Hawaii ... Day 3 ... Road Trip to Hilo

Day 3 ... Monday
February 24, 2014

We stayed in Kona, which is considered the dry side of the island. On Monday, we drove to the other side of the island; the wet side or the rainforest side. (Half the island is literally a rainforest, it gets 160 + inches of rain a year. The concierge told us that we would be able to tell when we crossed over into the rainforest & she was absolutely right! The landscape went from grassy rolling hills to the tallest trees I've ever seen!)

We were headed for the town of Hilo, which is the biggest city on the wet side.  It's about a 2 hour drive from Waikoloa. But it ended up taking us a lot longer. For 2 reasons... One because we made several stops along the way & two because it was a long & twisty road around the volcano & I was driving.

Our first stop along the way was at the Tex Drive Inn in Honaka'a.
This place is known for their malasadas, or Polynesian donuts.

Of course we had to try them! I thought they were ok. It tasted a lot like a regular ol' donut to me & I'm not really a fan of donuts, so you know... But everyone else seemed to like them!

And not only do they have malasadas but they also have a nice view of the valley from the parking lot. (I love this picture because it's kind of hard to tell where the water ends & the sky begins because of the 'vog' or fog caused by the erupting volcano on the island.)

Our second stop was the Laupāhoehoe Point lookout. This place is just stunning. The blue blue water, the lush green tropical rainforest, palm trees & waves crashing against volcanic rock. It's the epitome of Hawaii!

Our next stop was Akaka Falls State Park.

We took a short (paved) hike through the rainforest to see this beautiful waterfall.

Along the way we saw some interesting plants in the rainforest. Including this... I have no idea what it is but I assume its a large seed pod of some sort.

We also saw bananas growing wild in the rainforest.

And giant flowers! They were almost as big as my head! (And you know that's big! Lol!)

This little fruit stand was right down the road from Akaka Falls. After our long hike we were all exhausted hungry & so we stopped here to get a snack.

The guy working there said that it was his family's farm & that they grew pineapples, bananas & mangos (or maybe guavas or maybe both!) We ended up getting a pineapple & 4 bananas. The pineapple was really yummy. So white & fresh. The bananas were good too, but they tasted a little different than the bananas that we're used to.

Our next stop was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

This place was really cool. It's on top of Kilauea, an actively erupting volcano & about 4000 ft above sea level. (My ears are still popping 3 weeks later. This girl who lives 50 ft above sea level is just not used to that kind of pressure!) 

Sadly, we didn't have a lot of time to spend at the park because we had a reservation for a helicopter ride later in the afternoon. So we chose a couple things to do there that looked the best...

We started with the steam vents. They are giant cracks in the ground that have steam billowing out of them. The steam is created by groundwater reaching the hot volcanic stone underground.

The air was almost as thick & humid as it during the Southeast Texas summer, lol!

We took a short trail out to the Steam Bluff Overlook

and saw this.

 Which is the Kilauea Caldera & the Halema'uma'a Crater on the volcano Kilauea.

The next thing we did in the park was to go to the Jaggar Museum. 

The museum had a brief history of the formation & settlement of the Hawaiian islands & some other interesting things in it, such as this display of the two varieties of lava flows.

I found this interesting because the dry side of the island where we stayed was full of the Aa lava which looks like what I would assume moon rock looks like. But when we went on the helicopter ride, we saw lots of the Pahoehoe lava flow which looked very smooth. Its pretty cool how different the lava flow can be even though it comes from the same place.

And this was really cool too. This is called Pele's Hair. It is very very fine volcanic glass but it literally looks like strands of hair. I almost didn't believe the docent when she told me what it was!

Here is another view of the Caldera & Crater. 

This view is from outside the Jaggar Museum.

The last thing that we did at HVNP was to walk through the 

Thurston Lava Tube.

It's a cavelike tube 

that was created hundreds of years ago by lava rushing through it. 

Pretty neat concept!

After that, we had to head back to Hilo to go to the airport for our helicopter ride over Kilauea, the volcano that we had just seen at the park.

Not only was I brave enough to go on a helicopter ride, but I was brave enough to go on a helicopter ride with no doors! And I sat on the outside in the front! And I say brave because I don't like to fly. AT ALL... But actually I was less nervous in this helicopter than I am when I'm flying in a big commercial jetliner. And I'll tell you why... Because I could see the ground the whole time that I was in the helicopter & it didn't look that far away.

Anyways... 

We had some really beautiful views during our ride... 

Like this rainbow

And the Mauna Loa macadian nut farm

And lava flowing through the rainforest

burning down trees as it goes.

Part of Kilauea

And this...Which used to be a road in a town and sadly this is all that's left of the town.

We also got to see the Hilo Harbor

and Rainbow Falls.

When our helicopter ride was over, we headed back to Kona. It was a 2 hour drive & I really wanted to get back before it got too dark because I don't like to drive in the dark, especially on unfamiliar winding roads!

On the way back to the resort, we called & made a reservation for dinner at Pueo's Osteria.

It is a small Italian restaurant in Waikoloa Village

and OMG it was delicious! I think it was my favorite restaurant that we ate at the whole time. This is what I had, Chicken Milanese with arugula salad on top. De.lic.ous!

Yet another great day in paradise!

Hawaii ... Days 1 & 2

Day 1 ... Saturday
February 22, 2014

The day had finally arrived!
I was going to Hawaii for the second time in 3 years & I was thrilled! But I was also anxious. Anxious to fly (I hate flying), anxious to leave my kids, and anxious to leave my husband. But mostly thrilled!

Mom, Brooke & I had all stayed Friday night at Susan's house in Humble since we had a 9:30 am flight. So Saturday morning, we got up, got dressed & got moving. I was super prepared for the flight... I had my laptop, my ipad, my kindle, my phone (so pretty much every electronic device you could ever need) & several magazines & a book. Everything was fully charged & ready for me to watch 8 hours worth of Downton Abbey season 4 which I had been saving for this flight. Shortly into our flight though, we discovered this plane DID NOT HAVE WIFI!!! Just so you know, 8 hours and 27 minutes without wifi or tv or internet or facebook gets BORING! There's only so much Candy Crush & Panda Jam you can take at a time! Lol. Luckily I had just bought a new book on my Kindle & remembered to download it before I left.

After an 8 1/2 hour flight to Honolulu, an hour lay over at the Honolulu airport, a 45 minute flight to Kona & a 4 hour time difference, we arrived on the island of Hawaii or the Big Island as it is also called.

When Nick & I went to Oahu a couple of years ago, we walked almost everywhere & places that were too far to walk, we were able to just grab a cab or jump on the city bus. But the Big Island isn't anything like Oahu. At least not like Waikiki Beach, the area where we stayed. The Big Island is huge & you need a car to be able to properly explore it. So at the Kona airport, we took a shuttle to the rental car place, rented a car and headed north on Highway 19 (which is the main highway on the Big Island. Matter of fact, it runs all the way around the island.) 

As we were driving, we could see whales breaching and blowing in the ocean. It was so cool! So we stopped at a little overlook area on the way to our hotel to watch the whales & to bask in the beauty that is Hawaii!

We arrived at the Kings' Land condos in the Waikoloa Beach Resort area of the island around 5pm (which was 9pm Houston time. Talk about a long day of travel!)

The resort grounds are absolutely beautiful!

We checked in & settled in & as soon as we sat down, we all realized that we were starving. It was dark & we didn't know our way around the area, so we tried to find the closest & quickest place that we could to eat dinner. We found a small place in the Kings' Shops in Waikoloa called Island Fish & Chips. It was ok, but not great but it did it's job.

After our long day of travel I was exhausted. So I went to sleep just as soon as we got back to our room after dinner, which was around 9pm (or 1am Houston time.) I was the first one asleep, which is unusual for me.

Day 2 ... Sunday

 February 23, 2014

Not only was I the first one to go to sleep, but I was also the first one to wake up. I woke up around 4 am (8am Houston time) very well rested. I got out of bed & did the most important thing on this trip, I found out where the closest Starbucks was. Which was right there in our resort! So I went to Starbucks, got my coffee, came back to the condo & sat on the back porch while I drank my coffee & talked to Nick on the phone. Around 6 am I decided to go running since no one else was awake yet.

I ran all around the Waikoloa Beach resort area for a total of 6 miles. I saw such beautiful scenery

including the beach

the mountains

and the golf course. 

By the time I got back to our room, I knew my way around the resort (which was great since I was the driver for the week.)

Once everyone was awake, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel bistro.

After breakfast, we went to the grocery store to get a few things for the week & then headed over to the Hilton hotel

to go snorkeling in the lagoon.

At first snorkeling was really cool. I saw so many different kinds of fish, including the Hawaii state fish, the humuhumunukunukuapuaa. I also swam along with a couple of sea turtles and watched them munching on sea plants.

And then I got freaked out. The last time I went snorkeling was the last time I was in Hawaii. The eels freaked me out that time & they did this time too. I was just a floating along having a nice time until I saw an eel. Then I freaked out & started frantically swimming away. I got pretty far away & looked down again & there he was again, the eel! At first I thought it was the same one & he was chasing me, but then realized that that was silly & I'm sure it was a completely different eel. At least I'm pretty sure! So now I've realized that not only am I scared of heights, but I'm also of eels, which makes sense because I'm scared of snakes & they're basically the same thing.

Since I had no desire to see another eel, I laid out for a while on the beach. Mom wanted to go check out the water slide at the pool so we headed over to it. While walking to the pool, we stopped and watched the dolphins play with a ball

and with their trainers.

And we also saw some black tip reef sharks. 

(The sharks are in an area right off the snorkeling lagoon. I told Brooke that they were little (only about 3 feet long) & if they some how got into the lagoon, I was sure that I could take one on. And so I find it ridiculous that I'm terrified of eels, but not sharks when in reality I'm sure I would fare far better in a fight with an eel than I would in a fight with a shark.)

We spent about an hour at the pool & rode the water slide a couple of times.

Then we walked around the shore.

We saw lots of little sea creatures in the tide pools. 

Including sea urchins, 

crabs 

& sea cucumbers.

We went back to our room around 5pm to get ready for our dinner reservation at Three Fat Pigs, a restaurant owned by Chef Ippy who was a finalist on the Food Network Star.

After dinner, we went back to our room & I crashed!

(But then again, I had been up since 4am!)

Happy 5th Birthday Alex

This big boy turned 5 years old today!

Here's a little info about him on his birthday. (I asked him these same questions last year on his birthday. You can click here if you want to see what his answers were last year.)

Here are some other things about Alex..

He is a super sweetie who LOVES his family & friends!

He loves to help out with everything.

He is wise beyond his years.

He loves to build with Legos.

He's a homebody.

He loves to sing.

He loves to dig in the mud.

He loves to play dress up.

He not only wants to be a cowboy when he grows up, but also a engineer, a tap dancer & a singer.

Since he is having his birthday party next Saturday, we just had a small birthday celebration at home after dinner. Instead of a birthday cake, he had birthday brownies with sprinkles & marshmallows.

We sang Happy Birthday to him, he blew out the candles,

and then it was time to open presents!

Look how excited he was when he opened his Lego City police station.

He said it was just what he wanted!

I can't believe that my baby is 5 years old!

Happy birthday A Man!