Hawaii: The Big Island Edition

Oh, am I missing the island already!
We had a great time exploring the largest of the Hawaiian islands. We knew this wasn't an island that we'd be able to explore every inch of, like we did when we were in Kauai and Cozumel. But all things considered I think we did a pretty good job in 9 days. Here's the highlights.

The first evening we spent relaxing at the beautiful bed and breakfast we stayed at in Captain Cook. It's an old plantation house and over looks the Kealakekua Bay (which we'll tell you more about later). The sunset view from the lanai was amazing. Our first full day, we drove north to the Kohala Coast to hike and see the Puako Petrogoyphs. The beach park where the hike begins is where our first favorite moment happened. I went to use the bathroom and Gabe walked over to the beach to look around. When I came out of the bathroom and looked at the ocean, I noticed some splashing right off the beach. My first thought was, "Oh my, I think that's a whale!" But then I convinced myself that there was no way a whale could be that close to the beach. That was until I could see Gabe in the sand with the camera out. Then I knew I'd been right. Well, a humpback calf and mother were out there having a good old time. The calf was jumping out the water. Mom was calling with the slap of her fin. And of course, their dolphin friends were joining in on the fun as well. It was amazing! We must have watched them for 20 minutes. Gabe took over 60 pictures just of those whales. The petroglyphs were cool but no comparison to the whale experience. After some lunch we drove up to Mauna Kea. I had really wanted to do a stargazing tour on Hawaii's highest spot, but there isn't enough oxygen up there for it to be safe for pregnant women. Instead we drove up to the visitor's center just for the experience. Unfortunately, not much of the mountain was visible through all the dense clouds.

The next few days we spent on the beach and in the water snorkeling. One of those days we kayaked across Kealakekua Bay to the best snorkeling spot in the state of Hawaii. It was amazing. I couldn't believe the amount of coral, and all the different kinds. I hope we got some good pictures with the cheap disposable underwater camera. Although I'm sure the pictures will never do it justice. On the way back we saw a large group of kayakers gathered in the bay. Gabe was convinced they were looking at dolphins because they come into the bay to rest during the day. So he insisted we paddle over there, and boy am I glad we did. Dolphins were everywhere! It was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced and definitely our favorite part of the entire trip. I could have sat there in the kayak and watched them all day. But we wanted to also explore the Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park and do some snorkeling in the cove next to it. The national park was the royal grounds where the chief of the native Hawaiians once lived. The snorkeling was pretty good too.

We decided to go on a whale watching tour one morning with a whale researcher. We saw a mom, calf and escort. But we didn't see them do anything as cool as we did that first day. What was amazing was seeing them swim under the boat. Since the water is so clear in Hawaii you can see them, and especially the white on their bodies, deep under water. On the way out in the boat, and on the way back in, we saw lots of spinner dolphins playing.

We spent the rest of our time on the west side of the island "exploring" beaches and seeing the sites. We drove to South Point, which is the most southern point in the United States. While hanging out at Black Sands Beach in the afternoon we saw a ton of green sea turtles. They like to come out of the water at this beach and hang out in the sun. We also drove to the northern part of the island to check out the views of Pololu Valley. We also managed, in driving with the top down on the convertible, to get ourselves some pretty crispy red sunburns.

Then we were off to see the volcano and explore Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. My lack of research into this trip was very apparent when we arrived in the park. I had no idea we were arriving into a tropical rainforest. It poured, and poured, and poured on us. We looked like drowned rats. We were able to see some of the volcanic craters and some "recent" lava flows. Gabe wasn't feeling very well, I think he finally caught the cold I had a few weeks ago. So we decided to put off the night lava viewing. We did that on day two of exploring the south east side of the island. The current lava flow is going right into the ocean. So during the day it just looks like a big steam cloud. At night, you can catch glimpses of lava bursting as it hits the cold water. We got to the viewing site pretty early and watched carefully as the sun went down. We were lucky to see some lava bursts but it definitely wasn't the river of molten lava I had imagined we'd get to see. I guess that's what I get for watching so many shows on the Discovery Channel.

Since we weren't far from Hilo, on the east side of the island, we decided to spend most of our last day exploring the many waterfalls north of Hilo and a little of the city itself. I would have liked to explore Hilo a little more. It looked like a pretty nice place for being the second biggest city in Hawaii...second to Honolulu of course.

Well, that's the trip. I guess that was way more than the highlights. Really I should have said it was the play-by-play. We did also tour a Kona Coffee plantation, a macadamia nut factory, and enjoy some shave ice. Can't leave out those typically tourist things! We had a great time and it was really hard to come home and get into the routine of life. I felt really weird when I walked into work on Monday. It felt like I should be on a beach in the sun...not getting ready to teach 150 7th graders. A bit surreal.
-h (Gabe edited and added all the pictures)