Slowly but surely, we are revisiting our tropical paradise picture by picture. Our first stop was the Big Island of Hawaii. This place was the most "raw." Lots of lava rock everywhere. It is the youngest island and still be developed (as lava continues to flow from it). The volcano remains active and the emissions were deadly in places. Part of the park where we walked around was closed off for this reason. We also encountered the smell of wildfires along the way to the volcano site. It was a long drive as we were staying on the other side of the island, in Kona. It was a couple of hours to go down and around to get to the volcano. So, along the way, we stopped at South Point which is the most southern tip of the U.S., where we were then the closest to the equator.
It was interesting terrain. There were many back, windy, narrow roads and lots of grassy lands with cattle and other animals scattered about. Jon saw what he thought may have been a ferret run across the road in front of him. It turns out, this was the first of many mongoose that we would see in various places. We also saw our first whale siting here. It seemed amazing to be 2,500 miles of ocean distance away from everything else and be able to look out and see a whale flop out in the horizon. How amazing and what beauty.
So, our first day we drove out to the volcano. On the second day we drove on the northern side of the island and stopped at various places through Hilo. We took a hike to see Akaka Falls and we took a walk out and around Coconut Island. We visited the Mauna Loa nut factory and visitor center sampling LOTS of yummy mac nuts....our favorite was in ice cream.
We met up with Jon's high school classmate and he drove us out to their home. It was "back country" and he teased us that he really lives in Hawaiian redneck territory. A rooster lives next door and definitely made his presence known. It was a neat and very natural set up and still a work in progress as he and his wife moved from Oahu less than a year ago and live in a yert. Coqui frogs chimed out while we took in our surroundings from his patio. Later that evening we met up with his wife for a fine dinner and conversation. We are hoping to meet up with them again June as they are looking forward to the upcoming 20 year high school reunion. It was a long drive home that evening after a nice visit. Unfortunately, Jon got picked up for speeding which was not the souvenir we wanted.
Needless to say, over the next couple of days on the Big Island, we didn't drive around nearly as much in our "hot rod" minivan. We made an attempt to locate a Captain Cook statue, checked out the Painted Church and a couple of the Kona coffee farms in the area. We also spent some time waling through and around the town as there were lots of convenient places to eat and shop right along the shore near our hotel.
On New Years Eve, we packed up and headed to the airport. We were suprised that there was no security for this inter-island flight but we were charged a ridiculous amount for our carry-on and luggage. We finally boarded a small nine seater plane and set off on our hour flight to Maui. I'm thankful that I took enough motion sickness medicine to get me through it as Jon was feeling queasy by the time we arrived. However, we MADE IT so MAUI became our next adventure!
