New Blog Series!

I will be starting a new blog series about our life in Tennessee! This is the last time we will be going down there, so this is my last chance capture this unique time in our lives!

As for the unfinished Hawaii series, I'll get to it someday! (AKA - one more thing to add to my list of "Things to do before I turn 100.") This one will get squished somewhere between #247 -produce a movie and # 248 -go skydiving. #248 will always be the last accomplishment I want to do because I figure if I am free falling out of an airplane I will be scared senseless and will NOT remember to pull some cord to activate the parachute. AND on the rare chance that the rip cord DOES get pulled, I would land in a tree or river or something, hurt my knee, end up on crutches and rip up of that STUPID list of things to do. PHEW! SO, luckily for all of you blog readers who are awaiting the last details of our trip to Hawaii, I will get to it before I jump out of a plane.

Speaking of jumping out of a plane, I am baby-sitting right now. Boo has a sudden phobia of the song "My Darling Clementine". While I will admit that my voice is a little raw after coughing for the last 4 days, it isn't THAT much worse than usual! Whenever I try to sing the song to her, she scrunches her face up like I am sticking her with a knife, then she starts to almost sob. (You know that quick inhale hastily followed by another quick inhale) I just sent Jenny in to turn on Boo's "Dora" CD. The recording has 44 songs that are mainly 70's and 80's tunes with new words. It keeps Brian and I guessing what the songs were originally supposed to sound like. My favorite is "I'm the Grumpy Old Troll" to the tune of "Little GTO".

I just reread this post and am currently debating if I should publish it. Here goes nothing...

GERANAMOOOOO!

AHHH, THE LIFE!

Our rental car on the Big Island!

Ford Expedition ... my dream vehicle!

The Hawaiian license plate adds a lot!

Brian was happy because it was a Ford!

Last Post From Hawaii

This is our last post from Hawaii. (Sniffle, Sniffle) I will upload the rest of our pictures when we get home. Our latest adventures include a volcano, waterfall, Hilo (what an experience) and a luau. We toured the island on Monday. It was rainy and windy on the other side, so we took pictures of the waterfall from the car and ran to the volcano for 2 minutes to snap a picture and then left. Got to go get ready before we leave!

TSUNAMI!!!!!!!!!!!

We were in the car at a gas station by 5:30 AM.

We stopped at a grocery store to get water bottles.

We waited in line for gas for about 20 minutes!

I guess you can't see it very well,

but there were about a dozen cars lined up in both directions for gas!

The stores were running out of water and other food staples.

We parked in the lot of a shopping center. There were about 20 cars in the lot when we got there at 6:45 AM. When we left at 2:30 PM, the lot was filled with more than 50 cars. Across the island, the cars were lined up along the side of the road because there was no where else to park. Lots of people had blankets or chairs to sit in on the grass.

This is the family Mom met from Sweden.

Black Sand Beach

Black Sand?

Ahhhh, that's better!

A black sand beach on the west side of the Big Island.

We didn't go in the water because the surf was really rough, but seeing the sand was awesome!

The Big Island

A Maui mountain peeking through the clouds!

Boo is ready to go! We have (so far) packed or unpacked 8 times on this trip!

This Big Island "Kona Side" scenery!

Hawaii graffiti!

(This one says "I Love Amy)

We are on the Big Island!

Ice Cream!

We went out for ice cream in Lahaina!

We arrived on the Big Island yesterday afternoon. It looks like something from "Mission to Mars"! There is black rock (volcanic ash) all over the place! Apparently this side of the island is very dry and black. The other side is lush and green due to it's 150" of rain each year (not the best spot to vacation unless you want to carry an umbrella with you all the time!)

On the way to the resort we were listening to the local radio station and they announced that a 3.2 magnitude earthquake struck off of the coast of Hilo (the other side of this island). Experts don't expect it to trigger any tsunamis. Can you imagine our eyeballs bugging out of our heads at that! The "Careful! Donkey and Goat Crossing" sign, shocked our eyeballs back into their sockets!

This place is unlike any other place in the US (and probably most of the world!) There are 5 geographical areas - desert, tropical rainforest, beach, mountain (snow included) and volcanos, all on this one island!