Our final stop...The Big Island of Hawaii. These parrots hang out in the lobby of the resort. They of course want to take your picture next to them and then think that you look so cute you will want to buy the picture. That only works if my kids are with me! I mean Troy is cute but...not as cute as my girls.
So far we had still not made it surfing. We decided that this was the day to do it. We called up some instructor that we found online and he told us to meet him at this beach.
We were told that we should check out this church. It just happened to be at the same beach where we were going to be surfing. It is the smallest church in the islands. Apparently this was the favorite surf spot of King Kamehameha. He was the monarch who founded the Kingdom of Hawaii. Pretty coincidental that we ended up in the exact same spot for our first every surf lesson.
These are our instructors. The one on the left is Surfer Bear...his real name is Barry. We can't remember the name of his friend. They were both great and helped us a ton. We were professional surfers in no time.
After the lesson they gave us macadamia nuts and oranges to eat. I think I ate the whole bowl single handedly.
Surfer Bear recommended a restaurant not far from the beach. We were starving!
They had paper table cloths. I decided to write all over it. Any ideas who I was missing?
Sunset from the restaurant window...no glass in them. How would that be?
The next day we had scheduled a Katamaran for the morning. Swimming, BBQ, snorkeling. Awesome!
Waiting to board the boat.
The sail was pretty cool. A gorgeous day!
Captain Cook monument. This marks the spot where Captain Cook was killed. The water surrounding the monument is a marine sanctuary. That is where we got to snorkel.
Lunch on the back of the boat!
I couldn't resist a picture of this. How in the world do you snorkel with a huge tube around your waist? Not to mention that fact that you are in salt water. Pretty hard to sink in the first place. Funny stuff!
Troy and I snorkeling.
No idea what kind of fish this is but it was really cool to see. Every color of the rainbow.
An eel? Good thing I don't know what is dangerous. This way I won't know when I am going to be electrocuted!
Troy working up the courage to go down the slide.
And now, the "high" dive. Perhaps 15 feet off the water. Troy would have you believe that it was much higher.
Dolphins playing out in the bay.
The captain and crew troll for fish on the way back. Sure enough, they got something on the line.
It was a Striped Marlin. Apparently they have only caught 2 of these in the past 5 years. This one was the second. Cool looking fish.
The captain was an awesome artist. He would take your name and turn it into a fish, turtle, etc. Here is mine.
Me with the captain before we got off.
The guy that brought the fish in.
Troy and I decided we needed to try some Hawaiian shaved ice. We googled it and this is what we found. Apparently when you are in Hawaii it is called Scandinavian Ice. Weird.
This guy was funny. He was telling us about all the flavors and then he started making them. I asked him what size he was making. He said it was a small. I asked him what happened if I wanted a large. He said, "You aren't allowed to have a large inside the store. It is too messy." I think it is pretty funny that the shaved ice store won't let you buy the size you want.
I hate it when my pictures are blurry. The icee guy took this. He tried several times. He must have shaky hands from all the cold.
One whole side of the island is lava rock. People would bring white rocks from who knows where and spell their names, make pictures, etc.
Here is my souvenir from the Big Island. It is called a Henna. It is a dye from a leaf. It stains the skin for 3-4 weeks and then washes off. I thought they were cool.
Found some cool stuff that night as we walked around the resort. This is one huge place!
Found the Jazz game!
They had this amazing guacamole. The brought out all the stuff and made it right in front of you. Very tasty and only $12.00 and order. Good thing we are on vacation.
Picture of the canal inside the resort. Boats travel up and down the canal and take you from one part of the resort to the next.
We drove to the other side of the island to see Hilo and take a helicopter ride over Volcano National Park. It was amazing how quickly the land changed. Went from volcanic rock to luscious green and then to rainforest.
Akaka Falls is supposed to be the largest waterfall on the island of Hawaii. We decided to check it out.
You walk on a small path that takes you through some amazing plants and then to the waterfall.
Here we have Akaka Falls. It is 442 feet high.
We found this old wilted flower on the trail. We had yet to wear a flower in our hair. We decided to give it a try.
Too much?
We were about to get back in the car when they told us they had a "friend" that we should come and see.
Can you see it on my hand? It blend in really well.
Easier to see against Troy's yellow shirt.
This is a Jackson Chameleon. Very cool. The males have 3 horns. The females don't have horns at all. Really cool and apparently very calm. We wanted to bring him home but I guess they don't like the cold too much. They also require a certain humidity, specially fed bugs to eat and they don't like being held too much. Um, a bit too much work for me and I am sure the girls would never put it down. Dang it. Almost had us another souvenir.
These huge grasses were growing along the side of the road. They were amazing.
Hard to tell how tall they are until I stand by them.
Taking off in the helicopter. This is the city of Hilo. Apparently the 3rd wettest city in the US and one of the wettest places on Earth.
Flying over the volcanoes.
The spots that are bright orange are magma. Really cool to see.
See that red roof out in the middle of all that old, black lava? That is the only house in the Royal Gardens subdivision that survived the volcanic eruption in 1983.
This is the guy, Jack Thompson, that still lives there. He used to be able to get in and out of his home on a motorcycle. Now he has to go by helicopter or on foot. The pilot of our helicopter was telling us about him. He thinks the guy is completely insane to still live there. Pretty incredible.
Other houses that have been rebuilt a little further from the volcano. Several of these new homes have been burned from volcanic flow as well. Why would you pick that spot for a new house? Maybe some people like building house after house after house. Not me.
The shoreline from the helicopter. Apparently the coastline here is very unstable. Has no support from underneath. Large pieces will just fall off into the ocean. I guess people walk along the edge and don't know it is a bad idea. You'd think someone would tell them.
The patch of green that hasn't been burned thus far.
Macadamia nut farms. They grow the smaller nut trees in the middle of taller trees. The tall trees are supposed to act as a wind break. If the nuts fall from the trees before they are ripe, they are worthless.
On the way back to the airport we flew over the ocean looking for whales. Found a group of 3! A mom, her baby and what the pilot referred to as "an escort." I assume that means the male. Maybe I will refer to Troy as my escort from now on.
Outside the helicopter after our ride.
After our ride we decided to head further south and see if we could see some of the black sand beaches. We ended up at this black rock beach instead. Seemed to be a place where a lot of the locals hang out. A gorgeous beach but not exactly sandy. While checking out the beach, a guy tried to sale Troy some "herbs." When Troy declined the "herbs" the guy then referred to it as "weed." Troy declined again. Soon the guy just wanted Troy to look at "the weed." We think that Troy must have signaled the guy by waving back to him when we pulled up in the car. We had not idea that was the local sign for "come buy some herbs/weed." Funny, funny. Maybe that would have been a good souvenir for someone. I could see us trying to get our "herbs" through customs without even knowing what we had. That may have been less funny.
The trees would grow up and over the streets. Made an arch that you would drive through.
We stopped for some ice cream at a local ice cream shop. They invited us to walk through their "botanical gardens" in the back while we enjoyed our ice cream. We began walking and soon ran into several tents. Apparently the botanical gardens doubled as a hostel for people who needed a place to stay. $15/night. An option to consider for those that don't want to spend a lot of money on a hotel and don't mind having several neighbors showering with them.
On our way back home we were told that we had to drive to the tallest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea. Standing 13,796 feet above sea level, its peak is the highest point in Hawaii. Most of the mountain is below sea level. If you measure it from its base, below the ocean, Mauna Kea measures 33,500 feet. This is significantly taller than Mount Everest that measures only 13,600 feet (does all of that make me sound smart? I just googled it and read from Wikepedia...good for me).
Standing on top of the world.
The only snow we found in Hawaii.
The temperature dropped to 45 degrees. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt. All of the other tourist were in huge coats, hats, gloves... They kept looking at me like I was crazy.
The sunset from from the top of the world.
The towers at the top.
Are these pictures cool or what?
Since these toilets sit at the top of Mauna Kea, they are the tallest toilets in the world! I went in and used one just so I could say that I did.
Sunset with the first star of the night. Best sunset ever.
Troy's calzone dinner.
More pictures of our resort. HUGE place.
This lagoon is actually open to the ocean. Turtles and fish from the ocean can come in and out at will.
We are over by the lagoon looking back at the part of the resort where our room is. Like I said, this is one big place!
They had dolphins at the resort. You could swim with them if you were willing to pay enough money. Troy and I were happy taking pictures of them.
We found 3 turtles in the lagoon.
Suited up and ready to snorkel.
Found the turtles!
These yellow fish were everywhere.
Our final nap before heading back to real life.
This is what you see when you lay down and look up from your nap. Can't beat it.
Our final sunset...had to take this one from the airport.
We made it back home! Brought the girls some New Zealand Poi Balls and Hawaiian wraps. My mom brought me some of these same balls when I was their age. Loved them.
They hit themselves in the heads on several occasions.
So, that's it! An amazing trip. Troy and I look forward to going back and taking the kids with us! So many thing we want to show them.
Thanks PowerQuip for an amazing vacation!
