We sat on the beach today. We read—I’m reading The Martian and it is a terrific beach read! We swam and/or snorkeled. We sat and looked at the waves and the people. It was a really nice day!
I’m working on this week’s Photo Challenge which is to take a photo that tells a story. Here are some of the one’s I have accumulated… What do you see?
We finally found Nene, the Hawaiian goose! In fact, we came upon a gaggle of them! They waddled into the road, and then off the road. I’m not an avid birder but I was happy to see these birds.
We hiked on Haleakala. Not all of the way across the crater, but down the Sliding Sands trail for a few miles and then back up. Let me just say that down is way, way better then up. It would be great to hike uphill first and get that part over with, but it just doesn’t work that way.
With every step down, I dreaded the steps back up. My legs were fine, it’s the altitude. At 59, I feel it more than I did 10 years ago. My lungs and heart worked hard. But I did make it back to 10,000-ish feet, as did we all. Amanda and Keith smiled more.
But Steve was very happy too!
We did see several silver swords. They only grow here, and are relatives of sunflowers.
After the hike, we went to Paia for gelato. It was terrific and we earned it.
And the we went to Wailuku to Mele Ukulele where Amanda bought a ukulele! I play the radio, Amanda plays a viola, drums, and now a ukulele. And she sings. In a band! I hum along, and have playlists for the rental cars :-). Needless to say, I am impressed by her abilities.
Tomorrow we are going to loll on the beach. Not LOL, we are going to sit and read and take pictures, and snorkel/swim and just chill. Oh happy, happy day!
We landed yesterday in Kahului, Maui, and had some time to kill before checking into the hotel so we visited the Iao Valley and Needle. Let me just say that you can miss this and not feel bad. It is a lovely view but there were too many people and a serious shortage of parking spaces.
We drove to Paia and had the good fortune to find nice lunch, fabulous gelato, and the Cesere Brothers gallery. We were lucky enough to have time to visit with John who told us about their (marine/nature) photography. It’s really amazing and before too long one of their prints will be hanging in our house!
We are staying in Lahaina which was a whaling town. There are many lovely beaches nearby—today we went to Kahekili Beach Park to snorkel and sit on the beach. The people watching was as good as the fish watching.
We also snorkeled off of the Mala boat ramp. This was a little more challenging. The way in and out of the water was shallow and rocky, with some coral. We had to be careful.
The boats were on the other side of the boat ramp so that wasn’t a problem. Steve almost had a problem…
But then the shark spit him out. [Really, not to worry. No sharks, that we’ve seen. That’s the Snorkel Bob shark that I photoshopped into the the photo. Our mom’s can now stop worrying :-).]
Amanda and I have been snapping lots of photos, sometimes of each other!
Tomorrow we are hiking on Haleakala. It will be a long, but satisfying day. I’ll take pictures to prove it!
We left the volcano area and drove from Hilo to Kona around the long way. We stopped at Laupahoehoe Point which is scenic and was also the site of a tsunami tragedy in the 1940s. Very few people live there now, but there is a park, some campsites, and an impressive boat launch with what look like giant concrete jacks tossed around it.
I took many photos there but it was so humid, and there was so much water in the air, that they all look out of focus.
We spent a couple of nights at the Royal Kona, which looks a little like a cruise ship.
There are nice views…
We walked around and I spied these treasures left on the seawall…. such a nice composition.
We went to happy hour and enjoyed live music and people watching (and MaiTais). This lady was fun to watch. She looked so staid but really perked up when the parasailers flew by.
On our full day on the Kona side we visited Pu’u Honua O’honaunau, the City of Refuge, an interesting historic site that is next to a fantastic snorkeling spot.
I had fun taking pictures….
Amanda took photos too…
I don’t take pictures under water so you just have to trust me that the fish were amazing.
Today, we left the Big Island and are now on Maui, staying in Lahaina. Back to snorkeling tomorrow. Yay! Life really is very good.
I’ve been without internet for a couple of days so I’ll put up more than one post today.
On Thursday we went to Puna Lu’u, the black sand beach which is called that for obvious reasons…
We got there early enough to snag a great spot on the shade….
This is a great spot for snorkeling. That’s Steve,in the water. Snorkeling is not a sport that results in exciting above-water photos.
Puna Lu’u is a reliable place for spotting amazing fish and Green Sea Turtles.
After lunch we headed back to Volcanoes National Park to the end of Chain of Craters Road. This area didn’t use to be ‘the end’ of the road, it used to continue on to Hilo and beyond, around the island. In the 1980s the road was covered by an impressive expanse of lava.
If you have been here before, but not in the past couple of years, it has changed. What used to be “the end” now goes farther. The park service carved out a gravel road. After walking about a mile to find ‘the end’ we gave up.
There was walking involved to get see the lava, and it was hot. Even so, we did stop for photos, but not always of the same thing 🙂
On the way out we stopped at a pullout. What’s especially cool here is the fact that we are high up, and in the distance the water at the horizon is unexpectedly high. It’s just weird when you see it in person as you drive down the hill.
This may be on next year’s Christmas cards—many thanks to Amanda for this shot!
We spent the day hiking, looking for birds and looking at nature. It was fun and it’s late so I’m not writing much, just sharing photos :-).
We started with the Pu’u O’o Trail hike, which starts off of the Saddle Road. It’s not a long hike, lots of stopping for photos and looking for birds, and taking photos of people (Steve and Keith) looking for birds.
Of the nearly 200 photos that I took today, only a few turned out well. I’m still working on manual focus, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Maybe, by the end of my 52 Week Photo Challenge class, I’ll be much better. As it is, I’m happy with the photos that did turn out well and the rest are gone!
This next one cracks me up… who is looking at what?
In the afternoon (after lunch at Sompat’s Thai in Hilo) we went to Volcano National Park and did the Pu’u Hulu Hulu trail this afternoon.
That’s Amanda, sitting next to a broken lava dome.
This is a spent Ohi’a Lehua blossom. I’ll have more of these later on.
Amanda got a nice picture of me—many thanks to Amanda! I don’t look as bad in the hat as I imagined that I did!
This is a branch from an Ohi’a Lehua tree. The look of the tree changes depending on where they are. I am doing my best to take interesting pictures that are in focus and not over or under exposed, manually. I love it when it works!
We saw several rainbows today and this one, on the way back to our rental house, made us stop to take pictures. The ends of the rainbow were both in the crater. So cool!
I hope to post more photos tomorrow. I hope that you are enjoying your life right now as much as we are :-).
Piece O Cake Blog 