Life is grand here in Hawaii!!!

Lily and Annika at the Energy Lab Beach with big waves crashing behind them.

The Energy Lab Beach is very close to the airport, so there are lots of low-flying planes overhead.  Henry was pretty amused.

Here's Gregory hurrying to the next place to have fun.  This beach was their second of the day - they went to a little in-town beach first thing on our first day in Hawaii, headed back to the rental house for naps, then came to this beach in the evening.

The most beautiful place for a coffee plantation.  Oh, my.  Such gorgeous views and luscious gardens.

Picnic at the End of the World!  This is South Point, the south-most point in the United States.  It was the nicest day we've ever seen at South Point.  The tide was out, the wind was less wild than usual, and we were able to get down on these rocks without being swept out to sea. 

Little girls at South Point

Looking out into the wide-open ocean.  There's just nothing out there for thousands of miles!

Lily showing that the black sand at Black Sand Beach is really and truly black.

Gregory's hand showing the very coarse texture of the black sand.  It is volcanic rock that exploded in these small particles when the hot lava flowed into the ocean.

The very lovely Lily, all wind-blown and humidity-curled. 

At the volcano, near the big crater.  The kids are standing in front of a steam vent, which billows out really, really hot steam.  You can't stand in the plume of it for more than a couple seconds because it's just too darned hot!!  The kids are wrapped up in towels because the high elevation, cloud cover, and strong wind made it pretty chilly up by the crater.

"Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

Here is Gregory in front of the crater.  The crater is actually the entire area behind him, and the depression you see in the distance is called a "caldera", which is a crater within the main crater.  The whole area up by the volcano steams and belches out fumes constantly.