Photo Update!

I just synced my iPhone and I have lots of pictures from the last month to share. First is a picture from a few weekends ago when the Merrie Monarch Festival was going on in Hilo. It's an internationally recognized Hula festival where halaus (members of hula groups) from all the islands come together to perform. Before the festival the hula dancers go on kapu, which is a month of abstinence from drinking alcohol, eating sugar, and having sex. The idea is that this will allow the dancers to unify and pull their strengths together towards a common goal so that they will all be strong and pure when they take the stage. 

This is a halau from Hilo that had many members of all ages. They performed for nearly an hour as the sun set in the background. It was beautiful! Unfortunately the low lighting after their performance prevented me from getting any pictures of the dancers from the Marshall Islands or Tahiti. Their styles of hula were MUCH different than traditional Hawaiian hula. The Tahitian dancers wore elaborate costumes and danced in a very sexy style whereas Hawaiian hula usually references every day activities like planting crops or pulling kalo (a staple crop here that they pound to make poi).

Earlier this week we all went to the Lantern Festival at Waiakea Pond, which is walking distance from our house. The lighting of lanterns is a Japanese tradition done in remembrance of deceased family members. Lanterns are made and released one by one into the lake to drift across to the other side. It was especially beautiful because of the Japanese style arching bridges that this park is known for.

The small greenish lights are the lanterns. 

Last weekend our good friends from Alaska, Callie and Cary, came with us on a trip to Makalawena,  one of the most beautiful (and most remote!) beaches on the island. Here is Matthew four wheel driving the Jeep down the "road" which is made completely of rocks and is only accessible via extreme driving. SO MUCH FUN! 

Nearly there!! I jumped out of the car to get an action shot once the water was within sight.

Once we made it out of the woods, we drove right along the coast along this mix of crushed lava rock and coral. Beautiful, isn't it? 

Here are Callie and Cary playing in the water at Makalawena. The sand here is unreal; it is the most soft and fine that I've run across so far on the Big Island.

On Sunday Sydney and I went to a beach right here in Hilo, Brown's Beach. It's about 15 minutes out of town and accessible by a path squeezed between some houses. I had never been before so I really enjoyed it. The water was shallow but there was a surprising amount of sand (for Hilo). See the white building amongst the trees? That's Sydney's work!! I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but she works at an oyster hatchery. Then if you look to the right, above the girls in the water, you can see Hilo Town! That's the portion of downtown Hilo that is right on the oceanfront. I liked this beach spot a lot because of the view back towards town. 

Brian picked Sydney and I up from Brown's Beach and took us to the zoo for a few hours. I got this awesome shot of a PINK pineapple!! I hadn't seen one before but Brian had and he said that they are not nearly as juicy and sweet as the golden or white varieties. Neat though, right? 
As we were leaving the zoo, we ran into this peacock displaying his feathers! I had never seen this up close and personal so I really enjoyed it. The peacock was actually shaking his feathers and slowly spinning around in circles. From the back you can see brown feathers and soft downy feathers as well. 

In this picture the peahens had just started to get interested. It didn't amount to anything though. They ended up disappearing before he had even finished his show.

:)

Sydney and I in front of a pond with lotus blossoms. What a fun day!