A trip to Hawaii

 

        Day 1    On August 6th, the Barnes and Paul-Jones families got up before the sun rose to go to the airport. After arriving a little late, we had to hurry to the gate. The twins had to be put in car seats on the plane. Once they were in, the trip was fine. It was a long flight, but there was little crying. Our plane stopped over in Honolulu, where we had to get off our plane, put the girls in their stroller, get on a bus, and start all over. The next flight luckily, was only 30 minuets long. This plane landed at Kona International airport. The Barnes's and Dexter's luggage didn't make it on our plane but was on the next flight. With a huge pile of luggage, we started moving it down the street to our cars, where everything was put in the Barnes's Expedition, because the Paul-Jones's Jeep didn't have much luggage space. The airport in Kona, is actually 15 miles outside of Kona. In 25 minuets, we were home. Our house was a long two-story house. It had 3 up-stair bedrooms, and 2 downstairs. Dexter and The Barnes's slept up-stairs while Spencer, Russ, and Whitney slept downstairs. The Up-stairs had a small entry way with bedrooms off to the left, and the kitchen/dinning room to the right, and the whole up stairs was open to the outside. The downstairs was next to the pool and the beach. The living room was completely cut off from the bedrooms forcing sleepers to go outside to get breakfast. Once we were all settled in, Dexter, Spencer, and Duncan went swimming in the pool. After drying off, the Paul-Joneses went out to the local Brewery for dinner while the Barnes family had take-out burgers because they were waiting for the beds for the twins.     

 

        Day 2    After having a delicious bowl of cereal, everyone was ready to discuss what to do that day. We decided to go swimming at a beach about 40 miles north of Kona called Happuna Beach state park. After a quick stop at McDonalds, we took off North. The drive took us by the airport, and then by the desert of Hawaii. The whole West side of the Island gets little rain do to Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. The area on the water and near Kona gets enough water to support plant life, but once out of Kona you get vast Lava fields (from the 1982 eruption of Mauna Loa) that get less than 4 inches of rain a year. It's about 40 miles from Kona to the rainforest around Waimea. There is very few houses between the two. The beach is actually part of a large resort. It was one of the most beautiful beaches any of us had ever seen. The sand was bright white, the water was warm, and there was plenty of fish. It was great snorkeling for the first day at the beach. Duncan would go up to the edge of the water, then run away as it came at him. The girls weren't to thrilled about getting wet either. Spencer spent most of the time on a boogey board riding the waves. We spent about 5 hours at the beach, and when we finally decided to go, the sun was getting low, and to the east we could now see the peak of Mauna Kea that had been covered by clouds. At the very top there were 5 white balls that made up part of the observatories. The day had been great, but it was time to go home. The day was perfected with an awesome sunset. We drove through one of the resorts looking for something to drink. The hotels were huge and the golf courses were very intriguing but there was no Kwik-e-mart. We had to go all the way home for something to drink. After showering and changing, we went out looking for dinner. We checked two restaurants, but both were full. Then we found Bubba-Gump's Shrimp co. Our waiter was full of trivia from the movie and we ended up wining a free dessert for getting enough trivia questions right. When we got home we all went to bed. We were all exhausted.

 

        Day 3    Another great morning in Hawaii. Today we were going to the rainforest in the North. After eating lunch at Rockie's pizza, a restaurant the Paul-Joneses had eaten at ten years ago, it was off to Waimea. The road took us straight up the side of Hualalai, the volcano 15 miles east of Kona. The road got up to about 4000 feet, about the same as highway 2 through Steven's pass, but it was straight up from the water. The view was amazing. The hill went straight down to Kona. It was breathtaking, but nothing compared to what we would later see. The road soon leveled off, but to the dismay of Spencer and Dexter, who had there windows taken off, we were in a cloud. To our left, a few thousand feet down, was the desert. To our right, was the 9000 foot peak of Hualalai. Soon, It started to rain. It was actually cold in the back of the Jeep. Within an hour of leaving Kona we were in Waimea. We actually headed to a lookout at the end of the road near the small town of Waipio. The outlook was on a cliff right above the ocean. The cliff walls rose about 1500 feet out of the sea. To the North of the outlook was Waipio Valley. A sacred valley to the Hawaiian's. The road into it was a 25% down grade. The Barnes family decided not to go in and went back to Waipio while the Paul-Joneses went in. The road was paved but had large cracks and bumps in it. At the bottom was another semi paved road that split to the left and right.  We went left on the road. It wound it's way along the slow moving river at the bottom of the valley. After about a mile we came around a corner and had a view of a waterfall that had to be 600 feet high. It came right over the cliff into the valley. It was amazing. The road went by a house that had 2 horses and a donkey. The animals were not in a pen but were on the road. After shooing them off, we continued down the road. We soon came to the river. Unfortunately, the river had washed out the road. We turned around, said hello to the horse, and went off towards the water. The paved road gave way to a dirt road that wasn't much of a road. After driving through several small lakes, we got to the beach. The beach was a black sand beach, that had several camping areas, a waterfall at one end, and a river running strait into the ocean. It was just our luck that it was a cloudy day, but it was still an amazing sight. The sand was very sticky, and the rocks in the river were extremely slippery, (as Dexter found out) but it was warm enough for Spencer to go into the water for awhile. It was getting late, and we didn't know where the Barneses had gone, so we left the beach and went back up the road. We found the Barneses in Waipio and we took off for dinner in Waimea. We ate at a steak house that served Italian food and had an eel in a tank. The trip back to Kona was in the dark, and by the time we got back home, all the kids were asleep. Another long, amazing day in Hawaii.

 

       

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