Hawaii - the Big Island

Monday, December 7th, Steve, Beckie and I flew to Hilo on the Big Island (which is actually called Hawaii.)  Here is the ocean view from the Hilo area.  It is quite rocky and steep and there are hardly any beaches on this side of the island.

 

 After renting a car, we had a couple of hours to kill before checking into our Home Away rental so we visited Rainbow Falls right in the middle of the town of Hilo.

 

Further upstream, it reminded us a little of Johnson's Shut-Ins  

After checking into a nice rental,

We got back into the car and drove to Mauna Kea to watch the sunset and to stargaze.

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world (because it begins way down at the bottom of the ocean).  We just went as far as the visitor's center - which is plenty high up. The road to the summit past the center is really steep and gravel and scary.  No thank you!

We had a fantastic view / experience where we were.  From the center, we hiked up a nearby "small" hill that, with the thin air, left Steve and me pretty breathless. 

 

 

And, then the view left us breathless!

It was an incredible evening.

Tuesday, we visited some of my cousins.

 (l-r) Lance, Ken Sims, Susan, Joshua, Kevin, Cindy

Cindy and Susan are daughters of Jean Holmberg Boll Sims who is the daughter of Gladys, my mother’s sister.  Jean’s sister is Charlotte, the cousin who lives in Wisconsin.  About seven years ago, Susan and Lance decided to get escape the corporate rat-race in Colorado and move to Hawaii.  They now raise hydroponic tomatoes.   Here is their green house (and the ocean in the background!)

 

 

 inside the greenhouse - tomatoes at all stages of growth.  

this is Lance on dry-wall stilts "tickling" (pollinating) the tomato blossoms which is what a bee would do out in a regular garden. 

We got a tour and it was very fascinating.  It is a seven-day-a-week, fifty-two week operation but evidently very satisfying.  Their property has all kinds of citrus trees and a banana tree 

 

and they raise chickens.  And the view is amazing! 

 

Cindy and Kevin came to Hawaii a couple of years later – primarily to help with the care of their mother who had Alzheimers and Ken, her husband, just couldn’t do take care of her alone any more.  Jean and Ken came to Hawaii when Cindy and Kevin came, I think.  Jean passed away last May.  Cindy lives right next door to Susan on land that has an old, fungus-ridden macadamia nut grove.  When they first moved in, the property was totally overgrown and the house was falling apart.  They have worked quite a bit on the house and are in the process of reclaiming the land – ultimately to grow coffee.   

 

 

They have a few trees now and Cindy showed us how she dries the beans.   

 

 She also makes soaps and sells both at local farmer’s markets.  Susan sells the tomatoes to local restaurants and also at the farmer’s markets.   

Susan and Lance have no children and Cindy and Kevin have one son, Joshua, who just got married and he and his wife live nearby.They treated us to an amazing lunch (Cindy is gluten-free so I had a worry-free feast!)

 It was a wonderful visit!  

We finished our day by driving to the south part of the island to visit Volcano National Park.  The vegetation, as you can see, is very lush right around the visitor's center.

 

 

 We walked through a lava tube (I can't remember how they are made - you will have to look it up)

And, then we just were awed by the active volcano from various parts of the park...

 

 

in the photo above, on the left is the volcano.  In the middle, what looks like smoke from a fire, are steam vents

above is the closest we were able to get to the volcano.  Below is how it looks at night.  So cool!

Wednesday, we checked out of our rental house and shopped at the farmer's market in Hilo

 



 and then drove to the other side of the island (about a two-hour trip) to go to a gorgeous beach.


 Beckie flew back to Honolulu that afternoon but Steve and I stayed one more night in Kona.  We got to attend the temple that evening.

 this was our view from our hotel room...
 
 The next morning, we drove back to Hilo to return the rental car and fly to Honolulu.  The road, called the "saddle road", takes you through amazing terrain.  At times, it felt like we were driving through Wyoming or Utah, it was so barren and desert-like.  The huge lava fields brought us back to the reality that this was Hawaii.  That black patch below is lava....


 

 see those critters way in the distance?  They are goats walking on the lava field!

We flew back to Honolulu Thursday afternoon. 

 

 Here is Steve at the Hilo airport.  Beckie met us at the Honolulu airport - we found a place nearby to enjoy a picnic dinner and watch our last sunset in Hawaii.   Aloha!

 

Hawaii - Oahu

Ah, Hawaii!  As I sit at my computer wrapped in my BYU comforter with 20 degrees outside, it already seems like ages since we were there but it was exactly one month ago, on December 3^rd, that we arrived.  

here we are at the airport waiting to go!

Beckie, Kyle, and Micah have been in their current apartment for over a year but it was our first time to see it.  What a view from their lanai!!!  

 

nighttime

 

daytime

 

 

 Here are other photos..... 

 

 this last one is looking into the living room from the lanai

Beckie was kind enough to relinquish her bedroom and she slept on the couch.  This apartment still has a teeny kitchen but it has two bathrooms (very nice for five people) and dining on the lanai was marvelous. 

It was great to be with Max and Luna.  

  

 

Don’t you love the car rental we got?  

 We enjoyed several of our excursions with the top down!

Visits to Beckie always mean delicious foods.  She made Mexican the night we arrived.  And, happily, there were lots of leftovers to enjoy in the following days.

She had to work on Thursday so Steve and I ventured out on our own to…….Wal-mart!  It is the least expensive place to find souvenirs and we also wanted to pick up a couple of things for Beckie.  But, the Wal-mart experience in Hawaii is just crazy.  SO many people! 

For dinner that night, we all piled into the VW and headed

 

for Waikiki and the Steak Shack that came highly recommended.  Mmmmmm – it was amazing.  As was the view.

 

 

Friday, Beckie and Steve and I spent the day driving all around the island of Oahu
 
 
 
  …. Enjoying the sights and sampling delicious food.

First stop, a pineapple whip at the Dole plantation.

 

 

Then, shave ice, garlic shrimp, and a little shopping in the North Shore area.

 

 

 

 We drove through Laie but didn’t do the Polynesian Cultural Center this time. 

We had to eat Mikes Huli Chicken on the wind-ward side

 and then we went to the beach.

 

 

 It was a wonderful day.

Saturday morning, we shopped a bit at the huge swap meet at Aloha Stadium and then Steve and I took a tour of “Shangri La” – the Hawaiian home of Doris Duke that houses the second largest collection of Islamic art in the world.  We were not allowed to take photos inside but here is a sample of what we saw that was located on the outside of the building. 

 

 And, here is the view from the house!

 

 

 Doris Duke is long gone but she left her home and belongings to posterity and the Honolulu Museum of Art coordinates tours.  It was amazing.  We returned to the museum in time for lunch at the café. 

On Sunday, before church, Steve and I visited another extension of the Museum – Spalding House which was the home of the founder of the museum.  It sits high up on Punch Bowl and has a stunning view of Waikiki.     Can you see Diamond Head?

 

 

We didn’t have a lot of time so we just strolled the gardens.

 

 

Next entry:  our trip to the Big Island.....