My youngest will say that his favorite part of our trip was the airplane (or, should I say airplanes...4 altogether!)...and, after he thinks about it a bit, "the bowl-cano". He also talks about the "Wiki-Wiki" bus from the airport ("wiki" means, quick).
My oldest has said that he loved snorkeling; but, I watched him soak up every minute of our trip. From experiencing the airplane, a new place, a live volcano, the underwater world and wonderful food to just chilling on the beach. My favorite was finding him often just sitting on our balcony, watching the ocean.
On our first night on the Big Island of Hawai'i, our youngest was up at 2am (7am our time!); so, my husband took him for a walk outside. My oldest and I were up by 4am; and, the sky that first night was so clear, we could see (what seemed like) the whole solar system! Unfortunately (oddly, I still think), that was the only night it was clear (not clouds, maybe pollution?).
One day, we decided to take a trip to the active volcano on the other side of the island. We got a map (the travel director pointed out all the "must-sees" along the way) and we headed to our first, "must-see"...a beautiful, scenic view (and, for the brave with a 4x4, a very steep drive to a pretty beach). It WAS beautiful; and, I am glad we saw it. But, we had a volcano to get to! Next stop, Akaka Falls (waterfalls!).
On the road to Akaka Falls, we stopped at a farmstand and bought some not possible to be fresher bananas and some homemade passionfruit lemonade. The cool thing was that he let us sample all the DIFFERENT KINDS of bananas (I recall apple bananas and sucres...but, there were more!). So, we got some of the ones we liked. The cool thing is, here at home this past week, when my boys and I went to the grocery store, they spotted some red bananas and wanted to try them (so, I bought them!). Love that! Oh, yes and Akaka Falls was breathtaking and lovely. Then, we headed to the town of Hilo for lunch.
Lunch took a looooong time (they must've been on "island time"); so, when we were done, we decided to head back to our hotel, feeling like the boys were tired and it was too late to head on to the volcano. The next day, we actually went back (straight there! no stops this time...except for the smoothie place we passed on the scenic road last time).
The volcano was amazing. It is incredible to not just know, but to SEE that the earth is ALIVE and burning inside. It was neat to hear stories and see the steam vents and realize how the islands were formed in the first place. I loved seeing it through my children's eyes.
We also felt we had to take a snorkeling trip. Our youngest loves boats and they both "practiced" snorkeling; but only our 6yo went (on a special board with a mask on which we could push him around). He was enthralled at the world under water. He had gotten an ocean creature book at the volcano gift shop the previous day and he knew what he was looking at (lots of "brain coral")! Our 3yo still loved the boat. It was a lovely day and a beautiful sail. I LOVE snorkeling and I LOVE sailing.
We spent our last full day just hanging out on the beach (me in a hammock...ahhh...I also LOVE hammocks). It could not have been more perfect and yes, we wanted to stay. We still daydream about what we could do to live there.
But, alas we had to say, "goodbye". When we went down to the beach to say goodbye to the ocean, my oldest and I had stayed behind a bit, watching a turtle (we saw many...they are so cool). And, when we looked again, that old turtle had one flipper up in the air, waving (totally serious). I showed my son that he was waving goodbye and he asked how he knew we were leaving. I said, "magic" (and, also, he MUST have heard us!). But, maybe we should have said, "See you later". We do hope to go back to Hawai'i again someday...SOON!
