B-Rod and I are currently on the road. We developed a tradition while we are on road trips that when things come up, we make them into “rules” hoping not to make the same mistakes further down the line. Yesterday (our first day on the road) we came up with 2. Rule #2 turned out to be the most important. Rule #2 = don’t forget our GPS when we go on road trips. We were driving around at 9:00 last night having little success finding a place to stay when we came up with this rule (this experience also helped us confirm our suspicions that we wouldn’t do very well together on The Amazing Race). In our defence, there is very little in the way of spontaneous accommodation opportunities. It was hard enough to find a place to eat. Lunch was a very touristy but unspectacular bakery that specialized in sweetbread. Think Wonderbread with a moderate sweetness, dyed pink or purple depending on the alleged flavour, then piled with tuna salad – by far the most interesting part (must have been the Miracle Whip that made it ‘pop’). RB didn’t partake, so the ‘fungers’ (yikes!) hit around 6pm, with no restaurant or stores to be seen. I guess it could be worse … B-Rod almost forgot his passport, so I guess it’s better that he remembered the passport instead of the GPS.
We spent the first few days at my aunt & uncle’s house close to Kona. They have been great and we are both quite jealous of their life here. They have not only let us stay at their place with the amazing view, but they’ve also given us plenty of suggestions of things to do, let us use their car before we got our rental, kept us fed and hydrated, and spent an afternoon with us taking us to some pretty cool places we want to go back to.
Yesterday we hit the road to go to the other side of the island. It rained all day : ( the weather hasn’t really been great – it’s the first time that Rocky has worn long sleeves for many days in a row, but at least it’s not snowing and negative temperatures.
Now … onto some pics.
Uncle Larry & Auntie Sandi’s house. You can’t tell where the sea ends and the sky begins. The front of their house is all glass and it’s pretty amazing. It’s 5 acres. To the left is 1/4 acre of coffee. Below is an uninterrupted view from 2,300 ft over the ocean. There isn’t a tree or house in sight to block it, other than an old horse named Spider-Man.
This is a ripe coffee bean. It is first pulped, which separates the bean from the outer, then put out to dry. The green bean is an even tinier bean inside the juicy looking bean.
Fresh fruit on my uncle’s property. We got to eat the last banana because more would come soon … jealous!!
One of the three orange trees is full … SUPER jealous!! They also have lemons, mini peaches and plenty ‘o vegetables.
And if you can’t get fresh fruit at their place, you go to the market to get an abundance and variety of fruit like lychee. (Hey Todd … I had more papaya. B-Rod wouldn’t touch the stuff!)
The first day had good weather. B-Rod liked the precision of this lava stone wall (from the 1700’s), but the dark sand was too hot for him to pose for that long.
Not the kind of beach that I’ve become used to, but it had amazing snorkeling – the best I’ve had thus far in my travels.
Sandi took us to the beach that the Baird’s used to go to every Sunday, but it was a considerable shock for her to see how many people go there now. They are also now charging non-residents (we got in for free because we were with a local AND I have been mistaken for being born & raised here … eat that Nes!) We will return for a proper visit mid week, when most people have gone home and the kids are back in school.
Right on the side of the highway, but unmarked, is this lava tube. It was one of the many places Sandi introduced us to for us to further explore later. This tube goes quite a ways, but we only went in a few hundred feet, as we didn’t want to ditch Sandi in the car for too long. There is another spectacular site that she showed us, but we wanted to save the experience for later – it seems pretty cool!
The southern most point in the US. It was windy, pouring and just plain miserable. Do you feel sad for me because it’s the first time in awhile I’ve had to wear shoes & a jacket?
Since we decided not to make the five mile hike to the legendary green sand beach at the southern tip, we hit the black sand beach instead. B-Rod was utterly fascinated by the black lava sand.
“Enjoying” the view of the crater at Volcano National Park.
We hit the end of the road … twice! The second time was during the dangerous fungry period, and B-Rod went the wrong way at an important intersection (thus the creation of “rule #2” because of Rocky’s poor navigation abilities.) Anyhow, the road ends where the lava flow has consumed the highway, and it is now 20 ft thick. They built a single lane road over the first flow, but it stops dead at the second. B-Rod also manged to get a traffic cone stuck in the wheel well of the rental car. After talking to the security guy, who told us it was a dead end, B steered right over the cone. We became another “tourist” attraction, and made the security guard’s day due to the amusement of the situation.
Good rule. Or I guess a map would do?! RB, are you still streaking? If you would just friend me on FB I would invite you on our streakers group!!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday! Hopefully the weather smartens up!
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Happy Birthday Brian! I'm sure your having an amazing day! The Bitz's