Manta rays

Here are some pictures Sara took when diving with manta rays at night.  There were also some spinner dolphins that were playing in the wake of her boat.  Pretty cool!

I guess these spots are like fingerprints, totally unique to each ray, so the divers use them to identify the rays.

Somehow this picture flipped upside down during the uploading process.

Pineapples!

We have a couple pineapple fields here at our rental property.  Racheal suggested that we walk out to check on how they were doing yesterday.  Anika spied 2 yellow ones.  Lance was iffy about it but was convinced to pick them anyway.  Here is a picture of Anika with "her" pineapple and a grapefruit from the farm (over her left shoulder are some ice cream bananas ripening).  We did enjoy the pineapple last night.  Quite sweet, juicy, and tasty with no added hormones/pesticides.  We picked one more to eat once it gets a little more yellow.  We will definitely miss fresh tropical fruit when we come back to the Midwest.

Second to last visitor



Last week we had our second to last visitor for our time here on the Big Island.  We completed another whirlwind tour of the island.  Thanks to Sara for visiting!  She went snorkelling with manta rays at night and took pictures - stay tuned to see the magnificent creatures in the open ocean.  (All photos seen here courtesy Sara Hovland)

Sara and the kids at 69 beach, N of Kona

7 turtles at Punalu'u beach

Curling wave at New Kaimu beach near Kalapan

Glow of Kilauea Caldera at dusk.

Earth Day

 It was a beautiful Earth Day here in Hawaii! We decided to honor the earth by going as a family to pick up garbage along our dirt roads.  The sun was shining and with it a cool breeze. Birds were singing as we picked up rubbish along a 1 mile stretch of road near our house. Skinks and lizards also stopped by to say "Hey thanks!" or perhaps "What the?!? Hey, that pop can used to be my house!" When all was said and done we cleared $6.84 at the recycling station, nice.

Sign at the beginning of the road we cleaned up.
Apparently, there are a lot of people who don't want to be smart -



because we picked up quite a bit of rubbish from the side of the road

Unfortunately the 3 TVs didn't fit in our trunk
So we left them in a more visible locale along the road

Hopefully someone with a truck, perhaps those who tossed them
in the first place, will get the hint and take them to the dump.

Pictures

Okay so now that we've been almost everywhere on the island, we have less to say or add.  So instead I decided to find a couple pictures that I (Racheal) like and post them.  Hope you enjoy.  The ones of the kids are at Honolii looking for hidden treasures (sea glass, shells, or special pebbles) and Henry is building a rock sclupture.

Anika and I with the volcano in the distance.  Courtesy of Kim P.

The kids and I at Honoli'i while dad "surfs".  Courtesy of Colette G.

 

Lehua & Hibiscus

We were able to find and capture some different flower pictures here on the Big Island.  Enjoy!

The rare yellow lehua.

Red and yellow lehua.

Henry showing his hibiscus he found.

Anika showing another hibiscus.

Bittersweet

So now as our time here is getting less and less we are trying to take more and more in.  It's starting to seem bittersweet.  We miss our family, friends, pets, and some parts of life in WI; however, we are finally getting used to the way things are here and will be missing HI once we return.  We have (in our opinion) seen most of what the Big Island has to offer.  We have been to every compass area (east, west, north, and south points), we have been to the sea and up to the mountain top.  We have visited 9 out of the 10 climate zones (we didn't go to the way top of Mauna Kea to see the snow).  We appreciate the beauty of the seasons here and the fruits of nature.  We enjoy our simple life and quality time with our intimate pod (family).  Racheal and Lance enjoy their jobs.  Racheal is learning hula.  Lance is learning how to surf and more on the ukulele. Anika likes her school, classmates, and teacher.  She only has 31 more days of Kindergarten!  Henry likes being home with dad.  We're definitely glad we took this opportunity and will look back on it fondly.

"You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change."