Second week of summer

The start of nearly a day's worth of travel began with a 4:30am alarm going off - we had to leave in an hour to check-in a couple hours ahead of our 8am flight. We flew Delta this year and our flight to Kona for the family vacation included a six hour layover in Narita and a couple of hours in Honolulu. We arrived in Tokyo in time for a sushi lunch with fish fresh from the famous Tsukiji market and spent the afternoon into evening wandering from one end of the terminal to the other, eating more food (noodles and soft-serve cones) and buying favorite treats discovered on past Japan trips to share - cookies from Hokkaido (shiroi koibito) and Kyoto (yatsuhashi), and Royce chocolate. We were waiting for the Japanese to finish work for the weekend to join us on the East-bound red-eye to HNL.  Because of the time difference, we arrived the same day we departed at 11:30am, but then had to wait another couple of hours for the rest of the family to arrive. In the end, our waiting time was nearly as long as flying time!

First view of Kona coast

Our party of nine rented a house off Alii Drive near Kailua-Kona and Keauhou Bay. It was a great location far enough away from the touristy area but close enough to go out to eat there - our first meal was local food at B.I.G. (Big Island Grill) We ate lots of Hawaiian food during the week - saimin, locomoco, fresh fish - poke, lomi lomi, grilled and fried, poi, lau lau and kalua pork, but also had sushi (at Shiono), pizza, pasta, burgers, other seafood, steaks, shave ice, ice cream and other local desserts, not to mention Kona coffee. The Su family enjoys their food!

View point on the way up the coast

In the water at Mauna Kea

Honu at Hilton Wailkoloa

 Saturday we drove up to the ritzy Kohala resort area twice - in the morning to a beautiful beach (best to go before it gets too hot and the winds pick up) and in the evening for a seafood buffet at Mauna Kea.

The Kona marathon was Sunday morning so we swam in the backyard pool after breakfast. Later, Paul took his old college bicycle out for a ride that he had fixed up to bring to HK and I took the kids snorkeling at a great beginner cove a couple miles away. We watched the sunset as we went to town for dinner.


Monday we woke early for a drive to the other side, with Volcanoes National Park being the destination. We drove clockwise North heading first to cattle country with a stop at Parker Ranch shopping center in Waimea,

then Waipio Valley, 
Akaka Falls,

and Hilo before arriving at the park for a walk through Thurston Lava Tube.

We watched the sun set and had dinner at Volcano House overlooking Kilauea. It was just after the full moon, but still hard to get a good shot at night...

Tuesday, after a couple of walks and driving down and up the Chain of Craters Road, we headed back around to the South, stopping at Punalu'u black sand beach and arrived back to the house for another lovely sunset.

 

Wednesday was our much anticipated snorkel trip to marine sanctuary Kealakekua Bay. We boarded Fair Wind II for breakfast and a leisurely cruise down the coast, were in the water for a couple of hours, and enjoyed BBQ for lunch before heading back to port.

Thursday was departure day with Paul heading back to HK first, then Rosa to Maui, and the rest of us had all day to hang out before our red-eye flights, East again - to California.

Other places we ate at: Merriman's, Scandanavian Shave Ice, Sam Choy's, Bianelli's Pizza, Kona de Pele Coffee (affogato), Tropical Frozen Yogurts, Pine Tree Cafe, Big Island Pizza (nice oven!) ; Hilo - Mr. Ed's Bakery, Cafe 100; Volcano - Kilauea Lodge, Cafe Ohia; Punalu'u Bake Shop