Aloha Oe

We just spent a week in paradise on the Big Island of Hawaii.

We left behind the gray skies of Boise 

 Stopped in San Francisco for some dinner

 and then flew to Hawaii. We got into Kona late on Saturday night, checked into our condo and then drove back to the airport to pick up Devin and Sarah.

Sunday morning we went to the Waimea ward for church. 

It was a really nice meeting.

 Afterwards we took a beautiful drive up to Kawi

 where we introduced Devin and Sarah to King Kamehameha

 I'm not sure he remembered us

 but he'll probably remember Tom who tried to steal an apple from the pile of offerings.

 We drove to the end of the road and looked down the beautiful coast.

 Trip Advisor recommended Sushi Rock in Kawi as the number 1 restaurant on the big island so we had to check it out.

We sampled lots of different sushi rolls and they were all delicious

 My favorite one was this goat cheese and carmelized onion roll. Sounds weird huh? but it was really delicious.

 More pictures along the beautiful Kona coast

 Then we stopped for some Hawaiian shave ice and some Kona coffee ice cream

 Who would have thought there were wild goats wandering around in Hawaii?

 We stayed in Waikoloa at the Kings Land Hilton Waikoloa

It was a beautiful resort

 We never got tired of the beautiful Hawaiian sunsets

 Monday morning we drove south of Kona to
Kealakekua Bay which is right by the Captain Cook monument.

We found a guy who rented sea kayaks so we rented a kayak and paddled a mile across the bay to snorkel by the monument.

The snorkeling was terrific but the best part about the adventure was paddling with the dolphins.  There were several dolphin pods in the bay that day and they were so cute swimming and jumping right by our kayaks.

There were lots of sea turtles also

Sarah is feeding this one "sea lettuce" with our friend Rufus.

 Our sea kayaks.  

The waves were really big that day so we had to paddle hard to exit the cove.

After our adventure we were starving so we found a taco stand for lunch and then ate this delicious macadamia nut pie at a restaurant Sarah had read about in Sunset magazine.

Yum, it was delicious!

 Tom had the toasted coconut cream pie.

 The "painted"church.

It was beautiful inside.

 Another beautiful Hawaiian sunset

We'd get up every morning and go on a walk.

The lighting was so beautiful in the morning.

 I love the contrast of the white coral with the black lava rock

This is the pool at the Hilton Waikoloa which was a part of our condo property.

Tom found a comfy spot to relax for a few minutes

The grounds are so beautiful at the Hilton Waikoloa

They even have a snorkeling lagoon complete with turtles and sharks

We spent the day at the beach.

Hapuna Beach

Picnic on the beach, the best kind.

We finished our day with another Hawaiian shave ice

We took Devin and Sarah on our walk the next morning.

Tom found a smiling friend

and Devin found a fellow Cougar!

We drove over to the Hilo side of the island to visit the beautiful waterfalls.

Akaka Falls

Waterfall "selfie"

and we stopped at this cute produce stand to buy a pineapple

Rainbow Falls wasn't much more than a trickle because they haven't had much rain on the Big Island in January

A picnic by the Falls

We hiked into this waterfall

Then we drove to Pahoa where the volcano's lava flow is threatening homes.

Here's the most recent flow that was threatening the town

The flow hasn't continued forward but instead has spread out so it is not threatening the town like it was.

We stopped at some more beautiful beaches

and hiked to this beautiful black sand beach

The only downside was that the hippies have also discovered this beautiful beach and there were a few naked hippies hanging out on the beach.

I'm glad this picture is too dark to see them.

We drove back to Hilo the next day and had breakfast at 

Ken's House of Pancakes.

It came highly recommended from Patty and Hal.

I loved my crab omelet and coconut pancakes.

We scheduled a Helicopter tour at 11 am and we were ready to go

We saw molten lava (I still can't believe I saw molten lava)

and these beautiful waterfalls

Back on the ground

I now know why Aaron loves to fly helicopters

I love it.

While Tom had lunch with a client, Sarah, Devin and I went to the Mauna Loa

Macadamia Nut factory for the tour and free samples

 

and then we had "Poke" for lunch, a Hawaiian specialty

Raw tuna and spices.

We all liked it.

 

Then we were off to Volcano National park

 

Lave tube 

Kiluaea was steaming

We stuck around to see it glow at night.

It was so cool!

The next day we were back to the beaches.

This is the beach at the Mauna Kea

Then we found this secret beach

Another beautiful sunset

We ate dinner at a delicious restaurant.

My Mahi Mahi was yummy with purple sweet potatoes.

Then we topped it off with a piece of Hawaiian mud pie

Our final day in Hawai we spent snorkeling south of Kona.

We saw so many beautiful fish and turtles

 and then headed back to the beach

and spent a few minutes at the Hilton Waikoloa pool

We showered and got ready for our flight home,

had Thai food for dinner

and topped our evening off with a last taste of Hawaii,

Pina Colada Rainbow shave ice

and a drive by the Kona Temple

Aloha Oe Hawaii

Until we meet again