Planning a family vacation seems to get a little trickier every year, mainly due to us all having increasingly crazy schedules. Last summer M was on his cross-country DCI tour, missing out on a family reunion. This year our spring break road trip was shorter than usual because I had to attend a scientific conference in Atlanta. And as for this summer, M took a physics lab at UCLA, which ran from June 24 - July 31, and J will check in for his senior year of high school on August 13. That left us with...
To save time, we decided to drive a rental car one-way to Las Vegas for J's basketball tournament. That way we could fly to Hawaii straight from there, sparing us the drive back to California and giving us an extra day on the Big Island. And taking the red eye from KOA to LAX would get us back home about two hours before J needed to be at school for ID pictures. I love it when a plan comes together!
So, we returned the car to Hertz super early this morning and shuttled over to McCarran for our 6:00AM flight. I assumed we would change planes during our layover at LAX, but our equipment was actually continuing on to Kailua-Kona. Good thing we had to deplane for the cleaning crew because a certain someone spilled their Starbucks, and that same someone would have had to sit in the exact same seat the rest of the way to Hawaii.
By the time we landed, fetched our luggage, and picked up our rental minivan, it was a little after noon local time. We went straight over to Kaloko-Honokōhau NHP, about 5 miles south of the airport.
Once my stamps and park unigrid were collected from the visitor center, we went back to the van to slather on sunscreen, and change into hiking shoes (and swim trunks for the boys). Then we trekked across the lava flow on the Ala Mauka Makai trail down to Honokōhau Beach (0.9 miles).
So, we returned the car to Hertz super early this morning and shuttled over to McCarran for our 6:00AM flight. I assumed we would change planes during our layover at LAX, but our equipment was actually continuing on to Kailua-Kona. Good thing we had to deplane for the cleaning crew because a certain someone spilled their Starbucks, and that same someone would have had to sit in the exact same seat the rest of the way to Hawaii.
Once my stamps and park unigrid were collected from the visitor center, we went back to the van to slather on sunscreen, and change into hiking shoes (and swim trunks for the boys). Then we trekked across the lava flow on the Ala Mauka Makai trail down to Honokōhau Beach (0.9 miles).
 |
| Honu (green sea turtle) |
Here at this unit are three loko - fishponds and a fishtrap - built by native Hawaiians to collect and raise food. Because we weren't here at low tide, we couldn't see the stone pens near the shore for holding fish.
 |
| J taking a dip in the ʻAiʻōpio Fishtrap |
 |
| Hālau waʻa (canoe house) |
As usual, I was the slowest one hiking back to the car. The trail was completely exposed to the sun, and the heat and humidity didn't help. So by the end I wasn't feeling well and was really happy to cool off in the air conditioning when we ate a late lunch at Big Island Pizza nearby. Great pizza!
Since we are not really resort people, we are staying at the Holiday Inn Express in town. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready for us when we arrived, so we decided to check out the shops along Aliʻi Drive while we waited - yay for Crazy Shirts and ABC Stores! We also went to Snorkel Bob's to pick up the gear we rented for the week - putting them to use tomorrow at Kealakekua Bay!
And for dinner we walked over to Big Island Grill for our first sampling of local Hawaiian grindz (food) on the island. So ʻono (delicious)!
No comments:
Post a Comment