Hawaii

It has been over two weeks since we came back from Hawaii, and finally tonight I found some time to sit down on the computer and document our impressions and our adventures.

It was the first time for all of us to Hawaii.  We went to Kona, the Big Island, the island of Hawaii.  And it was perfect all around: not to crowded, beautiful nature, and beautiful weather.

We went whale watching and ocean kayaking.  I couldn't get any good pictures of the whales, and I couldn't take my phone along when we went kayaking.

We didn't spend too much time laying on the beach.  We all love the beach, but we are not really beach vacationers.  We like to play for a little bit, but you won't find us laying on the beach all day.  When we did go to the beach, we went outside of town, where there were few or no people.  Here are some corals that I really wanted to take, but couldn't.

And we went to a beach with black sand.  Psst...I did take a little bit of sand back with me.

Although the island of Hawaii is the biggest one of all you can drive around it in one day.  The bio diversity is amazing.  You can see beach, fog, rain and snow in one day on the same island.

One day we drove to the southern most point of the island, which is also the southern most place of the USA.  It was very windy, but not cold.  The cliffs were high, and there were people jumping off them down in the ocean.  In the short hour or so that we spent there exploring and enjoying the scenery, I must have had a hundred anxiety attacks trying to keep track of two little kids running and jumping.  I got them to sit still, only feet from an abyss, ha ha ha.  Here they are:

And this is the southern most tip of the USA.

The day we drove up to the volcano, Mauna Loa, my son got sick.  He mostly stayed in the car, while we took turns going out and experiencing steam vents and rain and marveling at a real volcano.  

The east side of the island, the side where Hilo is is mostly covered in lava.  The first time we drove through it was dark.  It was also foggy, and rainy, and it felt eerie.  We had just left Hilo, and the weather was nice.  So the sudden fog, and darkness were not expected.  And then out of no where there was the military base.  

The next time we were on that side of the island it was the opposite, it was rainy in Hilo, but once we left it, the 'scary' area we saw only a couple of days earlier was bright.  Except for the lava...and nothing but lava.

And the sunset was beautiful illuminating the lava.

The clouds were epic almost every day.  One thing that I didn't expect to see was scenes like this one below, with small hills and yellow grass.  This is what I expect to see in Nebraska, not in Kona.

On the east side of the island, near Hilo there were two waterfalls.  The picture below is of Akaka waterfalls.  It's a beautiful 30 min walk if you take the long walk, only 5 min if you take the short walk.  We took the long walk.  We also saw another waterfall. Rainbow Falls.  But that time my phone was dead.  However, the experience there was even more interesting because you can walk up (very carefully) on almost the top of it.  There too trying to enjoy the views and the experience while trying to watch two very energetic kids was a lot of work.  

I saw this plant during our waterfall hike.  At first I thought it was some kind of stake because it was just on the side of a paved trail.  I thought it was some kind of marker, a stick, a stake....until I noticed it's alive and real.  And I don't know what it is.  Do you?

Aloha!

Post cards

Post card practice from a month ago.

Ghost town near Jerome

The sun was still up high when we left Sedona, so we decided to make a quick stop in Jerome.  This time a year the town was full of tourists, so we drove right past all of them, all of the small shops and attractions, all of the art galleries and we stopped at the end of the road at the ghost town.  

There we saw junk, rust, gears, chickens, goats and a donkey.

Sedona

I have done a lot of traveling this year, and it's only two months in.  The photos below are from a day trip we took about a couple of weeks ago in Sedona and a quick stop in Jerome.  Sedona is about 2hrs from Phoenix, and then you can make a loop following Hwy 89, stop in Jerome and wind back down to the valley.

These trips are good, the fill me in with experiences, ideas, feelings and sometime that is what I need to keep on going.  

We stopped at Slide Rock State Park and explored.

These marks were on a rock, a sort of stepping rock and the markings were on the vertical wall.  They looked interesting so I took a picture of it.

And then I noticed several wood trunks where the bark was gone and all that was left were these markings that bugs had made.  A sort of designer bugs.

These greenish/gray marks on rock are lichen.  I really love the grunge like look.

Before we left the sun was high up and was illuminating these weeds that probably otherwise I would  have not noticed.

I will catch you up to our quick stop in Jerome on my next post.  I am quite a bit behind I know.  And I have a trip coming up tomorrow.  Hawaii!!  Yes, I know....I will be even more behind.

Needlefelted hearts

A couple of weeks ago I was near by the yarn shop where I learned how to needlefelt.  I stopped by, and walked out with some pink wool.  And now...some of that pink wool, is pink hearts.  I added a pin in the back to make them wearable art.

Balboa

Before we headed back home from our Legoland trip we stopped at Balboa park.  One can spend days hopping from one museum to another.  But with kids, we only visited two.  The Museum of Man and the Railroad Museum.  Patrick likes trains, most kids do I think.  And....a nice surprise, there is a lego room with lego trains at the Railroad museum.

And you can't skip the rose garden if you are at Balboa.  So we had to stop, and smell the roses.

This fountain caught my eye and I took a picture of it.

We saw these huge balboa trees (I think that's what these were).  Their bark was carved with names and love notes as high as people's hands could reach.  A bit sad.

And where it was not touched by humans, age and nature had left its marks.

And last, this beautiful plant called Candelabra tree.  A bit of a monster-looking cactus...

Desert View Tower in Jacumba

I was sick with the flu for a week and the first few days I slept almost entirely.  I am much better now, but behind some postings.  This is still from our trip to San Diego in the beginning of the month.  About an hour into the California border there is a nice little stop; Desert Tower in a place called Jacumba.  Many years ago I stopped there on the way to San Diego and remember how peaceful and mysterious it was.  

There was snow on the hills as we approached it.

And then just as we parked and got out of the car, a dog came by and wanted to play with the kids.  He wanted to catch snow balls.  

And inside the rocks there were carved animals.  Buffaloes, and snakes, and turtles and lizzards and other monsters.  See, mysterious I tell you.

And inside the tower lots of cool things, like these masks.

 

And outside was this.  Not sure what it is but it looked cheerful and happy.

And the view from top.