Pu'uhonua O Honaunau

The first day back on the island we drove to this park on our way to the East side of the island.  Anika became a Jr. Ranger and Lance and Racheal mastered the game of Konane.  We recreated some pictures as well.  Enjoy.

Here we go again!

As we prepare to embark on our visit back to the Big Island we are thankful that Nana was able to take half our clan and give us a chance to finish packing in relative peace - reminiscent of when we left five years ago.  We are all excited to see how the island has and hasn't changed since we took our leap back then.  Aloha to all - then, now, and always.

Guess Who's Back!

When we left the Big Island in 2012, Racheal made a pact with Lance that in 5 years we should all go back and see what we remembered from our time there.  Racheal has been doing a count down every year to make sure it would happen.  Now it's been 5 years and we leave in less than a week!
We reviewed the blog with the kids and have a feeling that they remember not much.  We have made a list of things we want to do/see.  We are hoping to meet up with some acquaintances that we met while there.  We even have the luxury of staying with our friends the Jensen family.

Here is a picture of us from this last April 2017 at Kinnickinnic State Park near our home in WI.

Aloha x 3

This is all of our belongings for the year packed and ready to hop on the taxi to the airport.  FYI: The taxi driver did question our packing abilities for a "vacation" to Hawaii and was impressed when we said we've been there for almost a year.

For those of you who have been watching our blog, we're sorry we have not posted anything in the last month and a half.  We ran into some friends of ours that said they were wondering if we were back since we hadn't updated the blog for so long, so we thought it would be fitting to make our last post a year from our date of departure into the great unknown.  We are back from our adventure in Hawaii.  We are so thankful we took the leap of faith in order to experience a different part of the USA.  We have been caught in a whirlwind these first weeks back.  After we flew home Racheal's aunt passed away, had several welcome home parties with friends and family, and hosted the kids' birthday parties.  Meanwhile, Lance and Racheal continued to apply for jobs and interview, and we're happy to report that we both signed contracts!   

The post title aloha x 3 represents the word Aloha.  Most people know that aloha mean hi but it also means good bye and love.  What a great word.  We all were feeling very bittersweet leaving our new home (for just shy of a year) and felt that aloha summed up our time there.  We say good bye to friends that we met, love towards the culture we were immersed in, and hello to the familiar setting/characters of WI.

So a lot of people have asked us how we feel being back.  Here it is...
We feel good.  We love the Midwest.  The smells, weather, our livelihoods, our house, we really could go on and on.  The weirdest thing for us has been coming back into our exact same lives here.  We talked about it the first day we were back.  We were driving through town and Racheal said to Lance "Does it feel like we didn't even leave?" and Lance replied "Yes, it's almost like it was a dream."  It is like we never left since we came back to everything we knew.  Granted it has, and still is taking awhile to unpack all of our stuff in storage, go through things that we don't need anymore, and try to reorganize our house, yard, and lives.  Here is the sign on our front door when we first arrived home.  And to us... this is home where our hearts lie.

The setting of the sun taken from the taxi.  Aloha.

If can, can...

There is a local saying "If can, can.  If no can, no can."  After going surfing around a dozen times, Lance realized he probably fits in the 'no can' category.  So, he resorted to practicing low level yoga on the longboard.  Favorite poses: cow and cobra (seen below).  However, after one lesson the intrepid Iverson showed he probably belongs in the 'can' category, catching a bomb set the first time out on his own!  Check him out standing up on the wave below.  The kids also showed that they can by standing up on their papa's board.

Green Sand Beach

The last thing on our list to do on the Big Island was to visit one of only 2 green sand beaches in the world.  In order to get there, though, requires either a 4 mile hike in extremely sunny, windy conditions or driving a treacherous 'road' that requires a 4 wheel drive truck and the skills to use it.  So, we had given up on that dream. 

Enter our intrepid friend Jed Iverson.  Despite criticism from his wife, he rented an 8 passenger 4x4 allowing his family and ours to visit one of the most rare and beautiful geolgical features in the world.

After talking story with a local at the entrance to the trail, he said we should probably be able to make it without a problem and assured us that the 30 degree rocky hill we were looking at was the worst part.  Along the way we had to get out of the car and scout out the best route in order to not get stuck a number of times and had to drive at a precarious, near 45 degree angle several times.  We also had to drive through a sand ditch with 6 inch clearance on each side of the truck where the walls of the ditch were above the windows.  The rocky road caused everyone to jostle about and even resulted in a bloody lip and bruised cranium in seperate incidents.  Despite all this everyone maintained a brave face, though we all questioned our sanity at one time or another.   

Repeatedly, Jed had to hear the many backseat drivers questioning his quick decisions.  Chau throughout the ride could be heard saying "Geez louise, Jed" and "oh" or something about wondering about the rental car or if we should turn around.  But in the end everyone was amazed by Jed's great manouvering skills of the extra large Tahoe and secretly glad we didn't have to drive that path into the great unknown.



A view out the back window of the nice part of the 'road'

Our final rewarding view from the top of the cliff after a 45 minute drive of a questionable idea.



Signs

While driving around the island we see many homemade signs.  Here are some that we have seen.  They all promote a great way of thinking towards life.  Island life definitely has its pluses.