Back Home!

How good it feels to be back home.... and how easy it is to forget how BIG the mainland is! After 10 days, 10,000 flown miles and 1,000 driven miles, it sure is good to be back.

Meanwhile back in town, Charlotte, some friends from St. Joe's and the girls had a soap making party for the upcoming Country Fair at St. Joe's.

It was all good clean fun!

Namaste's Birthday

Namaste is the white tiger at the Hilo Zoo, he turned 8 on Saturday and it is a BIG deal in Hilo, they have a big party at the zoo for him. C and the girls went there and met with our good friend Leslie and her daughter Emma Rose (very cute).

Happy Birthday Namaste!

Angus & Dee go Hawaiian

It seems that Angus & Dee have definitely settled into the Hawaiian lifestyle and spirit, see for yourself:

Lava Tree Park

Sunday we were not in the mood for the beach (gotta love this place) so instead we decided to go and check out the Lava Tree Park which we had driven past every time we had gone to Kapoho Pools and never stopped. Well, there is no doubt that this place is full of surprises.

Lava Tree Park is a small park with a trail that goes around it. The Lava Trees are formations made from a lava flow and as the lava engulfed a tree the lava cooled down around the trunk of the tree as the tree burned out. When the lava flow stopped, the lava began to recede into cracks in the ground like the one below and the lava crusts that had cooled around the trees were left behind standing up instead of the tree.

But not only the park is amazing because of its unique lava tree formations, the vegetation there is unbelievable. Every tree is a garden of its own. They have been working on the park on eradicating invasive species and replacing them with native species (which, Hawai'i being an island it is hard to decide what is invasive and what is endemic, since everything on the island at some point had to arrive from somewhere else, except for the lava of course).

Even every picnic ramada is a garden of its own!

And look what happens if you don't keep up with your landscaping....

Charlotte of course was in her element.....

We had heard before about the "forest keepers" and as we walked through the park we had the funny feeling that we were being constantly watched.........

Wait, could that be..? is that a...?

hmmmm......

Incognito!

Great place, definitely a "must" for future visitors (note to Don & Heidi: you'll have to come back to check the Lava Tree park).

Kalapana

After Lava Tree it was still too early for lunch, so we headed down the highway to Kalapana to go and see what is left of the town that got overrun by lava during the flows in the 90's.

There used to be a house there..... this gives the phrase "yes, but it's dry heat" a whole new meaning don't you think!?

Here is Hana trying to figure out what is going on. Note the Ruby Red Slippers..... this girl is either always in style, or prepared to tap her heels and go back home....

A shot hike from the place where the lava covers the road leads to a nice, if small, black sandy beach. The hike goes through some very unreal lava formations (great textures and colors, some has natural iridescence) and gives a good view of the Kilauea caldera and its column of steam/smoke/gases.

Natural Hydroponics:

Life starts to settle in........

The black sand beach

Kilauea at the distance and its never resting column of steam, smoke and gases...

Charlotte's Garden Update

As you can see from the photos below, the garden keeps growing happily.... must be the weather!

Sep. 02, 2006: Day 1

Sep. 17, 2006: Day 15

Oct. 01, 2006. Day... well, you do the math...