Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Eight

No more paradise for us. Time to head out and return to our normal routine. We definitely had a superb time in Hawaii with each other as a family. A trip like this will never be repeated. Our 21-year-old will graduate from college soon and our 17-year-old will be in college before long. Those two oldest children will be moving on with their lives and this opportunity may never present itself again. Oh, there will be many more adventures to come with the two youngest, but this was a snapshot in time...always to be remembered.



So aloha, Hawaii. It was fun!

Links to other posts in this series:

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

Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Seven

The last day here....unbelievable.

But a 7:30 a.m. alarm set by hubby? No way. I reminded Bill that I had decided that this was going to be my morning to sleep in, and sleep I did.  Adequate sleep at home is hard to come by, so at least one vacation day of sleeping until I felt I could wake up energized needed to happen. Unfortunately, we were thoroughly  adapted to Hawaiian time, meaning my snooze until 9 a.m. this morning was the equivalent of sleeping until noon at home. Tomorrow will be a rude awakening as our flight leaves shortly after 8 a.m.

Today's agenda included driving up the road to one of the other sandy beaches around the resort...a calm bay, a little area for snorkeling, not enough waves for boogie boarding though, and lot of fine white sand. Being that it was a public beach, it provided for plenty of people watching including two snorkelers who came up on shore with their harpoons, a bag full of fish, and another one full of octopus. Never know what you will see here.

After getting what could be our last fill of sun for another couple of months, we wandered back to the villa and stuffed ourselves on leftover Korean tacos, a oriental chicken salad kit from Costco, and iced coffee. A nice change of pace after, not really rationing, but being aware of how much food we were buying at such an incredible price.

We hit the resort pool area, I with my iPod and a little Instapaper reading, and Hailey with her swim goggles.  Megan consumed herself with photography, determined perhaps to capture everything that she might have forgotten, and everyone else just hung out.

All too soon it was time to begin the process of packing back up. Of the four suitcases we brought, two now had broken wheels...one was the largest one of course. We had tried to balance them to stay under the 50 lb. weight limit on the way there but were actually overweight on one of them. So out came the bathroom scale, and the suitcases were weighed, contents readjusted, reweighed, more shifting, until finally they had nearly equal weights. That job was finished.

Tomorrow's flight was going to be early, but it was hard to shut it down early knowing that tomorrow we would be back to the dreary and damp Northwest.

Links to other posts in this series:

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

Big Island of Hawaii Vacation - Day Six

The days are definitely beginning to blur together. I can imagine how living in a paradise like this might become a blur. But a good blur.

Today was our day to once again become adventurous tourists and to visit a coffee plantation. Of course a plantation to us, or at least me, meant acres upon acres of coffee trees on a foggy hillside covered with pickers filling their burlap bags with bright red berries. Wrong. That image apparently comes from television. Coffee actually grows on bushes that are severely pruned back to the stump every few years and resembles the structure of our butterfly bushes back home. Since the beans don't begin to ripen and turn red until the fall, there were no pickers. And there were no acres and acres of plantations. Most of the coffee is grown in the backyards of everyday citizens who tend to their plants after work. They bring their beans in to a processor like Greenwell Farms who then removes the pulp and roasts them. Very interesting. We learned a tremendous amount from our Greenwell tour guide. Back at the tasting shed we decided that we all loved the chocolate covered peabody coffee beans (peabody referring to beans that were single and not split upon opening) and their reserve blend. They both went in our shopping bag along with some local honey from the blossom of tropical flowers we couldn't even pronounce. They are a diverse operation and grow fruit as well as coffee. The avocados looked amazing.







Deciding there was not much further south along the coast we really needed to see, since getting to Cook's Bay to snorkel was not going to happen due to its lack of accessibility, we traveled the short way back up to Kauila-Kona  and hit a local beach. The snorkeling there was phenomenal according to Bill and the kids. The kids got their fill fairly quickly, but Bill would have, as expected, stayed all day.



By now we had the first clear skies, or almost entirely so, since arriving in Hawaii. We drove up Ali Drive into the touristy, older harbor area of Kona. We parked by an outdoor market and made our trek through it to look at everyone's wares.





Then Bubba Gump's called. Here was lunch. And so tasty. Too bad there's not one back in Oregon. The surf came right up to the sea wall there, and you could stand and watch the waves crest, full of the brightest yellow tropical fish. Very amazing sight. We always have room for coffee, so we hit up the coffee shop father along the boardwalk for iced coffee. The Kona coffee here is so mild we drink it plain with just a tad of cream. Back home it would need to be sweetened and flavored for my taste. Now I'm wondering how I'm going to make our 8 oz of Kona coffee last a long, long time.







We had decided to have big, fat tasty steak one night on the outdoor built-in grill at the villa...a treat considering we only eat venison and elk at home. So knowing there was a Costco in Kona, we stopped there for enough groceries to hopefully last us the rest of the trip. And more sunscreen. Although the prices elsewhere on the island where considerably higher than the norm in our part of the States, Costco prices appeared to be steady. If it weren't so out of the way, we should have definitely shopped there first. Back to the resort, quick change of clothing, and back to the pool and beach.



When you're on vacation time and not checking the clock or packing your cell phone everywhere, it's amazing how time can slip through your fingers. Before we knew it, the sun was setting, and I was caught without a camera. The sky was such a deep blue and the light was fading, the moon was overhead, and palm branches were swaying. Would've made a great shot. So instead of spending time trying to compose the 'perfect' photo, we hiked around the point across the lava shoreline hoping to perhaps come across a hidden sandy beach. Nada. Not here. Definitely land of the lava. We did have a bird's-eye view into the backside of some pretty incredible homes here though.



Another late outdoor dinner. This time a Korean taco kit from Costco, Tazo passion fruit tea lemonade...still glad I packed those tea bags...and some homework by the kids. Tonight we remembered to set the air conditioning before going to bed. A tragic mistake last night. No windows to leave open all night to catch the ocean breezes here...the one lovely thing about the last rental location. I did rather miss the frog chorus too.

Links to other posts in this series:

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

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