I just got on to do a Thanksgiving post and realized I never finished our Hilo trip post from last month!!
It still isn't finished but I figured I'd post what I have at least:
One of the perks of our job is that sometimes their are off island job sites and if they need you, they pay your air and hotel to come out and work! We had a health center on the Big Island that we were doing and install on and Richard and I got to fly out! Our flight left at 5:59AM Friday morning. It was a little rough but it was all OK once they gave us Mango Passion Fruit Orange juice and we got to watch the sun rise :)
And there is the Big Island:
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the big island! The first opportunity we get to move out there we are going! It is so much more rural! Tons of open spaces. We enjoyed having a bit of a climate change between the different elevations too. (There was even snow up on the tops of some of the mountains!) Basically it felt like some one had taken Northern California, made it into and Island, and stuck it in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The first two days we spent working.... HARD! My body still aches just thinking about it! It was fun though and a great opportunity to help me understand the process so I can design better and also get in with the crew.
I do feel like the entire state of Hawaii is trying to fatten us up! Whenever anyone realizes we are new they ask us if we have tried eating some new and exciting food. If we haven't then they go way out of their way to find some for you to try and it is never just a bite ... usually it is a HUGE plate full! Even with 2 full days of physical labor, after eating with the crew for the weekend we both had put on several pounds!
Well we had put in our two days of work and it was Saturday night. We walked over to Ponds 
An adorable little restaurant on the edge of a brackish pond
...
(to be continued some day when I have time)
until then enjoy the pictures from the following day's adventure:
