Lava fields and ukuleles

Well, I've been busy. Awesomely busy. Cleaning a beautiful training facility, boogie boarding at the beach, and enjoying paradise busy. I've also been watering all the indoor plants. Most of us get assigned extra jobs and mine is that of the Plant Girl. It's a pretty sweet deal because I get to take all of Wednesday morning to get the watering done (and fight the mealybug fight). While doing so, I'm on my own schedule and I can visit with anyone I run into. Plus I'm in all the nicest areas of the building. When I finally replace my camera (which had a tragic and early death last week) I will show you pictures of the atriums. They are awesome and feel quite peaceful. There is a little hole in the roof so that when it rains (which isn't often actually. I didn't realise Kihei is a desert) it rains right inside the building. It's like Hogwarts' enchanted ceiling!!!! Anyway, Wednesday is our half day so it pretty much feels like an entire day off when the only work I do is hang out with plants and walk around. Pretty much great.

Two Wednesday's ago I mentioned I went on a hike in La Perouse Bay through some lava fields out to a light becon. I did have some picture taking potential and I'd like to share with you a few of my favourite shots.

This is a view of the "foothills" of Haleakala which is the volcano that caused all the lava seen here.

The lava flowed all the way into the ocean and makes for a stunning costal walk.

We heard rumors of black billygoats living in the area and were thrilled to witness the truth in that tale! I didn't get any shots of the baby goats but they were adorable. I was surprised how loud the goats were. Their noise is what originally alerted us to their presence.

Views through trees are always favourites of mine.

After we had hiked out to the becon, we stopped by Big Beach. It's a beautiful beach but with powerful waves. It was fairly calm this day...

And I saw my first mongoose in the parking lot (actually there are two hiding in the grass). I have vague memories of a book. Rikki Ticky or something like that? I believe it involves a mongoose and a cobra.

I went to Big Beach again this past Wednesday. Not so calm. In fact, the beaches just down the road were red flagged. If we'd known, I don't think we would have gone in the water. But we didn't know and we did go in the water. And I honestly think that the waves at times were 6 feet high. It's a fairly dangerous beach because the waves break right at the shore. If you get caught in the break it can be nasty. I was there with a couple of ladies and one smart one sat on the sand and refused to enter the water. The other and myself went running in and paid for it. We both have a couple new bruises, several sore spots and I pulled a muscle that I didn't even know I had. Seems to be healing quite nicely though so I might even go on a hike tomorrow through a bamboo forest (during which I am sure I will be devestated that I have not yet replaced my poor dead camera).

Anyway, that's about all I have time for right now. Except that I wanted to post this video of Manoa DNA, a father and sons singing group that played at the ukulele festival I went to a couple of weeks ago.


There is another video I've been trying to post but have had no luck. It is of a female performer called Paula Fuga and she was amazingly fantastic and if I'd had enough cash I would have totally bought her cd. But since I only had $5, I bought some apple bananas instead which I very much enjoyed for the rest of the week in my cereal. I will keep attempting to upload her video because she's not on iTunes and really was quite awesome.

I'll have to post again soon to tell you about the Xterra World Championships, the musical I went to tonight (Urinetown) and the coolest sushi restaurant ever. And I don't even like sushi. I'll also try to borrow a camera to give you a tour of Haggai.