Aloha Hawaii

Well, the first bit of good news to report is- Those "missing Hawaiian beads" I spoke of in my last post showed up!  Someone suggested I pray to St. Anthony, the Saint of Lost Things, so I did.  And within about 30 minutes, I discovered a previously undiscovered zipper pocket I had put the beads in.  I swear, I had checked that back at least 4 or 5 times.  I don't know how I missed it, but that little prayer to St. Anthony did wonders! 

Yay!  for  bead shops while in Hawaii on vacation!

I wanted to share a few photos from our awesome trip to Hawaii.  We had never been to "The Big Island", aka "Hawaii Island".  I love Maui and LOVE, love, LOVE Kauai.  I really had no idea what to expect from The Big Island.  For some reason, I didn't think it'd be as cool as it was.

But Fermin and I both loved it! There was lots of volcanic rock, and not much else, in certain areas. 

the terrain of the big island, as seen from the car...

love this little plant, for growing in an unexpected spot!

 There were lush gardens and rain forests in other areas.

And black sand beaches. 

napping turtles on the black sand beach

And sand colored sand beaches too. 

kicking off my shoes after a run

And of course, we saw some waterfalls.  Akaka Falls is apparently taller than Niagara Falls!  Sorry, Fermin's got the good pics of the waterfall on his camera ~In fact, he's got all the best pics on his camera...

We also got to see the largest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea- Larger than Everest!  (Hard to believe, and at first we didn't.  But we Googled it, and learned that measurements start below sea level, if that's where the mountain begins--- and this one starts way below sea level!)  We also visited the National Park and got to see the crater of Mauna Loa, one of Earth's most active volcanoes.

Mauna Loa- an active volcano

We had lots of great food, altho some of it was gross and I didn't eat certain disappointing meals.  Spam is a popular menu item there, as is sausage.  Ew.  With fresh fish so abundant, why oh why would one settle for Spam?!

Our favorite meal, from our favorite restarant, Sushi Rock.

Thank you Hawaii, for your sunny days, fresh fish, happy people, beautiful sunsets, and vast gorgeous views! Aloha.