Week 14: 4/2-4/8

Sunday: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS (Volcano National Park)

TODAY WAS A GREAT DAY! WE ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS BABY!! Man was this season incredible for both men and women! Today my grandparents and I went to Volcano National Park and did several of the hikes in the area. When we first got to the park we went to the souvenir shop and got gifts for my little brothers and watched the information video at the visitor center. After the video, we got in our car and drove over to the sulfur banks and walked to the edge of the crater. Make sure to stand back from the sulfur steam banks. They are hot, which makes sense they are steam vents that are coming up from the volcano, but anyway watch out they are very hot. Then we drove to the museum in the park to see the lava lake in the crater. After seeing the lava, we went back to the visitor center to park the car and we walked over to the Volcano Hotel and ate lunch. We sat right next to the window so we had an incredible view of the crater and noticed that there was even more smoke then there was before. We had fish and Chips and watched the Basketball game. My favorite part of the day was getting to watch the women win their first national championship in Basketball at the restaurant. I was wearing my gamecock apparel and several of the waiters came and gave me high fives. When lunch was over, we noticed that the smoke was still getting larger that we decided to go back and look at the lava lake and it was a good thing too! There was more lava then before! When we were done looking at the lava we got in the car and drove to the crater where got out and did a 2-mile hike to see Thurston’s lava tube. My grandparents loved that! They thought it was so cool that we could walk through an old lava tube. When we finished the hike, we did the crater rim drive that goes from the crater through old lava fields that lead to the ocean. It’s so neat seeing the hard-black destructive lava next to the crystal clear blue ocean. It was really cool! By the time, we finished the hikes and drives around volcano national park we were exhausted and decided to go see Beauty and the Beast to celebrate my last day of spring break and it was so worth it! It was so good! I loved the whole movie! Evermore is my favorite song. I listened to it on repeat for an hour or so after seeing the movie. When the movie was over, my grandparents dropped me off at my dorm since I had class early in the morning and I relaxed and got ready for my class.

Monday: Drive along the Hamakua Coast (Akaka falls, tex, waipio) waterfalls

In my ‘Ohana class today we talked about family and pregnancy. One thing I thought was interesting that I learned that women are not allowed to wear a lei when expecting a baby to keep the umbilical cord from strangling the child. Sewing and cord work was not permitted either. Along with this they believed that if the babies umbilical cord fell off too quickly the child would feel hunger easily. Whereas if it fell off after 7 days then the baby would have a firm stomach. The cord would then be hidden in a rock and plugged with a pebble in a good hiding place to make sure that the baby was protected. My teacher’s family have a rock on Maui that they put all of the piko’s in when a new baby is born. She also says that an eel protects the rock for her family so that no one comes and disturbs the rock. It was interesting to learn about and talk about. After this class I went to Aquaculture and we reviewed for my exam and went over the last 10 chapters of the textbook. When I got out of class, Mimi and Pete picked me up and we ran by subway to get sandwiches to take on the road so we could eat a picnic. The first stop we made for the day was visiting boiling pots and the waterfall above rainbow falls. While we were there we ate our sandwiches, and walked around a little bit. When we were done walking around here, we went up the road to drive passed another waterfall. We stopped and took some pictures here and then continued to on our way to Akaka Falls. Akaka falls is one of my favorite waterfalls. It’s a nice little walk and then you see this mass of water falling 429 feet or so over a cliff. It’s really pretty. It is also a great place to see a rainbow in the waterfall! We took some pictures here and I got one of me pretending to drink the water because why not J. After looking at the falls, we continued the drive to Waipio Valley. I wanted to show them this beautiful valley. We didn’t go down into it, but looked from the overlook which was so worth it. They loved it! When we were done at Waipio we drove to Tex, which took a little longer because I forgot where it was and we had passed it but don’t worry we found it J, and got some malasadas! Malasadas are so good! They are one of my favorite deserts! When we were done, my grandparents took me back to my dorm so I could do some homework.

Tuesday: Botanical gardens

Today was a productive and fun day. I went to all three of my classes. In global change, we talked about overfishing. In Volcanoes and Earthquakes, we talked about s and p waves that happen during earthquakes and simulated them as a whole class. It was a lot of fun to be pushed and pulled around by everyone. It was neat to see how the different layers of earth interact when the waves go through them. And in Coral Reef Ecology, we talked about fishes that live on coral reefs. When I got out of class I worked more on more on my blog until my grandparents came and picked me up from my dorm. Then we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens outside of Hilo. Along the way, we decided to take the scenic tour and drive through the rainforest. Along the road, we also got super close to the ocean. At one point, it looked like we were going to drive over the edge right into the ocean! While we were on a road we found a little hiking trail and decided to pull over and take a walk. It led right straight down to the ocean and you were able to walk out to this beach and walk out on some rocks. It was so pretty. The beach was completely shaded and I could have sat there and watch the waves all day, but we decided to walk back to the car and head on to the Botanical Garden. The Botanical Garden was beautiful and huge. We spent about 2 hours just walking around. They had so many trees, flowers, waterfalls and beautiful views of the ocean. It was truly beautiful! We were the last people to leave the gardens and just as we made it to the top of the pathway to leave they were sending someone in to look for us! Ha ha of course they would; we still had 5 minutes before they closed the gate. After the gardens, we continued on our way along the scenic route and stopped at this cute little shop to get some ice cream. I had vanilla MacNut, Mimi had Chocolate Mac Nut and Pete had Cookies and Crème. It was very yummy! After eating ice cream, Mimi and Pete dropped me off and I went to dinner with Michaela and we worked on some of our homework.

Wednesday: Market

In my Hawaiian ‘Ohana class today we finished going over genetics and the different relationships in a family. When we were done talking about the family, we started our review for exam next Friday. Then I went to my Aquaculture class and we talked for most of the class about different processes he likes to use. When I was done with classes, Mimi and Pete came and picked me up from my dorm and we went to the Market in Hilo. I love shopping here and I was able to find a couple more gifts for my family and Mimi found a couple cute outfits for my little cousins. When we were done shopping and looking around, we went to lunch at Ponds which is a really cute restaurant in Hilo that sits over a Koi pond and over looks a little lagoon that leads to Hilo Bay. All three of us got fish and chips, we seem to really like fish and chips, and devoured the entire thing. When we were done eating we headed over to the Japanese Garden to walk around. I thought it would be a fun easy walk that we could do together. We saw lots of flowers and plants and walked over the bridges and under lots of trees. When we finished this walk, I showed them coconut island and where my friends and I will go to go swimming and relax on the weekends. When we were done walking around, they took me back to my dorms so I could meet with my study group so I could start to study for my aquaculture exam.

Thursday: Studying for Exam

Today I spent the day in classes and studying for my aquaculture exam. After my classes I studied for a couple hours with my friend Michaela and then went out with my grandparents to the Restaurant Pineapples for dinner. It was so good. I have been waiting to eat here for the whole semester and I am finally glad I was able to do so! I had Grilled Chicken Pasta with pesto alfredo, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic. It was so yummy. When we were done, eating they dropped me off back at school and I met up with Michaela again and we studied for another couple of hours before we decided it was time for us to give up and go to sleep.

Friday: Kona, sign up for luau, beach,

I had my aquaculture exam and it didn’t go great but it will be all good. I haven’t gotten back any of my exam grades still so I don’t know how I’m doing in the class but I think he likes me so I should do well enough. After finishing my exam, my grandparents picked me up and we went to Kona side of the island to sign up for the Luau next week when my aunt and uncle get to town. It took us about an hour to d,o but we figured it all out! I am so excited for the luau next week! When we finished signing up we drove over to A-bay so I could show them a white sand beach. We walked around and had a fun time just sitting in the sand and watching the waves. After the beach, we drove back to Hilo, grabbed a quick dinner at Ken’s Dinner, which the Rock is known to come by whenever he is in Hilo and eat there. I am pretty sure he is a friend of the families because they have about 50 pictures of him everywhere. When we were done eating they dropped me off at the dorm so I could work on my homework.

Saturday: Pololū Valley, picnic

Today was a great day! We woke up early so that we could go on our adventure. We stopped by Walmart to pick up some snacks for the hike. Then we made our way along the Hamakua coast. It took us about 2 hour to get from Hilo to Waimea where we stopped to get a picnic lunch at Foodland. We grabbed Chinese food, sandwiches, fruit, chips, really anything that was easy to transport and eat in the car. Then we headed up the Kohala mountains to take the scenic way to Pololū Valley. My grandparents were mesmerized by the view and I felt the exact same way when we were driving through. This island is so diverse. You can go from a rainforest to prairie land to gorgeous valleys to a desert in one day and you can see all of this from the Kohala mountain range. It is incredible. When we arrived at Pololū Valley and ate a quick lunch in the car and started hiking. The hike is kind of dangerous. It’s a steep dirt path. My grandmother made it down a little way and then decided not to go down further due to the rocks so Pete and I didn’t go much further. The view into the valley was incredible. It was so pretty. The view of the valleys hitting the water was so cool. It would be so pretty to see at sunrise. After we hiked out of the valley, we got in the car and drove back to Hilo via Saddle Road and went back to the house and got Calzones from New York Style Pizza and hung out and talked for a while.

#NATIONALCHAMPIONS #VolcanoNationalPark