Excuse the "puffy and pregnant" face...sadly, it just happens...
Friday, May 25, 2007
Akaka Falls
The Helicopter Tour
The Helicopter:
If we had done the hike, this is where it would have been along.
The big lava pit:
Some guy still lives in his house amidst all these lava fields:
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Kona Hawaii
*Trivial information: Oahu holds 75% of all of Hawaii's population. Most of that is probably in Honolulu and the surrounding cities.
We spent our third (and last full day) driving across the island to Kona. It's a huge island! It took a couple of hours just to get to the other side, on Oahu you could drive around the entire island in less time.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Volcanoes National Park
Here are some petroglyphs we also hiked out to.
After all that hiking, it was definitely a LOST night. So we went back to our hotel and watched the most amazing season finale ever!!
The "New" Beach
Although not technically sand, it looked and felt just like it. Sand comes from coral, the black sand here is made from the lava rocks that surround the island. We brought a big jar of it home with us.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Mauna Kea Observatory
Our First Day
We spent a lot of down time on Coconut Island. Here is Rusty and Ashlyn playing in the water. It was a tiny island (maybe about an acre) with a little foot bridge to it.
We also went to Rainbow Falls and Pe'epe'e (pay-aypay-ay) Falls. Rainbow Falls was pretty lame, I've seen better pictures of it. I guess it hasn't rained in Hilo for awhile. Some other tourists were blaiming it on Global Warming (*insert rolled eyes here). It was still pretty though.
This is our view from the hotel. Rust and I have never been on a "real" vacation, so it was a lot of fun to actually stay in a hotel. You can see a cruise ship in the distance, we almost did that instead. But we didn't know Ashlyn would be charged the full adult price.