Holidays in Hawaii

My father loved to visit Hawaii. It was his favorite place.

 November of last year he passed away from cancer. For Christmas this year my family decided to go to Kaua'i in his memory. It was great to reconnect with everyone after being gone for the last few months not to mention the weather was quite nice.

Saw lots of fun things while out enjoying the weather!

Nene! I saw my first wild nenes visiting Hawaii this time. Nenes (neigh neighs) are an endangered species of goose endemic to Hawaii.

Crab

 Glass sand beach. There is an illegal dump a little ways away from this beach. Glass from that dump gets broken up and rounded by the waves then ends up here coloring the beach.

 

My mom, brothers, and I visited a Hindu monastery while on Kaua'i. We rang this bell asking for the blessing of Ganesh, the Hindu god of removing obstacles, as we entered.

At the monastery they are building a stone temple completely by hand. Stone carvers from India are mining and carving the temple stone without the help of power tools. Power tools create micro-fractures which over time lead to the cracking and breaking of the stone. The hope is that by creating the temple in this fashion the temple will last for 1000 years.