pictures from the Big Island trip

It was a fun trip, but I've decided the things that I like to do on my vacations are: hiking/trails, restaurants, quaint local stores/businesses/museums and whatnot, waterfalls.  I'm not so much into the water sports.  We bought all these snorkel things, but didn't snorkel!  Oh well.  We can do that here.  We did see sea life - from the safety of the shore.  We did water stuff, in the pool.  The kids do not like the driving - at all.  But the island is huge, so you have to drive to see stuff.

The kids loved the hotel.  It had a huge slide, ping pong and pool tables and a foosball table.

Gary, well he was sick.  And he was the designated driver.  He was just glad that he didn't have to make the decisions.

This was our first trip to the Kona side of the island.  Our 4th trip to the island.  Yep, the volcano is THE big hairy deal for me.  We still visited the volcano - despite the 98 mile drive (one way) and having half the crater rim drive closed (due to high sulfur emissions).  This is the deal on the volcano: there has been new activity in the past few months causing lots of haze.  The lava flow has moved so there is a new viewing area that we visited.  The best times to view are after dark, to see the glow.  But we stayed too far away for a late viewing.  We also saw one of the visitor centers movies.  It was on the 1959-60 eruptions.  Frankly, it scared me and the kids.  But I still like the volcano.  Next time, we are going to do some of the trails across the caldera.

On the Kona side, we did a trip up to Waikaloa Village - the Hilton.  It's huge.  Touted the Disney of Hawaii.  They have dolphins, trams, boats, etc.  If you want to be entertained by the hotel solely - stay here.  We stayed at the Sheraton Keauhou.  It's got a fun slide - great for the kids - but not so pricey that you feel guilty for leaving the hotel.  You don't get the Hawaii experience if you intend to spend your time at the hotel or on the beach.  (yes, I sound snobby)

We visited petroglyphs, black sand beaches, the southernmost point of the USA, turtles, etc. etc.  We did enough.  So we veg out today.  :-)  I hope you enjoy the pictures.