The Real South and Green Sand

After our unbelievable volcano day, we headed towards the Kona side of the island stopping at a black sand beach with turtles, the southernmost point in the US, and a beach with green sand (one of two in the world!).  And oh yeah, it was my birthday!  So, there were flowers waiting for me at our hotel (ain't Andy sweet?) and we made sure to have a super chocolatey dessert after a dinner of kalua pork spring rolls and fish tacos!  Yum!

Turtles!

Southernmost point (or very close to it)

Green sand beach!

It's not grass green people, more of an olive green due to the olivine mineral

The walk down to the beach

Flowers for my birthday!

I know that my number one priority on my last day in Hawaii should have been to snorkel or swim, but it was actually to eat poke from Da Poke Shack.  Multiple types of poke, 5 stars on yelp!  And eat poke we did!  Between the two of us, we ate one pound of poke (literally), and truth be told, it was not an even split.  

We did snorkel and swim---I even saw a moray eel!  Plus, we visited the place of refuge, which was peaceful and beautiful.  And for dinner, we headed to Kona Brewing Company.  We were due to leave the next morning but thought that Tropical Storm Flossie might stop us---luckily (?), Hawaiian Airlines was not fazed and we made it back to Seattle with no trouble (unless you count having to eat at Sammy Hagar's restaurant in the Maui airport!).

The Place of Refuge

This pose is not awkward at all!

Our snorkeling spot