South Seas Interlude II

I'm becoming as poor a blogger as I've become a correspondant. We came back from HI three weeks ago and still I haven't fininshed relating the trip.
Images from the rest of our time in Hawai'i:
A black sands beach, with a sign strictly forbidding the playing of horseshoes.
A backpackers' hostel, where they confused the reservation for our threadbare suite.
A half-mile of subterreanean lava tube, opening up into the rainforest.
Rainbows and waterfalls everywhere.
Hiking past a line of cars, past where the road was enveloped by a lava flow a few years back, and over the ropy fresh ground to see lava flowing down the hillside to meet a steamy end in the ocean.
Walking around the Mauna Kea observatories at sunset.
A sign warning "BEWARE OF INVISIBLE COWS" at the Mauna Kea Onizuka Visitor's Center.
A rainy four-wheel drive ride through the Waipio "Valley of Kings".
Circumnavigating the Big Island in a Buick : beaches, coffee farms, temperate and rain forests, cities, cliffs, 14000' volcanoes, 1700' valleys, open grassland, desert.
Watching the sun set into the sea with S from an outdoor table above the ocean.
Snorkeling with sea turtles, tropical fish, and an octopus.
Another 13 hours of plane rides back to BWI.

Captain Cook, Hawai'i

We're in Captain Cook, Hawai'i, having a great time. The town is named for Cook's stops in the nearby bay. On the first, he re-discovered the Hawai'ian islands and was treated like a god. He sailed away, came limping back a few days later with a broken mast, and was brained with a shark-tooth club in a skirmish over a longboat stolen for its nails. I don't think we'll be stopping back here after we leave. "Blue Latitudes" seems like a good book although my fellow travelers keep reading it before I can.
Spent several days in Maui with S's family. Did all the mandatory things -- beach day, resort day (got kicked out of the guest only pool despite spending about twice the cost of my Memphis Motel 6 room at the bar), snorkeling day, volcano day, Mama's Fish House (delicious) and Luau. The Luau was total tourist cheese, Velveeta at that. G said she'd walk out if they sang "Tiny Bubbles". They did; she did. Beautiful beach though.
S and I went diving yesterday and saw eels, wrasse, trigger fish, huge blowfish, and of course the
state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. We're staying at a B&B where the managers
lived for a few years in Flower Mound, a few in Austin, a few in San
Miguel de Allende, and several in So. Cal. We leave for Volcanoes Nat'l Park
this morning, with a stop at a black sand beach along the way.
So Aloha