Coming Home Feels So Good

Our second home that is!

Our flight was an hour early and our rental car was not ready. So they kindly gave us a convertible mustang to drive instead. I was pretty excited at first, but that eventually changed. We decided upon leaving Kona to drive to South Point (Na'alehu). Once we arrived we stopped at Shaka's South Point Bar. This is the southern most point and bar in the United States. Apparently 500 miles further than Florida (Key West).

We had a delightful meal, and were offended for the owners of the place when some rude tourist came in and got upset that they could not drink alcohol outside of the bar. The young girl was calm and polite, but the man and his family were all very loud and rude. My husband just shook his head and we said sorry to the girl once they were done. Some people just need to stay home. Being on vacation doesn’t mean you get to be rude, you are still living in reality where not everything is your way.

Anyway, we finished up, put the top down and started to make our way to Pahoa. This is the point where the Mustang started to annoy me. We were about two hours into our trip and I will be honest... it is NOT a comfortable car to drive. Not even a smidgen! Plus I felt like a tourist.

We stopped in at Sea Village and drove down to Punalu'u. Punalu'u has a black sand beach and it is notorious for sea turtles basking upon the sand. When we pulled in there were a few tourist buses. Everyone was gathered in the same area, so I suspect there were some turtles. We decided to carry on.

Eventually as we crept higher and higher in altitude we put the top up. By the time we made it to Volcano and Volcano National Parks it started to rain pretty hard. The rain had created some sort of chaos in drive towards Volcano from Hilo and the traffic was backed up past Kea'au. I decided to pull into Kea'au and come around the back of the school in hopes of bypassing the horrid traffic in the pouring rain. Unfortunately when we finally made it to hwy 130, the traffic was still backed up. Part of this is due to road construction, another part is that the two lanes go down to one, and lastly the rain was pretty bad. What should have been a 15 min drive, turned into about an hour. Being the mustang had lost all of its luster, I longed for the minivan. Words which I never thought I would write, say or think!

Finally we arrived and were able to settle in. We took our neighbor Marcie the aloe drinks she requested from Coscto, had a visit with her and her father Jim. Loved up on Toby, Rocky and Cookie (dogs and cat), grabbed some movies from her and went back to the house to settle in.

The next morning we woke up to sun, and no plans for the day. It is an incredibly strange feeling to not have your children to care for, and be in a place where you literally have nothing to do, no responsibilities at all. The only thing we had to do was drive into Hilo and return that horrible Mustang.

Oddly enough it was fight on who got to drive the minivan, instead of the mustang. I let my husband win. I tried to tell myself, I will likely never drive one ever again. So just to remind myself how much I don’t like it, I will drive it again. That way I can ensure I wont want one in the future. I am pretty sure it worked.

As a reward for driving the mustang, we decided we should go to Ken's for breakfast. The buzz on Ken's is that Dwayne Johnson's (The Rock) brother owns the place. I could be completely wrong, but I am pretty sure I got that right. The prices were fair and the portions were large. Not a bad start to vacation.

Once we were done, we decided to do a little shopping and then head back home to relax. The beauty of this was, we didn't have to do anything. We didn't have to abide by our children's schedules. We could take a detour if we wanted. It has been a good 8.5 years since we have felt that kind of freedom! After shopping we made our way back to 130, and decided to see if they had opened the Shipman's trail off Kaloli. Unfortunately it had not, but we drove around HPP and saw some pretty awesome ocean front homes. Despite the fact that we don’t care for HPP, we did decide that if the right place came up for sale, we would consider living there in the future.

We got home and I attempted to relax in the sun.

However, I am not that great at just sitting there and not doing anything. My husband was trimming some tree branches that had come down into the driveway from the last storm. I decided to explore and see what banana chutes were ready to come down, as well as see if I could clean up the shell garden.

Iselle did a number to Puna, our place had very little damage. Just a down try across the road, but in general just some clean up was needed. My parents were there in November and managed the bulk of the cleaning. But the one area over looked was the grove of banana trees and the shell garden. I decided to go to work!

Interesting fact I learned, after tugging away at a dead banana tree and trying to remove it... dead banana trees smell REALLY badly. I had to ask my husband to help me eventually. There was just no way I could do it all on my own. Once I set my mind to something, it is pretty hard to stop me. I raked around the other areas, cleaned it all up and felt good. I felt dirty, but good. Thankfully we have an outdoor shower and I was able to step right on in and wash it all off.

The next day we decided to head into Hilo. The farmers market was taking place and I really needed to get some more Filthy Farm Girl soap and chapstick. We lucked out and found a parking spot a half a block away. Made our way through all the vendors, bought some product, pretty sarongs, and alas my soap. When we finished up, we decided to head up the Hamakua Coast. We saw a scenic route off of Old Mamalahoa Hwy and decided to take it. We were in a tropical jungle, ever single lane bridge we crossed over a waterfall. It was magical. We came upon a trail and decided.. hey why not, lets take a look at the view.

We decided to head on down the trail. As we reached Hanawi stream we were on the edge of the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. We asked the guard if we could pass, and he said as long as we stayed on the trail we were on and didn’t go into the fenced areas we would be fine. Eventually the paved trail came to an end. Just rubble and a 4 ft drop off. We dropped down, and scaled the large tree sticking into the water.

We were delighted to see on the other side of the tree a beautiful waterfall! We hung out for a bit enjoying the serenity of being alone and finding this little treasure before we decided to forge the stream and take the trail we saw on the other side.

We made it to the other side and were delighted to be the only people, yet again. There was a slight mist, but it was warm. We walked out to the point and watched the waves come crashing in. It was majestic and it was all ours.

After getting our fill of time alone, we decided to make our way back up the trail to Mini, and continue on our unplanned journey.

We got back on the road and still it amazes me how many waterfalls there are along this road. Eventually we passed one which had a spot to pull over. I hopped out to go snap a picture. I was not alone as another car did the same thing. One would assume, seen one, seen them all. But each one is unique. Some day I hope to take more time and actually capture each and every one of them. Ideally on a sunny day.

We eventually emerged back on to the hwy, after watching tourist make wrong turns and look lost. I have a good sense of direction and have often been referred to as a walking GPS. So navigating our way out was no issue at all. I wish I could have said the same for the stream of cars pulled over where there was nothing to view or trying to make u-turns on very narrow roads.

We ended up taking another road up into the higher elevations. I saw this lone hibiscus tree standing on the side of the road. I asked my husband to pull over. If there is a time to stop and smell the roses, Hawaii is the place.

So, he moved over to the side of the road so I could hope out and take a picture.

It was a bit windy and I had to hold the branch to get it still enough to capture a good photo. What I didn’t know while taking the picture how gorgeous the backdrop was.

Once I got into the car, I looked at the picture, cropped it and went to send it to Instagram. Once it posted I took a good look at it. That is when I saw that not only the flower was beautiful but what I captured behind the picture was just as lovely. Ultimately I think the background is what makes this photo stand out and it is hands down one of my favorites.

After descending back down the hillside we decided that maybe we should consider eating. It was nearly 3 pm, and the last time we ate was around 9 am. The last time we were here in June, we had went to a town near Akaka Falls called Honomu. We parked near the cafe, and started to browse the shops. As it turns out there are few eating options in this town along the adorable boardwalk. So we settled in at what appeared to be the only place.

The Woodshop Gallery said it was voted to be one of the best places to eat on the entire island by Big Island Revealed book. If you don’t know, there is a Revealed book for each island, not only are they quite popular they are very informative on where to go, eat, and things to do. I think we have a copy of the book in the house, I have yet to read it. I am more of a "stumble upon it" type.

We both got the pineapple Hawaiian burgers. They were messy but very good. No offense to the place, but would I say it is one of the best places on the island, no. But it served its purpose and no complaints.

Once we finished up eating we headed back towards Hilo. We knew traffic would start getting bad through town due to the construction along the bay front. Plus getting on to 130 is always a bastard around 5 pm. We cut our way through the back streets of Hilo near Rainbow Falls and Saddle road to make our way on to the hwy and head back to Pahoa.

We were stuffed and at this point no motivation to do much more for the day. So I headed across the street to the movie store (Marcie's house) to swap out some flicks for some new ones. One she recommended to us is Blood and Orchids. It is a two disc movie, which is based in Hawaii back in like the 40's I think. It is also based off of a true story. It was honestly quite riveting. We managed to get through disc one, before heading off to bed.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day, and new adventures await. So I will catch you next time!