Gouldhome, Hawaii, July 15

July 15

We had taken melatonin last night to try to reset our biological clocks. It seemed to work with the rest of the family, but I woke up at 4:20 and was ready to get up for the rest of the day, despite only 4 hours of sleep. Almost everyone else woke up at 5:30 because the birds like to sing in the morning - loudly. Since I was awake at 5:30 I decided to wander around the grounds, while waiting for the others to get up. I was at the barbeque area and ran into Harold and Kay taking a morning walk. It was nice to see them after so long. The last time our whole family saw one another was at Grandmother's funeral. It was nice to see people at a much happier gathering.

Today's plan was to go to Pololu Valley Lookout to take photos. We caravanned up with my brother and his family. The overlook was beautiful, but we wanted to hike down for an even better view. The valley was gorgeous with a black sand beach and crashing waves. There is a small stream winding its way down the valley. Past the valley are vertical cliffs, one right after another disappearing into the haze. On one cliff we could see three waterfalls coming off the top and falling to the ocean. It was quite beautiful.

Some of our group decided to hike all the way down, I didn't. Ben had banged up his knee falling down when he got off the plane and it started bothering him about 2/3 of the way. I stayed with him, as did my mom, Lori and Heather. The rest had taken off trotting down the hillside to see the waves close up. They were thinking of jumping in the water to cool off, but decided not to as the surf was quite strong.

Ben and I slowly made our way back up the hill. The heat was oppressive and the hike up the hill very steep. My son is very out of shape, so it got slower and slower as we got further up. We walked from shady spot to shady spot, never resting in the sun. Ben was losing hope of making it back and then we recognized the path as it got close to the top. Everyone had passed us by then and they had the air conditioners running in the car. We grabbed some Gatorade and chugged it.

Then it was down the road to Lydgate State Park. We ate our picnic lunch there under the shade of some trees.

After lunch we explored the grounds. Lydgate State Park is the ruins of an old Hawaiian village. This place was not nearly as nice as the overlook and extremely hot. It had very little shade and not much of interest to see but old walls made from lava rocks. But we dutifully took the tour. The highlight was when some of us walked into the ocean to cool off.

Damon's kids wanted to go to a beach. We were not planning on that so we went our separate ways. Our next stop was the Malama Petroglyph Trail. My dad elected not to go on another hot hike, so he stayed in the car's air conditioning. The rest of us took off. The first part of the trail was paved. At the end of the pavement was a set of petroglyphs that obviously had been placed there. They were the most beautiful of all we saw today, but not the same type as the glyphs farther on.

At this point we went into a forest with thorny trees. I thought it was a fun little hike, except for the extreme heat. The trees had sparse foliage, so the shade was not very deep. After .7 miles of hiking we got to the lava field. We were not allowed on the rock, so that we wouldn't hurt the glyphs. However there was a path all the way around. Occasionally there were places on the path that had rings of small rocks around them. Inside were single petroglyphs.

Our next stop was going to be Kiholo Bay. We got to the place to hike down at mile 81 on Highway 19 and it looked like a long way. Probably over a mile and hot and Ben's knee hurt and Dad didn't want another hot hike. So we decided to go snorkeling near our condo. Dad suggested Keauhou Bay.

The beach was rocky with some salt and pepper sand. Nothing to write home about. However the snorkeling was great. We saw several green sea turtles and a multitude of fish. I really wish I had a book of Hawaiian fish. I can recognize some of them, like the parrotfish, but the rest I can only tell their type. There were lots of angelfish, of all different types, but I couldn't actually name any one fish.

I had started feeling jet lagged at 3:30, not long after our petroglyph hike. After the snorkeling everyone else was zonked too (well not my mom and dad since they were already adjusted from their week on Maui).

Mom made some dinner for her and dad. I got to eat some too. Baked spring rolls, yum. Our family ordered pizza from Bianelli's. It was very good, but very different. I had only half a slice since I liked mom's spring rolls a lot. My family won't let me order vegetable pizza since I'm the only one that likes it, and the veggies that were in mom's spring rolls tasted so good.

We were quite tired and went to bed a little before 9pm.