We explored as much of the island as we could until we simply ran out of time and days.
A really nice find was the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the West side, just south of Kona.
The Tiki art work was amazing and very well preserved.
One of my favorite days was when we drove all the way to the southernmost part of the island. We basically drove south until the land ran out. It ended in these cliffs, where locals have built these cliff diving platforms. This south point is called Ka Lae.
Of course, we wanted to jump off... and Dan did. (I could not for obvious reasons).
Woooooo, Danomyte!
The diversity of the island is one of the things I liked the most. Sugar soft sand on the West coast and Black Sand Beaches on the East coast. This was at Punaluu Black Sand Beach park.
Where there "usually" are a lot of turtles... but we didn't see any on the beach. Dan saw two while he was snorkleing here...
On the East side. we visited Rainbow falls.
Which had an easy hike thru the coolest trees ever, that were so easy to climb!
Also on the east side we visited Onomea Bay and Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens
There were so many plant, tree, and flower species. By far my favorite was this tree, called the Cannonball Tree. It grows these heavy flowers all on its trunk and branches. And as I was looking up wondering "why do they call this a cannonball tree?" I got hit in the chest by a "cannonball." The tree releases these flowers and they fall like cannonballs every few minutes. It's so funny!
Another treat was the ride to Pali, to see the one active volcano. I at first didn't think I was going to be able to ride, because of "liability reasons" they don't allow pregger bikers. But when we got there, the guys were so cool and maybe I had that "I can ride circles around any of these people" look, but they let me ride. It was SUCH a fun day and the ride was easy and I enjoyed it so much.
We rode thru different plantations, ranches, and finally to the coast as we made our way to the volcano.
We are just a few miles away here, you can see the plume of smoke where the fresh lava meets the ocean (just behind my head)
We stopped at a place to have dinner and wait for dusk at another black sand beach. It was just beautiful
This is entering the Volcano park
And just after sunset, the lava meeting the waves, makes this constant gorgeous explosion.
This was on our very last day on the island, back on the west side at Maumai beach and then for lunch to the Mauna Kea Resort.
Back in Kona, having one last drink and watching the sunset before the dreaded trip to the airport for our red-eye flight...
It's over! Oh, say it isn't so!!! Back on the plane and back to California...
Thanks babe, for such an amazing trip and a great week together! (And you look so cute all tanned and browned!)
My girl Destiny and Scotty
So you buy this book of 12 tickets for $10 and you go from restaurant to restaurant and exchange these tix for food. It's a great way to sample all kinds of foods off these places menus and you get a pretty good idea of where you'd like to come back to and eat more... The portions were big enough to get REALLY full by the end of the stroll, though!
At the end of the night... still had 2 tix left and could not eat another bite! It was a delicious and fun night. I love summer.
