While the pool at the Hawaiian house was really nice, it was more suited to adults. We ran over to the local Target and picked up this little one. The kids, big and small, loved it. Best $20 I spent the whole time there.
Month: September 2014
kona beach park
One of the nice things about Kona was the abundance of local parks with great facilities. We took the kids to one 5 minutes from the house one afternoon to try to tire them out before dinner.
But before we did that, I just had to have some super loco moco at one of the local joints. I got it with a hamburger, chicken cutlet and a huge hunk of spam. Katie wanted some, I could tell.
pu’uhonua o hōnaunau
Good luck trying to pronounce that name. It is a national park about 45 minutes south of where we were staying in Hawaii. It was refuge for the Hawaiian royalty of old. The large stone walls were built around 1550 and still standing (although they did say they re-enforced parts of them). What a beautiful background though and the sun was shining – what a nice day.
You can’t tell from the picture below, but there was a sea turtle swimming around near the shore.
Qumi likes to point out that when I take pictures, I don’t always pay attention to everything going on. Case in point, below Lisa is still in the shot. Oh well, I guess this is why I still have a day job.
My brother Scott and his family came along to “get some nature” as he put it.
After only a short time there, we realised the girls were starting to get sunburn even though we put sunscreen on twice in 20 minutes.
This old junker was just on the side of the road, but I thought it looked pretty cool, so I had Qumi snap a quick picture.
dinner
Instead of always going out to eat, we hired a couple of chef’s to come in and cook us a big meal. It was nice as we could all take our time and relax without having to constantly entertain the kids with the iPad or something. The food was great, a nice mix of local hawaiian and things that we all recognise. Of course it wouldn’t be Bill without some Starbucks and food.
They even came with a bouncy castle for the kids. I’m not lying, I tried it – not so much fun for adults – perhaps if there was more alcohol it would have been fun.
The girls got into their patriotic spirit with American Flag t-shirts.
kona beach
Just because the house was nice didn’t mean that we were going to miss hitting the beach while we were there. We let the rest of family try a few beaches to find the best ones and we joined later. Here is one of everyone’s favourites. The sand was clean, white and plentiful. The water was warm (warmer than our pool), clear and had fish swimming around us. There was some shade for the kids to play in the sand.
Working together to fill that bucket.
After all that fun in the sun, everyone was ready for lunch. Again – I relied on the recommendations from the family that had been here before and they picked a great restaurant that sat on another beach just down the road.
So much fun in fact Katie passed out pretty quickly.
Qumi got to enjoy her pineapple fried rice!
And the cousins Gianna and Joey played with Katie and Kristie.
There is no denying that the big island is a volcano – in many places it looks like it just erupted and left behind all the black lava rocks.
