Our trip began on July 4, as we flew from Denver to Honolulu to Kona on the big island of Hawaii. Alison found us a lovely condo/house to share in the Villages at Mauna Lani. When we landed in Kona, it looked like we were on the moon. The island has active volcanoes and we drove through several old lava fields, but the volcanoes were why I wanted to come to this island. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park includes Kilauea which is an actively erupting volcano. There are other volcanoes on the island and some are overdue for eruptions. What we drove through were the lava fields from Mauna Loa which has erupted 33 times, the last being in 1984.
One of the outside lanais with a wall of lava rock.
The great room had kitchen and dining area attached.
Grandpa relaxing on the covered lanai that looked over the backyard.
View of the pool from the upstairs balcony.
The next day we spent some time at the beach by our condo in the morning and then drove to Kona to have lunch at the Kona Brewing company. I wanted to enjoy having fresh fish while here and I started with fish tacos for lunch. That evening, we were coming back into Kona for a Luau at the Marriott Courtyard called Island Breeze. Mike and I had researched the luaus in Oahu and decided to also look at the ones on the big island. This one was perfect with the typical luau buffet dinner, the dancers and there was no charge for Mel and Ian. On Oahu, children are charged $50 for the luau. It was a smaller crowd and no one has a bad seat.
Grandma and Mel playung in the sand at the private beach area.
Melanie and her sandwriting stick.
Grandpa and Ian playing in the ocean.
More sand.
Kona Brewing company.
Having lunch in Kona.
Alison with the luau menu and program.
Our table and the stage. Dinner was roasted pig, fish, beef, salads, poi paste, purple sweet potatoes, and rice, with coconut pudding, pineapple cake and chocolate cake for dessert. We also had an open bar from 5 until 7:30. Mai tai anyone?
One of the representative island dances.
The grand finale of the program with fire dancers.
ISLAND BREEZE LUAU.
We had a busy day planned for Friday with a 2 hour helicopter tour over the volcanoes and then to the rainforesr on the Hamakua coast and the valleys of the Kohala Mountains. This was awesome as my grandson would say. We returned to our condo for lunch and to prepare for our tour up Mauna Kea to the observatories and then star viewing afterwords. The top of Mauna Kea is 13796 feet and you need a four wheel drive to get to the top from the visitor's center. Our tour provided a pickup, BBQ chicken box dinner, warm jackets for the cold, transportation up to the top to see the sunset, and then viewing by telescope after dark. We were very tired after this long day.
Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tour
We are all ready to go.
The pilot flies through the valley between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
An area with vegetation and and old lava flow.
An active lava tube at Kiluaea in Volcanoes National Park.
Seeing a break in the crust on the lava tube.
Where the lava has flowed down to the ocean.
Waterfalls in the rainforests of the hamakua valley.
The leeward side of the island with the cliffs of old lava, waterfalls and the ocean.
The waterfalls off the cliffs were awesome.
Micheal catches some winks with Mel and Ian in their room before we go to our pickup for the Mauna Kea tour.
Up at the top of Mauna Kea with Mauna Loa in the background.
Mike and Larry pose in front of an observatory that looks like it is about to take off.
Sunset reflected on one of the buildings.
Judy and Mike.
Sunset over the marine layer and the Pacific Ocean.
More sunset views.
We prepared for our flight to Honolulu on Oahu on Saturday. The pool for the condoes was right behind our condo, Ian and Mel were always ready to go to the pool. The airport at Kona is all outside but being on the windward side of the island, there is always a breeze. Everthing was outside from check-in to security to the waiting area. You also had to walk up those rolling stairs to get in the plane. Time to update the airport.
We land in Honolulu and go to get our rental car. Car rentals are very expensive here and I had a compact car reserved. There were no
compact cars available so we were offered a convertible. Not my first choice since there is no room in the back once you put the seats back for tall people. It had over 32,000 miles on it and really had not even been cleaned, but it was wheels so we took it.
One of the three towers at Ko Olina Beach Club. We were in tower three.
Koi pond at Tower One.
There was a sand pool for the kids that was very shallow and of course sand for Mel to play in.
Homer in one of the jacuzzis. See the lava rock.
Michael is walking over with his frozen Mai Tai.
We were staying at a Marriott Vacation Resort called Ko Olina Beach Club that was away from Waikiki and the commercial busy part of Honolulu. Also in the Ko Olina area were condos, a JW Marriott and a new Disney Vacation Resort. There were 3 pools, and 7 whirlpools, and a beach lagoon.
Ocean view from the grounds.
Ian would be in the water all day.
My reason for wanting to visit this island was to visit the Arizona Memorial at Pearl harbor. We did this on Monday and it was such a moving experieince. It is so well done and very organized.
I was able to get tickets online for a definite time and reserve an audio tour. We arrived early to do the audio tour of the various stations telling the story of what happened and why. There is a 25 minute video and then you get on a boat that takes you out to the memorial. You spend about 15 minutes there and then take the boat back.
The boat that takes you to the memorial.
The structure is horizontally placed over the ships hull below. Oil is still leaking from the ship.
Memorial wall
Waiting for our timed tour.
Inside the memorial.
We spent the rest of the trip visiting the various pools and playing in the water with the kids. Before we left for the mainland we drove out to the North Shore to see the honu or green sea turtle.
