January 21, 2012. Hawaii.

We went down to breakfast at 6:30 yesterday, having been up since 4 AM, still suffering jet lag. Open air buffet was very nice--something for everyone: bananas, sticky rice, bacon and eggs... and Kona Cofffee, of course. We are on a "black sand" beach, surrounded by lava fields. We could see many people surfing just up the beach from us, and paddlers in outriggers and kayaks passed by along the shore.

This area is a haven for the endangered green turtles, which are quite large, about 2 feet across. I saw one near shore and walked across the rocks to get his photo.

We took a shuttle to town and saw the oldest church in the Hawaiian Islands, started by the missionaries in 1820.

It was a pretty ambitious undertaking, building a church this size back then!

We had lunch at Fish Hoppers, right on Ali'i drive, and discussed how crazy it must be here during the week of IronMan competition. There was "official" IronMan gear available for sale, but since I did not do the race I do not deserve to wear the shirt!

We took the shuttle back to the hotel, ate dinner here, read our books, and I tried to recover--still suffering sinusitis. I sure hope I feel better by tomorrow.... Here we go again, on a new biking adventure!