Casazza

Kona, Hawaii with Eric January 8 - 15, 2024	Back to Home Page

We had big plans to meet up for a joint vacation with our dear friends PJ & Heather, who live in Alaska. We haven't seen them for about 20 years so we were all excited to catch up in such a beautiful place. Unfortunately, they both got sick in the days just before the trip, so they had to cancel. We went ahead without them, but missed them every day!

The road to the airport, we were very excited to trade this in for some sunshine!
	Eric, willing to give up breathing on the flight if it means inhaling fewer germs.

And we arrived! Our vacation rental was in the BEST spot, it really made the trip for me.
	This is part of the view from the balcony.


I spent a lot of time on this lounger, pinching myself because I couldn't believe I was actually there.	Exploring the coastline near our room on our first evening.

	Views from the black sand beach. Eric saw a lot of whales breaching that day, but I was always looking in some other direction at the time.
Our first day was rainy, so we bought the GuideAlong audio tour app and took a driving tour. Here we are at a black sand beach.

	On a walk through some sideways trees along the beach.
Eric, being funny in the landscaping. We had to make the best of a soggy day!


Amazing sunset view from our balcony.	The next day was warm so we had a beach day to enjoy playing in the waves.


That afternoon we took a walk through some more black sand. We saw a whale and some turtles.	We were hoping the whale would breach over my shoulder, but no such luck.

I don't know if they call this a cenote or what, it was a hole in the rocks with water underneath.
	Eric, trying to see how far back it went.

There were turtles here but they don't show up in the pictures.
	Goats! My nephew Brodie loves goats, so we had to take a picture of some of them.

You gotta do what you've gotta do to the surfing.
	Having dinner at the Kona Inn. Each night a crowd gathers here to watch the sunset.

Taking the saddle road across the island for a day spent on the east side around Hilo. This is a view of some of the lava flows up high in the center of the island.
	Rainbow Falls


The cool trees around Rainbow Falls.	Me, posing sedately inside the tree.

Eric prefers to pretend he's being eaten by the tree. It makes a much better picture!
	At rainbow falls, photo taken by some random kind Brit we met there. Not sure why I'm looking at the ground.

At Boiling Pots state park. You can't see much here because of the vegetation, but we saw enough to know it's beautiful.
	Pe‘epe‘e Falls - No, it’s not pronounced pee-pee, but peh-eh peh-eh

At Lili'uokalani Gardens
	At Onomea Bay near Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens


	On another driving tour, admiring the cattle grazing fields in the north central part of the island.



Watching a sunset from Kona town.


On a tour of a coffee plantation.	Me with some random bit of history.

	Our tour guide giving us the details on the coffee bean lifecycle.



At "The End of the World", a place we always enjoy visiting for the dramatic wave action.	This is the "after" picture as a wave hits that same spot pictured at left.

Of course, Eric needed to be closer.
	Too close, too close!!


On a shoreline walk on the southwest part of the island.	This sand volleyball court is a huge crowd pleaser in downtown Kialua-Kona.


Morning view from the balcony. The wave sounds were too much for Eric, he had to sleep in the back room!	One of the turtles we saw on the trip.

	Then we saw whales and whales and more whales. It was amazing.
Taking a Whale-Watching Tour, first we saw some playful dolphins.

	There were two young males "fighting" (which was a very slow motion fight.) But still, it meant they came out of the water a LOT. It was really neat.


More of the whale fight.
	Eric, enjoying his vacation.


This was a mother and baby whale. The baby kept trying to go closer to the boats and the mother was herding him back.	Momma tail.


We also visited Two Step for snorkeling one day and saw a while breach VERY close to shore. Here are my snorkel photos.

	I got to watch this sea turtle swim around for about 10 minutes.
	Our last sunset from our awesome room.
We got to watch surfers from the balcony too. One day there was a youth surfing competition going on right there.

Goodbye lovely balcony!
We flew to Hawai'i on Alaska Airlines, on the same day as they had a door blow out of a plane while in flight. It was nerve-wracking to fly them back over all that ocean with no place to make an emergency landing!	The unique, open-air airport in Kona. They were building a new, enclosed gate area while we were there. About 30 minutes after our flight took off, they closed the Kona airport due to cracks in the runway. Yikes!





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