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.

Volcano National Park

Day-5 (Feb. 8-10) Today we went to the Volcano National Park to see the lava tube. It was long. Then we saw the craters. Then we went to Hilo for lunch. I was starved. I got pizza at a place called Café Presto. We went back and went to the Black sand beach and went boogie boarding. We went home and worked on my work.

Science/Social Studies-Today we went to the visitor center at Volcano National park and I learned about how boars killed the birds. The colonists brought over boars which could roam freely. The boars started to make cavities in the tree ferns. Then the colonists started bringing over water with mosquito larva in it and dumped it out. The mosquitoes bred in the cavities so the mosquito population grew and grew. Next the colonists brought over song birds with malaria, which got free. The mosquitoes bit the song birds so the mosquitoes had malaria now. Then the mosquitoes bit the native birds, these birds were not as intolerant of malaria and many of them died.

normal day

Day 4-Today, my mom went deep sea fishing so it was just my dad, my brother and me in the morning. We went to the pool. When we picked her up she said she caught nothing but she saw 40 spinner dolphins. We went home and had lunch. Then we went snorkeling and we saw another green sea turtle just swimming along and we saw a couple more eating the algae in the shallow pools. Then we went home and had spear fish that the boat yesterday caught for dinner.

Science-Today, the weather finally cleared. It was sunny for about 90% of the day. Today it was only cloudy for about 5 minutes.

Social studies-Today, we went to a pond that is supposedly where King Kamehameha’s son bathed. King Kamehameha’s god was the god of war. He would march into battle dressed like the god of war with flaming hair and his face dripping with blood. Here is a face of the god of war in the lava. The kahuna’s use to light fires in the eyes at night to scare away other warriors.

Refuge

Day 2- We went to the Puuhonua O Honaunau National Park to see the historical sites and then went snorkeling and what do you know! We see a turtle but not snorkeling but in the National Park basking in the sun on the beach!

Social Studies-A sacred refuge built in the 1500’s where people who broke kapus (laws) could seek refuge by asking the priest. If they were caught they would be killed by their families.

Science-Today we saw another sea turtle and saw lots of new birds. The birds were the Hawaiian Creeper, Apapane and the Kalij Pheasant.

The search for sea turtles

Day 1-Today is the big day. Finally the moment we have all been waiting for: Hawaii. On Sunday we went snorkeling hoping to see an sea turtle. We didn’t see one but we saw a lot of great tropical fish, and on the boat we saw four bottled-nosed dolphins. On Monday we went snorkeling again hoping to see sea turtles. The first time we went out we had no luck. When we talked to my dad he said some people saw sea turtles in a different part of the beach. And not only did we see a sea turtle but we also saw a eel. Later we saw two more sea turtles in shallow pools. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Science: Some common fish I saw was: raccoon butterfly fish, convict tang surgeonfish, yellow tang surgeonfish, porcupine pufferfish, bullethead parrotfish and black durgeon triggerfish.

The type of sea turtle we saw was the green sea turtle. When we saw the first one he was just drifting along but the other two were eating algae.

Social studies: When on a boat we went to the James Cook memorial where he died. Cook was a explorer in the late 1700s and was greeted by 10,000 Hawaiians in 1,500 boats.