I have been thinking about how we can make this last day off in Hilo what ever it needed to be to say goodbye to our friends and this beautiful place!  With a one on one off one on one off three on schedule of day shifts that have been very busy do we rest and just enjoy the moment or try to fit in one more our our “list” items (the things on there are whole day excursions.).  As bad as we wanted to do one more of our list items, the kids have been fussy and tired, and I knew we needed to save a little energy for this last kick to the finish line, so we decided to rest and just be together.  Mom and I headed to the warm pools in the morning, getting some one on one time.  Hannah must be coming down with the cold Eve had last week.  She slept most of the morning away.  Caleb cleaned the car out for us, and Chad and I headed out for a much needed date time.  We had talked about a double date with Jesse and Isabel.  Isabel was working on making leis for the Father’s Day service tomorrow so I helped her with that.  We talked a bit, but mostly enjoyed watching our husbands being boys.  In the first hour we were there they started a fire (to burn up a brush pile), examined Jesse’s knife collection, and set up targets and took turns practicing their aim with the shot gun.  I think they were enjoying each other’s company.  We finished the leis and made plans for dinner as a late celebration of Chad’s birthday.  Yes we were a week late, but I worked the whole weekend and it hasn’t slowed down since.  Ponds was recommended and reservations were made.  

    With the window right behind us it is a dark picture.   We loved watching the huge koi fish below and the red eared slider turtles who were dwarfs in comparison.   After dinner we drove to where you can walk out on the wave break wall that protects the bay front of down town Hilo.  So fun!!! I would have loved to walk to the end, but I don’t know that slippers (flip flops) are the best foot wear for that kind of venture. 

  I was loving the sunset clouds!       So glad this birthday boy loves me.  I am blessed to be his wife!  Happy late birthday Chad ❤️.       I asked Chad if he is ready to go home…it was a hesitant yes.  We are so ready to be with our family, but are so sad to be leaving our friends.  Thank you Jesse and Isabel for a fun day of relaxing and just enjoying your company, and thank you so much for dinner. 

For a person who loves the water and swimming this 50 something year old adult has never really had a good oportunity to try out snorkeling.  The best place to snorkel is at the captain cook memorial but with a two hour drive each way and difficult hike down and back to boot neither of us were feeling up to it.  It was misting/raining but warm so we took the kids down to coconut island (it took us two trips as we are one seat short for the number of people we have these days.)  I went back for Chad.  We had a green coconut we found washed up on the beach, a pineapple and cheese balls for lunch, so nutritious.  

  Tiffany a fellow travel nurse met up with is there.  When the kids were mostly done swimming we car pooled over to Richardsons to try out the snorkeling.  It is hard to tell your body to breath underwater after telling it your whole life not to breath underwater.  But after getting some find on all was well and we got to see quite a few fish.  

No pictures of the snorkeling, but the kids had a pet sea cucumber. Poor thing was getting a lot of personal touch…I hope that is its love language.😬  

We then checked out Liko Lehua for dinner, both Tiffany and Shannon joined us.  I got a coke to go with my laulau and it had my name on it, kind of.  

Tiffany graciously gave me a ride home so we wouldn’t have to go illegal with two in one seatbelt. And the kids took the oportunity to tattoo her with all their favorite drawings.  So fun.  

  Tiffany, you have poop on your foot. 😋 

I really can’t believe it is that time already…we are looking at 5 more days until we leave the Island. 😟  Four more are work days and one day off.  We had talked previously about how we have done so much here that we feel like we could leave feeling like we have experienced life on the Big Island of Hawaii, but as we have a plenty big list of things we would like to still do or do again I am sad that our time is ending.  We have met so many amazing people many of which I wish I could do a dedicated post telling the stories of their lives (many encredible and inspiring).  I think the biggest thing we have learned here is everyone has a story…why are we so busy on the main land that we think we are the only ones dealing with life.  I think I will find myself asking that question more.  What’s your story?

We were all up around six and cycled through the shower.   I’m sure mom was tired it had been a long day of travel on Sunday.  We stopped at Starbucks for Haupia lattes and turned up the Hamakua coast toward Waimea.  We took the scenic route and drove down to Laupahoehoe point where we took time to read the news postings about the Laupahoehoe elementary school that was taken out 4/1/1946 by a tsunami with loss of many children and teachers lives, the heroic rescues of children and teachers who floated out at sea for up to 27 hours before being rescued, and the parents refusal to out the kids back I school until it was relocated to a higher elevation.  Our next stop was the Waipi’o valley overlook, we are kind of disappointed that we never made it down there on a hike, but at least we have seen it from above twice now.  It is so fun to see all the farms back in there and try to picture it in the times of Hawaiian kings as it’s original name is “Valley of the Kings”.

Our next stop was Tex Drive in for hot Malasadas which were a “melt in your mouth” hit.  As the kids talk about next time we go to the beach, or Tex’ or the volcano, I don’t think they truly (nor I) relize there probably won’t be a next time.  We only have a week left, a week! 

  We stopped at the Burger and Taco place we have been trying to get to but have always managed to miss their business hours.  They were crowded and we could hardly get in the door that is always a good sign.  We got our food to go and while we waited we snacked on this pineapple whip and that is frozen pineapple blended up like icecream and the below watermelon whip that was less solid and more like a drink. 

  We ate at the nearby Spencer Beach park and took our oportunity to swim in the warm gentle surf.

  We showed grandma our favorite lava tube, but due to rain it wasn’t overly warm and so Caleb is the only one who got in.  

  Across the path the sea turtles were feeding and playing in the water near the rocky shore.  We sat and watched them a short while and then walked back to the car. 

  We grabbed dinner at the Golden Arches drive through….seriously mostly we were just thirsty and around here it is the same charge for water as soda and ice tea.  There was a car accident ahead ofus and the traffic came to a stop.  The darkness closed in and night had claimed the sky….there would be no stopping at South Point or Punalu’u, but that is exactly what we need for our final stop.  We could see the Orange glow from the highway, I had never noticed that before.  Kilauea’s crator was like a giant fire pit with it’s soft warm glow.  The air was cool, but warm than it has been the other times we have been up there.  The was not wind.  We wrapped up in blankets and sat in the dark on the stone wall and just watched.  The sky was full of stars, if only it hadn’t been so late and such a long day we could have sat in the therapeutic silence longer, maybe a lot longer.  Yes, we haven’t even left and I am already starting to miss this place.

Now we have been warned about this hike, that it is steep, has loose rocks and no shade.  We have also been told to bring lots of water and go early, but that the monument and bay are totally worth it!  We left the house just after 0600, but by the time we got gas and coffee and made it over the volcanoes it was almost 9:00 AM (already hot).  The walk down the hill was great almost the entire way!  There was mango trees at the top and we found a ripe mango for each of the kids that they fully enjoyed.     Above is a mango tree. Below we started making our way down the top portion of the trail.  The grass is tall and covers over the trail hitting you in the face as you walk down it.  It was an adventure.         We found a little praying mantis and a whole host of pill bugs.     The view was great and there was a cool breeze coming up off of the water.      All in all the hike down was great!  I think t is only like a mile but it is steep.      There appears to be ruins of some kind all around the monument area.  See all the yellow fish so beautiful.     

      There were a ton of kayaks and tour boats in the bay.              Here is the actual monument! So awesome!   Is there one leg per segment or two legs per segment I want to see a poisonous centipede I just don’t want to be bit by one before I see it (or after) just want to adore it from afar.  We swam and jumped off this low wall for quite a while and Eve talked to the tourists and their guides while they tried to lunch in peace.  Actually I think they were enjoying the conversation.  Around 12:30 we started our hike back up!   It was hot, we were all sweating pretty good and we had to stop frequently to rest and drink water.    There were tears, at a few points I even felt like crying, the picture below doesn’t even do it justice we were so relieved to make it to the top in just about two hours with no more water left.  It being 2:30 PM we were we were ready for lunch and a big glass of water.     We met up with Tiffany, a coworker and friend, and headed to the lava tube swimming hole to cool off.  After a good swim we headed up the beach and found some coconuts.  

  Chad husked the coconut for us using a stump of drift wood, and then Tiffany opened it up for us with a rock. Such a fun day. Now for the drive back to Hilo side for work tomorrow.

Ok, this is not as gross as it sounds.  One part of taveling is experiencing other cultures and yes, even within the United States there are oportunities to love the people around you by having s genuine interest in learning about them and their culture.  This often includes food…pretty much everything social in this country comes with a side of food, also many people express their love and appreciation through their hands into their food cooked for  others. 

Today one of my coworkers offered me some “pig blood”. It is a Philippino dish with pig blood, pork, and some delicious peppers.  

It may not look that great but be honest it doesn’t look that bad.  Picture it on rice.  It was pretty good.  My iron levels must be good now.  It tasted great.  Graininess was the only drawback of the dish.    

Finally we made it to Kaumana Caves!!! One of our favorite family memories is exploring Ape Caves with Aunt Stephanie, Cyrus, Aunt Suzanne, Uncle Jeremy, and Hadassah (Elijah in utero).  We were eager to see some other lava tubes and use our headlamps.  We had been told by several people it was a short walk even though the Internet research we had done told us that the Kaumana Lava Tube was 25 miles long, and was created in a 1881 eruption of Mauna Loa.   We didn’t know how far we would actually be able to go.  And now that we have done it I have no idea how far we went. We explored the section of the tube going down hill first and although the entrance was larger it was deceiving and we spent a good potion of our explorations in this tube quite hunched over.  It was still very fun.                The walls were glittery with the colors of gold, silver, and bronze Chad says that it is the lichen.  So pretty!        At one point when we were quite a ways in and there was no light from the entrance we shut off our headlamps and enjoyed the pitch black for maybe a minute before we turned them back on.                The roots have grown down through the cave the kids thought they should be able to swing on them like Diego and Dora.    The second cave entrance was smaller and quickly we were doubled over, but that didn’t last long.  Soon we were in a quite large cavern. There were some piles of rubble to climb over as we got deepe, we got a little muddy but over all it was so fun.     This boy kind of lost his head lamp when he put on his sweatshirt. He makes me smile.  I wish you could see how huge this cavern is!       Eve being so independent climbing from rock to rock! She did so good!  

  We were in awe and delighted when we saw light up ahead since we were under the impression that the was no way out except to go all the way back the way we came.  Caleb climbed out of this first skylight the rest of us climbed out of the second one.       My slippers (flip flops) broke mid hike of the second tube, Chad came to my rescue with a small roll of duct tape from his pack.          Eve emerging from the skylight.  We could have gone further Chad thinks but the entrance was small and we were ready to head back anyway.    There was a rough non groomed trail back towards our car and we opted to go back via the trail.  Eve wasn’t a fan, but we mostly enjoyed our hike through the Lehua rainforest.   Due to my duct taped shoe, Chad ran into Safeway and got the fixings for our lunch date and then into Walmart for some new slippers.  

We enjoyed making homemade pizza with Alana and Divad.  It was complete devoured before our settlers game was over.   
    Hannah and Alethia were being chicken mommies loving on any chicken that they caught.     Alpha is so gorgeous! Such a handsome man!    The little ones played well together.  I loved how they incorporated their real life problems into their play.  Princess Elsa would declare she had to go potty ergently and it sounded like there was quite a commotion getting her to the potty in time.      Alana kicked all our backsides!    

  Hannah found a wild chick eventually we got it reunited with its mommy.   The chickens preffering the goats food,  the poor goat was eating as fast as he could.    I love it when the kids can experience any part of farm life.  And as you can see they love it too!  The boys started playing Rock Band.  I love to watch them, I don’t mind playing the guitar part, but have never been any good at it.  Still it brings back lots of good memories with my sisters and brothers-in-law.  It has been fun getting to know you these last four months Alana! Thanks for everything!   

We were up early as is the custom around here, honestly I was suprised that we didn’t hear from the kids earlier 06:20 was sleeping in.  We discussed what to bring for our planned BBQ with Cliff and Tabbitha our neighbors and took the trash to the transfer station.  On our way we found out that the much anticipated baby Tabbatha had been waiting for (not hers but a friends) was on the way so we needed to reschedule our BBQ and make new plans for the day.  No problem I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  We hadn’t done much caving and there is a big lava tube right outside of Hilo begging for us to explore it.  We stopped at Walmart to get headlamps and when we came out we noticed our very flat tire.  Thank goodness for AAA.  They came and changed our tire to a donut while we B-lined it to Ross Dress for Less to wait until we could get a hold of the guy we were renting the car from. 

   We found some great finds at Ross and did finally get ahold of our car guy.  He made an appointment for the car we just needed to hang out in town for 2.5 more hours…hmmm. We drove across the road to the mall and went to IHOP for lunch.  I told the kids to show me how they felt about our flat tire and this is the look I got.     We window shopped and used the coin propelled kiddie toys as a playground until our appointment.   At Firestone we waited again two more hours.      Eve took these pictures as a means of entertainment.  We then sent the kids over to the convienience store with $6 and instructions to pick out some things to share and remember taxes (a hard concept for our Oregonian kids).  They headed out cautiously across the parking lot Eve holding Caleb’s hand.  The car finished up so after a little while we went over and checked on them.  Their original purchase gave them a whole dollar in change so they were each picking out a tootsie pop.  They had behaved well in the store and the cashier was all smiles as she helped them buy the last three items. Chad grabbed some coconut water for us and we sat outside to enjoy them.   They bought three cokes, gummy worms, and tootsie pops.  It was pretty good shopping for food in Hawaii let alone a convenience store.  We got in the car and Hannah gleefully sighed about how awesome today was.  The last stop was grocery shopping.  We are more tired after a day of waiting than after most of our days of exploring!  But really it was still a great day.