Hawaii, the condensed version

Wow. That's all I can really say after my trip to Hawaii.

Here's how it all came about. My friend Lauren mentioned to me that she was going to Hawaii on May 6, and that I should come along since I didn't have a job to worry about anymore. This was such an amazing coincidence, because I was done teaching for the semester on May 5. Anyway, after much discussion and pleading, Kevin decided to let me go. Since Lauren has a cousin that lives in Kona, Hawaii (the big island), it was a cheaper way to go since we wouldn't have to pay for a place to stay.

The trip was absolutely amazing. There were so many breathtaking things to see, I took well over 600 pictures. Although I uploaded A LOT to my snapfish site (I'll post the link at the end), I decided to highlight 2-3 pictures per day and give you an idea of everything I got to do. So here we go.

Day 1 (5/9)
I arrived in Kona at 2pm via Phoenix. The airport was pretty exciting because it was all open and looked like tiki huts. I was only disappointed because they didn't give us leis when we got off the plane like they do in movies (although Lauren brought me one when she picked me up....she had arrived on 5/6)

Tiki hut Kona airport

After Lauren picked me up at the airport, and we dropped off my stuff at Scott and Keri's (our generous hosts), we headed various places for Lauren to show me a few things. We went to the old boardwalk-y part of Kona and walked through a few shops. The BEST shop was a place called Pueo Boutique.....and if you knew me you would know I would love it. Amazing handmade jewelry, clothing, purses, etc., all made on the Hawaiian islands. This is where I ended up buying my token piece of souvenir jewelry (a beautiful necklace!). Here I am sitting along the volcano rock wall along the ocean and a big banyan tree.


Day 2 (5/10)
Lauren decided to take me to some of the lava flats near Kona. Obviously the entire big island is more or less a volcano and lava, but the lava was just CRAZY. I couldn't find anything certain, but I think all the lava near Kona is from eruptions in the early 1800's. It's just weird because it's like a black wasteland all over the place. But the area of lava flats we went to goes right next to the ocean, so there are just big cliffs of lava right into the ocean.

Here I am, super excited about lava and the ocean!

Near the lava flats there were some beachy areas - this is ones of those areas.


After some much needed beach time, we went back to the boardwalk area of Kona to do some more browsing in shops. It had gotten pretty cloudy and dark, and I took this picture across part of the bay (?). The steeple is from a church built in 1820, built by the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii.


Day 3 (5/11)
We had a lot planned for Wednesday. We were going to go up the mountain to a little town called Holualoa where there are a lot of little art galleries, go to a coffee plantation tour, head to this sacred Honaunau, do some snorkeling, and end the night with a luau in Kona. We got all that done except the coffee plantation.

Honaunau was pretty cool. It was this 'city of refuge' where in the 1500's-1600's, if someone was sentenced to die for doing something wrong, they could run to this place and if they made it there, they were forgiven. The wall in this picture was built in 1550.


I don't remember what the Hawaiian name of these totem pole like things are. They were all over at Honaunau.
Then we attempted to go snorkeling at Honaunau, which according to Lauren's cousin it is one of the top 10 places to snorkel in the world. However, I have never snorkeled before, and this was bad. I think I collectively saw underwater for about 2 minutes before giving up because I was hyperventilating. I also bloodied my knee and scraped another knee and foot on some coral. Not such a good time. I was however able to snorkel at the beach the following day and figured it out.

We returned to Scott and Keri's in time to get gussied up for our luau at the Royal Kona Resort. It was generally a good time - good kalua pig, poke, and mai tais! The dancing and show was a little silly, but it was a good experience.

Me and Lauren at the luau.


Day 4 (5/12)
This was our crazy ambitious day. So hopefully I'll be brief, because we did a lot. Basically, we drove around the ENTIRE island in one day.
First we drove north, and went to see this place called Waipio Valley. I seriously think this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The beach there is a black sand beach, and in the valley traditional farmers grow this plant taro. I never suffered through it, but I guess this is where they first came upon land in the movie Waterworld.

Waipio Valley


We also stopped to see a few waterfalls. This is Akaka Falls.


Next, we headed to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens. This is near Hilo, on the east side of the island - basically exactly the other side from where we were staying. This side of the island is effectively a rain forest, so I literally felt like I was in the Climatron at the botanical gardens at home, although I was walking through a 17 acre outdoor garden. AMAZING. I took an ungodly amount of pictures here, but this was one of my favorites....some weird lobster claw thing.

After that, we went to a cool park in Hilo called Lili'ukolani. But I spared you those pictures. We also ate in downtown Hilo, which is pretty cool because it is kind of older and more historical than Kona.

Finally we were headed southwest to Volcanoes National Park! When we got the visitors center, we were freezing! It was about 60 deg and drizzling on top of the volcano, and we were in tanktops and had just came from about 83 degrees. At the park, there are a number of 'craters' of exploded volcanoes to see. It was so rainy and voggy (what they call the fog on the volcano) that it was hard to see much other than some steam vents. I guess you can take helicopter rides to see active lava flow, but that wasn't in our budget. Part of the park includes an 18 mile drive down the side of the volcano to the coast. Ultimately, the road ends where lava flowed over the road sometime in the mid 80's. SO FREAKING COOL!

The end of the road.....
After hitting the volcanoes, we had to drive another 96 mile back to Kona. It was all curvy and 45 mph, and we following many-a-slowass, so it took FOREVER to get back. That was probably the day where I saw more amazing things in my life than ever before.

Day 5 (5/13)
We planned this day around going to the Kona Brewing Co for a tour. We had tried to go earlier in the week, but they were closed for an employee party. So we tried to go at 10:30 am, but ended up missing a spot because they only allow 15 people at a time. Grr. So, we went to the beach for a few hours (where I ended up getting blisters from the sun for the first time - I'm still itching like crazy and shedding skin a week later....) and aimed to get there early for the 3pm tour. We barely made it, but we did!

Here we are with the grain bins at the brewery.
The brewery is pretty small (definitely smaller than Schlafly) so it was a pretty small tour. Afterwards we got to sample some of their major types of beer (which tend to be my less favorites). So Lauren and I both stayed after the tour for samplers of our own and some pizza.

Here is my koko brown ale, Kona coffee stout, steam vent ale, and hula hefeweizen. YUM!


Day 6 (5/14)
Scott and Keri both do competitive paddle canoe racing. Saturday morning, they had a race in a town called Kawaihae, about 30 min north of Kona. Lauren and I went, along with their 7 year old daughter Sofia. They each paddled in 6-man canoes for NINE MILES. I cowered in the shade.

Here the men are lined up for their race start.

Lauren took me by a beach called Hapuna Beach which is apparently one of the most popular on the big island. Because of the lava rock everywhere, decent beaches are kind of few and far between.

Hapuna Beach

Day 7 (5/15)
This was the first day where we had 4-wheel drive access to get us to some of the other neat spots, since Scott has a truck and could finally take us. We went to this place called Kiholo, relatively close to Kona.
The beach was so cool because it ranged from white sand with black pebbles, to bigger lava rock, to even smaller black pebbles, and finally to a black sand beach that took us about 30 minutes to hike to. It was amazing. We all picked up a lot of rocks/shells that had been polished by the lava rocks with the idea we might make jewelry. We shall see.

Some of the white sand/black pebbles.

Black sand beach! So cool!!!


So that was my last day there. We did an awful lot in my 7 days and it was all amazing, and really helped me forget my unemployment for awhile. Lauren and I both left on the same flight, we flew out of Kona at 10:45 pm Sunday night and made it back to STL at 1:30 Monday afternoon.

There were a few things I didn't get to see in HI, but I feel like I had a pretty good go of it, and I certainly had an unbelievable time! I am so grateful that Lauren invited me to go along, and that Scott, Keri, and Sofia were such gracious hosts!