July 31st

Hey boys,

After our late start today, we went to Ahihi first. It was good weather. The water felt cold as we first got in, then I promptly lost my footing and got acclimated to the water real quick! It wasn't too bad. We saw parrotfish, a turtle (Mema saw 2 turtles), the Humuhumu'ele'ele, goatfish, trumpet fish, and others I can't name at the moment. No eels today. Back on shore, several other people mentioned seeing some rays but we never saw any. There was some sun out on the bay so I took a few pictures with my underwater camera. I'm trying to take pictures only when the sun is shining into the water so they are good pictures.

After Ahihi, we drove down to La Perouse Bay. If you remember, we walked across the lava bed a little ways to a beach where you boys and Mema played for a bit. On the way to that beach, there's a place where the waves come up through the lava. A lady and her daughter were posing for a picture when a particularly big wave came through and drenched them both. They were laughing about it, thank goodness.

If you take the trail on past the beach, there's more to see. We followed the trail as it wound through trees and beach and rocks. There were a lot of goats wandering around that belonged to the big ranch on this side of the island. I can't remember the whole name, Ulu......something. When we got a ways around the bay, Dad and Grandad snorkeled for awhile. Mema and I stayed on shore in the shade and talked. As expected, the afternoon tradewinds got up quite a bit while we were out there. We have some good pictures and video to show you.

Next up was lunch at Cheeseburger-Island Style at Wailea. It was very good. Justin, I had a banana smoothie and you would have loved it!

We drove back down to Big Beach and played a little in the water. By this time, there was no wind at all, that was strange. It rained on us some at the beach.

After we came back to the condo and cleaned up, we went to Shaka Pizza for dinner. I couldn't believe it-we didn't see any geckos! Maybe next time.

Well, guys, I love you. It will be Sunday night (my time, you can read the post on Monday morning) before I get a chance to write again. I'm not taking the laptop to Molokai tomorrow but I'll have lots to tell you when we get back. Take care of each other.

Love, Mom

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is his glory to overlook an offense." Proverbs 19:11