hawaii

There is nothing like spending the day on and in an active volcano. Kate and I were at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is a phenomenal experience. We hiked the Kiauea Iki trail, which first skirts around the rim and then through the floor of a crater full of steam vents. We ate lunch at the Volcano House which features a buffet and a view of the main Kilauea caldera.

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Even though Maui is spectacular, The Big Island is more my type of place. Rugged, open, and paniolo country. Paniolo is Hawaiian for cowboy. Yes, The Big Island is the Texas of the Pacific islands. The island of Hawaii is twice as big as the other islands combined, yet only has 170,000 inhabitants. So it has a much more rural and local feel to it, at least when you venture outside the resort areas. But even the resort areas have a different overall tone, much more laid back and casual than Maui.

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Off to the Big Isle tomorrow. Finished the afternoon with another painting from Makena Beach. In the distance are the West Maui Mountains and the boat is the Kai Kanani II, which we went out on this morning. It took us out to Molokini for some awesome snorkeling and we got to see a huge turtle up close. I did run into a few new plein air challenges with this one. The first was sand. Toward the end of my painting, the wind blew over my can of paint brushes and caked them with sand.

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Well, another day here is paradise. Literally. Yesterday I planned to paint in Haleakala National Park. However, Kate and I did a horseback ride into the crater -which was awesome - and on the way back the clouds came in and you couldn't see a thing. A couple of pics from the ride below. Today we just hung out at the beach outside our hotel. While Kate read the second Twilight book, I painted with a few snorkeling breaks thrown in.

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Kate and I are currently in Hana, Hawaii which is on the island of Maui. Yesterday was a long day as we flew from Atlanta to Salt Lake City, then to Maui. Then we rented a car and did the 3 hour drive to Hana. It is a famous drive, as it is only 44 miles, yet takes a few hours even if you don't stop. It winds around like a sidewinder and parts of it narrow down to one lane. Needless to say, we were pretty tired when we finally go to our hotel. So this morning, we took it easy and as Kate laid out on the beach I did this painting.

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