Mustang Saga

I'm having trouble blogging, so this won't be ordered nicely like I wanted. Here's my parents' house where we're staying:





Here's a big huge black fly who considers himself quite the lady's man. He follows Katia around everywhere, and will even hang out and stare at her from outside the window when all the doors are closed. He decided to follow me when we went for a little walk. He is kinda cute, but it's a little disconcerting the way he hovers around staring at girls.

Let me tell you about VOG. It is like smog, but it comes from a volcano. I was having a heck of a time breathing yesterday. It was spewing 1700 tons of crap into the air yesterday, and it was blowing directly to us. Luckily we were headed to Hilo so we got to leave the nastiness behind.

Normally with this view you can see endless miles of ocean way down below, and SouthPoint with all its windmills.

Here's where it all came from:

We went to see the volcano in the dark, and it was kinda neat. You could see this red glow, and hear it making noise, almost like the earth was breathing. Then some idiot farted, my whole group dissolved into uncontrollable giggling, and you couldn't hear much from the volcano. There was one more big rumble and then the glow dimmed and we left because nobody could stop laughing. Turns out it wasn't one of us who farted, which I guess is a good thing...

Here's how people get their water in this area:

It holds 24,000 gallons. Water is collected from any rainfall on the roof and the pipes take it into the container. Not much rain falls here though, so I think they have most of it delivered. The backhoe is there to help the guys who are building the garage.

The day before yesterday we went to what my mom calls the City of Refuge, but it's officially called Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park. It's an old native Hawaiian settlement and sacred area. It has a bunch of buildings thatched with Ti leaves, and ponds where they raised fish, lots of tiki guys all over the place, and well, it was just cool. I forgot my camera in the car! I was not going to hike back out there and get it in the heat. After we got hot almost to the point of passing out, we went to the beach right beside it and swam for a long time. I saw another eel. Katia went snorkeling for the first time and LOVED it. You should have seen her come back all glowing and babbling about all the fish she had seen.

Last but definitely not least, I won't be going horseback riding while we're here. I woke up yesterday and John asked me how much I really wanted that saddle I saw on eBay, and then started asking me more questions that showed he'd been seriously researching it online. He bought it for me! So check out my new Fred Hook saddle:

I can't wait to get home and try it on him! Cross your fingers for me, I really hope it fits! If it doesn't I'm going to be heartbroken, I love that saddle.

I think I'll go have some nice fresh papaya for breakfast. Oh yeah, we went to the Saturday Market in Hilo yesterday. It was crazy, but there was lots of good stuff for sale. I suggest not taking restless kids into the fruit and veggie area. The souvenir area is good for them though.