I'm not sure where I left off last. Essentially I rendered the computer inoperable and could download more images to the blog each evening. So now we've been home since last week and all I can think about is the snow piling up in the driveway. And, I'll apologize up front for the fact that many of the following pictures show the family more than the place.
Lily - the picture of relaxation
Friday we spent the morning at the lagoon at the resort. Anneka rented a standup paddle board and tooled around a bit in it. Anneka could never be a stand up paddle boarded. Not that she doesn't have the skill for it. She doesn't have the size for it. Stand up paddle boards are like small boats that they forgot to put the sides on. They look like they're 22 feet long. I don't know how she'd get something like that out to the ocean. Perhaps they have docks for those things like they do at Lake Powell for houseboats.
Sophie got to float with, walk beside and then sit near a sea turtle and that was really neat. The seat turtles were everywhere there. I remember just seeing one in Kauai last year and thought it was amazing. This year we saw tons of them.
Anneka trying out stand up paddle boarding
Monkey see, monkey do. Soph saw mom paddle boarding so she wanted to try it.
Friday, we left a titch late from the hotel on our way across the island to see Volcano National Park. It took like 3 hours to get there though its only about 50 miles away as the crow flies. Since we aren't crows we had to drive. The roads were winding and rollercoasteresque. And I love every minute of it. I was in 3rd gear in my Cobra, mentally, the whole time.
The downside to the park was that to really see lava is difficult at best. The drive fromt the park entrance to the sea is 3 hours round trip and really winding (perfect for me, but hideous for Anneka). So, we saw the easy sights before driving back to the hotel.
That plume of Sulpher Dioxide is about as close to lava as we could get. It was about 60 degrees and windy there and felt like winter...
On the way back was a black sand beach that I think we'd not have seen had we not invested the time to get to that side of the island. It ended up being an amazing trade-off in my opinion. I didn't get to see actual lava but I did get to step on a black sand beach and marvel at its beauty. I saw a rounded piece of lava rock rolling up and down the slope of the beach from the surf and took a million pictures of it. Sorry for that. Hopefully you see more than just a black rock on a black beach. I also stumbled on three resting sea turtles. Remember, earlier I'd said they're everywhere. If you're not paying attention as you stroll the beach with your face in a camera and your camera pointed a rock, you may trip over them.
Love this picture
In the interest of viewing pleasure, I'll cut the rest of the descriptions short. The rest of the time there was wonderful. The weather was sunny days of 80 degree temperatures and evenings that were just as perfect. Coming home was a slap in the face. We went from 75 degrees at embarcation in Kona to 19 degrees at disembarcation in Salt Lake City.
Suffice it to say, we'll be back.
This is called the Refuge. Built in like the 1600's or something, if you committed a crime such as letting your shadow cross that of the king, you could be put to death. But, if you could make it from wherever you were, to this place, and get behind a wall, all was forgiven. Trick was getting to the place before anyone caught you. It was a beautiful spot and a great way to wind down our trip.
Soph loved the beach. Her enthusiasm is one of the reasons it was worth every penny spent.
Bye Hawaii, till next time
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