Adventures on the Big Island

Before starting please note that this is going to be as long as I can possibly make it. Why? Because Di claims I don't take enough pictures. So, this is a "in your face" to her. =) Also, we roughed it. So please disregard how gross we looked, including brushing our teeth with out toothpaste... we forgot it. Also, I didn't realize how freaking long it takes to upload pictures and especially videos! So I was not able to post everything but trust me, there is still plenty to see. So yes, this did take me a full 2 days. I'm very good at multitasking.

Continue if you dare I guess.

 This is the time we left the house on Thursday morning.

 Some wooden carvings and statues being sold on the side of the road in Kona.

 These are at the Kealakekua Bay, where the Captain Cook Memorial is as well as where he was killed.

 There was a huge pod of spinner dolphins. It was so cool, they swam around our kayak and we were able to get and swim with them.

 The white thing behind Jake is the memorial. The land it sits on is actually owned by the British... I stood in Great Britain and the United States at the same time. Have you done that? Didn't think so.

 These are "Ancient Historical Hawaiian" horses... or just horses from a tour group.

 These are STILL the bay and memorial, below is snorkeling around the area.

 This is a lava flow where Hawaiians would bury their dead in the lava tubes. It was so weird that almost everywhere we went there were dead people under our feet.

 Notice the big white suburban? It's Benny's twin.

 Of course, the first injury of the trip was me. I stepped on a thorn and it went through my slipper, into my foot. It required a romantic piggy-back ride back to the car. Also where I lost a lens to my favorite pair of sunglasses I have ever owned, and I've had many-a-pair.

Setting up our "two-man"tent. Two MAN? Bull!! Only if those two men are 12 years old and midgets can you consider it that. It's a good thing we love each other and he pretends that he likes to cuddle. Also, we found out the next morning that we were about half a mile from a plain were tens of thousands of people were killed way back when.

Below are random pictures; let me explain.

Above is taken at the look out at Pololu and below is... well we forget. =)

 Jake suggested we buy a 3 pound bag of Wonka candy... as driving "food".

 These were some really cool caves created by lava tubes. The ferns grow because of something having to do with the lava.

 These are platforms that the (I'm serious this time) ancient Hawaiians made. No one is really sire what they did here, but they think it was for gifts to their Gods which was usually a human sacrifice.

This is what it looked like around the cave.

 This is why he loves me.

These garbage bags were bought to become our ponchos for the hike down into the Waipio Valley. It's a really interesting place where only 50 people live! Read about it here. Clickety Clack.

 These are the Waipio Valley

 

 Below is at Onomea.

 Unnecessary pictures added for length... you can thank Di for that.

 I only added this because I wanted to show the tiled floors. We stayed at this super high class (not) hotel. They were out of king beds so we got two queens. I let Jake know that if he got scared at night he could climb into bed with me.

Next we went to Mauna Kea.

 vog - volcanic smog

Yeah... That is lava on fire that took over the road. Some people still live in this town that was taken over by a lava slide in 1990.

 People live in these houses in a lake of lava! Crazy...

The strips are where the town names have been blacked out because the towns are no longer there!

This is a hot water pond heated by underground volcanic activity.

 Don't worry... we hiked it anyways.

 These are volcano hot spots and steam vents.

 There were so many Asians I couldn't resist!

 Looking into the inner crater of Mauna Ulu.

 I have this new interest in cemeteries, especially old ones. I like to read the headstones and so we went to Hilo's graveyard and looked for some of Jake's ancestors. We don't know any of these people by the way.

 It was really sad to see that some people had these huge shrines dedicated to them and others had little paper signs like this one.

 South Point and Black Sand Beach

Family history research; Jake's mama's mom's hometown, Hilo.

So that is the jist of our vacation... actually we'll call it a trip. =) More random pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure.