I haven't updated in so long! Two days...three days? Two days? Three. Three days or so sounds right. Anyway, I wish I could say I had a good excuse, but I really don't. I just was tired, and then bored, and than tired again, and than I forgot to finish some of my Spanish homework so I had to stay up late working on that.
Anyway, let me start at the volcanoes. I don't actually remember much, so I guess I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

This looks small. It is not. It is what used to be a small, green valley (in the '50's). Than, the small caldera called Ici, I believe, on the side of the Kilauea volcano, exploded and doused the valley in 400 ft. of molten lava which took almost a month to dry, and almost 20 years to cool all the way through.

From Hawai'i

Here's the big hole all the lava came out of (it's caved in and smothered in greenery now).

From Hawai'i

This is Ed next to a big crack in the middle of the above pictured big hole.

From Hawai'i

Weirdly, there is a surprising amount of green in the big hole.

From Hawai'i

From Hawai'i

Then, we went to see a place in the middle of the desert were some people (nobody's exactly sure who, except they seem to have lived a long time ago) carved lots of pictures in the lava.
It was a bit of a hike:

From Hawai'i

There were lots of pictures, some of which (according to Grandpa Ron and Tristan, respectively) portrayed a bicycle and an alien with a ray gun.

From Hawai'i

From Hawai'i

Next day, we had to move. Of course, the moment we packed the car, we found a really pretty, interesting little beach just down the street in the other direction that we hadn't known was there. Mom was sad.

From Hawai'i

SEA SLUGS! WOOOO!!

From Hawai'i

Bye-bye, house!

From Hawai'i

Here's part of our NEW house:

From Hawai'i

Today, we went to a beach down a big hill (good to know where we are, eh?)

From Hawai'i

The path was very long. And steep.

From Hawai'i

I made this!

From Hawai'i

We stopped at a beautiful (and REALLY windy) 600-year-old village on the shore.

From Hawai'i

We also stopped for lunch in a town with a shop with a bathroom that had a toilet that looked like this:

From Hawai'i

And passed a sign (not the first) that looked like this:

From Hawai'i

And that was it! Pictures of our ridiculous new house to follow!

Today is volcanoes!

Location: The House, Kona, Hawai´i
Music: "Southbound" by Doc Watson
Weather: 75 degrees Fahrenheit, clear and breezy




The beach was excellent although the tide was a little exuberant, so I didn't stay long. Got some good picks of the local neighborhood, though. Very friendly and comfortable here (well, for this much it had better be, right?). We went down to a place about 4 miles down the road (and through a lava field) called Pu'uhonua Honaunau. Apparently in times of yore, there was all kinds of stuff you could do that could get you killed, like looking at the wrong people or letting your shadow cross that of someone who was considered better than you. If you could make it to this 'Place of Refuge' (Pu'uhonua Honaunau translated), weither you had to swim, walk, or run before the nice people trying to kill you did, a priest would absolve you and all was forgiven. I guess it's sort of like 'base' in tag. I can't help but imagine that some well-intentioned arguments may have arisen (much as they do in tag nowadays), about the validity of the whole 'who made it first' argument.

There was also some really impressive lava floes out over the water, which made some really nifty tide pools. Please enjoy the lovely view of my brother's bottom.


There was also a really impressive amount of lava above the tide line which had been used for things like reinforcing house platforms and making big walls.


Tomorrow: Volcanos!

New Phrase of The Day:
"The water's salty!"
-Tristan

Location:82-60-11 Naopopo Road, Captain Cook, Hawai'i
Sound: Clogged Garbage Disposal (not the band)
Weather: 68 degrees Fahrenheit, sunny and hazy

I've mentioned it before, but I totally need to live in a place were there is a local animal known as the Common House Gecko. Guess what? They make this weird little shrieky noise every once in a while, and they run upside-down REALLY FAST.
Heeheehee.
Happy Birthday, Allan! I wish I was there for you, but not the weather. Not missing the weather at all. Not even a little. Poor Brooklyn has some sort of ear infection (never pleasing at the best of times, but particularly bad for a two-year-old). I wish I could tell you something interesting about what we've done today, but we only just finished breakfast, so there's really nothing to tell. We were going to go snorkeling this morning, but that would have required a 7 a.m. wake up call, and that just...didn't happen.
Right now, Brooklyn and her parents are going to the doctor's office to figure out what's wrong with her ear, Mom and Dad are going on a really long hike (I turned down the offer to come with), Tristan's elected to play video games (shocker), and I'm going to put on my swimsuit and go stand in the water and grin like a loon!
Here's breakfast:


Apparently pancakes and eggs requires several college-educated adults to complete (on the other hand, they were very good).


Here's our beach!



And here's my new look (how do you think it'll go over in the 22 degree weather back home? I think it'll be a winner.

More to follow!

Location: 82-60-11 Naopopo Road, Captain Cook, Hawai'i
Music: Bob Marley
Weather: 72 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly overcast, impending rain

Arrived on the Big Island last night at about 9:40 p.m. local time (which is about 1:40 a.m. central time), really de-hydrated, terminally tired, and terribly twitchy with my wonderful newly discovered airplane claustrophobia (which only activates after about and an hour-and-a-half ride). After an 8 hour flight w/ 3 hour layover, I was having trouble focusing el ojos (eyes), and really not at all interested in the fact that I was on one the largest and remotest island in the south pacific.

Flash forward (not the show) to this morning. I woke up at about 6:59 a.m. local time (curse you, internal clock which is programmed to get me to school on time!), and we went to look for a store that could sell us such arcane (and un-airplane-carryonable) items as toothpaste, Band-Aid's, and sunblock. We ended up raiding a WallMart, and filling up on flip-flop's as well (mine are the best!). One thing led to another, yadda-yadda (you know me, I can't remember what I'm wearing unless I'm looking at it, let alone what I did earlier in the day). We did go stand in the surf at the black beach down the street (less than 2 blocks away), but the tide was coming in (as were the clouds), so we decided to save the snorkeling for later.

Today was a rest day, seeing as the local time zone is 4 and 2 hours before our own, respectively. Everyone spent most of the day hanging out and sleeping, walking around the neighborhood and screwing around on our computers. Some pictures follow:



This is half of our trip group on the patio behind the house. From right to left: Grandpa Ron, Mom, Ed, and Uncle Garrick (not pictured: me, Tristan, Aunt Courtenay, and Brooklyn).





There are some stray cat's that live in the area around our house, and we're supposed to feed them. So, I traipsed out to put food in the bowls, than went back into the house to get my camera. 1.3 seconds later, I came back out and saw this. That's a mongoose, BTW.




Here's what Tristan was doing while we were down at the beach. He says he's allergic to water.

Newly Coined Phrase of the Day:
"Whales!"
-Mom
To get the joke, ya kinda had to be there. ^_^