Hilo Day

We spent the week at a condo in the Kona area of Hawaii. Today we were going to drive across the island and see Hilo. When I was doing research there was controversy about driving Saddle Road that goes across the island. People feel it a dangerous road because of the weather. I now am not sure what the big deal is. Not sure if maybe living in Oregon where we drive in the rain more days then not played into it but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. The drive over is about 2 hours. It started to rain the last half of the drive and I was wishing we had just stayed back in Kona. I didn't want to be in Hawaii in the pouring rain. When we got to Hilo we decided to head to the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens first. Alicia was excited to see a Bengal Tiger. When we got there the rains had just stopped so that was very nice. This was a nice little zoo. Lots of beautiful vegetation, even saw a pink pineapple plant. The Bengal Tiger was asleep when we walked by so that was disappointing.

The boys enjoyed the parrots more then I would have imagined they would have. Kept talking to it. Poor parrot.

Peacocks were also everywhere around the zoo. We watched a couple for awhile. We were imagining it was a female that was being stalked by this male trying to show how beautiful he was. Finally she had enough and walked over to another peacock strutting his stuff. It was really quite hilarious.

After the zoo we wanted to find the Macadamia Factory but never did. Instead we found the farmers Market. We walked through there and bought a few souveniers. We then piled back into the cars and went to Akaka Falls. It was nice to get out and stretch our legs a bit. The vegetation here is just so different then what we have. Trees that have hanging roots, HUGE fern plants, leaves that are the size of bushes. It was a very pretty hike. The water fall was pretty but again we are spoiled here in the Willamette Northwest with our own beautiful falls. These darn kids never want to take pictures and look like goof balls half the time!!

It was now dinner time so we headed into Waimea. We tired to go to a couple of different restaurants but they didn't work out so we took them to our new faorite place in Hawaii- Solimene's. The older three kids were not in the mood for pizza. They went next door for Subway while the rest of us headed in and had some yummy pizza and more marinara sauce! We then headed back to our side of the island for more homework, laundry and bed.

Solo Family Day

Monday was day 4 on the Island. Today our family's split up and did different activities. Our family went horseback riding in the morning up in the mountains of Mauna Kea at Dahana Ranch. This was right up Alicia's alley. She hasn't been on a horse for over a year and misses it. I thought this would be a fun chance for all of us to to do something she enjoys. We ended up being with another group. Two men who each brought one son. I believe these men are probably part time fathers. Their kids ran wild. The poor dogs and cat took a beating. Anyway we all got situated on our horses and had a 1.5 hour ride. The place is gorgeous. Green rolling hills for as far as the eyes can see but I am not sure any of us had much time to look around because we were all trying so hard to get our horses to obey us. It wasn't a trail ride. You were supposed to get your horse to ride on the land where you wanted but they all seemed to want to go where they wanted. I was glad when the ride was over and we could get back to some fun things.

Alicia did enjoy the ride but I am pretty sure we won't do anymore family horse riding. When we got back in the jeep we rented we said we wished we had gone with the other family on their excursion. But we got texts soon after saying they had all, all but 1, gotten sea sick and were not feeling well enough to meet up for some snorkeling. It was lunchtime so we asked the guy if there was a good restaurant in town. He suggested Solimene's in Waimea. We are so glad we listened to him. Not only was the Italian food tasty, I could have drank the marinara sauce, but we had a fun surprise. The owners son is on The Next Food Network Star!! That is on of our favorite shows. We are enjoying watching the young Hawaiian do well on the show and feel like we "know" him. *******With the afternoon ahead of us we decided to find a good beach.

We first found a beach that both Ethan and I enjoyed, A-bay. Very pretty and great sand for Ethan to play in while Ben and Alicia played in the ocean but it was VERY windy today and they didn't like this beach. Off we went to find another beach. We finally found Hapuna Beach that had it all. Great waves for body boarding, some coral for snorkeling lots of great sand to lounge on.

It really was perfect and we knew when we left a few hours later we would have to bring our friends back. We started the drive back to our resort and decided to stop off at a market that we thought would have some food and maybe some fruit. When we got out of our cars we saw the other family we had come with!! The kids were so glad to be back together. There ended up being no food here but more like flea market stuff. The kids each bought a whistle and Ethan found a bongo he wanted so we bought that for his birthday.

Then we separated again as we were off to find some dinner. We found some fast food and got a Pina Colada at Orange Julius. It was so yummy with real flavor. Way yummier then the ones stateside. It was now time to head to our resort, start some laundry, work on homework and get to bed.