Greetings and VOG

Aloha! Jarrod and I (well, mostly I) have decided to start a blog to document our Hawaii adventures. (And for some spice, I'll probably also blabber on about topics like Conan's antics, my knitting projects and how hard it is to find a job.) We have been in Hawaii for just over three months now and it's definitely been an interesting experience. We've seen some cool sights and eaten at some delicious restaurants, but we also miss our old favorite stores and eateries and weather that actually changes. Maybe if everyone tries really hard, we can wish some Hawaii sunshine into existence in Indiana and some Indiana frozen-ness in Hawaii!

So I thought I'd start off the blog with an interesting phenomenon Jarrod and I discovered almost immediately after we arrived. We were sitting at home one night, having just gotten our TV (finally!!!) hooked up to cable, and collapsed in laughter at the news channel's horrendous error. They misspelled FOG and wrote VOG! "Haha," we laughed, "what idiots!" Except... when the weather portion of the news started, there it was again. And again. And we realized they hadn't accidentally typed a "v" when they meant hit "f." We learned that vog -- or volcanic smog -- is apparently what you get when sulfur dioxide emitted from a volcano, Mt. Kilauea on the Big Island in this case, mixes with dust and sun. We hadn't really experienced vog until this weekend. The wind was blowing northwest from the Big Island, causing Oahu to be blanketed in a strange haze. This is visible in the picture above of Honolulu's skyline, which is typically crystal clear. (I tried and tried to get the pictures to post BELOW this paragraph but finally gave up.)