Puna Laii

Greg had met his dad in Hawaii during the week that we closed on our house in AK. Greg loves to vacation, infact he has multiple personalities. Greg on vacation and Greg in the real world. I love both of them. Greg in the real world finds any excuse to become Greg on vacation. While in Hawaii his dad took some pictures of the home we have there. So I am posting them. Here are a few things that I didn't know about Hawaii until recently.

1) The Big Island, Hawaii, consists of two totally different climates. Lush, green and absolutely breath-taking. The other climate is very, very dry and desert like. But within 20 minutes from where we bought you can have either climate.

2) There are signs all over for donkey's. Appartently there are wild donkeys. I wonder how wild they are? I got a good laugh everytime I saw the caution sign for them.

3) On top of Mount Kilolea (I am not sure of the spelling) is one of the world's largest telescopes. It looks like you are on the moon when you get to the top. I posted some pictures earlier of me by one of the telescopes. It kinda looks like the ball when you enter Epcot Center in DW. There is a little lake at the top that is very unusual. It snows at the top, but only stays for a little while. The sun melts any sort of water except this little lake. So what feeds it? It can't be something above it because you are on the top of the world. They say it is still water from the Ice Age that is keeping the lake around. Pretty cool.

4) The Ironman takes place on this island. They always have re-runs of it on TV and these people are amazing. I always have a tear or two after I watch it. It will be inspiring to take my kids to watch it one day.

5) There are "real" cowboys in Hawaii. All sorts of people that raise cattle and ride horses. I didn't realize this.

6) There are all sorts of legends linked to the Hawaiian people. The one that I love is about a king that wants to prove how tuff he is so he carries this huge bolder around everywhere he goes. There is a bolder on the side of the road claiming to be "the bolder". It has a sign there and everything. So FUNNY!

7) This is the only island that still has an active volcanoe. You can actually see the steam and lava flowing from it. Because of this, the island can still grow. Hawaii is the baby of all the islands.

It will be fun to bring the boys next year. My plan is to go and stay a month in the summer while Greg is working...so if you feel like you want to come and visit, let me know.


This flower is from the lemon/lime trees. Funny story. While we were there Greg was on the phone with Larry, his friend/buisness partner we bought the house with, and he told me to go and start pruning the fruit trees because the fruit was weighing the branches down. So I got the wheelbarrow and started picking the big fruit, which looked like overgrown limes. When I was just about to the last tree, with a full wheelbarrow, Greg was off the phone and said I had picked the wrong stuff. I picked the lemons that were going to be ripe soon. He wanted me to pick the fruit that was just starting to grow on the tree. Oops! Maybe he shouldn't have been on the phone!!

This is a poinsetta flower growing in the garden. Since the house is on the dryer side of the island we have no grass, just gardens. Thanks to Larry who loves to do this kind of stuff, the yard is very beautiful.

This is not the house...it is the view from the back yard. The house is in a gated community and one of the perks they offer is a horse stable. If you have horses you can board them here. Also there is a gym down in the building.

This is the lanai in the back of the house. It wraps around the whole back deck. Around the corner is a more private area that has an outdoor shower. That was fun.

This is the front of the house...and yes that awesome truck is ours. Someone that our realtor knew was selling everything he owned and leaving Hawaii. So we bargained with him and furnished the whole house, plus a truck, plus tools and gardening equipment and beach stuff. There is no way we could've purchased all the stuff we got for the price he basically "gave" it to us.