Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

Deepti and I were anxiously looking forward to David & Onaona's wedding and our first visit to the Hawaiian Islands. We returned to work almost immediately after our own wedding a few weeks ago, so this trip would be our first to chance to relax and unwind. With a lot of the family making the journey, we could also spend more time with everyone since we we didn't have much time at the wedding in Pittsburgh. The weather forecast was calling for potential hurricane conditions shortly after ...

After breakfast, we all jumped in the car and drove toward South Point (southern most point in the US). After stopping a few times to make sure we were on the right course, we arrived at about 10:00. The land was dried out and desolate and the deep blue sea provided quite a contrast. Even in the morning hours, the heat of the sun discouraged any major hikes and kept us drinking water frequently. On the way back, we stopped at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. The sand was really hot on the feet and ...

Deepti and I bounced out of bed at 3:00 AM and were on a shuttle bus by 3:40. Our lava boat left the dock at 4:30. After 45 minutes bouncing around in the rough Pacific waves, we reached the lava point. WOW! As soon as we got there, I stopped regretting the early wake up call. It felt like we were joining the ranks of storm chasers and the folks that get up and close to some of nature's extraordinary events. The lava jumps out against the dark backdrop and crashing waves. We were probably 30-...

Since we had already previously stopped on our volcano park trip the other day we headed as fast as legally possible direct to Hilo. A hotel, a quick bite, some questions to a info guide and we were off again down to The Kalapana viewing site, located at the end of Highway 130 in the Puna District. And wow is it a sight to behold. Firstly reaching the area we then have to drive up and over old lava flows. It amazes to see houses on top of these flows and people reclaim? their land lost in the...

Arrived to balmy evening at Kona airport and embarked on an exhausting two hour drive to Hilo through the dark, fog, and occoaional downpour.

Perfect hotel. Perfect base for exploring.

Wow...this was a jam-packed day! Remember the turtles back at the place of refuge? Since this was our last day on the Kona coast, we decided to go back and snorkel one more time... ...Now, the overall water quality and species diversity was not as high as back on Ofu, but there was plenty of coral, many inquisitive fish, and a couple of sea turtles to swim with! I'm throwing in a video with this entry so you can swim along, too! Oh, one other thing, I think Hawaiian fish are more used to bein...