Hawaii!!

We finally made it to Hawaii. All the stress of getting there finally paid off. No kids. Just me and J.   After getting to our resort, we were pretty much zonked.  But by 6 am Jeremy was pacing the floors, getting ready to head out to tour the lands.  I tried to resist but when he suggested that I could eat my breakfast in the car I guess I figured I lost the battle of a relaxing day on the beach.  Although...come to find out, on the Big Island, there wasn't a ton of beach.  Just a lot of Lava.

We headed out to Volcanoes National Park.  It was so beautiful.  We hiked down through the crater of a Volcano and back up.  The weather was amazing.  Just when you get hot, it sprinkles rain.  We loved it and had so much fun.  The trail was picture perfect.  I even spotted a heart in the lava and couldn't pass up a picture opp.

 We stopped at a gas station, always in search of food that "isn't normal" to us we found this sushi looking thing.  It was chicken on a chunk of rice and super yummy.   I'll take that gas station food any
day. 

Then we hit another trail that took us down through a lava tunnel.  It was crazy that the lava had cooled to make a tunnel.  All the while we were hiking I kept thinking how my kids would love this place.  Livvy loves to hike so she would be in heaven.

The next day we hiked down to Pololu Valley to a black sands beach.  It was pretty dang steep but worth it once you were at the bottom.  Well, getting to the bottom wasn't a big deal; it was getting back up that was a little intense!  Jeremy and I spent hours in the car driving around from village to village setting out to find the most authentic islander food and shops.  Carsick or not, we were going to find that quaint little cafe 2 hours from home for some good eats.  Even if we got there and that perfect destination point was closed there was always something else to see.  :)  I LOVE Jeremy for his passion of good food.  We ate at some pretty amazing places.    I deserve a little credit for picking a "hole in the wall" food joint.  Turns out that the owner, Brian, from "Sun-Dried Specailties" (http://www.sundriedspecialties.com/) ran this awesome shop with fresh catches from the ocean every day.  It was really amazing seafood.  He and Jeremy hit it off really well and had a sit down chat about the area and life stories.  It was really cool.  In the end, he let us try a new recipe he was trying out and gave us a couple of T-shirts.

 I had the salmon and it was quite possibly the best thing I ate.  SO YUM! 

 Jeremy had some conference meetings he had to attend so guess where I spent the day?  When he woke up that morning he asked me where I was going to go.  I just looked at him and said "nowhere."  But I actually did go into town to check out some shops and spent the rest of the afternoon in this cabana.  I Face-Timed the kids and Coy wanted me walk around the island showing him everything.  I had to explain "internet" once again to the bewilderment of my kids who don't understand that wireless doesn't mean magic.  I was missing my kids especially that day. 

 This cute smile is the one J gives me when he is getting tired of the 100th picture I have taken and he is sick of it.  HAHA!  That's love people!!

That night we headed out to a restaurant called The Canoe House.  We watched a beautiful sunset and had yummy food.  We had Hawaiian Lava Flow drinks but I secretly like Noelle's and Kristi's Lava Flows better. 

While driving on the coast, we came across a little village.  It was Lapakahi State Historical Park.  It was a mile long trail that showed you different things throughout this ancient village.  How these people ate, lived, cooked, fished etc.  It was super cool and we spent quite a bit of time there. 

Our last evening in Hawaii we toured our resort.  Man, you could never leave this hotel (http://www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com/) and still have a great time in Hawaii.  It was HUGE!!  From the main entrance you can take a train to the tower you are staying at or you can walk it.  Without stopping, on a brisk pace we could make it from our car to our room in 15 minutes.  HOLY COW!!  There were many many restaurants, places to swim with animals, snorkel a million pools, shopping and much more.   We even went to a mini zoo.

Finally time to go home.  I missed my kids so much and the flight coming home couldn't go any slower.  We had such a fun and busy week and Hawaii is a great place to visit.  Next time we have got to hop to different islands!