Hawaii under water

This is probably my last post on our Hawaii trip. It's fitting that it should be pictures of my favorite part of our trip. This is an Orange Band Surgeon Fish. The ring is some ones hair band.

This is a Slate Pencil Urchin. You can see smaller sea urchin in the holes around it.

Here's a bunch of Black Durgon and a Yellowtail Coris.

Bird Wrasse and Yellow Tang.

Saddle Wrasse in a bunch of coral. The coral looks like a bunch of funky rocks, but if you look real close at them, you can see little polyps on the surface. IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!

A few Convict Tang, a Moorish Idol and an Orange Spine Unicorn Fish.

This is a very threatening looking urchin. You can handle them as long as you're gentle.

Parrotfish

Trigger Fish

Orange Spine Unicornfish

Well that's it. I have many more pictures of fish, but this is a pretty good representation of what we saw. I'm ready to go back.

Mmm Fresh Fruit

Just about every breakfast during our vacation had a spread something like this. All of it came from the farmers market or fruit stands of some sort (except for the kiwi).  All below, rombaton, pineapple, bananas, 2 varieties of papaya, mango, jabong, and avocado. So, what's a jabong? It's similar to a grapefruit, one of our favorites. And a rombaton? There is nothing I can compare it to, but it is my kids hands down favorite.Rombaton intact. Who was the first person to be so hungry that they thought, "I'm gonna see what that hairy red ball tastes like."?
Once you peal the outer shell there's a soft and sweet fruit waiting for you. You just bite through the soft outer peal enough to get your finger in, then peal it away. There's a small seed in the center about a quarter the size of the flesh.

Flowers, flowers, flowers!

One more thing about Hawaii that is quite remarkable is the flowers. Everywhere you went, there were flowers. And I don't mean in someone's flower bed. They grew wild everywhere. These are Angel Trumpets.

This is a Hibiscus. The state flower of Hawaii.

I don't know. This was growing on top of the volcano by a steam vent.

I don't know what these are either. These were growing in front of the house we rented.

These are an island favorite, Plumeria. They are often made into leis. 

This plant reminds me of Kudzu, the way it grows wild covering what ever it's on. I don't think I've ever seen Kudzu flower though.

This is another Banyan tree. They've made the blog twice, so they're obviously impressive. There's really nothing in the picture to give a good reference. The house is across a 2 lane road and on a hill.

I put this one of Justice with another Hibiscus to show how big they are. They're bigger than his hang loose.

Day 8 Aloha!

This is outside of the airport. That's actually not quite right, you see, there is no inside. It's open air through out. Justice is still hangin' loose. Saying goodbye is always so hard.

After we dropped grandma and grandpa off, we went to a little park for lunch and some fun. Chase and Colt got a little too close and a wave came in and splashed up over the cliff and got them.

Happy 20th!

A stark contrast to what we were seeing 24 hrs ago, but beautiful just the same. If this picture expands, you can see McKinley. 

Here you can see the airport and to the back left, the Mat-Su Valley.

Day 7 The Last Full Day

This is another fruit stand we stopped at. Yes, that's a lemon. The other is a tangerine and isn't small by any means. But the lemon, dang!

This is Hawaii's idea of a snow cone. They call them shaved ice, and they are good. This one is a medium and it's about the size of Justice's head.

Colt, I don't even know what to say about this look. Faked enthusiasm? 

Hang loose honu.

This is a brittle star.

This is a video of Meg with a brittle star so you can see how it moves. Very neat.

Day 6 Mauna Kea Beach

This is Mauna Kea Resort Beach. It is possibly one of the best sand beaches I've ever seen. It's white sand and very fine. The water was rough this day, and it was very windy, but on a sunny day I can't imagine any better. It supposedly has excellent snorkeling too. We tried but the current was too rough and kept whipping us around. That's Colt making the best of the surf trying to boogie board.This is one of my favorite pictures. We slathered the kids with sun screen so they weren't miserable with burns and everyone else's vacation wasn't ruined by their misery. Justice likes the water well enough, but for him, the sand is what it's all about. This is a kid who has to change his clothes if  they get wet or some dinner on them. He looks like he's wearing sand mascara. 
This is the namesake for the resort. It's the dormant volcano Mauna Kea, and yes, that's snow on top of old smokey.

It wasn't always sunny while we were there, but there's good things about that too. This is a double rainbow I snapped while shopping (again) in Kona. The top one is very faint.

Day 5 The Luau

If you go to Hawaii, you must go to a luau. If you don't, you're missing out on a awesome part of visiting Hawaii. You can't understand that until you go to one. Then you get it. Here, my beautiful ladies are framed by the male luau dancers. The one by Megan is the fire dancer. they're all talented but, DANG! This guy's got incredible skills! 

Hu-la!

While they were dancing, Justice looked at his momma and said, "Does that hurt their body."

This is a banana tree that grows way too close to the ground.

Way, too close.