Sunsets

Mauna Kea

We arrived at the beach around 4pm with our chairs and picnic basket and settled in to wait for the sunset - it was worth it...

Each place has a little different look at sunset, Mauna Kea is a favourite.

Fairmont Orchid

We went to the Fairmont's beach side restaurant last night for Happy Hour and watch the sun go down, I can't believe we haven't done this before - great spot!  After we had a bite to eat we wandered around and tried out a few of the casual seating areas they have right on the beach while we waited for sunset...

Once the it starts to go down it doesn't take long and it's gone.......

View from the hotel looking back out across the pool out and out to the ocean.

Really, no matter where you are on the Kohola Coast the sunsets are amazing!

Pool Time

The pool here is great, lots of room for swimming and floating alike.  Plus the waterfall is a nice touch, as well as a good size hot tub.  Yesterday was the kids last day here and we spent the afternoon at the pool.

Miles had a blast doing twist jumps, pencil jumps, and any other kind of jump he could think of!

It was a great way to cool off, and strangely enough the pool wasn't overly busy.
After they were all packed up and ready to go we went to the Fish 'n Chip place over at the Kings Shops for supper and then they headed to the airport for the red eye home.  We had tons of fun, so glad they came to spend time here with us!

Magic Sand

Beaches

There's something magical about the beach.  Yes it can be a bit of work getting everything ready to go and getting there but it's totally worth it.

Wave jumping

Beach gymnastics

An up-and-comer

Each year the activities on the sand change, not sure how much more beach gym we'll see from this one .... but the littlest is getting in on the act now...

Sand castle building 

Big bucket for a little boy - then someone's gettin' wet!

It's like there's magic sand, a great place to just relax and enjoy time here.

Kekaha Kai State Park

The beach here can be seen from the air as you fly into the Kona International Airport and it's beautiful.  There's sandy areas for swimming, as well as coral reef areas where the fish are plentiful to see when snorkeling.

Our base camp has a bit of shade

Lovin' the shades

Gpa is heading out

The three snorkelers in our family are Ted, Rick and Ruby - the rest of us pretty much just play in the surf and sand.  Unfortunately the seal on my underwater camera gave up on this snorkel adventure so I'll be relying on iPhone pics from Ted for the last week of our time here.

Barry's Last Day

We want to make sure that we make use of every day so Barry's last day was no exception.  First thing we did in the morning was go down the highway towards Kona about twenty minutes away and check out the lava tube and field.

Lava Tube

We've driven past this place many many times and haven't stopped, we figured we should finally go and see it.  See the person in the upper right above the open tube and it gives perspective on the size of it.

Ted was the only one with running shoes on, not sandals so he went underground but Barry and I stayed up top.

Dolphin Quest

After we left the lava tube we drove to the Hilton dolphin lagoon where you can go into the water with the dolphins.  It was Miles' turn to do it as the others have already been in, but we weren't sure whether he would actually go.

The rest of us waited on the grassy hill beside the lagoon while Rick and Miles got their life jackets on and their instructions.

He says that the dolphin fin feels like rubber

Checking out the blow hole

Learning how to make Nimbus the dolphin talk

Success - he loved it!  From there it was back to the townhouse to pick Barry's bag up and then over to Lava Lava's for Happy Hour before we drove him to the airport for his evening flight home.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The week went by fast, but we saw and did a lot - good times!

Whale Watch

Captain Dan

Five years ago we went out on Captain Dan's whale watching boat and so we decided we'd go out again this year.

Same boat as last time

Everyone is busy scanning the waters while Captain Dan narrates

Ruby and I sat up on the top deck

Look close and you can see the fin of a beaked whale

So although the only thing we saw in those several hours was one beaked whale, at least it's a whale that's seen rarely as it likes to stay down in the deep 4000 foot waters below.  Oh and some spinner dolphins at the beginning of our boat ride as we left the marina area.

Very dark clouds began to form on the horizon so the Captain decided we'd better get into the harbour sooner than later so he sped up and we headed in.  Even though we didn't get to see a lot of whales it was a great boat ride listening to Captain Dan's stories and information, as well as the music!

Kona Brewery & Restaurant

From the marina we went into town to the Kona Brewery and Restaurant for some late lunch.  The food is always good there.

T-shirts and souveniers for sale

Tailless gecko, hopefully he'll grow one back

So that was the day, always something to do and see around here...