School photos!

Look at these school photos!  So fun to see how they have changed and grown over the years!  

 

Hummingbird!

In the local plants there have been a number of new creatures and in trying to figure out what they all are, this photo of a beautiful hummingbird was caught!  Nothing to complain about!

The first two days of school seemed to go well.  Still a lot to sort out but making their way there.  The high school had their first home football game and although they didn't have their marching uniforms yet, the band was there an had a great time!  And today Anna got to ride for the first time in a month.  

First Day of School!

This year is a big one, the last one before they are in the same school.  Wow!  We are excited what the busy school year has in store!  

 

Did you feel that?

Did you feel that?

Today at 12:17 p.m. there was a 4.3 earthquake centered not too far from our house.  I felt it at work but no one else felt it.

Although it was centered much farther than the earthquake we felt in Hawaii, it still makes me wonder if we brought them home with us?

Last full day!

Today is our last full day on the island and tomorrow we make the journey back home.  We all slept in a bit after the tiring day yesterday.  We decided to take a picnic lunch to Whittington Beach Park which was very close to where we were staying.  It was so peaceful and we enjoyed just checking things out after we ate.  Olivier decided to venture farther out and got his shorts "only a little bit" wet.  Ha ha!  

There were some remnants of an old pier that were cool to see.  

I like this photo because it shows Anna in charge!  

It is hard to tell but the ocean has created caves in the cliff side.  

We then made another stop at the black sand beach to check for turtles.  There were some in the water but none on the shore.  We then went to a coffee, nut and honey farm and did some yummy taste testing!  We walked around and saw their parrots and ducks.  And yes, pineapple!

One final trip to the store and back to the house to relax before heading home.  But as we walked in, someone was waiting for us, inside!  The gecko!  Matt was able to catch it after a bit of chase.  

And Olivier got to finally be up close with one!  

I decided I should wipe off our shoes a bit before heading home.  Can you tell they are a bit dusty?

Now it is time to relax!  

No photos today!! But we did something really BIG!

Today we relaxed at the house in the morning and played cards.  We had lunch and then headed for Kona.  We did some souvenir shopping and walked around the beach area.  We went to a Hawaiian BBQ place for dinner and got some dessert.  

But wait, didn't I say we did something big?  Oh yeah!  We swam with manta rays!  

At about 7 p.m. we got short wetsuits on and loaded onto a boat for a short (5 minute) trip to an area known to have manta rays.  We used a pool noodle to help us slide into the water with mask and snorkel on.  We swam a short distance to a floating raft that we held the sides of as we floated.  We got to see them come up and do large barrel rolls as they ate the plankton that were being drawn to the floating raft by the lights on the raft.  We learned about the manta rays and although we never reached out to touch them, we all were touched by at least one as they did their barrel rolls.  It was thrilling!  

We got out of the water and sorted out our stuff and made our way back to the house.  It was 9:30 p.m. but it felt a lot later.  We were all worn out and very salty!  

Papakolea Green Sand Beach!

Okay, to get to the green sand beach is not easy.  We parked and then had roughly 2.8 miles of a walk (thankfully fairly flat but very dusty) to get there.  When it is warm and sunny it isn't ideal because the southern tip of the island is basically a desert with no shady spots, but we were determined and we are so glad we did!  This is the first view we had of it.  

Then we saw what looked like the insane way to get down there...  

But we got this far so we were determine to keep going!  We made our way down and it really was not bad.  Maybe all that time in the lava tube made us feel like we could take on more...  Maybe... 

Once we got down, we all wanted to get in the water!  It was warm and felt so refreshing!  

I kind of went crazy with photos when I wasn't in the water because I was so amazed by where we were!  

After lunch we got back in the water and kept an eye for another beach goer who had jumped from the cliff earlier.  

And eventually he decided it was time to jump again!  

Before we headed back I had to get a photo of the green sand.  It was very soft and when it was wet it was almost like mud.  

After making the 2.8 mile warm trek back to the car, we were very thankful we were only a 15 minute drive from the house.  We had planned for today to be an easy day but again I think we all got more than 16,000 steps.  We all showered and enjoyed our normal pizza and a movie.  There was a lot of rain coming down after we got back to the house and we kept thinking of the people who were just heading to the green sand beach as we were leaving and what a mess that path would be.  

And just as the boys were going to bed at 8:30 p.m. we felt a 3.6 earthquake.  Thankfully it was super short and there were no issues but we do know that we smelled sulfur after which was a bit weird.  

"Big" Lava Tubes

Today we headed to lava tubes near Hilo because they are much larger than what we saw yesterday and they are still free!  (many you have to pay for).  This one was not lit so it required us to have our own lights.  Luckily, the rental house had two headlamps and a decent flashlight.  Olivier took this selfie of himself which gives a sense of how dark it is in the tube.  

And here is his outtake!  Can't always be serious!  

One big downside of it not being lit meant it is a lot more difficult to get through and unfortunately I took a big fall in a low area which resulted in a major bruise and a very sore elbow.  Not the best place for a klutz like me but we headed back out to eat lunch, ice my elbow and regroup.  During lunch Olivier spotted this gecko but he still wasn't able to hold it.    

This is the name of the cave.  

And the serious warnings.  

Being regrouped, we headed back down.  Mind you, this is what you have to get down before you even get to the lava tube.

We tried to capture it but there were areas where the roof of the tube looked shiny like it was covered in very fine sliver or gold.  Very cool!  

Matt took this photo of me and Anna with our headlamps.  We called it a ghost that made this photo shadowed.  

Because the next photo of the boys turned out just fine!  And yes, this is some of the stuff we had to wiggle around!  

We got to a point and we really weren't sure if we should keep going (there was a fork in the tube) so we turned around.  We got to a section of basic crawling again and Anna and I took a rest.  

And this is the entrance to the tube, or exit in our case since we were headed out.  It was really cool to see but very hard on the body (especially mine!!).  My biggest bruise is a fair amount larger than the palm of my hand.  Ouch!  

We then opted for something much easier, checking out Rainbow Falls!  

We then went souvenir shopping around Hilo and found some cool stuff before making the drive back to the house.