Today, we moved from the North Shore (and said goodbye to our gecko friends)
Carrie shakes hands and bids adieu to our gecko friend from the North Shore.  No insurance was purchased.
of Kauai to the SW of the island, and took up residence at the second facility of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (www.ntbg.org). 
In addition to the take down of our lab on the North Shore, and the transit and lab set up, we did get some collecting in, though the hikes were leisurely and the types of habitats were from more common, lowland habitats.
Pat collecting near a bridge  Amy and Alison work at the dinner/lab area.

We visited outlets of reservoirs, small streams and a large river, and some dry wall environments, including a favorite named town of Hanapepe. 
Rex and Carrie sample a dry wall, near the area of a huge number of mangoes and a dead dog in the town of Hanapepe.
 
The algae were wonderful, including some very productive systems. 
 
Lots of algae make phycologists really happy!
 
  Look at all the oxygen bubbles the algae are producing for you and for me!  Have you thanked a diatom today?
 
We had another great meal prepared by Jeff,
The secretive Chef No-Tell, a.k.a Jeff Johansen, hard at work in the kitchen.  Jeff prepared some great vegetarian meals for the whole crew on the trip.  "It's the wood that makes it good"  says Jeff.
 
and worked through identification and processing of samples. 
 
Pat looks over a collection from the field.
 
We are also readying for our last extensive collecting trips in the morning, before we head back to Oahu on Friday morning.
 
Thanks to the folks at the Kona Brewing Co. for help with our learning of the Hawaiian language.  Each cap has on its inside a word in Hawaiian translated into English.  We have seen many words due to their kindness. Today' s words are: "Hulo" (=hooray) and "Mo'o" (=lizard).  We continue to work on expanding our vocabulary every day.  Maholo!