Everything they say about Hawaii is true. It is a living paradise that stirs the soul. I have seen very few places that compare to it's beauty. Driving through the countryside is literally like driving on a perpetual postcard. You want to stop every few feet and snap a new picture. So you know what? I did. Well, I was not quite that bad, but I did take almost 600 pictures while we were there, and over an hours worth of video. Of those 600 photos, I whittled it down to 432 keepers. Yeah I know, but what are you going to do? How often are we going to be in Hawaii? I will spare you from having to look at all 432 pictures, but I am going to make a very significant photo post with lots and lots of writing, so get some popcorn, grab a drink, and behold the wonders of the big island.
Sunday started out bright and early. Lori and I had to do some last minute packing, and we wanted to get a few hours of playtime in with the kids before we had to leave. We spent the morning enjoying the kids laughter and listening to their ever present arguing. (You know, this might come as a shock, but I discovered it's much easier to listen to the kids fighting and bickering when you know that you will be in Hawaii later in the day) We visited with Nana, who arrived the night before, as Lori went over her entirely too long "what to do" list. After getting everything squared away we bid farewell to the kids, gave Nana hug for encouragement, and off we went.
We purposely broke up the plane flight into two segments. I did not think I could handle a direct 9 hour flight, so we scheduled a stop in Los Angeles. The first leg of our journey started at 12:15pm and was a 3 1/2 flight followed with an hour and a half layover. That went very smooth. After we landed in LA, we departed to plane and found a Chili's by the gate to grab a bite to eat. 1 appetizer, 2 draught beers, and a couple of Margs later, we were almost $70 lighter in the wallet. What the.....? "Dang, if Hawaii is more expensive than this, we might not get home."
We boarded our plane a while later, and settled in for our 5 1/2 hour flight to Kona, Hawaii. Now even though we broke up the direct flight, to me 5 1/2 hours on a plane is a LOOOOOONG TIME! As we got closer to Hawaii, I was ready to claw my way out of the plane. We finally arrived about 7:45 pm. Hey that's not too bad....12:15 - 7:45.....when you say it like that it seems downright quick. Quick that is until you add in the 5 hour time difference. Uhhhhh......12:45am Texas time. Geesh.
We picked up our sweet 2010 4 door Jeep Wrangler 4x4, put the top down, and headed for the house that we rented. We traveled north up the coast about 40 miles. By the time we got there, it was after 10:00pm. (That's 2:00am Texas Time for those keeping score) We got unpacked, grabbed a snack and a couple of stress relaxing drinks, and heading out to the Lanai (fancy word for patio) to enjoy the cool night breeze. Over 2 1/2 hours later, we finally headed to bed. (That would be 4:30am Texas time.......in other words......one really long day.)
We woke up around 5:00am the next morning and we were greeted with this view from our Lanai.
Wow. Talk about a pick me up. We spent part of the morning visiting with our friends, and then we all set out for Kona. Lori and a couple of the people staying with us were scheduled to meet other work people at Bubba Gump's restaurant for lunch. On our way to Kona, we stopped of at Waikoloa Beach to grab a couple of pictures. Here is the walkway down to the beach.
After getting to the beach, you are met with this view.
Here is Lori and me contemplating stripping off our clothes and getting in the water.
Since Lori had to meet work associates, we thought better of getting wet and heading out for Kona. Once we got there, we moseyed over to Bubba Gumps.
We sampled the food and enjoyed the drinks. A good time was had by all.
After we left Kona, we met some friends at their condo in Waikoloa. They cooked all of us a wonderful steak dinner, and we spent the next couple of hours visiting. We finally got home about 10:00pm and enjoyed the Lanai until we all got tired and went to bed.
Tuesday morning Lori set out with her crew to the other side of the island for a 4 hour horseback ride. While she did that, I hit up about 50 miles worth of unforgiving 4x4 jeep trails, trying to locate the perfect spot. Here is the view from the beginning of Lori's horseback ride.
This is one of the many waterfalls that Lori's tour passed.
Here is Lori showing off her riding skills while crossing a stream.
We all met back at the house in the late afternoon, and had a nice dinner at the house.
Wednesday was conference day for Lori and her co-workers, so everyone that was left, piled in the jeep and went to the beach. Now we had our choice between two different beaches, and of course we chose the one that was the closest to the conference center. In hindsight I must say it was a bad decision. We were there for about 20 minutes when I decided to Kick box a Lava Rock. I lost. I know, that sounds pretty stupid, but it's not quite as dumb as you think. You see, I was about 40 yards out from shore in about 10 feet of water. I was minding my own business treading water when suddenly out of nowhere a big lava rock jumped out of the ocean floor and slammed into my foot. Ok, maybe it was already there and I did not see it, but damn you really don't expect on solitary rock to be sticking up 3 feet from the ocean floor. Anyway, I kicked it will the full force of the bottom of my right foot. It hurt like crazy. After slinging some rather tawdry vocabulary at said rock, I reached down and rubbed the inside of my foot. Everything seemed fine other than the excruciating pain I was feeling. I figured I just bruised it. I was probably in the water about 5 more minutes when I just happened to look down and see a red cloud engulfing my right foot and part of my shin. To be honest, it's one of those sights that really doesn't register at first. I was thinking, "what in the hell is floating around my foot". After a couple of seconds of befuddlement, it suddenly occurred to me that I was seeing blood. My blood. My blood floating around me in an ocean filled with man eating sharks. "Nah, couldn't be blood" I thought, so I reached down with my right hand and felt the outside bottom of my foot. When my fingers suddenly slipped into a crevice, I knew something was wrong. "Got to get out of water before I attract Jaws" was my next thought. So, I hightailed it back to shore to check the damage. "Hey Megan, can you see a cut on my foot?" "Oh crap, that's pretty bad. We need to stop the bleeding" Not the words you want to hear while on vacation, especially when all of the medical personnel that is staying with you is attending an all day conference. Megan was able to apply pressure while holding a "product" that she had conveniently located in her purse. It was the type of "product" one needs for other occasions, but it's absorbent abilities were perfectly utilized in this situation. I was thankful when the bleeding stopped about 10 minutes later.
I did not want to be a party pooper for the 3 other people with me, so I sucked it up and made the best out of the next 3 hours. Leaving sucked, for we had parked the vehicle about a 1/4 mile from the beach. An open wound filled with tiny lava rock sand on the bottom of my foot equals one long painful walk. We drove home, and then came the really painful part. You see, as hard as I tried in the shower, I could not get all of that lava sand out of that stinking cut. Some was just embedded in there. It finally came down to me gritting my teeth, and Megan going in with a pair of tweezers to remove the remaining debris. Holy Smokes that made the walk to the jeep I was complaining about earlier seem like a Sunday stroll. Whew, I was glad when she plucked out the last piece. After this photo was recorded for posterity, we pinched the wound together, and applied a tegaderm patch.
After resting a while, we all got dressed up and ready to attend Lori's after conference meet and greet. No dancing for me tonight. The function turned out really nice, and we all had a good time. Here is a picture of Lori and me at the dinner.
We left at a decent hour, and after arriving home went to bed early. Big day tomorrow.
Thursday was our planned snorkel trip. It was fantastic. I covered my foot with duct tape, and I was ready to go. We had a blast. We were in approx. 20-50 feet of water. Visibility was 100+ feet, so you could clearly see the bottom. We saw an Eagle Ray, a Manta Ray, a Green eel, lots and lots of coral and many species of fish. After leaving the first spot and heading out a bit, we suddenly found a large pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. We all jumped in. We were now in 300+ deep water, with a black sandy bottom. No more seeing the ocean floor anymore. At first it was bit disconcerting, not knowing what was beneath you. It is especially disconcerting when you are told by the guide on the boat next to you that they saw two 14 foot Tiger sharks while on their dive earlier. Hmmmmm........... You know, it's funny, but once the Dolphins start swimming all around you and you hear them communicating, you kind of get lost in the moment, and none of that other stuff matters. Yeah...kind of....... We stayed there for about 45 minutes just being one with the Dolphins. It was pretty stinking cool. Here are some pictures I snapped during both dives.
We left the dive shop, and went back the the house to change. We had a Luau to attend and needed to get cleaned up. We were back in Kona about two hours later, ready to feast on some pig, and a whole lot of other traditional stuff.
Mmmmmmmm........Kailua (pig roasted on lava rocks buried underground with banana leaves on top)
Let the show begin,
and end
Whew, we were beat. We traveled home, and hit the hay.
Friday was another wonderful day, and it started with a beautiful sunrise.
I decided to take a few pictures of the house and surrounding area.
That last one was a really cool koi pond in front of the house.
Today we had two things on the agenda. First was a Zip Line tour, and second was a visit to the volcano. The Zip line tour was on the other side of the island, so we departed the house around 10:00am.
The drive to the other side of the island was very beautiful, so we made a few stops for pictures. Check out the height of these trees.
Here is a beautiful waterfall taken from one of the bridges.
After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at our destination.
As we walked to the sight to pick up our gear, Lori and I got our photo taken under a walking tree.
Here is the entire crew, all geared up and ready for our adventure.
Our guides, Bear and Joy, pictured in the last photo were fantastic host. Very personable and knowledgeable, living and loving the island life. The zip lines were loads of fun. I was able to take lots of pictures and video, and it was a very unique experience. Here is a picture of Lori as she travels over a 50-70 ft deep gorge.
Here is one of the videos that I took while zipping above the rain forest on a 450 ft steel tether.There was lots and lots of different plant and tree life, and our guides took to time to identify and explain most of them. Here is a beautiful Rainbow Eucalyptus tree.
This is an ocean view from our next Zip spot.
We did a total of 7 Zip lines, with the last being an 1100 ft long dual line. You got to race a partner to the bottom on that one. It was a blast.
We left the Zip place mid afternoon and heading down the coast to Hilo. As we were crossing Hawaii University's campus, Lori snapped this picture of a beautiful Mimosa tree.
We found a really nice park right down the road, and stopped for an afternoon dip in the ocean. Of course, I took lots of pictures.
We felt refreshed after our swim, and headed further south to the Volcano. We decided not to go to the actual volcano, but instead to go to one of the larger lava flows. After we got there, we found out that flow was so active that we were restricted from getting too close. It was kind of a bummer, but I was able to get a couple of good pictures. Here is Lori with the hot lava steaming in the background.
Here is a photo that shows the powerful majesty of mother nature with active flowing lava lighting up the mountain side.
We left the volcano about 10:00pm, and the 2 1/2 hour drive home seemed to take forever. I was driving in a downpour most of the way with a jeep full of sleeping girls. I was whipped by the time we got home. It was a very long and active day, and that was one of the toughest drives I have ever endured.
Saturday morning we slept in a bit, and did not get rolling until 10:30am. It was some of the crews last day, so we decided to go to Hapuna beach. It is the only white sand beach on the island, and the one that we should have gone to the day I hurt my foot. Grrrrr...... After leaving the house, I notice a canoe race that was going around the island. Canoeing is a really big deal in the islands, so I just had to stop on the side of the road and get a picture. It turned out pretty good.
We got back on the road, and within 15 minutes we had arrived at our destination.
It was beautiful, and a beach we should have come to earlier. We stayed for a couple of hours, and then parted ways the the rest of our company. They headed to the airport, and Lori and I were on our own. As we headed back to our house, I stopped to get a picture of Mona Kea.
We took off again, and set out on a jeep adventure. I wanted to show Lori one of the spots that I had found while exploring on Tuesday.
This was our own little private area while we were there. It was stunningly beautiful a little before sunset.
We left there and got back to the house just in time for me to take this picture of the sunset from our Lanai.
After cleaning up, Lori and I went out to dinner at a small little restaurant that was 5 minutes from the house. We weren't expecting much judging by the name...SEAFOOD BAR, but boy were we in for a surprise. It was gourmet dining at it's finest, and the food was incredible. It's always great to find gems like this on vacation. Lori sampled the fresh blackened swordfish, while I had a little surf and turf. Everything was cooked to perfection. We left the restaurant and enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting out on the Lanai. It's really hard to describe the celestial offerings one can witness in Hawaii. The stars are so clear and so plentiful, it almost looks like the earth has been wrapped in some type of glowing blanket. I wish I had a camera that could take the type of picture that could do it justice. I'm really not sure that anyone owns such a camera. What I do know is that I do not need a camera to remember that vision of the heavens, for it will remain with me for the rest of my life. It is simply breathtaking.
Sunday marked our last day on the island. We woke up, and found another absolute gem for breakfast. The placed was called the HARBOR GRILL, and their morning menu was pure bliss. We stuffed ourselves, and then set out on our final adventure. Our flight was not scheduled to depart until 9:20pm, so we made the best of our time by visiting our favorite beach again.
We stayed for a couple of hours, and then went back to the house to pack. After packing, we signed the guest tree,
and headed for Kona to do some shopping before going to the airport. On the way, I stopped on the side of the road to snap this gem.
I mean, how many opportunities do you get to take a picture of a donkey crossing sign? One last sign, and it was time to say goodbye to our brief taste of paradise.
The plane ride home seemed much longer than the flight down. I guess that happens to all who leave such a beautiful place. Even though it was sad leaving, we were both excited to get home to see our little monkeys. A week is a long time to go without seeing your kids. Next time, we will take them with us, so they can also experience paradise.
William
PS. I would like to say Maholo (Thank you) to Dianne. Taking care of our two monkeys is very difficult, and we really appreciate your help. We could not have filled our canteens without you.
