American Samoa first impressions

The island of Tutuila is as lush, green, and tropical as can be. It's a volcanic island with steep mountains and a narrow coastal  strip where most people reside. We've seen very few tourists and the island doesn't seem to cater for them.
There's a main road that runs East-West along the length of the island. We've traveled most of this (40 km) either walking or by bus. The local buses consist of a wooden bus cabin with seating for 16-24 people grafted onto a truck chassis. They seem to be driver-owned and are decorated to the drivers taste. They all played very loud music, and one bus had a large TV screen for music videos.

Tutuila walking and by bus day 1.

Big Island 5

Today we leave for a night in Honolulu, before continuing on to American Samoa on Friday Sept. 22. We plan to travel also to Samoa, and to the Island of Ofu, and expect not to have regular internet connections. I have been told their service is slow, when available. We arrive in Australia October 15, and hope to catch up with everyone at the latest then!

We are sad to leave the Avocado Tree House - not just a place to sleep, but a destination in itself. Craig gets credit for saying it well.

Link to Big Island 5, our last post from Hawaii.

Big Island 3 and 4

Due to the 'technical difficulties' getting the pictures from the iPad into the blog, I can tell I have not always coordinated the text with the pic's.
We rode 2 days from the Avocado Tree House, through both lush rain forest, and on to lava fields. Then we relaxed at home, ran errands, and walked around Hilo, and the small Lava Tree State Park one day. Lava trees formed when the flowing lava cooled and hardened around burning trees.

Link to Big Island 3 pictures

Link to Big Island 4 pictures

Big Island 2

We just love our stay here at the Avocado Tree House!
It is S. of Hilo, on the wetter, and lush side of the island. Near rainforest, and lava fields, which means few tourists, as most people like the nicer beaches on the west side.
Pahoa is quite the hippie hang out, and Craig read something about FBI fugitives..
Breakfast is included: the best papaya ever, bunches of bananas (shorter, tastier than at home, and might be of the Lady Finger variety per Craig. In Maui, we had Apple Bananas from our host's smaller farm), all the avocados you can eat, oranges &tangerines, star fruit, their own eggs.. Whole grain bread + coffee.

More pictures: Big Island 2 link

The Big Island of Hawaii. 1

It's a drizzly morning, but we could not care less, and our hosts said they need the rain.
We are on an 11 acre organic farm, have total privacy, and the house is by far the most interesting place we have ever stayed at!
Tonight we'll go to Uncle Roberts, very nearby. An evening farmers' market, with food, and music, and several hundred people per my quick google result.
Tomorrow at the latest, we hope to ride around here.
Link to Avocado Tree House pictures

More from Maui

First: we are happy to hear June & Nick, and Roger are OK in Orlando! We feel a bit guilty having fun when the storm hit them. Hope you get the power back very soon!
We leave for the Big Island of Hawaii today,  after spending a nice week here.
The previous post details our bike ride up Mt. Haleakala - which deserved its separate write-up (we admit to having caught summit fever, which can be dangerous). The only picture from that day, is the wet one of Craig on top, already posted.
Will now include a link to the Maui pictures - we are getting better, but I decided it's too complicated to rearrange the order, when I messed things up, so the pictures are only mostly chronological.
Maui pictures

Our Mt. Haleakala Cycling Experience

Haleakala is a 10 023 ft (3055 m) volcanic peak that dominates Maui. We started at 7 am, at 1726' to be precise (which means we cheated c/w the official annual ride here).
30 miles of riding for us.

San Juan pictures

We are still on the learning curve as far as managing the pictures on the IPad, and getting them on to the blog.

San Juans photo album

Clicking on this link, should give you sharp pictures; they may show up in a funny grid format. If so, just click on the first picture (a few times?), and they show up sequentially, full screen size.
You should be able to zoom in to see more detail, as I still haven't learned how to crop them.

We continue to visit with friends, first in Victoria, BC, and now in Seattle. The weather is just perfect, and Craig wants to move here for the summer months.

Off to Hawaii Tuesday.

Addition to THANK YOU post

Here is the 'bouquet' of 8 I wanted to send: