And Finally...The Big Island

Sorry for the delay, but here is what we did on the last island.

On the first evening at The Big Island, we went to a beach near our rental place to watch the sunset. It turned out to be a great idea, because it was the best sunset we saw during our trip.


Jonas liked playing with and collecting rocks, but he watched the sunset too.


Here are some more shots.


The next day we started early because we had a lot planned. First we went to rainbow falls on the east side of the island.

Next we went all the way to the southern most point in the United States. We went really far out on the rocks to get as far south as possible. The only problem, there were some big waves. I got a little wet.


It was pretty windy too.


McKenzie and I had fun.


Next it was time to do some off road time in the Jeep. There is no easy way to get to the green beach.


But once we made it to the green beach we had a good time. And it really was green!




The next day we went snorkeling, and Jonas liked looking for things in the pools.

What is that Jonas?


Don't pick it up!


Be nice to the crab Jonas. He has no fear.


Later that night we tried to see the lava, but it was not as spectacular as I thought it was going to be. It is not as easy to see the lava up close as it used to be. There is a big parking area and a 10 minute walk to look at the lava from a few miles away.

On our last full day, we took a drive up to Mauna Kea. It is one of the best places in the world to see the stars at 13,796 ft above sea level. We stopped one night going over the mountain to look at the stars. It was amazing, you could clearly see the brilliant Milky Way.

Then we went to try and see the lava again. We were determined to get a close up view 0f the lava.


We hiked for about an hour and it seemed like we were not getting any closer.


We found this tree trying to live in the middle of the black lava field.


This is as close as we got to the lava. Still a few miles away.


After the sun went down, it got dark quickly, we had to hike back in the dark with flashlights.

Jonas did not go on our hike, but he still had a good time on the lava with Grandma. This is a really popular thing to do on The Big Island. People write messages on the black lava, usually with white coral, but red lava seems to work too.


Jonas found this hippo to ride.


Our last day of sight seeing.



At the airport ready to go back to Oahu.

Maui - The Second Island

Day One:
The first day on Maui, we went whale watching, and it was AWESOME! We were in the middle of whale season in Hawaii, and by all accounts, we went out on the best day of the year. About 10 minutes into our trip we saw our first 'breach' - when a humpback whale jumps out of the water and lands with a huge splash. We were told that this was the grand-slam of whale watching. This must have been all star whale weekend because we were witness to about 50 breaching whales during our 3 hour trip.

These pictures don't do it justice, but they are still impressive.





Who knew 40-ton whales could jump this high?



After seeing about 40 whales jump out of the water, Jonas got a little tired, and took a little nap.


At the end our boat captain told us if this is our first whale watching trip, we should stop now, because it will not get any better.

We also drove around the island to get an idea of what we wanted to do for the next 4 days.



You can actually see the top of a whale in this picture just behind the tree.





Day Two:
Letha and I decided to try surf paddling. We saw several people doing it along the shore next to our condo the day before, and it looked pretty easy - on a calm day...

Not as easy when the wind and waves kick up. It was pretty rocky along the shore, so Letha and I started to paddle out past the rocks while laying, sitting or kneeling on the board. About 100 yards from shore we see this huge head pop up 5 feet right in front of us, Letha screamed. It was a HUGE sea turtle. Its head was as big as mine. It took a long time to get out past the rocks. Over the next hour or so, we tried to stand up and paddle - unsuccessfully, and you will notice that there is no video of this, because by the time we got back to shore, our video crew (family) was 3 miles back up the beach where we took off from. We were exhausted and we both had cuts on our feet from getting knocked off the board onto the rocks. Since no one knew where we were and we had no cell phone, Letha walked back on hot concrete to get the car and I stayed with the boards. Not as much fun as we had hoped. We will probably try again...someday - maybe on a lake.




Not sure why, but we could not convince anyone else to try out surf paddling.

Day Three:
Our big hike was in Haleakala National Park. It's about a 12 mile hike through a huge dormant volcanic valley, with cinder cones and lots of lava rock.

Here is our hiking crew:




A view from the top:

Here is a pretty large cinder cone.


And this is a rare species of Silversword that can only be found here.


Here is McKenzie hiking back up to the top.


Here is a small lava tube:


We stopped to have some lunch.


McKenzie and I went to check out a cave up on the hill.


We had a visitor for lunch, the state bird of Hawaii the Nene - Hawaiian Goose


Day Four:
On our last day on Maui we decided to do a little more sight seeing. We went to see the Needle in Iao Valley State Park. The needle is a 2250 ft peak in the Iao Valley.






Off to the Big Island...

The First Island - Oahu

Day One:
The first day we started everything off at Mac 24-7 Resaraunt and Bar in our hotel. They had my favorite - pancakes! 3 14" pancakes for $15. And if a single person finishes them in under 30 minutes, they get them free!


I tried but could not finish them. Mommy and Daddy tried to help me out too, but we still could not finish them.

Next we were off to visit the Dole Pineapple Plant located on Oahu.




We took a train ride around the grounds of the Pineapple plant, you know how I like trains!




Mommy had to leave to go to a work meeting, so we spent some time in the largest maze in the world - according to the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records. It took a while, but we found all the hidden shapes, and had a lot of fun.




When Mommy returned from her meeting we were off to the North Shore.



When we got there we found out they were having a Surf Competition. We watched for a while, but soon Daddy and McKenzie came up with a new competition - Touch the rock while avoiding the big waves.



Day Two:
The next day we were off to Hanamu Bay to go Snorkeling. I didn't do much snorkeling, even though Mommy and Daddy said it was nice. I was more interested in making sand castles.







Hiking Koko Crater - Try Number 1
That afternoon while I was taking a nap, half the group went out to go for a little crater hiking. After some quick searches they found Koko Crater. Mommy read some guys blog and found a potential hiking trail to the top.


After a short climb, it was clear that this was not the safest trail - it would have involved a little rock climbing with no gear, so everyone headed back to the car.





Hiking Koko Crater - Try Number 2
On the way back to the hotel, mommy saw a few things moving on a path on the side of the crater. It was people! So everyone decided to try and get the hike in before dark. When they arrived they saw that it was an old rail track and people were climbing to the top - 1200 feet straight up a hill. It was 6:00 and sun sets at 6:30, and we were told it took about an hour to get to the top and back.



On the way up we saw an excellent sunset and Daddy saw his first sunset green flash.





On the way down it got pretty dark. Daddy and Mommy had to use their cell phones as flashlights to see.

Day Three:
On our last day on Oahu Mommy and Daddy, went to Pearl Harbor memorial to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers, and learn about the attack that brought the United States into World War II.



U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Back from Hawaii

Well we had a great time in Hawaii. It was a long trip 3 nights on Ohau, 4 nights on Maui, and 4 nights on The Big Island. We had 8 people in our group - Grandma and Pa-Paw, Aunt Kelli and Uncle Kris, my cousin McKenzie, Mommy and Daddy and Me. Here are McKenzie and I getting on to the airplane. Yes, that's us leading the group, plus I wanted to show everyone my new backpack. I can carry lots of important stuff as you can see Baby Ugly Doll in the side pocket, and you can't see him, but my puppy is on the other side.



More to come from our trip soon...