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!