On this day of our vacation, we had a very full day. Shayne and Billie were so nice to let us borrow one of their cars for our many excursions while we were there. We started the day out with a tasty can of nectar. There are two main brands of this nectar, one is Aloha Natural, and the other one is Hawaiian Sun, but they're basically the same and have most all of the same flavors. My favorite was the Pineapple Orange nectar, and Lane's was the Guava nectar. On several occasions, Lane had me photo document him drinking his favorite pink drink!
We explored the south part of the Big Island on this day, and we hit three main destinations: The Punalu'u Black Sand Beach Park, the Punalu'u Bakery, which makes and sells the wonderful Hawaiian sweetbread, among many other sweet treats, ice cream, and lunch entrees, and our last stop of the day was at Southpoint, the southernmost point in Hawaii and also in the U.S.A.
-
The black sand is formed from the volcanic rock this is found all over this area. This beach is about 30 minutes southwest of the lava fields we had walked all over the day before. The beach was so pretty, but the sand was so hot. The individual granules of sand were extremely shiny, and it was really fun to play in. Lane did a little snorkeling with some sea turtles, Dane caught some (well, one) wave on his boogieboard and made sand volcanoes, Sydni took a nap and then ate sand, and I just sat and enjoyed the scenery and played in the sand. We actually got to see a couple of sea turtles swimming near the beach, but didn't get to see them out of the water. Shayne and Billie and their sons went back there recently and got to see some on the beach, which I'm sure was really neat.
She slept for at least the first hour we were there.
Important instructions, I'm sure
Dane's one and only boogieboard attempt. I'm glad I got it on video. Fortunately, money wasn't wasted on it, since it also came in very handy as an extra floatation device.
Here are the best shots I could get of the turtle
One of his great volcanoes
Sydni was looking especially cute, hanging out on the beach, so we had a little photo shoot.
Our next stop was the Punalu'u Bake Shop...so good! We ate a late lunch there in one of the gazebos out back near their little botanical garden. This is such a pretty place in a little bitty town. I'm so glad we got to go there.
On to our last stop of the day...Southpoint. On the way, we saw lots of windmills. It is very windy down there, so I'm sure they're very useful there.
A random bull that had gotten out of the fence.
A view from the ocean back up toward the windmills.
Once we parked, we had to walk about 1/2 a mile over to the southern tip of the island. Dane and Sydni did so great walking so far and took breaks up on our shoulders, too.
On our walk, I took some pictures of the ocean.
This gravesite was at the southpoint, and a few days later in Kona, I noticed that one of the main roads there is named after this man.
Lane was determined to walk out as far as he could on the rocks, so that we could stand as far south in the U.S. as possible. It was a little scary with all of the waves crashing around and carrying the kids. But we did it! When we got out there, we stopped and took a couple minutes to sing "Blue Skies and Rainbows", which was a special family moment.
A video of the waves while we were out on the rocks.
Lane and Sydni, as they were about to get swept away, not really, but he did very quickly back up some.
We managed to finally get one picture of us all together, and wouldn't you know it, Sydni's picking at my teeth!
I really like this picture.
This was one of the scenes we saw on our drive back to Hilo. The picture doesn't do it justice, it was so breathtaking.
We had a really fun and tiring day, and we rushed back to have a homecooked meal up at the church building with several families. So nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment