While it is a paradise, most people have to work just as hard out here to maintain living in an expensive environment with jacked up prices from the reliance on imported goods and tourism. When people come here for vacation and leave, the hustle and bustle of the locals continue until pau hana when they can go home and relax just like the rest of the world. People really know how to chill out here, better than anywhere else i've been. I like to call these "vacations on vacation".
Our crew likes to use vacation time to go camping. A much needed vacation on vacation took place Thursday when our crew had 2 days off for a camping trip over on Kona side.
As you can see, The Big Island is well, big. Ho'okena is almost 100 miles from our house.
My awesome man, Baxter, is an extremely hard worker who more than deserves some time off for fun stuff. Baxter works at a macadamia nut farm in lower Puna, sometimes two straight weeks in a row. On the days he has off he is usually catching up on chores around the house that need attention. Sad for us though my new job has been causing us to have oposite schedules lately. He leaves for work at 7:30am and I have been leaving the house around 5:00pm for work when he is just getting off work. When I get home around 10 or 11:00pm he is ready to call it quits for the day (am I married?). So as you can see this was a much needed trip for us to have some chore-free couples time at the beach with our friends. Baxter hasn't been on a vacation on vacation in over 5 months I think. Whew!
You know, I actually have a really nice camera but I always "forget" to bring it on trips on account the on/off button is clogged with sand and its just a hassle. Its a shame though, because we don't get the sunset on Hilo side, and all I have are these crappy phone pictures that in no way do it justice.
We didn't get there until around 6:00pm but it was still great. In the morning our buddy Reed went spearfishing and caught a couple tasty swimmers for breakfast, but somebody always gets injured on these trips and this was no exception. Though minor, Reed shaved off a good amount of finger skin in a spear mishap.
Also exciting...earthquake! Yup you're reading a blog post from a real earthquake survivor, you lucky duck. Okay but really, there was no damage as far as I know, but people were still excited about it and I won't pass up this attention getting/conversation starter. From my quick google searches it was possibly caused by activity within the newest forming island, Loihi. It was a 5.3er, enough for me to form an evacuation plan quickly in my head for whatever might be happening. My emergency evacuation plan would have been pretty much to run away, a stupidly ineffective plan I formulated in panic. My house is still standing on its cinder blocks though and i'm sitting here bragging about it. Success.
Wow, so many cool facts jam packed in these pictures. You're probably asking, "why Tori? Why post such scientific and confusing pictures? Did you take these picture yourself?" These are all great questions, and the answer to your first question is for educational purposes you dummy! The answer to your second inquiry is no, but for my credit I did find these by myself on google images.
Pretty much what is happening from what I understand is that the volcanic hotspot that created the Big Island is the same hotspot making Loihi active. I'm counting the days until it possibly emerges in 100,000 years, or doesn't.
Well that is about all I have as far as this post goes, here is a video with some dramatic narration if you are craving some suspenseful education.
