Thirteen Really Cool Things About My Vacation

While I'm still recovering from the time change and sort through a bajillion photographs, here are some fun tidbits about my 10 days on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

1. Reading. This is the only benefit of long plane rides - I get to read non-stop for hours and hours. I plowed through 2 novels in 10 days, which has to be a record for me. What did I read? Gena Showalter's "The Nymph King" and Joy Nash's "Deep Magic."

2. Amusing - Reading the smokin' hot "Nymph King" side by side with my husband, who was reading Lee Strobel's "The Case for the Real Jesus."

3. Taking a ukulele lesson from a 100% Hawai'ian.

4. My new camera. A little Sony Cybersot. Lurve it!

5. Discovering I really DO want an MP3 player, after resisting for years.

6. Channelling my inner lizard on Hapuna Beach one day, then freezing my butt off at 13,000-plus feet at the summit of Mauna Kea.

7. Flying in a helicopter over the active Pu'u O'o crater, on the slopes of Kilauea.

8. Visting ancient sacred sites (heiau), feeling the peace of some, and feeling creeped out at the bloody history of others. Human sacrifice, anyone?

9. Playing in the Kapoho Tide Pools.

10. Swimming in volcanically heated Champagne Pond.

11. Hawai'i Botanical Garden, just north of Hilo. Oh my. I burned through two memory cards there.

12. Exciting Jeep ride down into Waipio Valley.

13. Kona coffee. 'Nuff said. It's the only souvenir beside pictures that I brought back with me. :)

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