The shawl I started in Hawaii out of Koigu is off the needles and blocked – the pattern’s even in pretty good shape too. It’ll be ready soon. It didn’t use 2 skeins of Koigu as I’d hoped, but I’m happy with the size using 3 skeins – it’s closer to a full size shawl, 23 inches deep and 63 inches across the top. And it has a summery surprise in the stitch pattern!

It still needs a name though.

And since that shawl’s finally off the needles, I’m back on board with my Honeybee lace cardigan. It’s almost done, just the collar to go. Then I have to find some buttons, hmmm.

Monday we drove the northern route to get to Volcanoes National Park – it was a long drive (about 4 hours), but the scenery was interesting. There’s lots of different types of landscapes on the island, from lava fields:

To almost southwestern tribble-looking plants:

To lush green rainforest and jungle.

(Akaka Falls)

Unfortunately, it was super rainy, cloudy, and cold, and once we got to the actual park we realized that we couldn’t really see much of anything! Plus, the main short route around the caldera is closed because of new volcanic activity.

You can just make out the rim of the caldera there. I could process the photo and bring it out more, but really, that’s what I saw. We decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road a little ways before turning back, and it delivered – there were some pretty big craters!

On Wednesday we took the Atlantis submarine tour, which goes 100ft down to the ocean floor. Photo taking is hard because the water filters out colours and makes everything blue and grey!

That was pretty much it for activities, for me – one of my sisters and my mom went on a snorkel tour, but I wasn’t too into it. Other than that, I did visit another coffee plantation and bought loads of Kona coffee, shopped for clothes, and lounged about.

Fun time in Hawaii, although it’s rather far away – the trip home was over 20 hours thanks to an 8-hour layover at Honolulu airport. And lugging 8 pounds of coffee in my luggage kinda sucked.

But apparently the next trip is already booked!

On Tuesday we went to the Hanalei farmer’s market, which was awesome!

I bought some local goat cheese, some spices, a really good little low-acid white pineapple, and some local honey to take home.

My sisters bought chocolate dipped frozen bananas! Yummy.

Near the end of our time in Kaua’i we…took a trip to Costco. Didn’t buy much, which was good considering that we were leaving! Then a stop by the Waimea Falls on the way home, which are apparently the falls from the opening of Fantasy Island?

(I was having fun taking photos at various shutter speeds. This is relatively low, so the water is blurry. I like it!)

We did a little more shopping in Hanalei, and briefly checked out the Kilauea Lighthouse from afar – couldn’t be bothered to actually go through the wildlife refuge and such!

And I made my mark on an autograph tree.

We haven’t seen much of the Big Island yet, but it definitely has a really different landscape from Kaua’i! Lava fields and such. I haven’t taken many photos yet, but we can see the ocean from our window and it’s really quite nice.

Today we’re headed out to the national volcanoes park – should be interesting, but it’s a 3-hour drive which I’m not that into!

Kaua’i is beautiful. And a big change from O’ahu, which is the most developed island and full of tall buildings! There aren’t any tall buildings on Kaua’i, apparently because there’s a law that says that no building can be taller than a coconut tree!

We flew on Hawaiian Airlines, which was fine and super short – about 30 minutes total. Then we picked up our rental car and headed for the resort. There’s just one highway that goes around the perimeter of the island, where all the towns are – the interior of the island remains all rainforest and jungle.

We got to the resort a little too early to check in, so we took a drive up to Hanalei, where there’s this little shopping plaza. I found a cute bamboo jersey dress and the yarn store!

Strings and Things is half music store and half yarn store! They did have a little bit of locally dyed yarn, but otherwise a mostly mainstream selection. I do wish I’d looked for that yarn store in Honolulu that had Japanese stuff, but oh well.

Sunday we went for a drive up the coast and stopped at a couple of beaches for pictures and a little bit of walking along the water line. I’m a little freaked out about swimming in the ocean here because Kaua’i is known for rougher waters, a strong undertow and riptide. There was even a handout at the resort on “How to survive a riptide”. Yikes.

Hanalei Bay was rated #1 beach in the world on some list – it does have a pretty awesome view!

Long travel – 5 hours from Toronto to Vancouver (which was delayed), the longest airport transfer ever between the domestic and international terminals, and then the 6 hour flight from Vancouver to Honolulu. No free movies or tv on that flight, either, which kinda sucked – but since we arrived in Hawaii at about 5am Toronto time, I was sleeping anyway!

We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki, and although the room my sister and I shared didn’t have as nice a view as my parents’, it was bigger! The view from above was ours (there was an obstructed mountain view towards the right)…

This one was the view from my parents’ room!

There was a huge pool, although it got pretty darn crowded in the morning.

Across the way right at the base of the hotel was the Royal Hawaiian plaza, filled with fancy shops and a pretty interesting food court. Coach, Ferrari (not the cars, but the apparel), Louis Vuitton, Tiffany…everything was there. I really liked how pretty much everything could be had in walking distance from the hotel! I know it’s pretty much a huge tourist trap, but sometimes that can be fun.

We had a fancy dinner at the “Top of Waikiki” restaurant which is a revolving dining room. They did have a vegetarian entree, a tomato gratin with fresh mozzarella and mushroom ragout.

The next day my youngest sister and I took a city bus to the Ala Moana Center, a huge open-air mall – the biggest in the world if the map is to be believed! It really was huge, but we didn’t do the whole thing since it was pretty much the usual stores. I did manage to zero in (by sheer luck) on a Hawaiian chain store with super cute clothes, Cinnamon Girl.

And that was pretty much it for our two days in Waikiki! Good things about the Sheraton: excellent location, nice bed, nice lanai (balcony), nice pool, really good shower, excellent air conditioning, free wifi in the lobby.

Not as good things: super overpriced food even in the casual cafe (but there was lots else to be had close by in the other mall), no free internet in the room, and since it’s a huge hotel, there’s just so many people! I did really like it though, and I would’ve liked to stay another day or two in Honolulu, at least to visit some other parts of the city.

Now we’re on Kaua’i, everything must be driven to, and it’s much quieter. No air conditioning, but a kitchen. Everything’s a trade off! I think it’ll be pretty quiet here. I’m hoping to get some knitting done!