Author: Sheila Kyleen Boutte

Kona… kinda

Mom works for a musical instrument company and LT Smooth, an Eastman associate, is building a school for local children to learn up to 13 different trades like ukulele and guitar making, welding, plumbing, electrical and culinary arts.
Look at the detail on the roof!
LT and a friend built this pool by watching YouTube videos.
Beautiful wall.
And another. He started off in music playing horns.
Another trade is music engineering.
The future welding room.
He took us on a drive through the campus.
Not a bad view from the top!
Our ride on the big island!
Sunset view from our hotel in Kona.
We woke up the next morning ready to board a luxury catamaran to snorkel.
But I woke up and checked the internet as I do.
So we jumped on the Saddle Road to cross the island instead.
We didn’t take this road last time we were here but it pretty much runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
And suddenly everything was more “jungelly”
Wait! Is that LAVA!?!?!?! This volcano nerd finally saw lava!!!!
The National Park, USGS and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory all agree that she will have a bigger eruption in the next 24 hours!
Mom and I found this cute restaurant last time we were here so we came back.
Our sandwich we ordered three years ago was discontinued so we tried our best to recreate it.
Diving helmet for my aunt Christina.
Of course we met another kitty!

Getting caught up. More Kauai and then Maui

We’ve either been very rushed every morning or being very lazy. So, let me catch you up.

Our Kauai hotel is making it very difficult to be us.
More around the hotel.
Hello Pacific. 🌊
We had registered for some local hula, ukulele and lei making lessons. There is no evidence of the hula lessons 😜
We used ti leaves and made a rope out of them for the leis.
We then added plumeria to our finished rope. It was really fun.
I have fully embraced the caftan life.
A little stroll around Kauai.
The Pacific never disappoints.
We relaxed in a hammock.
A friendly reminder of vacation mode.
End of the stroll.
We made a feline friend that used this tree as a scratching post and would also follow us to our room. We loved Kauai and will be back to explore more.
We landed in Maui and were told to eat at Monkey Pod for lunch while our room gets ready. These are their award winning Mai Tais. They were yummy.
The food was pretty great too.
So many wild chickens.
Went to a suggested spot to see turtles.
We found two! We also watched one of them slowly shimmy back into the ocean
We decided to do a Luau in Lahania.
Fine. A selfie.
The view was horrible here too.
I actually didn’t grab too many pictures. The show was too good and I couldn’t take my eyes off the dancers.
Sunsets are stupid.
So hypnotic!
Just so darn beautiful to watch.
The next morning was snorkeling in Maui!!!
Happy woman holding an urchin in her happy place.
This was a beginner’s class and our instructor kicked us out on a paddle board.
Mom was not quite ready for fins but she hung in there and saw the fishies!
Look at mom go!
Hello fun little sea creature.
Last-minute Target run and I guess I came all the way to Hawaii for a Salem, MA t-shirt.
Now, I will just share some of the flora from around our condo
A lizard 🐊 it would have this bright red flap of skin come out from its neck but didn’t want to show the camera.
Meow meow on Maui.

We’re now heading to the Big Island. Two nights in Kona and five in Hilo. Not too much planned but we are on volcano watch.

https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/volcano-updates

Day 4: More Oahu

We finally had no plans so stopped at a place for breakfast.
On Tuesday, we had stopped at a Macadamia farm and they had local artists. They didn’t have a print of this but the original. We came back so I could own the most perfect piece of art a girl could own.
We didn’t know what was on our agenda so I did a quick Pacific dip.
We stopped at the Bishop Museum to get more Hawaiian history.
So much to take in within this room.
They had a science center with a volcano that didn’t really work anymore.
Poor little sad volcano.
They also had a fun dinosaur section.
We left soon after to pack for the next island.

Day 3: Kaneohe Bay and Kualoa Ranch.

Hula on the way to the east side.
B

Mom and I hit the road early so I didn’t have breakfast. They had it for me with this view. Hangry didn’t show. Open to names of that nightmare of a human.

The HR department. Mom asked if they had openings. Zac and Sal, she‘s not really serious for now.
Mom wanted to ride the horses but I refuse to put my butt on an animal that can toss me and kill me.
Our first tour of the day was for movie sets at the Kauloa Ranch. This place was great!
It’s been used for TV and movie sets and was also used for bunkers in WWII.
Hey there serving sisters. 🫡
I re-watch “Lost” occasionally. I got nerdy on the “Lost” items. So if you know, you know. 🤓
“Lost”
“Lost”. Mom never watched it so she was not amused.
Dr. Chang in “Lost”
Okay, done with TV sets. Here is another really dumb view.
More dumb.
I guess this is from “Kong: Skull Island”
The floor is lava!
The goddess, Pele, had a lover that was a bore/boar of a man. This is him.
Saddles.
New birds in a shrimp farm!
Just a pretty tree.
Protection for the canoes. I want one for my kayak.
Why is this place so beautiful? I could just sit here for days and days.
Looking down on one of the self sustaining parts of the ranch.
From the lighthouse in “Lost”
Something big took out this tree.
We love a banyan tree.
More just beautiful trees.
So I now know why they are cattle egrets! 🤣😹
Someone opened the door at the end of the hall. Took it as an opportunity to get more views.
A canoe in our hotel.
Another Banyan.
Amazing burgers with pineapple. 🍍🍍🍍🍍
Feet in the Pacific. She DID NOT push me in this time.

Day 2: Touristy tour around Oahu

We decided to take a tour of the whole island and our pick up was at Duke, the grandfather of modern surfing.
Sunrise behind the mountains made the colors like cotton candy.
So, since our last adventure, we are getting interested in birds now so they will be included too. This is the Common Myna. So cute.
We started the day at Pearl Harbor. It was very emotional. We could not get on the USS Arizona memorial because one of the supports was failing and it was under construction.
We did at least get a harbor cruise and saw the USS Missouri.
Active ship USS America, an Aircraft Carrier (hi Grandpa 🙏🏻), was also in the harbor.
Hello submarine!
Standard NPS sign picture.
LOOK at this Red-crested Cardinal !!!!👀🪶
This view sucks. North shore. We did see Green Sea Turtles here but the pics are not great.
The tour took us to Tanaka Shrimp shack. This was so freaking good. Mom’s hands after her spicy garlic shrimp made me laugh. Sinks we plentiful.
We also had entertainment in a local who combined popular songs and told dad/bad joke.
Oh hi kitties!
Chinaman hat. The name is out of respect for the workers that came to work on the plantations.
Western Cattle Egret
The island has wild chickens (Red Jungelfowl) everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE!
Stupid view.
Another stupid view.
No stupid. Dumb. The Oahu Blowhole.
We accidentally stumbled into Liliha Bakery, which happens to be a locals favorite. These are their famous rolls and they were so yummy.
It had a killer patio with killer food and pastries.
After dinner feet in the Pacific picture. We got rushed by a good wave. I showed mom the picture and she then grabbed my phone.
And pushed me in the Pacific I miss soooooo much.

MA>CA>HI Day 1

Hi there friends. I flew out Saturday morning to meet mom for the beginning of our adventure. We got our hair done (Hi Yvette!), did some pre shopping and then started our way to Honolulu.

Back in first class and having a wonderful breakfast!
The excitement is building.
We got leid!!!
Nice view from the hotel in Waikiki.
Walked down to the beach after a late lunch.
Surfers way out there.
We’re going to try get in the Pacific everyday.
Palms in the wind.

We walked around for a bit but we were exhausted and needed to crash. More tomorrow.

Aloha🌺

Day 16: Running around Reykjavik

We left the car at the hotel and decided to walk all over the city.
Where puffins fight polar bears everyday.
First stop was the Settlement Exhibition where they build a museum around an excavated Viking long house.
The long house is long.
It even had a porch!
We walked up and down the adorable streets.
One of the many Lutheran churches.
Simple but pretty inside.
Had coffee and tea with some new friends at a cat cafe.
Don’t mess with the sleepy kitty!
Lazy orangesicle.
Approaching Hallgrímskirkja
And we’d make it to the church if every stop one the way didn’t have a sleeping cat .
A statue of Leif Eriksson our front was a gift from America.
Inside.
The organist was playing.
This organ was epic.
Cute red house.
We stopped in every gift shop and one I remembered I had been chased by that bear before, eight years ago.
The fisherman are giving us directions to our hotel to rest up for the next adventure of our day.
This is Minty. He’s our Reykjavic walking food tour guide.
This is Minty’s dad’s favorites.
We tried a local spirit nicknamed Black Death or something.
Our final stop was at this old theatre.
Which you drink after you chew your fermented shark 10 times.
We also had amazing lobster tacos.
Following the group to more food.
Minty talking about our next place.
Arctic char with a skyr cucumber and almond base.
Our final stop was at an old theatre.
We had this lovely cake that was from a coffee shop that had closed down the week earlier. The cake was fresh though.
As we made our way back to our hotel, I met the perfect man. He’s full of basalt. lol.

Day 15: Heading back to Reykjavík

Akureyi started our day with perfect weather.
We also noticed that two giant cruise ships had come in overnight, so we needed to skedaddle out of town.
In our hotel lobby was this relief that showed the cooperation between farmer and fisherman in Iceland.
Good morning beautiful mountains. Again.
We’re now making our way south along the west.
Mom really loved that little peak.
More pretty mountains and a cute farm.
Mom had told me that she didn’t really expect many mountains and she’s not sure why that is. But being here, and mostly being at sea level and having them around every turn was a treat.
Farm with a church.
Ya know, not a bad lunch for gas station fast food.
Comfy crater.
The clouds started to show themselves as we moved south.
Okay, we have felt like we were on the moon or different planets while traveling this island, we were not expecting to feel like we were in Utah or Arizona.
The Matterhorn may have hid from us in Switzerland, but not here! Actually, it’s the Skessuhorn mountain and we couldn’t take our eyes off it.
Hello Atlantic Ocean, how are you?
More abandoned homes. I need to get me a realtor for these places. They just need a little TLC.
After a deep tunnel under a fjord, we pop out with a view of Reykjavik.
We stop at Þingvellir, a National Park here.
Where the North American plate and Eurasia plate are slowly moving apart.
Selfie time!
A big lake on an island in the North Atlantic.
We stayed at the same hotel as last time and the view was much better!
We got margaritas that match glaciers and my nails.
To go with our very tasty tacos. Who knew?