This year we took a trip to Kona, Hawaii. We left home on Friday, June 30th and arrived later that day in Kona. We used our timeshare and had a nice condo to stay in. Yes, it had a view of the beach!
June 30 – Day 1
We arrived mid afternoon after a somewhat long flight. We grabbed a taxi from the airport and had a short ride to the condo. After we were all checked in, we went to have dinner at the Thai Rin Restaurant and watched the sunset from our table (right on the beach). After dinner, we strolled through downtown Kona and checked out all the places we wanted to visit in town. There is quite a bit of shopping there and even more places to rent stuff from. After our walk, we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the condo for a GREAT night's sleep.
July 1 – Day 2
Still on Tucson time, Brad woke up at 5 AM. . . for those of you that have been to Hawaii, you know this is completely against the rules. If any of the locals knew about this we were sure to be thrown off the island. Of course it was just in time to watch the Tour de France prologue, so that makes it all OK!
With bicycling on the brain we decided to rent some cruiser bikes. It's funny that we didn't realize there were hills in Kona until we got on the bikes. We should have upgraded to mountain bikes with gears! After a short cruise on the bikes (that's why their called cruiser bikes), we picked up a rental car so we could make some longer trips. We stopped by the grocery store to get some snacks and drinks and drove around to locate the Ocean Safari Kayak place. Of course you can only call in reservations so that trip was not so useful. We did do some snorkeling in the Bay area. We stayed there a while and splashed in the water sharing Brad's snorkel gear. The water was beautiful and crystal clear. It was also extremely salty! Although we did not see much marine life, we had fun playing in the water.
Later that day, we walked through the farmer's market in downtown Kona. We grabbed some strawberry mango and a pineapple for a couple bucks and headed back to the room for a short break. That was some of the freshest fruit we had ever tasted! And the cheapest!
That evening we ate dinner at Buba Gump's. This place had some great service. The people were extremely friendly and they all acted like we were the only ones in the whole restaurant. The atmosphere was awesome. Our table sat on a deck that overlooked the ocean. We could see little crabs walking on the rocks and had to listen to the waves all through dinner. They had a killer mango pina colada too! They are also known for there "Lava Coloda". Since the big island is known for its volcanoes, you can see where they got the name for that one. Too bad we didn't (or couldn't) save any room for dessert.
July 2 – Day 3
Another early morning with the Tour de France . . . and then we picked up Deanna's snorkel gear at Snorkel Bob's. From there, we drove the rental car to Kekana Kai State Park and splashed around. We saw several different colorful fish. Brad saw a sea turtle, while Deanna watched him from the beach.
When we got back, we decided to go out for a couple of drinks. We stopped at the Royal Kona Resort and had a mai thai, strawberry margarita and a pina colada. Since we were unable to have it with dinner the night before, we went back to Bubba Gump's for dessert too. Of course, we had another mango pina colada – so far the best drink on the island.
July 3 – Day 4
Today was the trip to Volcano National Park.
Along the way we drove past South Point (but not to it), the southern most point in the USA. We made some short stops at a black sand beach and a couple of scenic stops.
We arrived at the park and headed into the visitor center to catch a short film. Before the film started, we walked through the Volcano House and the rest of the visitor center. The film was pretty interesting. Did you know another island is already being formed? Don't get your hopes up to visit it any time soon. It might still be several thousand years before we get to vacation there and even then it might only fit one family at a time.
After the intro to the park, we walked through some of the steam vent trails, along part of the crater rim and back up to the Volcano House. The steam vents spew out sulfur and lots of heat. You could smell it and feel it along the whole path. It was a nice walk, but the smell wasn't all that wonderful.
From the visitor center we headed off to the lava tubes. This is like a cave that you can walk through. It is pretty huge and we only walked in a tiny piece of it. The rest of it was closed off. Well, closed off to people who are law abiding citizens. There had to be some goof balls that crawled over the gate to get in.
After the lava tube we started on our quest to find some fresh lava! We rode around the largest crater and headed out along crater road where we passed several other smaller craters. It got to be pretty windy there at some points and for a while we thought Deanna might fly away.
We made it to the end of the road where we could walk out along the beach on the "new" lava flows. The new lava is from the 1990's – 2003. We arrived there about 40 minutes before the sun set. It was obvious where the lava entered the ocean…clouds of steam towered above the water. As the sun started setting we could make out other areas where the lava was flowing down the volcano. And at times you could see the actual lava at the shoreline too. We didn't bring flashlights so we did not walk as far as we could have. After sitting and enjoying the show for a while we headed back to the car, walking in the lava, in the dark. Luckily it was not pitch black and there was a girl in front of us with a light to follow out. If you plan to go, bring good shoes and plan to walk a couple miles in the dark for the best show.
July 4 – Day 5
This was the day we went on an ocean kayak tour with Ocean Safari's. This was fun, but Brad got sea sick about halfway to the stopping point. As Brad recovered on the rock cliffs, Deanna snorkeled in the perfect water spot. Once Brad recovered he took a little splash in the ocean and Deanna climbed the rocks for a fruity snack and cold drink.
Before we headed back to the bay to put the kayak away we did a quick cliff jump. Deanna lead the way and Brad followed her into the water. When we made it back to the bay there were some sea turtles waiting for us.
Back to the room we took a nice long nap – kayaking is hard work if you are not used to it. Besides, we wanted to make sure we could stay up to watch the fireworks. When we woke, we looked like we were morphing into crabs! We had both gotten a little burnt. The worst was Deanna's legs that she had not put sunscreen on. Oooops!
In the evening, we had some drinks at Huggos and watched the fireworks from the beach while sitting in the restaurant. The Piano player played along while the fireworks blasted.
July 5 – Day 6
Today we chose to drive to Hilo. We started along the Ironman World Championship bike route up to the northern part of the island. We stopped for a delicious cafe mocha in Hawi.
One of the coolest places was Pololu Valley Lookout. We hiked down to a black sand beach. The hike was pretty steep but nice and short. It was worth the trip and the views along the way were awesome.
When we reached Hilo we started with a short walk to look at Rainbow Falls. We stopped to look at the strange looking tree. . . or was it a bunch of trees stuck together? The Banyan tree looks like a bunch of trees, or a bunch of roots all growing together – and it is huge!
After the walk around the falls, we drove along the coast and splashed our feet in the water at the beach. We stopped to visit Coconut Island where we saw some more sea turtles. Right next to tiny Coconut Island, we took a walk through the Japanese garden. This was one of Deanna's favorite attractions.
To feed our Big Island appetites, we waled over to eat some fresh marlin at Uncle Benny's. They had a great mango pina colada too!
July 6 – Day 7
During our last day on the island we wanted to take it easy and get ready for the long, tiring, time-losing flight home. We went on a short tour of the Kona Blue Sky Coffee Farm. It is amazing to see all the stages a little bean must go through before you get to drink from it. We stocked up on all kinds of coffee-even the kind you eat(white chocolate covered coffee beans)…mmmm!
Later that day we ate a huge Kona Coffee Icecream Pie at Huggos. It was enough for a meal in itself.
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