Back from blog embargoed Hawaii

Oh the hopefulness of my last entry! Little did I know I would be under a blog embargo for my entire trip. I had only work internet access, and work has decided that blogs (including my own) aren't appropriate for their employees! But now I'm back and I can tell you all about it.

My trip started with a week's vacation with my Mom. We had three days in the Hilo area, where we stayed in a rental house. The first day we didn't do too much, but went to see some waterfalls near Hilo and swimming a Richardson's Beach. A woman lent my mom her snorkel gear and she got to see a sea turtle! I was pretty surprised since Richardson's Beach is really close to town, we drove right by where the cruise ships dock in order to get there. The next day, it was looking really rainy (not just usual rainy) so we went up to Volcanoes NP and drove around the caldera where we got some great views of the fog. In the evening we hiked a little bit out to see the lava ocean entry (Lae'puki). It was clear out there, so we had a good view.

Can you see it?


The next day had better weather and we went out to snorkel at the Kapoho tidepools (actually Wai O'Pae).

Then it was on to the Kona side which is much more touristy. In fact it was kind of a shock to go from sleepy Hilo to Hard-rock-cafe-bubba-gumps-cruisin-by-the-beach-loud-music-whistlin-at-girls Kailua. But when in tourist heaven, do tourist things. We went on a snorkeling trip out to Honaunau and another spot which was not Kealakekua. The recent earthquake triggered a landslide at Kealakekua and the hillside is still considered unstable, so it was off limits. I don't know what I missed, but the snorkeling where we went was amazing anyway. I think you could jump off the side of a boat anywhere on the Kona side and see some pretty amazing things. I don't have any pics, because I wasn't taking my cool new camera anywhere near a splashy boat ride. I took some with a waterproof camera, but I will have to wait for those to get developed. We also went to a luau at the Shearton Keauhou, which was pretty good. The food was very good; they served poke and poi as well as pork and prime rib. The show was ok. My mom liked it a lot, but I'm a fan of more traditional Hawaiian dance, which is much more fierce than what you usually get in shows (and I mean that in both the literal and the Tyra Banks way).

Note the old people in the background, I wasn't the youngest person there, but everyone else my age was also there with their parents.

After that I was ready to get a break from vacationing and do a little work. Some guys from UH were putting in some GPS monuments in the Kona area, in response to the recent Kiholo Bay earthquake. I tagged along and helped them a bit, which was a lot of fun and a really good way to see the island.

This is what the monuments look like. One of them was sited on the estate of the man that invented the pacemaker! He was very cool and interested in having science happen on his property. If only everyone were as excited to help us.

The next day my mom went home and went up to Volcano for the work portion of my trip. But that will have to be saved for the next post.