Hawaii, the Big Island.  Not the other islands  that make up the state of Hawaii.

We decided to spend this trip to Hawaii on the big island.  We’ve been to Oahu and Maui and loved our visits to both.  But we were ready for what the Big Island had to offer:  Kilauea Volcano National Park, lava tubes and lava flows, steam vents, natural thermal tide pools, white sand beaches and black sand beaches, waterfalls, and rainforests.

The Big Island did not disappoint us.  We had several very relaxing days on the beaches, both white and black sand.  Beautiful weather, lots of sun but not too hot with the gentle trade winds blowing to keep us cool.  Oh, and the Pacific Ocean does a good job of keeping you cool too!  

The first place we stayed was in Kailua-Kona, the King Kamehameha Marriott Courtyard.  We had several free nights here thanks to a credit card.  Our room had a small balcony that overlooked the pool and the ocean.  Already we were happy!  A small refrigerator in the room allowed us to have breakfast on our balcony watching Kailua-Kona come awake.  We got to see the top of the mountain come into view and then disappear as clouds covered it on most days.  But the sun was shining on our little balcony warming us as we ate our breakfast.  We also watched as people dove into the ocean for their morning swim or small groups as they got their canoes in the water.  If we were in our room late in the afternoon or early evening, we’d see many canoes returning too.   Breakfast on the balcony was a great way to start the day, no need to rush to get ready to go out for breakfast and it gave us a chance to plan the day in a very relaxed setting.

I've tried to put photos with each paragraph but can't get the images to appear.  So, here's the link to my Picasa web album photos of our trip to Hawaii.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100390625521976559356/Hawaii2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCLjv0aKagb_pyAE

Hapuna Beach State Recreation Center is a beautiful white sand beach with very nice facilities and life guards.  We spent 2 days here.  It’s less than an hour from Kailua-Kona, which is where we were staying.  Between Kona and Hapuna Beach we found Lapakahi State Historical Park.  If you’re interested in the history of the Hawaiian people, it’s worth stopping here.  Just hold on to your hats; I had to chase after mine and caught up with it just before it reached the ocean!  The Kohala winds on the leeward side of the island are strong.  Lapakahi was an early settlement (over 600 years ago) of fishermen and farmers.  And what they left behind gives you an insight into their daily lives.  I’m sorry I was so busy chasing my hat and then holding on to it I forgot to take photos of what remains of the settlement.  I think this was windiest place I’ve ever visited!

We ventured further north of Kona to the end of the road.  Literally, the road ends!  And what a view from the end of the road at the Pololu Valley Lookout.  Pololu Beach is a nice black sand beach, but it’s so far down vertically from the end of road.  Well, we’re not coming back this way any time soon, so – let’s go check it out.  Whew!  It was actually harder going down than coming back up.  And it was a long, long way down and then back up to the car.  But, the views and the ocean didn’t disappoint us.

While driving on the leeward side of the island, we came upon several coffee mills -- with lots of free samples.  This was a big help to us!  My favorite is the 100% pure Kona coffee, organically grown:  Very smooth, not bitter or too strong.  Just the aroma from the naturally flavored chocolate, macadamia nut Kona coffee was so good!  You can imagine the coffee was even better.  We brought some back with us (regular and flavored) and I’m having a cup now while I write this.  Wish we’d brought more back with us!

Captain Cook was an interesting place.  You can join a guided trip in a canoe out to the monument and snorkel around the area or just go for a quiet walk along the shore and use the zoom of the camera to see the monument to Captain Cook.  This monument is maintained and taken care of by Great Britain!  We opted for the quiet walk and enjoyed our time here but are disappointed that the photos we took didn’t turn out well enough to show you what the monument looks like.

Another place on the leeward side we spent some time at was the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park.  This park is on black lava flats and preserves aspects of the traditional Hawaiian life.  This was a place for royal chiefs and for refuge.  You can see the remains or rebuilt versions of the royal grounds, a temple, wooden images, stone wall, spring-water and saltwater ponds, and a large papamu with konane pebbles for this traditional Hawaiian game.  Oh, and sea turtles came on shore here.  We were lucky and there were 2 very large turtles sunning themselves while we were here.  This part of the beach was roped off so no one would disturb the turtles but you could still get very close and take pictures of them.  They may not look huge in the photos, but they were!

Okay.  The relaxation part of our vacation ends as we head to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see the Kilauea Volcano.  We spent 3 nights in Volcano Village, where you get some sun and some rain every day.  We had more rain than sun when we were there and it’s chilly when it’s raining compared to the rest of the island.  So much to see and do here, we barely scratched the surface.  Some of the trails we wanted to walk were closed so you have to be flexible here.  The activity of the volcano and the level of sulfur dioxide gas determine what is open and what is closed.  And it can be different every day!  We did stroll along Devastation Trail and Bryon Ledge Trail and went to see the steam vents.  We also planned to see the lava tubes (which we’d seen many years ago) and descend into a crater and hike across a hardened lava lake that is still steaming from the 1959 eruption.  But it was raining quite a bit that day and we just didn’t feel like being that wet and cold all day.  Our backup idea turned out to be a wonderful idea:  find the natural thermal pools along the coast.  Before I leave Kilauea I have to mention that the park is open 24 hours a day and you can hike some areas with flashlights!  A night trip to Jaggar Museum in the park rewards you with a view of Kilauea at night and a reddish glow lighting up the sky.

Our most relaxing day was spent at the natural thermal pools located almost at the end of the Red Road (the Kaimu-Kapoho Road).  Finding this spot wasn’t too relaxing, but once we got there, we spent several hours just soaking our cold, weary bodies.  It felt so good.  And we had some very pleasant conversations with Hawaiians.  Did I mention how good this warm thermal pool felt after 2 days of being wet and cold up at Kilauea?  The first thermal pool we found was Ahalanui Park and we just stayed there because it felt so good and was so relaxing.  There are several other thermal tide pools in this area on the Big Island but we were happy where we were and didn’t try to find them.

The next place to rest our heads was Hilo and we only had one night here before we had to come home.  But we had 1 and ½ days here so we made the most of it.  We had a free night here at Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel thanks to hotels.com.  Although Uncle Billy’s wasn’t as nice as the King Kamehameha Marriott Courtyard, we again had a small balcony overlooking the ocean and close enough to hear the waves.  So, what could be better than that?  We enjoyed the view and the sounds of the sea.  It was a very picturesque spot.  To continue with our theme of relaxation, we walked around the nearby Liliuokalani Park, sat on the little covered walking-bridge and watched the people and the fish and listened to the waves.  It was a quiet and lovely spot in which to plan our last day in Hawaii.  

We decided to compare Hilo Hattie’s in Hilo to Hilo Hattie’s in Kailua-Kona.  We like the store in Kona better.  It seemed to have more variety and more things on sale.  Hilo Hattie’s is the place to get those famous Hawaiian shirts, even the pattern that Tom Selleck made famous as Magnum, P.I.  They also sell Hawaiian coffee, candy, macadamia nuts, and other souvenir items.  Okay, now that we’ve got our shopping out of the way it’s time to see more of the island.

There are a lot of choices in the Hilo area of things to do and places to see.  We decided to check out the nearby waterfalls.  Akaka Falls and Hamakua Falls are near Hilo and then we got side-tracked on our way back to Hilo by a scenic stop along the highway.  At one point on the way to Akaka Falls, I happened to put my hand on the railing and it was vibrating!  My guess is the vibration was caused by the force of the water hitting the pool of water at the bottom of the falls.  Hamakua Falls isn’t as tall as Akaka but is also in a rainforest area and very pretty. 

Driving back to Hilo, we stopped at a scenic overlook and found a trail that led down to the ocean.  All along the trail there was a spectacular Botanical Gardens and at the end of the trail the ocean was beckoning you to come in.   We found a nice shaded spot to just sit and watch the tide come in and cool off from our walk to see Akaka and Hamakua Falls.  The rainforest was hot!

This vacation was very different from any other vacation.  Our primary objective was to relax and not try to see and do everything.  That’s a first for us but we really needed this time away to relax and forget about all the “stuff” we’d been dealing with for the past 6 months.  And it worked, instead of us working!

I’d like to close this post with a shout out to one of my favorite blogs:  http://www.mymoneyblog.com/ 

The things we learned on this blog saved us $1200 on this trip!   We did this by getting new credit cards that offered travel or cash rewards including free hotel nights and 100,000 frequent flier miles.

And we’ve also gotten $1200 in cash or gift cards in the past year.  That bought a lot of cedar siding that we need for our house so we’ve very happy consumers.  

http://www.hotels.com/ is another good way to get free hotel rooms.  We only had to pay $25 for our night in Hilo, Hawaii.  Book 10 nights with hotels.com and then the 11^th night is free (or the average cost of your 10 nights).  The 10 nights don’t have to be all at one time and include places all over the world, not just in the US.

I'm sure readers of this post also know of other ways to cut travel costs.  Feel free to share them here.  Thanks.