Thursday was our big “excursion” day. During our first trip to the Big Island, we drove all the way to Hilo and then on to the volcanoes, and it was just too much for little k to handle. We decided to avoid the screaming/crying with n and just went to Akaka Falls, which we missed the first time around, and then to a botanical garden, not too far from Hilo.

No trip through Honokaa should be made without a stop at Tex Drive In.

Mmmm…malasadas. Especially bavarian cream! This was the only place that I really wanted to go back to from our first trip.

Look at n peaking out from the backpack. That cracks me up.

So, apparently there are two botanical gardens that are in direct competition with each other. We went to our trusty friend, Yelp, to help us decide which one to go to. That is how we ended up at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. It is not too stroller-friendly, so I’m glad that k was willing to walk. D carried n in the backpack.

Wishing Well

Nice view

Ironwood tree (my family will know why I took a picture of this ;))

Orchid

Forgot the name

Cat whiskers

Tiki and D looking like a ghost

Afterward we went on to Hilo for lunch. We were looking for local food and someone recommended L&L. We didn’t really want to go there since we can get it over here (although maybe it’s better over there?) so we ended up at Cafe Pesto for pizza. We had eaten at the other location last time, so we knew we would like it.

After lunch we headed a few doors down to a lunch counter that also had shave ice.

I ordered one with ice cream for k and I to share, and it was gigantic. See how it looks bigger than k’s head?

On the way home, n and I fell asleep in the back seat. On the way there, and on the way back, k and Grandpa were having a long conversation about anything and everything, but mostly about k’s doll named Abby. It was funny because when I woke up, they were still talking! Much better than screaming and crying.

On Wed. we decided to go down to Kona for a little shopping. Our first stop was a fairly new Target, my favorite store.

Instead of the Dollar Spot, it had an “Aloha Shop”! This is where I bought almost all of our souvenirs for the trip.

We bought my brother in law a Spam slicer. (They had other Spam merchandise as well). We also bought a trivet for ourselves, mainly because it had a map of Hawaii, and D is a sucker for maps. In the kids’ section I found a cute Hello Kitty necklace with a rainbow for k.

Afterward we went to the nearby International Marketplace for some more browsing, but I didn’t buy anything.

For lunch we went to Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill. It is a little off the beaten path, but I had read good reviews. I had signed up for a coupon online and I received a personal e-mail from the manager/owner! They also made it a point to visit each table to greet everyone. It was doing pretty good business for lunch, and there seemed to be more locals. D’s parents both had the crab crusted mahi mahi and they liked it. n was being fussy, so I had to spend a lot my time outside trying to calm him down. I can’t wait until he lets me sit down for an entire meal at a restaurant.

This cool car is parked outside of the restaurant.


Notice the license plate.

Next stop was Costco. I bought a bag of macadamia nut Hershey kisses, which I’ve never seen before, as well as a tub of shortbread cookies for D to bring to his co-workers. Right after I made by purchases, the electricity went out! They stopped letting people into the store, so I guess we made it just in time. D also filled up his gas tank, since Costco has the best prices on the island.

Our final stop was Kua Beach. D’s parents had told us how beautiful the beach was, and it was true! The color of the water was amazing. We also saw some whales.

(By this time, k was NOT in a picture-taking mood).

Back to reliving our Big Island trip. In the morning we went to Mauna Kea for some more playing in the sand (k + n), snorkeling (D) and lounging (L). Although you can’t tell from the picture, the water became kind of rough, so I was a bit worried about D. We had a picnic lunch on the beach.

In the afternoon we went to the Hilton to see the dolphins.

Afterward we went to Merriman’s Market Cafe at the Kings’ Shops.

This was probably the best meal deal of our trip because we went for happy hour where all of the dishes were $5. We had been to the original Merriman’s in Waimea last time, so we knew the food was going to be good. We ordered 9 dishes, and it was plenty. We had pizzas and flatbread(shown above), hummus, garlic fries, meatballs, ricotta fritters, and a tomato-mozzarella salad and bruschetta.

k even had the butter and cheese pasta that was free for kids 3 and under. I guess it was finger-lickin’ good.

We had a post-dinner stroll, and saw the “Hawaiian Kenny Rogers” perform.

The one thing that D wanted to do most on our trip was to go whale watching. This was the first time we were in Hawaii during prime whale watching season, and there are supposedly a lot more whales than usual this year, so it was perfect timing. On Monday morning we dropped off n to be with the grandparents and took k along for the adventure (she was free).

We booked the tour through Ocean Sports and departed from A Bay. They had us take off our shoes, which surprised us. The reason was that they wanted to minimize the amount of sand tracked onto the boat. They took us on a short glass bottom boat ride to get to the whale watching boat, Sea Smoke.

Once on board we were greeted with cups of POG.

In retrospect, I’m not sure I would’ve taken k along at her age (3). I think she was a little too young to really enjoy it. I was kind of surprised at how “open” the sides of the boat were…it seems like it would be really easy for kids to fall through. It was also kind of hard to manage her, mainly because I was feeling pretty seasick once they turned the motor off and we were just swaying (ever so gently) back and forth. (The crew members really took care of me, though, and gave me ice chips and ginger candy. Thankfully, I made it through, but I was really glad to be on dry land again. I had k wear SeaBands to help prevent seasickness, but maybe I should have bought some for myself too!)

But, as promised, we did see quite a few whales, and they were a lot closer than I thought they would be. Some even swam directly under our boat! They truly are amazing creatures. It wasn’t easy taking picture, but here are my best two shots:

Mom and calf.

We were also able to see a lot of whales from the shoreline throughout our week as well.

Sunday was our first full day on the Big Island. D wanted to make sure we got in maximum snorkeling time, so our first outing was to the Fairmont Orchid beach and the Beach Club in Mauna Lani.

It took her a while, but k started getting used to the water. By the end of our outing, she didn’t want to leave!

A dog loved the ocean, too!

We tried our best to keep n out of the sun. Luckily, there were cabanas and/or trees at all of the beaches we went to.

Beach Club @ Mauna Lani. Sigh, look at that water.

We ate lunch there, too.

Perusing the menu.

We went back to the condo and took a nap. Then we headed to the Queens’ Marketplace in Waikaloa to queue up for Sansei. On Sundays and Mondays, orders before 6 p.m. are 50% off! This is a great deal, but everyone tries to take advantage of it, so you have to get in line early (the restaurant doesn’t open until 5:30).

D’s dad stood in line while we watched a free hula performance.

We ate at Sansei during our honeymoon on Maui, so we knew what to expect. The food didn’t disappoint!

Rainbow roll that I ordered. Isn’t it pretty? k had the adult ramen (since the kids’ meals aren’t 50% off, the adult portion ends up being cheaper) and she finished it all. (She only had the noodles, since the tempura shrimp and pork weren’t to her liking).

Afterward, we walked around the marketplace a bit.

We stopped by Island Gourmet Market, which is like an upscale ABC (it is affiliated). We picked up a piece of tiramisu and a few other goodies.

We’ve been absent from the blog for a while because we were vacationing on the Big Island with D’s parents. The week was really fun and pretty chill…until Friday, the night before we were supposed to leave. The kids were asleep, and D and I were watching the Olympics. We were up past 9:30 (unusual for us) and there was a commercial for the 10:00 news. All I heard was “8.8 earthquake in Chile, tsunami warning”, but D heard the part about the warning being for Hawaii! I didn’t believe him at first, thinking we were way too far away, but he insisted, so we stayed up for the news. He was right, of course, but it was only a tsunami “advisory” at that time, so D just went to sleep. I, on the other hand, was more concerned, and kept watching the news.

I finally fell alseep, but n woke me up around 12:45 a.m., so after I put him to sleep, I turned on the news again. They had upgraded the advisory to a “warning”, predicting it would hit just after 11 a.m. the next day. The newscasters were talking about the tsunami in the 1960’s that occurred in Hilo due to an earthquake in Chile that had occurred in roughly the same area! There was frightening footage of people running for their lives as the water came rushing towards them. I managed to go back to sleep, but n woke up again at 4:45. This time when I turned on the news, they were talking about sounding the island-wide sirens at 6 a.m. to signal that everyone in the evacuation zones should be heading for higher ground. The scientists were predicting the wave to be up to 12 feet! I woke up D and told him to call his parents to give them warning and figure out what to do.

D’s parents came over and we quickly packed up our stuff. This wasn’t easy, as both kids were up by now. We didn’t say anything to k about it, since we didn’t want to scare her. After some debate, we headed to Waikaloa Village, which is a few miles inland, with a higher elevation (we were on the coast, at a condo in Mauna Lani). When we arrived, there were LONG lines for the gas station. We had about a 1/4 of a tank, so D got in line. I went into the grocery store, where people were stocking up on food and supplies. On the news, there were reports that Costcos were opening up extra early and that a supermarket put up a sign saying “max. 2 cans of Spam per customer” (only in Hawaii!) I think this was the first time when I’ve been in such a mass emergency situation. Although I was kind of comforted to see other people dealing with the same thing as us, it also elevated my fears, since there was much speculation.

After about an hour wait for gas, we headed toward the nearby golf course clubhouse and ordered breakfast. It was packed, and we had to wait a long time for the food. There were t.v.’s, though, so we were able to watch the news. Our biggest dilemma was figuring out when to go to the airport, since our flight was just after 2 p.m. out of Kona. The airport was still open (only Hilo shut down), but I didn’t think driving toward the coast right when the tsunami hit would be a good idea. However, we also didn’t want to miss our flight, and we weren’t sure if there would be traffic or road closures, so we decided to go ahead.

We were listening to the radio the whole way, and they kept emphasizing that everyone should be in a safe place by now. It seemed like everyone was driving in the opposite direction as us, as we came down the mountain. We arrived at the airport just before 11:00, and there were some people who we thought were security at the entrance. We asked if we could just wait out the tsunami there, since it was close to the main highway and we knew we wouldn’t be late for our flight since we were so close. I told D he better be ready to make a quick u-turn, just in case! We heard there wasn’t much action in Hilo, and then the police told us we had to leave our makeshift waiting spot, so we decided to go to the rental car place and check-in. Everything was fine, and as everyone said, “we prepared for the worst and hoped (prayed) for the best”. That was a day I will never forget.

Waiting for the tsunami over breakfast. How funny that n was oblivious to the whole thing.

Waiting at the entrance of Kona airport. Turns out that these guys work at the airport, refueling the planes, and they just wanted a safe(r) place to wait, too.

We’ve come to our last day. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed our journey along with us. We packed up everything and D’s parents made us omelets.

We decided to stop at one last beach: Kukio. It is on the way to the airport. There were some nice houses with amazing views. I guess Michael Dell and Charles Schwab have homes there.

I was determined to get a good Christmas card photo on this trip. Here’s one that was almost picked:

I’m not sure what k is pointing to.

FINALLY, k smiles in a picture. Maybe she was getting homesick and knew today was our last day.

I found it amusing that there was a live band playing at Kona Airport. I guess they wanted to spread the aloha spirit.

On our plane back we sat across from the same couple we were next to on the way there. They said k was the best-behaved baby they’ve seen on a plane. Not sure if that was really true, but it was nice of them to say.

We had to wait a long time for our luggage back at John Wayne. My mom told me to take a picture of this security guard on his Segway.

On our last full day on the Big Island, we wanted to take it easy. D was anxious to get some more snorkeling in. In the morning we went to “A Bay”, in Waikoloa. The snorkeling was better than Hapuna. I wasn’t planning to go in, but D convinced me.

Our next stop was the Black Sand Beach in Mauna Lani. D and his dad snorkeled. Again, I wasn’t planning to go in. They came back saying it was amazingly clear and that it was like an aquarium, so of course, I had to go. This time I actually used the snorkel instead of the snorkel board. The fish were so pretty!

We ate lunch at Brown’s Beach House at the Fairmont Orchid. We arrived before it opened, and it still took us a while to be seated. Turns out that the staff was busy switching out all of the chairs and setting up brand new place settings. Our hostess informed us that we were the very first customers to use their new chairs/settings. She took our picture and told us to e-mail it to the manager. I’m not sure if D’s dad actually did this, but here’s some of my pictures:

As you can see, it is right on the water. I bet it would be really nice at night. (They were all booked for dinner).

The lunch menu had an Asian bent. Here’s my kurobota pork yaki soba:

We all shared the mud pie.

In addition, the waitress gave us an ice cream dessert for free since k was “3 or under”.

Pretty fancy for a little kid. We ate it for k, of course.

We worked it off with more snorkeling at the Orchid. This turned out to be our favorite because we saw sea turtles! One of them was following me, and I was kind of scared. D’s mom said she’s been surrounded by multiple turtles before while snorkeling, and I can see how that would be scary. Too bad I couldn’t get a picture, but we’ll always remember our encounter.

Meanwhile, k had more fun on the beach. We kept slathering her with sunscreen so she wouldn’t burn.

Our final dinner was at the Kamuela Provision Company in the Hilton Waikoloa. It was too windy to sit outside, but D captured the lovely sunset that we were able to see through the open windows:

I had a seafood pasta that was exceptional–there was a lobster tail, among other delicacies. There was another family at a table nearby with a 10.5 month old daughter. We ended up sitting a couple rows behind them on our plane back to OC!

Wednesday was our big road trip. Yes, the Big Island is actually pretty big. It took us a couple of hours to reach the other side of the island to visit Hilo and the volcanoes. I wanted to go on Wednesday in particular because Hilo has a farmer’s market then (and on Saturdays).

Our first stop, however, was in a small town called Honakaa, at a restaurant called Tex Drive-In. I wanted to try their specialty, malasadas. According to the menu, they only had the barvarian creme filling that morning, so D ordered one for each of us. When we bit into them, there was no filling! I took mine up to the counter and was told that we had to specify that we wanted filling; otherwise they come plain. Well, custard filling is my favorite, so I had to try it and ordered one more. D and I were able to eat 1.5 malasadas each, no problem. They are so fluffy and light! You can almost convince yourself that they’re not that bad for you. Almost.

When we arrived in Hilo, k was sleeping, so D and I jumped out of the car to check out the farmer’s market. (D’s parents stayed with k). There was a lot of interesting produce. However, we just bought a couple of musubis (spam and salmon) and a couple of cheap souveniers on the way back.

We kept driving on to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. First we saw a short movie on the volcanoes. Then we drove around the park, making only three stops since we knew k wouldn’t be able to stand any more. Our first stop was the Steam Vents:

These were pretty cool. There was some scientific explanation posted, but I didn’t really get it.

It was windy here, making k’s hair even crazier than usual:

The next stop was the Kilauea Caldera:

Dude, where’s the lava? Just kidding, I didn’t actually expect there to be lava spewing right in front of our faces, but I thought we would be able to see some red stuff, even if it was far away and you needed binoculars. We were told that the lava that was flowing that day was only accessible by helicopter. Too bad.

Our final stop was my favorite: the Thurston Lava Tube. You walk down a paved path surrounded by lush greenery. It really sounds like a rainforest, and it was nice and cool.

Then you walk through the lava tube, which is a big cave. Again, don’t ask me for the science behind it. It’s pretty dark, and there’s puddles inside, but it was fun.

Afterward we ate a late lunch at Ken’s House of Pancakes, a Hilo institution. D ordered his first loco moco. It was OK, but not something we’ll crave anytime soon.

k slept some during the trip, but she also cried. A lot. I’ve never seen her so upset in the car!

Poor thing was blowing snot bubbles. It didn’t help when they were cutting trees along the two-lane road and we had to periodically stop for a long time.

We were debating whether to make one final stop at Waipio Valley. It is a famous tourist stop, and we figured we might as well get it in since it was sort of on the way back. You can take tours to the bottom, but we just snapped a few pictures from the top:

That was a long day. We didn’t feel like going out to dinner, so D’s parents was nice enough to bring food over and made a prawn salad for us. It was nice and refreshing and a low-stress way to end the day.