Post #254643 by WenikiTiki on Fri, Sep 15, 2006 10:54 AM

When we recently went to the Big Island (Hawaii) we were surprised to see many homes built on lava lots, with rough lava roads leading to them. We went down three different long roads to see the Green Sand Beach, the Black and Green Sand Beach and some other beach...

Here was one of the nice roads we 4 wheeled out to:

And the Green Sand Beach:

And this is the type terrain many of the homes were built on on that 6 miles of bad road we drove down:

I would have sworn I took a photo of one of the lonely houses sitting on it's 5 acres of lava. The SUV was bouncing around so much that I must have been hanging on for dear life instead of making sure the photo recorded!

I used to dream of retiring to the Big Island or Oahu. Then I moved to Oahu and now I dream of retiring to North Carolina where I can afford to enjoy life, not work everyday just to pay my crazy mortgage! Hawaii is beautiful, but when we were house hunting it was true that many of the homes were very old and run down. Or you can buy a nice new home in Eva Beach and fight LA style traffic everyday! Our traffic snarls might not be as bad as stateside, but when you are waiting 90 minutes for your exit it is hard to be glad you aren't waiting 2 hours!

We live in Kaneohe, and I love the Rain Forest Lifestyle. Because even when it rains all the time here, it just makes it more beautiful! Green jungle, rainbows all the time and the ever changing clouds over the horizon. If only our mortgage weren't 3/4 of our take home pay!
I will close with sunrise from my lanai:

ALOHA!

[ Edited by: WenikiTiki 2006-09-16 00:28 ]