WHAT an amazing time I had on Hawaii. Big island is a very different island than O'ahu but I loved every minute of it. Seeing friends from home was so nice and refreshing. We stayed with Miriam's amazing family in Kurtistown in their house in the rain forest. Their home is my dream house...surrounded by trees, in the middle of the island, and filled with love. I had such a good time being in their home! This is a really long post with lots of photos so I'll keep the words brief. But before pictures, I would like to say that Miriam's mom is one of the sweetest, most wonderful women I have ever met. She was thanking US for staying in their home! She made the most amazing homemade meals, was so accommodating to us all, had our beds all made and waiting for our arrival, and played the piano for us to fall asleep to each night. She is too good to be true! I feel like she is such a good example in so many ways!
OK, onto the photos:
^ The sunset was gone on the ground but once we got up above
the clouds, the view was amazing. It was very colorful. The whole
sky was lit up and beautiful. The flight was only 35 minutes over
to big island. Short and sweet!
^ Here is the outside of Miriam's house.
^ Here is our little bunk room that we stayed in.
This is Crystal and my beds with an amazing open air view to the forest
outside of our screened windows. Every night (after the
piano, of course), we fell asleep to the koki frogs.
I loved the sounds!
^Here is one of the many tasty homemade meals Vonda cooked for us.
Whole-wheat pancakes with this delicious papaya and banana
puree on the side with macadamia nuts sprinkled on top.
SO good!!
^ Miriam's dad, Ron, is an artist. He has some truly beautiful
photos of beaches and florals, etc. This was handing in
his art studio. It reminded me of my grandpa so I snapped
a pic of it. Ron is a very talented artist!!!
^Here is the back porch. SO peaceful here. On more than one
occasion, one of us would come out here in the morning to
read and relax and enjoy the sounds and view.
One of my favorite parts of the house.
^ Miriam's mom has tons of fresh fruits and veggies in the
house. This is the inside of a lilikoi (or passion fruit).
It looks gooey and awkward but it is delicious.
^ Here we are in Miriam's front yard. The leaves
behind us were HUGE. Everything is so
green and beautiful.
^ Here is a table of fruit at the Hilo farmer's
market. SO many colors...I loved it.
^ Such a great deal on bunches of flowers. Made
me feel like I was back at Pike Place Market.
^ We took a break from the market to try some
Spam Musubi. That's right, SPAM. They have it
everywhere here. And spam with rice wrapped in
seaweed is very popular here. We all tried it and
surprisingly, it was good. I also got a shrimp one and
the spam musubi was better!!
^ Rainbow falls! So beautiful...
^Here are all the ladies in front of Rainbow falls.
(L to R: Bri, Miriam, Crystal, Erika)
^ This was just a little passed Rainbow falls. It was this massive
tree that of course we HAD to climb. You would
think all those limbs handing were flimsy but they are
all sturdy and strong and we climbed like monkeys :)
^ Here we are all up in the tree.
^ Andrew swinging from the tree vines.
^ Black sand beach.
^ Black sand beach and lava rock.
^ Two little turtle friends we came upon as we were
walking along the lava rock.
^ Here we are sitting on the lava rock.
^ Pondering our next move.
^ Executing our next move. HA! We decided
since we were on the beach, we needed to
have a little zen moment! :)
^ Beautiful scenery at the warm pond.
^ Sunset.
^ We picked up some rambutan at the Hilo
farmer's market. They are the goofiest looking
fruit but they are very tasty.
^ Here is the inside of the rambutan. It is sort of like a
big grape in texture and somewhat in taste.
^ Here is Andrew and I trying to take a nice
front porch picture and little did we know, we
had a photo crasher in the background! :)
^ Miriam's parents took us to the tide pools at low
tide so we could go snorkeling.
^ Here we are all in the snorkeling gear. The water
was SO clear and so nice and we saw angel fish,
trumpet fish, butterfly fish, and so many more
that I don't even know their names.
^View from the warm pond.
^ Here we are at the hot spot on the volcano.
^ We went up to the observatory to see the crater
but it was so foggy that we couldn't see anything.
But the museum was still cool to see and to say we were
on top of a volcano is pretty sweet.
^ Like it says, Discovering Hawaii...together!
^ The forest on our way to the Lava tubes.
Everything is SO green and beautiful!!!
^ Cause we're cool...and slow.
^ At the mouth of the Lava tube.
^ Saying goodbye to my friends! Dropping me
off at the airport. I didn't realize how lobster I had
gotten!! I didn't want to say goodbye but I definitely had
such a good time seeing them all. I love each of them!!
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