Hawaii: Day 4

Does anyone else feel like we've been in Hawaii forever?  I mean, really, will the Hawaii posts ever end?  Let's pick up the pace, eh?

On Saturday, Vanda volunteered to be our native tour guide and take us snorkling.  We drove through the middle of the island as opposed to our normal trips driving around the outside.

Did you know that parts of Jurassic Park were filmed on the Big Island?  I wish I had captured better photos, but I honestly thought I saw a T-Rex between the trees.

Vanda decided to take us out to the coast to a little place called Champagne Pond.  But in order to get to here:

We had to go over these:

And if felt like this:

Vanda promised us a picturesque lighthouse on the coast.  This is what lighthouses look like in Hawaii...I think the Hawaiian word for lighthouse is oilwell.

It was a beautiful spot, so of course we stopped to take pictures.

Everyone insisted that I stand here in this position waiting for a giant wave to crash against the rocks.

Five minutes later....still standing...still no wave...tons of dorky pictures captured on the camera.

There it is.  The wave we'd been waiting for for 10 minutes. 

Isn't it spectacular?  Well worth the wait, I'd say.

One of the coolest things about the Hawaiian coast is that it might be covered in painful black lava rocks, but random almost neon green plants sprout up everywhere.  It rains so much here that within days of lava wiping out all life, it rises again.  I think there's a hidden meaning in that.

This is Jen, sacrificing her body on the rocks to get a great picture.

Hey, look!  It's Jeep II again, looking stellar as always.

And here we are again, looking stellar as always.

(Jen has magical long arms that can always get every single person in a group photo.  It's a talent I'm jealous of.)

And here is Champagne Pond.  Appropriately named for the warmth of the pool and the tickly bubbly effect it had on your skin when the clouds gently sprinkled from above, also creating soft carbonating pop sounds.

It doesn't look like much, but it was magical.  It was my first experience with snorkling (yes, ever) and I think I'm hooked.  We saw tropical fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors, including a puffer fish!  We saw coral and white eels with red stripes and tons of shell treasures.  I loved it.

There was even a shark.

Just kidding, it was just me!

Vanda and I had been switching off with wearing the water shoes, and when I got out of the water, I discovered why my balance felt so off.

I was told that my hair looked crazy, so I took a picture to see.  Nope, that's just how my hair always looks.

Bathing Beauties

We went to the tide pools next.  There were tons more fish and coral and tons more sharp rocks.

I got dizzy sometimes when I was walking on the rocks and looking down because it kept looking like the rocks were moving, but they weren't rocks - just cute little camouflaged crabs!

Next we went to the Warm Pond, which was ironically the coldest place we visited that day.

But it had pretty twisty trees.

And roots that grow above ground.

And signs that tell you not to do a lot of things (despite what the picture may portray, I was jumping by the no jumping sign, not dancing).

The Warm Pond even had Obama drinking a shaved ice!

This is Kelly, doing a photoshoot because we were trying to stalk our stalkers in a moment of revenge.

Those men in the distance were pretending to take pictures of the pond but really taking pictures of us.  So we turned the tables and got them back.

Gotcha!

This is the unbelievable drive home.

There's only one thing to do when you see a jungle full of vines.

Swing!!

Look at Jeep II, doesn't he look stunning in the jungle?

On the way home we drove through Pahoa, the hippie capitol of the Big Island.  We wanted to go there ever since we met our hippie on the plane.

We saw this van three(!) separate times while driving around the week we were there.  It had a bandaid painted on its side that said, "Ouch!"  At first I thought it was a joke because it was covering the gas tank.  Then I noticed it was covering a huge dent where the car had been smashed.  Funny both ways, I think.

When we got home, we did a photoshoot with Warner.  It was his very first youth dance.  How cute!

We spent the rest of the day in downtown Hilo, checking out their famous market street.

We tried on masks.

And drank coconut milk.

And ripped open the coconut with our bare hands.

And then ate the coconut.

And some of us waited and waited and waited.  While others of us shopped and shopped and shopped.

It was almost enough to drive someone to the bottle.

We debated about joining the Island Dance Academy.

We discovered a covered bike the pioneers could appreciate.

We ate yummy yummy Thai food.

And then we played around in the downtown park.

They had a really cool bridge that imitated a roller coaster.

Cool aesthetically, but practically?  You go up and down and up and down when you could just go across.

We paid homage to the great King Kamehameha (pronounced Kah-may-huh-may-huh)

Or if you want to bug Adrienne, it's pronounced Kahmee-hamee-ha.

We found a lot of slugs that were paying homage as well.  This is a hammerhead slug!

If you are showing these pictures to children, you might want to skip this next one...

And that about wraps up Day 4.  But let's end it on a sweet note.

I promise, one day these Hawaii posts will be done.