Fun Day!

Today Jenna got up at 6am. Still earlier than I would have liked, but I think she's about over the jetlag! We sat in Gus's hot tub this morning. AJ and I both have aching backs and Jenna wanted to practice snorkeling. She stayed under water for 2 minutes! She thought that was pretty cool! We found a church not too far from the house, the Kona Baptist Church, that we attended today. Everyone was very welcoming! They get a lot of visitors every week. There was a couple from Oregon (the state) in front of us. The pastor and his wife are from the south somewhere. I can't remember where, but they have strong southern accents. I'm not sure if we will continue to attend here, but it's a good possibility. They have a large number of young children that attend and they have Sunday school and small group classes that they offer. There are a couple other churches that we may check out before deciding for sure, but we certainly felt comfortable here. After church we went to "The Place of Refuge." This is a beach that is very special to AJ and I because this is the beach where he proposed to me. It's not the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. There's not much sand, and there is a lot of black lava rock, but it's a great place for a picnic and in the winter it's a great place to watch for whales. We ate our lunch here today and then Jenna went swimming in the tide pools. And yes, she went snorkeling again! She wouldn't float on her stomach; she would only put her face in the water enough to get her mask and snorkel under. Oh well! At least she's doing that much! After that we went to another small beach area near where we go kayaking. She played there for a while, made a sand castle and a few friends too. We went back to Gus's planning to relax the rest of the evening when the neighbor came and invited us over to try some authentic Hawaiian food. So...we went! We tried "lou lou." (rhymes with cow) It was pork, chicken or corned beef, seasoned with spiced salt and wrapped in taro leaves, which was then wrapped in either tea or banana leaves. It was placed in a steamer and steamed all day. To eat it, you take off the tea leaves and eat the rest. We didn't eat the taro leaves, but the meat was very good! We brought a couple home with us to eat tomorrow. Jenna really liked it too. We also tried "dragon fruit." It's a colorful fruit that looks like it's peeling apart. You cut it in half and slice into small pieces. The inside is either white with lots of black seeds or bright pink like the outside. We had the one with the white inside. You eat it like watermelon...the inside is eaten and the outside (like a rind) is thrown away. It was good. It tasted a little like kiwi fruit. They also had tsushimi. I'm not sure I spelled that right, but it's raw fish. I didn't try that. I know I don't like that. I've tried it in the past and it's just not something I can handle. The Public Health Nurse in me is screaming "NOOO!!! It needs to be cooked!!!!" Anyway, it was an interesting evening. I also met a nurse and a teacher while we were there. They both had good information to share about jobs and schools. That's part of the plan for tomorrow. We are going to tour schools and look for houses or condos. Finding a place to live will make it easier to find a school. Please pray that both of these scouting adventures go great! Thanks so much!! Until later...aloha!!