Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 12

We “set sail” for Volcanoes National Park today, and it was a bright and sunny day. We went due south of Kailua-Kona along route 11, passing by our favorite snorkeling area Two Step, stopping at a few pull-offs, buying some Kona Coffee (all beans are picked by hand, hence the price) from Miranda’s, a Christian family business. We stopped at a black sand beach – evidently with very rounded lava, and saw our first 2 nene geese next to the lovely grass of a golf course. It took us almost 4 hours to get to the National Park – once again using our “get in for free because we are old” membership card. We did about .5 mi hike to get to the Lava Tube area, and another .5 through and around it – it was ... read more

Is it possibly only Tuesday still? We have packed in so much yet again. Yes, we woke up with sore muscles – shoulders, arms, chest – but last night was great. I’ll try to attach some photos taken by phone too. Well, not surprisingly, we went snorkeling again, as mornings are always best here. We were in the water by 9:30, driving over 45 mins to get there. Evidently the weather is picking up swells and waves all the way from Alaska, so we need to get our snorkels in. We considered a new place, but couldn’t see how to enter or exit, so returned to Two Steps, which was just around the corner from there. Got a free parking spot this time too and had a great time. I only made 1.5 hours this time ... read more

Flight cancellations have been surging around the country due to weather and the omicron variant hitting so fast. We suffered a flight cancelation, too, but it was due to maintenance issues. Because so many people have faced cancelations and been rerouted, it's taking days to be rescheduled... It started on Saturday. We had to check out of Volcano House at noon. Our flight wasn't until 10:45pm. So, for about 10 hours, we had no place to go and needed to figure out something for restrooms, shade, etc. I looked into whether our old resort had day passes and couldn't find anything. We decided to head back there because it's fairly close to the airport, and they had the great waterslide and poolside food. We rented a fancy cabana, hoping that would work like a day pass, ... read more

Wednesday – the Road to Hana We had an early start – and a long day but we made the entire narrow part of the loop before dark, so that was a success. What was NOT a success was that, after promising the kids we would all swim in the 7 sacred pools at the end – we found out that it was no longer allowed. Covid? Insurance liability? Don’t know, but it would have been nice to have known. David’s photos show some of the beauty. We found a great lunch on the way – food trucks! Ribs, fish and chips of blue marlin, coconut shrimp, and grilled chicken. We stopped at the waterfalls and even hiked maybe 20 mins around the Kenae Arboretum before it started raining. Actually we were very fortunate overall with ... read more

Wow, a long and fun day, but not without some trials. We had to be at the Lahaina Wharf at 6:55 am!!! and were late ☹ which put our photographer in the back of the Zodiac boat (lots of movement) and near the fumes of the engine (fortunately dissipated quickly once we got going). Every spout and breech was at “1 o’clock” and of course David was back at “7 o’clock.” He was not happy that he couldn't see anything. However, our fortune soon changed and there were spouts everywhere. We left from Lahaina and wandered around in the channel between West Maui and Lanai. We learned/were reminded that mama cows don’t eat during their time in Hawaii, but the calves, born at 3000 pounds, are gaining about 100 pounds a day off the milk, which ... read more