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I went in to school yesterday. I had to talk to my pastor about some music for tomorrow. While I was there, I did a water change on my fish aquarium.

Since I’m not in my classroom every day, I’m not running the air conditioner. That means the room is getting warm during the day… mid- to high-eighties at least. The warm classroom air means warm aquarium water. It’s the perfect temperature for algae growth. The water looks like pea soup.

I’m not worried about the fish – they don’t care if the water is cloudy. In nature, fish swim in cloudy water all the time. I do think it’s unsightly though, so I did a water change.

As I added fresh water back into the aquarium, something interesting happened: the clear water settled to the bottom of the tank, and the cloudy water rose to the top. I think it might have been a difference-in-temperature thing. It was kind of cool looking.

After I started the filter running again, the layers got mixed.

I have been trying to do some touristy things this summer. People spend a lot of time and effort to get here. I want to do some of the things they do when they get here.

Yesterday I went to the Maui Tropical Plantation. I’ve actually been there a lot because they have a fish pond and I love feeding the fish and ducks. But they also have a little trolley car thing that drives around the property and goes past various food crops while a narrator talks about them. I’d never done that… until yesterday.

There were multiple cars all connected together.

I did learn a few things about native food crops. Mostly it was just fun to be among the tourists and to hear them talking about what they were seeing. Everything looked so foreign to them, and they were so excited. It was delightful.

This is a pineapple field.

I have heard many people talk about going past Hana and continuing on around the east side of the island, thus completely circling Haleakala. I finally did it.

The warnings about the bad roads are exaggerated in my opinion. Yes, it was rough in some places, and yes it was narrow in some places, but I think it was easier to drive than the road to Hana. And the views were amazing! Wow!

Do you see the road winding off into the distance? I thought it looked cool.

The road ends up in Kula (upcountry), so there was still some driving to do once I got to the regular roads again, but Kula is where the True Value Hardware with the awesome garden center is, so I was excited! Woo hoo!

Now that I’ve completely driven around Haleakala, I will definitely be driving around the other half of the island – the West Maui Mountains.

I went hiking with my pastor again yesterday. I don’t know if the trail has a name. It starts in a bamboo forest along the road to Hana.

The bamboo is cool.

I’ve been to this trail before, but I’ve always stopped at a stream that I couldn’t get across without getting my feet wet. This time, I would continue on – even if my feet would get wet. But my feet didn’t get wet because the water level was low. Yay!

There were a few small waterfalls, but the spot most people stopped at was a swimming hole.

There were a lot of people on there.

Off to the left side of the above picture, there was a small rock wall that had ladders leaning against it. After climbing up the ladders and using some rope to get over the top, we continued on the trail that ran along the stream.

Eventually, the trail ended. That was when my pastor said we would continue by swimming in the stream.

After I took this picture, I put my phone in a zip bag to keep it dry.

We had to swim only about forty yards or so. The water was a pleasant temperature, but I couldn’t touch the bottom. It was also so murky I couldn’t see more than a few inches down. I think I might have panicked a little. I was flailing a lot, and breathing hard. At one point, I wondered if I maybe wouldn’t make it.

But I did make it. Another rope climb, and we saw the tallest waterfall of the day. There wasn’t much water coming down, but it was still cool looking. Pastor swam some more. I sat on a rock and breathed hard and tried to slow my heart rate.

So peaceful. We were the only ones there.

It was another great hike. I think I may do this again. And next time, maybe I won’t panic at the water.

Back when I made lei out of yarn, I made a miscalculation with one of them. It was too small – almost so small it wouldn’t fit over my head. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so it’s just been sitting on my table.

Then I had an inspiration: the lei was the perfect size for the teddy bear in my living room. It was even a great color to compliment the bear. Nice!

I don’t have that many ‘island’ decorations in my apartment, but I like this.