This day was driving exploration day for the southern part of the island. We left early in the morning for snorkeling, having learned that dolphins do their thing in the morning hours. Sea turtles mosey along the water all day long.


Well, we didn’t see any dolphins, but one spot we hit for snorkeling nicknamed “Two Steps” was unbelievable. I practically stepped on a large yellow tang with my fins as I lowered myself into the water off a rocky shelf. Instantly, we were over a coral reef with colorful and beautiful fish were everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. Each time a wave lifted, visible fish were in the raised cross-section of ocean. I was struck by all the life and coral forests underneath the surface, and all the many fish living together, swimming lazily about, pecking at hidden things in the crevices, being very kind to us intruders into their world. I even watched two fish “fight,” which I learned later was a cleaner wrasse pecking the parasites and dead scales off a yellow tang in a symbiotic relationship. Going farther out into the ocean, the coral stopped and we found ourselves swimming over a sandy ocean bottom. Suddenly, a surprise for the visitors of the water: on the white sand underneath, written by placement of cement bricks, was the word “ALOHA.” As we swam along, the water sometimes got “wrinkly” and blurry, and at times got very cold currents that chilled me to the bone. Turned out there was a fresh water spring that feeds into the ocean somewhere, and the mixing of the fresh and salt water was what created the wavy rippling effect, and possibly the temperature change. After getting out (I got a little seasick), I mentioned to Mr. W that I needed to pee. He said, “You didn’t pee while you were in the water?”
I looked up at him. “No! There’s all this fish and life down there, I’m not peeing on them!”
“They pee on you all day long,” he said. I held my breath and visited the Port-o-Potty, which I figured would be really clean if people thought like Mr. W. “OR they could just be full of shit.” Great. (He was right.)

After the morning was spent exploring beaches, we spent the afternoon and evening visiting Kailua-Kona Town on foot again, taking photos.


Many of the shops weren’t open when we visited it the day before, due to the early morning hour. On this day, a cruiseship had come in, so all the shops and streets were abuzz with excitement. We walked into a jewelry store, wandered around a bit, Mr. W said he didn’t care to look at jewelry and walked out. I followed him, since the store clerk was helping a couple of cruisers anyway and was busy. We later passed by that jewelry store’s side window on the way back down the street, and I casually looked over, saw a pretty purple gemstone ring, then looked a foot to the left of that and saw two rings, both with a purplish-gray tint. I stepped up to the window and lowered my height up and down, seeing the rings from two different angles. The color changed to a greenish-gray. “Oh my gosh, I think that’s Alexandrite!” I exclaimed and Mr. W walked back to me and looked. So of course we had to go back in, especially since Mr. W figured that if there was Alexandrite in the window, there had to be Alexandrite in a display.
The store clerk came by as we were searching the displays. “Is that Alexandrite out there?” Mr. W pointed.
“Indeed, it is,” the clerk Ron said as he unlocked the window and took out the smaller of the two rings. It was perfect; a half carat or so of natural, not simulated, Alexandrite from Russia, of amazing clarity and quality. No clouds, feathers or inclusions could I see with my eyes, and the color change was so distinct that it went from a red (red!) in indoor incandescent lighting to an emerald green in direct sunlight. My simulated Alexandrite isn’t even of this quality, and the clerk noted how rare this stone is in general, and how unheard of a natural one of this color-change quality in this size is in new jewelry. The best natural Alexandrite I’d seen barely goes from a light purple to something slightly blue-green, with cracks all through the tiny stone. Also, this band is slender, feminine 18K white gold, the center Alexandrite is emerald-cut and safely set in a Bezel-setting, accented on either side by clusters of 3 diamonds, and the band itself has diamonds running halfway down the sides. It was everything I’ve ever wanted, more than I’d ever hoped to find, thousands more than I could afford, but half the price of the engagement ring. It was The Ring, the one Mr. W was looking for to propose with but could not find. He knew it, too. I put it on my finger. “And it fits, too!” Mr. W said incredulously. The clerk engaged in a great conversation with us about his background as a science teacher and gemologist, which he’d come to the Island 25 years ago to do after a near-death experience in which a gunshot wound ripped out most of his carotid artery and bled him to death. I should call it a death experience, but what he experienced as he died, after he died, and upon his return to his body hours later, reinforced everything I believe in. That sideways glance into the store window, catching the ring unexpectedly, was no coincidence. He gave us a CD of some music he composed on his piano after his experience, we chatted some more about how his scientific anti-religion family disowned him, his epiphanies about life and death, and I decided I could not turn away this ring. So he brought it back out from the window and we talked shop. He gave me the 10% local discount, couldn’t go down lower as the store’s policy was to never discount their stuff, but he can legally avoid having to charge me sales tax as he was mailing me the ring out-of-state, so I saved another 8% right there. The plan is to go back home and call him with my credit card information (funny story: I unwittingly brought along an expired credit card on the trip, duh) and he’ll mail the ring to me next week. I’ll just not spend any money on gas or food or anything at all for the next few months to pay for it.
I was happy the rest of the day, looking forward to my future jewelry. I glowed in the dark all through our dinner at a nice tatami-style Japanese restaurant in town. The hunt for my birthstone is finally over.


The walk through town back to our hotel was also highly romantic.