Oh. I don't have categories. LOL. Whatever. More than likely none of this will make any sense to me in a few years anyhow ;-)

In this post I have some info about Volcanoes National Park (with notes about accessibility), my little chat with The Goddess of Fire Pele (heavily sprinkled with new age granola and fairy dust...there's your warning), and how that meeting feeds my suspicion that knitting on The Big Island is different than knitting on the Mainland.
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Volcanoes National Park

Our caravan of rental cars first stopped at the information center right past the gate, which I highly recommend doing. There's a big fat easy to read presentation board showing the highlights of the park. It suggests which sites to see if you are on a longer visit, and which to skip if you are whizzing through. It also indicates which sites are accessible, and how long or strenuous the hikes at each stop will be. Very helpful. We decided to see the Steam Vents, the Jaggar Museum, the Halema'uma'u Crater Trail, and the Lava Tubes.

The Steam Vents were interesting but not overly exciting. The vents you can access with a wheelchair are basically right there as part of the parking lot. There is a short hike down a dirt path to see other vents that are out in a more natural setting. It's not labelled accessible, but I think might be do-able in the right kind of chair with a buddy just in case. I can't be sure, though. We opted to skip the trail because it was muddy that day and we kinda figured if you've seen one vent, you've probably seen them all. We were all itching to get to the rim of the volcano anyhow.

Our next stop was the Jaggar Museum. The views from the outside are incredible. The museum loaded with information and is fully accessible. The videos shown as part of different exhibits were interesting. I watched one detailing the last big flow, showing an entire village being consumed by lava. Aint no messin' with Mother Nature. Do chat up the docents and the rangers that run the gift shop. They have some really cool insights into life in lava-land.

Our last full stop was at the Halema'uma'u Crater Trail at the Kilauea Caldera. It is not listed as accessible, but I dunno. I think it might be, at least part way down the trail. I went in on crutches without a problem at all, so I can't say for sure how a wheelchair would handle it, but in my opinion it would be well worth giving it a try. I know my crap-ass hospital style hemi-chair definitely would not make it through, but I have a hunch if you were in a lightweight sports chair and were proficient at going up and down curbs and such you'd do just fine. A buddy to spot you wouldn't be a bad idea. And don't hold me responsible, this is just my very uneducated guess as I don't even own a schmancy wheelchair.

The Dandelions spent a really long time at the crater's edge, so we didn't get to make a full stop at the Lava Tubes (bummer). We made a pit-stop for a potty break, and two of the gang ran through real quick while the rest of us were in the bathroom. I heard it was amazing, but I have no idea.

Here's a couple of links: The National Parks Services official site; here's some notes about accessibility; and then there is this other site that I really enjoyed because it seems to have a bit of a local spin on things, plus links to current flows and eruptions.
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A Message from Pele (granola alert)

Ok, this is the fairy dust part. If you are the type who thinks this kind of spirituality is some sort of voodoo or mallarky, skip the rest of the post (actually, now that I think about it, the knitting portion is coated in a fine layer of dust, too). You either get this kind of stuff, or you don't. Whatever. Love ya, but I'm not explaining myself any further. It would just get silly.

If you are still here,

Whoa. Dudes. Did I ever have a discussion with Pele!!!

Once our group got out to the rim of the volcano, we kind of naturally split up and wandered off for a bit. The Dandelions are a very spiritual bunch, though our spiritual practices run the gamut and we all practice in many different ways. Whatever it is we each into, it seemed on this day that we all felt a calling for a little alone time in this very special place.

My version was to take a little stroll and when things "felt right," I sat on a rock looking away from the crater. The view was both amazingly desolate and stunningly beautiful. A charred, scarred, and empty land...a big sky, the scent of new earth, and little signs of new life everywhere.

(read more about this plant called "Ohelo" here)

I meditated on these incongruencies for a good long while...how something so shockingly stark and ravaged and empty can be so gorgeous and powerful and full of life.

Then the messages started coming. They were audible (to me--I don't think there's a need to call the in the guys with the little white coats, though. But thanks.)

The first was:
Destruction is Beauty.
I see you, and I cry. For it is the same beauty.
and then, right after I heard that, it started pissing down rain for about 2 minutes and stopped. I was soaked.

I asked if she had a message for me, and I heard:
I will help. I will hold you.
and then, right after I heard that, the wind kicked up...not just a breeze, but a solid hard gust, and then stopped.

I asked in what direction I should head next (life/career), and I heard:
You will go heal people.

Now, the tone of this message was important, and I can't really convey that here in text, but let me try to put it this way: I have, on occasion, been know to ask the Powers-That-Be for some sort of guidance, and I am often met with a message that resembles something like what one would pull out of a fortune cookie or something. Usually I get a message of suggestion, a sort of foretelling. A fluffy, "I see on your horizon that....(blah blah blah)."

This message from Pele was nothing like that.
It was far more directive.
It was an order. "You will go heal people." It was as if there was almost a, "NOW," after it.

I asked Pele if there was anything else, and the sun came out.
I left an offering on the rock for Her, and I turned around and there was a rainbow.

Pretty damn cool.


end of granola.

(fyi--the day after most of us flew home, this volcano had an eruption. woohoo!)
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What I Think Happens to Knitting in Hawaii

I think Pele fucks it up. She who is Queen of Destruction...I think she may possibly be the Queen of Knitting Gone Wrong. I've only been to Hawaii once, so I am definitely no expert. But knitting there was a miserable failure for me. Not for lack of trying, either. I would love to hear if anyone (locals or visitors) has ever managed to get any knitting accomplished while on the Big Island. I never made it to the local yarn store (which I also believe was Pele's doing), so I never got to ask the experts.

On my trip to Hawaii, I brought with me four small projects (still overpacking, but nowhere near the overpacking I did on the LA leg of the tour...remember this?). I brought two socks in progress--one plain, one fancy. I brought a lace scarf in progress. And I also brought 1 skein of linen to make one of those hand towels from the Mason-Dixon book just in case I needed something uber-simple.

I started off working on socks. My hunch is that Pele thinks socks are ridiculous (I actually believe she finds all knitting ridiculous...whos' going to use knitwear in that weather). I suspect that Pele prefers her children go barefoot. I had VERY bad mojo with my sock knitting on the Big Island. Both my lace sock and my plain stockinette sock came back completely screwed up and in need of surgery sessions.

I broke two needles while knitting the lace sock. Two. And it was less like my breaking them, and more like them snapping all on their own, just from looking at them. Dropped stitches all over the place both times. As luck would have it, I had a few extra needles with me in the same size (I learned that lesson back in Venice Beach, too). But my ounce of prevention?? At this, the Goddess of Fire, she laughed in my face. The last straw was when I was knitting along, and went to rotate the sock around to the next dpn, grabbed the wrong needle, pulled it out, and had an entire row of yarn-overs smiling at me. I swear I heard a distant cackle from up on the mountain when that happened. I tried to get it back on the needles, but it was during rehearsal and the lighting wasn't with me.

So I picked up the plain ol' stockinette sock. I was rolling merrily along the gusset decreases when I looked down to see that I had dropped (get this one) FOUR stitches in various places, and had cruised along maybe 15-20 rows without even noticing, even though I swear to you I was counting and checking my work. Of course 2 of the dropped stitches were along the line where the decreases were happening, so fixing it up with a crochet hook was going to be a royal pain in the arse, and if I did fix it up, it probably would make for some sloppy looking results.

After those two events, I did not dare pick up the lace scarf in progress. So I started the only other thing I had brought with me, a linen towel. I was thinking Pele might not favor socks, but she has to want her kids to have something to wipe their brow, no? But I wasn't enjoying the knitting at all. I think it's the linen. I'm not sure it's my bag. So I put it down. End of knitting in Hawaii. Grrr.

Next post I'll show you what I've been able to fix and finish.