living it up in Hilo, Hawaii

I started off on my trip Monday May 7. The trip was about 20 hours total with a 10 hour layover in California. I've never been so bored from 11:30 P.M. until 9:30 A.M. My first flight from Omaha to Denver, the airport lady taking my boarding pass asked me how old I was. I guess I still look like I need a chaperon. And it probably didn't help my case of looking like a 19-year old in college that I had my red with purple and yellow spots dragon pillow pet in my hand. 

Finally I made it to Hawaii and Elena and her dad picked me up. We did a couple errands and got food but when we got back around 7:30 P.M. I went straight to bed since I had only gotten about 45 minutes of sleep during my layover.

The next day we woke up at 5:45 wide awake because of the time change! We hit downtown Hilo and visited the farmers market and shopped around a bit. I tried a couple new foods which were delicious!

Trying Lychee- super yummy!

Elena and I also went to Rainbow Falls where we saw a sweet waterfall and some neat trees. One of the trees looked like the grandmother willow from Pocahontas! It made me want to burst into Disney songs! 

Today, Friday, I had my first SCUBA diving lesson. We stayed in shallow water since I was just beginning, but I learned basic tricks and techniques such as breathing underwater, clearing my mask of water, and recovering my regulator if I lose it. Kind of scary but so cool! We saw a few fish, a little tiny eel, and a super sneaky camouflage crab! I can't wait to keep diving!