Day 1: 5:15 a.m. friggin' flight. Luckily, I was too excited to be annoyed by this and the security guy told me he thought my two last names were an awesome pair. I agreed! At the hotel we were upgraded to an "ocean view"room. I quote that sarcastically because there were two huge trees blocking our view from the lanai. We also found out there was damage to our resort's beach due to the tsunami and that it would be closed for whoknowshowlong. Bummed. There's nothing more that I like than laying on a nice resort beach. We drove about 15 miles north of where we were staying to swim at Hapuna Beach. There was a public beach right next to a resort beach, and since we're not suckers, we pretended that we were staying at that resort and enjoyed using their lounge chairs and umbrella. The waves were mild and it was really nice to not have to worry about the water pulling my bottoms down. A fellow swimmer spotted a sea turtle and so of course I had to swim along side it for a ways. I giggle like a five year old anytime I see a sea turtle. They just look so relaxed and at ease, taking things slow. When we got out to dry off I noticed a huge splash a ways out in the ocean. I was over-the-moon excited to realize I had seen a whale breaching! It popped out of the water in shear happiness two more times before moving on. SO incredible, I can't even begin to describe the amazement I felt watching that ginormous mammal jump out of the water. Such a beautiful sight I will never forget.
Day 2: Justin scheduled a twilight volcano tour which included lunch, dinner, and dessert and lasted 12 hours. It was a great tour, and the fact that our guide, Taj, was mega hot added to the awesomeness. There are so many different climates on The Big Island. Our bus traveled through beachy, to meadowy, to foresty, to rocky, to rain foresty. Taj took us to a cave made from past lava flow (it was actually called a lava tube) and had us turn off our flashlights when we were all the way in. Pretty creepy at first (because of course I was thinking of those blind, pasty monsters in The Descent) but then the quite and darkness turned into this peaceful feeling that I know can never be achieved any place dark and above ground. I didn't even mind the cave-juice that constantly dripped down on us. We drove around and saw many different awesome things in Volcanoes National Park but my favorite part was hiking along a quiet trail surrounded by steam coming out of the ground here and there. The steam smelled like cat pee and eggs but it was a glorious sight. We ate dinner at Cafe Ono that doubled as an art gallery. Ira Ono, formally Ira Kaufman from Brooklyn, NY, the owner kept his restaurant open specially for our tour group. We had a delicious lasagna dinner with organic vegetables and the most delicious homemade bread and homemade butter I've ever tasted. Ira was a hoot as well as a gracious host and his goat, Ernest, was a pleasure as well. We went back to see the glow of the volcano after dinner. It was cold but extremely beautiful. Our group stopped at a picnic table for some lava cake and hot chocolate and a viewing of some footage Taj had taken on his iPhone of the eruption that had occurred a week earlier. We star gazed for a bit. That sky is just so clear and the stars so bright it was hard not to. Then Just and I got all snuggled up and cozy on the 2 hr. ride back to our hotel while Hawaiian music sang me to sleep.
Day 3: Beach day! I heart beach days. And guess what? Our resort's beach finally opened back up that day! The Gods were really looking out for me on this one. I found a restaurant on Yelp that was 20 minutes away from our hotel called The Hawaiian Style Cafe. So much food and for a great price! Of course I had to have some spam and rice, which is one of my favorite meals even here on the Mainland, and Justin had a spinach omelet with a side, yes "side", of two huge pancakes. They know how to do it up right in Hawaii! After breakfast we stayed on the beach all day. I love swimming in the ocean and can't believe it when I see people hanging around the pool all day instead of on the beach. A pool is so ordinary and isn't as rare as getting around to a beach and feeling that cool ocean water. After swimming we had a mini happy hour on our lanai while watching the sunset and listening to some live Hawaiian music. We were supposed to have sushi at this great restaurant downtown, but apparently everything closes before 8 so we ended up eating Mexican food instead. Good food, just not what I was in the mood for.
The flight back home was so looooong with TWO layovers. This trip was worth that headache and I know Justin had a great time which doubly makes it worthwhile.
There were so many moments on this trip where I whispered to myself, "Don't forget the way this feels." The whale breaching, swimming next to a sea turtle, the sound of the water drops in the total darkness of the cave, holding hands with husband on a hike by the active volcanoes while the sun was setting, the way the clouds overlapped each other while swimming/floating on my back in the ocean, and the way my heart started to beat faster anytime a whale and her calf poked a bit of their bodies out of the water are some things that will always stay with me. Mahalo, Kona!
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