Earthquake!

Not sure how big this news was, but the Big Island was rocked by an earthquake of magnitude 4.7 yesterday.  Racheal and Lance have never felt an earthquake before, so it was pretty surreal for us.  However, the quake only lasted a few seconds, so by the time we knew what was happening, it was over.  No damage or injuries resulted, nothing even fell over.  When we looked up the information regarding the quake, we were shocked at how often there are measurable earthquakes here.  The map below, taken from the usgs's website (http://tux.wr.usgs.gov/), shows that there have been no less than 40 quakes in the past 2 weeks.

Of course, we shouldn't be so amazed... we do live on the slopes of an active volcano, but we just didn't stop to think about it before.  Anyway, another first for us in Hawaii.



Spelunking

Yesterday we went spelunking in Kaumana Cave, a 2 mile long lava tube that was part of an 1881 eruption and subsequent lava flow that threatened to destroy Hilo.  As the lava approached Hilo, Princess Ruth from Honolulu stood in front of the lava beseeching Pele to spare Hilo.  That night she slept next to the lava flow and by morning it had stopped.  Here's the descent.

 
 Mmm, that looks interesting...

I see... yes, I concur

Very interesting indeed...

After a rocky start that included Anika falling and cutting her hand on some sharp A'a (luckily we had girl scout mom prepared with a Hello Kitty bandaid), we all enjoyed our short exploration.  We'd like to go back sometime, with some better flashlights. 

Finding Peace

This picture was taken at our goodbye party 3 days before our departure to Hawaii.  Our great friends, Andrea & Luke, opened their house to host a very lovely party.  Many friends came to show their love, send best wishes, and talk to us for hours.  We had a great time and made us feel that much more sad to go.  The first couple months here, and of course still now, we miss our home and livelihood in River Falls. 

It definitely took awhile to feel "at home" here in Hawaii we don't have many friends (maybe one each), but we do feel we have found peace and are thankful for this experience. 

We miss you guys!  ALOHA!

om



Lapakahi State Park

On our trip to Wikaloa resort, we also took some time out to hike Lapakahi state park.  After the  drive up the Kohala coast we took the self-guided tour around the partially restored village.  The kids loved searching for the next number on the map.  The ruins were pretty interesting and it was a pleasant walk. 

Kiddy Beach

Well, it took us nearly six months, but we finally found a beach on the Hilo side of the island that the kids can play at.  Onekahakaha has a boulder lined pool that is protected from the sea.  It is also sandy and shallow enough for the keiki (children) to play in.  We'll probably visit more often now that we've actually visited, since it will save us the 2+ hour trip (one way) to the other side of the island.  Unfortunately, there's not much for us adults to do there, but we can relax while the kids play in a safe environment.

Horse Rides

We went to the University of Hawaii-Hilo for their Ho'olaule'a family day.  The kids got to play games, jump nonstop in 2 different jumpy castles, get goodie bags, petting zoo, and have their first horse rides.  All for free.  Our favorite was seeing Henry's face when he first got on the horse.  Here are a couple pictures from their experience.  Yee Haw!

Overlooking Kiluea Caldera

While grandma and grandpa Hovland were here, we took them to the Kilauea Caldera overlook at the Jaggar museum.  We had taken them here at night to see the glow, but also wanted to show them what it looks like during the day.  Here are some photos from that visit including a photo-montage of the entire caldera.