Fine, Just Fine

Hawai'i was utterly astounding. A brief recap:

• Black sand beaches? Check.
• Tropical rain forest? Check.
• Shave ice? Check, yum (can we manage to eat this daily?)!
• Lush, tropical fruit? More yum and check (apple banana, anyone)!
• Mongoose? Check (once we knew what they were... what is the plural of mongoose anyway?).
  
• Amazingly friendly, giving, hugging people? Check (I've never been hugged by so many strangers in such a short amount of time. Close to daily hugs...)
  
• Dolphins? Check (both spinner & spotted).
• Sea Turtles? Check.
• Toxic sulphuric dioxide fumes? Check, eeek and pick another hike!
• Hiking in a still hot volcanic crater? Check (Kilauea Iki)!
• Bus loads of tourists complete with Hawaiian tour guides in matching outfits? Uh... check.
• Lava tube? Check.
• Private warm pond with tropical fish? Check (ahhhhhhhh).

And...

• LAVA FLOWING INTO THE SEA? OH BABY, CHECK!!!!

Now I'm home, integrating post sesshin, post vacation and trying madly to get my rakusu finished (yes, that is hand sewing) by the 24th to give to my teacher for Jukai next month. After it is done I do a bunch of writing I've not completed, including lots of blog posts.

For now... go look at the pretty pictures. A mere handful are posted, there will be more to come. We're working on a web "comic" using them.