Sunday Praise

Hawaii Day's 6, 7 and 8

Here I am again, giving you my once a week share on my vacation.  Don't you all love pretty pictures?  Because that is what I have for you again today.

On Saturday our 6th day on Hawaii we started our day out visiting two farmers markets.  We bought some wonderful fruits and vegetables to add to our meals and some goodies to send back home, like honey, fruit butters and I bought some Alpaca wool that I am saving for a special project. The flowers for sale were beautiful!

I took a picture of this table because one of my husband's hobbies is woodworking and I knew he would be interested to see how these woods looked finished.

After shopping at the farmers markets we had a picnic at Lahuipua'a Kaaiopio Ponds.  You can read about these large fish ponds here.  We walked all around them and saw some beautiful fish.  The plants and trees surrounding the ponds also had markers and I think I took a picture of all of them but will not add those here.

Just on the other side of the sea wall that divides the ponds from the ocean these turtles were sunning themselves.

We were standing on a dock above where they were laying on the rocks below.

We finished our 6th day at a high school graduation for the granddaughter of the lady that invited us to vacation with her.  It was a huge graduation and so different than here.  There were fireworks at the end and all the graduates received lei's of some form until they were up to their chins with them after the ceremony.   

Our 7th day was Sunday and we attended church with our friends and went the the graduates open house, it was a very restful day.

Day 8!  Our trip to Southpoint and everything in between.  First off I want to give our friend credit for taking us on our tour this day because it was Memorial Day Monday.  This trip was down the East side of the Island from the Kona area to the most Southern tip.

First stop was Kealakekua Bay where the Captain Cook Monument is.

Next stop was at the Kahikolu Congregational Church. Kahikolu means "three in one" in the Hawaiian language which refers to the Holy Trinity in the Christian faith. The church is one of only two stone churches from the 19th century.

 Henry Opukamaia, the Hawaiian who inspired the first missionaries has a historic marker at this location.

Our next stop was Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, National Park, "The City of Refuge".  I have just added a couple pictures here of this stop.  There is a lot of history to learn here with many sites to see where the Royal Grounds were and the Place of Refuge on the other side of a stone wall built in 1550 that still stands.

Next stop was Saint Benedict's Painted Church in Honaunau which is still an active parish.

 I really enjoyed this stop.  The church was lovely inside and out.  It was erected in 1899 by Father John Velghe who used house paint on ordinary wood to beautify the church, using the pictures to teach the Hawaiians that could not read.

We also walked through this lovely old cemetery finding out when we got to the top of the hill we were not supposed to be doing so.

Last stop of the day:

 South Point "Ka Lae" "The Point".  This is the most southern point of the United States of America.

Can you see the diver in the photo above?  There were a few brave souls diving off this wooden decking that you see in the bottom right corner of the picture below.

I know this has been a long post thank you for you patience.  I think I may be able to finish off my sharing next week in a couple more post.

Blessings from our home in the woods.

Brenda

Sunday Praise

Hope you have a glorious Sunday!

More on Hawaii

I did not mean to drag out my vacation photos so long.  I meant to share them within one weeks time.  But I have been gardening and working full days so when I sit down and think about writing a post my mind just says no, and I  just want to sit here and browse all my friends blogs.

I am picking back up on the second half of day four.  Day four was one of our longest day site seeing so it will not take as many posts to share the rest of our days.  After taking a lunch break we were off and running again.  Next stop was Rainbow Falls which is in Wailuku River State Park.  Rainbow Falls is 80 feet tall and falls over a natural lava cave.

This next photo was the steps up to the overlook of the falls.

Because I bought a small booklet of Flowers of Hawai'i I am able to give you names of most of the plants we saw and took pictures of.  This one is a Rainbow Heliconia. 

This is a Banana tree flower with some baby bananas.

Our next stop was the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut farm.  We were able to watch the processing of the nuts and taste the different flavors that they had for sale in the store.  Of course we all bought some to send home.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was the next stop.  I so wish I would have taken a picture of the young park ranger that was giving a talk when we got there.  He was so fun.  He gave us so much history and was so animated the whole time he was talking.  His talk was the favorite part of the day for me.  The next picture is a steam vent.  The temperature dropped a lot as the elevation climbed and when we stopped at the stem vents my friends went over for the warmth so I stopped to take a picture of them.  

My turn!  As soon as I walked up my glasses steamed up and I could not see a thing.

The rest of the days pictures are some my best friend took.  My battery had died on my camera so she is sharing her pictures with me and I with you!  This picture is Kilauea Caldera taken from a lookout just outside the Jaggar Museum. It is the most active of the five volcanoes but unless you are there after dark you cannot see much activity.

Our next stop was the Thurston Lava Tube (Nahuku).  It is a 500 year old lava tub which we walked from one end and out the other. We walked through a beautiful rain forest around it back to our car.  This it the entrance in the next picture.

This picture was taken inside the tube.

Now we were all getting tired and hungry but decide to stop at PunaLu Beach to see a black sands beach up close.  Happily there was a sea turtle resting on the beach when we stopped.

Shortly after the beach stop we found Shaka Restaurant "The Most Southern Bar in the USA" we had a great dinner and had one more stop to make before driving the 2 plus hours back to the house we were staying in.

You will wonder what is this picture?  Almost totally black?  Well it got dark on us and when we stopped at Mark Twain's Monkey Pod Tree our driver parked as close as possible and shined her lights on it.

 Yes that is it!  We all had a great laugh. Want to read about the tree?  You can here.  And that was the end of day four. Whew!  It was a long day and because it was a long day, day five was a much needed beach day at Hapuna Beach State Park.

This is what the roadside looked like in the area we were staying in.  Black lava rock with messages left along the road written out using  white coral.

The end of day five!

How are you enjoying the pictures along with a little history lesson?  I will give you some more next week.

I hope you are having a great week! Blessings from our home in the woods.

Brenda

Sunday Praise

This is my oldest granddaughter and my favorite song.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!



Many blessings from our home in the woods!

Brenda

Friday Night Sew-in Results

The results-there were none.  Got home late, started to transfer an embroidery pattern and my light box burnt out.  Sat in my happy chair to stitch and happily nodded off.  It's all good with me but just wanted to let anyone know that might be dropping in for my results that it was a big fat zero!  Have a great Saturday evening!  Blessings from our home in the woods.

Friday Night

I thought I would share some pictures of the flowers I have blooming in my flower boarder this week.

I have also been stitching some flowers.

I am stitching along with the Girls Own Stitching Club and this is the first block finished.  Tonight I am planning on transferring the current block and get it ready to stitch.

And since tonight is also Friday Night Sewing with Friends at Gone Stitchin', I am going to continue to work on this sampler I started earlier this week.

I had planned on working on some Farmers Wife's blocks but I worked late and am just to tired to work on those.  Hopefully next week I will catch up with those blocks and be able to share them with you.  I will also continue sharing some more on my trip to Hawaii the first of the this next week.

I hope you all have a great weekend and check out some of the Friday Night Blog party's that I am linking to tonight.

Blessings from our house in the woods.

Brenda