camping- hawaiian style

This weekend we had our first taste of the beach and had an authentic Hawaiian camping experience! I went with two other interns to the nearest beach (30 mins away) for a night of camping and cooking out yesterday and today. We went with three locals who work at the resort- they said knew all the best camping spots on this side of the island. We pitched 3 tents for everyone to sleep in and constructed a fire for our cooking. We spent most of yesterday walking the lava beach and exploring the lava rocks and small hills.

A lava rock beach!


The beach is home to many sea turtles and monk seals. We didn't see any seals but we saw quite a few sea turtles!

look closely and you can see the sea turtle!


The locals brought great bbq chicken, pork, and sausage that was grilled over the fire. This morning a few rock fish were caught from the ocean but we didn't stick around long enough to see them hit the flames. All in all we had a great time and are excited to see more of this diverse island.

well i'm here

I finally made it to Hawaii last night after nearly 24 hrs of travel. I had a horrible flight schedule and was exhausted and feeling pretty icky by the time I finally got here.

View of the Big Island from the plane:


The resort that I am working at is actually located inside Volcano National Park. The park sits at 4,000 feet making it a bit chilly up here! Today has been rainy ... I think we may actually be inside a cloud? I have a little furnished cottage with one of my good friends from school so we've been exploring the place all day together. The cottage looks very old from the outside but it's actually really nice inside. We even have a fireplace. We don't actually start work until Monday so we're hoping to go back down to the coast line this weekend if we can find a ride down the mountain.

Our little cottage:


Update on my other half-
AHOP left for NYC the same time that I left for Hawaii on Thursday morning. He is networking with people he met during his internship last summer and trying to make one last strong effort to land a job.

"new" sister Any!

Mom and I went to the airport today to welcome a new exchange student for the year. Any (Annie) is from Georgia in Eastern Europe. She has now been here 5 hours and has already learned to ride a bike, had her first tastes of peanut butter and ranch, and met about 30 people.

Other news-

I leave for my internship in Hawaii in exactly 2 weeks!

AHO's sister got accepted to the University of West Virginia so AHO and I will be going to WV for a few days next week to meet up with his parents and family.

AHO is still searching for jobs. Any help/hints/ideas..etc are welcome. He plans to stay with his friend in Rochester, NY after I leave for Hawaii and continue the job hunt until his visa expires October 4.