Crown of thorns, eel, octopus

Feb. 26th –Today, I am going to scuba dive in the ocean for the first time and I heard there is occasionally a shark seen here. So, I was now a little nervous but also excited. I saw a lot of fish but there were some creatures that stood out from the rest. Those were the crown of thorns, white mouth eel, and an octopus. When we saw the octopus, he inked.
Science--I read a review about the dive site and the author had dived there around 40 times there. He said that he occasionally sees a hammerhead shark where the stream enters the ocean. Sharks like to hang around where the freshwater meets the saltwater.

Waterfalls

Feb. 21-23--In the last few days we went to look at some waterfalls, and we left the south shore of Kauai. I went scuba diving for the first time in the pool. It was some much fun. We also went to this Hawaiian cultural place. There was peacocks every where.

Science- Today I learned a little about the laysan albatross. I learned that one of the parents goes up to Alaska to eat while the other stays and sits on the egg. The egg does not hatch for two months.

Social studies- At the village, we saw some houses and outside of them the signs told you who lived there like the prime minister’s house or the doctor’s house.

The Surfer Dude

Surfer Dude--Day 9- Today is going to be fun. I get to go to a timeshare place which is a bunch of people trying to sell you stuff but it also means free food. Then I went surfing. It is also very hard and tiring. But at the end, I finally rode a wave and we are going to do it again.

Hiking Waimea Canyon

Day 9 (Feb. 16)-- Today we are going to Waimea canyon to take a hike. It looked beautiful. It was a 2 mile hike. It was really muddy. I was covered in mud. Then we went to a restaurant called the camp house grill. My grilled cheese was excellent.

Here is a view from the hike.

Science- -The Waimea Canyon is 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,500 feet deep. The canyon was formed by the rivers and streams carving it over thousands of years.


Here is a Hawaiian monk seal. They are endangered and there are only 1200 of them left. When the seals are tired, they come up onto the beach to rest.

Social Studies- In the late 1880s Dole family imprisoned the queen with the help of the U.S. marines. So the Dole family became one of the five ruling families. The Dole family brought over farmers from China, Puerto Rico, Korea and Philippines to plant sugar cane. And that is how sugar cane came to Hawaii.

Flying to Kauai

Day 8 (Feb. 14-15)-- Today, we are leaving the big island to go to Kauai. The airport was really small and the plane was small too. We had two plan rides. A 40 minute one and a 20 minute one. When we got to the airport they had lost our bags. So we went to get our rental car which was a Dodge Magnum. We went back to the airport, and our bags were there. Then, we saw our resort. It was nice and big. We saw many humpback whales, some with calves, right in front of our resort. This is not one of our pictures but this is what we saw in the ocean.

One Busy Day

Day 7 (Feb. 13-14)-Today we went horse back riding on the open range. We went through valleys and up mountains. It was so fun because we got to ride them while they were galloping. Then we went to a luau. The food was amazing and the dancing was weird but cool.








This is Mauna Kea. It has snow on it because it is so high. Snowboarders climb the slopes to ski down.













The cows followed us on our ride. It was creepy.

Social studies- The luau had a pig that was cooked underground. We saw some cultural dances from the luau. They were all from the south pacific islands. The best one I thought was the flaming knife dance from Samoa. There was a guy who had knives with flames and ran them on his tongue.

Night of Manta Rays

Day 6 (Feb. 11)-Today in the afternoon, I am going to do a night snorkel with the Manta Rays. I was really nervous. First, we do a day snorkel while the scuba divers dive down to put the lights on the ocean floor for the night dive and snorkel so we can see the Manta Rays if they come. After our day snorkel, we got back on the boat to have dinner. Finally, it was time to see these 12 feet creatures. I jumped in the water. I thought I was not going to see one. The first thing I see is a 6 foot monster. I said to myself, there here! We saw three, big Manta Rays eating plankton. Their names were Vicky (6 feet) Timbuktu (10 feet) and Lefty (12 feet). Once, Lefty pounded me with her wing.

Science- When we saw the Manta Rays, they were eating the plankton. The plankton were every where because the light attracted the plankton which is the main food of the Manta Ray. The Mantas were rolling up to the snorkelers so we got a good look at them. They all have a pattern on their bellies which is how we could tell them apart.

Social Studies-A group of Polynesians canoed over from the Marquesa Islands using the stars and the sun for navigation about 1500 years ago. They brought pigs, chickens and dogs. Captain Cook arrived about 1100 years later.