I've been thinking about Hawaii

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"Thinking about Hawaii today. "
(taken at Hawaiian Airlines)

Aloha can also mean goodbye

The signature color of the Mauna Kea resort is a bright orange.
Any questions why I love this hotel?

The sister hotel to the Hapuna Beach Prince is the Mauna Kea Hotel. It was founded by Laurance S. Rockefeller, in 1965 and had been a very modern chic retro experience. Our last visit was a few weeks after an earthquake, and though the hotel was open, a few areas did sustain some impressive damage. They are now reopen after a $150 million repair and renovation and thankfully have updated the property without ruining the original look, feel and charm.

This visit to Hawaii coincided with Lyle's birthday. As such we decided to attend the beach side seafood buffet at the Mauna Kea.

It was a stellar view at sunset.

Having only a few days in Hawaii, we made the most of it. Sunning, swimming, driving in a convertible. You can't tell from the photos, but I SWEAR I had on sunscreen!

The food matches my shorts!

Lyle puts up with me.

I'm on FIRE!

But all good things must come to an end. On Sunday we checked out of our hotel and made our way to the Four Seasons Hotel. We seem to be making a habit of this for our last night. The restaurant is virtually on the beach and the final serenade of the surf at night is a fitting farewell.

They also do a good dessert send off.

Macadamia Nut S'More.

The spirit of Aloha

In the spirit of relaxing and doing nothing while in Hawaii, we made plans to visit some friends that also live on the Big Island. On the opposite side of the island. Let me state at the beginning that they offered to come to us but we wanted to go to them. See, the opposite side of the island is a lush tropical paradise that hosts rain nearly every day. We prefer the lunar scorched landscape with sun. From our hotel to their house could have been a brisk hour and half drive over the northern end of the island. But no, I had a GRAND PLAN that we should drive around the Southern end!

The first time we came to the Big Island you could not drive all the way around the southern end due to lava flow. We had gone to the Southern Most Tip (and taken a photo or two, you know how I can be), but then we had to drive back through Kona to our hotel. This time, we'd circle the Island. I mean, how long could that take?


We began at the yellow circle on the left. We followed the orange line down the left hand side and then all the way around the southern tip to Pahoa. We did a tour of the area, and after dinner we drove home via the purple line up the right hand side and across the top of the map. 5 and half hours to get there, an hour and half to get back. It rained all the way home in the dark.

After we passed Kona, we realized that this was not going to be a speed racer trip. We called our friends and told them to go ahead and have lunch without us because we weren't going to make that. This was at 11, we had left our hotel at 9 (after having macadamia nut waffles), we had only made it to about Ho'okena, still on the west side of the island.

But we had decided to treat it like a vacation and we stopped and looked at the view, stopped and grabbed a sandwich to split, stopped and bought fabric (some coated for outdoor table clothes, some Hawaiian print quilting fabric for my sister), we stopped and had coffee.

The view from Ho'okena area.

The coffee plants up close that are in the foreground of the picture above this.

Sometime around 2:30 we made it to our friends. In nothing short of a miracle, the weather was sunny and not raining. They gave us a grand tour, wait, make that A GRAND TOUR of their home, their neighborhood, the beach, the coast, the ice cream shop, the state park...

The coast is all made of lava and the surf was fairly fierce. But check out that color.

This is the tree canopy over the road into the state park area. At many points it goes down to one lane.

We arrived with the top down on the car. We kept the top down as we began our tour. When the rain came, we kept the top down. Our friends kept saying, "It won't last long." and it didn't.

Without telling us, they guided us into a parking lot surrounded by large plants. They told us there was something special around the corner. We were made to back into our parking spot for "fast escape". What, or where, were we?

The exit point of the lava from active volcano Mauna Loa.

This park only opens at night. People bring their flashlights and chairs, hike in, settle down and wait for the dramatic sights of red hot lava hitting the ocean, which if we had the patience to wait for, the shoes to walk in and our of the lava park with, or the flashlights to find out way out after dark, our photos could have looked like this:

But we didn't. And, even though they sold shoes, chairs and flashlights in the makeshift village on your way in, we opted to leave before dark.

For perspective, click on the above image and look over there on the right. That tiny little speck of dark is a helicopter giving a tour.

After a great meal with great friends it was time to head home. Lyle had done all the driving over during the day and I had planned on driving home that night. But it started to rain, the windshield had some bad smear all over it and I could see very well and slowed down for all those twisting windy curves. Lyle wanted to get home faster, made me pull over and drove us home in the rain.

He wasn't too "steamed".

(don't you just pity Lyle? Aren't you glad you don't vacation with me?)

Aloha means Welcome

Recently (okay in early February), we went to Hawaii. After 12 days of working in Las Vegas we really were looking for an opportunity to stop the world and unwind. We chose to return to the Hapuna Beach Prince on the Big Island because we've been there before and we've done everything we can think of. We go there to be bored.

Our room was on the left. Ocean front for sight and especially at night, sound.

We knew we'd been there before, but we were surprised to find out after asking the front desk, that this was our fifth stay! Our first trip was in 1997. We seem to average every other year. As a frequent guest, we were pleased to accept a complimentary upgrade to an ocean front suite. The room was huge and almost embarrassing for just the two of us, but my favorite part, two bathrooms and a much larger closet! Yes, 4 days in Hawaii and we brought 3 suitcases.

A sign that will give you pause. Note the water in the background.

A sign to welcome you back to the top of the hill. Note the trees in the background.

We had a rental car and after going snorkeling the first day, we decided to drive the 40 minutes to Hawi. Lyle had a mission. There is the Kohala Coffee Mill that serves Hawaiian coffee and Macadamian nut ice cream. His mission was to repeat his triumphant discovery of combining the coffee and the ice cream together for a taste treat he (obviously) had to repeat!

Over Lyle's shoulder, bags of locally grown coffee. We bought 4.

As we were lying around the pool one day Lyle said, "Oh my god, I think that's a whale..." And I replied without opening my eyes, "Ha, ha, ha very funny. How fat is he?" Then I heard all sorts of commotion and thought maybe this man was seriously fat AND trying to get into the pool at which point I sat up and was STUNNED to see a sight much like this in the ocean in front of our hotel:

Of course I didn't have my camera. I was at the pool! So we spent the rest of our vacation taking seriously bad photos like this one trying to capture what we had missed that first day.

This was the best one.

On the bright side, it took up many hours just sitting around on the beach.

Alohhhhhhhhh-HA!

Anyone remember this post from September?

I'm headed there. I left at 5:15 this evening.

I may be unusually quiet as I plan on reading books and laying in the sun and doing relatively nothing.

Hi there, Hawaii?

I was talking to Carolyn about flying the other day about her fear of flying. I asked how she would ever get to Hawaii if she didn't fly. And her response was "Hawaii?"

It got me to thinking about where we go when we go to Hawaii. We've been to Waikiki and done Honolulu. We've gone to Maui and skipped the road to Hana because it was raining. The place that keeps bringing us back for more is the Big Island, Hawaii. We love staying on the Kohala Coast outside of Kona (you know I had to look up how to spell all that).

We have always stayed at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort. We love it because there is nothing to do. Except of course eat, swim, eat, snorkel, eat, walk, eat, lay in a hammock, eat... did I mention we eat?

We missed this year because the Earthquake in 2006 damaged the sister property of the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort, the Mauna Kea. We were there just after the quake and the damage wasn't too awful but the hotel decided to close and renovate to come back safer and stronger. They will be opening next January. The bad part was it pushed everyone who would have stayed over there, to the hotel normally stay in. Too many people. Too much demand. No specials!

In trying to explain to Carolyn what is so special about Hawaii to me I found this movie from our trip in 2005:

They don't show up very well in this resolution, but try and see if you can spot all the rainbows...

How many times do you think I need to type the words "Hapuna Beach Prince Resort" and mention how much I love it there before they contact me and offer me a special rate?

I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!
I love to stay at the Hapuna Beach Prince Resort!

Anyone?

Hello?

February is a lovely month for travel...

Hello?....