This is the view from Mauna Kea

Our home at the farm.

Hawaii

Aloha makamaka. This is going to be a long post, but it’s hard to describe a month in Hawaii in less than a page. I hope you’re comfortable because this one may take a while. Mahalo.

Hawaii is not as you would expect. I personally thought that it would look like it did in Hawaii Five-O, with roads lined with palm trees and glittering condos everywhere.  In truth the Big Island is not like that at all. The other islands such as Oahu are closer to that vision because they have finished forming. The Big Island on the other hand, can’t be developed as extensively due to the active volcanoes.

The Hawaiian Islands were formed over a period of more than 60 million years. There is a magma seep under the Pacific tectonic plate that is constantly pushing molten rock up and forming volcanoes. This seep is stationary, but the plate above it is progressively moving northwest at four inches per year. As the seep makes volcanoes across the plate, the islands will form around the volcanoes, and that is how the Hawaiian Islands were born. The cool thing is that the islands are still forming. The Big Island is getting bigger and bigger from the lava flows, and right next to the Big Island another island called Loihi is forming deep below the surface. Loihi probably won’t be visible for thousands of years.

Needless to say, when we arrived we did not stay in a glittering condo. We stayed in a tent on a farm with goats and sheep everywhere. After a while we got used to it, but at first it was hard.  We had a canopy tent about 15 feet tall at the peak, at the base it was about 10 feet by 20 feet. A canopy of tarps had been strapped to the front which expanded it a little bit and offered a place to eat.

See what I mean, it looks exactly like M and M

Before we even got to our home we had an adventure.  First we went to a black sand beach where we saw turtles crawling up the beach.  Then we went to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. BTW, they totally copied M and M with their logo.

The first few days of living in the tent were challenging. First of all we didn’t know where anything was, as is normal with new places. Second of all, my mom was sick, but she pushed through it and didn’t complain for our sake because she is such a wonderful mother.

There had been a bug going around my family so it wasn’t all that surprising when she got it.  Originally my aunt had it, and when she came to visit us in Sedona my mom and grandpa must have caught it because about twelve days later they felt awful. It took about a week until she felt better. While we were on the farm we took weekend excursions to explore Hawaii.

On our first weekend excursion we went up to Hilo. Originally we had been in Pahala, and there was not much in the way of food stores there. The first thing we did in Hilo was go to the farmers market because we really needed food. Afterward we went to the Queen Lili’uokalani botanical garden and saw a lot of banyan trees.

For anyone who hasn’t seen a banyan tree I will put in a picture. Banyan trees are really cool trees that look like a million tiny little trees fused together. There are also little roots hanging down from the branches. These are an adventitious root system. We heard that these grow on the tree to collect extra water. After the garden we

went to Coconut Island and found a great jumping spot where we got an awesome picture of me jumping.

We spent another week on the farm then took another vacation for Christmas. We went to two parties with our host Malian, and her friends. We also drove up Mauna Kea to see the telescopes and the view. Mauna Kea was amazing. The peak is 13,000 feet above sea level, so it was above the clouds. At the base it was raining, but as we climbed we broke through the clouds and were above them. It looked amazing to be above the clouds. I have only seen something like that before when I hiked Katahdin in Maine. We also saw several of the telescopes, which are a very controversial topic we need not go into.

The next day we visited two beaches. The first we didn’t stay at very long.  My parents went to check it out while I climbed a tree. It was a very strange tree. Climbing it was closer to walking on a balance beam than climbing a tree. The branches splayed out until they went horizontal to the ground and made it the easiest tree ever to climb.  Next we visited the black sand beach again and saw more turtles.

We spent another day at the farm, then went to a place called the Green Sand Beach. The Green Sand Beach takes its name from the distinct greenish hue derived from the olivine in it. Olivine is a silicate mineral containing iron and magnesium. Interestingly this is just an unrefined version of my birthstone, period. 

It was a four mile hike to get to the beach, but when we got there it was really cool. I tried to go snorkeling but the waves and the lack of anything remotely interesting quickly deterred me. When we were done we made the four mile hike back.

After the Green Sand Beach we left the farm to go explore more of the island. It may not look it on a map, but Hawaii is big. The cities are spread out so it isn’t just a hop skip and a jump anywhere. In fact the Big Island has more land mass than all of the other Hawaiian Islands combined.  Over half of this is attributed to Mauna Loa, the largest mountain landmass in the world.

The first place we went was Hilo, the sixth rainiest city in the U.S. We stayed a few nights at a place called Arnotts, and that’s when my dad and I got sick. It may seem kind of random that we got sick about two weeks after my mom, but that seemed to be the pattern. My mom got sick about two weeks after seeing my aunt, and we got sick about two weeks after she got it. What supports this even more is that my grandpa got sick about two weeks after coming to Sedona with us and my aunt, then my grandma got sick about a day before I did, two weeks after my grandpa. Anyway, it sucked.

For the first few days it felt like I had a fever and chills with a hacking cough. Then the fever abated leaving me coughing my guts up. We stayed at Arnotts through New Year’s Eve. During the day we went to another black sand beach and saw more turtles. The up side about being on a five hour time difference is that when it was midnight in Times Square it was seven at night here, so I could finally see the ball drop. Usually at midnight I am out like a light. At midnight for us some people started setting off fireworks right next to our window, which as one could imagine, made it hard to sleep, and I need my sleep. On any given day I get tired if I get less than nine hours of sleep. While I was sick I would get about ten hours at night and take a two to three hour nap during the day. That night I cried myself to sleep from sheer exhaustion.

After a restless night (six hours of sleep) we went to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The first night we stayed at a place called the Volcano Inn. We got in at about noon, and at one I promptly took a nap. At eight that night I woke up from my seven hour “nap”, watched TV for an hour, and went back to sleep. After ten more hours of sleep I woke up and felt absolutely no better. We left to go our next room. We had rented a cabin in a different part of volcano for a night, and I had absolutely no idea what it looked like.

When I saw it the first thing I said was, “It’s a freaking birdhouse.” It honestly was the exact same shape as a bird house. Not that that changed the fact that I went in and took a nap.

The next day we left Volcano National Park and went north. My uncle’s brother owned several cabins that he rented in Honoka’a. The cabins are on cliffs overlooking the ocean with an orchard right next to them so we had amazing views and all the fresh fruit we wanted.

We stayed for four days and went to a few places. First we hiked down a mile long road to a beach. With my cough walking was bad enough, but what made it even worse was that the road was at a 25% grade.  At the bottom the beach wasn’t all that exciting, just a sandy strip with sticks everywhere. From the beach we could see up the cliffs that the houses are situated on top of. Since this part of the island had been getting an abnormal amount of rain there were waterfalls cascading down the cliffs that looked amazing. Then we walked back up. When we reached the top I was panting and coughing like crazy. We went into town because we needed food, and on the way there we passed a shave ice stand. I got a snow cone the size of a small baby’s head, which made things a little better. 

A few days later we did another hike to another beach.  It was a trail instead of a road this time, but that didn’t make it any easier.  At the bottom we sat on the beach and looked out at the horizon. All of a sudden we saw whales breaching miles out in the water. We saw about seven jumps before they settled down. We walked back with my mom buzzing because she had always wanted to see whales.

Next we went to Waimea and stayed in a bed and breakfast for four more nights. While we were there we visited several beaches on the Gold Coast. At three of them we snorkeled and saw some amazing things. Out of all the fish we saw I had a few favorites. There was a fish that was about two feet long but only as thick as my thumb. There was another that was covered in about five different colors, seemingly spaced at random, that looked like a little like a kindergarten art project (or mine).  There were also schools of about a hundred tiny yellow fish that would swarm around eating things off the coral.

Originally we were supposed to fly out on the 11^th but our flight was delayed until 10 at night and eventually canceled. We stayed in a hotel for the night and flew into San Diego the next day. Now we are staying on a forty foot yacht in a marina before we go to Whistler.

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

It may seem like a step backwards from the Grand Canyon to go to a tiny slot canyon, but in my opinion the slot canyon was just as good if not better than the Grand Canyon.  The Grand Canyon was huge, but it didn’t have the same elegance that the slot canyon had.  The slot canyons were carved slower with less dramatic flash floods. In addition the wind carves with sand to smooth it out. The incredible shapes that the canyon forms are no less than otherworldly. Since I couldn’t do this place justice by talking about it I will have to use mostly pictures.

This was called the pirate

Our guide showed us how to get cool shots. This was
one of them. The rocks get better illuminated when
you turn on chrome.

Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona

The next day we went to Glen Canyon Dam. Glen Canyon Dam is blocking Lake Powel near the mouth of the Grand Canyon.  It is 16 feet shorter than the Hoover dam and produces the same amount of power (approximately 4.5 billion kilowatt hours annually).  For some reason the security around the Glen Canyon dam was more relaxed than it was around the Hoover. Maybe it was just that there were fewer tourists. When we were trying to get into Hoover our truck, camper, and Thules were searched.  When we were getting into Glen Canyon we just drove in and had a picnic on the front lawn.  There was no search or anything. There were as also surprisingly few tourists, we might have seen about 10 other people there. We spent about 20 minutes in the visitor’s center before our tour.  Before going into the dam we had to be checked for weapons and such. Before going through the metal detector we had to remove any metal objects. I personally only had a phone, but some people had metal on their boots, belts, earrings, hats, shirts, zippers, necklaces, and handbags. One woman was getting POed because she had a coat with metal, a belt with metal, and a bunch of other things.  When her belt buckle the size of a credit card got caught in the metal detector she was asked to remove her belt.  At this point she starts yelling at the guards “Well you’re practically asking me to strip down etc…” she had also been through the metal detector three times and I was trying not laugh.  After that we got to an elevator that took us down about 100 feet. We went out onto the dam and saw various exhibits about the turbines and cables used

in the dam. Apparently the turbines had just been replaced with stainless steel copies. Originally they were cast steel, and they had started to rust. Next we went on another elevator, this one going down about 500 feet, by this point my ears were popping like crazy.  Since the dam is so big it has several miles of hallways, in light of this all the workers ride three wheeled bikes to get around. At the bottom there is a two acre section

of grass over where the generators operate. Shockingly there aren’t many golfers working at the dam, it seems like the perfect place. We saw the eight turbines where the power is made and that pretty much ended the tour. My favorite part was the view from above. I could see the river and the sand bar stretching into the canyon.

Grand Canyon

Yes again. The Grand Canyon was just as I remembered it, just colder. There was a few inches of snow on the ground.  This time my grandparents and aunt were with us and we only stayed a few hours.  It went by really fast. Our itinerary was wake up a six and drive for two and a half hours. We took a helicopter ride (more on that later, it was awesome), did some sightseeing, then went to an old watch tower. The drive there was long and boring, like most drives, but when we got there it got more interesting. The entire reason we had to wake up so early was because we had a helicopter tour scheduled for early in the morning, and we were supposed to get there a half an hour early. We arrived on schedule and took off as planned. It was just me and my grandpa with a few other strangers. My aunt, mom, and grandma had no real interest in being 6000 feet in the air, and my dad gets sick in amusement parks. They missed out on something amazing. During lift off my knuckles turned white, but my mom said my face was completely lit up. It

felt like we were going in a & shape during liftoff, and it scared the living crud out of me.  We went for a few miles over forest, but at 90 miles an hour it passed by fast. My favorite part was when we reached the edge of the canyon and we dropped a little. It

wasn’t as dramatic as going into a nose dive, but suddenly we went from 50 feet in the air to 5000. Instantly after going over the edge my perspective changed completely. I wished my eyes were bigger to take in the view. At the beginning I was worried that the ride would be like an amusement park, constantly bumpy and swinging around, but it was as smooth as could be expected.  There was still the occasional drop that left my stomach about a foot above me which turned out to be pretty fun.  The part that scared me the most was the playlist. In between the

times our pilot was talking to us music was playing in our headphones. During takeoff the song “Ground Control to Major Tom” was playing. Seeing as that song is about an astronaut who cuts communications and goes into space I was a little worried because if our pilot decides to follow in his footsteps he will not float. The second song I recognized was “Hold Back the River”. This one seemed a little ironic since we were flying over one of the

strongest rivers in the world. The final song that I recognized was “Renegades”. This one wasn’t that scary, but at first I thought it was “Unsteady”, and that’s not the kind of news I want to hear from my pilot at 6000 feet.  Admittedly my anxiety may be coming from seeing so many helicopter scenes in James Bond movies. It retrospect it might not have been the best idea to watch “Spectre” right before the tour. The opening scene is with a helicopter. For anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about I will give a link to the video of the scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrT9uOd8MAg  When we made it back to the landing pad we got a few pictures with the helicopter and went to see the Grand Canyon from the ground.  Needless to

say the views were not as great on the ground. Having already been there for a week we had already seen all the sights. Personally I don’t see how my aunt and grandparents could do the Grand Canyon in a few hours. It took me a week and I still feel that I could have stayed for another week or two assuming that it warmed up.  It’s a little hard to camp in snow. I would have liked to whitewater raft the canyon, hike to the north rim, and stay at Phantom Ranch at the bottom. Honestly there are so many things I would have liked to do, so I plan to come back someday.  On our way out we stopped at an old watch tower. It was closed so we walked out to it and walked back.

Arcosanti

Even though we did Arcosanti the same day as Montezuma’s Castle I decided to do them as two posts because the blogger app doesn’t do long posts well. When I tried to post Yellowstone I thought the computer was going into cardiac arrest. In light of that I didn’t want to over exert it.  Arcosanti was designed to be an Arcology. An Arcology is designed to be a more sustainable city. The architect Palo Soleri believed that the modern cities were too spread out. Arcosanti was designed to house 5000 people on 25 acres of space. In perspective a modern housing facility will house 5000 on several hundred acres. This city was also designed to be self-sustaining. It grew its own food, made its own electricity, and supplied its own water. At least it would have if it worked. Now it houses about 60 people year round and supplies 10% of what it needs. The rest has to be bought. Their primary income source is bells. Yes you read right, bells. The people living there make bronze and ceramic bells that they sell to tourists. The original idea for the city was for it to be huge, unfortunately there wasn’t enough funding to complete it. The people who live there work there in exchange for rooms and food. There are several greenhouses along with about a dozen olive trees, so the jobs may be gardening or making the bells. A few years ago my parents went here and bought a ceramic one.

Montazuma's Castle

The first blog-worthy thing we did in Arizona was go to a place called Montezuma’s Castle.  The funny thing is that the castle wasn’t even a castle, and it isn’t related to Montezuma in any way.  I will talk about why it was named that later.

The Native Americans made this place when they settled in Arizona.  Originally they were migratory people who followed the herds of animals. Then for some reason they decided that they were done moving.  When they were migrating they built temporary pit houses instead of things like Montezuma’s Castle. These pit houses were easy to build, so they didn’t have to spend a lot of time on housing.  For any people who missed my post on Chimney Rock in which I talked about pit houses I will explain them again. Pit houses used the most “cutting edge” technology of the time. Their master design makes them cool during the summer and warm during the winter, (whatever winter there is in Arizona). They had a small entrance so larger predators couldn’t eat the inhabitants. There was enough sunlight shining through to work by during the day if they didn’t want to work in the blistering heat. Yes, the pit houses were truly a marvel of engineering. If anyone wants to know how to make a pit house I will include the step by step process below.

1.      Dig big hole

2.      Lay logs on big hole

3.      Cover logs with mud

4.      Enjoy

One of the most important things is the “door”.  The “door” is a hole in the roof that doubles as a chimney.  The Native Americans believed that smoke was beneficial, so climbing through the stuff was a good thing.  It was important to make the hole big enough to climb through but small enough that the heat won’t escape too quickly.

Back to talking about Montezuma’s Castle. It was situated about 50 feet up the cliff in an alcove. In fact it reminded me of balcony house in Mesa Verde.  If you missed that post click here.

I wouldn’t have liked to live in Montezuma’s castle. The windows were tiny, it was all mud which is so 2006, and it was in a cave, so there was awful reception. In addition it was so rural. Those more urban cliff dwellings have more benefits, and it is a shorter drive to work. I don’t know how the natives got suckered into buying this place.  I kind of got side tracked there, but seriously, it looked uncomfortable. The alcove it was in was about 20 feet deep, and since there was only five very small floors there was another dwelling about a quarter mile away. This one wasn’t as well preserved. The first dwelling was only about 10% redone; the other 90% was all original. The second was mostly ruins, probably because it was on a cliff side and not in the cover of an alcove.

It was called Montezuma’s castle by early American settlers who came to this area well after the Native Americans moved out, (more on why they moved later). The settlers assumed that the dwelling was made by Aztecs, hence the name Montezuma.  to find out who Montezuma is click here. They called it a castle because they thought that there was buried treasure, so they dynamited a wall to find a few empty pots and some dried corn. Now to why they moved out. Scientists have had many theories, but the most concrete one yet is, “because they did”. I always hate those answers. The worst “because it does” answers for me are on the five fundamental forces. In the beginning of the year I was always asking why. Why does gravity happen, why does electromagnetism work.  The only answer I have gotten is “because it does”.