Happy New Year!!!!

It has been a wonderful year for travel, an amazing year in politics, a disastrous year for the worldwide economy, and as we end 2008 we can only be excited about the prospects for 2009.

The Devil Dog spent time in Steamboat Springs and Crested Butte for ski trips, went to St. Paul de Vence and Cap d'Antibe in the south of France, thanks to Katherine Johnstone and the amazing people at Maison de la France, rolled down the Mississippi River on a paddleboat from Memphis to New Orleans, luxuriated in Champagne and Burgundy, France, and renewed ties with a dozen or so coffee farmers in the south of Kona, among many other adventures along the way too numerous to recount here, but rest assured they were good ones.

After many years writing travel pieces for The Washington Times the Devil Dog expanded his horizons with pieces this year in New York Newsday, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Dallas Morning News, with upcoming articles scheduled for the Austin American Statesman, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, and The Honolulu Advertiser. Watch for expanding circles of media penetration in the year to come.

I would thank several key people, including the aforementioned Katherine Johnstone, for whom I give great thanks for both her wisdom and efficiency, and massive kudos for being such a cool person, and Kent St. John of Gonomad.com and the travel blog Be Our Guest, better known to our intrepid readers as Francois Delay du Pompideau, who not only is a Keith Richards like partner in crime (I guess that makes me Ronnie), but whose friendship and decency as a member of the human race led to the creation of this column (and who coined the nickname of Devil Dog for yours truly under circumstances that are cloudy at best).

Happy New Year to all and best wishes from the Devil Dog for a beautifully ridiculous 2009!

Coffee Tasting Judges Caught in the Act

The Kona Coffee Cultural Festival has captured our attention this last month, and for good reason.  The Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition honors the top three coffee farms in Kona each year in a process infused with the integrity of an international panel of judges who are experts at coffee.  Each farm provides 50 pounds of parchment from which a sample is milled and roasted.  The coffee is rated on fragrance, aroma, taste, nose and body.  The judging is completely blind, with the judges having no idea which coffee farm they are tasting.

Above and below we see the judges hard at work, their refined pallettes discerningly sifting through the finer aspects of our contesting coffees with a dedication to quality and the integrity of the process.  The Devil Dog hails this years winners and all the coffee farms of Kona who continue to produce this hand crafted artisan product, and encourages you to order Kona coffee from these archetypes of American agriculture, the individual farmer crafting his single vineyard estate coffee like a fine winemaker in Napa or Sonoma.

Meanwhile....back in Kona

Speaking of Kona, I am always enthralled with the quaintness of many of the old houses and businesses there.  The outer islands of Hawaii are full of old homes and structures, and the Big island is no exception.  The entire town of Hawi in the north of Kohala is practically a museum piece of old Hawaii.  In the picture above is an old building or home that may or may not still be in use, just off the road before Honaunau.  

Below is Rons Custom Saddlery, the starting point for Kealekekua trail rides and where I first discovered Terry Fitzgerald's Da Kine Coffee. I used to buy it there (along with Kona Bob coffee) but the saddle shop is open on, shall we say, an indeterminate schedule.  So after missing the proprietor one too many times I began visiting Terry's farm and the rest, as they say, is Kona Coffee history.  But the saddle shop is still there and a treat to see every time I pass by.  they host trail rides down to Kealekekua Bay twice a day on most days.

Then there is the subtle color scheme of the Blue Ginger Gallery in Captain Cook, a beautiful old building, tenderly restored and then painted a brilliant blue that is hard to miss.

Let it Snow

The Devil Dog hopes all of you had a wonderful Boxing Day.  In the spirit of Christmas, and with memories of Heliskiing in Telluride in my head, the Devil Dog hopes all of you embrace the joy of the holiday season by remembering that they have had 5 feet of snow in parts of the Rockies the last several days.  Heliskiing is one of the most exciting and terrifying experiences of my life.  The picture above is taken at the summit of one of our stops as the helicoptor takes off, leaving us at 14000 feet at the top of a mountain.  Thats the Dog himself in the photo below, ski equipment in the snow, and the wicked peaks of backcountry Telluride all around us.  

And theres only one way down.  Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!!!

On this most glorious of days, on Christmas, the Devil Dog is drawn back to his ski trip to Crested Butte last year, because nothing says Christmas like snow in the mountains.  Sleigh bells ring....are you listening.

Mount Crested Butte,  seen from town above, and Crested Butte Ski Resort are one of the best kept secrets in Alpine skiing, a winter wonderland of unparralleled proportions.  And they get a lot of snow there. The fabulous upscale restaurant Soupson, in a log cabin from the 1890's, is buried under an avalanche of snow.

The original City Hall, built in 1883, is now a community arts center.  The town is a fairy tale of an iconic western mountain range town, and on Christmas day we cannot help but cast a glance to winters beauty in the mountains of Colorado.

Thunderball Snorkle Dive in Kealekekua Bay

So the Devil Dog is on a Fairwind snorkle dive in pristine and historic Kealekekua Bay, but there's a wicked twist....they have handheld underwater propulsion devices, personal submarine navigators, such as the yellow number in the hands of our dive master and guide in the picture above.  With this device we ply the waters of the bay from the shallows of a few feet to twenty yards off shore where its 30 feet deep, to thirty yards off shore where its a hundred feet or more.  Oh yes.  It gets steep very quick, and very deep...it drops off.  But its stunning. And with our Thunderball James Bond underwater propulsion devices we cruise at a steady pace on top of or under the water, diving to 30 feet or more in a heartbeat, and shooting to the surface with equal clarity.

Speaking of clarity, this is the area where we dock and where the crystal clear waters are 10 to 30 feet deep, filled with sea life, coral,  and a veritable underwater wonderland.

Kealekekua Bay is many things, but the Devil Dog counts it as one of the things you must do at least once at some time over the years when you are in Kona.  It is somewhat of a destination point, meaning it can be a little crowded on days, so the private dive with the Thunderball underwater propulsion device is highly recommended, because you see a lot more of the bay and you cover more territory, going into areas of the marine preserve that are less seen. 

Its a magical time on the Fairways boat Hula Kai.

Kealekekua Bay

Kealekekua Bay is a crystal clear immaculately beautiful natural wonder of undersea joy and aquatic adventure. Lined by towering cliffs, Kealekekua Bay is also the site of ancient Hawaiian legend, where Captain Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands and was hailed by natives as a God, only to be slain in an armed skirmish on the shores of this very bay when he returned to repair his ship when it was damaged in a storm shortly after leaving, and met with a series of escalating conflicts with the local Hawaiian chief.  A monument on the spot of the skirmish marks the photo below. The Devil Dog is appalled at the violence but respectful of its significance.

But the waters of Kealekekua Bay and the pristine snorkeling are its constant calling in these modern days, and as a protected marine environment it is home to packs of porpoises of different species and persuasions.  

Our trip to Kealekekua Bay is a Fairwinds excursion, on their magnificant diving yacht the Hula Kai. Its a five hour excursion, with lunch served aboard, visuals of the ocean and the coast that are unbeleivable and a seaside approach to the hallowed waters of Kealekekua Bay that are the start of its own adventure.  A day of snorkeling in these amazing waters is a popular but truly worthy encounter with the ocean. We spend the day in  an undersea adventure worthy of James Bond.  As in Thunderball.  As in underwater hand held forward motion aquatic propulsion devices.  More on that later.