Hawaii Days one through three

Aloha everyone. Hope everyone is well. This is (sis-in-law) Julie’s and my third day on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are having a fantastic time. I was up at about 6:15 local time (1:15 p.m. Central Time), showered while stomping some clothes*  to get the sweat out (very humid here). Julie is out for her morning walk, and when she returns we will figure out a breakfast plan, and then it’s “hang out at the resort day.”

Monday 9/11

But to back up, let’s start at Monday morning, 2 a.m., on 9/11. My landlord, Gary, drove Julie and I to the Van Galder bus depot in Janesville, where we caught the bus to O’Hare. We were both “pre-checked” by the TSA for the express line through security, so we made it to our Alaska Air gate in no time flat. Boarding began at 5:15 for the first leg of our flight to Seattle. The plane was full. In a little less than 4 hours, we were sitting at a restaurant in the Sea-Tac terminal (“Dish D Lish”) having breakfast paninni (me sausage, egg, and cheese; and Julie the same but with bacon), I added a cranberry muffin, and of course I had coffee …. Wonderful coffee. There is no shortage of great coffee in Seattle! Mine came to $14.

We boarded an airport underground train to transfer to our terminal to catch the Air Alaska flight to Kona. Again, packed, but Julie and I lucked out by having the only empty seat between us on the whole plane. We were in the last row on the left side of aircraft, by the shitters, but that was OK because the engine noise helped drown out the cacauphany of crying/screaming infants/toddlers, or which there were many. Why anyone would take an infant/toddler to Hawaii is beyond me, but of course we live in the age of “take your children everywhere.”

We touched down in Kona at 3:30 local time about ½ hour late, deplaning down actual stairs to the tarmac (no jetway) just like the “old days.” We retrieved our baggage outdoors, offloaded direct from the luggage trailers. Caught a short van ride to Budget rent a car and procured our wheels for the duration of this leg – a Hyundai Elantra. Took about ½ hour to reach the Sheraton Kona Resort, where we had to do a room switch because they gave us a room with a single King bed when I had requested double beds. They got us switched in quick order. The AC was working well, and thank heaven for that because it is REALLY humid here. Julie immediately switched from long pants to shorts while I searched Yelp for a nice dinner place. We chose Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill, about 6 miles from our hotel. We had a wonderful meal, basically splitting an appetizer, meal, and dessert right down the middle. I had a Lilikoi martini for a cocktail. Lilikoi is Hawaiian for passion fruit, and they put it many things here. For appetizer, we had Thai-themed pork spring rolls. For main course, we split a seafood trio that contained shrimp, crabcake, and grilled Ono. Served with mashed sweet potato and sautéed vegetable medley. For dessert, a brownie sundae covered in a fudge/peanut butter sauce. Everything was delicious, and I had a French press of Kona coffee along with my dessert.




Julie and spring rolls

By the time we returned to our hotel room, we’d been up for 24 hours. I showered, at the same time stomping T-shirt and Jockeys to get the sweat out. I packed light for this trip, thinking each t-shirt and J-shorts would last two days. But no way. With the humidity here … well, I’ll let you use your imagination. We hit the sack around 9:30 local time, and fell asleep quickly, especially Julie who went out like a light. I woke a couple of time with leg cramps from sitting for so long in an airline seat designed for a 100-pound Asian, but was able to fall back to sleep quickly both times.

Tuesday 9/12

We awoke at about 6:30 a.m. local time. Julie went for her usual morning walk while I scouted a breakfast place. We chose a place called “Island Lava Java” known for their island-style waffles and pancakes, which means smothered in coconut syrup and macadamia nuts. We each got that, along with a couple pieces of bacon, and I had Kona coffee while Julie had tea. Absolutely scrumptious. We discussed options for the day, and decided on Volcanoes National Park, about a two-hour drive from us. We got to the Park around 11 a.m., and we were able to get into the Park free (normally $25) because Julie has one of those “senior passes” to the National Park System. Hooray! We were immediately informed that a good section of the “Rim Drive” was closed off due to noxious and potentially hazardous gas plumes escaping from the Kilauea caldera, which is still considered very much an active volcano even though it “blew its top”   ages ago, and there have been numerous major eruptions since then, the latest in 2014.

So anyway, we made our first stop to the Thurston Lava Tube because I wanted to be sure Julie saw that spectacular wonder. Wouldn’t you know that the tube was also partially closed due to electrical problems with the lighting system. But we got to walk about 100 feet into the tube, then turn around and come back.

 

Bruce in the lava tube

 

 

We then had to reverse direction on the roadway and make our way to the Jagger nature museum, which was as close to Kilauea as we would get. We could smell the fumes all the way from the museum because the wind was blowing toward us, and the huge cloud of effluent spewing from the vent made film deposits on our glasses and all the glass of our parked car. The park ranger at the museum/visitor center warned that long-term exposure could actually cause problems to the extent that limits are imposed on park rangers on the time they spend outside. Meanwhile, the museum installed giant air filters to clean the air inside. While there, we witnessed a “mini” eruption where we saw the base of the plume turn red, and a giant cloud of vapor/gas spew into the air. Very cool!

 

 

Noxious gas from Kilauea

 

 

We exited the park, and on our way back to Kona stopped at the largest black sand beach in all of Hawaii (both the state and island because Hawaii the island is the ONLY island in Hawaii the state that has black sand beaches). There are several black sand beaches on this island, but the largest and most famous is Punaluu Beach, which was on our way to Kona. We took off our shoes and socks and went into the water up to our knees just to say that we did it! It was really amazing to see this for me also, because I had never been here in my previous two trips to the Big Island!

 

Punaluu Beach

 

 

We got back to the hotel room and Julie wanted to wash her hair before we set out for dinner. So while she did that, I looked for another dinner venue and decided on “Splasher’s Grill” located on a jetty of land where many of the big cruise ships dock. I had some doubts about the place, but Yelp rated it four out of five stars, so we went. The food was good, but I have to say paled in comparison to the night before. Julie had the grilled catch of day, which was some kind of steak fish that I can’t remember, but it reminded me of swordfish. I had a captain’s platter, which had shrimp, a battered white fish, and a crab cake. I also ordered an appetizer of coconut shrimp. We requested a table change at the outset, because the live music was too loud, and I think this pissed off our waitress, because we requested seating in a section that wasn’t hers. So the service was spotty at best. We skipped dessert for fear of waiting into the wee hours of the night. I guess keep this in mind when requesting a table change!

We got back to our room about 8:30 and I was exhausted from all that driving. Not that it was particularly a long distance (about 2 hours each way) but it was because the road was so twisty/winding, uphill and down. I really had to pay attention, and my right leg in particular was sore from alternating between the gas and brake pedals so often. I lay on top of the bed and fell asleep. Woke momentarily after about an hour or so, and Julie called over from the next bed, “Bruce, why don’t you get ready for bed.” I mumbled something, took off my T-shirt, rolled over and went to sleep. I never turned down the bed for the entire night!

Wednesday Sept. 13

Up at about 6:30 again. Julie went for a walk while I scouted for a breakfast place, and this time we went to “Kalikala Cuisine,” again down by the cruise ship dock. This seems to be “restaurant row” for some reason, at least the places I’ve been finding on Yelp. Again, we both went for the waffles with coconut butter and lilikoi (passion fruit) syrup. Served with an egg made to order, and 2 strips of bacon. Coffee for me, tea for Julie. Delicious, and we got to view the ocean and the people fishing from an embankment. Big cruise ship was just pulling in. Beautiful view, and the food was wonderful.

We decided today was “chill by the pool day” and that just what we did. From about 11:30 to 4:30. I read one of Janet Evanovich’s Kate O’Hare/Nick Fox series, called “The Chase.” Rollicking good read, while I sipped a couple rum ‘n’ Cokes. I finished about 20% of the book. Love that Kindle! Had a light lunch in the tiki bar where Julie and I split a club sandwich wrap with chips. Delicious. Despite staying in the shade and applying sunscreen, I have a pretty decent sunburn going on, especially across the chest and torso. Damn these Norwegian genes. We simply don’t tan; we burn. Showered off the sunscreen. Then went to hotel minimart for some Aloe gel and applied liberally. Also got a small can of Pringles because I got a sudden craving for them (they are gone now) and a diet Coke. Feel better already; marvelous stuff that aloe gel. Don't know what we'll do for dinner tonight; maybe something light, because we did the club sandwich wrap about 3:30.

 I think that just about wraps it up for now.

 Bruce

* The whole notion of “clothes stomping” is something I came up with while traveling on my own and keeping wardrobe to a minimum. I get the shower ready, then put the stinky clothes in the bottom of the tub. While showering, I soap up and start stomping on the clothes as though they were grapes. The runoff from the body gets the clothes soapy, and then I continue to shower to sufficiently “rinse” the clothes. When I’m done toweling off my body, I wring as much water as I can from the clothes, and hang them wherever I can to dry. Usually takes a day, shorter if I can get them out on a sunny patio for something. (Sister) Dawn and others think this barbaric, but I have read travel journals/blogs where other guys (yes, and some gals) do this when they travel, and think it’s an excellent “travel hack,” at least until you can get to a proper washer/dryer. You decide!