Day 3 - Waikoloa and Kona

July 25, 2010

Today we took a walk around the Anchaline Ponds about a block from the hotel. We walked out to the ocean and explored the water a bit. We also went down the street to the beach behind the Marriott hotel. It is a really pretty beach and the sand has green in it. After dinner my niece went for an evening swim with grandma. I think they both had fun, I enjoyed sitting by the pool watching the sunset.

Day 2 - Waikoloa, Hi

July 24, 2010

Today we spent at the hotel. The area is like a resort so there is plenty to do. My niece went swimming a couple of times. We saw a mongoose, it looks like a large, long squirrel but couldn't get a photo of it since they are pretty quick. The hotel has a boat and a train to get from one area to the other so we took the boat a couple of times. We also took the train but it takes longer and the boat has a more scenic route. There are birds on the small islands that the boat goes around, I was able to get a photo of one of them.

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.