Hawaii Day 4

Mom climbed back in bed after seeing the boys off with Bob. Then we slept in until around 7:30. We finally climbed out of bed around 8 when Melanie brought back breakfast sandwiches from McDonald's. We could take it a lot easier without a lot of calls for "More Snorkeling" echoing from the backseats. We decided to try a couple of short waterfall hikes north of Hilo.

The first waterfall was called Akaka Falls, and it was just a half-mile walk. It was a really pretty, towering single waterfall. Since it is a slow time of year for tourists, there was plenty of time to have it to ourselves, which we enjoyed. 

It was like our first trip to Hawaii many years ago.

Mom's hair gets so curly.

The waterfall is super tall. 

We love the jungle feel.

There were a few smaller waterfalls, too.

Next, we took a short drive to a beach that we saw on the map. It was called Laupahoehoe Point, and it wasn't a beach at all, but a bunch of black rocks with massive waves crashing into them. We tried to catch some pictures with amazing sprays, but they never turn out like the real thing.

The scenery was beautiful.

There were some serious waves.

The color of the water was beautiful.

We went back toward Hilo and stopped at the more commercial waterfall, which has ziplines and gardens and other activities. This one was called Umauma Falls, and we ran into most of the rest of the cousins, who were also just arriving. We walked up to the triple-decker waterfall, which was pretty cool. The kids picked flowers for their hair and even a fruit called strawberry guava, which the Visitor Center told us was totally legal since we'd paid our entrance fee. It was quite a climb, but we went all the way to the top, enjoying being together and seeing the centipedes and millipedes.

Another great waterfall.

Centipede

millipede 

We saw lots of little geckos.

All the sisters were there.

It was after lunch when we left Umauma Falls, so we found a little restaurant. We were getting fishing updates from the boys as we waited for our unspectacular food, and we were really glad that they were having fun and catching fish.

For old times sake, we made a short stop at the Mauna Loa Nut Factory and commented on how run-down the tours have become. Basically, there is no tour, just a gift shop with a few dozen types of macadamia nuts. Then we met the cousins at the zoo. We were surprised how nice the zoo was. The tigers were really active, and one even put its paws up on the fence and threatened us. That was excited since he was about 3 feet away! There were a lot of tropical birds, but we liked the anteaters best. It was a pretty small zoo, but we enjoyed it anyway.

We stopped for just a second at the nut factory.

We took a silly picture.

Stopped at the zoo!

We had fun walking through the animals.

We spent time with the other cousins.

The white tiger was super exciting.

The boys beat us back to the house around 4 o'clock. There were buzzing from their fishing experience, and Bob was cooking up fresh mahi-mahi and tuna. It was really delicious, and he had the tuna cooked in two ways, and rice and salad to go with the fish. The boys really liked seeing the fish they'd pulled in put on their plates. They were great eaters!

After dinner, we wanted to go up Mauna Kea and see the star show. This was the place where Dad really fell in love with the deep sky and telescopes. When he and Mom visited in 2010, there were half a dozen massive telescopes set high up on the slopes of Mauna Kea, above the light pollution and atmospheric pollution. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found out that that program had become so popular, that they ended it a few years ago. Now, they just do a tour of constellations with a sky guide volunteer. It was a real bummer to drive an hour each way.

The stars were beautiful.

We had fun even though is was different than we thought.

Hawaii Day 4 Boys Fishing

The fishing crew!

Seth: Today, our Uncle Bob took us three boys and Abby and Ray deep sea surface fishing off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. On Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, at 3:30 am we got up to get ready, and left at 4:00. We drove over to Kona and got on a boat called the Skillet. Our boat captain had been fishing for 40 years and had a first mate named TJ. We left the dock at 6:00 o’clock in the morning and rode into the ocean, and it got pretty rough. The first 2-3 hours we didn’t get any bites, and since we were going from youngest to oldest taking turns for who got to reel, Ray got to go first. Finally, a tuna called a slap jack tuna, one of the smaller types of tuna, took the bait and Ray started to reel. It was a tough going for Ray and took 6 or 7 minutes to get it into the boat. Then, the first mate hooked it and hit it with a small bat to finish it off. For a while, we didn’t get much biting but you could see the tuna jumping off to the side of the boat and you could also see Maui. I was next for my turn at fishing and waited and waited. Finally, I fell asleep, but then Bob woke me up and told me there was a fish on the line. I got strapped into the chair in the back of the boat and got ready. I let the fish run around like you’re supposed to, and then reeled really hard but couldn’t move the reel! Bob came over and helped me, and once it was within 100 yards I could reel and brought the fish in. At the same time Mark and Dax worked hard and caught an even bigger mahi-mahi than I had. Instead of hitting the mahi-mahis with the bat, like he had with the tuna, he hooked them and let them flop around in the back of the boat, because they were much bigger. After this, he put them in the cooler, which he had also put the tuna in. By this time, it was already 11:00-11:30 so we started back but didn’t catch anything. We were talking about sharks on the way back, and the captain told us that a lot of tiger sharks were just below us at the mouth of the harbor. The tiger sharks had learned that that was there were some of the people got rid of big fish or threw the fish’s extra parts. We also talked about how the cookie cutter sharks had bitten a couple of perfect circles out of the Mahi-Mahi’s, which was pretty cool. On the way back we saw even more tuna jumping out of the water. As we got into the harbor, we saw a turtle on the boat ramp. When we got back to the dock our captain gutted the fish. We had 1 medium zip lock bag of tuna and 2 bags of Mahi-Mahi. We only kept one of the Mahi-Mahi, the one I had caught, and gave the other to the captain. As the captain gutted the fish, he threw the scraps off the dock and a HUGE turtle came over and ate the scraps. That night Bob cooked the fish for us to eat, it was amazing and the fish were cooked perfectly. It was so fun and we made sure to thank Bob for taking us.

Seth loved this adventure.

Ray's tuna 

The two mahi mahi

Seth got a little sick, but Bob was a great nurse!

Mark: On Friday Mark, Dax, and Seth had the chance to go ocean fishing with Bob, Abby, and Ray. We woke up before 4 am, drove to Kona, and hopped on a boat called Skillet about 6:15. We headed out into the first light waters looking for some marlin, tuna, or mahi-mahi to catch. After riding around for quite a while with no action, we spotted some tuna jumping out of the water and went over to try and get a bite. Wouldn’t you know, but we got 2 hits, and one held. Ray began to reel and after a brief struggle landed a 10-pound tuna. It bled all over the boat but we were excited to have something. We kept on going listening to the captain and first mates’ stories of 800 pound marlins. After a while, Seth fell asleep but we woke him up after getting another hit. Shortly after, we got a second hit and Dax took over that line. Seth was working hard with Bob’s help and Dax was struggling, so Mark took over and fought the fish. In a couple minutes we had 2 good sized mahi-mahi on our deck, which flopped around like crazy fish, until the first mate was able to shove them in the floor compartment. After a while we took them out to take pictures and hold them, and found them to be about 30 pounds each. Everyone was pretty happy after that, and although we rolled around for a few more hours, we didn’t catch anything else. We were excited, however, as we came back into the harbor and were told there were tiger sharks right underneath us. We couldn’t see them but we did spot several turtles and weird looking fish in the boat harbor. After watching the captain slice our fish up, we ended up with 2 bags of mahi-mahi and one bag of tuna. We drove the last 2 hours home after a great day, and for dinner we had a wonderful feast of fish that was absolutely amazing. 

Mark had a great time fishing.

Mark working hard to reel in that Mahi Mahi

The fish was almost as big as Mark.

Dax: We woke up super early at 3:45 in the morning and headed out at 4 for the hour and a half drive to make it to the ship by 6. We got there a half-hour early, and so stopped at the gas station to pass some time. Then we headed to the dock and met the captain, John, and the first mate, TJ. We headed out at 6:10 and almost immediately cast out the lines. We had high spirits and hopes as we headed out to the open sea. After about an hour we were still feeling good even though we had no bites. At around 8, we saw some tuna jumping to each side of the boat. TJ cast out a smaller line and after around 15 seconds had hooked a tuna. Ray fought the tuna as it swam down but finally brought it up into the boat. The tuna was a nice 15 pounds, and morale soared high. Then we didn’t have any bites for around two hours, but we still talked and had fun, all but Seth, who was puking over the side. Around 9, while Seth was puking, I looked toward the front of the ship and saw these tiny silver fish gliding across the water. Flying fish. They only flew for a couple seconds away from the ship before reentering the water. It was an amazing experience to see these amazing fish. At 10 o’clock we had had no bites since Ray’s tuna. Most people were asleep, sick, or just bored. I was laying down with my eyes closed but opened my eyes to look at the lines for a second. I saw something knifing through the water heading right for the lines. Around a second later the line was hooked and Seth and TJ ran over to get strapped into the chair. As Seth was getting strapped in, another line was hooked. I ran over to the line and started to reel. It was the strongest fish I had ever felt and could barely even turn the reel. TJ had just finished with Seth when the massive fish pulled the rod out of the holder. It took all my strength to keep the rod in the boat while TJ rushed over to help me pull it back in. We got the rod back in the holder and I started to reel, but I could tell I would never get this fish in. I let Mark have a go, and he pulled the fish to the boat. Seth pulled his in, too. Two good sized mahi-mahis. We were super excited and the fish were huge. The captain estimated they each weighed between 30 and 40 pounds. Perfect sized fish. We kept our morale up after that even though we caught nothing else. It was a really cool experience to catch those massive fish. As we pulled into the dock, we saw a sea turtle on the ramp and the captain told us about the dozens of tiger sharks underneath us. We pulled into the dock and filleted the fish throwing in the extra skin and guts, which attracted a very large sea turtle. Even though we only kept one mahi-mahi and the tuna, we still had 3 bags of fish. We cooked them up for dinner for the best fish I have ever eaten. This is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had.

They were so excited to catch this fish!

Bob takes such good care of our little fisherman Dax. 

It was a huge success!

The fishing cousins

This is the large turtle that they spotted.

Hawaii Day 3 Thanksgiving!

Jonny made crepes for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. Then we headed off on our own while everyone else went into Volcanoes National Park. Since we’d been there recently, and explored the park pretty well, we decided to go further south. Soon we found our way to a black sand beach, which was pretty cool.

We woke up to a rainbow!

The boys enjoyed the deck so much!

We started in the tide pools, and Mark immediately spotted a tiny worm thing that could only have been an eel. Over on the beach, the turtles came right in close to us. We could see 5 of them just under the surface, their green bodies standing out on the jet black sand. We only stayed for a little while because we wanted to continue south.

This beach is so picturesque with the palm trees along the edge.

It was a very unique black sand beach.

The eel Mark spotted.

The turtles were right in the waves at the edge of the beach.

We saw a bunch!

The black sand was awesome, but hot on the feet!

We had a great time!

The very most southern tip of America was just to the south, so we decided to drive out and see what it was like. Before we got that far, though, we stopped in a small town called Punalu’u for Hawaiian donuts called malasadas. We bought about a dozen, from sugar-coated, to fruit filled, with mango, strawberry, coconut, and cream being a few of the favorites. That was all we had for lunch, but we really enjoyed them. 

We were very far south!

We inhaled these malasadas!

Further down the coast, we were surprised at how interesting the southern point was. There were fisherman pulling up little silver fish on every cast. There was a massive blow hole, where the ocean thundered below. We walked over to some tide pools and saw little fish and crabs, and even a few larger fish, as large your foot, stranded in the shallow water. Best of all, the waves were crashing and the water was a perfect turquoise blue. You could stand on the edge of the cliff and look down at the fish in the perfectly clear water 30 feet below.

The water was beautiful.

We could see the fish even though the drop was really far!

A nice lady took our photo by the blowhole!

The Southernmost point of the United States.

We saw a bunch of crabs.

It was a fun place to explore.

We loved looking in the tide pools.

Dad climbed out by the big waves crashing in!

This tan beach is all coral. So that looks heavy, but it weighs as much as a pencil.

Good stop!

We could have turned around and driven back to Hilo, but we decided to go left and continue west across the south coast. The drive was long, and we eventually got close to Kona. There is a beach there that is really popular for snorkeling, and we’d never tried it. It was called Two-Step Beach, and it was by far the best snorkeling spot we’d ever seen. There was a place to sit almost like a couch to put on your flippers. As you did, yellow tangs swam right around your toes. Then you pushed off and instantly the water opened up below you. It was around 15 feet deep, and there were hundreds of bright yellow fish in swarms right under your nose. The water was calm and deep, and there were no currents. We saw even more fish than we’d seen at the other two snorkel spots, and there were a lot of varieties. In a few places, you’d look around and see hundreds of fish of dozens of different kinds atop the reef. Mom really enjoyed this spot, and Seth went out the deepest where the water dropped off to around 30 feet deep. We are convinced this was the best snorkeling spot in the world.

You could sit right on the edge before getting in.

Definitely the best snorkeling spot.

I put my phone in by my feet before I got in and there are three different fish in this pic.

So many yellow tangs!

Seth was an awesome snorkeler.

Seriously, so many!

It was a long drive back around the north side of the island to Hilo, but no one seemed to mind. We got back to Hilo around 5 o’clock, which was just in time to start heating the Thanksgiving feast. We’d ordered a bit of precooked food, including 2 turkeys, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, kalua pork, cranberry sauce, and some pies and cheesecake we picked up at Costco. This was perfect, and everyone got plenty of food. 

Since this was still Tiffany's birthday celebration, we all did tribute videos for her, which we laughed and laughed at for the perfect end to Thanksgiving. 

This is the beach across from our house.

Seth and Mom walked over for a minute before dinner.

The cousins all ate outside! They loved it!

The adults enjoyed Thanksgiving inside with Mark since he is an adult now, too!

Celebrating Tiff was so fun!

Seth and Ray performed for all the kids for hours.

The whole Family! Happy Thanksgiving!