Hawaii Trip - Day Two (10/22/09): Flying High

Every day of our Hawaii trip, we got up between 6:00 and 6:30. That's when the sun comes up, and we wanted to enjoy as much daylight as possible. On our first morning in Hawaii (Thursday, October 22nd), I opened the windows of our hotel room and gasped. I had no idea that we had an entire gorgeous bay right outside! It was stunning. We wore our leis to breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Such delicious food! I had a cheese & bacon muffin and fruit--papaya, pineapple, banana, and orange. Everything was bursting with flavor! Tomkin had a ham & cheese omelette and hash browns, and we both had Hawaiian coffee. Even the view from the restaurant was amazing! We checked out of our room and left our luggage at the hotel, then walked around the beautiful grounds. We saw some amazing banyan trees, the shoreline made of volcanic rock, and a little island just outside the hotel. Then we headed back to the airport, where we had reservations for a helicopter tour. There were six passengers on our flight, plus our pilot, Jim, who's been flying helicopters for 40 years. One couple was from San Diego, California, and two guys were from Cologne, Germany. We each had to weigh in (boo!), and then we were given some safety instructions and each assigned a number. Keith, who checked us in, lined us up outside near the helicopter. (The yellow bags on our waists were our inflatable life vests.)Since we couldn't hear much at that point, Keith showed us fingers so we knew the number of the person he wanted to seat. (We were placed according to our weight.) I was seated in the front middle seat, between the pilot on my left and Tomkin on my right, who was next to the window. It was a little rainy when we first took off (the Hilo side of the island gets about 200 inches of rain a year), but then it cleared up. We flew over towns and gorgeous green farmland until we reached Volcanoes National Park and saw an active volcano! Mostly we just saw smoke, but we did catch a glimpse of some red molten lava. So cool! Kilauea has been active since 1983 and is considered the most active volcano in the world. As we flew above the island, we could see where lava from various eruptions had flowed--sometimes over entire villages. There is still one red-roofed house in an area surrounded by lava flows. It's actually a B&B, and you can stay there! (No, thank you....) My favorite part of the tour was when we flew over the ocean and could see where the lava was falling into the sea. It's literally making the island bigger! And creating quite a scene in the process. Wow!!! It was so beautiful, it almost didn't seem real. We also flew over some amazing waterfalls. Tomkin's favorite part of the flight was probably when we landed. He had forgotten to take anti-nausea medicine before we started the tour, so he ended up throwing up quite a bit. Poor guy! I think he used every barf bag on the helicopter. Other than that, though, it was an amazing way to start our vacation! We finished about 11:30, chatted with the other passengers, and then headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage. We stopped at a little farmers' market in Hilo and picked up some fruit. But we were both hungry for lunch, so we decided to pop into the Kuhio Grille, which was in a nearby strip mall. It was nothing fancy, but the place was hopping. Tomkin and I both ordered a bowl of the miso saiman with Spam (like a ramen noodle soup with egg and other ingredients). It was really good! And, wow, do they love their Spam over there. We also had two cream biscuits (similar to corn bread) and loved it when the waitress said, "Do you want me to butter and fry those for you?" "Uh, yes, please!" We had THE nicest waitress and busboy. So warm and friendly. And those biscuits were to die for! We popped into the nearby Safeway and picked up some groceries, which were a little on the pricey side (but we had been warned). The guys who checked us out and bagged our groceries were really friendly and chatty. I think they would have hung out and talked all day (especially about surfing). We had brought our GPS along for the trip, which was really helpful. Much easier for me, the navigator who's bad with directions! We started toward the town of Captain Cook, near Kailua-Kona on the western side of the island. We could see volcanoes in the distance, and we debated whether or not we should stop at Volcanoes National Park on our way or just drive straight through. Turns out we were in completely different part of the island than we thought we were! The GPS took us on a different route than we had expected, so we ended up cutting through the middle of the island (on the narrow and winding Saddle Road) rather than going along the southern coast. It was kind of disconcerting, but we made it across the island okay (thanks to excellent driving by Tomkin!). Along the way, we saw wild turkeys, a quail, and some cows. It's amazing how much the scenery changes within just a few minutes--from rolling hills to farmland to barren lava fields. We saw the "graffiti" made of white coral--what the kids there do instead of spray-painting. We arrived in the Kona area about 4:00, just as rush hour was starting. (Since they only have two-lane highways, rush hour can cause quite a back-up.) We decided to avoid the traffic by taking a detour to Don the Beachcomber (a waterfront bar) in the Royal Kona Resort. We had a seaside seat, where I enjoyed a couple of their happy hour mai tais (supposedly the drinks originated there). We both got some delicious food: first some coconut prawns, and then Tomkin had fish tacos, I got pork quesedillas, and we both had yummy sweet potato fries. Mmm, mmm, mmm! Both of us were very satisfied and happy. And what a gorgeous view! We drove south to our Pomaika'i "Lucky" Farm B&B and arrived about 5:30, just as the sun was starting to set. Johnsie, who moved to Hawaii from North Carolina two years ago and owns the B&B with her dad, John, showed us around the common areas and the Coffee Barn, where we stayed. It's a beautiful, rustic space with only screens for windows and a shower outdoors. Beautiful mosquito netting surrounds the bed. Turns out we needed that netting because the place was swarming with gnats! We spent an hour or so swatting hundreds of them dead before taking refuge behind the netting. Also, it was cool to look out through the screens and see moonlight streaming in over the banana trees. However, not having any windows meant that we could hear every noise outside, and the place is rampant with coqui frogs and wild chickens--both of which are loud! We went to bed about 9:00--turns out that a lot of people in Hawaii get up early and go to sleep early, which makes sense. Tomkin theorizes that one reason people there are so laid back and mellow is because they actually get enough sleep! We were sure happy to go to sleep that night--it was quite a full day!