2018

Today we woke up bright and early to some Einstein Bros Bagels. We were then given a short amount of time to eat and pack up for our first dives. Quickly I packed up my fins, mask, booties, and my personal items into two separate bags and got back as fast I could to the vans. Loading up as...

Today we went on a snorkel trip in two groups. We saw manta rays and whales, and even swam with dolphins. I learned about Spinner Dolphins, which can grow to about human size and spin when they jump out of the ocean. I also learned about captain Cook, who first discovered Hawaii. He was a...

Yesterday we traversed 14,000 feet high to the top of Mauna Kea. We didn't hike the volcano like the original settlers, however I still felt the effects of the high altitude on my body. We started our journey in Kona where the van picked us up. Jeff, our driver and teacher, educated us about the origins of the islands...

On day six of our trip, we participated in a large beach clean up to help give back to the local community. At the service site, we began by having a contest to see who could pick up the most trash. During this portion, I had the ability to learn about the different types of trash (marine debris versus...

Arriving at Kona we were greeted with a warm welcome and beautiful sites. My favorite part of today was finding a lychee tree and going on a small adventure to get the fruit. We went to find a large stick with which we knocked down some fruit and ate it. This reminded me of my grandma who has a...

Today was our fifth day in Hawaii, and we got to go to several places. We began our day by sleeping in, waking up at around 8, and leaving the house at 9:15. We first went to NELHA, and the guide took us under the building to check out their cooling system, completely dependent on sea water. The building...

Today we started off the day by going to NELHA and learning about conservation and research efforts unique to Kona. One such example was the OTEC, use of cold deep water and surface water from the pelagic zone close to Kona's shore to create energy using the re-boiling of ammonia through a closed system. By boiling the ammonia using...

After a long and exhausting day of travel, we arrived at “Homes over Kona,” our humble abodes for the next seven days. Rather quickly, my classmates and I accustomed ourselves to the individual “hales” (homes) that well be staying in. Shortly after we unpacked and ate dinner, we received an orientation from the lovely staff about expectations and what...

Day 6 had a very different agenda from our other dive filled days. We headed out to a beautiful white beach for a service project. We were going to attempt to provide a positive human impact on the ocean by picking up people's trash and scattered marine debris. Once we were briefed on the days agenda the leader of...