"So you're planning on sitting next to each other?" Toby asked. Thinking he was joking, I replied with a smug nod and began to take fruit from one of the bowls. Toby strode over to my seat, "Aren't you the demander of reality?"
Confused, I stared at him as he proceeded to explain that we were supposed to sit opposite from each other and take fruit from our designated bowl. I had already eaten a strawberry from someone else's bowl. I felt my ears turn red as I laughed with embarrassment and I got up and moved. Feeling very silly, I moved some pineapple from our designated bowl and put one of our strawberries into the bowl that I had eaten from. Finally, the couple from the Pineapple Room arrived and se set down to a wonderful meal of pancakes, sausage, fruit, tea, and a multitude of different syrups to choose from.
After breakfast Hans and I got our cameras and walked along the highway back to Kilauea and down a road for about a mile where we arrived to the Kilauea Lighthouse viewing site. There was a road that went up to the actual lighthouse, but it was also a wildlife refuge and the road was very narrow and winding. Therefore, no pedestrians were allowed on the road. Frustrated, Hans and I went into the shade and began to plot ways to sneak through. An older man asked me to take a picture of him with his wife with the lighthouse in the background. I obliged. When the man offered to take our picture, I seized an opportunity:
"Well, actually...are you guys going to drive to the lighthouse?" I asked.
"Yes.” I explained that we weren’t old enough to rent a car and they agreed to take us down the road.
When we arrived to the lighthouse and got out of their car, they said they were going to stay for a bit and they'd wait for us to drive back out. After snapping some photos and looking at the gift shop they drove a little ways down the road.
At the Kilauea lighthouse
When we arrived back at the Kilauea Food Mart we bought some sandwiches at Subway and ate them in the shade outside the building. We decided to retrieve our flippers and towels from the B&B and walk to Anini Beach, some ways away. As we were walking along a farm with our shoes off we heard someone yelling behind us.
We turned around, expecting to be told off of their property and instead saw an older, scruffy-looking, overweight gentleman with a mustache and a pink faded tank top. He proceeded to tell us that he was out of gas and had no money and said he'd give us a ride to where we were going if we'd give him "a couple bucks". We tried to decline but he kept pestering us and asking where we were going. I finally gave in and told him we were headed to Anini Beach.
As the man was leading us back to the Kilauea gas station he said, "...so how far is it? 10...15 miles?"
"More like less than one." Hans said.
"How does $5 sound?" I said.
"Umm...can you spare me $10"
I began to walk away when he finally said, "Okay, five dollars is fine. No problem."
We went back to the station and waited for him to pull up in his red rusted car with the passenger side door ripped apart on the inside and an uncovered dash and no back seats. As he filled up we paid the lady inside the $5.00. "That will be $7.82," she said. So far we were beginning to regret talking to this guy in the first place.
Hans got in the passenger seat and I got in and sat on his lap. We drove down the road a ways and he took us to our B&B so i could grab our flippers and snorkel. Next, we flew down the highway about a mile and then turned onto a side street that wound along the shoreline to take us to Anini. On the highway the man had been pushing 70 mph and the limit was 45, so Hans was holding onto me very tightly. His radio looked like it had been stolen. It was at about this point that I said,
"You know, I think this spot looks good."
"What?"
"Yeah, you can drop us anywhere along here...this looks good."
"It's still down the road a ways."
"No, that's okay."
When he finally stopped I leaned out the window and opened the door (because there was no inside handle). We got out, thanked him for the ride, and walked down the road opposite the way his car was facing and disappeared behind some trees.
We waited until we saw his car leave, which was quite a while since he parked partially behind some bushes and watched us from the road as we pretended to wander on the beach. About a mile down a hill and through a very very nice neighborhood we saw people emerging from an alley that was formed by two fences. There was a sign that said "Beach Access". We went under the tall bamboo canopy and came upon a very nice and quiet sandy beach with a reef extending for hundreds of feet. We spent about an hour taking pictures, snorkeling, and burying each other in sand. After a while we walked further west and came to the actual Anini Beach Park where there were water fountains, showers, bathrooms, and campgrounds. We sat for a while and then decided to walk back to the Hale Ho'o Maha.
It took us 2 hours to get back to the B&B. It would have taken less time to get there if we had been able to wade across the creek outlet at the beach we had discovered the night before, but we had cameras with us, and we discovered that the water was too deep to wade across. We ended up having to backtrack.
When we finally returned, we made some spaghetti and had some of the smoked salmon that Hans' dad had sent along.