Our Week of Learning in Hawaii

We're just back from a trip to Hawaii that the kids and I took with my mom.  It was a Spring Break trip, to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday.  She hasn't gone on a vacation (other than trips to see her parents in Kansas) in so long we can't remember - it may have been 20 years!

But this trip was also a great educational experience:




We (mildly) hiked and saw some amazing things.






We toured a macadamia nut orchard and factory, and a coffee farm.  This is coffee being grown like wine grapes:



The coffee was good!



We were interested in all the cool birds, and bought some guide books to use throughout the week.  The botanical gardens were also really interesting and lovely.  The birds moved to fast for me to photograph, but the flowers stood still. :)



A submarine trip took us to see the marine life and the coral reefs.






There was interesting history to learn and see, and we're going to need to read more about the native Hawaiians.








The Imiloa planetarium in Hilo is amazing, there is also a rainforest zoo, and then there is the active volcano to see as well!