'Aukake

That means "August" in Hawaiian. It's been a week since we arrived on the Big Island; a week of adventures, travels, new sights, sunshine (we are both mildly sunburned tonight, but Eric more so than me--this little redhead knows how to layer on the SPF 50!), and lots and lots of yummy food, local brews, and fruity cocktails. Thank goodness there are no calories on islands. Here are a few highlights of what we've done since I last posted...

1) Visited an astronomy center and planetarium.

2) Gone to a black sand beach.

3) Eaten Hawaii Shave Ice along both sides of the island. My new favorite flavor combination is mango, lemon, and lime.

4) Seen two volcanoes.

5) Seen Nene (that's the Hawaiian state bird--kind of like a wild goose, but we both think it looks more like a turkey).

6) "Survived" two tiny earthquakes. Both last night...I, of course, freaked out and was up all night, and Eric fell asleep after the first one. That's a California boy for you I guess. They were really tiny, but the bed shook a little, and every rooster/chicken/dog within a three-mile radius also freaked out, so I didn't feel too bad for overreacting.

And lots more! Here are a few pics...

The cool planetarium at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center. Plus it makes a great hat.


Eric in the beautiful native gardens that surround the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center.


Swimming at Ahalanui, another geothermally heated pond. We had fun hanging out at the mouth of the pool, with the occasional ocean wave big enough to come crashing over the wall and into the pond.


Driving by Mauna Loa. It doesn't look that impressive from this distance, but it's actually huge--13,677 feet!--the most massive mountain on Earth. It consists of 10,000 cubic miles of rock, and last erupted in 1984.


We decided to get a room for the night on the Kona side of the island, so we could experience a lu'au and not have to worry about driving for three hours to get home. This is our amazing, crazy-cheap, delightful hotel, Hotel Manago. It looks like it's straight out of a Dr. Suess book--all stilts and weird angles and a random koi pond--but the view was, quite simply, breathtaking. In this picture, the ocean and the sky are both so blue, you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. This is also where we saw the Nene off our balcony this morning.




Us at the Royal Kona Lu'au. Kind of Vegas-y, but super fun! We both liked the food, and the show included a truly impressive Samoan fire dancer.


Are four mai tais too many, or not enough?


Kayaking at Kealakekua Bay. We paddled across the bay to an amazing snorkeling spot and the Captain Cook Monument. The water looks strangely northwesty in this picture, but I swear it was turquoise-blue in real life! Must have been an overcast moment.


An interesting note about the cliffs that surround the bay...in the past, important chiefs were "buried" in small caves in the face of the cliffs. A volunteer would be lowered over the edge by a rope to hide the bones of dead chiefs. Once finished with this grim task, the bone-hider would signal to those above, and the rope would be cut, sending the volunteer and all knowledge of the location of the bones crashing to the rocks and waves below.

We visited the Kona Brewing Co., home of one of Eric's favorite brews, the Pipeline Porter, for a delicious pizza lunch this afternoon. Seriously. I may just have island fever, but it was the best pizza I've ever had! The man who took the picture gave us these giant bottles for props, and made me promise that I would caption it, "Nice jugs."