Day 12 . Adventure Day!

We set off early to explore! And explore, we did...

Up in the hills...

We stopped at The Coffee Shack to grab breakfast on our way south. We almost took it to go, but changed to grabbing a table at the last second. I'm so glad we did, because when we walked around the little walkway to the dining room, this was the view!

This was our table. Are you kidding me?!

The kids - Parks enjoying his cinnamon roll and Evie enjoying her breakfast bowl of rice. She insisted on it.

 

 And the entertainment of the restaurant. Geckos abound and like to eat their breakfast next to yours, which makes for two very happy kids. 

South Point

 

 From here we trekked down to South Point. The Southern most point in the USA!

 Standing on the edge of the world and hanging on for dear life in the wind. Because while there were a lot of cliff jumpers, we did not want to join them.

 

 

 Papalokea (Green Sand Beach)

From South point we headed across to Green Sand Beach. Green Sand is quite the haul. It is a difficult hour and a half hike through the desert and with two young kids, we were told it would take hours, especially in the 95 degrees. So, like the good parents we are, we hitched a ride with a colorful local who was quite questionable, spoke pidgin and swore like a sailor. He packed ten of us in his Mazda 3000 truck and when we went to shut the tailgate, it fell off. No joke. It took 30 minutes to drive to the beach and there were parts of the road that seemed difficult to even hike, let a long drive it in a packed truck. Good times! Family memories?

 There are only four green sand beaches in the world, the others are in Guam, The Galapagos Islands, and Norway. We figured we better not miss this one. This one is made from the gem olivine when the lava flow came down and created the olivine. The whole thing sparkles. It's pretty beautiful.

 When we arrive, there was more adventure awaiting us to get down to the beach.

 From Green Sand we had the bumpy ride back with our crazy driver. Then we set off for Black Sand Beach. Because green sand and black sand right in a row? Yes, please!

Coffee Stop

Pit stop at the Southern most coffee shop in the US!

 The grounds were beautiful, the coffee hit the spot, and we ate the most delicious pastries since we've been here.

 Then, the coffee shop owner told me to walk next door to go through their orchid farm. It was amazing! And one of my favorite experiences of this trip - so unassuming and it turned into such a perfect little refreshing stop.

From here we headed to Black Sand Beach.  

And saw some sites along the way.

 

Punalu'u (Black Sand Beach)

The perfect last beach of the day. I've seen a few black sand beaches before, and they never cease to amaze me.

 This beach is known for it's "authentic" black sand - created when the lava flow came down and hit the cold water and exploded into tiny nuggets. 

 We spent the evening turtle watching and castle building. 

I had to get a picture of this. When I took off my sandals, I still had a little green sand in my sandals with black sand on the bottom. 

Zebra!

During the hour and a half drive home we happened upon a zebra. In Hawaii. Naturally, we had to stop and say hi.

 Penny!

And it's all fun and games until you accidentally swallow a penny on the way home. Luckily she has a sweet brother who distracted her with jokes and held her hand the rest of the drive home.

Day 11 . Down day

After all the late night excitement of night diving, we had a down day. During our "down day" we walked over to our beach early in the morning to catch the elusive turtles eating breakfast, then we swam in our pool with coffee in hand. We stocked up at the Farmer's Market, ate lunch at the Brewery, and hit up a little kids fair at the picturesque church down the road.

It's like the mothership, calling him home.

Day 10 . Makalawena Beach and NIGHT DIVING!

Another day, another picturesque beach. We really had to work for this one though. A forty minute hike through the lava fields (HOT! and OUCH!), across a few bays, down through some bee colonies, and onto the most beautiful beach possible, all to ourselves. Well, us and a couple of wild roosters and some friendly turtles.

 The beginning of the trail - misleading in it's ease ;)

 An old, abandoned homestead along the way. This entire piece of land once belonged to a prominent Hawaiian family.

 First Beach.

 Second Beach.

 Third Beach.

 Fourth Beach. This was the last beach before our coveted, quiet little cove.

 Evie gets intimidated by the waves sometimes. Then she gets her courage up and quietly slips into the water all by herself and swims way out past where she can touch and goes back and forth, further out and back to the shore. It's the sweetest thing to watch.

 Fifth beach. A cove to ourselves.

 Rooster with a view! I loved this little guy.

 And Evie, always the animal tamer, had him literally eating out of her hand by the afternoon.

 We hiked back, showered off and immediately turned around to run down to the harbor to go out NIGHT DIVING WITH THE MANTA RAYS! This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The kids did AWESOME. We went out on a boat ride, waited for the sun to set, donned our wet suits and jumped into the pitch black water and waited for the Mantas to come. They ranged from 5 feet wide to 10 feet wide. We floated out in the water with lights shining down to the coral below, which attracts the krill the mantas like to feed on. The come in swooping, silently and then do aerials and acrobatics, eating and brushing up against you and barely skimming the water between you. We loved it. The kids loved it. I have some SERIOUSLY brave kids.

Seriously beautiful.