Aloha & Mahalo Hawaii

Sigh...our vacation is over, but the thought of seeing palm trees and beaches again in another month made our return to the cold a little less painful. We even lucked up and came home to some beautiful, mild weather in Cordova.

The break was good for all of us. Here are some of our favorite things about the trip:

Dad - The warm weather.
Mom - The beaches and ocean.
Darius - Playing with the boys on the beach.
Joy - Going for walks in the warm weather and sunning on the beach.
Me - Playing with the boys on the beach and watching the whales in the ocean.
Ben - Playing in the sand and water.
Zach - Watching big trucks and tour buses, and the huge inflated donkey at Keoki's.

When we were planning our trip to Hawaii, everyone agreed that we wanted to visit Maui. The timing of our trip unfortunately didn't mesh with lodging and flights there, so we ended up going to the Big Island instead. I think at the end of the trip we all still would have preferred Maui, but it was still nice to see a different island that some of us hadn't been to before.

There's a lot of diverse areas on the Big Island. We spent the majority of our time in the Kailua-Kona area at the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel and stayed in a rental home south of Captain Cook the rest of the time.

We took time to drive around the south part of the island to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park where we viewed an active volcano and walked through the Thurston Lava Tube.

We drove North from the park to Hilo on the East side of the island. We drove along Banyan Drive and saw the huge banyan trees that had been planted by some famous individuals. My favorite of course was the tree planted by Babe Ruth in October 1933.

We cut back across the island on Highway 200 through the mountainous region and enjoyed the roller-coaster-like parts of the road and the beautiful landscape.

The rest of our time in Hawaii involved a lot of relaxing, beach time, eating tasty food, and enjoying the great weather and beautiful scenery.

I'll say it again and again...we're so fortunate to be able to enjoy the flight benefits that Darius receives from his job. Thanks Darius! If it weren't for the benefits we certainly wouldn't be able to visit the places we have unless we were to plan and save for what would likely take well over a year. To have the ability to travel outside of an isolated area like Cordova is huge! Especially during the long winters here.