So long Alaska, hello Hawaii.  Or “aloha”, I suppose.

Yes, it seems my whirlwind of cool places has brought me to The Big Island out here in Hawaii.   It’s the same old job on the work end, but the severe change in latitude and longitude has taken me from the subtropical evergreen forests of southeast Alaska to an actual rain forest on the southeast end of the Big Island.

Already I have seen some of the stark contrasts this island has to offer.  The thick vegetation of the jungle sudden breaks into the cracked and crumpled starkness of a basalt lava flow younger than myself.

This moonscape is in turn broken by the brilliant azure of the Pacific Ocean where 10 foot waves thunder into the jagged shore.

The house I am staying in for the next month has no A/C so the open windows let in the chorus of insects and the invasive Coqui Frog.  Though the frogs are considered a nuisance by local standards, I find the calls soothing when combined with the drone of a fan.  Just like a warm spring night in northern Wisconsin.

Hawaii does have a lot of problems with invasive species, however, and I’ll probably touch on that some more in the future.

Meanwhile, I should mention that there is this weak hurricane slowly making its way toward Hawaii.

But by the time Hilda brushes up against this island it will barely be able to muster the title of “Tropical Storm”; if that.  There’s a lot of upper-level wind shear that will smack it down in the next two days and it will only be a gusty rain event when it gets here.  It has produced some cool surf on this side of the island.  Expect some more content related to this little weather event in the next few days.