Friday part 2

As we drove into Hilo, we stopped at a little place called the Cafe 100 we had read about. None of us were incredibly hungry so we got snacks (I had a decent cup of chili...Howard had an Orange Bang...which was kinda like an Orange Julius) and headed on up the road to our bed and breakfast. It was a nice little drive up the hill. All along the sides of the roads were macadamia nut trees (full of nuts by the way), banana trees, just all sorts of plant life. We definitely weren't on the desert side anymore. We got to our bed and breakfast and wow...talk about beautiful. It had rained the night before so lots of water was flowing over the Kulaniapia Falls.

It was gorgeous! We were greeted by the owner's wife, she showed us around then we checked into our rooms. The place is completely "green." The power they use is generated from the waterfall. All of Hilo collects rainfall and purifies it for their water source. It was just incredible. It made you want to go home and try to invent cool ways to make your own home more green...oh wait, we live in Texas and not next to a giant waterfall. Anywho, we checked in then went off exploring. Down a beautiful path to the waterfall. Along the way we saw more sleeping grass...wait, I think I forgot to tell you about "sleeping grass." When we were at the coffee farm, our little guide showed the kids what he called "sleeping grass." You would touch it and its leaves would fold up. Then about ten minutes later, it would open again. We found all sorts along the way down the path! Banana trees, beautiful flowers...it was gorgeous!


We hiked down to the bottom of the waterfall, looked around then meandered down a past to see another series of smaller waterfalls.

There was a deck they had built out over the water you could sit for hours on and just listen to the sound of the water, birds etc. Ahhh...so relaxing! Huge bamboo...bigger around than I have ever seen. After looking around a bit, we all headed back up to the top. I headed back up to the room. I rinsed off to cool down then began to unpack/repack my bags while Ryan took his shower. I had to get everything ready for us to go home the next day. Our snorkeling equipment was the hardest to pack. Not so much mine, but Ryan's snorkel vest. He'd somehow filled his vest with water! How do you pack that...he worked a bit getting some of it out then left it for Krystal to cart around for a couple days to see if it would dry out anymore. After we had all rested for a while we all loaded into the cars and headed back down into Hilo for dinner. We had heard great things about a place called the Hilo Bay Cafe. It was in a strip mall away from the water. Once we got in though, the hostess informed us they were full for the night. It looked fantastic, but I don't think they liked us. We had heard tourists aren't greeted as warmly on this side of the island...and it is true! We loaded back in the cars and headed off to the Puka Puka kitchen (at the recommendation of the guide book).

It was along the ocean....well, kinda...you could see the ocean from where we ate, but definitely not on the water like we had been in Kona. Talk about a small place. We filled it with our little group. I ordered the chicken gyro. It was wonderful! What a neat little place to find! Wesley had big fun eating his dinner too...he took his peanut butter and spread it all over the table. No one minded so long as he was happy! After dinner we then went on the hunt for Tropical Dreams Ice Cream we had heard so much about. We walked up and down for about an hour unable to find it. Sweet Kayla was exhausted so we decided to load up and head back to the inn. Along the drive, there were absolutely no lights. We stopped along the road and turned off the cars and looked up. It was gorgeous!!! Beautiful stars...I can't imagine getting to live there and see that every night! We got back to the inn and both kids were sound asleep. HH & KK took them upstairs and put them to bed. Rps and I walked down to the parking lot trying to see stars. All the lights were on motion sensors so we got as still as we could. Silly lights wouldn't go off so we walked back. And what do you know, as soon as we walked past the sensor, the lights turned off. Oh well, we weren't walking back down. Larry and Rita were sitting on their balcony watching the stars too. Ryan and I finished up our packing then headed back downstairs to the lobby computer to try to print our boarding passes for the next night. Drat! You have to wait until exactly 24 hours prior to boarding to print them. We decided we could stay awake for another hour. We looked at baseball scores for the first time in a week...WHAT!!! Rangers no longer in first place!!! Then the news a bit...then just sat on the couches flipping through books. Then someone else joined us. He was a guy...can't remember his name so we will call him Gary. Gary lived on Oahu, but was worked monitoring the sulphur dioxide levels coming out of Kilauea. He had to wait up until after midnight to make sure his equipment was working. He told us stories about how he and the owner of the inn co-own a glider. They apparently take out tourists on rides sometimes even. Too bad he didn't bring his plane with him this trip. We chatted with him until we could check in, printed out our boarding passes then said goodnight and headed to bed. Both of us were so exhausted we were asleep before our heads hit our pillows.

A Little Side Note

It takes a lot to try to remember all we did on our vacation toHawaii...so much so that I need another vacation...so Ryan is taking me on what I told him I wanted for my 30th...a trip to Fredericksburg. We are lucky enough to have our friends Jennifer and Bryan join us. So while I know everyone is dying to know how our vacation ended...you'll have to wait until Monday when I return! By then hopefully we will have the rest of the pictures so we can post a few more from everyone's point of view, not just mine :o) Have a fantastic and safe 4th everyone! Happy Birthday to Jill, Gene, and Marshall Lee!!!

Friday Part 1

Friday morning we woke up and felt soooo much better after a long night’s sleep. It was a beautiful clear morning too! You could see the caldera really well!

We dressed then headed downstairs for breakfast. Larry and Rita were already downstairs as well.

We all went through the buffet line and each of us got a glass of POG juice. Our first experience with it. Passion Orange Guava juice is really quite tasty! Especially when you are eating looking out a giant picture window at the volcano. It was gorgeous. Midway through breakfast the Huhn’s came downstairs. They were smart and had bought pastries at Punaluu the day before to eat for breakfast.

We decided to drive over to the Jagger Museum to get a better look at the smokin’ crater, then drive down to walk through a lava tube. The Jagger museum had not opened yet, but we got to take pictures and read some of the literature around without a crowd around.

We were kicking ourselves for not driving up to the museum the night before and looking into the crater itself…it is heard you can see the orange glow at night! Oh well, it was really foggy and we probably wouldn’t have been able to see anything…at least that is what we have all convinced ourselves. The Chain of Craters road that drove around to the other side of the crater was closed so we doubled back to make our way to see one of the lava tubes. All along both sides of the road, it was somewhat creepy.

Cracks had steam rising out of them…a couple of the cracks had little fences around them so you could walk right up to them and look down…something was causing that steam that was very very hot. We drove down a ways and pulled into a parking lot to get out and look around a bit before heading on down to the lava tube.

It was at the Mauna Iki lookout. It is said that when Mark Twain had stayed at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, he had been there with Mauna Iki was active. He stood at the edge of the caldera and watching the lava steaming and bubbling below. He’s a lot braver than I am that is for sure. If we would have had a bit more time…and a bit more energy, we probably would have walked down inside the crater to look around.

But, we pressed on. A photographer taking pictures of the volcano said it would be hard to find a parking spot at the lava tube and to just walk. It was a nice little hike. Much nicer than the wet hike we had the night before. But when we got to the end of the trail we were disappointed to see the parking lot empty…ugh. Oh well…we’d all end up sending Ryan and Howard back for the cars! It was a short hike to the lava tube itself.

Then you went in. They had even installed lighting so we didn’t need my flashlight. Some lava tubes are tremendously long, but this one was short enough to not creep you out, but long enough that you got the picture. Where we came up out of the tube, you could have kept going…but the disclaimer on the gate you had to go through was a little unnerving. We just went back up. Howard and Ryan brought back the cars and we headed back to the visitor’s center. We listened to one of the park rangers talk and looked around a while, then headed back to the hotel to checkout. We loaded the cars, took a few pictures then went across the street to some picnic tables for a snack. Howard pulled apart the pineapple Ryan had bought on Sunday with his hands and someone got the avocado open. We also had some macadamia nut candies and a couple pastries from Punaluu leftover. It was a perfect snack! When we were done we cleaned up and headed back down the road to Devastation Trail. It’s a trail where you can see, well…devastation. You walk through a beautiful little forest area then all of the sudden everything goes bare.

Lava that bubbles and turns into gas had spewed out of cinder cones around and the fallout destroyed the area. The rock in that area was extremely light...almost weird. Ryan wanted to find a really big one that he could pick up and throw to Howard so it would appear they had super human strength! We walked around looking a bit then headed back to the cars. We all wanted to walk through the Jagger Museum to touch a piece of the newest Hawaiian island that is still under the ocean (we learned about it from the park ranger).

By the time we got back over there, Wesley was sound asleep in the car. We made the trip a quick one. The Jagger Museum was also where they kept all the seismographs…there had been a couple little earthquakes since we’d been on the volcano! None of us felt them though. We loaded in the cars, said our goodbyes to the volcano and headed to Hilo. Now, until now I have failed to mention one of the best parts of the trip…Howard and Ryan on the walkie talkies. HH & KK had the foresight to bring theirs so our cars could talk to one another. Howard and Ryan’s commentary as we drove all over the island were truly hilarious. Also quite entertaining were the variations of stories you would hear being read to Wesley. The book that I would read would be vastly different than the book Howard and Ryan would read. I think ad lib while reading children’s books is something I need to bring into my world. Food for thought…I digress. So we got into Hilo and decided to stop at one of our book’s recommendations called Café 100. More of a drive up, outdoor eatery than a diner or café in my opinion. We had a quick lunch then headed on toward the Inn at Kulaniapia Falls, the bed and breakfast we stayed in our last night.

Thursday

Thursday morning Ryan, Howard and I had decided to meet early in the morning to snorkel before breakfast. When our wake up call arrived which went “Alooooooha. A all’I mai.” Which is not the proper spelling, but it’s what it sounded like…and it sounded so nice and pretty and jovial when we were already awake before our bodies had adjusted to the time difference…but now, when we had adjusted…that call came sooooo early! We called Howard to tell him we were running late…no answer. So we hustled downstairs and found him waiting for us. We all went out and had a blast! Howard saw a spiny lobster and even an eel! No way would I want to see an eel while snorkeling! I saw a Nemo fish and the Blue Cornet fish which were the only two on my laminated guide I hadn’t seen! After an hour or so, I was tired and swam back to shore. Howard and Ryan slowly drifted in. When I got to where we had left our towels, I was surprised to find all our stuff except a room key and the guys’ shirts gone! I shouted to them asking if they moved our stuff. Both shook their heads. Then a lifeguard that had just gotten to the beach approached me apologizing. He said he thought that someone had left them from the night before since it was so early! While we all had been sluggish to get out of bed, we were also very happy we did! We gave all our things a final rinse in the shower by the pool then headed up to change. Krystal had found a place called “U Top It” that made all kinds of pancrepes that we were very anxious to try for breakfast. It was in a little shopping center not far from the hotel. The menu looked awesome…so many decisions!!! Krystal and Kayla got sweet crepes while Ryan, Howard and I went with more breakfast hearty choices. All were very tasty! Too bad we hadn’t discovered this the day before! After breakfast we went back to the hotel to pack up the cars. Talk about a tight fit. I carried down my bags, then immediately left the area leaving Howard and Ryan to figure out how everything would fit. We looked at the turtles one last time.

We got in our cars and headed south! First stop, Greenwell Farms. It is a coffee farm that was mentioned in our Big Island Travel Guide so we pulled over. Talk about a neat place! The outdoor kiosk would have fit on our back porch. They sold all the different coffees that they roasted (and they were roasting some that morning…you could smell it!) as well as a few odds and ins. Next to the outdoor shop were several orange trees, a pineapple growing, and a coffee tree.

One of the workers let us know a tour was about to start of the farm if we would like to go. We all said no, then just kept staring at him. He went over and got a Jackson Chameleon out of one of the orange trees. Even let Kayla and Wesley hold him. He said a whole family lives in the tree! Too cool! So neat looking too.

Then he walked us over to the coffee tree and started telling us all about the farm, how many trees there were, how all their beans have to be picked by hand-picked because they ripen at different times, the difference between peaberry coffee and just your regular kona coffee, how the coffee plant is part of the gardenia family, and all sorts of good info. They even sold green coffee beans there that you could take home and roast yourself. Howard bought a bag. The gentleman told him to go buy a popcorn popper and roast them in there…wow! Genius! I am personally really anxious to hear how that turns out! The worker also let us know that up in the main house, they make sweet bread and it would be ready in a couple hours if we’d like to stop and get some. No, two hours is a bit too long to wait. All of us were browsing around and I found Ryan and I each shirts to buy. Krystal found an avocado tree! Such a neat little place to stop. We all piled back into the cars and headed down the twisting road. We read about a beach in our book called Pebble Beach that sounded pretty neat so we looked extremely hard for the turnoff. We knew the mile markers it was supposed to be between, but missed it the first go around. We had a couple of members in the party feeling a bit carsick so we made a loop looking for the turnoff for the beach. Wow…talk about hard to find and EXTREMELY steep. We lost 1,000 feet really really quickly. It was worth it once at the bottom though. Pebble Beach was well, full of pebbles…and had an incredible sound to it. Very similar to the sounds of Cabo. We all had our leis with us. It is a saying in Hawaii that if you throw your lei into the ocean, you’ll come back to Hawaii. So we all chose to throw our leis in here at Pebble Beach. Goodbye beautiful orchids.

The guidebook also told us that if you took a short hike to the right of Pebble Beach, you would find a little cove that had green sand.
(I'm standing in the cove here...)
Now in Hawaii there is a whole beach made of green sand…it is also a 45 minute hike to and from or a 4wd road. So when we read we might get to see green sand, we were all ecstatic! Ryan, Howard and I made the trip over to see if it would be worth having the whole family walk it. And it was. A nice little cove where a few beginnings of sea caves had begun. In those sea caves, green sand mixed with the black sand!

Too cool! The green sand is from the stone olivine which is in the ground on Hawaii. As the waves breakdown the lava and olivine, it forms the sand, and thus green sand beach! We took quite a few pictures in the rocky cove…doubt many people in the world have ever made it to that little place on earth. It felt special :) As we walked back, we noticed that all of the black rocks we’d walked on to get to the green sand had olivine all in them! It looked like the sugar crystals you put on top of sugar cookies…but green. It was gorgeous. We gave our Alohas to the beach then got back in the cars. As we approached the southern tip of the island, things got a little spooky. Vast expanses of lava flows. Very barren, no coral graffiti, hardly any plant life, just barren. We stopped at a scenic point and looked about quickly. From here you could see the road to the southern most tip of the island…and a wind farm. We had a couple of hungry tummies, so we didn’t turn to go down the road to the tip though. Trees grew sideways the wind was so strong. Just amazing. Larry had happened upon the name of a bakery while looking at a website before we went to Hawaii called Punaluu Bakery. Touting itself as the southern most bakery in the US, and with two car fulls of bakery critics, it seemed to be the most logical place for us to eat. What a magnificent place to stop.

Attached to the bakery/restaurant was a gift shop and a little botanical garden to browse in. It was here Krystal and I bought matching Plumeria Blossom perfumes, but more importantly had our first malasadas. Wow…think doughnut or beignet made with Hawaiian sweet bread. Wow. The plain sugar was my favorite…only after I had my burger though :o) While our food was getting ready we browsed around the gardens…and my camera ran out of batteries. Tall beautiful palm trees and all sorts of plants. Yep, we had crossed from the barren west side of the island onto the eastern wet side of the island. We saw lots of our favorite birds too. Neat little red headed, black backed, gray chested birds. We loaded back into our cars then started the climb up to Kilauea. We got to stay in the Volcano House which is on the edge of the Kilauea caldera. Cool people like Mark Twain and Franklin Roosevelt had stayed there. We drove into a foggy mess. We were all somewhat disappointed, wishing we had a better view. We unloaded our bags into our rooms and I rinsed off. Ryan had headed down to look around (the walls were full of photographs, history, volcano information) and browse the gift shops. I joined him. FINALLY! I found Christmas ornaments! I’d looked at several places in Kona and never found one I liked! Immediately bought two as well as an Israel Kamakawiwo`ole cd. Then I headed into the great room. In it was a fire that has burning for over 120 years. It smelled like it in there too. Take the smell of your favorite campfire and triple it. Then we loaded back in the cars and headed down the volcano to eat and then to hike out to see the lava. All of had rain jackets, but not all had hoods. All wore closed toe shoes except Ryan. We ate at a “steakhouse” in a little town at the bottom of the volcano. Krystal and I both had never been to a steakhouse that seemed so much like…uh, well…not one. No one was very hungry so we ate light and hit the road. It would rain really hard for a few minutes, then let up, off and on, off and on. Finally as we got closer and closer to where you could go see the lava, it started to lighten up. The road came to a dead end and had a sign posted about park times, all sorts of cautions etc. Our impalas pressed on…over new lava fields…down a one lane, one way makeshift road. Kayla and I had been brushing up on our Hawaiian phrases and quizzing one another when out the window, oh my gosh…you could see the lava coming down the side of the mountain! Whoa. You may have seen it on tv, but until you’ve sat at the foot of a mountain and watched it coming down, you never get how truly amazing it is. Cars that seemed to be “stalled sat every once a while randomly in a field…until you realized…wait, it isn’t stalled, it’s abandoned because the lava came and took it. And the same went with houses! You could see where old parking lots to “go see the lava” used to be…with lava flows on them now. You feel completely humbled. We finally arrived and realized the rest of the world got there before we did. You even had to back into your parking space, which we could only assume was in case a quick evacuation needed to take place. We got out of the cars and headed down the path. Of course it started to rain. Poor Howard carried Wesley the long hike down over the slippery, treacherous lava surface. Cracks all over, random drop offs, and did I mention it had gotten dark suddenly? Great. Lots of flashlights headed back toward us…I kept wanting to stop someone to ask “excuse me, how much further.” I bet it easily took us forty five minutes to hike down there. When you got to the bottom, it was worth it. Where the lava hit the ocean a huge plume of steam was constantly rising. And with it dark out, you could see it exploding as it hit the water. Utterly amazing. It has quit raining by the time we got down there. We all sat down and just watched. You could see the lava flowing from the top of this hill down into the ocean. We were witnessing the birth of brand new land. We sat and stared for probably an hour.

HH,KK and the kids headed up a bit earlier than we did. I didn’t mention that when you looked straight up, between the clouds, the stars were unbelievable. Hundreds upon hundreds. I cried a little. Truly the most incredible sight I have ever seen. “Clouds make rain, ocean makes land, earth breathes fire and lava makes land. Now that took a mighty hand and a wild imagination (WW).” We slowly hiked our way back up with Larry and Rita stopping every once in a while stopping to look and watch it some more. When we got back to the cars, both kids were asleep. We quietly headed back to the hotel. Car ride home was filled with ooohhhs and aahhhs of amazement of what we’d just witnessed…how blessed we were. And all of us were cold and wet too. Ryan and I both took hot showers to warm up when we got back to the Volcano House. As I laid on probably the most uncomfortable bed I have ever been on, I fell asleep…absolutely forgetting I even had a journal.

"Rest" Day - Wednesday

Wednesday morning Ryan and I got up and ate a good breakfast once again then headed for the best snorkeling spot on the island…which just so happened to be connected to our hotel! The gate to the beach had not been opened yet so we hopped over then headed out into the water. We sat our stuff down on a ramp where I noticed a small little black thing crawling. It was about half the size of my pinky nail. It was a little bitty black crab! Too cute! The beach was salt and pepper colored so the crab blended right in. Too funny! I got my flippers on and scooted out into the water. Lots of very slippery rocks in this area. Which is why there are so many green sea turtles in that area as well. Lots of algae to feed on. I put my head in the water and immediately forgot about how miserably cold the water was. Tons of color! All sorts of beautiful fish, coral, and lots of sea urchins. I saw all but two of the fish on the chart mom had laminated for me then decided I had a pretty good morning and would head back in. By this time the rest of the family had made it down and Howard had Kayla out snorkeling already. In fact, a sea turtle had made his way up right next to where we had put our things so we all got great pictures with a turtle up close! I sat at the water’s edge with Wesley and helped him find little crabs on the rocks and try to catch the little fish swimming around in the shallow area. We played there for about a couple hours. We rinsed off our things then headed out to find lunch (which ended up being at Bongo Ben’s once again). After lunch we went out to Hapuna Beach.

Larry and Rita rested under a palm tree, while the rest of us played in the sand and in the water. Such a gorgeous beach! Wes and Uncle Ryan tried to build a little sand tunnel while Kayla played in Hapuna’s surf. Talk about body surfing! It was amazing to see such golden sand so close to the black sand we had seen at Kiholo Bay days before. We convinced everyone we needed to stop there on our way back to the hotel. Hapuna was pretty crowded (at least compared to the beach we had been to the day before) so we packed up after a couple hours and headed back up the road. As promised we stopped at Kiholo and took several pictures.

At this point, most all of us were ready for our next Scandinavian Shaved Ice. This time Howard and Krystal got their family a large to split (it’s only thrity pounds). Ryan and I couldn’t agree on what we wanted to split so we each got our own.

Ryan even got ice cream in the middle of his! You had the option of getting sweetened condensed milk on top of it as well, but the kid before us did and it made both of us nauseated so we refrained. Larry opted to just go with the ice cream by itself without any shaved ice (which was a nice choice too…caramel macadamia nut…yum!). Howard got sooooo many stares when he came out of the shop with the enormous shaved ice!

They even told him that he could come back halfway through to get more syrup because they couldn’t put it all on at one time!
After we were done…wait, let me clarify, none of us “finished” them so much as couldn’t eat anymore…we went back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner. David O had recommended Jameson’s By the Sea, so we called and made our reservation. We had the most incredible table. It was out on the porch watching the waves and surfers. It was too cool! You could see the ocean spray in the air. The waves were beautiful. The sunset while we were there and I got yelled at for climbing onto a rock wall to try to take a picture…come on people, why build a rock wall at perfect stepping height if you don’t want me to climb on it ;o) After dinner, Wesley had fallen asleep, so Krystal and Howard left to take him back to the hotel. The rest of our group decided we would go see the manta rays at the Sheraton. Just as we were standing up to leave, we noticed the staff feeding something below and it was drawing a crowd of guests. Rita, Kayla and I went to observe. Eels…lots and lots and lots of eels…slinky, slippery, creepy eels…yuck! Made all of us uneasy…I mean…we swim near lots of rocks…gives me the shivers even thinking about it now! We watched for a little while until the waiter was out of bread for them, then headed off for the Sheraton. Sweet Kayla was getting really sleepy. But, the manta rays were worth seeing. The Sheraton (in Keahou Bay where we kayaked a couple days before) has two large spot lights set up on the water.

The light attracts plankton…and manta rays come out to eat them. We saw about ten. All probably eight to twelve feet in width. They were beautiful and so graceful. They would all get in a single file line behind one another, see their mouths open, swimming right toward you, then they would turn, swim around a bit then get back in line. We were told you can dive at night with them and they won’t harm you. Unlike sting rays, manta rays apparently don’t have the strike. I still don’t know if I could do it though….they were huge. I can’t imagine being in the water with them…in the dark. We only stayed for about twenty minutes then went back to our hotel. Kayla was exhausted. Now…I think this happened Wednesday night, but it might have been Tuesday…since I stopped writing in the journal out of sheer exhaustion, I lose track. Ryan and I changed into our swimming suits and decided to go for a night swim while we did a load of laundry…that is, we tried. The pool closed at 9:00! We laid in the hammocks while waiting for the laundry to dry. We were leaving on Thursday morning and had had such a nice time while in Kona. As soon as the laundry was done we headed back upstairs, folded and got pretty well packed. We put our volcano clothes in one bag and all the rest of our clothes in another. That way we’d only have to take in one bag to the Volcano House the next day. Again…completely exhausted after such a full day…we were asleep as soon as the heads hit the pillow.

Tuesday

Picture day! Remember when you were little and picture day was always such a big deal (at least at our house). Mom would wake us up early (or curl our hair in sponge rollers the night before) to get us all primped and ready. The outfit you wore was chosen with precision and planning complete with a matching hairbow. Family picture day was no different. I got up, showered and got my hair dried before breakfast. I had to wait until after breakfast to curl the hair because the humidity would make all the curls fall if I curled it too early. After getting the hair curled, applied picture makeup, then carefully put on my white shirt and khakis, being careful not to get anything dirty. Rita had bought all the girls plumeria clips to wear. We also packed our swim and snorkel stuff so after pictures we could find a good beach to play at. We all met downstairs and everyone looked awesome! Took about forty minutes or so to get to the beach the photographer had us meet at. It was on a Four Seasons property and when we pulled up to the security gate, you could tell they were snobby to “outsiders.” We made our way down a pretty, groomed golf course road to a little parking lot and a boardwalk. Pulling in right behind us was our photographer, David O. Baldwin and his assistant Birgit (pronounced beer get). He introduced himself to us and the kids as Uncle Beach. We hiked down the path and followed him onto a beautiful secluded little place called Kukio beach.

How do people ever find this we wondered! David explained the house that fronted the property covered six acres…yes, covered property! It belonged to Michael Dell and he had the beach “restored” and spent two and a half weeks a year here. Wow. Why would you have such a beautiful place and only spend that amount of time there! Anyways, David O was awesome. He knew how to work with the kids, the sun, the adults…everything. He took over 250 pictures, made sure we had gotten all the poses we wanted, even gave us some tips about where to snorkel and where to eat, then lead us back to the parking lot. All of us (sans David and Birgit) changed into our suits and headed back for the beach we had to ourselves! Ryan and I immediately took off to snorkel with Larry not far behind. This beach also had quite a few sea turtles which we discovered quickly. I watched one from about five feet away while he ate algae off of the rocks below. Incredible! Ryan was motioning to me about something so I said bye to the turtle and swam over to rps. On my way I had to stop suddenly. What Ryan had been watching (another sea turtle) swam directly underneath me…only about a foot away! If I would have kept kicking my feet, I would have hit him! I squealed and squealed out my snorkel. Ryan said he could hear me and giggled. Too cool! We snorkeled around for about an hour, then I had to head back in. I was starting to get cold and was ready to rest. Not long after I headed in, lps, rps, and hh all headed back in too.

Then it was Krystal and Kayla’s turn. HH and rps took them out for a bit while Rita snorkeled up close to wear we were sitting on the beach. Wesley, Larry and I just hung out…ate a few Pringles, and soaked in our surroundings. When everyone had finished snorkeling, we packed up our stuff and headed back toward Kona. We found Bongo Ben’s for lunch. All of us had worked up quite an appetite by this time. Kinda a neat little place…our waitress was from Austin…or she went to UT at least. It was a pretty good place. I had the grilled ham, turkey and cheese. Ahhh…a tasty treat! After lunch we drove up to Hilo Hattie’s. We were headed to a luau that night and Howard needed a shirt to wear. Funny how you can get carried away. We were supposed to be at the luau at 4:30…and it was already past 3:00 and we were still out and about shopping! Everyone hurried back to the hotel, showered and cleaned up as quickly as possible then met back downstairs. Back into the cars, then back down the road to the luau at King Kamehameha’s Hotel. We checked in, had our picture taken, then were escorted to our seats. Hawaiian punch was served at the tables and Mai Tai’s were served in another area around the corner.

We got to see someone teach us how to open a coconut, Kayla and Krystal learned to hula, and we got to see the pig pulled out of the pit it had been cooked in all day. We also watched the royal court (well, the pretend royal court as it was done many years ago) enter. As dinner began, a small band played music while everyone went through the lines. Pulled pork, salad, poi, all kinds of vegetables and things that unless they were labeled, I wouldn’t know what they were. Yes, I tried the poi…and really, it is supposed to be eaten with something…kinda like a gravy. So that’s how I tried it…with my pork. It has no taste. Just a filler. So I’m sure for those of you who are in the “poi is disgusting” group, you’re concerns are valid. But if you just had cream gravy or brown gravy by itself…wouldn’t you think the same about that? Anyways, off my poi soap box. No, I don’t need it on my food, but it isn’t near as bad as having to eat sushi (at least for me since I don’t like sushi). Back to the luau. As the dancers began, the first part was more relaxed dancing. Then they took a break and started their Polynesian dancing as the sun went down. They went through the different islands and showed you dances common in the different islands. WOW. That was impressive…and kinda scary! The sun had started to set and Wesley had been lap hopping trying to get comfortable so he could go to sleep. He happened to be in mine when the “scary dance” started…

red and black paint on their faces, kinda violent looking outfits and such…he immediately set himself up. Not long after crawled back into his mom’s lap. Last the fire dancer performed. They raised a net between the crowd and him…and I was okay with that. It was the longest fire throwing show I’ve ever seen! Very impressive! Afterward both kids were falling asleep so we scooted home quickly. Ryan and I decided we would go snorkeling first thing on Wednesday morning so we got all our stuff ready to go and by the door. I thought about writing in my journal, but was just too tired. Maybe there would be down time tomorrow to write in it…

Monday continued...

We got to the airport at just the right time. Ryan had received a text message from Howard they were about to land (wait, aren’t all cell phones supposed to be off during flights). Larry and Rita were already there and waiting as well. We all stood at the baggage claim and waited patiently for them to walk out and receive their leis. They walked out looking pretty awesome for just going through ten hours of traveling!

We loaded up their bags and swept them off to get checked in. Kayla got to the hotel and was thrilled to go see all the sea turtles off the balcony. After they got their stuff put away, changed and cleaned up a bit, we left to go grab an early dinner. We stopped along the way at a blowhole Larry and Rita had found in their morning of discovering. An odd tree with a large bumpy fruit all over it was near the road. All of us were wondering what it was, when Kayla announces it is a breadfruit…and sure enough she was right! Brilliant! After a quick look, we piled back into the cars and headed to the Sheraton…when we got there we realized the restaurants weren’t going to be open for another hour or so…ugh. We were all hungry and couldn’t wait that long. Back into the cars…next stop, Huggo’s on the Rocks. Again, they weren’t open yet, but all tables were empty and waitstaff hanging about. Back into the cars…next we just parked in the main shopping area and decided to eat whatever we could find that didn’t looks too expensive or too crowded. The Fish Hopper was close and sounded perfect! After we all got settled in, we immediately ordered appetizers and pretty quickly knew what we wanted to eat. I had the Kahula Pork…and from the looks on everyone’s faces when they tried mine, I think I ordered the best! Kahula Pork is the pork that is cooked in the ground…like at a luau. It was extremely moist and had an incredible flavor. I had been a little concerned it would not be served with a sauce, but after trying it, it didn’t need one. It was wonderful! Ryan had the Mahi Mahi over sweet potatoes. I had never seen sweet potatoes that were bright purple! They looked crazy, but tasted wonderful! He was happy he opted for the sweet potatoes over the rice (it was the other option you could get as a side). What we found interesting is that every plate…even Kayla’s had a little mini orchid on it. Too cool! Orchids are so plentiful, they use them like we do parsley or mint! The table behind us ordered dessert from a magnificent looking dessert tray…our whole table turned and looked…wow….sweet potato pie, coconut cake, macadamia nut pie, snicker cheesecake! We opted to take a snicker pie, coconut cake, and macadamia nut pie with us. While Larry and Howard checked us all out, the rest of the gang walked across the street to the beach. Sweet Wesley had been asking “wanna go beach” since he’d arrived. He finally got to stick his feet in the water!

After playing for a bit, we stopped at the Scandinavian Shaved Ice. Absolutely huge! Now the Huhn family was all hooked too. After Wesley chugged down some of the snow cone juice, we all piled back in the cars and headed for the hotel. Wesley fell asleep on the way back and was carried up to his room. We’d made a plan to rendezvous back downstairs to enjoy the desserts in about ten minutes. Ryan and I changed into our bathing suits and headed down. Ended up only Larry, Ryan and I could keep our eyes open long enough to enjoy them. We each had a few bites (the macadamia nut pie being my favorite…like pecan pie, but made with macadamia nuts instead!) then sat and chatted. After half an hour and us realizing no one else would be coming down, Larry headed upstairs with the desserts and Ryan and I headed to the pool. It was quite relaxing after having such a busy day. The pool wasn’t incredibly crowded either. Six foot deep at it’s deepest and the most shallow was at four feet. There was a baby pool though…which we thought to be the hot tub, but later realized it was only knee deep and made for the little ones. After a few laps, we quietly retreated back to the room. We both ironed our clothes for the next morning…I say we…what I really mean is Ryan. I started to iron, then go so fed up with it, Ryan took over. I wrote maybe a quarter of a page in the journal, my final few postcards, and fell asleep. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer!