Traveling to the other side

Before we left Kona to head to the other side of the island, we went back to Matthew’s favorite beach, Magic Sands Beach. The waves were huge and there were lots of people there. The boys actually walked out with their boogie boards, but thought better of that and brought them back in. Body surfing seemed a little safer. They had some fun until Dave cut his foot on a rock. It was pretty bloody. He tried to put pressure on it, but every time he stood up, it would start gushing. Luckily, I had a swim diaper with me. I wrapped it around his foot for a makeshift bandage to get him to the car.  I wish I had taken a picture. He looked so cute! 

The Kona side of the island is full of volcanic rock - just rock fields everywhere. I didn’t think to take a picture because it wasn’t exactly great scenery. But, it was interesting to drive across the Island. It only took a couple hours, but we passed out of the volcanic rock to a desert with cacti to a rainforest. It was amazing the difference. 

We stopped at the very popular, Akaka Falls. It was raining on us, but the flora was so incredible. 











We went into town to shop a little and stopped at the candy store - yum yum!! 

We checked into our new digs. It was 2 miles up a windy road. We stayed in the first floor of a farm house. The family there had two boys, ages 4 and 6. They had goats, chickens and cows. It also had a waterfall on the property. Charlie and Matthew really loved the animals. They fed the goats banana peels every morning. 

We played in the waterfall. It was a little slippery and a little cold, but it was neat. The kids wanted to find a way to jump in but we could not figure out how to get to the top. One day, Dave took the kids downstream for awhile to explore. I stayed at the house with Charlie (blogging actually). It was funny because Zack came home saying he quit when he was going to have to get all the way in, Matthew came home when he was going to have to wade through a lot of yuck debris. And then Alex came home when he got bored. Finally, Dave and Rachel made it back. 

The kids in the family, Lucas and Logan, were interesting. They had a lot of freedom. The younger one would come in our house and turn on the TV. Usually my kids were ok with that, but it was weird. One day the older kid was leading Charlie around the property with his box cutter in his hand. He was slashing at weeds. The mom came looking for the younger kid and went to check the flowing river for him  - turns out he was in our house. Then, they bought some fireworks. The older kid had stink bombs and was setting them off everywhere. It was so nasty. They had sparklers and the younger kid was chasing his brother with one. He eventually threw it at him, but luckily missed. The day before we left, apparently the younger boy slashed the older one in the leg with a machete - on purpose. He had to get 7 stitches. Quite a pair!