At the end of July we finally took our trip to Hawaii. Mom and Jim had gotten tickets almost a year before and it was a long wait! We went to Kona, on the big Island because Mom and Jim love to scuba dive there. Tyson, Allen, Nathan, Branson and I took scuba lessons before we went. I learned that I am a nose breather and it made going under water with a mask on really difficult! Of course, Tyson is a fish and the top of our class.....one day I will do something better than him!
This was my second trip ever on an airplane, I don't get out much! It was a lot of fun to fly over the islands and then get out of the plane at this tiny little air port.
We stayed at mom and Jim's time share. It was really nice and right across the street from the water. It was so pretty. I loved the color of all the wonderful flowers.
Our first dive was next to the City of the Kings. It was exciting but I was so nervous, and breathing so fast, I went through my air like crazy! After that we went to look at the Kings City. It was really pretty. We all took pictures of our beautiful whiteness on the rock that the King sat on to look across the ocean.
The next day we went on another dive. This one wasn't as good, but we went further down and it was good practice. The next dive we went on (no pictures) was off the boat harbor. When we got there a couple told the guys that if the scrunched a bottle under water next to the buoy, tiger sharks would come up to us. I wasn't paying attention to what was going on, I was just trying to get my stuff ready to make the walk to the water with really heavy equipment. We started swimming out and it was so pretty, all the fish and corral were so colorful, but we kept swimming and swimming out to the buoy and finally decided to go under. When we got under water I noticed that we were past the corral and out to the blank sand and it was a long drop! We kept going down and down......in my mind I was freaking out! I reached the bottom and my computer read 95 feet, but Jim's read 110 feet! (His is more accurate) I was thinking " What the heck are we doing down here!?!" Nathan started scrunching a bottle and I was clueless as to what was going on. I only cared about the fact that my air was going fast!We decided nothing was going to show up and started back up to the top. If you know anything about scuba, you are not supposed to ascend fast. I was following Allen and Nate when they went up. I sat there forever thinking "wow they went up fast!" Then mom and Tyson came along and wanted me to slow down because I was slowly going up. I got to the top, then mom and Tyson came up. Tyson's nose was bleeding everywhere(he has bad sinuses for scuba). I didn't know why at the time, but he and the boys started racing for the shore.
I didn't realize what exactly we were looking for until we got back home and shark week was on. They were talking about tiger sharks and I was horrified to see a ten foot shark! These are the thoughts that went racing through my head. "I thought we would be seeing something small!" "Who takes new divers (especially me) down 110 feet to see that!!" "No wonder Tyson and the boys went racing for the shore when he had a really bad bloody nose, and left me and Jim behind!!!!" Yes, next time I go scuba diving with a bunch of nuts, I will be sure to get a full report of what we are doing FIRST!!!
I guess we weren't done adventuring. We went up to the top of the island and found a rain forest to walk through. At the end of our hike there was a really pretty water fall. Mom and Jim have done this stuff so much I guess they know all the good adventuring spots!
After the water falls we went all the way up to the top of the island were the road ends. I guess this is were they filmed some of the Jurassic Park movies. It was really pretty!
The next day we decided to go see a black sand beach. Most of the well known black sand beaches are on the other side of the Big Island, but if you are mom and Jim you know of the one next to Kona! All you do is go down to the National Park by the Air port and take your nice rental cars over the old black bumpy lava for a long time, once you get to the little sign that says "4 wheel drive only" park the small car and pile 8 people into the Jeep (some might have to sit on the hood, but don't put the guys that are 6'4" up there or they might dent it!). Then drive over the really bumpy lava until everyone is sick and has hit their heads on the ceiling of the Jeep. Then they will decide to get out of the Jeep and walk over the nice lava! Next, look for the road marked with the nice coral rocks taking you down to the beach. Vala, you are there!
Wow, that was an adventure, but well worth it! We had the whole beach to ourselves ( maybe because we were the only family nuts enough to go out there!) It was amazing some Tyson, Jim, Mom, Allen and Nathan went snorkeling. Caitlyn and I had fun dinging through the lave rocks that meet the ocean to look for shells. the rocks caught a lot of shells and if you were willing to look you could find a lot of really neat ones!
We did a lot more while we were in Hawaii. I think all together we went scuba diving five times. We went to the other side of the Island and saw the most beautiful Kings Valley. I guess you typically are not allowed to go in, but the nice park guy let us in! We discovered that Jeeps can do a lot, like going up and down really steep roads with 8 people piled into them!
We met the mom and family of Tyson's half brother Greg and saw how to live completely off the grid! They were really nice and took us to the lava flow. Jim was disappointed we didn't get to go right up to the lava, but I guess the park and recreation people started getting really strict when quite a few people had fallen in the month before. I was fine with seeing it from a distance! We could see the lava flowing down to the ocean and exploding when it fell in, it was amazing!
We had wonderful pancakes at the local pancake house, they had the most amazing syrups like mango, papaya, guava and coconut. I loved the coconut so much, I asked the lady if I could buy some, she laughed and said "nope!". My mom said it was because they had to kill a lot of coconuts to make that syrup!
At the end of our adventuring days it was nice to just hang out around the pool. I loved the pool!
