Hawaii, in conclusion, five months later
All good things come to an end, of course. We eventually came home from Hawai'i, even if I left us there on our blog for five months. There are a few last thoughts, memories, and pictures I wanted to put up here before I finally let us leave.
The largest volcano on the island is Mauna Kea. It is almost 14,000 feet above sea level, which is something to consider when you're sitting on the beach at its base. The highest peaks in Colorado are just over 14,000 feet to put that in perspective, and we live at 5,500 feet elevation. Something else interesting about Mauna Kea is that we only saw its peak about twice the entire month. There is a permanent cloud layer at about 8,000 feet or so. It is also a very broad, non-peaky peak; you would never guess the elevation change was so dramatic. It gets snow on top. Nephi hiked to the top one morning. The guide books make it sound all super-intimidating and epic to do, but he knocked it off pretty easily. Because he's awesome like that. (Wait till he posts about the peaks he did in Colorado this summer after we got back). There are also quite a few world-class astronomy observatories up there that are not open to the public, as well as a University of Hawai'i observatory that does nightly public viewings through their telescope. So he took Joseph and Caleb up to see the stars one night. He was glad to be able to see the Southern Cross up in the sky. There was a pretty sunset and some cool cloud goings-on before the viewing.
Also, here are a few pictures of where we stayed. We found the places on either homeaway.com or vrbo.com. With our size of family, rentals like this look like the way we'll travel most of the time. Both rentals worked out very well. Here's our place on the Hilo side, where we were for most of the month. It was a four-plex in a very strange gated community that consisted of a mix of run down little homes and new multi-million dollar beautiful villas actively being updated.
You can see ours was nothing fancy, but the price was fantastic and we liked our neighbors. Also there was a patio with an ocean view where we ate dinner most nights. Really, I'm not complaining.
On the Kona side we stayed in a generic condo complex with a pool (with a sign forbidding "boisterous conduct") with another lovely patio. And this one had sunsets!
Our living arrangements were good reflections of the feel of the two sides of the island. Hilo is definitely a more organic, wild place. There were produce stands on the side of the road on card tables. Hitchhikers were everywhere. Everywhere! Hippie-looking twenty-somethings, fifty-year old ladies in church clothes, just everyone hitchhiked. Also, pick-up trucks with passengers in the truck bed sitting on beach chairs were a common sight. It felt rural and relatively poor.
Kona, on the other hand, felt like a developed cruise ship stop that wanted to suck all your money out of your wallet through carefully planned shopping plazas and Macaroni Grills. Can you even imagine going to Hawai'i and eating at Macaroni Grill?!?! There is a Costco there, where everyone does most of their shopping. The traffic is annoying and people drive nice cars. It reminded us an awful lot of San Diego, actually.
But the Kona side sure has nice beaches and snorkeling. Again, we didn't bring our camera to all the beaches we visited, but we took a few pictures at 69 Beach. Beautiful sand, beautiful water, nice shade, great day.
And eventually it was over. We loved our time on the Big Island of Hawai'i!!
Mahalo for the memories.
The largest volcano on the island is Mauna Kea. It is almost 14,000 feet above sea level, which is something to consider when you're sitting on the beach at its base. The highest peaks in Colorado are just over 14,000 feet to put that in perspective, and we live at 5,500 feet elevation. Something else interesting about Mauna Kea is that we only saw its peak about twice the entire month. There is a permanent cloud layer at about 8,000 feet or so. It is also a very broad, non-peaky peak; you would never guess the elevation change was so dramatic. It gets snow on top. Nephi hiked to the top one morning. The guide books make it sound all super-intimidating and epic to do, but he knocked it off pretty easily. Because he's awesome like that. (Wait till he posts about the peaks he did in Colorado this summer after we got back). There are also quite a few world-class astronomy observatories up there that are not open to the public, as well as a University of Hawai'i observatory that does nightly public viewings through their telescope. So he took Joseph and Caleb up to see the stars one night. He was glad to be able to see the Southern Cross up in the sky. There was a pretty sunset and some cool cloud goings-on before the viewing.
Kona, on the other hand, felt like a developed cruise ship stop that wanted to suck all your money out of your wallet through carefully planned shopping plazas and Macaroni Grills. Can you even imagine going to Hawai'i and eating at Macaroni Grill?!?! There is a Costco there, where everyone does most of their shopping. The traffic is annoying and people drive nice cars. It reminded us an awful lot of San Diego, actually.
But the Kona side sure has nice beaches and snorkeling. Again, we didn't bring our camera to all the beaches we visited, but we took a few pictures at 69 Beach. Beautiful sand, beautiful water, nice shade, great day.
And eventually it was over. We loved our time on the Big Island of Hawai'i!!
posted by Gina at 3:36 PM
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