Life :: Hawaii

Being done school, finally means having a summer of fun. For me, this meant going on vacation with my parents - hey! they paid, how could I say no!? This year, our vacation was done in two parts - 5 days in Hawaii, followed by 2.5 in San Francisco...

We stayed on the big island - settled ourselves in Kona, and travelled. I loved it - they hated it... It wasn't very commercial, and was almost run down - the main street of Kona had fabulous shops, and tons of quaint little restaurants, however, as soon as you ventured off the main trail (ie as far as the next store behind in the little strip mall), everything was closed, boarded up, and eerie. I hate commercial and super touristy, so it didn't bother me at all...

Black Sand beach - lava rock portion

The first day we went on a 'round the island' tour... 12 hours of being stuck on a bus... It definitely wasn't the best day, but gave us some good bearings and other things we wanted to see.



Lava Tube walk

 Day Two was heading to the far side of the island to go rafting down an aqueduct...

Floatin' along...

 

Loved this place...

On the way back, we found another lava tube that dad and I explored...

Day Three, we headed over to the far side of the island - back to the lush rainforesty side - and dad and I did the one thing I wanted to do...  ZIPLINING!!



Main street of Kona looking out at the ocean

Dad being a kid at heart

Sunset on the beach

Day Four we snorkeled! The activity dad wanted to do (although neither mom nor I could say no...)

Captain Cooks Monument

Who wouldn't want to snorkel in that water!

The last day was spent kicking around Kona - visiting some beaches, driving around, hitting up some markets, etc.

Friend I found at the market...

Lava tubes ending in the ocean - gaping holes that suck water from all around...

Wouldn't want to walk that trail like the kings did...

 

Air Force One?

General photos I love...

 

 

Pets :: Katy and Arthur

So, I found myself spending most of my summer with these two while their family was running around the province camping... Good for me... extra cash, and getting out of my house... sucks for them... or so you'd think.

Does he look as mischievious as he really is? I definately lost some pizza toppings, some cheese, and some tea to Arthur... I tried to teach him manners... but he's a counter surfer, and his family seems okay with that... Arthur is definitely the more outgoing of the two.

Once she warms up to you... Katy's not as quiet and innocent as she seems though. If you're going to hear the two of them running around the house, you can bet Katy is the reason for it... She's the one who started it all, and she's the one who eggs Arthur on...

And... one of my favorite features of their house...

Their balcony! It's only a short walk to the beach, of which I kinda regret not doing... But I definitely spent many nights watching the sunset on the balcony! :)

Pets :: Fizz and Scrappy Doo

So Angela and I needed a bitch session a short while ago... so we took her dogs down to the beach. I used the excuse to take some photos of them playing on the beach. Unfortunately, due to the low light and my amateur skill, and pets looking absolutely horrible under flash... not a lot of them turned out. I did manage to take some decent photos of the sunset though...

Of Angela's two beasts... Scrappy Doo is the water love, athletic, ball crazy, stress pot of a dog. Fizz is the laid back, younger (ironically) with bad knees. He tended to wander away and visit everyone else on the beach... but Scrappy definately had a lot of fun chasing the sticks we tossed into the river for him.

After we threw the sticks a few more times... we went for a walk down the River Trail... at least until it met with the roads. Explain to me how you can have a 'River Trail', that deviates from the river for an extended period of time...?