Friday, February 25, 2011

Thursday - A rainy day in paradise

Wednesday night, Thursday morning had nature putting on a spectacular light show. There was lighting all around us but stars directly overhead. The lightening stayed offshore until around 4 AM when it came ashore with a vengeance. The thunder was overhead and the locals were still chatting about it the net afternoon. Some folks had said "in five years I have only witnessed lightening three times, that was really great".

After the storm, we awoke to a dreary, rainy day. We had scheduled a rental car, but considered canceling it due to the weather. In the end we decided to rent it, closed the curtains and got dressed. An hour later walked out of our room to find a nearly clear room with no rain. Quite a change!

We then headed into Kona without much of a plan. When we arrived in Kona at lunch time we went to Humpy's to get a lay of the land and discussing strategy. Kona is truly a beachfront town and has a great strip of restaurants. We departed from our strategy session
and headed to "The Rocks" restaurant after taking in the local gift shops. The Rock's is cool because it literally sits in the ocean on the rocks.


It has a sand floor and feels like you are eating at the beach. Here is Cae enjoying the view.



After lunch we made our way to the best business in Kona, the Kona Brewing Company. I have often enjoyed their beers in Seattle, but this gave me a chance to try a couple of their beers which are only locally available. Unfortunately the tour was not until 3 PM and since it was only 1 PM we felt it was wise to try a couple of beer samples and call it a day rather than drink until 3 take the tour, have a sample and then drive home through the lava fields. Here we are outside of Kona.



Leaving Kona and heading North opened the sky to even more sun. Given this, we opted to head up to the North end of the island and see what is up there. When we got to end we were a bit disappointed with the lack of development, but did head to a National Historic Site and the palace foundations of the ancient rulers. Here is there pad with a light post in the way. Sorry.




Sunset pictures to follow.

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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Having fun at the luau

Wednesday night was luau night. Here is are the highlights.

We look more pail than expected.






Brave boy? Yep!


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Location:Naupaka Kai Pl,Kamuela,United States

Our new friend

So after driving 20 miles down a dead end road (The Trail of Craters), this is what we found. Cae in the first and a humpback in the second.








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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

The volcano

We headed to the volcano after leaving Hilo. We drove a bit and then found a great hike to the closest place we could get to the volcano.


The primary caldera.



Cae in front




We aren't the brightest bunch!



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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Akaka Falls Hawaii

On our way to Hilo before the volcano.











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Location:Akaka Falls Hawaii

The lava fields

We hike the lava fields.








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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Our green turtle friend on the beach

Here he/she is taking a nap on the beach in front of the Marriott.



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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Green sea turtle

Our new friend. Green sea turtle off our beach.






Will follow-up with a better shot.

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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Beach days...sigh

Love the beach!



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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Day 1

Having breakfast. :-) located a grocery store to stock the hotel room with lunch stuff.



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Location:Kuualil Pl,Kamuela,United States

LAX worst airport in the US?

At LAX and this has been nuts. We got in late on Alaska Airlines, then had to catch the shuttle to the Delta terminal, but the shuttle people didn't call e shuttle. We missed the flight and had to explain to the very unhelpful Delta agent the situation. She got belligerent at the fact that we did not call a supervisor to escalate the shuttle issue and refused to acknowledge that it was a Delta issue. She instead explained that it was an Alaskan issue even though we went ahead and booked it at Delta.com. Well that lead us to American Airlines who managed to squeeze us on.

Thank you American Airlines! Here is our 757.



Look at Cae work it! Go girl!



Cae and I were separated on the plane but we are just happy to be on our way!

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Location:S Sepulveda Blvd,Los Angeles,United States

It started off well

Things started off well. The picture below shows how we started the day at the airport. Clearly public transportation did not bother Cae too much!



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Location:SEATAC Airport

Friday, February 18, 2011

Trip to airport

Good trip to the airport. We took the new light rail which took about one hour, but went really smoothly. We had Jeff C drop us off at the beginning of the line, and that really helped.

Here is the train coming into Westlake.



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Location:Seattle