Day 1 - Kona and Beyond

July 23, 2010

This morning we woke up in Hawaii! We hung around the hotel for a bit in the morning. They had some Hawaiian entertainment which included dancing, learning how to use some instruments, making leis and eating some fruit and banana bread.

In the afternoon we headed South to the Black Sand Beach. It was really pretty. We walked around for a bit and saw some sea turtles swimming close to shore. They were trying to swim out but the waves kept pushing them back close to shore. It was hard to get a photo of one of them, I didn't have much luck.
After the Black Sand Beach we went to Hawaii Volcano Nationla park. Yep, I've been to the National Park before but wanted to spend more time there. It was a bit cold there, we went up in elevation. We walked around some steam vents and went to the visitor center and also looked at the crater that is still "smoking".
It is about a 2 hour drive from the Southern end of the island to where we were staying. We didn't have time to do all of the things we wanted to do in the park so we decided we'd go back another day. We had to make the drive to the new hotel and check in.

In Flight

Leaving San Francisco
Kona Delay

July 22, 2010

Today was a long travel day. I took a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, where I met up with my parents and niece then we all flew to Kona, Hawaii (The Big Island). The flight to Hawaii was a 5 hour flight from the West coast. Things were looking good but about an hour before departure we learned the flight was delayed 2 hours due to maintenance. We all were bummed about the delay but I'd rather wait around to make sure the airplane was OK since we would be flying 5 hours over the ocean and there is no place for an emergency landing! They ended up giving us a different airplane with a different seating set up. My parents were supposed to be in row 17 but were moved to row 32! It all worked out though, the flight wasn't full and it gave everyone room to move around and lay down. During the flight I watched the movie"The Bounty Hunter" with Jennifer Aniston. It was a pretty good movie and it helped the time pass. We finally made it to Kona around 9:00pm (Hawaii time). We got our luggage, went to pick up the rental car, drove to our hotel in Kona for the night.

Working in the Hotel

July 21, 2010

Today I spent the day working in the hotel room. Things went well for most of the day except I decided to restart my work computer because I kept getting a message that a program was being used even though I closed all of the applications. When I restarted my computer I couldn't log in. I kept getting a "domain not available" error. I spent the next hour and 1/2 on the phone with work It support but no luck. The only way to fix the problem (they think) is to hook up to the office network. This basically means my laptop is dead weight for the next week and 1/2! Gotta love computer security. I was able to get most of my work done but not all of it...guess it will have to wait.

Seattle, WA

July 20, 2010

Today we drove 5 hours North to Seattle. It was cloudy 90% of the way. I didn't really get any cool pictures today, just one of the Sea-Tac airport tower.

The hotel I'm staying at is not that great, big bummer! It is right by the airport so it is convenient but this building is old and it smells old! I've been in worse but tomorrow I'm working in the hotel room and a nice room always makes things better.

Oregon Caves National Monument

July 19, 2010

Today we left the cold of Crescent City and headed North. We collected a park I've never been to before, Oregon Caves National Monument. I was sort of dreading this park because to get to it you have to drive on a long windy road. It turned out that it was a long windy road where you typically only go between 20 and 45 mph but the end was worth it. This is a really great park that has an old lodge, I wasn't expecting that. This would be a great one or two night vacation. It is pretty secluded but if you want to experience a park with little civilization this is the park to come to! Collection of this park only took us a couple of hours and then we headed further North to spend the night in Cottage Grove, OR. On the way North we saw this water fountain that was flowing with purple water, yes purple! We had to turn the truck around and take a quick photo. Pretty cool!