"Jump-off tree" never fails to provide excitement and drama!

We had a great time hiking with Tamara and her boys today. We also had a special guest with us, a lady named Pam who is a writer and is doing a story about hiking with kids for a parents’ magazine oriented to Hawaii. We were excited to share our fun with her, and she fell right into the swing of things from the outset with the perfect cargo hiking pants, a hiking pole, snacks, water, pack, everything. She was READY! The boys were quite loud in the truck (four boys in Tam’s Suburban since we shipped our truck already) so I came up with the idea that they could maybe save up all their noise for when we got to the parking lot at the trail head and do a real Appalachian field holler. Well…they did, and it was LOUD! I told them they had 5 whole seconds of holler and they made good use of that. I have to look up what a field holler really sounds like so I can be more educated next time I introduce the concept, but the boys really needed no introduction. They did their thing! What a fun group and a great morning. We wrapped up the evening with a high-tide snorkel on base where Dave spotted a huge eel while snorkeling with Sam. Ben and I got to see its big head sticking out a bit later. And yesterday – you will NOT believe this – but I got to see a 5 ft SHARK just offshore in 3′ of water right where the boys had been swimming 5 min previously! YOWZER! But exhilarating to see it glide on by. Whew! Happy Fourth to everyone!