The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

"Aloha again everybody!  Still with us?  Mum took soooo many photos...  So here we are with another batch.  davidd, mum wants to know, did the geckos poop in the house much?  It would be kinda fun to have them around if they were clean.  We actually didn't think about the menehune when Aloalo's garland disappeared, but maybe you're right cos I might have found their doorway..."


"This isn't it... this is the entrance road to the retreat center.  The trees have been there since the hurricane."



"This is what some of the roads are like in south Puna.  Isn't it wonderful?"



"Mum and the retreat people visited a sort of commune-y place in Puna, and we met this little cherub."



"This place is called Mermaid Ponds...  There weren't any mermaids cos the surf was pretty big and rough.  Definitely no swimming.  Here we are through a salty lens in the gale."



"Found at Mermaid Ponds.  Mum thinks it's part of a honu shell...?"



"These flowers were falling as we walked through the enormous hala grove.  Mum hasn't found out what they are.  Can we stump davidd this time...??"



"A couple more pix of the magic garden at night..."



"...we listened to mum's camera going beepbeepclick out there until we fell asleep."



"He's the right size to be our friend..."



"And here we are at the top of Kahuna Falls, which you can only get to down a VERY steep secret path.  The bottom part of the falls is about 400 feet high.  Mum was in this very gorge, on the other side, last time she was in Hawaii.  She took a picture of it, and never would've guessed she would find herself there all these years later.  Wow eh??"



"Back in the magic garden, this was where we were going to shoot before Alo lost her kupe'e the other day."






"See, mum?  If we lived here you could have all your orchids outside, all year..."



"It's a mini cymbidium.  Aren't they pretty?"









"We love it here.  PLEASE can we stay???"



"Is this how the menehune get into the garden?  How big are they, anyway...?"

"...wait... what if it was originally supposed to be mini hune? What if we're related????"



"Mum and the retreat people met a kahuna and went to a sacred site on Mauna Loa.  It was a beautiful clear day.  Here's a view over to Mauna Kea on our way up."






"It was sooooo COLD, about 5C with the wind chill.  Everybody froze and we didn't get pictures outside.  Then it was too bumpy and our driver was going too fast for a decent picture on the way down.  We wanted a picture at the sacred crater but mum was afraid we'd blow in..."



"Whoa.... waitaminute... I'm getting dizzy...."



"On another day, mum and the retreat people visited Leilani Estates, which got half destroyed by lava last spring.  Mum watched the daily updates all through the eruption.  She found it quite surreal to actually be there.  This is 180-foot high Fissure 8, the monster itself, from the end of the road.  On google street view, mum found where we were.  There was a green-bordered road and more subdivision down there.  Some people have moved back and Pele is sleeping again for now, but the vents are still steaming."



"You know, mum wants to stay here as much as we do.  We need to work on this thing..."
"I know."