pinks

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

kaua'i shawl, blocked

The shawl I started in Hawaii out of Koigu is off the needles and blocked – the pattern’s even in pretty good shape too. It’ll be ready soon. It didn’t use 2 skeins of Koigu as I’d hoped, but I’m happy with the size using 3 skeins – it’s closer to a full size shawl, 23 inches deep and 63 inches across the top. And it has a summery surprise in the stitch pattern!

kaua'i shawl, blocked

It still needs a name though.

And since that shawl’s finally off the needles, I’m back on board with my Honeybee lace cardigan. It’s almost done, just the collar to go. Then I have to find some buttons, hmmm.

allllmost done

the big island

I’m home! But I’ve still got lots to catch you all up on from the trip – the whole last week on the Big Island.

Monday we drove the northern route to get to Volcanoes National Park – it was a long drive (about 4 hours), but the scenery was interesting. There’s lots of different types of landscapes on the island, from lava fields:

lava fields

To almost southwestern tribble-looking plants:

funky landscapes

To lush green rainforest and jungle.

Akaka Falls
(Akaka Falls)

Unfortunately, it was super rainy, cloudy, and cold, and once we got to the actual park we realized that we couldn’t really see much of anything! Plus, the main short route around the caldera is closed because of new volcanic activity.

kilauea caldera

You can just make out the rim of the caldera there. I could process the photo and bring it out more, but really, that’s what I saw. We decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road a little ways before turning back, and it delivered – there were some pretty big craters!

another crater

On Wednesday we took the Atlantis submarine tour, which goes 100ft down to the ocean floor. Photo taking is hard because the water filters out colours and makes everything blue and grey!

341.365 - fishy face

underwater

That was pretty much it for activities, for me – one of my sisters and my mom went on a snorkel tour, but I wasn’t too into it. Other than that, I did visit another coffee plantation and bought loads of Kona coffee, shopped for clothes, and lounged about.

Fun time in Hawaii, although it’s rather far away – the trip home was over 20 hours thanks to an 8-hour layover at Honolulu airport. And lugging 8 pounds of coffee in my luggage kinda sucked.

But apparently the next trip is already booked!

sunset on the Kona Coast

byebye kaua’i, hello big island!

I have to pay for internet here (booo, hiss) so I probably won’t be online much this week. But I wanted to check in!

On Tuesday we went to the Hanalei farmer’s market, which was awesome!

because people are impatient

I bought some local goat cheese, some spices, a really good little low-acid white pineapple, and some local honey to take home.

yummy cheese, honey, baked goods

My sisters bought chocolate dipped frozen bananas! Yummy.

chocolate dipped frozen bananas

Near the end of our time in Kaua’i we…took a trip to Costco. Didn’t buy much, which was good considering that we were leaving! Then a stop by the Waimea Falls on the way home, which are apparently the falls from the opening of Fantasy Island?

fun with slow shutters

(I was having fun taking photos at various shutter speeds. This is relatively low, so the water is blurry. I like it!)

We did a little more shopping in Hanalei, and briefly checked out the Kilauea Lighthouse from afar – couldn’t be bothered to actually go through the wildlife refuge and such!

Kilauea Lighthouse

And I made my mark on an autograph tree.

making my mark

We haven’t seen much of the Big Island yet, but it definitely has a really different landscape from Kaua’i! Lava fields and such. I haven’t taken many photos yet, but we can see the ocean from our window and it’s really quite nice.

kona coast

Today we’re headed out to the national volcanoes park – should be interesting, but it’s a 3-hour drive which I’m not that into!