Hawaii - Day 2: Nuts & Hawii

Joel and I are tag teaming our Hawaii adventures. So if the tone is different in the posts, that's why :) AND Joel had to wait on his first post so you're starting our Hawaii adventures on day 2. But...no worries. We'll catch everyone up :)

Day 2 brought great excitement. Right after breakfast we went to the "welcoming" message from the concierge. It really was very helpful both for us and for her (her commission based pay, that is) because we learned of things that we really wanted to do while on the island. We went pretty big. But it was so great to be able to do all the stuff we would NEVER (and some stuff COULD NEVER) do with little kids. So we signed up and got our itinerary going but had Friday all to ourselves. So, we decided to visit the "Mac Nut guy" just 10 or so minutes down the road from our hotel. He's a retired German guy who sells the best Mac Nuts around. AND, pretty cheap. We must have drove past his hole in the granite yard business 4 times before we realized where it was (we're talking drove ONE block like four times). Anyway, he was super nice and it was fun to get mac nuts somewhere other than an ABC store.

I mean, really, what about this DOESN'T look like a guy selling macadamia nuts?



After getting some nuts we decided to drive the 90 or so minutes up the west coast to a town called Hawi. We had heard of a great place to eat and an amazing place to take a little hike. Both places lived up to what the locals told us would be a great place to go. It was so fun to do even a small road trip with each other. We chatted and laughed and didn't get interrupted ONE time! Yes, we finished every sentence we started (unless side tracked by scenery).

We started out our time in Hawi by eating. It was past lunch time and we were hungry! Here is a picture of our delicious food at the restaurant Bamboo. Yummy!


Then our waitress at the restaurant told us that King Kemehameha was born in Hawi and there is a statue of him just up the road. Then she also told us this funny story about how King Kemehameha carried a rock a really, really long distance through part of the island. Only to drop it on the side of the road....as she relayed to us, "I don't know why he left it there..." We don't either but we thought it was hilarious. Here's the statue:



This is self explanatory but couldn't help making fun of this sign- you may need to click on it to get the full effect...


And here is THE rock. I wish we would have better captured exactly where this was on the road. There's a really windy road over to a great hiking spot and on one of the curves, there's this rock.


After eating and feeling the spirit of King Kemehameha we drove to the end of the state highway, parked our car, and hiked down an amazing hillside to a black sand beach. This was one of our favorite activities while on the island. We especially loved that after we got down to the beach, there were only a handful of people around. So worth it!!

Here's the view preparing you for what's to come. As soon as I saw this, I thought one thing. I'm sure you're all thinking it, too. Goonies...


Have to get a few self portraits in on the way...






When were driving home we saw these horses with the bird sitting on top. I just love this shot...


We stepped out of the car to take another classic portrait. It was SO windy...clearly


Sunset to end a GREAT day....