Hawaii Trip-Days 1-3

Last week my beloved and I spent 9 days on the Big Island of Hawai'i. A friend of ours is currently living there on his families coffee farm. They don't yet have a house on the property. . . well not exactly, but we'll get to that.

Day 1

Aside from tearful goodbyes to my kiddos, a headache from restraining my own tears, and getting sick on the airplane, we had a nice flight.

We landed and as soon as was humanly-decently possible shed our jeans in favor of shorts.

My beautiful plumeria lei from Nickle.

After picking up a few supplies at the store, we did a little exploring before heading to the property. We stopped by a restaurant for a bite to eat before heading to a little beach spot just to check things out.

Once we got to the property My Beloved and Nickle opened up the "house"

Here is the main living area. This is, to me, so ingenious. They took a tarped carport, built wood and bamboo walls, and put a corrugated roof on it. It also has a painted wood floor. I love it.

Here is the kitchen area. A mini-fridge and a few hot burners.

The living room.

I didn't seem to get a picture of the bathroom, shower areas. Basically an outhouse and, for the shower, a hose hanging in a tree with an adjustable shower head, a garden sprayer.

When we arrived the pickers where there picking coffee so there were several one-hundred pound bags of coffee cherry laying around.

In the background you can see the outrigger where Nickle slept.

One of a million little gecko friends. I love these guys, not only because they are so cute, but also because when they are around there are fewer bugs.

Sunset from the property

I love these flowers. The first time I saw them was in Yelapa Mexico. I was delighted to find them here as well.

We had nightly concerts.

Day 2

On the second day, Nickle had to work. We stopped by the dive shop where he works in the morning and he fitted us with snorkel gear and sent us on a mission to try it out.

We had a great time. I was shocked to see a sea turtle on our first trip out.

We spent most of the day wandering the shops along Ali'i Drive and sitting on the beach wall behind the Kona Inn.

I was mesmerized by the fish in the waves.

Day 3

On the third day, Nickle had to work again, so we headed out to the Volcano. On the way we stopped at The Coffee Shack for breakfast. The food was good but the view was amazing.

These geckos are everywhere. Someone left a jelly container on the railing and this little guy was more than happy to indulge.

On our way out we also stopped at Black Sands Beach, which has another name that I can neither pronounce or spell.

Amazingly enough this site made my Beloved think it was a good idea to grab his snorkel gear out of the car and take a look under the water. I being reasonable and all decided that one of us had to survive to raise our children, so I sat on the beach and read a book. There were a few other people in the water but it looked to choppy for me.

As we walked down onto the beach we noticed some people standing around staring at something on the sand. As we got closer we saw a sign warning us not to get too close to the Green Sea Turtles that like to come up onto the beach to rest. They were so cute they would wash in on a wave using the waters momentum to propel them as far as it would. Then they would sluff themselves up onto the beach until the water either just barely touched them or didn't at all, then they shut their eyes and slept.

By the time we left there were three of them sleeping on the beach in one spot and another further down ended up on more of a rocky bed.

By the time we got to the volcano it was sprinkling a little. It was still an awesome sight.

We decided our future children should be named Rules and Regulations since I insist on keeping these things and my Beloved likes to break them. . . I'm not sure what that says about our intentions with our future children but it was a silly joke between us just the same. Oh and if we have a surprise we would name it Amendment. :) I mention this because this is probably an area he should not be in.

Aahh see fenced area this is where tourists are supposed to be :).