Hawaii Trip: Part 2

It's so weird to be sitting here blogging about Hawaii when the mountains and rooftops outside my window are all dusted with snow.  If you didn't read my other post about Hawaii, you may want to scroll down to that one first.  Because now I'm going to write about the second part of our trip--the four days we spent on the Big Island.  This post will probably be long, too.  Hope you are in the mood for a virtual trip to Hawaii!

We flew into the Hilo airport because we were staying at Hale Kai bed and breakfast in Hilo.  It was very different from our warm, sunny days on Oahu.  Hilo is considered the rainiest city in the U.S.  

After checking in at the B&B, we headed up to Volcanoes National Park.  Basically, you drive around Kilauea and look down into various craters from past eruptions.  The main road encircles Kilauea, but a large portion was closed because of the vog from the current eruption at the summit of Kilauea.  We also took Chain of Craters Road as far down as we could.  It used to go closer to the ocean, but lava has been flowing down there since April 2010.  There are plenty of "tour guides" who walk people down to the lava, but the park rangers don't recommend it.  You have to hike across a lot of private property, and the "guides" are mostly just unemployed locals.  There are also boat rides to see the lava hit the ocean, but these are just locals who happen to own boats.  I suppose there might be reputable companies who do tours to the lava, but as far as the park rangers are concerned, this area is closed.

Here's what we saw:

This is the Kilauea Iki Crater.

The Thurston Lava Tube.  It's barely underground, and you walk through it.

This arch is at the end of Chain of Craters Road.

This is as close as we could get to the lava hitting the ocean. The lava is flowing at the point you see in the distance, where the land meets the ocean.

This is just one of the lava fields.  A huge portion of the Big Island looks more or less like this.

Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs

Halema`uma` Crater was my favorite part.  This crater formed in 2008.

Same crater, from a different trail.

It's worth staying up there after dark to see the lava glow red.

We saw that all on Saturday.  Sunday was a lot more low key.  We went to church in the morning.  We had a picnic on our lanai.  

There wasn't a beach, more like a small cliff, but there was nothing between us and the ocean.

This gecko wanted to join us for our picnic.

 We also drove to Akaka Falls and to one of the black sand beaches.

This is the same steam from the lava meeting the ocean that we saw from the other side.  This black sand beach is near where people hike down to see the lava.

On Monday, we went to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Factory tour.  There are big glass windows on the side of the factory so people can watch the workers.  There are videos playing nearby to explain all of the processes.  We ate some macadamia nut ice cream.  Also, in the gift shop, there is a sample counter where you can try one of every flavor of macadamia nuts.  Yummy!

The Big Island is big!  We spent most of the afternoon driving from one side of the island around to the other.  We stayed our last night at the Waikoloa Marriott.  It sits right on the beach, with the entire Anaehoomalu Bay pretty much for the exclusive use of its hotel guests.  Technically other people could go there, too, but the only access is from Marriott property.  It's a pretty bay with black and gold sand, coral reefs, and no waves to speak of.  There were also three large hotel pools that were fun after it was too dark to be at the beach.

I took this picture of the Marriott from the beach.

One of the three swimming pools.

We went on the Ocean Sports Glass Bottom Boat.

It was easy to see the fish through the glass, but it was nearly impossible to take a picture.

The bay is full of green sea turtles.

Wayne also went out on a stand up paddle board with a beach boy guide.  They paddled off so far into the ocean that I couldn't see them from the beach.

 And then we had to come home.  Sigh.  We flew out of the Kona Airport on Tuesday night, arrived in Los Angeles around 4:30 in the morning.  Yes, I asked Wayne if we could please stop at Disneyland, but we had to go home.  I couldn't sleep at all on the airplane rides.  We finally got to our house around lunchtime, and my schedule was thoroughly messed up.  We had a great time, and someday we may even go there again!

The Big Trip

It's been a week since we got back, but let me see how much of our trip to paradise I can remember.  Sorry, this is going to be a long post.  Wayne and I went to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary! Technically, our anniversary was back in August, but it wasn't a convenient time to leave the boys for a week.  So, we decided to wait until UEA (a fall break from school in Utah).  My mom was so nice to watch Daniel and Benjamin for us.  And it was so nice to come home to a clean house with no laundry (other than what was in our suitcases).  The boys had a great time, and I think they missed Grandma more when she went home than they missed us while we were gone.

Grandma took them to the school carnival.

Looks like Benjamin had fun, too.

This is how our trip began:  We had to leave early on Wedneday morning, so my mom stayed at our house Tuesday night.  We actually flew from Salt Lake to Denver because we were using United frequent flier miles.  All of Wayne's business trips finally paid off.  He actually doesn't leave town too often, but it adds up (especially with trips to Australia).  Our flights were pretty uneventful, and we arrived in Honolulu on Wednesday afternoon.  We checked into our hotel, The Best Western Coconut Waikiki.  Here's the view from our room:

That's the Ala Wai Canal that runs through Waikiki.

We were pretty far from the beach, but that was ok.  We took TheBus (yep, that's what it's called) to the Ala Moana shopping center, one of the biggest outdoor malls in the world.  We picked up a few souvenirs and ate at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room (it was highly recommended by Fodor's).  The next morning, we ate an early breakfast at our hotel (including waffles with coconut syrup!).  Then we went to Hanauma Bay for some early morning snorkeling.  Morning is always the best time for snorkeling in Hawaii because there are fewer people and the wind and waves haven't kicked up much sand.  Wayne snorkeled for an hour or so, but let's face it, I like to look at the ocean a lot more than I like to be out in it.

Our next destination was Laie, on the north side of Oahu.  We drove there and stopped at the LDS Temple before going to the Polynesian Cultural Center (the PCC).

This is at the temple's visitor center.  The famous weatherman Mark Eubank is serving a mission there with his wife.

Outside the Laie Temple.
It was closed in preparation for the big Open House that is going on now.

If you go to Oahu, I highly recommend going to the PCC.  It's divided into 7 different villages.  First, we saw the Canoe Pageant.  There were dancers from each of the villages on different canoes.

Then we went to half of the villages for cultural demonstrations.  There really isn't a way to see all of them in one day, but a pass is good for three days, so we came back for a couple of hours the next day to see the others.  If you only have one day, don't miss Samoa and Tonga.  In the Samoa village, they climb palm trees, husk coconuts, and make fire from sticks.  The Tonga show is drumming.

Wayne learned to make fire with sticks (wild hibiscus branches).  I have hibiscus growing in my backyard.  Do you think I could try it at home?

In the evening, there was a luau and a night show that we went to.  The luau was a buffet with all of the delicious food you would expect.  Even the poi was pretty good.  And the night show is fabulous, complete with fireknife dancers.

We stayed at Keiki Bungalows for two nights.  The location was fantastic (right on the beach).  But there was some seriously loud and annoying construction work on the street out front.  And I think the people on the floor above us never slept because they were never quiet.  The beach was beautiful, if somewhat treacherous.  I only saw Wayne and one local swimming here.  Oh, there were a few other people who tried to, but they were all back on the beach in less than 15 minutes.  There's a reason the North Shore is famous for its waves.

In fact, just a few minutes down the road was the famous Bonzai Pipeline, where we stopped to watch the surfers and the sunset.

So, that's the gist of what Oahu was all about.  The best parts were beautiful beaches, fabulous food, and the PCC.  On Saturday morning, we took an early flight from Honolulu to Hilo for part 2 of our adventure.

BYU Homecoming Parade

Yep, we were in the parade again.  Daniel and Benjamin LOVE being in parades.  The weather was nice.  The kids enjoyed walking around to see all of the other floats before the parade started.

Daniel thought it was pretty cool to see the motorized couches that were in the parade.  A couple of BYU students made them, and they were all over the news a few months ago when BYU banned them from driving the couches on campus.  Nicholas Homer, one of the inventors, was nice enough to let Daniel take a spin with him. 

Fun Field Trips

I love helping out at the elementary school!  I've spent a lot of time over at the school this year since I don't have to get a babysitter or anything to be able to go.  I was also able to go on both of my boys' field trips in the past couple of weeks.  First, I went with Daniel's class on a hike up Provo Canyon, past Bridal Veil Falls.  We had lunch at a park at the end of the hike.  Then we went on the bus to the BYU Bean Museum.

Daniel and his friend Matthew eating lunch at the park.

Daniel looking at the insects at the Bean Museum

 

 

 

Benjamin and I went on his first grade field trip to Pumpkinland.  We also rode the bus--which is always a big deal to my kids since they don't ride the bus to school.  We went through a corn maze, saw some animals (goats, rabbits, etc.), and played on the playgrounds.  After choosing a pumpkin to take home, we rode the bus to a large park with picnic tables where we ate lunch.  Then the kids played on the playground there, too.

Benjamin had a great time, just in case you couldn't tell!

Fall Soccer

My boys love playing soccer.  Benjamin was thrilled to be on a team with a lot of the same kids again that he had on his team last spring.  Daniel only knew one other kid on his soccer team this fall, but he was up for the challenge of making a bunch of new friends.  Benjamin's team had an undefeated season.  Technically, they don't even keep score in the first grade league, but his coaches were really nice and bought small trophies for all of the boys at the end of the season.  Daniel's team had some wins, some losses, and some ties.  But through it all, they played well together and had good attitudes.  In his league, they gave out awards for the championship team as well as the good sportsmanship award.  The good sportsmanship award was determined by the referees.  They said Daniel's team won it by a landslide.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised when there were parents and coaches from Daniel's team thanking the referees after every game.  And let's not forget Daniel apologizing profusely for fouling another player.  Oh, and in the final game, Daniel's team all stopped playing to help up a boy from the opposing team who was injured, only to have someone from the other team dribble past all of them to score.  It is really fun to see your team win games.  But it's also nice to see the boys enjoying the game and being respectful of each other.