Fun in the Sun in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

Posted on January 15, 2013

Hawaii was a much needed vacation away from the grey, cold, rain filled skies of Seattle. There is no better way to reset for a new year than with a trip to paradise.

We stayed in a condo on Ali’i Drive, about a mile south of Kona. Our family friends have a condo so we had our own little party the whole time.

It was a short trip, 4 full days, 2 days of travel but I completely relaxed the entire time there. Every morning we would go sit down at the waterfront and watch for dolphins and whales. I am a master whale spotter for some reason and the whole time I was spotting whales left and right. Made my trip.

There are dolphins just to the left of the boat. Unfortunately the iPhone camera isn’t that amazing with range.

We spent one day driving the whole island. Hilo is too rainy even by Seattle standards and that is saying a lot. The east side of the island had some beautiful but fierce looking coastline. The drive to the volcano & through the park was my favorite part about the trip. We passed through as we did the island loop.

We drove the Chain of Craters road all the way down to the coast, stopping for the lava tubes and to check out the other volcano craters. The sheer size of these are amazing, but the landscape makes them otherworldy. It is humbling. We also stopped to take a short .7 mile hike off the road to see the Petroglyphs. Another truly humbling experience. When I saw the man carved into the rock, it sent chills down my spine.

I did not get to see lava which was disappointing. It is about a 7 mile hike from the end of the Chain of Craters road to see the lava flow into the ocean. It was almost dark by the time we made it to the end of the 18 mile road which has been closed off due to lava flow over the road. We did drive back up to the crater and were able to see the glow of the bubbling lava! That was as close as I was going to get for this trip.

We did some snorkeling and just relaxed. Drinks, reading, whale watching from the condo, it was all I needed to reset for 2013. Of course the travel bug has bitten me again, and with the way the end of 2012 went, I’m hoping 2013 will be just as travel filled.