Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Five

Today was a day that felt like a real vacation day. No driving here and there...for the most part. Just lounging around. Enjoying ourselves. No sleeping in though because after another night on a soft mattress, I was almost glad to get out of bed. Of course Bill had been hollering for everyone to get up to look for sea turtles and to check out the snorkeling on the beach pretty, pretty early.

More cereal, bananas and pineapple for breakfast, and then we meandered down to the beach to see what it had to offer. Everyone loved the greater variety of fish to be seen here. Eels seemed to be the most fascinating from the remarks everyone made after returning to shore after snorkeling. And of course there were more sea turtles.



The sun struggled to come out for the most of the day but finally broke through after lunch when we headed out to visit the trendy shops in the resort area. Of course everyone had to purchase their souvenirs, including Hailey who had to replace both turtle magnets and 3-D stickers that she had used to create an awesome drawing with which was left attached to the refrigerator of the last rental house. A true bummer. Apparently there is a $25 fee plus the cost of packaging and mailing to forward forgotten items. We loved the iced Kona coffee at Kona Joe's Coffee Shop that required zero sugar to mellow it out. In fact I believe that none of us have had much sugar at all on this trip. A nice change of pace.









Another trip out the beach and pool area including a walk around the natural tide ponds and a great view of the beach that was split in two during the tsunami action that hit this side of the island after the Japanese earthquakes. Apparently this island is full of feral cats. They even have signs posted...for tourists information I suppose...that the water and food bowls that were placed here and there were to help support the needs of the feral cats. Other than we noticed that the mongoose that were everywhere appeared to be enjoying it just as much as the cats. Hawaii is just full of signs I guess. There were others warning no entry into the natural ponds around the beach. The fact that they indicated there were piranha in there should be enough to keep people out I guess.

We had vowed to spend the entire day on the resort but decided that a nice dinner out was in order. We headed up the northern coast line to a place recommended in our Hawaii, Big Island Revealed tour book simply called the Seafood Bar. But before getting there we wanted to check out two of the best beaches on the island perfectly timing them with the setting sun. No red-orange sunsets of the postcard variety but beautiful enough. The restaurant had a tiki atmosphere and served local seafood prepared in some incredibly tasty ways. Of course we don't have too many seafood lovers here, but I think everyone managed to enjoy their food.









Pretty much a full day to be sure other than yet another trip to the beach, this time enjoying the so-perfectly-comfortable night air complete with just the right amount of moonlight to visit the sleeping sea turtles. Bill and Hailey made great use of their flashlights to watch the puffer fish in the ponds and the lizards crossing the walkways. Then....time for bed. No more just hanging out tomorrow. Time for some more road trips.




Links to other posts in this series:

Intro
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight

Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Four

Day four of a vacation. The day you start to feel that you really are on a vacation. But our day four was a day of packing up...packing up and heading out to visit the western side of the Island of Hawaii for the remainder of our trip.



Bill of course had to get in his morning snorkel out the back door with the kids. Hailey of course didn't want to leave. The sea turtles were just too big of a draw for her. By now we had sort of gotten used to the idiosyncrasies of the place we were staying but couldn't help snap a few photos...just for memory's sake. I guess I will miss the pineapples growing right outside the door though.






Yes, the house had character...


and it's own resident lizard.

But off we headed up the road and across the island. Our guide book gave us the impression that the big island was full of diverse landscapes. They weren't kidding. Leaving the dense jungle we passed through lava deserts, scrub forests that looked like Australia, reached the summit of the pass and thought we were back in Oregon on tbe eastern side with pine trees, chickadees, and a desert appearance.

Heading back down the other side towards Kona, we envisioned Europe with tree planted windbreaks, then New Zealand with foggy ultra green pastures, and finally acres of lava fields complete with a few wild donkeys and goats once we reached the coast. This island has it all. I vividly remember reading Swiss Family Robinson and all of the different areas they discovered on their island during their time there. But it was hard to imagine how it all could be so different on just one island. Now I know.



We turned south on our cutoff road admiring the first real sign of a mega resort along the coast line. Our destination was Kona quite a ways down the coast and check-in wasn't until 4 pm so we turned off at a state park beach sign for some sand time. Well...there was sand at the end of the road...after a mile and a half lava road that I am pretty sure would have been in violation of our rental car agreement. But there after a jaunt down more lava paths, there was white sand and aqua water. Everyone tried a little more snorkeling but the wind was picking up and the water turned choppy.






Back on the road and headed south. But the trouble was our GPS wouldn't bring up the name of our resort in the area we were are, so next was a phone call to the vacation rental company to get exact directions...we forgot to print them out before we left Oregon. After considerable laughing I'm sure by the individual on the other end of the phone, we found out that Kolea Resort was actually back at the 'mega' resort in Waikoloa which we saw when first turning off of the road. Oops. So we turned around and headed north.

Upon turning into the area and drove down the palm-lined road, we looked for signs for our resort only to get to the far end of the developed area without finding it. It really shouldn't have been that hard. The shops and landscaping and overall ambiance were just what the kids were expecting of Hawaii. No disappointment here. Backtracking we made our way back to the gated entrance which of course we had missed as we were gawking out the other side of the window at the waterfall and river that ran through the area. And then the fun began trying to key enter the access code. We were certainly having our troubles. But moving along...we found the unit, unlocked the door, and listened to the gasps. Gorgeous place. Couldn't ask for better.





After unloading we trucked on down to see the pool and beach area only to be greeted by more beached sea turtles. Too cool. Alas, but time to head up the road to what was reported to be the least expensive grocery store to locate some food for dinner. With milk about $8 a gallon, that was important. Of course determining dinner arrangements with six very unopinionated-at-the-moment family members, we settled on frozen pizza and some salad. Yep a few days of groceries cost us about the same as what I would spend for a week back home.

After dinner it was time to check out the beach again. It's amazing to be outside...at night...light breeze blowing...and try as hard as you can to feel just even a tiny bit chilly...and realize that no, you are perfectly comfortable. The ideal weather. I wonder if people that live here eventually take their paradise surroundings for granted. I imagine it would take me a long time to do that.



Links to other posts in this series:

Intro
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight

Cupcakes with Italian Meringue Buttercream Frosting

It's funny how things happen sometimes.

Someone is flipping through the TV channels. They linger on Food Network on which a show is airing that has cupcakes.

I remember that we wanted to do something special for the woman who is the girls' liaison at the charter school. Cupcakes would be nice.

Surf the web looking for photos of cupcakes to get inspired. Find some cool daisy themed ones like here and here and here. Look for a tutorial to figure out how to make those cool daisy decorations and found a good one here.

Head to the pantry for a cake mix. Whip up some lemon cupcakes. Decide they deserve a fantastic frosting. Then back to surfing the web and locate this great article, "How To Make Buttercream Icing; Two Delicious Buttercream Frosting Recipes" here. Wonder if we could perhaps pull off the Italian Meringue Buttercream version as somewhere rattling around in the back of my head it seemed to be synonymous with "incredible". All this just because of a little inspiration from a glimpse of a cooking show.

But by this time, people wandering through the kitchen had eaten nearly half of the first batch of cupcakes, so we frosted the remaining, and then of course had to sample the almost finished product. So, so good. Not grainy like regular buttecream, just smooth and silky. As you can guess, now there were only a few cupcakes left, and we still hadn't even embellished them of all things.

That would mean tomorrow's agenda will include baking another batch of cupcakes, getting them frosted with the remaining buttercream...which I'm sure glad there is still plenty left...a pound of butter for one batch? Wow. Then it will be off to Michael's Crafts is search of fondant and then back home to attempt the daisies.

But it's all good. A little snack for us. Something special for April, the girls' ES. A little girl time in the kitchen.  And a fantastic new frosting recipe for when you need something a little spectacular.

Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Three

The thought of more snorkeling roused Bill right out of bed in the morning. When we all awoke hours later, sure enough we found him zooming around the lagoon chasing sea turtles. He admitted he could spend the entire vacation doing nothing more than snorkeling. But more exploring awaited us. After making a giant fruit salad of local pineapple, papaya (which no one was too fond of), mango, and big island bananas alongside some bakery bagels, we packed up and headed to chase waterfalls and coastal sights.



Our first stop however had to be to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center. We expected the wonderfully educational experience you get when you visit Oregon's Tillamook Cheese Factory, but it didn't quite match up. The factory store offered decent prices on their nuts, so we bought up a stash for ourselves and friends back home. Hailey began her spending spree with her saved birthday morning on several sea turtle items and was as happy as could be.



Next stop was the county zoo which was filled with birds, a 'rare' Nigerian dwarf goat which made us laugh heartily, quite a few tropical animals, and a white Bengal tiger. We had to laugh because we had started to notice there were wild chickens everywhere, inside the zoo and around town. Perhaps Hawaii doesn't have a natural predator. They looked like some variety of game cock.The day had started out cloudy and ended up raining on us while we were there. Even though it was warm, we weren't quite prepared, and it prompted us to end our visit. But not without Hailey stopping at the gift shop to purchase a rather large stuffed anteater. Prime example of birthday money burning a hole in her pocket.











Just a note on this lizard photo. There were lizards roaming the rental house. You just had to get used to them I guess. But if I had found this guy roaming the bathroom, my oh my. That would have been hard to deal with.



Off we headed up the eastern coastline in a northerly direction to stop at quite a few waterfalls. Most were just a little walk to view and the trails were cut through amazing jungle foliage. It seems that everywhere you look there are banana trees with their most unique blossoms, banyan trees with their fascinating root structure, vines hanging from everything, and flowering trees galore. It sometimes would be hard to get down the trail without feeling the need to stop and photograph everything. At one particular waterfall, the older kids took off on a side jaunt to climb the volcanic outcroppings for a view right over the top of the falls...not too appealing to me I'd have to say. It sure made for some great photos though. That new camera of ours sure got a workout on this trip.









We had lunch and smoothies at a little pit stop recommended by our Hawaii, the Big Island Revealed tour book and had a great time noticing the papaya trees, limes, pineapples and bananas as well as what we thought were lychees. All the plants were totally foreign to me. Bill would stop and ask what so-and-so was, and I hadn't the least clue. They were all just gorgeous.

The coastline was very rugged along this side of the island and didn't offer much in the way of sand beaches. We had hoped to find at least one black sand beach to explore, but apparently heavy surf will wash away the sand and then...no more sand beach. At one point we stopped where a tsunami had devastated the area during the 1960s Alaskan earthquake. The surf there alone that day was incredibly powerful. Hard to imagine it compounded by a tsunami as well.



The end of our drive for the day stopped at the Waipo'o Valley where had it been early enough and not so expensive, we would have taken the 4WD tour into the valley down the 25% grade road where black sand beaches, taro farming, and two 1200 plus foot drop waterfalls resided at the back of the valley. From the little bit of a view we had topside, it looked incredible. The farmers that live there today do so without any utilities. Pretty amazing. The entire day had been warm, near 80, but cloud covered until we had made it to the northern end. Sure enough heading south, the clouds were there again.



We made a stop at Safeway in Hilo where all three teens promptly parked in the Starbucks lobby to nab the wi-fi there to check in on Facebook and their email. At the Vacationland house there is not only no computer service but no cell phone service as well. They're having withdrawals I believe. We made it back to the house just in time to snorkel in Champagne Pond near our rental in the 90 degree water where the kids spent their time until it was nearly pitch black floating over the sea turtles and then hanging on for a ride.

Dinner of chicken and rice was fairly late because of that that night excursion. But how cool. We were so amazed that you can stand outside at night with a breeze and not even feel a hint of being the least bit chilly no matter how hard you tried to imagine. I guess that's what the tropics are like. Far cry from the Northwest for sure. There were loads of laundry and the beginnings of packing up. Tomorrow we were planning on crossing the island and heading for the Kona side.



There were regrets for leaving the area, but regrets for the rental house? Nope. Definitely were looking forward to being spoiled at the resort villas.


Links to other posts in this series:
Intro
Day One
Day Two
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight