Kona Hawaii May 5, 2010

In Kona we took things a little easier. The ship couldnt come and dock right near the peirs so we had to take a "taxi" to the peir. This was our cruise ship "Pride of America, and the next picture is of the taxis we took to the peir. On our way to the pier we went through a group of dolphins. I am sure the snorkelers there were grateful for our arrival as we scared these creatures away.

We just walked along the shore for a while amongst the shops and things. I for get what these trees are called but they are the coolest. They are huge and seem to have branches that grow downward and become roots. We also passed the "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co."

Just walking along the shore we could see some cool fish. This school of yellow fish was very visible. We saw a few other things like crabs and such but this was the one with the best picture. There didnt seem to be very good beaches along the shoreline near the Pier we came in to. There were lots of rocks. But it was pretty. After walking around for a while we saw the LDS Kona temple spire and decided to go see it. We had Robs phone and were able to get directions. It was a nice walk. We were able to see some pineapple and coconuts. I love their native plants. We were able to reach the temple. It is

a smaller temple but still beautiful.

The grounds were beautiful and very colorful. We had fun taking pictures of different views of the temple. After we were done we walked back down and decided to go to this little beach to the right of the pier. It was a little (really small) cove beach. While there we decided we wanted to snorkel. Rob went back to the boat and got our gear and came back. We were able to snorkel for a little bit. This was the second place that we were able to snorkel (waikiki was the other) and it was fun. I am a chicken though and panic a little and became exhausted. I like to snorkel but i am a wimp. I cant have anything get to close and the masks we had were magnifying ones. Rob loved it and would go way out there. There were some cool fish. That was the end of our Kona stay. Just nice and relaxing. ...

Part 2 Hawaii: May 4, 2010 Hilo, Big Island

When we arrived in Hilo, it was rainy and chilly. I didnt think that you would really need a sweater or coat in May in Hawaii, but it proved me wrong. Luckily i had a sweater with me. It was about 60 (maybe a little less) but with the humidity and breeze, it was pretty cold. So we started off the day renting a car. We drove down to Volcanoes National Park. Like almost all drives in Hawaii it was beautiful. As you get into the park you can see steam pockets all over the place. It is kind of scary to think that we were on top of an active volcano and that the steam we could feel and see was because of that volcano. We went to the museum they have there that over looks Kilauea. The view was cool, even though it was overcast and raining. You could see the volcanic gases being released through the vent. It was neat to see. Due to explosions and excessive volcanic gas you can no longer drive around the caldera or hike to the crater. So we were forced to be happy with a distant view. We did take a very pretty jungle hike down to the caldera. It was jungle on one side and old lava on the other. The pictures below are of Rob on the trail to the Caldera, then a picture of the vent gases at the bottom of the hike, and then us on the caldera. it was amazing.

After we hiked back to the car, we took the Chain of Craters Road down to its end. You can see in the pictures why the road ended. I believe the road used to go all the way around but now is in 2 separate parts. The sign that i am standing by says "Road Closed." I believe that we can all see why. We hiked around on the lava flows for a little while trying to get a peak at the active lava flow but it was to far for us to see unless we walked for a while. On our way back up we found this cool arch made of lava. It was scenic. We looked at a map to see how close we could get to the active lava flow and found the other part of this closed road and decided to see how far we could go...


And we got CLOSE!!! It was awesome!! We saw the steam flow all the way down the mountain. We took this road that was carved over lava flows out a little farther and you could walk pretty much to the active lava. It was kind of intimidating that you had to reverse park so you could get out faster if needed but we proceeded. We walked up the road a little more and came to a "viewing" area. This area was different all the time because the lava was pushing it back all the time. We were told all the lava we saw came in last night and covered a large section of the road. The man out there in the picture was monitoring the flow for the safety of the spectators. We saw a few trees catch on fire and it really wasnt that far from us. We saw many pockets of lava break through the thin surface and we were able to see red hot lava. It was amazing to be so close to such a force of nature.

After spending a long time watching lava bubble, and burn trees, and seeing the steam where it hit the ocean, we had to get back to the boat. As we were leaving the Active lava site we came across some prime real estate. Anyone interested in beach front property? As we were leaving Hilo on the boat Rob and I were deck side watching the city fade away. Right as I said I wish I could see a bunch of dolphins, one jumped out of the water followed by many more. There were a ton of them jumping, diving, spinning and playing. It was so cool. I have never seen that many dolphins before.

Well our boat took us to Kilauea to see it at night. Rob and I went to the front decks to get a good spot. As we were watching the Lava flows draw near, there was the most amazingly bright shooting star I have ever seen. It was bright green, blue, and white, just amazing colors, that flew for a long time in the sky just above the volcano. Words cant describe the majesty of the view. We could see Lava coming down the hill side. Unfortunately our camera couldnt capture

all that much of it but it was surreal. What an amazing sight. Hawaii has so many things to do and see. You could go there several times and not do the same thing twice. So this ended our day in Hilo. I will add more later...

HAWAII~~

This is a picture journal type blog of our amazing trip to Hawaii.

These pictures are of the first day, Friday April 30, 2010. The first is of Rob and I on our plane. Nonstop to Honolulu. The second is our arrival at the HNL airport. Rob arranged a Lei greeting for me. It was so sweet. After checking in to our hotel (it was a hilton on waikiki) we went up to our room on the 36 floor. This is a view straight out in front of us. There were some great views if you look to the side too but that would be too many pictures. The next 2 pictures are of us on Waikiki beach. There was a peir we walked out on and the other is of a tree that is crazy looking. It seems to have branches or something that grow down ward and once they hit the ground they become roots. it is really weird. the last picture is of the sun set of course. It was the best one we saw due to clouds. The next one is of Rob and I on our cruise ship. We boarded Saturday afternoon. The ship set sail at about 7 pm so we spent the morning lingering around at the beach, and then boarded in the early after noon and lingered on board. The next 2 pictures were on our day at sea. We sailed around the Molokai coast and saw the leper colony. This is a rescue operation "code oscar" as it is called because some one fell overboard. It was a crew member and he was saved. It was kind of crazy. I noticed the ship was turning and heard the "code oscar" so i went up higher to see and noticed we were doing "donuts" in the water and then saw the rescue boat and the man in the water. Once they pulled him he must have passed out because he went completely limp. We stopped near Maui where a boat took him to shore. I believe he was fine. This other picture is of us off of one of the uninhabited islands on our at sea day. There were lots of things to do on board. this is one of us playing shuffle board.May 3, 2010. Maui. We were only able to spend 1 day on Maui. There is so much to do on each Island it was hard to narrow it down. We rented a car and drove the road to Hana. It was beautiful. It was a long and windy road that took several hours to complete. We stopped a few times and hiked a little and took pictures. There were some

waterfalls and just beautiful scenery.

Rob is the dare devil of the 2 of us. he climbed the

rocks a little way up and jumped into the water hole. I am a chicken and didnt

even get it. It was pretty

though. There

were lots of jungle vines growing from trees so Rob took

them for a spin. they held up pretty nicely. It was a beautiful place. Minus this

crazy spider we saw at a look out point. At the end of the Road to Hana we were able to go into a lava tube. It was through some mans property but it was fun. this is the entrance to that tube.

It went down the stairs into the ground. then this is one of me in the tube. it was pretty cool. Really dark down in side more. You couldnt even see your hand in front of your face if you turned off the flash light.

Maui was beautiful. There were lots of colors as seen here in the scenery. After we made it back, we didnt have much time before we had to be back on board so what did we do? We went to walmart. We got a few snacks, Coke and reeses pieces, and some souvenirs and headed back to the boat for dinner. It was a great day and we loved it. It was a little over cast but still beautiful.

Well i need to take a break so I will continue to post more about the other days later. Til then...