*For the two of you who read my blog, I know this is a monster entry. I wrote it more for my own personal record keeping than for you to waste time reading it. Therefore I'm not offended that you won't read the whole thing.
(Pictures are on fb. I'm too lazy to cull through my pictures and find a few to post here.)
Looong day. On three hours of sleep we were up for 24 hours before our heads hit the pillow again. We stayed up until 12 watching Julie & Julia (mmm French food) and woke up at 3:30 to head to IAH. The next 12+ hours were spent on flights from IAH to Salt Lake, Salt Lake to LAX, and LAX to Kona. We met up with my family at the gate in LAX and all sat together for the flight to Kona. Little Seth hit was on my bro-in-law's lap behind us hitting Michael on the head for most of the flight, but once we were in Hawaii, he wanted little to do with either of us. Pshhhh those temperamental babies. :) We arrived in Kona, got the rental cars and headed to Hayashi's You Make the Roll (thanks for the suggestion, jwong!) with the intention of eating dinner there. Unfortunately it started raining and there's only outdoor seating, so we decided to go back another day. Even more unfortunately, the day we wanted to go back there, we found out they'd be closed for the rest of our trip for Memorial Day weekend, so we never made it. :*( Oh well, next time, right? We had dinner at Costco instead (can't beat that food for those prices) and did the bulk of our grocery shopping for the week. Exhausted, we all finally headed to the house that would be our home for the next 7 days. It is a GREAT property: lots of bedrooms to accomodate the 11 of us, backyard pool, and a beautiful lanai stretching around most of the house. We tried to stay up talking for a bit, but ended up going to bed pretty soon.
Day 2 (Thursday)
So Hawaii is 3 hours behind LA and 5 hours behind Houston. Thus the kids were up before 6am and in the pool by 7:30 haha. Woke up and headed to the closest snorkeling spot after breakfast, Kahalu'u Beach Park. It's probably less than a mile from our house. When we got there the tide was fairly high and the kids were able to play in a little tide pool area. The snorkeling was great fish-wise. Not a ton of pretty coral, but lots of colorful fish. It's a pretty rocky beach (like most of the beaches on the big island) but there is a small sandy corridor that most people used to get in and out. We also saw a few turtles there were coming right on shore which is always cool. After snorkeling we headed home, the kids hopped in the pool and some of us headed to Safeway to get some more groceries. I noticed lots of great Asian groceries, forgot where I was for a second, and exclaimed, "Wow! Great Asian food section." Then I remembered I'm in Hawaii, and not in Texas, where the Asian food section in the grocery store takes up like one shelf. We just ate dinner and chilled the rest of the evening, and watched part of Tron: Legacy. Michael and I had seen it already but my nephew hadn't. Love the effects and soundtrack on that movie, not a fan of the casting (with the exception of Jeff Bridges and Michael Sheen).
Day 3 (Friday)
Today was our adventure to Captain Cook's monument in the Kealakekua Bay. We left the three littlest ones with my mom and headed to pick up our kayaks at Aloha Kayak. We got a little lost on the way (GPS is NOT reliable 100% of the time) but eventually made it. The guy strapped three kayaks to the top of our rental van then gave us a great info session about where to go, what to expect, what to do, etc. We headed off down the mountain to the bay, unloaded our kayaks, and got going on the mile-long stretch from the launch to the monument. On the way we got to see some spinner dolphins. At first we could kinda see the tops of a few of them swimming along, then one of them decided to get crazy showy for all of us. He/she jumped in the air spinning and flipping just 10 feet or so from our kayak, and this happened several times. It was crazy - like being a Sea World watching dolphins perform, except this was in the wild. It was an amazing experience, and we were thankful we even got to see dolphins at all, because they're not always around. I wish I had my camera with me, but we had left most of our stuff in the van since we were kayaking. We never flipped over or anything, but it wasn't worth the risk. Anyway the dolphins were amazing, but my nephew was in our kayak and he gets really motion sick, so we had to book it to shore. Once there we just towed our kayaks around with us while we went snorkeling, since you now need a permit to dock on the shore where the monument is. The snorkeling was pretty amazing, coral-wise. The water was super clear with great visibility, and the coral was incredible. We didn't see too many fish, but the coral and underwater terrain were interesting enough. There was a reef close to shore, then a steep drop-off into the blue depths. It was a really great snorkeling spot and we had a great time. We were there for a few hours then kayaked back to the other side of the bay. On the way home we stopped at Kalama's, a little place off Napo'opo'o Road on the recommendation of the Aloha Kayak guy. We all got shaved ice and it was DELICIOUS! We got home and I spent some time with one of my nieces in the pool, then we just ate dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Day 4 (Saturday)
I don't really remember what we did in the morning today, we probably spent it in the pool. In the afternoon we headed to Wawaloli Beach. The rocks there for a huge tide pool/lagoon that's great for kids since the water is only about knee deep and protected from the surf. The kids played in the water and we explored on and around the lava rock. It's crazy how much lava rock is on the big island. It makes for some pretty rough beaches, but it's really beautiful at the same time.
Day 5 (Sunday)
Today we headed to the City of Refuge/Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. We walked around the grounds first, then headed to the neighboring beach. There's a beach on either side of the historical park. One of them is supposedly good for snorkeling, but it looked super busy with hardly any parking, so we went to the other one. It was nice, lots of picnic tables and some tide pools that the kids could play in. It was a relaxing afternoon, and overcast skies provided a much needed break from the sun. In the evening we went into town and had dinner at U-Top-It since Hayashi's was closed. :( The food was pretty good, although I wished I had ordered something different. Michael had a loco moco with white rice, eggs over medium, and a curry gravy and it was really good. Afterwards we walked down the main thoroughfare on Alii Drive and found Scandinavian Shaved Ice on recommendation from the checker at Safeway. The moment I took my first bite though I knew it wasn't as good as Kalama's, not even close. The syrup was heavier and the ice was not really shaved. I think Kalama's hand shaves their ice or something because it's really light and feathery, whereas Scandinavian uses one of those machines that basically makes a snow cone. Plus Kalama's has the option of drizzling sweet cream or coconut cream on their shaved ice which makes it that much better.
Day 6 (Monday)
More pool time in the morning. In the afternoon we headed to Kekaha Kai State Park because we had heard from multiple sources that it has uncrowded, beautiful, sandy beaches. After getting off the highway there's a 20 minute rough drive over lava rocks to the parking lot. We didn't have 4WD vehicles and were fine, but it would've helped and gone faster if we did. Once at the parking lot there's a five minute walk to the first beach, Mahaiula. This beach is great - sandy, lots of shade, uncrowded. The kids played here in the surf the whole time. There's another beach though which is a 20 minute walk from Mahaiula called Makalawena Beach. The 20 minute walk is pretty rough on your feet as it's over lava rocks the whole way, but it's so worth it. Makalawena is even more deserted that Mahaiula and the sand is finer and softer. Absolutely gorgeous!
Day 7 (Tuesday)
Michael and I struck out on our own today. We headed south along the coast toward the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We were hoping to see some active lava flow, but no luck throughout the day. The park was pretty neat though. Lots of beautiful scenery and various ecosystems. In one park we saw lava cliffs on the coast, rainforest, lava wasteland, and forest. We went on a few mini hikes and just tried to see as much of the park as we could in a few hours. Afterward we decided to just go on to Hilo (on the opposite side of the island from where we were staying in Kona) because it wasn't far from the park. We stopped at Cafe 100 for dinner. The book we had with us said it was a good local spot and for the most part, it didn't disappoint. Michael had another loco moco that he thought wasn't as good as U-Top-It, but I had the "Hapa Plate" consisting of fried salmon, teriyaki beef, brown rice, and macaroni salad. It was really good, plus we were starving since we hadn't eaten all day. We ran out of the house in the morning to get going and didn't grab any lunch stuff. We had planned to grab lunch before going to the park, but there was only one food option inside the park, and it was closed for renovation. So we were sooo hungry by the time we got to Cafe 100. After eating dinner we decided to drive the northern route around the island to get back home. Just after we pulled onto the highway, Michael found a scenic route which led us to this secluded beach area. The eastern side of the island is really lush, and the beach area was surrounded by rainforest and high cliffs. It was getting dark but we still walked around for a bit and enjoyed the scenery. On the drive back I read some of The Hunger Games to Michael to pass the time. That series is sooo addicting. I bought all three books in the trilogy for my Kindle just for this trip, and I was done with all three books in a matter of days. We also pulled off the road at one point just to look at the stars. We could see so many of them shining brightly in the sky. It reminded me of the crazy amounts of stars you can see in Fiji.
Day 8 (Wednesday)
Woke up, headed to Kahalu'u for one last bit of snorkeling. Again, shallow water at low tide with little coral but LOTS of beautiful fish. After lunch we visited this little painted church. After seeing paintings and frescoes in places like Israel and Turkey that are much older, I wasn't too impressed (I know, that sounds snobby and pretentious), but it was a nice little stop with some beautiful flora on the church grounds. We then headed to the Kona Pacific Farmers Co-Op, where we bought some Kona coffee gifts and walked around their grounds. It was a cute little place with some animals, fruit and coffee plants, and information about the co-op. Then we went back to Kalama's for shaved ice. Seriously the best. Then it was home to pack, eat dinner, and head to the airport for our red eye back to LAX.
Day 9 (Thursday)
We got into LAX a little after 5am and were in Simi by 7. We had breakfast at Yanni's Best Charbroiled Hamburgers and it was delicious. I had the french toast which was really good, but they have this great breakfast special for $2.99 that includes two eggs, bacon or sausage, homemade fresh potato hashbrowns, and toast. At home we just dropped our luggage and went to sleep. Michael and I fell asleep watching Spider Man 3. Ummm yep, still as bad as I remember it. After everyone woke up we just ate lunch and lazed around, then headed to Santa Clarita for my niece's play. She had a pretty big speaking role and the whole thing was really cute. They play was about the history of the Santa Clarita Valley complete with musical numbers and costume changes, all performed by 3rd graders. Like I said, cute haha.
Day 10 (Friday)
We woke up groggy and tired but headed to Newbury Park to meet my older brother, his wife, and their son at my brother's studio. We got to hear some bits of FoF's new record and it's going to be a GREAT album (as usual!). Then we headed to lunch at Olas Mex Grill for some surfer Mexican chow. I had the chile verde wet burrito and it was pretty good. Huge portions to suit my huge appetite. On the way back to the studio we stopped at Element Coffee. SUCH a great coffee spot! Michael and I rarely drink coffee, but even we could appreciate the mocha we had. Quality coffee, plus they make their own chocolate for their drinks and stuff. We agreed that if there was a place like Element near us in Houston we'd become coffee drinkers. Then we headed back home so Eric could go back to work and Taiko could nap. My mom suggested we go on a hike so we trekked up the Chumash Trail for a few hours with my parents. Michael and I definitely miss all the hiking opportunities that Simi, Santa Clarita, and SoCal in general have to offer. They're not joking when they say Texas is flat, and there's pretty much no where to hike in Houston or the surrounding areas. I guess the fact that we can kayak in Houston makes up for the lack of hiking...a little. The thing I do NOT miss about hiking in the SoCal summer is the rattlesnakes. I was paranoid about it pretty much the whole hike because I've encountered several rattlers on hikes before, aaand unfortunately my paranoia was justified because we saw one right off the trail sunning on a rock. It left us alone, and yeah it was our fault for hiking in the summer when they come out the most, but blech I despise those things. After the hike we rushed home to start getting dinner together. We had dinner together as a family (minus Jon :( ) and enjoyed some delicious ribs, yakitori, rice, and veggies. We also made an early birthday celebration out of it for me, and I got a candle stuck in a Magnum bar for the occasion.
Day 11 (Saturday)
Man it was hard to get out of bed today! We did though and headed to Santa Clarita to meet up with our friends, the Grandis. It was a fun morning eating Mexican food, walking around Hart Park, and catching up. After they headed home we dropped by my sister's house for a couple hours. My bro-in-law's brother and his wife were visiting too so we all hung out. Then Michael and I headed off to that sacred and untouchable burger place called In-N-Out. We picked up food and headed to the Lows' house to have a mini reunion with some of the guys Michael lived with in Sunland. It was a really fun evening. There's something so refreshing about spending time with good friends who have history with you and already know you. I feel like 90% of the conversations we have in Houston are get-to-know-you smalltalk fare. There's nothing wrong with that, but man was it nice to just hang out and be us.
Day 12 (Sunday)
Eric, Tam, and Taiko came over so we all ate breakfast with my parents, then had a little prayer time before we headed to the airport. Leaving LA is always bittersweet. It's nice to be heading back "home" but sad too. Our flights were fine and we got home around 11:30pm.
And life rolls on...
