A small piece of me: April 24, 2013

HAWAII

Day 3

Looking back at all of the pictures that I have from Day 3 of our trip, it was obviously one of our busier days. We woke up early which was the trend for this entire trip & headed to Starbucks for breakfast. We had decided to grill out for dinner that evening so we stopped by the Market for groceries & sunscreen for the beach.

Can you see the cute little lizard?

After we had our breakfast & did our shopping we took the stuff back to our room and then headed off for the day. We didn't have a certain beach in mind, we just drove until we found one. The one that we found, was the best yet. Driftwood, even more coral and blue water. Absolutely beautiful. So beautiful, it didn't seem real.

We spent quite some time there and then decided to drive on. Creag found a field w/ a good trail, so we four-wheeled with the Jeep as far as we could to a point. It was almost a cliff and was incredible! We were the only ones there, so we explored for quite some time. There were black crabs everywhere, crawling on the lava rock. The waves would come crashing in and it was amazing to experience.

It was about lunch time, so we kept driving to find a place to stop off and grab a bite to eat. We ended up in a small town called Havi and stopped to walk around. We were both pretty indecisive about food and almost had this Barbecue Chuckwagon, but they weren't going to open for about a half hr. We decided to head back to the room and grill out for lunch instead of dinner and took the long way back.

We went up a lot in elevation & ended up in what they call "Cowboy Country". It was totally unexpected and very cool to see. There were cactus's, cows & horses and it kind of felt like we were back in Kentucky!

It was a nice drive, but I was so glad to get out of the car. It seemed like we were in there forever, and I was starving! We prepped our lunch and then pulled our lawn chairs over to the grilling area of our complex. Lunch was definitely good.

After we cleaned up, we went to the pool for a while. After talking to our bartender about what we did that day, we found out that if we would've kept driving 5 more miles, we would've made it to the very tip of the Island which was the best viewing point. We were a little disappointed we didn't keep going, but hey, we didn't know!

That afternoon, we drove to Kona and took a tour of their Coffee Plantation. It was a cool experience with a tour guide who LOVED to talk. We learned a lot about the vegetation in Hawaii, the fruit & vegetables they grow & of course how coffee is made. We left with a few bags of coffee beans and a "Thank God we got out of there"!

After our little tour, we were already in Kona, so we stopped at the brewery for a drink and an appetizer. Their tours had already ended for the day, unfortunately.

The drive back was beautiful, the sun was setting and it was very peaceful. We saw a lava tube on the side of the road, so we stopped to check it out. Creag went down in it & walked all of the way through, but I had flip flops on so I passed.