With Mom as our tour guide, the rest of the week we went on several hikes, drives and snorkeled in some cool places. What’s the point of being on a beautiful place if you aren’t going to see the sights? It was amazing how near Kona it could be so barren, dry and brown with lava everywhere and then a few more miles to the north or on the other side of the mountain it is lush, tropical green Hawaii the way you think it should be. It was also amazing how they managed to turn acres of sharp, black, lava rocks where there is nothing capable of growing on them, and turn the area into a green golf course and resort. 

MI and HI have different definitions of  'Forest'.

As far as workouts for the rest of the week I went for a swim one afternoon. I was a little concerned about swimming in the salt water, as I had no experience prior. It was a little choppy, which made for a few unpleasant gulps of salt water but the good news was there were no big logs in the harbor; just sand and coral. (Yes I am a 24 year old dude who's scared of big logs under water, some childhood terror or something) I did another easy bike out on the course, another easy swim and spent time in the sun to try and get used to the heat. On Wednesday I went to register and got my race packet.