Hawaii Day 2

We spent the morning snorkeling at some tide pools. Amazing! I had a little panic attack--I'm not the best swimmer and my hose keep getting water in it. I felt like I was going to die and would panic. It was so deep, so close to shore! Bedums and I stuck together after that while the others went for a long, long time. Between them, they saw an octopus, a bunch of eels, butterfly fish, moray, needle nose fish, coral, sea urchins, sea anemone, and much more. Later in the day, we went to McKenzie Park. There are steep lava cliffs that are beautiful, but dangerous (stay back from the crumbling edges). It's interesting--is like a rain forest in that area, yet there are lots of pine trees type trees. We also drove to the end of the road. About 20 years ago, the volcano erupted and covered the road. Vegetation is coming back through, but there are lot of big, black rocks still. We saw a man scaling up a coconut tree and knocking a coconut off. Fun! 

Hawaii Day 1

Travel to Hilo...
We flew all day long. Or so it seemed. The kids did really well. The two teens were at the back of the plane and the rest of us were toward the front. I packed some sandwiches and snacks for lunch, but it wasn't enough. As we were boarding,  a lady asked Buggins if he would hold something for a minute. I thought she was trying to dig out her boarding pass or something, but she was trying to sneak 3 carry on items on. The attendant caught her and got mad, making Jarren give the yoga may back. That was weird. We had a layover in Honolulu. Everyone was tired and hungry by then, but we were entertained by birds in the airport. We made it to Hilo and found they were out of vans, so we had to rent 2 cars. We're staying at the Triangle House near Pahoa.  We can see the ocean from the windows. It's beautiful and will suddenly rain, so that's probably why it's so green. There are two geckos living in this house with us. Cute!