This was a very, very long day. We rolled out of bed at 3:30 AM in the morning to catch a 7:00 AM Atlantic Southeast (Delta Connection) flight to Houston. From Houston we had a 9:35 AM (10:35 AM EST) Continental flight to Honolulu arriving at 2:05 PM (7:05 PM EST). In Honolulu, we connected to a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Kailua-Kona at 4:00 PM (9:00 PM EST). We finally arrived at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort and Spa at just after 7:00 PM (12:00 AM 12/7 EST) for a total travel time of 21 hours. That’s a long long time to be traveling. We were exhausted to say the least. In addition there was no food service on the two connecting flights, and the food service on the long flight we wouldn’t serve to Lucky in a doggy bag. We’ll certainly do it differently when we take any more long flying trips.

That being said, the itinerary from Expedia was flawless. All our reservations were in order. The Sheraton is outstanding, and our ocean front room is heavenly.

Once we checked in, and dropped our baggage, we headed down to the hotel restaurant to get some diner. We won’t do that a second time. The service was outstanding, and the food was delicious and beautifully prepared. But, the price was outrageous.

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Note: You may view the image galleries by “clicking” on any of the images in the log entries

By the time we ate and got back to the room it was after 9:00 PM (2:00 AM EST 12/7) so we went to bed and slept like babies.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. There’s big doings in Honolulu. This may be the last time the Pearl Harbor Survivors hold a reunion. Most of them are in their 90’s now.

We’re really tired after the travel yesterday, and getting used to the 5 hour shift in time. So we are really taking it easy today. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast in the KAI restaurant, especially the fresh pineapple, and the home fried potatoes.

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After breakfast we walked around the hotel grounds and looked at the flowers. After winter on the mainland, seeing all the beautiful flowers is amazing. The variety and colors dazzle your eyes everywhere you look.

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Later we drove down into Kona, checked out a shopping plaza and visited a farmers market, looked in a few stores, and had a soda at a sidewalk restaurant. We’re really just getting oriented today.

Later, back at the hotel, we stopped in and visited the concierge. We booked the hotel Luau and diner show for Friday evening, and a Helicopter tour of the volcanoes for Monday. The concierge also pointed out some of the favorite eating spots of the local folks. After yesterday’s diner, we aren’t in a hurry to go back to KAI for diner even though it was excellent. We tried a place on one of the side streets called “Quinn’s almost on the water”. The food and service were great, and the prices more reasonable. We had a good time.

Today, we followed the coffee trail. Kona is famous for it’s coffee probably as famous as Juan Valdez for Columbia, and Jamica Blue Mountain.

album28/IMG_6652 We visited Cooks Monument,
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saw the Painted Church (St Benedict’s), and toured 2 coffee plantations. Of course we brought back samples. We’re still trying them out to see which ones we like the best.

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Probably the most interesting is Kona Joe’s. They have received a U.S. Patent for their method of espaliering the coffee trees the way the vintners in California grow their grapes. They found that they improve the yield and flavor of the beans by providing them with more even access to the sunlight. The beans also ripen more evenly so the trees don’t have to be visited as often for harvesting.

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At the Kona Le’a plantation we got to follow the beans from the time they come in from the harvest till they are roasted, packed, and labeled for shipment. There are a couple of different kinds of roasters, that have a significant effect on the flavor of the resulting coffee. Also, while there are +/- 200 coffee growers on the island, there are only 15 or 16 processing plants. So the most of the growers contract with the plants to process and package their product.

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This evening is the Luau on the lawn at the Sheraton. Really good diner, and nice show. We found out that if you like to be close to the stage you can pay extra to sit closer and have your food served at the table. But if you like to eat, you can sit further back, and get your food from the buffet (it’s all the same). The people eating on the buffet were doing desert and coffee while the people at the tables were still waiting for their main course.

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Today, we toured the Northern end of the island. Traveled through Waimea Home of the Parker Ranch where cattle ranching in the islands got it’s start. We also saw some more great Ocean views.

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Funny how when you’re on an Island, everywhere you go you wind up next to the water.

Had an early diner at Quinn’s again. It’s our kind of place, good food congenial atmosphere, reasonable prices.

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Today was kind of leisurely we took a sunset cruise on a really nice catamaran with cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres. You’ll have to check out the gallery for the photo’s.

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Today was a long one. But, seeing the volcanoes is the main reason we chose to come to the Big Island this time. We got an early start and drove out to the south on the way to Hilo to take a helicopter ride out over the volcanoes. We drove through the Volcano National Park on the way, and went part way around the rim of Kilauea. Made some nice photos of steam vents and craters. You could spend days hiking and / or biking in the park. There’s really a lot to see. But, time was short, so we headed on down to Hilo for lunch.

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The Helicopter tour is probably the best way for the average tourist to see the volcanoes. The tour operators always know where the current action is, and that changes day by day, and hour by hour.

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The tour takes you out over Kilauea (the youngest and currently most active volcano) shows you the different kinds of lava flows. The tour also flies over several of the water falls on the North Eastern part of the island that you can’t get to by car. Older folks, like us, appreciate that since we don’t hike as much as we used too.

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We drove back to Kona from Hilo on the northern route. We saw some more water falls, and beautiful ocean views. The variety of scenery and climates on the different parts of the island is really amazing. We made it back to Kona in time to have a really nice diner at Hugo’s on the water front.

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Today was a bit different. We spent the morning doing some shopping and sight seeing. The parrot lives on a stand in downtown Kona run by one of the tour brokers.

After lunch Richard took a bus tour to Mauna Kea while Karen hung out at the hotel, and spent the evening sipping Mai Tais and eating shrimp.

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Mauna Kea is home to all the best observatories in the world presently.
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The volcano tops out at 13,476 feet. It’s always cold up there. Though recently there hasn’t been as much snow as in the past. I know it’s strange to think of Snow and Hawaii in the same sentence but it’s always cold at almost 14,000 feet. The tour company supplies Parkas and gloves. It seems strange, but when you’re there, you’re glad to have them.

The tour operator has their work cut out for them. first of all it’s a long drive on really bad roads. The car rental companies won’t insure their cars for those roads. So the tour is the best way to see it.

You start out about 1:30 in the afternoon and drive up to the Visitor Center at the 9,000 ft. level. You get some great views of the ancient volcanos, and also see some of the historic ranches, and military bases along the way. At the visitor center you stop for at least 30 minutes to eat, shop, do whatever, and give your body a chance to adjust to the altitude.

From the Visitor Center you drive up to the top at 13,476 feet. You get there in time to see and learn about the various observatories on the mountain and the different types of telescopes up there.
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You’re there in time to watch the sun go down from that altitude, well above any clouds or weather.

After the sun sets, you drive back down the mountain in the dark and pull out to a spot at the 9,000 foot level that is set aside for the tour company to set up their telescope. If you’re interested in astronomy, they are using a Celestron CPC 925 GPS (XLT). It’s a 9.25″ GPS guided reflecting telescope See the Telescope Description. The telescope uses the GPS to orient it self for date, time, latitude, and longitude. Once it sets itself up, it can automatically find and track more than 40,000 individual objects. This was a really awesome experience looking at the stars from 9,000 feet, and drinking hot chocolate. We didn’t get back to Kona till after 10:30 PM. Needless to say, Karen didn’t wait up for me.

It’s been a fabulous week. We’ve had a great time. But now we have to leave and head for home. The hotel room was very comfortable and the view from our balcony was outstanding. So we’re up early as usual for us. Headed down for one last buffet breakfast in the KAI restaurant. Then packed up, loaded everything in the car.

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Then took one more walk around the resort where we found the wedding chapel. Nice place for a wedding.

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We stopped in at a farmers market and looked around. Didn’t see anything we just had to have, and went on downtown to visit the Hulihe’e Palace. This was the home of the last queen of Hawaii. It was pretty severely damaged in the earthquake this October so we could only tour the main floor. Most of the furnishings were moved around, and covered up.

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We stopped for lunch at a sidewalk restaurant over looking the ocean. Had a leisurely lunch, gassed up the car, and headed out to the air port even though our flight isn’t till 7:38 PM.

Hawaii_2006/DSC02283We sat at the Kailua-Kona airport from 3:00 PM till our flight boarded after 7:00 PM. We had thought that we might be able to catch an earlier flight they run to Honolulu almost every hour, but were told that there was no space available. However, I talked to someone else who was there early, and they were scheduled on the flight after ours. So, I was surprised when we left with empty seats on the aircraft.

We left Honolulu on Continental at 10:15 PM headed for Houston. It’s 7 hours flying time + 4 hours time change for around 11 hours putting us in Houston at around 9:30 AM on Thursday December 14th.

It’s a long way and a lot of flights to get home from Hawaii. We arrived back in Atlanta, GA at 4:00 PM On Thursday. This is actually the 9th day of the trip. We lost a day traveling east across 5 time zones. Rushed to baggage claim, jumped on the bus to the long term parking lot, and hurried to get to the Due West Animal Clinic before closing time to pick up the Lucky dog. Boy was she glad to see us. We’re exhausted after traveling for more than 20 hours. Guess Friday will be a crash day.