captain cook died in a pretty place

I needed to test out the new underwater camera this weekend, so Grant and I went to the Captain Cook monument at Kealakekua Bay and kayaked out for some snorkeling. I took some underwater movies, but my, err, technique needs work.... maybe next time I'll have some good action shots for y'all! I'm disappointed that the puffer fish and needlefish pictures didn't come out, but overall i'm very happy with my new toy! (I got it with my Economic Stimulus money from the widely misunderestimated Dubya.)

I'll let you verify the details, but Captain James A. Cook visited Hawai'i a few times and managed to piss off the locals. First, he named the islands the Sandwich Islands, after his buddy the Earl of Sandwich. (When Mark Twain visited Kealakekua Bay, the spot where Captain Cook "discovered" Hawaii this is what he saw. "The setting sun was flaming upon it, a summer show was falling, and it was spanned by two magnificent rainbows. Two men who were in advance of us rode through one of these and for a moment their garments shone with a more than regal splendor. Why did not Captain Cook have taste enough to call his great discovery the Rainbow Islands?")

(Here go Grant. look, he's part fish!)

Cook had initially been treated really well by the Hawaiians, some say because he landed in a certain spot at a time when the Hawaiians were expecting their god Lono to show up. They thought Cook was Lono, and gave him food and gifts accordingly, which he accepted greedily, and commenced to coppin' a attitude. After a while people started realizing he wasn't a god after all, and at that last departure from Kealakekua there was a skirmish over some property. Things were tense, and Cook got bonked over the head with a club. Accounts vary, but sounds like he mighta been asking for it. He was by all accounts a violent dude.

Later, the haoles wanted Cook's remains and some Hawaiians, sympathetic to Cook's heirs, were lucky enough to find a single butt-cheek to return to his family. Needless to say, the family was horrified. (I think that's a Mark Twain story too, though, so... grain o'salt.)

On a different note, G and I adopted a dog, Raoul. (He's the red puppeh in the picture, and the heeler mix is Grant's dog Nanook. She needed a playfriend because G works a lot.)

We thought Raoul was a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix until we saw the painting below -- there's something called a Thai Ridgeback, and that's got to be him, because that is exactly the look on his face all the time. He's very sensitive and has a poetic nature. We were thinking he was a beatnik, but I think he might actually be emo. Nanook is more of a down-to-earth farm girl, so they sort of balance each other out. I'll have to get some good shots of them wrestling and then snuggling. pweshus.

okay, i guess i better clock in now. more later....