Big Isle: day 9

Saying good bye is always a hard thing to do. Whether you are saying good bye to a person, place or thing, its always hard. In our case, we are saying good bye to the Big Isle and this is undoubtedly the saddest part of our trip. 9 days total, but 2 of them count as travel days- our 7 FULL days of  no responsibilities, beauty, splendor, sunshine, happiness, magnificence, bliss....it was true paradise!

 

Camille really was bummed to learn we were leaving that morning.

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go.

We did pretty good packing for our trip, only one check-in bag, the rest were carry-ons or our personals bags.

Hey, saved us $25- that paid for 3 trays of fruit for us!

 

On our inter-island flight to Oahu, we got a quick refreshment. Calm down, POG monster!

Honolulu has the best airport, why? Shop while you wait. Of course I didn't shop, but it was fun window shopping and sampling those yummy Honolulu Cookies at the store.

My sweet keiki fell fast asleep even before take-off, simply exhausted from our vacation.

She was out for 3 hours, more than half the flight home! That definitely made for an easier trip.

Now back to reality, thank you Big Isle! We certainly plan to come back, and learn even more about your history, landmarks, beauty, culture, land, etc.

One of the best family trips. Ever!

Big Isle: day 8

Today was slated to be a day of sightseeing & quality time at Camille's favorite pool.

And so our day began...

 

Of all places in the world to fail at landing a great coffee shop, sad to say, Kona was it. :(

Hate to admit this, but "the Machine" fell on our radar one too many times. The only place that had coffee we enjoyed was in Waimea-- 30 minutes away.

A long way to go for coffee, so Starbucks it was!

 

I caught a shot of the sun coming up behind the mountains. I think I'm more of a sunset gal, but then again I'm never up early enough to enjoy a sunrise.

 

This is a statue of the infamous King Kamehameha, a fearless leader of the Hawaii Islands in the 1800's. This Hawaiian landmark represents so much spiritual and cultural importance.

 

We reached the end of the road at Pololu Valley lookout, and were told that we can visit black sand beaches. We were also told that the trail down to the beaches were not too bad to hike down. That was NOT the case, and with a 3 year old...not even close. There was no way we would make it all the way to the beach scaling that hairy mountainside. And poor Glen was practically doing a kettle ball work out with Camille in tow. Above picture is how he carried her up and down the trail. 

Needless to say we did not go all the way down- there was a point on the trail that was not favorable for a 3 year to go down, or even for someone carrying a 3 year old.

What we saw from where we decided to stop going down was enough for us.

Although, it really was breathtaking.

 

On the way back, we cut through a mountain road that had some remarkable views of Waikoloa and surrounding beach towns. The landscape changed dramatically and it had me in awe at how beautiful this part of the island was. It was at this moment where I wished we had a few more days here. 

All the history and rich culture was so fascintating. A little nerdy, I know.

 

This is us in Waimea waiting for a table to have lunch.

 

Another photo taken in Waimea at the coffee mill. This was "the one place" that had choice coffee.

If it weren't so far away, we would've been there every morning.

 

Having fun with floral hair accessories. :)

 

I didn't know what the word Heiau meant until visiting this one- the Puukohola Heiau. It is basically a very sacred Hawaiian temple. This particular landmark took 1 year to complete and was built solely by hand comprised of rocks transported by a human chain from an area 14 miles away.

Fascintating, huh?

 

Randomness:

As for this device, the joby came in handy when we wanted to snap a picture of all of us in a remote area and when we didn't want to bother people to take a picture of us. It is always a big FAIL when we think we can count on random people to take a fam picture of us.

Its quite comical, actually.

I do wonder if people's eye sight is off if they can't take decent pictures. Looking through a lense and centering objects doesn't seem too tall a task. The 2 times that were offered to take our pics on our trip turned out to be more artsy shots...you know, where we are all the way at the bottom of the picture and the wall decor is the focal point OR the one where it was a full body shot of all of us but we are in the corner. Artsy fartsy!

Last day of our trip tomorrow. :(

Big Isle: day 7

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by. Day 7, already?

I will admit that I had a lingering homesick feeling for a bit, but it soon passed when we got upgraded to an ocean view room. Leaving the lanai door opened in the evening was a nice change to get fresh air, rather than the recirculating cool air. But leaving the door opened didn't help our cause when a neighboring room would come out on their lanai and smoke a cig. 

WTF people, it's a non smoking hotel.

So we mentioned it to the front desk and boom, upgrade! 3 days too late, but oh well.

The room was a breath of fresh air...pun intended!

This is the view from the lanai of our upgraded room. Sweet!

Today was beach day once again!

So we packed up fruit, POG, water and a few snacks that we had laying around and headed out to our fav BI beach, Mauna Kea. Based on our planning for the last few days, this was going to be our last day at the beach and we made the most of it.

The sun was out most of the time we were there, and even though the cloud cover came in, we stayed for a bit longer. Just hanging on to that little piece of time on the beach.

Daddy & Camille had fun making sand castles and practicing soccer zig zags.

POG monster, she couldn't get enough.

If my iPhone wasn't in my hands, it was my camera shooting away and documenting our last few days in paradise.
So sad! :(

Have I failed to mention that it was my birthday today? I guess not. :)

When that day comes around once a year, I don't typically play it up. There has a been a year or two when the work calendar missed my birthday, it slipped by with the team and I was relieved.

What's important to me is spending the day with my husband and girls. We can have a meal from our favorite taco shop, ice cream from Rite Aid and watch Tinker Bell at home and I would be totally fine with that. And though that would be perfect, today was slightly different spending a gorgeous and fun day at the beach, dinner at Roy's with their signature molten lava cake... and all in Hawai'i.

Best. Day. Ever. 

Big Isle: day 6

Three and a half hours at the beach is equivalent to pretty much, "all day."

And that was how we spent our day...all day at the beach.

At the rec of sissy once again, we went just a wee bit more north and reached a beach called Mauna Kea. This is an exclusive area and only 40 parking spots are available for the public to use. 

White sands, clear calm waters, fifty shades of blue (ha!) for miles on out, and the best part...not a lot of people. My kind of beach!

It was such a perfect day for relaxing and letting the girl play in the sun as much as she wanted, with multiple reapplying of sunscreen. I was tucked away in the shade of the tent, so she needed this hat!

The quintessential toes-at-the-beach picture.

After the beach, we drove up the coast of Kohala and checked out the small town of Havi.

This is where the Iron Men cycled up and made their turn around.

We had dinner at San Sei and wasn't too impressed like we used to be in our Maui days.

It was worth giving it a try since the Island Market was beginning to get old.

And day 6 came to an end.

Big Isle: day 5

Today was all about visiting food places the second time around.

 

Back at Dave's for breakfast. We knew how to order this time and just shared.

It was a little disappointing how the coffee wasn't as good as the other day. :(

We have yet to find our coffee place on the island, and it's already day 5!

 

Back at Da Poke Shack as well.

This place is a hole but it serves the best poke! Because the drive to Kona is a little out of the way, we got a handy styrofoam cooler and hauled a few different flavors of poke back to Waikoloa with us. The cooler turned out to be very handy for the rest of the trip.

Yaaaay for us!

 

And while in Kona, a visit to the infamous Kona Brewery was a must! We stayed for a beer...

well Glen drank a beer, and headed back to the hotel so we can watch the Chargers lose on MNF!

What a joke & embarrassment that was.

This cute hat had me in shame and holding my head down while at the hotel bar.

Waaaaaaah!

Big Isle: day 4

Iron Man Tri must have inspired me. My day started off with a morning run on the treadmill.

Running on the beach or on the streets is way too dark and kind of scary.

This is what the resort looks like at 5 o'clock in the morning. Much prettier in the day.

 

Loving the "inspirational messages" on my socks.

 

 

On our way to Hilo, we stopped at Tex's for big breakfast and picked up some malasadas.

It was delicious, but waaaaay too heavy for me. Glen had the infamous ono dish- Loco Moco, Camille had the pancakes and of course bacon & I had the omelet with hash browns.

Told ya so - HEAVY!

 

It was such an amazingly pretty drive to Hilo along the coast.

During the drive, this was our view to the left.

The right side view was sporadic residential areas, lush green scenery, and even a few waterfalls.

 

Visiting the Hilo Zoo/Rain Forest was a nice way of getting out for a leisurely stroll, albeit the setting is NOTHING like the World Famous SD Zoo. Pretty sad, but it's Hawai'i...people go to the beaches.

 

One day in Hilo is barely enough. There was so much on this side that we still wanted to see, especially after a short visit to the National Volcanic Center. We got to walk through a lava tube, and poor Camille she was terrified after daddy told her it was a batcave....good one!

But she was fine as long as he was holding her.

Driving back was just as pretty, but we were beat from the heat and a long day on the road.

A beautiful Hawaiian sunset last night. Aloha!

Big Isle: day 3

It's a BIG DAY on the island, especially for the 1,900 women & men who were participating in the Iron Man Triathlon. I can barely get myself to finish a half marathon, so a 2.4 swim, a 112 bike ride & a 26.2 mile run is astonishing!

 

Highway K, the main road on the west side of the Big Isle, was blocked off to most traffic throughout most of the day. While being "trapped" in our resort area is typically a good thing, it wasn't really ideal for us. Relaxation is great, but we like to get out, explore and do sightseeing.

I did the gym thing, we spent a little bit of time at the pool, had lunch and walked through the mall.

We even drove out to the main road to check out the athletes, which by the way was really fun cheering them on and getting a "hang loose" back when I'd throw one out to them.

Then we were left with not a lot to do.

Little did we know, there was a way out and alternative roads to take throughout the island. Kind of a waste of a day, but whatever- any day spent in Hawai'i can't really be a waste. Towards the end of the day, we escaped the resort life and went to Hapuna State Beach and stayed until sunset. It was another beautiful one.

Big Isle: day 2

Aloha & Good Morning!

Thanks to this great thing they call Time Zones, I was up at 4am local time. If yesterday wasn't such a taxing day of travel and hassle and unhealthy eating, I would've been up at 3am.

Daddy Glen & Camille got some good sleep and woke up 2 hours later. Good for them!

Our first stop for our 1st full day was big breakfast at Dave's Coffee Shack, a local hole in the wall (not too bad of a hole, though) that was highly recommended from sissy's August trip to the Big Isle.

No pics of the food unfortunately- it would've been worth the effort to dirty my hands with the filthy iPhone and snap a shot. I guess our hunger got the best of us and we just dug in!

 

Normally on vacation we hit the beach, but the pool looked so inviting. And this particular pool became her favorite place at the hotel. Of course...sand bottom pool shallow enough for her to wade in without the wings. The look on her face shows how much she loves it!

 

We decided to try out the snow cone shave ice hut that was parked on the beach adjacent to our hotel. This picture is cute, but don't be fooled by the imitators.

Not too hot about the beach either; Camille couldn't build any dirt sand castles.

I couldn't believe it myself, but we spent most of the day at the resort, with the exception of walking to the King's & Queen's Marketplace to kill a little time. We will surely be regulars over there!

 

This picture was posted already, but I'll post it again.

Our first beautiful sunset on the Big Island.

Stunning! 

Big Isle: day 1

It was a long travel day getting to Hawaii, but we pushed though it as best as we could. 

The first leg to Honolulu was not bad at all, and Camille did pretty good on the flight. Could be a different story coming from the older gentleman sitting next to Glen. She just talks a lot and asks so many questions, as any normal 3 year old would be- so you can't really blame her. 

Hawaiian Airlines provided a "breakfast box", which was quite pretty that I didn't want to open it.

Inside was a bread roll smothered with cream cheese, dried fruit & a mac nut cookie. 

Gotta love that 45 minute nap CJ took, thanks turbulence!

 

 

As if the flight wasn't long enough, the 2-hour lay over in Honolulu sucked. And we still had to deplane and wait. We just wanted to get to the Big Isle already...

The Kona airport was pretty cool- much smaller than Maui's airport and the waiting areas are outdoors and similar to huts, no walls. 

Crazy story...

Even calling a week ago to confirm everything...plane, hotel and (especially) our car rental, we almost didn't get a car. The Iron Man Triathlon on Saturday wiped the car rental companies out. 

When the shuttle drove into the rental area, something didn't feel right...it was practically empty!

We checked in to get our cheesy little economy car and here is the spiel we got. 

"Right now we don't have any cars, they are all rented out. We are really sorry, people are not returning cars and extending their rental. <bullshit> We will gladly shuttle you to your hotel and tomorrow at the earliest, your car will be driven to where you are staying."

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!

There were about eight other parties before us that were getting the same rigmarole.. 

I was about to call management or corporate to put in a formal complaint.

But slow your roll sister...low and behold, within that duration a few cars were returned and they moved faster than shit to get them cleaned and prepared for us.

Cheesy little economy car turned into full 4-wheel drive big truck!

Big truck for the Big Isle!

Our first day on the island was pretty shot. 

The ultimate plan was to hit up Da Poke Shack for dinner and head up to Waikoloa Beach and check in. Well, Da Poke Shack was located in Kona where Da Iron Man Tri was taking place.

Obstacles galore...blocked streets, pedestrians, parties, police, yellow tape, bikers and runners- oh my bikers and runners training EVERYWHERE! 

Of all the years vacaying here on the islands, I've never seen so many fit and crispy people in Hawaii at one given time. 

 

Day 1 down, more to follow!