New Year's Eve

On Sunday we had a quieter day, staying in our area in the southern part of the island. After a light lunch at home, Tracy went for a run toward a nearby beach. The rest of us drove there and dropped Dirk off. Then we drove along the coast road until it ended. We were a bit surprised at the number of residences in the area, as it is quite near the lava flow. We stopped at a number of spots along the way; the scenery was breath-taking everywhere.

This marker remembering someone was at one of the beaches.

This area was a more recent lava flow, as you can see, the vegetation is much younger.

At the end of the road there were several cafes and a parking lot. A sign said the black sand beach was a quarter of a mile away, so we walked on the path. This painting was obviously done by native Hawaiians. We saw several signs wishing they could have their islands back.

Here is Anjali at the black sand beach. There was definitely sand but the beach itself was pretty rocky.

On our way back, we picked up Dirk and Tracy. After some more downtime at the house, we went for an early dinner at Kaleo's, a wonderful restaurant in nearby Pahoa.

My coconut-crusted ono fish with liliko'i sauce was fabulous. (Liliko'i is passion fruit.)

Dan had Korean short ribs, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

None of us stayed up to see in the New Year, but the others all heard some very loud firecrackers at midnight. I never heard a thing!

This evening we fly to Honolulu and tomorrow on to Thailand.