Moving to Roanoke, VA

We got back from Hawaii mid-June and spent a month visiting out parents and enjoying life before starting real life again. Unfortunately we did not make it to Dollywood, but I did take Dave to the Knoxville Zoo, where I hadn't been in about 10 years.

Then we moved to Roanoke, VA in July, 2014.

Now, the most important thing about Roanoke is that this is the view from my classroom window:

The view is both good and bad. I have class in this one room from 8-5 and usually eat lunch in here too, so we need something to look at. At the same time, it's torture to see mountains all around us all the time and not be able to GO HIKE THEM.

Dave started school too, but as a teacher! Here he is, off to interview at Faith Christian School where he now works, molding young minds. Dave teaches seventh grade Foundations of Western Civ, seventh grade Ancient Literature, and twelfth grade U.S. History. Not exactly having gotten a masters degree in these subjects, he's usually learning his own lessons somewhere between two weeks and twenty minutes before his students do. He would say this shows how flexible a Duke M.Div. can be.

Below is the classroom where the magic happens, and also where he says such things as, "Ok, quizzes are out--I don't understand why there needs to be talking," and, "Don't make me regret treating you like adults," as well as [grouchy teacher face]. All things considered, the first year of teaching is the hardest thing Dave says he's ever done, but he loves it!

He's also the part-time librarian for his school, and I go there to do homework pretty often on nights and weekends (since the JCHS library is never open).  He was able to make sure my practice eyeball remained intact long enough to terrify the first graders.

To Kailua (and beyond)

(I think this post just sat around as a draft for a long time accidentally... so here it is now!)

Traveling 20 miles north from Honaunau to Kailua-Kona is crazy. You leave the jungle and enter a desert, trade Coqui frogs for noisy pigeons, and apparently give up healthy bananas for infected ones...

Just for comparison

                Honaunau                                                                  Kailua-Kona

But we also saw this, so the trade from jungle to urban desert wasn't all bad:

We are staying right on Ali'i Drive, which is the main tourist drag. Mostly there are the same black, rocky beaches as Honaunau, but some have a bit of a twist. Here, you can see someone used lava rocks to build up a hot tub...










...an idea that would be romantic and alluring, if not for the graffiti, 12 scary looking smokers awkwardly staring at us from behind, and the warning that a giant octopus will likely reach out of the ocean and tip you over.















We miss a lot about being on the jungl-y side of the island, but here is one thing we don't miss:

And even though we didn't have all the ducks and chickens, cats and dogs, chameleons and garden spiders, I was very glad to see that the geckos here are almost as abundant!

We were very excited to get to some other beaches and snorkeling sites, so we drove an hour farther north to Mauna Kea Beach. White sand, turquoise water, and coral reef! It was the first (and only) real "beach" we visited.

And that's it! Then we flew home and moved all our stuff from Durham, NC to Roanoke, VA.