Road to the Sea beach

With Thursday off, we decided to explore a new spot called Road to the Sea beach. To reach it, you have to drive about an hour south of Kona to the south end of the Big Island to the Ka'u district. You turn off the main highway onto a side road that isn't dirt or gravel, but basically broken up lava rock for six miles. My Xterra tackled it well, although I drove slowly enough that I wouldn't puncture a tire. When you reach the coast, there is a small beach with black and green sand. We spent the afternoon there with the dogs and there wasn't another single person the entire time. The wind was howling and the ocean was rough, as is often the case at the southern end of the Big Island. Amazing to think the next stop is Antartica, due south about 7,000 miles away.

my apartment in Hawaii

I finally have a new computer and digital camera so now that I am connected to the world I am starting a blog. I figured an entry should show where I live. Here is my apartment in Hawaii. Well, not the whole thing. I live in the bottom floor, which is a separate apartment from the house. In Hawaii it is called an "ohana" because ohana means family and the units were built for older children, in-laws, parents or other relatives to live in. But most people here rent them out to help pay the mortgage. This house is about ten minutes from town, at 1,500 feet elevation on the side of Hualalai mountain. There are all kinds of creatures around including roosters, turkeys, pigs, horses and some tropical birds. It rains more up here than in town, which makes it lush and green.

Christmas in Hawaii

Mele Kalikimaka! That means Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.

Celebrating Christmas in Hawaii was definitely a different kind of holiday experience. I'm so used to temperatures in the 20s and 30s, but here it was in the 80s, as usual. It was also hard to be 5,000 miles from family and friends. But we had a good day. I was able to have one of my lifelong dreams come true — a palm tree with lights on it as my Christmas tree. We had a pine tree also. After we woke up, exchanged presents and enjoyed a large breakfast, me, Peggy and our friend Julie went to Pine Trees surf spot for the entire afternoon. I surfed as they laid on the beach. We drank Christmas champagne on the beach and said hello to other friends there. Hope everyone else had a good holiday.