The Kona airport waiting area near the gates is open on all four sides, but covered on top for when it rains. The planes pull up right outside the gates and are very loud when they arrive and leave. It’s nice to be outside while waiting for your plane, especially in such a humid, hot environment, but it’s not so nice to sit here watching a DVD on my laptop and having to smell the exhaust of jet fuel. Kinda ruins the tropical vibe for me.

On Saturday night Paul and I walked around the neighborhood we’re staying in for about four square blocks. We walked in the dark, and for at least half the walk it was pouring a hard, warm rain. The houses we saw were all beautiful, each with a view of the ocean, all two or three stories high, many with wide, full sized verandas running across their second floor. Paul thinks the average price for houses around there is around 600 grand. I’m sure many were worth more than that.

I also heard some strange frogs for the first time. They sounded like birds, a high, whistling, whooping, chirping sound. I didn’t even identify them as frogs – I had to ask Paul. They didn’t sound the way I’ve come to think of frogs as sounding. I wish I could have seen what they looked like. Paul says that there are many different kinds of frogs around here.

We drove up to Volcanoes National Park today and drove around the huge Kilauea caldera and the Kilauea Iki crater. Hot steam wafted up from many vents. It looks like the surface of Mars around there. We also went to the Place of Refuge, a native Hawaiian site, and saw some tikis and green sea turtles.

We stopped at the southernmost bar in the U.S., “Shakas”, and had dinner on the way back from Black Sand Beach – a place I didn’t want to leave.

I arrived back home today, very tired after a mostly sleepless, redeye flight. I'm in zombie mode, but it's been great to see the family again. I'd sure like to get us all over to Hawaii...