Island Hopping

After checking out, we had a few hours to kill and drove around the North part of the Big Island. It was a gorgeous day and we could even see the top of Mauna Kea peaking out of the clouds. It was a beautiful drive.

We got to the airport about an hour early for our flight. We stopped in the airport restaurant for a drink. At first there were a few Marines in their camouflage in the bar. And after we ordered our second drink, it seemed the place was full of them. When we left the bar and headed toward the gate, there were even more of them out in the courtyard.

I teased my husband. Knowing that there were only about 30 seats on our little island hopper plane, I said "What if all these Marines are on our flight and we're the only civilians? This could get interesting, yes?" He rolled his eyes.

We got on our plane, and it was all civilians. As I buckled my seatbelt, I leaned over to him I said disappointedly "Hmmm...I was picturing this flight with a little more camouflage." He just shook his head.

Waikoloa Village Marriott

Our last night in Kona provided us a beautiful sunset.



We had a room on the top floor with a beach front view. The next day, although I didn't want to, I ran 3 miles. It was my husband that motivated me. He said he would run with me, too, and promised he would run at my pace. It was nice having a running partner for a change. Here was our run from that morning, Thursday, July 31st:

Centipede Sting

The sushi restaurant was a short walk through the Waikoloa Village mall back to our resort. A family was walking along the mall close by, when their daughter spied a crazy little orange thing squirming along the sidewalk. It looked like a centipede.

Good eye, little girl! I walked right by the thing without seeing it. I don't know how I missed it. It had to be 5 inches long and bright orange, but it was nighttime. The girl had to be just four years old. The family gathered around to look at it. As I walked away, I overheard the daughter ask her daddy if she could pick it up.

The father said "No." which of course was followed by the little girls question, "Why not?"

On his response, I had to ask my husband if I heard him right. The father said (and this is confirmed by my husband), "Because it will bite you and sting like a Mother F&*%#er."

Nice way to explain it, Daddy! Can't wait to hear the girl tell her kindergarten class about her summer..."Yeah, we saw a centipede, but I couldn't touch it because it would bite me and sting like a Mother F&*%#er."

I love it. That was our new punchline for the rest of our trip.

Speaking of minor annoyances...

I should get back to my travel journal blog about Hawaii before I forget everything. I had to insert that "Minor Annoyance" blog because it was really bugging me and blogging is so therapeutic.

But it's the perfect segue to our Wednesday evening. After Kona Village we had a night at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort.
After checking in, we went down to the bar for our complimentary "Welcome Mai Tai". It was an open air bar, and the little chickadee birds made themselves at home, helping themselves to the snack bowl they put in front of us.


















We had an older couple to our left, a single guy to my right, and another older couple to his right. We all got to talking and found out we were all from the Phoenix area, probably all living within 40 miles of each other. What a small world.

Unfortunately, the one single guy to my right just kept talking...and talking...and talking! As soon as we'd bring up one subject, sure enough he'd have a story to tell about himself on the topic. We couldn't get a word in edgewise. We quickly tired of this "minor annoyance" and excused ourselves to get ready for dinner.

Knowing that this guy was going to the same Sushi restaurant, Sansei, we took our sweet time getting ready. When we arrived, we saw him sitting at the sushi bar talking to the man sitting next to him (surprise, surprise!). The hostess then proceeded to sit us down at the sushi bar next to them. Lucky for us, chatterbox had just paid his bill and was taking off. Whew!

A few minutes after he left, I asked the guy he was talking to if he had talked his ear off. The guy rolled his eyes. He couldn't shut him up! We laughed! Yup, that's why we're having a late dinner.

Anyway, the sushi was absolutely delicious! I twittered that I would NEVER enjoy sushi from a land-locked state again. It was amazingly fresh, and tasty. Yum-Yum-Yummy-Yum-Yum

Minor annoyances

Didn't think this would annoy me but it does - People who have to announce the call they're receiving and explain the ringtone.

Overheard at a party...

Billy Joel starts playing on his phone. "Oh, that's my parents. 'Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone.'" He repeats the lyrics and laughs then proceeds to have a very loud conversation with his mom. Of course any person that does this would be the type to have a loud conversation.

About a half an hour later, I hear Carly Simon. "Ah! That's my friend Chris. He's so vain!" And he laughs at his own wittiness.

I can think of a few ringtones I would use for him, but I'd never give a person like this my number anyway: "Scottsdale Bars" by the Blobots comes to mind.

Kona Village

We drove up a lonely road to an equally lonely gate and security kiosk. We told the guard that we wanted to visit the public access beach. He handed us a laminated parking pass that listed all the rules for the public. Most of them designed to assure that the guests of the resort were not disturbed and warned us that we could be asked to leave at their discretion.

The guard took out his little clipboard and had us sign in. Only 13 cars from the public were allowed at one time. He turned over the clipboard and showed us a map to tell us where to drive, where to park, which path to take. It was like a scavenger hunt. We would need to walk about 10 minutes to actually get to the beach.

The beach was nice, and not at all crowded. The thatch-roofed bungalows were really nice too. Each had their own little patio deck and hammock out front. For over $400 a night, for the smallest bungalow, it'd better be nice. Apparently, Mr. Bill Gates and his family were staying here this week. I looked at the people on the beach to see if I recognized any celebrities.

There was one guy with a hat laying under a palapa on a lounge chair next to a woman that looked a lot like Kevin Costner. (Editor's note: after re-reading this blog, I have to clarify that the guy looked like Kevin Costner, not the the woman sitting next to him. HA!) But what's he doing with a brunette? I thought his wife was blonde. When he got up and walked down the beach, he wasn't nearly as tall as I thought Kevin would be. It wasn't him. There was no sighting of Mr. Gates either.

We did get to do some more snorkeling and saw about 10 sea turtles near the shore. The path from the beach to the parking lot takes you right by the beautiful Hualalai Golf Course. I found a Hualalai Golf ball along the path that a golfer had abandoned to avoid trudging over the black lava - a cool souvenir for me. Apparently, the Volcano Goddess Pele, will curse anyone that takes or hurts anything on her island. I was tempted to take a piece of lava rock home, but decided against it. I knew she wouldn't punish me if I kept the golf ball as a souvenir. I wouldn't want Pele's wrath taken out on me the way she tormented the Brady Bunch.

On one hole we saw some wild goats. It was the strangest thing. As a group was teeing off, the herd of about 20 goats were just running around playing close to the green. I've seen ducks, geese, road runners, and rabbits on a course, but never have I seen wild goats. That's an all together different hazard.

Manta Rays

We checked out the beach at the Sheraton. Apparently, their oceanside deck shine spotlights on the water below at night. Dive boats and tours come out right after sunset. The divers dive lights and the flood lights from the different boats in the water attract plankton to the site which is food for the huge manta rays.

Swimming with the Manta Rays is another amazing thing to do on the island. The night dive/snorkel is the best way to find them. I was lucky enough to spot one on one of my dives off Oahu's west coast several years ago. Mantas are pretty rare to spot during the day, and even less common around Oahu. It was on my ascent and during my safety stop. The surface was just 10 feet above me and about 30 yards to my left I could see the manta ray floating above. Amazing, elegant and incredible. It looked like the bat signal calling out to Bruce Wayne. It had to be 8 feet or more across.

When I got to the boat, the people above were scrambling from one side of the boat to the other, to try to find it. It had already swam away before I could grab my camera.

From the public access shore of the Sheraton, it looked like less than a quarter mile swim out to the spot where it all happens. We seriously considered doing this without the tour group that charged $90 each for a 5 minute ride out that included all snorkel gear, drinks and snacks. Seriously, the boat marina couldn't be more than a half mile away!! All we would have to do was buy some dive lights, snorkel out about 1/4 mile, then snorkel back.


It wouldn't be too dangerous, right? The swim out wouldn't be completely dark yet, plus we'd have our lights. The snorkel back would be more challenging because of the dark and we'd need to avoid the many boats already out there. Also, we'd need to put a white towel out on the beach where we entered so we can find our way back.

I know it sounds crazy, but it was adventurous and I can't justify spending $180 on a 1/2 mile boat ride (BUT you get snacks and drinks!! oooh!). Apparently, some of the locals do the exact same thing.

Well it turned out we never did get to do this. We didn't have time that night, and I'm not sure if that was too bad, or lucky for us. But now it's on our list of things to do when/if we ever get back to Kona.

Water blogged

July 30th

After breakfast we did some snorkeling at the beach in our resort and then drove down to snorkel in Kahalu'u Bay as well. Unfortunately, we didn't read the warnings about this bay. Apparently, it's a dying reef and conservationists have been asking people of the island not to snorkel there. However, some tour groups haven't honored this request and we found the place was full of tour vans and tourists.

There was plenty of sea life, but the way that these people were treating the bay was appalling. Children were swimming after a puffer fish. Were they not told these are poisonous? Fathers were picking up large rocks to see what was underneath. It was sad to see how the reef was being treated. Who knows if that bay has any hope. Maybe it's only hope is that someday the bay can be used to educate tourists about the harm that can happen when the reef isn't respected.

We snorkeled out closer to the surfers where it was deeper. There was probably just 20 feet visibility, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw something large underwater. On second glance, there it was - my first sea turtle sighting of the trip. I turned and tapped on my husbands arm excitedly. LOOK!!! I wanted to yell, but the snorkel in my mouth made it just sound like "Oouk! Ururl!"

It was so cool!! I mean, I've done it before - swam with sea turtles. In fact I blogged about the incident where I had a little too much to drink the night before a dive and kinda spewed next to the sea turtles. But even if I've done it before, it's still pretty cool and just as exciting as the first time (That's what she said).

Loco Moco

We had breakfast across the street from the hotel at a restaurant with a shaded outdoor patio. Of course I had to have the traditional Hawaiian breakfast, a plate of Loco Moco. Let's just say, my arteries began clogging as soon as I ordered it. I'm so glad I went on that run earlier. But who am I to break tradition?

It starts off with a heap of white rice, topped with a hamburger patty, topped with a fried egg, sunny-side up, and then all that smothered with gravy. No one knows who invented this delight, but it is believed to have originated from a cafe in Hilo, right here on the Big Island.

As we were eating breakfast and making plans for the day, the cars and tourists moved quickly up and down Ali'i Drive. One silver truck slowed down and gave a honk. The young man in the driver seat leaned over to the passenger-side window and yelled out. "HEY!" We looked up and found our new friend Paul, waving his "chaka" to us. Wow! Less than 24 hours in town and we already know people. We waved back.

Last night, he told us that most beaches in Hawaii are public access. He worked at a very exclusive resort where the rooms are all bungalows. The least expensive probably goes for $455/night. Even though the resort is exclusive and the entry is gated with a security guard, they still have to allow the public to access the beach. We decided to put this on our "to do" list for the day.

Treading on the footsteps of greatness

Wednesday morning, July 30th
I stepped out onto Ali'i Drive and just started heading North - past the rock wall that Brian and I sat on smoking cigars and drinking mudslides the night before, past the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant, and the Wyland Gallery. To my right, the tall mountainside, whose mountain top remained obscured by the gray fog. To my left, the Pacific Ocean and marina who this morning was host to one large Cruise ship.

It was 6 AM, listening to the rhythm of my running shoes on the ground when it dawned on me that I might be treading on the footsteps of greatness. Here I was in Kona, Hawaii home of the World Championships for the Ironman. The Super Bowl/World Series/World Cup of all Triathlons. This very street that I'm running on may actually be the same street others have suffered their last leg on, painfully searching for a way to get over "the wall".

Wow!

Sure enough, when I got home and checked the Ironman Kona Course Map, Ali'i drive is the home stretch of the marathon portion of the race. Just North of the Marina area was the finish line. I thought, this will probably be the closest I'll ever get to running the Kona Ironman, but it was still pretty cool.

Here was my run from that morning...

First Night In Kona

The Royal Kona Resort is a nice hotel, right in "downtown", near the Marina and right on the water. After getting cleaned up from the traveling and our first of many snorkel adventures, we headed down to the hotel bar "Huggos on the Rocks". This place was highly recommended to us by a Big Island native we met in Arizona. She grew up on the East side of the Island in Hilo.

We found a tall table near the water. On stage a local played songs on his guitar, slurring the words in such a laid back manner that I could hardly make out if he was speaking English or Hawaiian. An older lady got up on stage and danced the Hula to his singing and we ordered a couple of beers, that were way over-priced.

After one beer, we knew this wasn't the place for us. We took a walk across the street, behind the sand volleyball court that seemed to have a lot of people watching the game for a Tuesday evening. We stepped into a local sports bar called Scores.

What a big contrast there was between the tourist trap of Huggo's on The Rocks and the local, laid back hang out of Scores. The place was crowded, but not too much to be annoying. The people looked like they were genuinely having a good time and not just a bunch of tourists trying to look like they're having fun because "we're on vacation, damn it!" Most of the patrons were probably young locals that worked at the many different hotels in the area.

It was Taco Tuesday's so we order two Taco's for two bucks and two Corona's that were just as reasonable. I think we were able to stuff ourselves and have a couple drinks for the same price we paid at Huggo's for one beer each.

We struck up conversations with a couple of locals, Transplants from all over; Seattle, St. Louis, Florida and even Ireland. Our new friend, Paul from Seattle gave us a few good travel tips and suggestions. We told him that we weren't the type of people to do group tours, so he gave us some good ideas.

Before crossing the street, we stopped at the good ol' ABC store and picked up a Kona coffee cigar, a mini bottle of wine and a mini bottle of mudslide. Then down the street from the Royal Kona Resort, we sat on the wall as the waves crashed on the black rocky shore below us, sharing a cigar and drinking toasts to a great vacation ahead.

Aloha Kona

We left Scottsdale on Tuesday, August 29th and hopped on a direct US Air flight to Kona. The flight wasn't full, so Brian and I had a row to ourselves. We were able to take a nap, or at least try. I was too excited. This was my first time visiting any other island besides Oahu.

After about 6 hours, we finally landed over the black lava fields of the Kona airport at just 2:30 P.M., Hawaii time. The airport gates looked like little thatched roofed bungalows. There was no jetway so had to walk down the rollaway stairs, onto the tarmac and into one of the bungalows.

The first thing we did was drive down and snorkel Two Step. Since, I've moved to Arizona, I don't do well with cold. I can't stand cold water and it takes me forever to get used to it. Remember "cold" is a relative word, here. In the summertime, our swimming pool water temperature is close to 94 degrees. Whereas, average ocean temperatures in Hawaii during summer ranges from 74 to 80. But this was vacation so I was not going to let the "cold" get in the way of things.

By the time we got to Two Step, it was raining. We didn't let that stop us. Instead, I went ahead and stripped down to my swimsuit and stood in the rain. I figured, if I get cold out here, I'll be more than happy to jump into the ocean which might even warm me up. Two Step was a good place to get "my feet wet". The place wasn't too busy, but that may be due to the rain. Also, the sea life was plentiful. It's been a long time since I've snorkeled, so it was great to see all the fish.

It was a great first day on The Big Island. The fog wasn't a big deal to me. Apparently, the fog around Kona is caused mostly by the volcano that is actively erupting on the island. It was dark, by the time we got back to our hotel, the Royal Kona Resort. We stopped at a roadside restaurant that served Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian Food and ordered the Bento Box to share. I got to have my first taste of SPAM in a long, long time. Now, I know I'm in Hawaii!