Day 11 - Anini Reef/Beach and Kilauea Light House

Rise and shine, it is Field Studies Time!  5 AM wake up call and 6 AM pull out. Zzzzzzz... but, here is Anini Reef in the morning.

We found a lot of cool things on the reef...brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, etc., etc. But, most importantly, we found an octopus!

After we collected critters, we ate lunch (at 10:30 AM!) here on Anini Beach.  This is our beautiful view.

After lunch, we went snorkeling.  We saw a SEA TURTLE!!!  It was so cool. I also saw a humahumanukanukaapua'a.  Here I am.   The water here is absolutely beautiful!

Kilauea Light House - a lot of birds to see!  

We stopped at Banana Joes again to get a smoothie or a frostie. I got a pineapple smoothie. It was quite good! I also got some spices and chocolate butter. 

Kate (photo professor) and I decided to check out the fish taco place down the street from the condo. It was good!  I had an Ahi Wrap...fish cooked!!!

 

I did stop back by the ice cream place to get an ice cream. Yummy!

Day 16-My Day Pt. 2

My last day in Hawaii.  It was bittersweet.  I love being there, but I was ready to go home.  I decided to get up and go down to the beach for a little bit.  I splashed around for a while before I had to go back to finishing packing.

I met up with some of the NLC HFS students that staid on the island after the class for Hamburgers and a trip to the Honolulu Zoo.   It was much larger than I imagined and was quite nice.

I tried the Atlantis Restaurant.  It was OK.  There was a shrimp and steak special.  It was fine, but nothing to write home about. 

They did serve a Taro/Poi bread roll.  It was quite good.  This is the only way to eat poi!  Ok, so the tiny drop that I had 2 years ago makes me think that this is the only way to eat poi!

 

To the airport at 8 PM for a 11 PM flight.  

Day 15 - My day in Honolulu!

Bright and early, I got up and went Surfing on Waikiki Beach.  I did much better than last year.  I got up on most of the waves.  I wiped out a couple of times, but for the most part, I did well.  It was a lot of fun.  This is my surf instructor Barney.

 I spent about an hour on the beach after my surf lessons, stopped at the Round Top Table Pizza for lunch, showered, napped (well, I laid down for a few minutes), and then got back out to wander, shop, and then find dinner.

I stopped at Jimmy Buffet's Beachcomber.  I ate here last year and the food was good.  I had fish tacos.  Yummy!

Day 14 - Last Day...let's be a tourist!

We did some shopping after getting checked into the airline. Then we went to visit some waterfalls. 

Wailua Falls/ Fantasy Island Waterfall-"Da plane, Da plane"!! Which aparently was Ze plane...who knew. It has been many years since I've seen it. I guess I'll have to look it up on YouTube. 

Opaeka'a Falls. 

Back to the airport. I traveled by SpeedyShuttle with 7 HFS students to our respective hotels. I finally got to my hotel about 11 PM. So tired!!

 

Day 13 - Waimea Canyon, Kokee, and Kalalau Valley

First a rondom stop to look out over the west coast of Kauai. Here, you can see the red dirt of Kauai flowing out into the ocean from runoff. Aparently there are also missiles pointed to Korea on this coast too.

Next, we walk the Iliau Loop. Matthew walks it in style. Last year he ripped his pants and had to wear the sarong to cover it up.  

Waimea Canyon in the distance. This picture is on the Iliau Loop. 

We stop at the Waimea Canyon Lookout. 

We briefly stop at the Koke'e Museum and we eat lunch next to the Kalalau Valley and one of the most breathtaking views that I've ever seen. When we first got up there, the clouds were thick, but then they moved so you could see the view. 

Because of my stupid hurt toe, I did not complete the hike. They all came back super muddy!!

Day 12 - Salt Ponds, Glass Beach, Spouting Horn, and the Trash Conglomerate

Another day dedicated to animals! Minimal plants and geology. Here is our first stop - the Salt Ponds. 

 

Here is where we collected critters. The water was really rough so we stayed closer to shore. We found a lot of critters. We even found a stone fish. Yep. The critters were all over. We found an eel too. Very cool!!

So now some geology. We stopped at a black-ish sand beach. We really stopped there for the glass beach part. Good ol' humans used to dump trash in the ocean and now that glass has broken up and has become a glass-sand beach. 

Spouting horn was not too spouty, but we saw about 5-6 Sea Turtles and 2 Hawaiian Monk Seals. The seal that I saw was hanging out bear the rocks in the water. 

Here is the sortof spouting horn. It has definitely spouted more in the past. 

A quick stop at the National Botanical Gardens to look at pretty plants.  

Plumeria-my favorite!!  I cannot wait for mine at home to bloom. 

Golden Shower Tree. 

Garbology time...this is a trash conglomerate. Again, humans dumping waste. But, here we are standing on it admiring the pillow lava and trash. Once again, we saw a lot of Sea Turtles swimming around.  

A little fun night out. Some students wanted to go eat at Duke's, so there must be a chaperone...or 3...right? Oh. And a big piece of Duke's Pie. Yummy!!