Hawaii

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was wonderful, but more about that later. Before Christmas, I went to Hawaii with my parents. It was awesome, a great time. We left on a Saturday afternoon and I never realized just how far away Hawaii is. It was a really long flight. We arrived late Saturday night Hawaii time. We were staying in Kona, on the big island. Our hotel room was awesome. My mom rented what i believe are timeshares for some people. We were essentially staying in a two bedroom apartment. Below are some pictures from our apartment.

The gorgeous view from the balcony of our apartment

It was great to have a kitchen where we could cook meals

We spent Sunday going to an information session about Hawaii, just looking around, and going for a run. The area around our hotel was awesome and my sister and I ran almost every day. It was easy to get motivated to run with such a wonderful view.

On Monday we took a trip to Volcano National Park. It was about a two hour drive, and along the way we saw the black sand beach which was pretty cool as well. It was super windy at the black sand beach though. Volcano National Park was really neat, but we couldn't see any active volcanoes as there were none in the park at the time.


My family and me outside of a crater at Volcano National Park

A picture outside the museum at Volcano National Park, it was a great view and the picture doesn't quite do it justice.


The black sand beach. It was so windy it was difficult to get good pictures.

On Tuesday we went to the coffee plantations and then on a snorkeling excursion. We went to Captain Cooks Monument and snorkeled around there. It was a gorgeous view, but we haven't gotten the pictures developed from that camera yet (we used an underwater camera). It is so cool in Hawaii to have the mix of tropical paradise, rich history and volcanoes.

On Wednesday we just hung around the apartment, went into the city, went out for lunch and just took a relaxed day, which was nice since we were getting tired with our busy days.

Thursday we went to the Macadamia Nut farm, then to Hapuna beach, which was absolutely gorgeous, and then we went on an airplane ride of the island. It was so cool. We got to see lava flowing, we got to see the awesome waterfall, mountain and valley regions that you can't see by foot since it is all private land. It was a good perspective on the island overall.

My sister and I at Hapuna beach

Us with our captain outside the airplane

On Friday we decided we would just spend the day at the beach and then go to a Luau. We tried to go to a different beach first and the views were gorgeous, but it was super crowded and we decided we liked Hapuna best so we drove back to Hapuna. The Luau was a lot of fun, a ton of food, and some great ocean views. The show at the end was pretty cool as well.

The first beach we tried to go to. It was so pretty but really small and a lot of rocks.

Another view of Hapuna Beach

The Luau, we had a wonderful view right on the ocean.

The Luau dancers.

On Saturday we just packed up, went for a run, and enjoyed some of the ocean views from our apartment as we had to leave at noon for the airport. It was a long trip home, we didn't arrive until 10AM on Sunday, but it was definitely worth it. After being to a ton of tropical islands, Hawaii has to be one of my favorites. I love the mix of views, and all the things there are to see there. The rest of the holidays have been great as well, but I will post about those later!