Kona

First, yes we are watching the super bowl from the comfort of our rental house in Kona.  Ted doesn’t like the stress of random peeps lol.  The kids are enjoying the down time from all the driving on this HUGE island. Since it’s so early here we will have time for some beach and diner post for our last night on the Big Island. Tomorrow we fly to Kauai.  

Yesterday we had to continue our favorite açaí bowl search here before we hit the road to Mauna Kea.  Mauna Kea is the tallest peak in Polynesia and considered to be the sacred home of the gods.  It’s peak is just under 14,000 feet and there is snow!!!  Unfortunately the 4wd to the summit was closed due to icy conditions so we could only get up to just under 10,000 feet at the visitor center. 


Our view from breakfast. 


Had to get some Kona Coffee


Heading up to Mauna Kea


What happens when you go up to 10,000 feet quickly.  


And it popped on my lap and scared the hell out of us!


Drinking hot chocolate.  It was 65 degrees, we are in big trouble when we get home!


As this is a sacred place there are multiple heiaus (hawaiian temples) scattered on Mauna Kea. 


The silver sword.  It takes 50 years for this plant to flower and it only flowers once.  They were near extinction but conservation work is bringing them back to Mauna Kea.  


Such a crazy landscape!


We hiked up one of Mauna Kea’s cinder cones. 


The views were incredible. 


G representing!


Heading back down. 


Crazy Dr. Seuss plants!


Another off road adventure to see a crater. 


The crater, the pic doesn’t do it justice. 


My little geologist playing in a lava field. 


Looking back at Mauna Kea


These ferns are one of the first plants to grow out of a lava field. 


We took a long scenic road back to kona.  I was driving and Ted is not so good at the out the window pics, sorry!

We wrapped up the day with dinner at a very local spot, Quinn’s.  It was yummy!



Another morning, another açaí bowl. We finally have G on the açaí dark side!

The Super Bowl here started at 1:30 so we figured we had enough time for a coffee plantation tour. We found a spot about 10 min up the mountain from our house.  It was beautiful and the tour was great!  The coffee was also fantastic!


Mountain Thunder Coffee...you can find them on their website, at their farm or on amazon lol!


A coffee berry and its skin. 


The roasting machine. 


We made it back in time for the game.  I’m going to post this blog at the 2 min warning.....


Ted hoping some Hawaiian instruments will help!

Aloha!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hōkūleʻa

Image
Tonight we went to The Bishop Museum to hear a talk given by the  Hōkūleʻa crew.  The Hōkūleʻa is a Polynesian voyaging canoe that was launched in 1975.  The crew uses Polynesian navigation techniques, also known as wayfinding.  The Hōkūleʻa spent the last 3 years circumventing the world and is now on a mahalo Hawaii tour.   The talk was fantastic!   We heard from a number of crew members including the captain, a medical officer, a cook, a couple teachers, a fisherman and the tech guy.  One of the missions of the trip was education, so the canoe would host talks with schools in Hawaii throughout the trip.   After the talk they served a meal that was cooked during the talk on the same stove that is aboard the  Hōkūleʻa and was typical of what they ate at sea.   It was delicious, ahi and pasta.   We also got to walk around and speak with the crew.  We purchased a beautiful book about the voyage which the boys had autogr...
Read more

Fabulous Friday!

Image
Ted survived his first call!  We hit eggs ‘n things for a ridiculous breakfast before we hit the North Shore! I’ve turned into a person that takes pictures of her food...what?!  I should have taken the picture of nothing left on this plate while the rest of my family kept eating! Next stop Sunset Beach to check out the HIC Pro, the last qualifier for the Triple Crown of Surfing (starts mid November here on Oahu).  Turns out the waves were too crazy so the competition was off for the day.  It was still awesome to see the waves! Little surfer dudes! Next stop the Banzai Pipeline!  The whole beach was caution taped off and there was no one in the water! Next stop Shark Cove!  The craziest thing is that in the summer this is a protected, calm, snorkeling spot.   Last North Shore stop was Matsumoto’s for shave ice! Not gonna lie, our local Island Snow was better but this was still delicious! We got home post our adventure and ran down to our beach for a qui...
Read more

Volcanos National Park

Image
On Tuesday we flew into Hilo on the Big Island, also called Hawaii.  We drove into Hilo for some lunch and to quickly check out the town.  So different from other towns we have seen in the islands.  It reminded me of Puerto Rico.  After a couple quick errands (I managed to forget the camera charger) we started our way up to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  First stop, the visitor center.   We got there just in time to hear a ranger orientation about the park and the various volcanoes on the Big Island.  Next stop Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC).  No longer used for active military it is a great place to stay inside the National Park.  It is just a mile from the Kīlauea Caldera and you can see the red smoke out the front door of our cabin.  It has a cafeteria style dining hall and a bowling alley lol! Our cabin for 3 nights.  There has been no time for bowling but I had to get a pic! Our first night there were two evening programs at the...
Read more