Hawaii Day
#2 – Sunday
Time zones
are funny. We were in bed on Saturday by 8:00pm, and were wide awake by
4:30am! If only we could carry on the habit when we went back to
Utah. Each morning we opened the blinds and watched the sunrise, and were
shocked when the temperature was already 75-80 degrees by early morning.
We made some kind of easy breakfast, poured ourselves a glass of POG juice and
sipped it from wineglasses – all on our porch with the cool morning breeze and
sound of the ocean. HEAVEN.
Sunday was a
relaxing day. We were able to find a local ward and enjoyed listening to
their talks and testimonies. We saw a couple next to us with extremely
shiny rings, and asked, “are you on your honeymoon?” Very shyly they
nodded back and continued to hold on to each other very tightly. It was
adorable. The Kona temple is right outside their church building, and it
is gorgeous! Very tiny, but still beautiful. We spent most of the
rest of the day in a car, driving to the northern tip of the island. The
scenery was beautiful and we loved all of those Hawaiian tunes that we still
find ourselves humming (“I wanna go back to my honey…”). But towards the
end of the day is probably the funniest part of the week:
We fixed
ourselves breakfast and packed lunches every day, but saved eating out for
dinner time. We were starving, of course, and found ourselves walking up
and down the main drag in Kona, indecisive as usual and growing hungrier and
grouchier by the second. We finally chose a nice little restaurant right on
the beach, and opened the menu…to find there were no prices listed. That
is never good. I ordered something that sounded cheap (turned out to be
$18), and Ryan ordered a seafood platter (which turned out to be
$40…gulp…)!! To make matters worse…the food wasn’t even that great.
What a bummer!!!!! We didn’t make that mistake again, so we look back and
laugh…and cringe.
Hawaii Day
#3 – Monday
We woke up
at our usual, too early time, and went for a little jog along the coast.
We found a little hub where some locals were paddle boarding/surfing and
watched them for a few minutes, itching to join them soon! We signed up
for a kayaking adventure that morning at 9:00, and it lived up to the
name! There were only four kayaks in our group, so our guide took us to
several more lava tubes than usual. We were able to cautiously and
carefully maneuver our little kayaks in and out of lava tubes and caves along
the rocky coast of southern Kona. We kayaked for about four miles total,
but were able to cliff jump, snorkel, and explore.
- Interesting fact: Our guide showed us three homes that
were entirely “off the grid.” They were above a large lava tube, and were
able to cool down their homes by channeling some of the tubes to their
homes. They collected rain water and used solar panels, and they were
beautiful!
We had
gotten to know the tour guide towards the end of the adventure, and he offered
to let us use some paddle boards for free! We jumped at the chance, and
soon found that it is most definitely not as easy as it looks. I was able
to go a bit faster than Ryan, and whenever he asked me to slow down and wait, I
would start to wobble…then I would start to really wobble…then at last I
would face plant first on the board, and then roll into the water. This
happened probably four times, and I only wish I could have seen it from Ryan’s
perspective!
We next went
to a recommended beach next to the Marina – and soon found that the treck there
was not quite worth it. The sand was breathtakingly white, but the water
was very murky. We did luck out by seeing nearly 10 turtles, but decided
to pick up our snorkel gear and chairs and head to a better beach.
And we found
one.
Kua Bay is the hidden gem of the big island. It is hard to find since it is not marked, but we were able to score some good directions. There was only one problem with this Bay, and that was NO SHADE. We were getting a little roasted by this point in the day, and were able to find a lone tree on the north side of the beach. Thank goodness!! We snorkeled, body surfed, boogie boarded, and soaked up some sun :) Afterward, we went to a delicious Japanese restaurant, and fell quickly asleep for the third night in a row.
Ps. The last few are pictures of pictures...from our water camera. Not the best quality.