The Lee Family's Travel Blog: June 2017

06/10/2017 Saturday

Itinerary:

Costco
Pine Tree Cafe
Kona Airport

It's our last day here in Big Island and we will be heading home this afternoon. After checking out of the hotel, we drove to the only Costco on the island to buy some gifts home. We bought some Macadamia Nuts Chocolate and Dried Mangoes.

After shopping at Costco, it was time to have lunch. Maddie was missing home already and insisted on having the hot dogs at Costco. The rest of us didn't want to, so Anthony went with her to buy her hot dog. It was a long line in Costco. After Maddie had her hot dog, we went to Pine Tree Cafe which is nearby to have our lunch.

After lunch, it was time to head to the rental car office to drop off our rental car. Upon returning our car, we took the shuttle to the airport. We are flying from Kona airport back to our home. Kona airport is also pretty small and is an open air airport.

There wasn't many stores to shop, so we bought some ice cream to pass time. Food is my best friend when I have nothing else to do.

The ice cream was very delicious and I wish they have the Lychee flavor but they didn't.

It's been a while since we can see the plane while boarding as it usually has a jet bridge.

After a little over 5 hours of flying, we landed at our airport and it was close to midnight local time (9pm Hawaiian time). We had a fun 9 days vacation in Hawaii and look forward to our next vacation.

06/09/2017 Friday

Itinerary:

Kawaihae Harbor
Hamakua Macadamia Nuts Self Guided Tour
Hawi town
Kohala town - King Kamehameha statue
Lunch at Gill's Lanai
Pololu Valley Lookout and hike
Fresh Off The Grid Shave Ice
Snorkeling/Swimming at the hotel
Dinner at Racha Thai

The concerige at the hotel told me that we can't hike down the Waipo Valley and we will have to take a tour to sit in their 4x4 car. So, we decided to check out Pololu Valley instead as there is a short hike down to the beach.

Today's itinerary is focus on the north side of the island. First, we decided to stop by Hamakua Macadamia Nuts since it was on the way. But we made a wrong turn and ended up in Kawaihae Harbor. We decided to get out of the car to check it out as the water looks so clear and beautiful.

After spending a few minutes since there were nothing else here, we left to go to Hamakua Macadamia Nuts. There was a lot of different flavored macadamia nuts here to try and also a few different kinds of coffee.

After trying some of the nuts, we proceed for the self guided tour.

After the tour, we bought some macadamia nuts and proceed to the next stop point.

We reached the town of Hawi and it's a very small town with some art stores.

Next, we drove more north to the town of Kohala which is the hometown of King Kamehameha. There is also a statue of the king along the highway.

Afterwards, it was time for lunch. Again, I yelped for what's good around the area and Gill's Lanai Restaurant was one of them.

Everything here is self service and we went inside to order our food. While waiting for our food, we saw a blue eyed lizard on the window.

Although they don't have much selections but the food was really tasty. The only problem is that it gets pretty hot and although we are seated under a lanai, it's still gets uncomfortable. We quickly finished our lunch before heading to our next destination.

Our next destination was the Pololu Valley Lookout.

It's a very scenic lookout. After spending a few minutes at the lookout, we decided to take the trail to go down to the beach. It's a short trail (about 1 mile roundtrip) but pretty steep trail. The kids were initially reluctant to go but I had to bribe them with shave ice and some games on the phone.

After about 30 minutes or so, we reached the bottom of the trail.

Before we got to the beach, the kids had fun swinging on the rope.

After spending some time at the beach, we headed back up. Mason was running and taking the lead.

After we reached the parking lot, we headed to Fresh Off The Grid for some shave ice which was nearby and on the way to the hotel. It was highly rated in Yelp but after tasting it, I couldn't agree with my Yelp friends. The ice was not as snowy as I like and I could taste chucks of ice and the flavors were not fully immersed into the ice.