Aloooooha!

 
It is warm and beautiful in Hawaii!  The girls had not been here since they were toddlers and had no memories of it.  So, we made many of them on the Big Island, from hiking to Akaka Falls and Volcanoes National Park to snorkling in Kealakekua Bay.  Check out our album.

Here are some things we learned about Hawaii:

* Hawaiian is a fascinating language.  It has only twelve letters (a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m n, p. w) and an okina (which is symbol to pause).  To pronounce words correctly, you have to slow down and pronounce EV-ER-Y SYL-LA-BLE.  If you really want to challenge yourself, try pronouncing the name of Hawaii's state fish: humuhumunukunuku'āpua'a.  Yeah, go ahead and try again.  It means "fish with a pig's nose."  Or you could just call it a Triggerfish.

* The Big Island is home to the world's largest astronomical observatory, Mauna Kea, with telescopes operated by astronomers from eleven countries. The combined light-gathering power of the telescopes on Mauna Kea is fifteen times greater than that of the Palomar telescope in California -- for many years the world's largest -- and sixty times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.  We had a nice chat with the lady at the Visitor's Center in Waimea but you can actually tour the observatory located at 14,000 feet (which we didn't do this time).

* One of First Lady Barbara Bush's finest acts was to advocate for the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the single largest conservation area in the United States, and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.  It encompasses 139,797 square miles of the Pacific Ocean (105,564 square nautical miles) - an area larger than all the country's national parks combined.  We stumbled upon the Education Center in Hilo (while on the hunt for fresh sugar cane which, sadly, we did not find).

* Notwithstanding the Bush Administration's contributions to Hawaii, the people love their hometown hero, Barak.  There are a lot of Obama bobble-heads stocked on the shelves.

Oh, it wasn't all so educational.  We did a lot of lounging at the pool and chatting.  We amended the rules for pre-dinner desserts, which you can read about on our dessert blog.  And here, you can eavesdrop on one of our breakfast conversations:


We had bunches of fun and hope to go back soon.  Happy Spring Break!