10-15-12 Monday: Today was a beach day. We started off by heading north to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. It’s crazy to see a black sand beach. The sand wasn’t sculptable so I (Brett) made an appropriate volcano out of the black sand instead.
On the way to the next beach, we found a little bakery with the sign of “The Southernmost Bakery in the USA” so we stopped and got a seafood sandwich and a salad. We also bought some malasadas (Hawaiian Donuts); at first we were excited because they were our favorite in Honolulu a few years back, but then we got disappointed when these ones were not crème filled. They did have some good sweet breads though... guava, tarot, and mango. After breakfast, we checked out a few other beaches as we drove along the West Coast towards Kona.
We had lunch at Costco. Here we were in Hawaii, eating a giant slice of pizza, a huge beef hot dog and a coke with free refills for $3.50 per person. Who says Hawaii has to be expensive …
After lunch we headed to the city offices and bought our camping permit. The plan was to head over to the East near Hilo, but first we stopped at a beach just north of Kona called KeKaha Kai State Park. We were glad we stopped because it turned out to be our favorite beach. The sand was nice, the waves were big enough to play in, there’s snorkeling on both sides of the beach, and best of all …. Warm showers. This was the best thing we could have come across in this point of our trip. After playing at the beach until sunset we took a much needed shower and headed off in the dark to our campsite near Hilo.
We drove to the campsite we planned on going to, Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park. We were literally the only people there intending to camp, and there was one other truck there with a guy listening to loud music smoking pot. It was lightly raining and well off the main road. We didn’t have a very good feeling so we decided to go to the next park. 30 more minutes of driving and we came to Kolekole Beach Park. This was also off the main road, but when we pulled up there was a tent by the pavilion and a car with people camping in the car. It was much more of a relief to see fellow campers after the scary park we were just at. It was raining, so we pitched our tent under a little side pavilion next to the main pavilion. Exhausted, it was easy to fall asleep.
10-16-12 Tuesday: Why did we go to the East side of the island where it always rains? Because that’s where the waterfalls are. We again got our early start; up at 6a, on the road by 7a. Our first stop was at the famous Akaka Falls. It’s worth the drive. It’s impressive, but you can only see it from afar. It’s near the road and it’s a very short walk to the viewing area that looks across a valley at the waterfall.
After Akaka we drove past a fruit stand which turned out to be our breakfast. Fresh white pineapple and sugar cane. The sugar cane was as fresh as you can get. The guy chopped it down and cut it up for us.
Lastly, on our to-do list for the day was the Mauna Loa nut factory. We couldn’t actually go inside the factory, but they built viewing windows on each stage of the process. They had a pretty extensive gift shop, we bought a box of chocolates and headed out.
Sounds like a full day right? Well by this time it was only 2p. We expected to be hiking to these waterfalls, but instead they were 10 minute stops off the main road. With our extra half day at hand we decided to check out the very north point and see the famous Waipu Valley.
There wasn’t much more to see, but that wasn’t determined until after we had made the entire loop around the north point of the island. It was a bunch of green farmland. There were 2 campsites at the northeast tip of the island we checked out as our next camping location. Both were kind of trashy, or really trashy if you’re picky. So we scoped out a spot on the lesser of the two trashy ones. We snorkeled for a while off the shore there. We didn’t see anything amazing, but we did find schools of bright yellow fish.
It was decided to have dinner in Kona that night, so after snorkeling there was a little daylight left so we hurried to our favorite beach. We made it there at sunset. Tiffany was too cold, so I just boogie boarded by myself for 15 minutes. Another reason to come to this beach was the showers. We again used this place to clean up. We left just as a park ranger was coming to close the park.
In Kona we ate a L and L’s Hawaiian BBQ. It’s just a small place in a strip mall, but according to their signs, they are famous. It was actually very good and we were glad we found the place. Just as we were finishing dinner we got a call from a friend of Brett's family who happened to live 15 minutes from where we were. It was getting late (in Hawaii standards (about 8:00p)), so we headed up to her house and visited for a while then camped in her back yard (very thankful that we did not have to drive an hour north just to stay at a trashy campsite).
On the way to the next beach, we found a little bakery with the sign of “The Southernmost Bakery in the USA” so we stopped and got a seafood sandwich and a salad. We also bought some malasadas (Hawaiian Donuts); at first we were excited because they were our favorite in Honolulu a few years back, but then we got disappointed when these ones were not crème filled. They did have some good sweet breads though... guava, tarot, and mango. After breakfast, we checked out a few other beaches as we drove along the West Coast towards Kona.
We had lunch at Costco. Here we were in Hawaii, eating a giant slice of pizza, a huge beef hot dog and a coke with free refills for $3.50 per person. Who says Hawaii has to be expensive …
After lunch we headed to the city offices and bought our camping permit. The plan was to head over to the East near Hilo, but first we stopped at a beach just north of Kona called KeKaha Kai State Park. We were glad we stopped because it turned out to be our favorite beach. The sand was nice, the waves were big enough to play in, there’s snorkeling on both sides of the beach, and best of all …. Warm showers. This was the best thing we could have come across in this point of our trip. After playing at the beach until sunset we took a much needed shower and headed off in the dark to our campsite near Hilo.
We drove to the campsite we planned on going to, Laupahoehoe Point Beach Park. We were literally the only people there intending to camp, and there was one other truck there with a guy listening to loud music smoking pot. It was lightly raining and well off the main road. We didn’t have a very good feeling so we decided to go to the next park. 30 more minutes of driving and we came to Kolekole Beach Park. This was also off the main road, but when we pulled up there was a tent by the pavilion and a car with people camping in the car. It was much more of a relief to see fellow campers after the scary park we were just at. It was raining, so we pitched our tent under a little side pavilion next to the main pavilion. Exhausted, it was easy to fall asleep.
The river meets the ocean.
Sunrise.
10-16-12 Tuesday: Why did we go to the East side of the island where it always rains? Because that’s where the waterfalls are. We again got our early start; up at 6a, on the road by 7a. Our first stop was at the famous Akaka Falls. It’s worth the drive. It’s impressive, but you can only see it from afar. It’s near the road and it’s a very short walk to the viewing area that looks across a valley at the waterfall.
After Akaka we drove past a fruit stand which turned out to be our breakfast. Fresh white pineapple and sugar cane. The sugar cane was as fresh as you can get. The guy chopped it down and cut it up for us.
We drove to the next waterfall, Rainbow Falls. Similar to Akaka, it’s a quick pull off from the side of the road.It was pretty cool, but I think it would be much cooler if it had more water flowing from it (like if it was raining).By the way, it always rains in Hilo, or the East side, but not today.We picked a rare sunny day to see this side.Rainbow falls was such a fast stop that we had time to locate more tourist attractions including a couple of caves (they were pretty little and not too deep).
Lastly, on our to-do list for the day was the Mauna Loa nut factory. We couldn’t actually go inside the factory, but they built viewing windows on each stage of the process. They had a pretty extensive gift shop, we bought a box of chocolates and headed out.
Sounds like a full day right? Well by this time it was only 2p. We expected to be hiking to these waterfalls, but instead they were 10 minute stops off the main road. With our extra half day at hand we decided to check out the very north point and see the famous Waipu Valley.
There wasn’t much more to see, but that wasn’t determined until after we had made the entire loop around the north point of the island. It was a bunch of green farmland. There were 2 campsites at the northeast tip of the island we checked out as our next camping location. Both were kind of trashy, or really trashy if you’re picky. So we scoped out a spot on the lesser of the two trashy ones. We snorkeled for a while off the shore there. We didn’t see anything amazing, but we did find schools of bright yellow fish.
It was decided to have dinner in Kona that night, so after snorkeling there was a little daylight left so we hurried to our favorite beach. We made it there at sunset. Tiffany was too cold, so I just boogie boarded by myself for 15 minutes. Another reason to come to this beach was the showers. We again used this place to clean up. We left just as a park ranger was coming to close the park.
In Kona we ate a L and L’s Hawaiian BBQ. It’s just a small place in a strip mall, but according to their signs, they are famous. It was actually very good and we were glad we found the place. Just as we were finishing dinner we got a call from a friend of Brett's family who happened to live 15 minutes from where we were. It was getting late (in Hawaii standards (about 8:00p)), so we headed up to her house and visited for a while then camped in her back yard (very thankful that we did not have to drive an hour north just to stay at a trashy campsite).
10-17-12 Wednesday: Originally we planned to stay until Thursday, but honestly, we had seen everything we wanted to. The flight didn’t leave until 10:30p, and we didn’t have to return the car until 3p, so really, we had a full day anyway before heading to the airport since it gets dark at 6p. In the morning we packed up our stuff and headed back to our favorite beach. We played there all day and then used their showers and headed to the airport from there. We boogie boarded , snorkeled, and Brett dug himself a large hole to take a nap in. Note: We saw Unicorn fish while snorkeling and that was awesome!
We returned the car and hung out at the airport the rest of the evening waiting for the flight.
We arrived back in Phoenix at 7am Thursday morning and this vacation wasn't over quite yet! Tokyo, Japan segment to follow!
We returned the car and hung out at the airport the rest of the evening waiting for the flight.
We arrived back in Phoenix at 7am Thursday morning and this vacation wasn't over quite yet! Tokyo, Japan segment to follow!
1 comment:
What beautiful photos - it sounds like a really great place to visit!
Love you!
Mom
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