Hawaii, part 5

And then, we finally made it to Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park. This is a sacred place that was a place of refuge for defeated Hawaiian warriors and those sentenced to death for violating kapu, the code of conduct.

This sanctuary was protected by Lono, the God of Life, as the native Hawaiians believed. Once you made it here, no physical harm could be done to you.

There used to be several platforms built from rocks on which dances and songs were performed.

We can still see what life was like back in those days. Here is a hut for canoe making. They were very resourceful and used whatever they could find in nature.

Alright, let's go check out our next AirBnb. This is on the western part of Hawaii island. This property has several papaya trees growing. What a view!

I also stopped by a fruit stand and bought a cacao fruit. This is what chocolate is made from. Let's open it up and have a nice big bite of choc--

Wow, this is not what I expected at all. It's very fibrous, and white, and has a slightly sweet taste. A lot of work has to go into this before it turns into chocolate.

For breakfast, we had a scrumptious meal with fresh fruit from the backyard! Yes, there are banana trees here also! I've gained quite a few pounds on this trip.. but it's been worth it.

We highly recommend this place if you visit. It's called Hale Hoola: http://www.hale-hoola.com/

I've really enjoyed my time in Hawaii and I hoped you liked following along.

I'll leave you with a nice sunset view...

Hawaii, part 4

Hi there! Glad you could make it to the BIG ISLAND of HAWAII! We are staying at this cute little AirBnb on the island and --

"WELL HELLO THERE!" a familiar voice said.

"Let me guess. It's Droopy," I replied.

"Looks like we're booked at the same AirBnb! It's pretty cool and has a loft with ladder access," he said.

"Oh, that sounds beary cool!" I said.

Now let's take a ride out to the Hawaii Volcano National Park. There are a lot of steam vents on the way to the volcano like the ones you see here. Be careful when walking around! Some people have fallen in and gotten hurt, or worse...yikes.

Here we are at the Kīlauea Volcano viewpoint. Unfortunately, the volcano stopped erupting 3 days before we arrived, so there was no flowing lava to see either during the day nor at night. *sigh* But that's how it is with Mother Nature - we have no way of controlling it! This just means that we will have to come back again to see it in action.  😉

There also happened to be a hula performance going on in the park! We were lucky to see it.

Then, we drove around the southern part of the island and stopped at Black Sand Beach. Yep, the sand here is black alright!

The shores are made of black volcanic rock. Be careful! They are extremely sharp and feel like broken glass if you fall on them.

Hey, wait! I see something interesting over there. It looks like a few large smooth rocks... or is it?

They are actually Hawaiian green sea turtles! The Hawaiian name is honu and they symbolize wisdom and good luck. They are an endangered species. This part of the beach has been roped off to allow them to come onto shore and rest. Maybe they will lay eggs here.

He or she seems to be sleeping - how cute! I will have to tell Ooogie I saw some of his relatives.

Here is a cool shot from a different part of the beach.

We drove around some more and saw more beautiful scenic views!

Stay tuned for our last and final stop on this Hawaii trip!

Road Trip, Part 6 - Joshua Tree National Park

The next stop on our road trip is... JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK!

Now, if you follow my friend Little Fox, you'll notice that he also recently went to the same park. Maybe we drove past him during our trip. :)

A popular site in the park is Skull Rock. Oh boy, that sounds scary! I look a little scared in this photo, don't you think? But adventure requires us to be brave - we must soldier on!

I think it's just over the top of these boulders. Some scrambling is involved here...

And here it is, Skull Rock! Does it look like a skull to you? It's not so scary after all!

We drove through the rest of the park and saw lots of Joshua trees after which the park is named.

They are very prickly! Be careful you don't get too close. They are almost like porcupine pins.

I almost got poked by this one - yikes!

We've seen a lot of the desert recently on this trip. It'd be nice to get to some water or something...

Stay tuned for the last stop on our road trip...

Road Trip, Part 5 - Death Valley National Park

Hello everyone, we're back on the road! Our next stop is... DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK!

We drove and drove and drove and drove for what seemed like FOREVER. There was not another car on the road and all I could see was mountains and desert all around us.

Finally we drove into the park and made our first stop at Zabriskie Point. This viewpoint is named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company. There used to be a lot of borax mining in Death Valley.

You can see the different colors of the sediment layers here. It almost reminds me of ice cream with fudge caramel dripping down from the top... yum... ice cream would taste really good right now...

...I wonder where we can get some ice cream in this park --

"BOO!" It was Droopy (again).

"Stay hydrated, Droopy!" I said. "It can get very hot here."

Next, we headed to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America and the United States at 282 feet below sea level.

Phew, I'm getting thirsty. You did bring extra water with you, didn't you?

Oh, look! I found some water. But this water is not for drinking as it's steeped in salt. It really is bad water!

We got back in the nice air-conditioned car and headed to our next stop, Devil's Golf Course. These are a bunch of eroded salt formations on the basin.

Only the devil would want to play golf here apparently!

Our final stop within the park was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. Many people like to do sand surfing on these dunes!

What a fascinating park with breathtaking views! We will be back for sure, but we've got a couple other stops along this road trip to finish first...