Family time continued.....

A trip to Hawaii isn't complete without going to a Luau, which we did, twice. The first time it started out nice:


Then it began to rain, and the other patrons began to put on the same style of ponchos and we thought we had missed the memo:


Then our server made it to us with ponchos:


But the squall flooded everything out, filling our plates with water:


So they cancelled it and we returned a few days later for a delightful and dry, evening:




We made several morning jaunts out and about while leaving the kids with their grandparents. We went to the Olivine Pools, so named for the copious amounts of the semiprecious stone, olivine:


The sea was angry that day and we managed to get wet while staying a good distance away. Since the sea was angry the blow hole on the way to the pools was cooking pretty good:


The waves were huge! From this vantage point we all got drenched by a wave, we were surprised and amazed. We had be watching the waves for a while and none of us could run away fast enough!
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We took the opportunity to drive the Road to Hana and had a great day of it. We stopped at at Waianapanapa State Park to see the black sand beach:




We explored a lava tube:


We arrived to the Haleakala National Park Oheo Gulch where the Seven Sacred Pools are. We swam around the very very cold water and then hiked up to see a beautiful waterfall:




On Jill and Joel's last day we went to Le Perouse Bay to walk in the lava fields. Katherine and Cooper examine a very interesting rock:


Everyone examining a little critter:






We stayed on a while longer with Jim and Judy. We made it up to the I'oa Valley:


Justin found this stick that made us think of Cooper:


We snorkelled as much as the weather allowed and Katherine was always on the move with her bucket to play in the sand:


Katherine really took to the ocean on theis trip. Across the way from our new accomodations for the second week was this wall:


It surrounded a shallow pool that was perfect for the kids to play in. It turns out it was an ancient Hawaiian fish pond. This one was a royal pond and when the tide was high they would open the gates to let the fish in and when the tide would go out the would put up gates and then raise the fish. Pretty cool.