Aloha!

November 15, 2014

Linda took the train down on Friday, and we were up at 5 AM Saturday morning to leave for the airport for our flight to The Big Island!  We arrived in Kona at noon... oh man was it hot and muggy!  We took a bus to the rental car lot and got our car that Scott had arranged for me.  The clerk sent us out to row E slot number 11...So Linda and I headed outside and we could not find "E"...it was NOT marked at all.  So I went back inside and asked for some assistance, the clerk looked out and said I was right, the row is NOT marked, but it is the row with  the first car being a red mustang convertible!  I walked outside and told Lin we were in the right row, just need to go to number 11 and it was a white Mustang convertible that Scott arranged for us to drive!  What a surprise!  But if ever you want to drive a convertible, don't you think it would be while in Hawaii?

Lin and I were so excited to start our vacation adventure in Hawaii!

We got our luggage and headed to Costco where we picked up a few items to have for our breakfasts and lunches.  We planned to mostly eat out our dinner meals.  After unloading our luggage at the condo in downtown Kona, we headed to The Painted Church for our Saturday evening Mass.

St. Benedict a priest from Belgium took regular house paint and started painting every inch of the inside of this church.  It was astounding!  Lin and I were immediately greeted with warmth and hospitality.  Someone even came around and placed a yarn Lei around our necks (see the above picture of Linda).  After the Mass was over, the priest asked all visitors to stand and introduce ourselves and tell where we are from.  There were quite a few of us visitors and one couple was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  Father asked that couple to come to the front of the church and he blessed them.  Another man was celebrating his 73 birthday and he placed his hands on him and gave him a blessing also.  Two Hawaiian ladies sang and one played the ukulele...it was beautiful!  We were so happy we went to this church for our service in Hawaii.

Our condo was down at the end of the building looking out at the ocean.  We met a very several special lady at the pool who was from Canada, she and her husband come very year for 6 months.

On our trip to find the Painted Church, we spotted these bright shrubs along the side of the road and we were thinking they looked like poinsettias...so we had to stop and sure enough, they grow wild along the side of the roads...amazing!

 

We took a road trip one day towards Hilo, the rainy side of the island.  It took nearly 2 hours to get to this beach...Black Sands Beach...we had to see the black sand and we had to see the nesting turtles.

About 3 miles from our condo was a beach and its claim to fame was snorkeling and having lots of turtles.  Of course we had to go there and YES I did snorkel.  Linda wasn't into the snorkeling so much.  I loved it!  I loved seeing all the bright pools of yellow fish, blue fish and one HUGE turtle swam right by me...I wished I had an underwater camera.

One morning we got up at 4:45 to drive north  to the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter Service.  We had arranged to take the Big Island Tour...over waterfalls and the volcano...a 2 hour trip.  We were so nervous but very excited to do this.  15 minutes prior to our leaving they announced the flight had to be canceled due to weather.  OH, what a disappointment.  But we scheduled another flight for the next day at noon, sadly that too was canceled due to weather. 

It is said that The Big Island has 9 climates...and we did witness a couple of them.  Since we were up north we decided to drive around and see horse country...Waimea... as soon as we started our climb to a higher elevation we experienced one of the climates...wind, rain and by the time we actually got to the town, it was very stormy, so we headed back down, but took a different route and it was very slow going due to the weather and the curvy roads.  Our destination was Hawi which a friend had told me about, we had planned to go there for our lunch after the flight, but we ended up driving through it at 8:30 AM and it was pouring down rain, so we didn't stop.  As soon as we headed south and neared Kona we had beautiful blue skies and lots of sun. 

One day we went to Hapuna Beach and played in the water, jumping waves, riding them into shore...well, I should say "I" jumped waves and played in the water.  I felt like a little kid, it was so fun, I was laughing at myself the whole time. 

I wonder where our next destination adventure vacation will be?