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Hawaii June 2022	Back to Home Page

I had only ever been to Hawaii once, in March of 2020 - just days before the pandemic lockdown. Eric had never been, so I had been anxious to show him how beautiful it is ever since I'd visited. We had to get away from the gray skies in Montana so we ran for the sun. Luckily for us, they lifted the mask mandate on planes just before we left.


In the plane we followed the sunset for a long way across the ocean.	Our first glimpse of our VRBO on the big island. It was perfect.


There was a trail beside our VRBO that led to this private little beach.	Here we are exploring it.


	There was lava, coral, and sand all mixed together here.


The view from the door of our rental apartment.	Out to breakfast on our first full day.

	Back at our rental. Eric napped while I tried out the chairs that overlook the ocean.
Walking around the town of Kailua-Kona, and checking out this cool tree.


On another walk by our rental.	Now we've journeyed to "The End of the World", an area south of Kona where the waves crash against the coastline in very violent and dramatic ways.


You have to be there to truly understand how cool it feels to watch it up close like that.	The waves are so powerful.


	I zoomed in on the wild goats to show my nephew Brodie. He loves goats.


I don't know if this is a tidal pool, but it was some water trapped in old lava. Very beautiful.	Next we visited a seahorse farm - my idea. I love seahorses! It was such a cool thing to see.

The best part was that they let each person there old a seahorse at the end of the tour. This is Eric with one wrapped around his finger.
	Some of the various kinds they have on display. And Eric's reflection as he checks them out.


This one is swimming away while a baby tags along for a ride.	Another variety of seahorse. They are all amazing to me.


Next I did a very cool experience. Eric stayed home, but I joined a group to do the Manta Ray night snorkel experience. It was so amazing! This is the kind of setup we had.	None of my photos came out, so I copied these off of the internet just to show what we saw. We were not allowed to touch them, but they occasionally brushed into us.


They were RIGHT THERE. Totally in your face.	It was very cold, but worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.


The next day we took an inter-island flight to Kauai. Here we are on our first stop. I think this was Waipouli beach.	Next we visited a waterfall in the jungle.





There is a stark difference between the Big Island and Kauai in how green it is on Kauai. That's because Kauai is much older so the lava has had time to turn into soil.
	The Tree Tunnel is a beautiful canopy of Eucalyptus trees that line Maliuhi Road. They were planted in 1911 as a gift to the community from Pineapple Baron Walter McBryde.


Our first views of our second VRBO rental. This was a second-floor condo unit that was also perfect.	Our view from the room was of the pool.


A very short walk from our room was Shipwreck beach and the Hilton resort.	We stayed at the Poipu Sands resort. It was lovely.


We were also close to Poipu Beach, which we visited and saw sea turtles and seals.	One of three seals that were out sunning that day.

Here is a large seal, enjoying a rest on the beach.
	I'm not going to comment about any similarities to my man who was also enjoying a rest on the beach.

	My man, accompanying me on my quest to get some Hawaiian Ice. Coconut, of course, it's the only decent flavor!
This one slowly makes his way back into the surf, where the waves eventually washed him back into the water. But he didn't go far - just as far as that little island in the background.


Driving around, seeing beautiful scenery on the interior.	We went to find Glass Beach, but ended up thinking this black sand mixed with shiny pica-looking stuff was more interesting.

	Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It's beautiful!
Always the climber, even without the right shoes he can't stay off the cliffs.

Some educational material in case you're interested.
	Selfie with the canyon.


Family photo, courtesy of a kind fellow tourist.	Now we're taking a walk on the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail, which was a short walk from our condo.


Dramatic views along the trail.	We got to watch this sea turtle from above has he went about his business. Which mostly looked like he was floating around.


Next we went to Brennecke Beach for Eric's first time to boogie board. He was as hooked as I am! Also it was super cool that two turtles hung around there all day, popping up near the swimmers at the most unexpected times.	Next we decided to tour a coffee plantation. We figured since we are now partial owners of a coffee shop, maybe we should learn something about coffee!


It was a nice outing, but we actually didn't learn very much.	Here's a fun fact, which explains why coffee plantations need to be so big.


We went back to Poipu beach one evening at sunset to watch the sea turtles come onto shore. We had imagined it as this exciting nature adventure. In reality there were about 100 people there watching about 9 turtles as they crawled out of the water at a glacial pace. Don't get me wrong, it was super cool to see it. I think it was the huge crowd that put us off.	But we saw a beautiful sunset while we were there at least.

Here you can see 8 of the turtles are on shore. We could also see a couple more splashing around in the shallows, thinking of coming in.
	The next day we got up early and headed for the north end of the island.


We started at Calvary Chapel North Shore for a very nice service.	Next we stopped to look at this lighthouse. The path to it was closed on Sundays, but it was a beautiful sight to see nonetheless.


Looking out over some beautiful fields that we saw along the way.	Two views of the same area.


The only picture I got of this beautiful bay was blurry, darn it. I think this was Hanalei Bay.	One of MANY single-lane bridges in the area. The etiquette is to allow about 7 cars to go in each direction.


Here we are at Tunnels Beach, a spot known for it's snorkeling. Eric was spoiling me since snorkeling is my favorite thing.	A view of the bay from the water. One of the few pictures I took with my underwater camera that worked!

Another, very private beach we saw on the walk back to our car.
	Kalalea mountain - it looks like King Kong!


Kauai is absolutely covered in chickens (and roosters, of course.) They cracked me up.	Some beautiful coastline.


The drama of the waves never got old.


The Spouting Horn blowhole in action.	And another shot of it getting ready to go.


Wailua Falls	Eric & I at the falls overlook

Enjoying a truly beautiful meal at The Plantation House restaurant.
	Walking the grounds after lunch, we saw their event center has a tree growing right through the roof.


They also had a giant anchor. It's hard to picture the boat that went with this one!	I wanted to capture a photo of Buddy greeting us when we picked him up from dog boarding. However, just pulled us to the car like a sled dog in the Iditarod. He was saying, "Take me home now!"



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