The Price Family: We made it!!

As you probably noticed, we made it to Hawaii! We flew from SLC to LA then flew into Kona which is on the other side of the island of where we are staying. The farm manager bought us lunch at Tex, where we were introduced to our first malasada. It's like a donut scone mix with filling. Pretty much delicious in my belly and super healthy. BAHAHA. The first two nights we stayed with him. They lived right on the coast, but lived on a cliff. So we just watched the water. :) Every Tuesday night there's a big cruise ship that'll pass by all lit up. That was fun to see.

We are now staying in a different part of the island. Instead of being 85 degrees with 70% humidity, it rarely gets above 70 degrees, but the air is still wet. It rains every day. If it's not rainy, it's misting. It's definitely different than the tropical paradise people picture Hawaii to be. The managers wife called it the Ireland of Hawaii. Haha. But we are grateful for the managers here and their willingness to share their beautiful homes until they finalize our housing here.

Today Nate & I drove into Hilo to do some shopping. We went to Cost U Less, which is kind of a Sam's Club, and stocked up on things for lunches & such. We had fun cruising through Hilo and seeing some fun things. We are also learning that Google maps can SUCK! Haha. We stopped along the highway to see some awesome things. I would tell you, but that requires me to spell them. I have such a hard time with the names of things here. So I will just tell you they are really cool, and I can tell you the name over the phone. I CAN pronounce it, but not spell it. :) Anyway, the water is so beautiful! I was screeching like a little kid every time a wave came and splashed in. We are hoping to find a sandy beach sometime soon to go play on.

One thing we find interesting is kids have to be in a booster seat until they are 8. They are super big on NO CELL PHONES while driving. AT ALL. And your seatbelt. Imagine what the mainland would be like if they picked up on that! There are no marked cop cars here. They get a stipend for using their personal cars. So you will see some regular joe car with one blue light on top. That's been interesting to see. You cross a lot of gulches here, and they are covered with so much pretty green. It's definitely not like the desert land of Idaho.

Rumor has it you need to wash your produce REALLY well if you buy from a farmers market or such. You can get super sick from (excuse my bluntness) rat pee that's on it. It'll like shut down your kidneys and things. So that's super awesome. But I tell you what, that fruit is worth it! We got some white pineapple today and it is pretty much heavenly! That's not something you find at Albertsons back home.

Nate comes home from the dairy USUALLY wet. It's been raining a ton. They average about 120 inches of rain a year, and have already gotten 130 inches and it's only August. Last year they only got 90. He enjoys what he's doing. He's had adventures climbing hills in belly tall grass. He has done soil samples and will start planting his test plots soon.

All in all we are loving it so far and are grateful for the chance we have to be here and learn. It's a whole new world over here!